1. The Trait Perspective 430-436

2. Trait A characteristic of behavior or a disposition to feel and act as assessed by self- reported inventories or peer reports.

3. Factor Analysis A statistical procedure used to identify different components of your personality FA takes the answers you give on tests and compiles them into general traits.

4. Nomothetic Theorists Same basic set of traits can be used to describe all people’s personalities. Each trait on a range or scale – do you have one trait or another? or

5. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire – 2 factors – introverted/extroverted, stable/unstable

6. Raymond Cattell – 16 Personality Factors (PF)

7. The Big Five – most current theory Emotional Stability (calm/anxious, secure/insecure, self-satisfied/self-pitying). Extraversion (sociable/retiring, fun- loving/sober, affectionate/reserved). Openness (imaginative/practical, variety/routine, independent, conforming)

8. The Big Five (Continued) Agreeableness (soft-hearted/ruthless, trusting/suspicious, helpful/uncooperative). Conscientiousness (organized/disorganized, careful/careless, disciplined/impulsive).

9. Big 5 results (some random person)

10. The Big Five Once you take a test that measures your personality according to the Big Five Scale…. Your traits will be stable over time. They can be attributed to your genetics They apply across different cultures They predict other attributes.

11. Idiographic Theorists Same set of traits used to classify all people is impossible  each individual has a unique story Gordon Allport – 3 different parts of everyone’s personality. –Cardinal, Central, Secondary

12. Cardinal – person profoundly influenced by 1 trait. Very rare. Ex: MLK Central – large influence on personality – apparent to others. Secondary – apparent only in certain situations.

13. Assessing Our Traits Personality Inventories: a questionnaire where people respond to items attempting to gauge different aspects of their personality –Multiple related traits are clustered together

14. MMPI Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: the most widely used personality test. Originally used to identify emotional disorders. representative sample had issues – now have MMPI-2 Now used for screening purposes (corporations).

15. MMPI put to the Test

16. Myers-Briggs Focus on “normal” people and emphasizes naturally occurring differences –Used for career inventory/preference purposes –Typology – 4 dichotomies = 16 possible types

17. Myers-Briggs dichotomies

18. Myers-Briggs Types

19. The Person-Situation Controversy Are traits really stable? Kind Of…. They change according to the situation http://www.celebritytypes.com/big-five/test.php