The Dispositional Approach

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The Dispositional Approach

• 13 September 2004

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Assumptions of Dispositional Approach

• People display consistency or continuity in their
  actions, thoughts, and feelings
• People differ from each other
• Each persons personality consists of a pattern
  of dispositional qualities, and the composition
  of the pattern differs from one person to another

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Types vs. Traits

• Types
• Distinct, discontinuous categories
• People are qualitatively different
• An either/or categorization

• Traits
• Continuous dimensions
• People differ in the amounts of various
  characteristics they have in their personality
• i.e., people are quantitatively different

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Traits

• Consistent patterns in the way individuals
  behave, feel, and think
• Measurable
• Objective?
• Three major functions
• Summarize
• Predict
• Explain

• Focus on the structural organization of
  personality
• NOT on development or origin of behaviors or
  characteristics
• NOT on specific behaviors/behavior modification

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Nomothetic vs. IdiographicApproches to Traits

• Nomothetic view
• (e.g., Big Five)
• Traits exist in the same way in every person
• Emphasis on comparisons among people
• Traits have the same meaning for everyone

• Ideographic view
• (e.g., Allport)
• Each person is unique
• Traits are individualized
• There can be as many traits as there are people
• People cant reliably be compared
• Traits can mean different things to different
  people

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Goals of Trait Theorists

• Identify the traits necessary to explain
  important human behaviors
• Assume that behavior can be explained by
  operation of traits
• Measure traits accurately
• NEO-PI, MMPI, etc.
• Eventually look for causes of trait development
• e.g., biological/evolutionary perspectives

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Theoretical Assumptions I

• Dispositions/traits are relatively stable and
  enduring
• Focus on identifying the most important traits
• e.g. the Big Five

• Dispositions influence behaviors in most
  situations
• Person/situation debate

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Theoretical Assumptions II

• Differences among individuals arise because of
  differences in strengths of traits
• Traits are dimensional, and are present in the
  population in a normal distribution

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The Birth of Trait Theory

• Freud vs Allport
• What about manifest motives?
• Usefulness and intuitiveness of traits
• Traits described in literature and philosophy
  throughout time
• Almost all the literature of character whether
  nonfiction or fiction, drama or biography
  proceeds on the psychological assumption that
  each character has certain traits peculiar to
  himself which can be defined through the
  narrating of typical episodes from life.
  (Allport, 1960)

Gordon Allport 1897-1967
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Traits in Ancient Greece Theophrastus (371-287
B.C.) The Stingy Man

• Stinginess is economy carried beyond all
  measure. A stingy man is one who goes to a
  debtor to ask for his half-obol before the end of
  the month. At dinner where expenses are shared,
  he counts the number of cups each person drinks
  and he makes smaller libation to Artemis than
  anyone. If someone has made a good bargain on
  his account and presents him with the bill, he
  says it is too much.
• When his servant breaks a pot or a plate, he
  deducts the value from his food. If his wife
  drops a copper, he moves furniture, beds, chests,
  and hunts in the curtains. If he has something
  to sell, he puts such a price on it that the
  buyer has no profit. He forbids anyone to pick a
  fig in his garden, to walk on his land, to pick
  up an olive or a date. Every day he goes to see
  that the boundary marks of his property have not
  been moved.
• . . To sum up, the coffers of stingy men are
  moldy and the keys rust they wear cloaks which
  hardly reach the thigh a very little oil bottle
  supplies them for anointing they have hair cut
  short and do not put on their shoes until midday.

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Traits in Contemporary AmericaCosmo article
Could a miser be lurking beneath that sensuous
flesh and persuasive charm? Well, dont expect
sapphires from him, dear, if he . . .

• reshapes bent paperclips
• looks hard for change he drops
• has a dozen recipes for chicken wings
• wears t-shirts with holes in them
• cuts his own hair
• travels only on business
• burns only 25-watt bulbs in his apartment
• wants rolls and butter included in his doggie bag

• itemizes who owes what when youre out
  Dutch-treat rather than splitting the bill
• washes plastic party cups to reuse them
• steams uncancelled stamps from letters
• serves only punch at parties

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More Allport

• Recall Allports definition of personality
• the dynamic organization within the individual
  of those psychophysical systems that determine
  his unique adjustments to his environment
• dynamic personality is constantly developing and
  changing
• psychophysical neither purely mental nor purely
  neural
• determine traits cause behavior, desire,
  motivation

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Types of Traits(Still Allport)

• Cardinal traits Dominate and pervade most
  aspects of a persons life
• Central traits Have a major influence on a
  persons life
• These are the traits that are most characteristic
  of a person
• Secondary traits Operate in limited settings
• Situation-based?
• Allport does not propose which traits are
  cardinal, central, etc., but instead suggests
  that this differs across individuals

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Allport in Retrospect

• Positives
• Pioneering theory
• Started the field of trait theory
• Advocate of objective measurement
• No more unconscious thoughts!!!

