Personality Trait-Identification - SEMINAR
CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
One obvious way to learn about an
individual’s standing on a personality trait is simply to enquire directly
about that trait. For constructs, such as Extraversion, that are widely
understood, it is more straightforward simply to ask a person how extraverted
he is than to ask him whether he enjoys the company of others, attends parties
frequently, is talkative, outgoing, gregarious, and enthusiastic. That is, why
not ask a person one direct question about a trait rather than many
questions about the multiple, narrow components that comprise the trait? The Big Five framework of personality traits from Costa & McCrae, 1992
has emerged as a robust model for understanding the relationship between
personality and various academic behaviors.[1]
The Big Five factors are openness,
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (common
acronyms are OCEAN). Conscientiousness is exemplified by being disciplined,
organized, and achievement-oriented. Neuroticism refers to degree of emotional
stability, impulse control, and anxiety. Extraversion is displayed through a
higher degree of sociability, assertiveness, and talkativeness. Openness is
reflected in a strong intellectual curiosity and a preference for novelty and
variety. Finally, agreeableness refers to being helpful, cooperative, and
sympathetic towards others. There is some evidence that personality and
motivation are intricately tied with individual differences in learning styles,
and it is recommended that educators go beyond the current emphasis on
cognition and include these variables in understanding academic behavior[2]
The neuroticism factor is sometimes referred by its low pole – "emotional
stability". Some disagreement remains about how to interpret the openness
factor, which is sometimes called "intellect" rather than openness to
experience. Beneath each factor, a cluster of correlated specific traits are
found; for example, extraversion includes such related qualities as
gregariousness, assertiveness, excitement seeking, warmth, activity and
positive emotions.[3]
CHAPTER-2
The Five factors
The Big Five factors and their
constituent traits can be summarized as (OCEAN):
- Openness
to experience –
(inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious). Appreciation for art,
emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience.
- Conscientiousness – (efficient/organized vs.
easy-going/careless). A tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully,
and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
- Extraversion – (outgoing/energetic vs.
solitary/reserved). Energy, positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency
to seek stimulation in the company of others.
- Agreeableness – (friendly/compassionate vs.
cold/unkind). A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than
suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
- Neuroticism – (sensitive/nervous vs.
secure/confident). A tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily,
such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability.
The
Big Five model is a comprehensive, empirical, data-driven research finding.
Identifying the traits and structure of human personality has been one of the
most fundamental goals in all of psychology. The five broad factors were
discovered and defined by several independent sets of researchers (Digman,
1990). These researchers began by studying known personality traits and then
factor-analyzing hundreds of measures of these traits (in self-report and
questionnaire data, peer ratings, and objective measures from experimental
settings) in order to find the underlying factors of personality.
The
initial model was advanced by Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal in 1961 but
failed to reach an academic audience until the 1980s. In 1990, J.M. Digman
advanced his five factor model of personality, which Goldberg extended to the
highest level of organization (Goldberg, 1993).
These
five over-arching domains have been found to contain and subsume most known
personality traits and are assumed to represent the basic structure behind all
personality traits. These five factors provide a rich conceptual framework for
integrating all the research findings and theory in personality psychology. The
Big Five traits are also referred to as the "Five Factor Model"
or FFM (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and as the Global Factors of personality
(Russell & Karol, 1994)
At
least four sets of researchers have worked independently for decades on this
problem and have identified generally the same Big Five factors: Tupes &
Cristal were first, followed by Goldberg at the Oregon Research Institute
Cattell at the University of Illinois, and Costa and McCrae at the National
Institutes of HealthThese four sets of researchers used somewhat different
methods in finding the five traits, and thus each set of five factors has
somewhat different names and definitions. However, all have been found to be
highly inter-correlated and factor-analytically aligned.
