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Traits & Trait TaxonomiesMP111471 Zaini Mohd Bakry B. Zulkifli
Lecture : Dr Nora Mislan
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Traits
Words that describe traits, attributes of a
person that are reasonably characteristic of
the person and perhaps enduring over time.
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FriendlyGenerous
HappyCheerful
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Types Of Character Traits
Religious
Honest
Loyal
Devoted
Loving Kind
Sincere
Devoted
Ambitious
Satisfied
Happy
Faithful
Patient
Determined
Persistent
Adventurous
Homebody
Considerate Cooperative
Cheerful
Optimistic
Pessimistic
Funny
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Types Of Character Traits
Dishonest
Disloyal
Unkind
Mean
Rude Disrespectful
Impatient
Greedy
Angry Pessimistic
Repugnant
Cruel
Unmerciful
Wicked
Obnoxious
Malicious Grumpy
Quarrelsome
Caustic
Selfish Unforgiving
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What Is a Trait?: Two Basic Formulations
Traits as Internal Causal Properties
vs.
Traits as Purely Descriptive Summaries
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Traits as Internal Causal Properties
Traits are presumed to be internal in thatindividuals carry their desires, needs, and wantsfrom one situation to next
Desires and needs are presumed to be causal inthat they explain behavior of individuals whopossess them
Traits can lie dormant in that capacities are
present even when behaviors are not expressed Scientific usefulness of viewing traits as causes
of behavior lies in ruling out other causes
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Traits as Purely Descriptive Summaries
Traits as descriptive summaries of attributes
of a person; no assumption about internality,
nor is causality assumed
Argue that we must first identify and
describe important individual differences
and subsequently develop casual theories toexplain them
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The Act Frequency Formulation of Traits:
An Illustration of the Descriptive SummaryFoundation
Starts with the notion that traits arecategories of acts
Trait categories such as dominance or
impulsivity have specific acts asmembers.
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Act Frequency Research Program
Act nominations: Designed to identify which
acts belong in which trait categories.
Aggressive
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Act Frequency Research Program
Prototypicality judgements: Involves
identifying which acts are most central or
prototypical of each trait category
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Act Frequency Research Program
Monitoring act performance: Securing
information on actual performance of
individuals in their daily lives.
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Evaluation of Act Frequency Formulation
Helpful in making explicit the behavioral phenomena towhich most trait terms refer
Helpful in identifying behavioral regularities Helpful in exploring the meaning of some traits that
are difficult to study, such as impulsivity and creativity
Does not specify how much context should be included
in the description of the trait-relevant act Seems applicable to overt actions, but what about
failures to act or covert acts not directly observable?
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Identification of the Most Important Traits:
Three Approaches
Lexical Approach
Statistical Approach
Theoretical Approach
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Lexical Approach
Starts with lexical hypothesis: All important
individual differences have becomeencoded within the natural language over
time
Trait terms are important for people incommunicating with others
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Lexical Approach
Two criteria for identifying important
traits
Synonym frequency
Cross-cultural universality
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Lexical Approach
Problems and limitations
Many traits are ambiguous, metaphorical,
obscure, or difficult
Personality is conveyed through different
parts of speech (not just adjectives),
including nouns and adverbs
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Lexical Approach
Lexical approach is a good starting point
for identifying important an individual
difference, but should not be theexclusive approach used
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Statistical Approach
Starts with a large, diverse pool of personality
items
Most researchers using lexical approach turnto statistical approach to distill ratings of trait
adjectives into basic categories of traits
Goal of statistical approach is to identify majordimensions of personality
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Statistical Approach
Factor analysis
Identifies groups of items that covary or go
together, but tend not to covary with othergroups of items
Provides means for determining which
personality variables share some property orbelong within the same group
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Statistical Approach
Factor analysis
Useful in reducing the large array of diverse
traits into smaller, more useful set ofunderlying factors
Factor loading: Index of how much of a
variation in an item is explained by a factor
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Statistical Approach
Factor analysis
Cautionary note: You only get out of factoranalysis what you put in; thus, researchers
must pay attention to the initial selection
items
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Theoretical Approach
Starts with a theory, which then determines
which variables are important
Example: Sociosexual orientation (Simpson &
Gangestad, 1991)
Strengths coincide with strengths of a theory,
and weaknesses coincide with the weaknesses
of a theory
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Taxonomies of Personality
1. Eysenck's hierarchical model of personality
2. Cattell's Taxonomy : the 16 personality
factor system
3. Circumplex taxonomies of personality
4. Five-Factor model (the big 5)
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Hans J. Eysenck: Personality as
Traits
For Eysenck, personality consists of acts and
dispositions organized in a hierarchical fashion
in terms of their level of generality.