• Negatives
• Extreme emphasis on individuality
• No theory about which traits, on average, are
  most important

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How do we know which traits matter?

• Factor analysis
• find patterns of association in a set of
  variables
• Steps
• Collect data
• Get your computer to compute correlations of
  every item with every other item in your data set
• Get your computer to extract factors
• Get your computer to compute your factor loadings
• Name your factors

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Example QuestionnaireCoping with Stress

• Recall the most stressful event you experienced
  during the past two months. To what extent did
  you (scored, e.g., from 1 not at all like me to
  7 very much like me)
• Take action quickly, before things could get out
  of control
• Refuse to believe it was real
• Do something concrete to make the situation
  better
• Try to convince yourself that it wasnt happening
• Go on thinking things were just like they were
  before
• Change or grow as a person in a new way
• Try to look on the bright side of things

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Correlation Matrix
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Factor Loadings
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Name Your Factors

• Factor A
• Take action quickly, before things could get out
  of control
• Do something concrete to make the situation
  better
• Factor B
• Change or grow as a person in a new way
• Try to look on the bright side of things

• Factor C
• Refuse to believe it was real
• Try to convince yourself that it wasnt happening
• Go on thinking things were just like they were
  before

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Pros and Cons of Factor Analysis

• Pros
• Reduces tons of traits to a smaller set of traits
• Provides some basis for arguing that some traits
  matter more than others
• Helps in creation of assessment devices
• Cons
• Subjective

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The Empirical/Statistical Approach Raymond
Cattell

• Determine empirically which traits matter,
  without imposing preconceptions
• Factor analysis the key to developing an
  objective, empirically-derived taxonomy of
  personality
• True units of personality should show up across
  different types of data

1905-1998
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More Cattell

• Used the lexical criterion of importance as his
  starting point
• Lexical Hypothesis uses two criteria for
  identifying important traits
• Synonym frequency
• Cross-cultural universality

• Took a set of 4,500 trait terms from Allport
  Odbert (1936)
• Removed obvious synonyms 177 trait terms
• Collected ratings on these words
• Factor analyzed the ratings
• Came up with 16 Personality Factors

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The 16 Personality Factor Scales

• Factor A. Interpersonal warmth
• Factor B. Intelligence
• Factor C. Emotional stability
• Factor E. Dominance
• Factor F. Impulsivity
• Factor G. Conformity
• Factor H. Boldness
• Factor I. Sensitivity

• Factor L. Suspiciousness
• Factor M. Imagination
• Factor N. Shrewdness
• Factor O. Insecurity
• Factor Q1. Radicalism
• Factor Q2. Self-sufficiency
• Factor Q3. Self-discipline
• Factor Q4. Tension

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Cattell in Retrospect

• Positives
• Vast empirical support for his concepts
• Very operational orientation

• Negatives
• Very little substantive theory
• Too many factors?
• Some failures to replicate

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Theoretical ApproachEysencks (1965) 3-Factor
(PEN) Theory

• Theoretical approach starts with a theory about
  which traits we want to measure
• Studied historical literature (e.g., Hippocrates,
  Galen, Jung)
• Decided that two supertraits were theoretically
  most compelling
• Introversion/extraversion
• Neuroticism/stability
• Supertraits subsume narrower traits and habits
• E.g., extraversion ? sociability ? eye contact,
  smiling, etc.

• Collected data
• Factor analysis (confirmatory, rather than
  exploratory, as with Cattell)
• Introversion-Extraversion
• Neuroticism (Stable-Unstable)
• Psychoticism (vs. Socialization)
• Psychoticism a lot like Agreeableness plus
  Conscientiousness (Big Five)
• Biological underpinnings to all 3 traits

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Hierachical Structure of Extraversion-Introversion
(E)

• E is the super-trait
• Narrower traits include
• Sociable
• Lively
• Active
• Assertive
• Sensation-seeking
• Carefree
• Dominant
• Surgent
• Venturesome

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Hierarchical Structure of Neuroticism (N)

• N is the super-trait
• Narrower traits include
• Anxious
• Depressed
• Guilt feelings
• Low SE
• Tense
• Irrational
• Shy
• Moody
• Emotional

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Hierarchical Structure ofPsychoticism (P)

• P is the super-trait
• Narrower traits include
• Aggressive
• Cold
• Egocentric
• Impersonal
• Impulsive
• Antisocial
• Unempathic
• Creative
• Tough-minded

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Relationship between Introversion-Extraversion
and Neuroticism
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Eysenk in Retrospect

• Does Eysenck he miss some important traits?
• Compare with 16PF (too many traits?) and Big Five
  (just right???)