Because
the Big Five traits are broad and comprehensive, they are not nearly as
powerful in predicting and explaining actual behavior as are the more numerous
lower-level traits. Many studies have confirmed that in predicting actual
behavior the more numerous facet or primary level traits are far more
effective
When
scored for individual feedback, these traits are frequently presented as
percentile scores. For example, a Conscientiousness rating in the 80th
percentile indicates a relatively strong sense of responsibility and
orderliness, whereas an Extraversion rating in the 5th percentile indicates an
exceptional need for solitude and quiet. Although these trait clusters are
statistical aggregates, exceptions may exist on individual personality
profiles. On average, people who register high in Openness are intellectually
curious, open to emotion, interested in art, and willing to try new things. A
particular individual, however, may have a high overall Openness score and be
interested in learning and exploring new cultures but have no great interest in
art or poetry.
The most frequently used measures of the Big Five
comprise either items that are self-descriptive sentences or, in the case of
lexical measures, items that are single adjectives. Due to the length of
sentence-based and some lexical measures, short forms have been developed and
validated for use in applied research settings where questionnaire space and
respondent time are limited, such as the 40-item balanced International
English Big-Five Mini-Markers or a very brief (10 item) measure of the Big
Five domains.
2.1 Openness to
experience Main article: Openness to experience
Openness is a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure,
unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience. People who
are open to experience are intellectually curious, appreciative of art, and
sensitive to beauty. They tend to be, compared to closed people, more creative
and more aware of their feelings. They are more likely to hold unconventional
beliefs. People with low scores on openness tend to have more conventional,
traditional interests. They prefer the plain, straightforward, and obvious over
the complex, ambiguous, and subtle. They may regard the arts and sciences with
suspicion or even view these endeavors as uninteresting. Closed people prefer
familiarity over novelty; they are conservative and resistant to change.
Another characteristic of the open cognitive style is a facility for thinking
in symbols and abstractions far removed from concrete experience.
Sample opennessitems
- I have a
vivid imagination.
- I have
excellent ideas.
- I am
quick to understand things.
- I use
difficult words.
- I spend
time reflecting on things.
- I am
full of ideas.
- I am not
interested in abstractions. (reversed)
- I do not
have a good imagination. (reversed)
- I have
difficulty understanding abstract ideas. (reversed)[34]
2.2 Conscientiousness Main
article: Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is a tendency to show
self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement against measures or
outside expectations. The trait shows a preference for planned rather than
spontaneous behavior. It influences the way in which we control, regulate, and
direct our impulses.[citation needed]
Sample Conscientiousness
items
- I am
always prepared.
- I pay
attention to details.
- I get
chores done right away.
- I like
order.
- I follow
a schedule.
- I am
exacting in my work.
- I leave
my belongings around. (reversed)
- I make a
mess of things. (reversed)
- I often
forget to put things back in their proper place. (reversed)
- I shirk
my duties. (reversed)
2.3 Extraversion
Main article: Extraversion and introversion
Extraversion is characterized by positive emotions, surgency, and the
tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others. The trait is marked
by pronounced engagement with the external world. Extraverts enjoy being with
people, and are often perceived as full of energy. They tend to be
enthusiastic, action-oriented individuals who are likely to say
"Yes!" or "Let's go!" to opportunities for excitement. In
groups they like to talk, assert themselves, and draw attention to themselves.
Introverts
lack the social exuberance and activity levels of extraverts. They tend to seem
quiet, low-key, deliberate, and less involved in the social world. Their lack
of social involvement should not be interpreted as shyness or depression.
Introverts simply need less stimulation than extraverts and more time alone.
They may be very active and energetic, simply not socially.[citation
needed]
Sample
extraversion items
- I am the
life of the party.
- I don't
mind being the center of attention.
- I feel
comfortable around people.
- I start
conversations.
- I talk
to a lot of different people at parties.
- I don't
talk a lot. (reversed)
- I keep
in the background. (reversed)
- I have
little to say. (reversed)
- I don't
like to draw attention to myself. (reversed)
- I am
quiet around strangers. (reversed)
2.4 Agreeableness Main article: Agreeableness
Agreeableness is a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather
than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. The trait reflects individual
differences in general concern for social harmony. Agreeable individuals value
getting along with others. They are generally considerate, friendly, generous,
helpful, and willing to compromise their interests with others. Agreeable
people also have an optimistic view of human nature. They believe people are
basically honest, decent, and trustworthy.
