1. More important information about The Trait Perspective…
Traits are inherited not acquired
Characteristics are stable and motivate behavior
A “friendly” person is friendly across different situations and times
Little evidence to support hereditability of personality
“Temperaments” are inherited traits
William Sheldon: somatotypes
Endomorphs: fat; friendly, outgoing
Ectomorphs: thin; shy, secretive
Mesomorphs: muscular; aggressive, confident
OBJECTIVE 19| Explain why psychologists are interested in the consistency of the trait expressiveness.

2. More important information about The Trait Perspective (continued)
Gordon Allport: traits are responsible for consistencies in behavior
Functionally Equivalent – different situations call for similar responses
Cardinal – traits that override a person’s whole being; dominant
Central – primary traits of a person; general and present in come degree in mostly everyone
Secondary – traits that constitute interests and only appear in certain situations
OBJECTIVE 19| Explain why psychologists are interested in the consistency of the trait expressiveness.

3. More important information about The Trait Perspective (continued)—Factor Analysis
A statistical approach used to describe and relate personality traits and reduces the number of different terms used to describe people
Correlations are used to determine which traits cluster together
Conscientiousness = diligence, punctuality, and neatness
Cattell used this approach to develop a 16 Personality Factor (16PF) inventory.
OBJECTIVE 15| Describe some of the ways psychologists have attempted to compile a list of basic personality traits.
Raymond Cattell
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4. Factor Analysis
Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core personality traits based on statistical correlations.
Excitement
Impatient
Irritable
Boisterous
Basic
trait
Superficial
traits
Impulsive

5. Personal Control—Locus of Control
Social-cognitive psychologists emphasize our sense of personal control, whether we control the environment or the environment controls us.
Locus of Control (Julian Rotter)
Locus of control affects how a person thinks and acts; impacts personality
TWO TYPES OF LOCUS OF CONTROL”
External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.
Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate.
OBJECTIVE 21| Discuss the effects of a perception of internal or external control, and describe the concept of learned helplessness.

6. Learned Helplessness
When unable to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness.
An optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style is your way of explaining positive or negative events.

7. Explanatory Style: Optimism vs. Pessimism
Explanatory style is a psychological attribute that indicates how people explain to themselves why they experience a particular event, either positive or negative
People with an optimistic explanatory style tend to have more control over stressors, cope better with stressful events, have better moods, and have a stronger immune system.
OBJECTIVE 13| Discuss the links among explanatory style, stress and health.
Research with rats and humans indicates that the absence of control over stressors is a predictor of health problems.

8. Locus of Control Survey

9. How to score the Locus of Control Survey
Reverse the numbers you placed before statements 3, 6, 7, 8, and 10 (i.e. 1=7, 2=6, 3=5, 4=4, 5=3, 6=2, 7=1).
Add up ALL 10 items. Scores should range from 7-70.
Mean for female students= 51.8, mean for male students= 52.2.
Greater scores beyond the mean reflect greater internal locus of control.
Scores below the mean reflect greater external locus of control.
ANSWER THIS QUESTION: Do you agree with your results? Why or why not?
ANSWER THIS QUESTION: What can YOU do to develop greater INTERNAL locus of control?