Ch 3 Trait Taxonomies, cont'

1
1/18/07

• Ch 3 Trait Taxonomies, cont.
• 1. Big 3, temperament, and psychoticism
• 2. Openness factor of Big 5
• Ch 4 Measurement Issues in Trait Psychology
• 3. Social desirability and self-report
• 3. How stable are traits?

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Sanguine/cheerful excess of blood
• Melancholy/sad excess of black bile
• Choleric/angry excess of yellow bile
• Phlegmatic/passive excess of phlegm

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Eysenck
• Sanguine/cheerful
• Melancholy/sad
• Choleric/angry
• Phlegmatic/passive

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Galen modern temperament researchers

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• 1. Behavioral genetic studies
• 2. E N repeatedly associated with positive and
  negative emotion, respectively
• 3. Eysenck has proposed biological underpinnings
  for E, P, N

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Big 2

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• P

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Correlation of Big 3 with Big 5
• N E P
• N .83 -.14 -.08
• E -.10 .78 .09
• C -.08 .19 -.54
• A -.17 .09 -.50
• O .03 .21 .04

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• P
• shotgun marriage? (of C A)
• However, there is some superfactor that ties C
  to A

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Positive affect (PA) consists of excitement,
  enthusiasm, etc.
• Negative affect (NA) consists of fear, tension,
  etc.

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• PANAS model of model

High arousal
PA (excitement)
NA (fear)
pleasant
unpleasant
Low arousal
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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Correlations with positive affect
• E N P
• Sample 1 .41 -.02 .19
• Sample 2 .41 .05 .23
• Sample 3 .60 -.26 .18
• Sample 4 .54 -.10 .29

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Correlations with negative affect
• E N P
• Sample 1 -.14 .35 -.03
• Sample 2 -.12 .44 -.09
• Sample 3 -.24 .49 -.06
• Sample 4 .01 .44 .12

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Correlations with alcohol, substance abuse
• E N P
• Alcohol .05 -.04 .44
• Marijuana lt .10 lt .10 .30
• sex partners -.01 -.02 .37
• Reckless driving -.02 .01 .40
• College GPA .06 -.02 -.27

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Temperament and Big 3 (Clark Watson, 1999)

• Portrait of P

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Ch 3 Traits Trait Taxonomies

• (Five factor model)
• 1. E
• 2. A
• 3. C
• 4. N
• 5.

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Ch 3 Traits Trait Taxonomies

• (five factor model)
• Identity of fifth factor
• Usually, investigators starting with different
  pool of items

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Ch 3 Traits Trait Taxonomies

• (five factor model)
• Turkey openness
• Dutch anti-conformity
• German intelligence
• Italian conventionality
• Hungary no 5th factor

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Ch 3 Traits Trait Taxonomies

• Outcomes
• Grades
• Risky sex
• Alcohol

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Ch 3 Traits Trait Taxonomies

• Outcomes
• Happiness
• Volunteer work
• Leadership effectiveness

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Ch 4 Measurement Issues in Trait Psychology

• Extraverted and open to experiences?
• Agreeable and conscientious?
• Some correlations not totally independent
• Good to be extraverted? yes, happy, sociable
• Good to be agreeable? yes, cooperative, nice
• Good to be conscientious? yes, organized,
  purpose
• Good to be neurotic? no, unhappy, unstable
• Good to be open? yes, creative, depth of thought

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Ch 4 Measurement Issues in Trait Psychology

• Social Desirability when quite clear that there
  is a good or bad response, people tend to give it
• Edwards (1953)

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Ch 4 Measurement Issues in Trait Psychology

• Social Desirability when quite clear that there
  is a good or bad response, people tend to give it
• Individual differences in social desirability
  (Paulhus John, 1998)
• Superhero pattern EON-
• Saint pattern AC

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Ch 4 Measurement Issues in Trait Psychology

• Social Desirability when quite clear that there
  is a good or bad response, people tend to give it
• Paulhus John (1998)
• Big 5 Big 2 Big 1
• E
• O Superhero
• N- Good vs. Bad
• A (The I suck
• C Saint scale)

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Ch 4 Measurement Issues in Trait Psychology

• Conclusions
• Is this a problem?
• on the stability of traits

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Emerson
• There is an optical illusion about every person
  we meet. In truth, they are all creatures of a
  given temperament, which will appear in a given
  character, whose boundaries they will never pass
  but we look at them, they seem alive, and we
  presume there is impulse in them. In the moment
  it seems impulse in the year, in the lifetime,
  it turns out to be a certain uniform tone which
  the revolving barrel of the music-box must play

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• (1) behaviors seem to reflect willed choices
  within the moment
• (2) over time, it becomes obvious that people
  make the same choices over and over
• (3) what appears to be lives lived is a certain
  fixed character exerting its impact over and over
  again

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• 20 years of findings on traits
• (1)
• Relatively small
• Especially after 30
• From adolescence to adulthood
• Sizable changes after 30

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• 20 years of findings on traits
• (2)
• Remarkably stable trait measures
• Internal reliability .70-.90
• So traits more reliable than they are stable, but
  barely

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• 20 years of findings on traits
• (3) stability with reference to Big 5

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability in Personality

• (4) stability with reference to groups
• Pretty much similar story with all groups
• Even as stable among those who claim change as
  those who do not

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Could stability be due to memory for past
  personality responses?

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• But what about the fact that lives change across
  age?
• E.g., physical activity declines
• E.g., concerned with raising children, sharing
  wisdom (generativity)
• M C

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Situational effects versus long-term stability
• In the moment, it does seem that behavior changes
• In the lifetime, however, such situational
  factors do not seem to matter much

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• But happiness seems to be influenced by
  situational factors?

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Those with a good job about as happy as those
  with a bad job
• Those with health problems about as happy as
  those without such health problems
• Those with a new car about as happy as those
  without a new car
• Objective factors appear to be remarkably feeble
  in influencing happiness
• Conclusion people adjust to whatever, the good
  as well as the bad

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• On social manipulations of happiness

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Those who have a problem with present perspective
• (1) gerontologists

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Those who have a problem with present perspective
• (2) psychotherapists

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Those who have a problem with present perspective
• (3) humanists

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• M/C perspective seems very deterministic
• Is there such a thing a spontaneity, free will?

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• What is the role of therapy?
• To make people happy?
• What is purpose of therapy then?

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McCrae Costa (1994) Stability of Personality

• Stability can be good or bad
• If you are lazy (low C), you will always be lazy
• If you are a bastard (low A), you will always be
  a bastard
• If you are distressed (high N), always distressed
• If you are good planner (high C), always so
• If you are nice (high A), always so
• If you are calm (low N), you will always be calm