Disagreeable
individuals place self-interest above getting along with others. They are
generally unconcerned with others’ well-being, and are less likely to extend
themselves for other people. Sometimes their skepticism about others’ motives
causes them to be suspicious, unfriendly, and uncooperative.
Sample
agreeableness items
- I am
interested in people.
- I
sympathize with others' feelings.
- I have a
soft heart.
- I take
time out for others.
- I feel
others' emotions.
- I make
people feel at ease.
- I am not
really interested in others. (reversed)
- I insult
people. (reversed)
- I am not
interested in other people's problems. (reversed)
- I feel
little concern for others. (reversed)
2.5 Neuroticism Main article: Neuroticism
Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as
anger, anxiety, or depression. It is sometimes called emotional instability.
According to Eysenck’s (1967) theory of personality, neuroticism is associated
with increased reactivity of the limbic system and a low tolerance for stress
or aversive stimuli. Those who score high in neuroticism are emotionally
reactive and vulnerable to stress. They are more likely to interpret ordinary
situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult.
Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods
of time, which means they are often in a bad mood. These problems in emotional
regulation can diminish the ability of a person scoring high on neuroticism to
think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress.
At
the other end of the scale, individuals who score low in neuroticism are less
easily upset and are less emotionally reactive. They tend to be calm,
emotionally stable, and free from persistent negative feelings. Freedom from
negative feelings does not mean that low scorers experience a lot of positive
feelings.
Research suggest, extraversion and
neuroticism are negatively correlated.
Sample
neuroticism items
- I am
easily disturbed.
- I change
my mood a lot.
- I get
irritated easily.
- I get
stressed out easily.
- I get
upset easily.
- I have
frequent mood swings.
- I often
feel blue.
- I worry
about things.
- I am
relaxed most of the time. (reversed)
- I seldom
feel blue. (reversed)[34]
CHAPTER-3
History
3.1 Early Trait Research
The
first major inquiry into the Lexical Hypothesis was made by Sir Francis Galton.
This is the idea that the most salient and socially relevant personality
differences in people’s lives will eventually become encoded into language. The
hypothesis further suggests that by sampling language, it is possible to derive
a comprehensive taxonomy of human personality traits.
In
1936, Gordon Allport and H. S. Odbert put this hypothesis into practice. They
worked through two of the most comprehensive dictionaries of the English
language available at the time and extracted 17,953 personality-describing
words. They then reduced this gigantic list to 4,504 adjectives which they
believed were descriptive of observable and relatively permanent traits.
Raymond
Cattell obtained the Allport-Odbert list in the 1940s, added terms obtained
from psychological research, and then eliminated synonyms to reduce the total
to 171. He then asked subjects to rate people whom they knew by the adjectives
on the list and analyzed their ratings. Cattell identified 35 major clusters of
personality traits which he referred to as the "personality sphere."
He and his associates then constructed personality tests for these traits. The
data they obtained from these tests were analyzed with the emerging technology
of computers combined with the statistical method of factor analysis. This
resulted in sixteen major personality factors, which led to the development of
the 16PF Personality Questionnaire.
In
1961, two United States Air Force researchers, Ernest Tupes and Raymond
Christal, analyzed personality data from eight large samples. Using Cattell's
trait measures, they found five recurring factors, which they named
"Surgency", "Agreeableness", "Dependability",
"Emotional Stability", and "Culture".
This work was replicated by Warren Norman, who also found
that five major factors were sufficient to account for a large set of
personality data.
3.2 Hiatus in Research
For
the next two decades, the changing zeitgeist made publication of personality
research difficult. In his 1968 book Personality and Assessment, Walter
Mischel asserted that personality tests could not predict behavior with a
correlation of more than 0.3. Social psychologists like Mischel argued that
attitudes and behavior were not stable, but varied with the situation.