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Eysenck's hierarchical model of
personality
Most strongly rooted in biology.
Model of personality based on traits that he
believed were highly heritable and had a
likely psychophysiological foundation.
3 main traits are :
extraversion - introversion (E), neuroticism-
emotional stability (N), and psychoticism (P)
PEN
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Eysenck's Three Personality Factors:
P
E
N
extraversion - introversion
neuroticism-emotional stability
psychoticism
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Eysenck's Three Personality Factors:
Extraversion - Introversion: Introversion: tendermindedness;
introspectiveness; seriousness; performanceinterfered with by excitement; easily aroused
but restrained, inhibited; preference forsolitary vocations; sensitivity to pain.
Extraversion: toughmindedness;
impulsiveness; tendency to be outgoing;desire for novelty; performance enhanced byexcitement; preference for vocationsinvolving contact with other people; tolerance
for pain.
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Eysenck's Three Personality Factors:
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Eysenck's Three Personality Factors:
Neuroticism: Below-average emotional control,
will-power, and capacity to exert self; slowness
in thought and action; suggestibility; lack of
persistence; tendency to repress unpleasant
facts; lack of sociability; below-average sensory
acuity but high level of activation.
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Eysenck's Three Personality Factors:
Psychoticism:
Poor concentration, poor memory; insensitivity;
lack of caring for others; cruelty; disregard for
danger and convention; occasionally originality
and/or creativity; liking for unusual things;
considered peculiar by others.
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Eysenck's Three Personality Factors:
Four personality types
can be derived
from the traits associated
with Eysencks
two major personality
dimensions ofextraversion and
neuroticism.
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Hierarchical Structure ofEysencks System
Super traits (P, E, N) at the top
Narrower traits at the second level
Subsumed by each narrower trait is the third level
Habitual acts : At the lowest level of the four-tieredhierarchy are specific acts
Hierarchy has the advantage of locating eachspecific, personality-relevant act within increasinglyprecise nested system
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Cattells Taxonomy: The 16 Personality
Factor System
Cattells goal was to identify and measure the
basic units of personality
Believed that the true factors of personality
should be found across different types of data,
such as self-reports and laboratory tests.
Factor Descriptors
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Factor Descriptors
A Warmth Reserved Outgoing
B Reasoning Less Intelligent More Intelligent
C Emotional Stability Affected by feelings Emotionally stable
E Dominance Humble Assertive
F Liveliness Sober Happy-go-lucky
G Rule Consciousness Expedient Conscientious
H Social Boldness Shy Venturesome
I Sensitivity Tough-minded Tender-minded
L Vigilance Trusting Suspicious
M Abstractedness Practical Imaginative
N Privateness Straightforward Shrewd
O Apprehension Self-Assured Apprehensive
Q1 Openness to Change Conservative Experimenting
Q2 Self-Reliance Group-dependent Self-sufficient
Q3 Perfectionism Self-conflict Self-control
Q4 Tension Relaxed Tense
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The Wiggins Circumplex
Wiggins (1979) developed measurement
scales to assess traits
Started with the lexical assumption Argued that trait terms specify different kinds
of ways in which individuals differ:
Interpersonal, temperament, character, material,
attitude, mental, and physical
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The Wiggins Circumplex
Wiggins was concerned with interpersonal
traits and carefully separated these out
Defined interpersonal as interactionsbetween people involving exchanges
Two resources that define social exchange are
love and status
Dimensions of status and love define axes of
Wiggins circumplex
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The Wiggins Circumplex
Wiggins circumplex has three key
advantages
Provides an explicit definition of what constitutesinterpersonal behavior
Specifies relationships between each trait and
every other trait in the model (adjacency,
bipolarity, orthogonality)
Alerts investigators to gaps in work on
interpersonal behavior
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Five-Factor Model
The field of psychologys Big Five model uses five words thatdescribe personality traits.
The personality traits can be grouped into these categories:
Openness
ConscientiousnessExtroversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
The model is a comprehensive data-driven finding on the
most basic personality traits in people. It is a very broad
model with several subgroups to describe more specific
traits.
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