TRAIT THEORIES – ASPECTS OF PERSONALITY
Traits – or descriptors used to label personality – have their origins in the ways we describe personality in everyday language. In the early years of personality theory, many theorists used the term types to describe differences between people. Sheldon (1954), for example, categorized people according to three body types and related these physical differences to differences in personality. Endomorphic body types are plump and round with a tendency to be relaxed and outgoing. Mesomorphic physiques are strong and muscular, and usually energetic and assertive in personality. Ectomorphic body types are tall and thin and tend to have a fearful and restrained personality. Not only is it unlikely that personality can be mapped to body type, but the idea that all people can be allocated to a small number of categories is challenged by modern trait theories. Modern theorists view traits as continuous rather than discrete entities. So, rather than being divided into categories, people are placed on a trait continuum epresenting how high or low each individual is on any particular dimension. The assumption is that we all possess each of these traits to a greater or lesser degree, and that comparisons can be made between people. For example, categorizing people into separate groups of ‘sociable’ versus ‘unsociable’ is considered to be meaningless. Instead, it is considered more useful by trait theorists to determine the amount of sociability each person exhibits. Personality theorists regard most traits as forming a normal distribution, so some people will be very high in sociability and others very low, but most people will be somewhere in the middle.
CATTELL’S 16 TRAIT DIMENSIONS
Gordon Allport (1897–1967) made the first comprehensive attempt to develop a framework to describe personality using traits. Allport and Odbert (1936) used Webster’s (1925) New International Dictionary to identify terms that describe personality. This work was developed further by Raymond Cattell (1905– 97), who used a statistical procedure called factor analysis to determine the structure of personality. Factor analysis is a tool for summarizing the relationships among sets of variables by identifying those that co-vary and are different from other groups of variables (see chapter 13). In personality theory, factor analysis can be used to identify which sets of variables most simply and accurately reflect the structure of human personality. Like Allport, Cattell believed that a useful source of information about the existence of personality traits could be found in language, the importance of a trait being reflected in how many words describe it. Cattell called this the lexical criterion of importance. Build ng on Allport’s work, Cattell (1943) collated a set of 4500 trait names from various sources and then removed obvious synonyms and metaphorical terms, until he reduced these to 171 key trait names. Cattell collected ratings of these words and factor-analysed the ratings. Cattell’s subsequent investigations yielded three types of data, which he categorized as follows:
L-data – life record data, in which personality assessment occurs through interpretation of actual records of behaviour throughout a person’s lifetime (e.g. report cards, ratings by friends and military conduct reports);
Q-data – data obtained by questionnaires (e.g. asking people to rate themselves on different characteristics); and
T-data – or objective psychometric test data (e.g. the thematic apperception test).
On the basis of this research, Cattell (1947) developed a model of personality describing 16 trait dimensions. He then developed a questionnaire to measure these traits (Cattell, Eber & Tastuoka, 1977) called the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF). Here are the 16 trait dimensions used in the 16PF:
Reserved--------------------------------------------Outgoing
Less intelligent--------------------------------------------More intelligent
Stable, ego strength----------------------------Emotionality/neuroticism
Humble--------------------------------------------Assertive
Sober--------------------------------------------Happy-go-lucky
Expedient--------------------------------------------Conscientious
Shy--------------------------------------------Venturesome
Tough-minded--------------------------------------------Tender-minded
Trusting--------------------------------------------Suspicious
Practical--------------------------------------------Imaginative
Forthright--------------------------------------------Shrewd
Placid--------------------------------------------Apprehensive
Conservative--------------------------------------------Experimenting
Group-dependent--------------------------------------------Self-sufficient
Undisciplined--------------------------------------------Controlled
Relaxed--------------------------------------------Tense
EYSENCK’S SUPERTRAITS
Hans Eysenck (1916–97) was a contemporary of Cattell and also used factor analysis to classify personality traits. But Eysenck (1967) began with a theory of personality which he based on two supertraits – extraversion– introversion and neuroticism– stability. According to this theory, people who are highly extraverted are sociable and outgoing, and crave excitement and the company of others. People who are highly introverted are quiet and introspective; they tend to prefer time alone and to be cautious in the way they plan their lives. People who are highly neurotic tend to be anxious, moody and vulnerable, whereas people who are low on neuroticism tend to be stable, calm and even-tempered. Eysenck viewed the supertraits of extraversion and neuroticism as independent, and believed that different personalities arise from differing combinations of the two supertraits. The traits associated with Eysenck’s two major personality dimensions (Eysenck, 1975). People who are high in both neuroticism and extraversion t end to exhibit quite different traits than someone who is low in both, or a combination of low and high. So people who are high on both extraversion and neuroticism tend to be touchy and aggressive, whereas people who are high on extraversion and low on neuroticism tend to be carefree and sociable.
