Common Features of Trait Theories Generality and Stability of Traits: Trait theorists all use consistencies in an individual s behavior and explain why persons respond in different ways to the same stimulus All differentiate between relatively superficial traits (surface traits: Cattell), and basic, underlying traits (source traits: Cattell). Most theorists also recognize fluctuations in people s position with respect to a disposition All are committed to a search for relatively broad, stable traits Traits and States Distinguished Traits and states: both are terms that refer to perceived attributes of people Both refer to categories with fuzzy boundaries and based on prototypes/exemplars Prototypic traits: seen as enduring, stable qualities of people over long time periods Prototypic states: qualities that are only brief in duration and attributable to external causes Search for Basic Traits: Trait psychologists try to identify the individual s position on one or more dimensions by comparing people tested under standardized conditions Paid little attention to the environment Positions on dimensions should be relatively stable across testing situations Quantification Trait approach s methodology: psychometric attempts to measure individual differences and to quantify them. Psychometrians study people and groups on trait dimensions by comparing scores on test Sample many people, compare large groups under uniform testing conditions and devise statistical techniques to infer basic traits Aggregating across Situations to Increase Reliability Psychologists realize that in the past they have underestimated personal constancies in behavior If we want to test how well a disposition (trait) can be used to predict behavior, we also have to sample not only disposition but also behavior we want to predict In the past, researchers tried to predict single acts from dispositional measure Multiple Act criterion: A pooled combination of many behaviors that is relevant to the trait, and a pooled combination of many raters. Reliability will increase when the number of items in a test sample is increased and combined
Temporal stability (ex. of self-reported emotions and experiences recorded daily and observer judgment) becomes much larger when it is based on averages over may days than when it is based on only single items on single days Even if it is not possible to predict what one individual will do in a specific situation, it is possible to predict the person s overall standing relative to other people when behavior is aggregated Taxonomy of Human Attributes A widely shared goal: to find a universal taxonomy/classification system for sorting human attributes into relatively small set of functional dimensions or categories on which individual differences can be described Psycholexical Approach Researchers in this approach assume that individual differences enter into the nature of language of the culture in single-word traits Hope that an extensive well organized vocabulary for describing human attributes in trait terms will lead to better theories of personality and better methods of personality assessment Psycholexical approach: a research strategy that seeks to classify people into different trait groups by identifying differences among individuals on the basis of ratngs with natural language terms (adjectives) that are factor analyzed. Basic data: words in natural language that describes human qualities Using statistical procedures, researchers try to specify a small number of factors/ dimensions that seem to capture the common element among adjectives that are closely related Wiggins: early attempt to find taxonomy of the domain of interpersonal behavior - each dimension is bipolar, see diagram on page 58 The Big Five Trait Dimensions Consensus about Five dimensions of personality Factor analysis: a mathematical procedure that helps to sort test responses into relatively homogenous clusters of items that are highly correlated Using this method and working in the psycholexical approach found BIG FIVE Factor Analysis to Find Trait Dimensions: The NEO-PI-R and Big Five Factor analysis useful tool for reducing large set of correlated measures to fewer unrelated or independent dimensions Finds and connects the items that tend to go together (covary) with each of the other items in the total set Same set of five relatively independent facts appeared consistently across several studies and continues to form basis of what has become the: BIG FIVE STRUCTURE - Neuroticism worrying and insecurity - extraversion (surgency positive emotionality) friendly, talkative
- openness to experience - agreeableness - conscientiousness - Proposed by NORMAN Each dimension contains a set of bipolar rating scales such as calm- worrying and timid-bold that refer to types of feelings or behaviors Super traits: large descriptive categories or factors that result from the clustering of many traits (Big Five Structure) Stability tend to be particularly high during adult years Status of most individuals on the Big Five dimensions tend to show high stability despite many changes that occur in life Evidence and Issues Overview of usefulness of Big Five The Big Five structure has often been replicated in research by diverse investigators using a variety of English-speaking samples The N, E, and A factors have been found to replicate well even when the languages, cultures, and item formats used differ Overall the results are impressive and broadly generalizable across diverse cultures throughout the world, although unsurprisingly, some of the factors may take different forms in extremely different samples and cultures Factor structure of individuals as described by this model tends to be relatively stable in adults over long periods of time The Big Five