Social Psychology Trait Theory

How should we conceptualise traits?

How can we identify which traits are the most important from the
many ways that individuals differ?
How can we formulate a comprehensive taxonomy of traits?
traits are considered the fundamental units of personality, and
represent dispositions to respond in certain ways.

What is a trait?

Burger (1997):
A trait is a dimension of personality used to categorise people
according to the degree to which they manifest a particular
characteristic one of the most basic ways to describe personality
Assumptions
Personality characteristics are relatively stable over time
Traits show stability across situations
Personality traits influence behaviour

Jungs Extroversion and Introversion

Extroversion: orientation towards things outside of oneself
Introversion: tendency to turn inwards and explore ones own
thoughts and feelings
One would be dominant if someone had tendencies of both
introversion and extroversion
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: an instrument to measure how
introverted or extroverted someone is there are also sub-
classifications of these traits that are masured using different tests
Sensation-Intuition scale: reflects whether a person is more prone to
realism or imagination
Thinking-feeling scale: reflects whether a person is logical and
objective or personal and subjective
Judgment-Perception scale: reflects whether a person is oriented
toward evaluating or perceiving things
These schemes are often used by vocational counsellors to assign
appropriate jobs to certain personality types
Jungs divisions are not ideal to classify people by the Big Five
dimension of personality is more useful/clearer/helpful however,
Jung set the scene for personality analysis and introducing the idea
that the dichotomy is a stable individual difference
Jung took more of a psychoanalytic approach by proposing theories
of basic tendencies that motivate personality

There are 3 approaches to identifying the most important traits

Theoretical approach
Lexical approach
Statistical approach
The lexical approach
Galton (1884)
Analysed Rogets thesaurus and found over 1000 core words
expressive of character
Allport (1936)
English contains app. 18000 adjectives that can be used to
describe personal qualities
Two criteria for identifying important traits
Synonym frequency
Cross-cultural universality
Problems and limitations
Many traits are ambiguous, metaphorical, obscure or difficult
Personality is conveyed through different parts of speech (not
just adjectivies), including nouns and adverbs

The statistical approach

Cattell (1970) factor analysed Allports traits

Factor analysis
o A statistical technique that allows us to simplify the
correlational relationships between a number of variables
o Identifies groups of items that covary (i.e., go together) but
tend not to covary with other groups of items
o It reduces redundant information in a list of personality
descriptors
o This factor analysis is reminiscent of the factor analysis of
intelligence by Spearman
Identified 16 personality factors (16PF)
o Q-data is the term Cattell used to describe data gathered from
self reports however, people do not always understand their
own personalities
o Therefore, T-data is the term used to describe data from
placing a person in a controlled test situation and
noting/rating responses observational data
o L-data is data gathered about a persons life from school
records or similar sources (e.g. more club chairs will be
extroverted)
o Using these three data types together allows for more
construct validity cattell believed that there were some
fundamental traits that serve as a source for other traits,
demonstrating strata/layers of different traits
o From this factor analysis, Cattell identified 16 personality traits
indlucing outgoing/reserved, stable/emotional,
suspicious/trusting, tense/relaxed
o These are measured using the Sixteen Personality Factor
Questionnaire (16PF)

Gordon Allports form of trait psychology

 Simplistic notion of standard traits is not realistic at all people will
sometimes be cheerful and sometimes be angry, depending on the
situation that they find themselves in
Although behaviour is variable, there is also a core component of a
person modern conception of traits: a generalised neuropsychic
structure or core tendency that underlies behaviour across time and
situations.
Allport (1937) developed perhaps the most sophisticated definition
of personality yet seen the dynamic organisation within the
individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his
characteristic behaviour and thought
Allport refuted Cattells factor analysis a factor is simply a
statistical composite, and he did not thin kit useful to reduce a
human being to a simple statistic but then how did he reduce it?
He believed that regularities arised because the individual views
many situations and stimuli in the same way, and their behaviours
are similar in their meaning they are functionally equivalent
People have a common biological heritage, and those from the same
culture have the same cultural heritage, so people likely have
similar traits (common traits) is this a way to investigate
individualistic vs. collectivistic cultures??
Motivations in life may originate from childhood socialisation of
instinctual tendencies, but Allport argued that these are irrelevant
because they become independent in adulthood people are
functionally autonomous

