Unit 11: Personality Theory

1
Unit 11 Personality Theory

• The Trait Perspective

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 intelligence or
  personality (depending on the test).
• FA takes the answers you give on tests and
  compiles them into general traits.

4
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
5
The Big Five
6
(No Transcript)
7
The Big Five

• Extraversion (sociable/retiring,
  fun-loving/sober, affectionate/reserved).
• Agreeableness (soft-hearted/ruthless,
  trusting/suspicious, helpful/uncooperative).
• Conscientiousness (organized/disorganized,
  careful/careless, disciplined/impulsive).

8
The Big Five

• Emotional Stability (calm/anxious,
  secure/insecure, self-satisfied/self-pitying).
• Openness (imaginative/practical, variety/routine,
  independent, conforming)

9
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.

10
Assessing Our Traits

• Personality Inventories a questionnaire where
  people respond to items attempting to gauge
  different aspects of their personality

11
MMPI

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
• the most widely used personality test.
• Originally used to identify emotional disorders.
• Now used for screening purposes.

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
The Person Situation Controversey

• The Person-Situation Controversy
• Are traits really stable?
• Kind Of.
• They change according to the situation.