Trait Theory

Eysenck and The Big Five

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

Traits present specific ideas about a persons disposition (the way a person is likely to behave across
situations as well as over time)

Human behavior and personality traits can be placed on a continuum or organized into a hierarchy

Personality Traits
enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that
are exhibited in a wide range of social and personal contexts (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,
Fourth edition)

A readiness to think or act in a similar fashion in response to a variety of different stimuli or

situations.
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: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

Eysencks 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.
Eysencks 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)

The Supertraits
How many?
Originally two basic dimensions:
neuroticism and extraversion-introversion.

Eysencks Theory

High N and High E = Choleric type

High N and Low E = Melancholic type

Low N and High E = Sanguine type

Low N and Low E = Phlegmatic type

The Third Supertrait

Where would you put the PSYCHOTICISM DIMENSION?
Characteristics of a Healthy Perspective
Positive/Constructive Behavior
Successful Coping Techniques
Achievement Striving
Characteristics of a Unhealthy Perspective
Tend to be risk takers
Likely to smoke and drink heavily
Anxiety
Depression
Neuroticism
Heart Attacks (Cardiovascular Disease)
Sleep Deprivation
The Big Five

Scoring
For all questions other than 7 and 9:
Very unlikely = 1
Moderately unlikely = 2
Neither likely or unlikely = 3
Moderately likely = 4
Very likely = 5
For questions 7 and 9:
Very unlikely = 5
Moderately unlikely = 4
Neither likely or unlikely = 3
Moderately likely = 2
Very likely = 1
Scoring
Sum up your score from the individual questions as shown below:
O = Q3 + Q8
C = Q4 + Q9
E = Q1 + Q6
A = Q2 + Q7
N = 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 persons 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 persons organisation and motivation.
High scorers: punctual, careful with belongings, organised, neat, reliable, ambitious, responsible, selfdisciplined
Low scorers: unreliable, lazy, careless, negligent, spontaneous
Extraversion
Ones 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
The defining assumptions of the Dispositional Theory

Personality is the set of enduring characteristics innate to the person. These characteristics influence
peoples interactions with others and their environment. Dispositions are presumed to be relatively
enduring and stable, producing some degree of consistency in behaviors across times and
circumstances. However, dispositional psychologist often caution this assumption, because it has to
be understood in light of several further distinctions.

Most dispositional psychologist conceptualize an individuals enduring dispositions as permanent,

inherent elements of personality and distinguish them from temporary conditions, or states. States
result from transient situations or conditions like illness, fatigue, or sudden changes in life
circumstances

For example, trait anxiety is only a predisposition to be anxious. People high in trait anxiety will not
necessarily be anxious all the time, but they will be more anxious more often and more readily than a
similar person who is low in trait anxiety. A person low in trait anxiety may exhibit state anxiety only
under highly stressful conditions.
Assets and Limitations
Assets

Evidence of stability in personality functioning.

Recognizes that human behavior is complex and generally determined by many traits.
Gains have been made in research on genetics contributions to personality and physiological aspects
of trait characteristics.
Evidence of the predictive utility of traits.
Today important research programs are investigating the relationship of traits to interpersonal
behavior and psychopathology.
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)
Limitations
What is to be included in a definition of traits is not self-evident.

The trait concept and five-factor model neglects to provide us with a comprehensive model of
personality.
Trait theory lacks to explain the theory of personality change.
Dispositions do not provide any explanation of behavior and are therefore little more than common
observations.
Underestimation of the importance of Situational Factors.
Failure to specify when dispositions will be manifested in other behavior.
Premature Acceptance of the Five Factor Model.
Dispositional Assessment has not yet confronted the social desirability problem in self reports.