Trait TheoryEysenck and The Big Five

What kind of person are you?

• Two typical approaches:i) a ‘type’ of person (e.g. quiet type, outgoing type)ii) give a description of their characteristics (e.g. studious, shy, friendly)

• Both approaches involve describing themselves in terms of relatively stable features of their behaviour (as a type or certain traits)

Trait

• A trait:

• Is a dimension of personality used to categorise individuals according to the degree to which they show a particular characteristic.

• Is assumed to be stable across situations.

• Is assumed to be normally distributed.

The Trait Approach

• Less concerned with understanding one person than in understanding how people at certain points on the trait distribution behave.

• Attempts to describe average group behaviour.

• Attempts to describe personality variables and predict behaviour (rather than explain it).

• Advantage – allows comparison across people.

Hans J. Eysenck

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Background

• March 4, 1916 – September 4, 1997

• Raised by grandmother (parents divorced when he was two)

• Left Germany at the age of 18, when Nazis came to power

• In England - received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of London in 1940

• During World War II - psychologist at an emergency hospital

• Post-war - taught at the University of London

• 75 books, 700 articles!

• Retired 1983

Eysenck’ contributions

• Major contribution to personality psychology is his work on identification of traits and what he calls types, or supertraits.

• Eysenck divided the elements of personality into various units that can be arranged hierarchically.

• Concluded that all traits can be listed within three basic personality dimensions.

The Hierarchal Model

• 4 levels:

Specific Response – consists of specific behaviours (e.g. spending an afternoon talking and laughing with friends)

Habitual – Regular/frequent engagement of the specific behaviours (e.g. many afternoons)

Trait – exhibition of trait (not just afternoons, weekends too! Not just his/her friends, strangers too! Sociability!)

Type/Supertrait – the major ‘type’ in which the trait level falls under (e.g. Extraversion)

4 levels:Specific Response – consists of specific behaviours (e.g. spending

an afternoon talking and laughing with friends)Habitual – Regular/frequent engagement of the specific behaviours

(e.g. many afternoons)Trait – exhibition of trait (not just afternoons, weekends too! Not just

his/her friends, strangers too! Sociability!)Type/Supertrait – the major ‘type’ in which the trait level falls under

(e.g. Extraversion)

The upertraits• How many?

• Originally – two basic dimensions:neuroticism and extraversion-introversion. Neurotic

Introverted Extraverted

Stable

Dimensions of Personality

Introverted Extraverted

Neurotic

Stable

Position on the scalesWould be determinedVia the EPQ(Eysenck Personality Questionnaire)

X

A person with a lowE score and a slightly Low N score would beAt X

Indicative of overreactivity.High scoring tend to be emotionally overresponsive and have difficulties in returning to a normal state after emotional experiences” (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1968, p.6)

List down possible traits for each quadrant/combination of

Supertraits…N

I E

S

Give yourselves a tick if you wrote….

The Third upertrait

PSYCHOTICISM: High scorers are described as “egocentric, aggressive, impersonal, cold, lacking in empathy, impulsive, lacking in concern for others, and generally unconcerned about the rights and welfare of other people” (Eysenck, 1982, p.11)

Where would you put the PSYCHOTICISM DIMENSION?

Introvert Extravert

Neurotic

Stable

Eysenck’s biological theories

• Suggested that:

• Extraverts have a lower resting cortical arousal rate than introverts. (understimulated)

• People whose autonomic nervous system is highly reactive is likely to develop a neurotic disorder.

The Big Five

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Very Unlikely

Moderately unlikely

Neither likely or unlikely

Moderately likely

Very likely

1. Start a conversation with a stranger

2. Make sure others are comfortable and happy

3. Use difficult words

4. Prepare for things in advance

5. Feel blue or depressed

6. Plan parties or social events

7. Insult people

8. Think about philosophical or social questions

9. Let things get into a mess

10. Feel stressed or worried

Scoring

• For all questions other than 7 and 9:Very unlikely = 1Moderately unlikely = 2Neither likely or unlikely = 3Moderately likely = 4Very likely = 5

• For questions 7 and 9:Very unlikely = 5Moderately unlikely = 4Neither likely or unlikely = 3Moderately likely = 2Very likely = 1

Scoring

• Sum up your score from the individual questions as shown below:

O = Q3 + Q8C = Q4 + Q9E = Q1 + Q6A = Q2 + Q7N = Q5 + Q10

• 2, 3 and 4 are low scores, 5 and 6 are low-medium, 7 and 8 are medium-high, and 9 and 10 are high scores.

Basic Dimensions of Personality

• Research conducted for decades found that people had five key dimensions of personality.

• Costa & McCrae (1985)

• Five-factor Model (FFM), also known as “The Big Five”

The Dimensions

• Openness to experience

• Conscientiousness

• Extraversion

• Agreeableness

• Neuroticism

Openness to experience

• A person’s willingness to try new things.

• High scorers = creative, artistic, curious, imaginative, non-conforming. Low scorers = conventional, down-to-earth, uncreative, simple, maintains status quo

Conscientiousness

• Refers to a person’s organisation and motivation.

• High scorers: punctual, careful with belongings, organised, neat, reliable, ambitious, responsible, self-disciplined

Low scorers: unreliable, lazy, careless, negligent, spontaneous

Extraversion

• One’s need to be with other people

• High scorers: outgoing, sociable, talkative, optimistic, affectionate

Low scorers: prefer solitude, reserved, stays in the background

Agreeableness

• The basic emotional style of a person.

• High scorers: easygoing, pleasant, friendly, good-natured, trusting and helpful

Low scorers: grumpy, crabby, difficult to get along with, rude, uncooperative, irritable, aggressive, competitive

Neuroticism

• Degree of emotional stability or instability.

• High scorers: worrying, insecure, anxious, temperamental

Low scorers: Calm, secure, relaxed, stable

Revisit your results

• The test taken is the Newcastle Personality Assessor (NPA), used to assess people on the big five personality dimensions.

• There are copious online versions that are also based on the Big Five.

Cross-Cultural

• FFM has been studied and tested by numerous researchers.

• Cross-cultural studies have found evidence of the Big Five in 11 different cultures, including Japan, the Philippines, Germany, China and Peru (McCrae et al., 2000)

Evaluation of Trait Approach

• In groups of four or five, brainstorm as many strengths and weakness about the trait approach so far.