1. Trait Theories Personality unit Pages 447-451

2. Traits Are aspects of our personalities that are inferred from behavior and assumed to give rise to behavioral consistency. We tend to describe other people in terms of traits

3. Examples If you describe a friend as shy it may be because you observed the behavior of being socially withdrawn **Activity** Applying the Trait Theory Approach

4. Gordon Allport Thought of traits being embedded into our nervous systems and said traits guide or steer us to behave consistently. Ex: The trait of sociability may steer us to include others or make people feel at home at social gatherings Allport and Oddbert catalogued about 18, 000 traits that served as the basis for personality research by other psychologists

5. Raymond Cattell Used statistical techniques to reduce the innumerable traits to smaller lists of traits to show commonality. Described the difference between surface and source traits

6. Surface traits Characteristic ways of behaving Ex: cleanliness, stubbornness, thrift, orderliness We observe these types of traits from meaningful patters

7. Source Traits Underlying traits from which surface traits are derived. Cattell’s research led him to suggest there are 16 source traits which can be measured by the Sixteen Personality factors or 16PF. Refer to 16 PF handout

8. Hans Eysenck Focused much of his research on the relationship between two important traits: 1. introversion-extroversion 2. emotional stability-instability, otherwise called neuroticism.

9. Extraversion-introversion Hypothesized that extraversion-introversion is a matter of the balance of “inhibition” and “excitation” in the brain itself. Excitation is the brain waking itself up, getting into an alert, learning state. Inhibition is the brain calming itself down, either in the usual sense of relaxing and going to sleep, or in the sense of protecting itself in the case of overwhelming stimulation.

10. Extroversion Someone who is extraverted, he hypothesized, has good, strong inhibition: When confronted by traumatic stimulation -- such as a car crash -- the extravert’s brain inhibits itself, which means that it becomes “numb,” you might say, to the trauma, and therefore will remember very little of what happened. After the car crash, the extravert might feel as if he had “blanked out” during the event, and may ask others to fill them in on what happened. Because they don’t feel the full mental impact of the crash, they may be ready to go back to driving the very next day.

11. Introversion The introvert, on the other hand, has poor or weak inhibition: When trauma, such as the car crash, hits them, their brains don’t protect them fast enough, don’t in any way shut down. Instead, they are highly alert and learn well, and so remember everything that happened. They might even report that they saw the whole crash “in slow motion!” They are very unlikely to want to drive anytime soon after the crash, and may even stop driving altogether.

12. Strengths of Trait Theories 1.Psychological testing 2.Personality and career fits 3.Identifying basic traits 4.Established traits as relatively stable

13. Weaknesses of Trait Theories 1.Only descriptive, not explanatory 2.Situational variability in behavior