A further supertrait identified by Eysenck (1982) is psychoticism. People scoring high on psychoticism 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’s (1967) hierarchical model divides personality into various units (figure 14.8). This allows personality to be described at a number of different levels – supertraits, traits, habits and actions. Each supertrait is made up of a number of traits, which are in turn derived from habitual responses and specific responses (actions). According to this model, many specific actions make up habitual responses, which are represented as trait dimensions, which in turn are part of one supertrait. All levels are important in determining behaviour. Like Cattell, Eysenck developed a questionnaire designed to measure his supertraits – the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, or EPQ (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975; see table 14.1). He also developed a theory of the biological basis of personality, which is described later.
[Hans J. Eysenck (1916–97) Born in Berlin, Eysenck moved to England in 1934. Until his death in 1997, Eysenck was the most widely cited psychologist in the world. Best known for his work in personality, Eysenck also contributed to the founding of cognitive-behaviour therapy as an alternative to psychodynamic therapies. His involvement with research on the relationship between race and IQ rendered him a controversial figure. Eysenck founded the Department of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, The Maudsley Hospital, London, in 1946 and continued to work there long beyond his formal retirement in 1983.]
Traits – or descriptors used to label personality – have their origins in the ways we describe personality in everyday language. In the early years of personality theory, many theorists used the term types to describe differences between people. Sheldon (1954), for example, categorized people according to three body types and related these physical differences to differences in personality. Endomorphic body types are plump and round with a tendency to be relaxed and outgoing. Mesomorphic physiques are strong and muscular, and usually energetic and assertive in personality. Ectomorphic body types are tall and thin and tend to have a fearful and restrained personality. Not only is it unlikely that personality can be mapped to body type, but the idea that all people can be allocated to a small number of categories is challenged by modern trait theories. Modern theorists view traits as continuous rather than discrete entities. So, rather than being divided into categories, people are placed on a trait continuum epresenting how high or low each individual is on any particular dimension. The assumption is that we all possess each of these traits to a greater or lesser degree, and that comparisons can be made between people. For example, categorizing people into separate groups of ‘sociable’ versus ‘unsociable’ is considered to be meaningless. Instead, it is considered more useful by trait theorists to determine the amount of sociability each person exhibits. Personality theorists regard most traits as forming a normal distribution, so some people will be very high in sociability and others very low, but most people will be somewhere in the middle.
CATTELL’S 16 TRAIT DIMENSIONS
Gordon Allport (1897–1967) made the first comprehensive attempt to develop a framework to describe personality using traits. Allport and Odbert (1936) used Webster’s (1925) New International Dictionary to identify terms that describe personality. This work was developed further by Raymond Cattell (1905– 97), who used a statistical procedure called factor analysis to determine the structure of personality. Factor analysis is a tool for summarizing the relationships among sets of variables by identifying those that co-vary and are different from other groups of variables (see chapter 13). In personality theory, factor analysis can be used to identify which sets of variables most simply and accurately reflect the structure of human personality. Like Allport, Cattell believed that a useful source of information about the existence of personality traits could be found in language, the importance of a trait being reflected in how many words describe it. Cattell called this the lexical criterion of importance. Build ng on Allport’s work, Cattell (1943) collated a set of 4500 trait names from various sources and then removed obvious synonyms and metaphorical terms, until he reduced these to 171 key trait names. Cattell collected ratings of these words and factor-analysed the ratings. Cattell’s subsequent investigations yielded three types of data, which he categorized as follows:
L-data – life record data, in which personality assessment occurs through interpretation of actual records of behaviour throughout a person’s lifetime (e.g. report cards, ratings by friends and military conduct reports);
Q-data – data obtained by questionnaires (e.g. asking people to rate themselves on different characteristics); and
T-data – or objective psychometric test data (e.g. the thematic apperception test).
