Trait and Factor Theories: Cattell, Eysenck, and Others

I. History of Trait Approaches

• The first systematic approach to analyzing traits arose in ancient Greece with Hippocrates: described human temperament in terms of the so-called bodily humors-- sanguine (blood); melancholic (black bile); choleric (yellow bile); and phlegmatic (phlegm).
• In the 19^th century, Charles Darwin emphasized individual variation based on genetic differences.
• Freud and Galton

A. Jung's Extroversion and Introversion

• set in motion an influential stream of work on traits and personality types.

B. Gordon Allport

• Formulated a common-sense approach to personality based on language (lexical approach).
• Allport believed that language has evolved to capture the important aspects of personality.

C. The Implications of Behaviorism

D. The Use of Statistics: R. B. Cattell

• Charles Spearman, J. P. Guilford, and L. L. Thurstone developed stats for intelligence.
• Cattell took Allport's lexical approach further by applying factor analysis to personality.

II. Factor Analysis

• A mathematical procedure for reducing a large number of scores to a few, more general, variables or factors.

III. What is a Trait?

• A trait is a theoretical construct describing a basic dimension of personality.

1. Trait approaches emphasize individual differences in characteristics that are more of less stable across time and across situations.

2. Trait approaches emphasize the measurement of these traits through tests, often self-report questionnaires.

IV. Gordon Allport's Psychological Trait Theory

• Allport argued that although behavior is variable, there is also a constant portion for each person.
• The notion of traits assumes that personality is rooted very much within the person. Allport defined personality as the "dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought." According to this view, each person has unique, key qualities.
• Believed that regularities arise (1) because the individual views many situations and stimuli in the same way, and (2) because many of the individual's behaviors are similar in their meaning-- that is, they are functionally equivalent.

A. Common Traits

• traits that people in a population share as a basic dimension.
• Allport used the term proprium to refer to the core of personality-- one's self. By this he meant that there are layers within the human psyche.

B. Unique Traits

• To fully understand individuals, we need to use idiographic methods.
• Unique traits, not common traits are the real units of personality, which exist within an individual and have status as psychophysical realities:
• Allport conceived personal dispositions in terms of a person's goals, motives, or styles-- a generalized neuropsychic structure that is peculiar to the individual.
• Unique traits are individualized adaptive entities, unique to each person.
• Personal dispositions that exert an overwhelming influence on behavior are termed cardinal dispositions.
• central dispositions-- qualities that are less central, but nevertheless important aspects of the individual.

V. Raymond Cattell

• Applied factor analytic technique to personality.

A. P Technique-- a correlational procedure that uses variables collected from one person on many different occasions.

B. Cattell has measured both states-- temporary conditions within an individual-- and traits-- relatively permanent dispositions of an individuals.

C. Media of Observations

1. Q-data-- data that are gathered from self-reports and questionnaires.

2. T-data-- data collected by placing a person into some controlled tests situation and noting or rating response; these data are observational (test-data).

3. L-data-- consists of information gathered about a person's life.

D. Traits

• Cattell defined personality as that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation.
• Traits are the units of personality that have predictive value. Cattell defined a trait as that which defines what a person will do when faced with a defined situation.
• Unlike Allport, he did not define traits in psychophysical terms.

• Cattell pioneered a multivariate approach to the study of personality-- many variables to predict behavior.

1. Source Traits

• Cattell used factor analysis to describe a person's more or less readily apparent traits which he called surface traits.
• source traits refer to the underlying factor or factors responsible for the intercorrelation among surface traits.

a. Temperament Traits- concerned with how a person behaves. Identified 35.

• Developed the 16PF questionnaire to measure "normal" source traits.

• identified 8 second-order traits. (Extraversion & anxiety)
• Second-order traits are groups of source traits that cluster together.

b. Dynamic Traits- motivational including attitudes, ergs, and sems.

• Attitude-- refers to a specific course of action in response to a given situation.
• Ergs-- Are innate motivational traits that are comparable to animal instincts.
• Sems-- socially acquired dynamic traits that can satisfy several ergs at the same time.

VI. Eysenck's Trait Theory

• Eysenck's personality theory holds that genetic factors are far more important than environmental ones in shaping personality.
• He insisted that factors must:

1. Be based on strong psychometric evidence

2. Fit an acceptable genetic model

3. Make sense theoretically

4. Possess social relevance

• Eysenck recognizes a four-level hierarchy of behavior organization:

1. Specific behavior or cognitions

2. Habitual acts or cognitions

3. Traits or personal dispositions

4. Types or "superfactors"

A. Types:

• Eysenck's theory revolves around the existence of only three general bipolar types: extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/ stability, and psychoticism/superego function.
• All three have a strong genetic component, with about 3/4 of their variance being accounted for by heredity and about 1/4 by the environment.
• diathesis-stress model holds that this predisposition may interact with stress to produce a psychotic episode.

VII. The Big Five

1. Extroversion-- similar to Eysenck

2. Neuroticism-- similar to Eysenck

3. Agreeableness-- Agreeable people are friendly, cooperative, trusting, and warm; people low on this dimension are cold, quarrelsome, and unkind.

4. Conscientiousness-- Conscientious people are generally cautious, dependable, organized, and responsible. Impulsive people tend to be careless, disorderly, and undependable.

5. Openness-- Open people generally appear imaginative, witty, original, and artistic. People low on this dimension are shallow, plain, or simple.

• Based on work of McCrae, Costa, Watson, Clark, and Funder.

VIII. Conclusions

• All are data-driven approaches; lack a dynamic nature (how people change). Don't really explain how traits develop.