Trait Theory, Allport, Cattell

• Trait


  General dispositions/characteristics that people possess that uniquely influence their cognition and behaviour
• Traits cannot be directly observed, but rather must be inferred from patterns of behaviour and experience that are known to be valid trait indicators
• State


  The condition (intensity/centrality/arousal) of the corresponding traits at any given point in time
• Discrete 


  • Personality type - discrete category which individuals are placed in one category
  • One category or the other
• Continuous


  • Personality Traits - Continuous dimension, individuals placed along the dimension, allows for variation
  • On a continuum
• Every human possess ALL traits, but not at the same intensity or importance
• Personality elements are (tend to be) dimensionally (i.e., on a continuum) and hierarchically arranged
• These dimensions are (tend to be) independent (orthogonal) from each other
• Traits are relatively stable over time and situation, however they do fluctuate and/or drift
• Somatotypes


  Based on physique and temperament

  
• Somatotypes


  • Endomorphic Body
  • Mesomorphic Body
  • Ectomorphic Body
  • Lack of empirical support
  • Oversimplification
  • Promotes harmful stereotypes
• Lexical hypothesis - if individual differences (personality) are important, they should be encoded in language through trait-descriptors
• Lexical Approach - Frequency of word use and number of synonyms indicates importance of specific trait
• Lexical approach is a good starting point but not a full theory, lacks underlying mechanisms
• Cardinal traits


  Dominate a person's entire personality, create need
• Central traits


  Characterise a person's daily interactions, major characteristic of an individual
• Secondary traits


  Exhibited in specific situations or preferences, affect behaviour in fewer situations and are less influential
• Allport's theory had no empirical support and never developed a standardised measurement
• Allport's theory proposed personality is more than just traits, includes motivation/drives and interaction of biology, psychological and social factors
• Cattell used factor analysis to reduce large numbers of data into clusters/factors, leading to 16 individual traits measured by the 16PF
• Ergs


  Innate drives/motivators (relate to survival instincts) that cause us to attend to stimuli more readily than other
• Sentiments


  Complex attitudes (deeper/latent), aggregates of attitudes, and sentiments. How we feel about people or situations
• Attitudes


  Constructs that express our particular interests in people or objects in specific situations. Predict how we will behave in a particular situation
• Dynamic lattice


  The organised complexity and interrelation of dynamic traits
• Source traits


  • Major dimensions of personality
  • Inferred from patterns of behaviour
  • Consists of clusters of surface traits
• Surface traits


  • Relate to an individual's overt behaviours
  • Cluster together and thus have high correlations
  • E.g., extraversion (source) measured by surface traits of sociability, carefreeness, contentedness
• Cattell's 16PF assessment measures 16 source traits and 46 surface traits
• Allport


  • Extended the Lexical Approach
  • Traits cannot predict behaviour in a specific situation but are consistent over time
  • Traits were real structures that existed in the individual, located in the nervous system (would one day be found!)
  • Traits come together to produce a unique individual
• Cattell's Factors Influencing Personality

  Genes

  Environment

  Intelligence - given personality is moulded through learning, intelligent people may pick up the reward quicker
• Q-Data (questionnaire)


  • Psychometric self-report assessment
  • Easy to administer, quick access to information
  • People can lie to make themselves look good (impression management)
  • May not have an objective view of themselves
• L-Data (life record)


  • Behavioural records collected primarily from peer-ratings
  • Can be more objective
  • Limited info
• T-Data (test)


  • Objective tests in standardised conditions
  • Reduce impression management
  • Provides objective data
  • However limited use
• Cattell Pros

  • Major contribution to personality and intelligence
  • Developed first viable psychometric assessment of personality (16PF)
  • Proposed State-Trait dichotomy
  • His data to a great part gave rise to the Big 5
• Cattell Cons

  • Relative inability to replicate the structure of 16PF
  • Almost absolute reliance to factor analysis and statistics