On the basis of this research, Cattell (1947) developed a model of personality describing 16 trait dimensions. He then developed a questionnaire to measure these traits (Cattell, Eber & Tastuoka, 1977) called the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF). Here are the 16 trait dimensions used in the 16PF:
Reserved--------------------------------------------Outgoing
Less intelligent--------------------------------------------More intelligent
Stable, ego strength----------------------------Emotionality/neuroticism
Humble--------------------------------------------Assertive
Sober--------------------------------------------Happy-go-lucky
Expedient--------------------------------------------Conscientious
Shy--------------------------------------------Venturesome
Tough-minded--------------------------------------------Tender-minded
Trusting--------------------------------------------Suspicious
Practical--------------------------------------------Imaginative
Forthright--------------------------------------------Shrewd
Placid--------------------------------------------Apprehensive
Conservative--------------------------------------------Experimenting
Group-dependent--------------------------------------------Self-sufficient
Undisciplined--------------------------------------------Controlled
Relaxed--------------------------------------------Tense
EYSENCK’S SUPERTRAITS
Hans Eysenck (1916–97) was a contemporary of Cattell and also used factor analysis to classify personality traits. But Eysenck (1967) began with a theory of personality which he based on two supertraits – extraversion– introversion and neuroticism– stability. According to this theory, people who are highly extraverted are sociable and outgoing, and crave excitement and the company of others. People who are highly introverted are quiet and introspective; they tend to prefer time alone and to be cautious in the way they plan their lives. People who are highly neurotic tend to be anxious, moody and vulnerable, whereas people who are low on neuroticism tend to be stable, calm and even-tempered. Eysenck viewed the supertraits of extraversion and neuroticism as independent, and believed that different personalities arise from differing combinations of the two supertraits. The traits associated with Eysenck’s two major personality dimensions (Eysenck, 1975). People who are high in both neuroticism and extraversion t end to exhibit quite different traits than someone who is low in both, or a combination of low and high. So people who are high on both extraversion and neuroticism tend to be touchy and aggressive, whereas people who are high on extraversion and low on neuroticism tend to be carefree and sociable.
A further supertrait identified by Eysenck (1982) is psychoticism. People scoring high on psychoticism 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’s (1967) hierarchical model divides personality into various units (figure 14.8). This allows personality to be described at a number of different levels – supertraits, traits, habits and actions. Each supertrait is made up of a number of traits, which are in turn derived from habitual responses and specific responses (actions). According to this model, many specific actions make up habitual responses, which are represented as trait dimensions, which in turn are part of one supertrait. All levels are important in determining behaviour. Like Cattell, Eysenck developed a questionnaire designed to measure his supertraits – the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, or EPQ (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975; see table 14.1). He also developed a theory of the biological basis of personality, which is described later.
[Hans J. Eysenck (1916–97) Born in Berlin, Eysenck moved to England in 1934. Until his death in 1997, Eysenck was the most widely cited psychologist in the world. Best known for his work in personality, Eysenck also contributed to the founding of cognitive-behaviour therapy as an alternative to psychodynamic therapies. His involvement with research on the relationship between race and IQ rendered him a controversial figure. Eysenck founded the Department of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, The Maudsley Hospital, London, in 1946 and continued to work there long beyond his formal retirement in 1983.]
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