Personality as a collection of traits

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Personality as a collection of traits
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Trait theory

• Personality viewed as a group of discrete,
  consistent, long-lasting tendencies in behavior
• Multi-dimensional
• Based on rigorous statistical analysis
• A reaction against the vague, non-empirical
  nature of the Freudians and Humanists
• Also, much more modest in scope

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How many?

• Gordon Alport started with 18,000 and then
  eliminated synonyms and antonyms to reduce list
  to
• Cattell used factor analysis to arrive at 35
• Eyesnik argued for just 3

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The big 5 (2)

• Currently the most influential trait theory
• Developed over the last 40 years through the
  contributions of many
• McCrae and Costa applied the final labels

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neuroticism

• Hypersensitive to adverse stimuli
• Opposite stability
• Other pairings
• worrying/calm
• high-strung/relaxed
• anxious/laid-back
• Heritability correlation coefficient - .31

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extraversion

• Out-going, sociable
• Opposite introversion
• All the way back to Carl Yung
• Also fun loving/sober
• joiner/loner
• talkative/quiet
• Heritability Correlation - .36

7
Openness to experience

• Enjoying new ideas and experiences
• Opposite tied to tradition
• Other pairings
• creative/uncreative
• independent/conforming
• daring/shun adventure
• Heritability - .46

8
Agreeableness

• Compassionate and flexible
• Opposite rude
• Other pairings
• good-natured/irritable
• sympathetic/callous
• lenient/unforgiving
• Heritability - .28

9
conscientiousness

• Self disciplined and productive
• Opposite undependable
• Others
• careful/careless
• hardworking/lazy
• persevering/giving up
• Heritability - .28

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2 ?

• Familiar qualities
• Intelligence and
• Activity level temperament?
• Both are heavily influenced by genetics

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Is the Big 5 valid?

• These traits have emerged again and again in
  various factor analyses
• These traits are relatively stable over time
• although levels of conscientiousness and
  agreeableness increase as we mature
• As we have seen, moderate levels of heritability
  have been found
• Works for males and females