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1. Personality Trait
Created @August 11, 2025 3:08 PM
Class PS2050
Defining Personality Traits
Burger (1997): A trait is a dimension of personality used to categorise people
according to the degree they manifest a particular characteristic’
Trait theory assumptions that personality characteristics:
Relatively stable over time
show stability across situations
Lexical Hypothesis Approach
Individual differences between people are important
There will be words to describe them
The more frequently a personality descriptor is used, the more important
the personality characteristic
The more synonyms of the word there are, the more important the
difference
Allport (1936; 1961)
Identified 18,00 words - 4,500 to describe traits
Critique of former studies: Traits alone cannot predict behaviour in a
specific situation due to constancy
Personality traits have constant evolution for adaption to new situations
Biological Approach: Traits have a physical presence in nervous system
1. Personality Trait 1
, Component traits (person disposition) come together and produce the
unique characteristics of an individual
Concept of self: not born with but gradually develops
Nomothetic Approach: Identification of common personality traits help
classify groups of individuals
Cattel (1965; 1977)
Search for the structure of personality using factor analysis
Identify list of most frequently used sets of words that describe
aspects of personality
Large samples of individuals rate the degree the attributes apply to
them
Data is factor-analysed to identify which attributes cluster together
Cluster made of items that correlate with each other
Factor analyses identified 16 major source factors:
They represent basic structure of personality
Ranked the traits to see how important they were in prediction of
behaviour
Measure of Personality: The Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF)
Conn and Rieke (1994): Internal consistencies of the scales were quite
low - has been revised and improved
Trait Approaches
Three Factor Approach
Eysenck (1947;1952)
Began with observation of behaviour that he termed specific responses
made in conversation
Then observed habitual responses: The ways one typically behaves in a
situation
Collections of habitual responses form the next level of personality traits
1. Personality Trait 2
1. Personality Trait
Created @August 11, 2025 3:08 PM
Class PS2050
Defining Personality Traits
Burger (1997): A trait is a dimension of personality used to categorise people
according to the degree they manifest a particular characteristic’
Trait theory assumptions that personality characteristics:
Relatively stable over time
show stability across situations
Lexical Hypothesis Approach
Individual differences between people are important
There will be words to describe them
The more frequently a personality descriptor is used, the more important
the personality characteristic
The more synonyms of the word there are, the more important the
difference
Allport (1936; 1961)
Identified 18,00 words - 4,500 to describe traits
Critique of former studies: Traits alone cannot predict behaviour in a
specific situation due to constancy
Personality traits have constant evolution for adaption to new situations
Biological Approach: Traits have a physical presence in nervous system
1. Personality Trait 1
, Component traits (person disposition) come together and produce the
unique characteristics of an individual
Concept of self: not born with but gradually develops
Nomothetic Approach: Identification of common personality traits help
classify groups of individuals
Cattel (1965; 1977)
Search for the structure of personality using factor analysis
Identify list of most frequently used sets of words that describe
aspects of personality
Large samples of individuals rate the degree the attributes apply to
them
Data is factor-analysed to identify which attributes cluster together
Cluster made of items that correlate with each other
Factor analyses identified 16 major source factors:
They represent basic structure of personality
Ranked the traits to see how important they were in prediction of
behaviour
Measure of Personality: The Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF)
Conn and Rieke (1994): Internal consistencies of the scales were quite
low - has been revised and improved
Trait Approaches
Three Factor Approach
Eysenck (1947;1952)
Began with observation of behaviour that he termed specific responses
made in conversation
Then observed habitual responses: The ways one typically behaves in a
situation
Collections of habitual responses form the next level of personality traits
1. Personality Trait 2