Everyone has individual different personal dispositions methods

that take into account peoples uniqueness are called idiographic
e.g. document analysis (diaries), interviews, behavioural
observations, and flexible self reports
Nuclear quality: describing personal dispositions in terms of a
persons unique goals, motives or styles therefore, a personal
disposition is a trait because they form the behaviours and
lifestyles that people follow (e.g. Picassos eccentric personality was
clearly shown through his work that made him famous) those that
majorly influence someones life is called a cardinal disposition
Allport takes a very qualitative approach to trait psychology, which
worries some quantitatively-minded psychologists, because
following this logic, it is impossible to research different people
under the same traits unable to uncover the basic laws of
personality Allport did not completely dismiss the claims that one
should be able to reduce all humans to stable traits, he just posited
that his research was incomplete and needed a lot of development
Never assume that personal dispositions can be disregarded,
because this would lead to assuming that all personality tests can
be carried out in all cultures, which has repeatedly been proven
false special allowances need to be made for
The Big Five: Contemporary trait approach
Vast amounts of research has agreed on the idea that most traits
can be analysed in terms of 5 dimensions
o Extroversion: includes sociability, dominance scoring low
suggests introversion
o Agreeableness: includes friendliness, cooperation scoring
low suggests being cold, unkind, prone to quarrels
o Conscientiousness: includes organisation, responsibility
scoring low suggests impulsive, disorderly
o Neuroticism: includes tension, anxiety scoring low suggests
emotional stability and contentedness
o Openness: includes imagination, wit scoring low suggests
being shallow, simple
This model emerged from extensive factor analysis of various
personality tests this was an inductive approach to trait
psychology, wherein the theory emerged from data
The statistical analysis works by placing commonalities between
scores in an underlying dimensional score
However, can these traits really be confirmed? mathematical
clusters are not necessarily true entities, however researchers
believe that there is something that will prove that they truly exist
(biological or otherwise)
Raters can be wrong and therefore the validity of the constructs are
minimised they can be wrong in two ways
o They could see something that isnt really there implicit
personality testing people may see certain traits as going
together and to perceive consistencies when viewing the
personalities of others a tendency to be biased
o They could not see something that is actually there missing
a key aspect of someones personality and not recording it
resulting in error

However, if the Big Five were a result of biased stereotyping, the

result would not be replicated in various cultures (McCrae et al,
2004)
Some studies in non-English speaking cultures found a possible
spirituality factor, (Ashton & Lee, 2007) attends issues of adding
to someones antagonism
There is also the issue that it doesnt always matter what traits
people have, but also to investigate how much each culture values
the traits (e.g. in America, dominance and compete to win, and in
Mexico you are more successful if you trust peers and cooperate)
should we be fostering different values in different cultures and
schools culture is always relevant when considering the
implications of trait psychology (Aronson, 1978)
There may also be subcultural differences (e.g. New York, Western
states etc) but is this due to geography or more to do with the kind
of jobs that are there that require different personality traits
 But what about people that move around culture? International
schools may seek to take a fragmented approach, do peoples
personality traits change as they move and adapt to different
cultures or do they really have core attributes that form a persons
personality

Also has important applications to career pathways, e.g.

o Scoring high on Conscientiousness tend to do well in corporate
settings due to persistence and responsibility also do well in
college (Barrick & Mount, 1991)
o Entrepreanours tend to be higher on conscientiousness,
openness, but lower on neuroticism (resilient to stress)
o High on agreeableness suggests altruism and involved in
helping others, perhaps working for non-profit organisations
o Neurotic people are more likely to either channel their worry
into compulsive success or letting their anxiety lead them into
recklessness (e.g. they are more likely to be alcoholics to cope
with their negative moods)
o People high on openness tend to be creative and value
aesthetic seek a wide range of experiences so may be
writers/artists
However, people do vary on all five dimensions so nobody fits
perfectly into one career or another combinations are perhaps the
most useful to predict career outcomes, as shown by the
entrepreneurs e.g. low on conscientiousness and high on
neuroticism probably shows an inclination to smoke and take part in
unhealthy behaviours

Are there 5? Less? More?

If one takes an idiographic approach, then there are certainly more
than 5 traits needed to describe a persons personality
No perfect theory exists yet, but if it did, how would it look?
o Derived from new knowledge about brain biology? E.g. 5
distinct ways of biological responding
o Or a functional analysis of evolutionary pressures on survival
e.g. we need to know who will cooperate with us
(Agreeableness), who will be a successful leader (Extroverted),
Big Five psychologists also sometimes discuss subtypes/facets of
traits to expand the understanding of personality (Block, 2001)

Eysencks Big Three

He proposed that all traits derive from three biological systems
Big Five researchers take an inductive approach, but Eysenck
wanted other sorts of evidence to guide the selection of factors
(Eysenck, 1994)
o Extroversion - people who were sensitive to signals of reward
were high on this,
 o Neuroticism people who were sensitive to signals of
punishment were high on this,
o Psychoticism tendency towards psychopathology, including
impulsivity and cruelty
His evidence for his approach focused on whether the person sought
different kinds of environments which indicated a personality type
seeking rewards and feeling pleasant emotions consistent with the
postulated biological activation system (Wilt & Revelle, 2009)
Canli (2006) Fmri study found that extroverted women showed
greater brain activity in response to positive stimuli than introverted
women therefore, extroversion may be related to biological
differences in the brains reward system
Neuroticism may be due to brain activity relevant to the detection of
perceived unusual situations as posing a threat (Eisenberger, 2007)
Psychoticism is linked with the testosterone levels and MAO levels
(neurotransmitter inhibitor related to violent urges)

Costa and McCraes Five Factor model

Most influential researchers in this field, their factor solution has
come to be known as the Big 5 model
o Surgency/Extraverson
o Agreeableness
o Conscientiousness
o Emotional stability
o Openness-intellect
These have been replicated in every decade for the last half
century, suggesting a five-factor solution that is replicable over time
Replicated in different languages and using different item formats

Social media & selfies

Sharing private information on SNS neuroticism
Belonging to Facebook groups extraversion
Number of photos posted on SNS - agreeableness
Use of Facebook for socialization neuroticism
Use of Twitter for socialization conscientiousness & openness
Number of selfies posted
o Extraversion, neuroticism
Concern about others responses to own selfies
o Agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness
Tendency to observe others selfies
o Agreeableness, low openness
Commenting or liking others selfies
o Extraversion, agreeableness
Tendency to post duck face selfies
o neuroticism