has some predictive validity for important life outcomes and diverse other links to personality measures Total evidence: impressive for the broad robustness and potential of this taxonomy as a comprehensive descriptive system for describing people in trait terms It is focus on language as the route for identifying what humans care about with regard to personality Based on the idea that the languages people develop contain clusters of trait terms that go together and that reflect what they care about when they describe and evaluate other people and themselves Stability of traits over Time Research has made it clear that although behavior depends on context, and the same person may be quite different in very different contexts, there also is significant trait stability over time, particularly after the first few years of life Links between newborn and later behaviors were generally not strong Continuities in development become increasingly evident after first few years Thus childhood characteristics may be connected coherently to later behavior and attributes to some degree
Amount of stability or change over time varies for different types of characteristics and different types of experiences at different points in development Overall, findings point to some continuity in some characteristics, especially in adulthood over short time spans, and it importantly depend on the specific ways in which the stability data are obtained and analyzed Beginning early in life, your traits can trigger long sequences of interconnected events that impact your later opportunities and options (often limiting them) ex. kid who does bad in school bad jobs constrain future Studies of individual differences on trait dimensions after early childhood have produced many networks of meaningful correlations These associations tend to be larger and more enduring when people rate themselves or others with broad trait terms Ratings suggest significant continuity and stability in how people are perceived over the years as well as in how they perceive themselves When one looks at how people actually behave in specific situations, the association tends to be much more modest Therefore, one has to be cautious about generalizing from a person s personality test behavior, including Big Five, to their behavior out of the test Big Five Differences Predicting Life Outcomes Big five have modest correlations with life predictive abilities, therefore leaving much of the variations to individuals differences, but they are also statistically significant Pg 66 how Juvenile delinquency, academic achievement (conscientiousness), longevity (conscientiousness) and interracial attitudes (openmindedness) In sum, consistent with these examples, a comprehensive review of studies using variety of personality trait measures to predict important life outcomes conclude that although the effects tend to be small, they do as well as the correlations obtained from measures like socio-economic status or cognitive abilities Limitations, Concerns, Contributions Limitations of Factor Analysis: Factor analysis cannot establish which characteristics of persons or things being measured are real, basic, or primary. Factors obtained are simply names that researchers give to correlations found among the particular measures Factor analysis yields greatly simplified patterning of data put into it dependent on researcher for what is put into procedures, people selected by researcher and details of procedures/decisions Factor analytic trait search for hypothesized underlying traits: yield mathematically pure factors psychological meaningfulness and relevance for person s behavior has to be demonstrated Factor analysis does not reveal basic traits of people
Are Traits Casual Explanations or Descriptive Summaries? Casual status of traits? Do traits: explain individual differences or simply provide useful way to measure and describe observed differences on dimensions selected by researchers? Buss and Craik: see dispositions like Big Five as summary statements of act trends/ behavioral trends, not explanations Dispositions are natural categories made up of various acts; summary statement of behavioral trends that must themselves be explained Some people still believe that traits are global entities that provide adequate explanations of behavior (Epstein) Block a major contributor to trait-dispositional level of personality provided a detailed analysis of the confusion this usage creates. Using big five is unjustified and does not provide any understanding of the personality processes that underlie behavior Links Between Perceiver and Perceived: Valid Ratings One of the most important concerns about usefulness of trait ratings reflect the social stereotypes and concepts of the judges rather than the trait organization of the rated person Nevertheless, a few basic trait dimensions have been found over and over again as evidence of the Big Five The characterization of people on these dimensions based on rating by peers reasonably agree with self-rating of the individuals Therefore, even if stereotypes and oversimplification enter these judgments, they are made reliably, shared widely and seem significantly linked to the qualities of the rated person. Summary: Descriptions of people obtained from different raters in different contexts often agree with each other There are linkages between a rater s trait constructs and the behavior of people she or he rates Even if Big five don t explain why people behave as they do, they are valuable for many goals other goals Interaction of Traits and Situations It has been increasingly recognized that a comprehensive approach to the study of traits must deal seriously with how the qualities of the person and the situation influence each other interaction