Predicting behavior by personality tests was considered to be impossible.
Emerging
methodologies challenged this point of view during the 1980s. Instead of trying
to predict single instances of behavior, which was unreliable, researchers
found that they could predict patterns of behavior by aggregating large numbers
of observations. As a result correlations between personality and behavior
increased substantially, and it was clear that “personality” did in fact exist.
Personality and social psychologists now generally agree that both personal and
situational variables are needed to account for human behavior. Trait theories
became justified, and there was a resurgence of interest in this area.
By 1980, the pioneering research by Tupes, Christal, and
3.3 Validity of the
Big Five
In
a 1981 symposium in
CHAPTER-4
Selected scientific findings
Ever
since the 1990s when the consensus of psychologists gradually came to support
the Big Five, there has been a growing body of research surrounding these
personality traits (see for instance, Robert Hogan's edited book "Handbook
of Personality Psychology" (Academic Press, 1997)).
4.1 Heritability
All
five factors show an influence from both heredity and environment. Studies of
twins suggest that these effects contribute in roughly equal proportion. Of
four recent twin studies, the mean estimated broad heritabilities on
self-report measures for the Big Five traits were as follows:
Domain |
Heritability |
Openness to experience |
57% |
Extraversion |
54% |
Conscientiousness |
49% |
Neuroticism |
48% |
Agreeableness |
42% |
4.2 Learning Styles
Similar
to personality, individual learning styles play an important role in Big Five
traits as well. Scientists have defined four types of learning styles, which
are synthesis analysis, methodical study, fact retention, and elaborative
processing. The main functions of these four learning styles are as follow:
Name |
Function |
Synthesis
analysis |
Processing
information, forming categories, and organizing them into hierarchies |
Methodical
study |
Methodical
behavior while completing academic assignments |
Fact
retention |
Focusing
on the actual result instead of understanding the logic behind something |
Elaborative
processing |
Connecting
and applying new ideas to existing knowledge |
According
to the research carried out by Komarraju, Karau, Schmeck & Avdic (2011),
conscientiousness and agreeableness are positively related with all four learning
styles, whereas neuroticism was negatively related with those four.
Furthermore, extraversion and openness were only positively related to
elaborative processing.
4.3 Development
Many
studies of longitudinal data, which correlate people's test scores over time,
and cross-sectional data, which compare personality levels across different age
groups, show a high degree of stability in personality traits during adulthood.
More recent research and meta-analyses of previous studies, however, indicate
that change occurs in all five traits at various points in the lifespan. The
new research shows evidence for a maturation effect. On average, levels of
Agreeableness and Conscientiousness typically increase with time, whereas
Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness tend to decrease. Research has also
demonstrated that changes in Big Five personality traits depend on the
individual's current stage of development. For example, levels of agreeableness
and conscientiousness demonstrate a negative trend during childhood and early
adolescence before trending upwards during late adolescence and into adulthood.
In addition to these group effects, there are individual differences: different
people demonstrate unique patterns of change at all stages of life.
4.4 Birth Order
The
suggestion has often been made that individuals differ by the order of their
births. Frank Sulloway argues that birth order is correlated with personality
traits. He claims that firstborns are more conscientious, more socially
dominant, less agreeable, and less open to new ideas compared to laterborns.
However,
Sulloway’s case has been called into question. One criticism is that his data
confounds family size with birth order.[citation needed]
Subsequent analyses have shown that birth order effects are only
found in studies where the subjects’ personality traits are rated by family
members (such as siblings or parents) or by acquaintances familiar with the
subjects’ birth order. Large scale studies using random samples and self-report
personality tests like the NEO PI-R have found milder effects than Sulloway
claimed, or no significant effects of birth order on personality.
4.5 Non-humans
The
big five personality factors have been assessed in some non-human species. In
one series of studies, human ratings of chimpanzees using the Chimpanzee
Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) revealed factors of extraversion,
conscientiousness and agreeableness – as well as an additional factor of
dominance – across hundreds of chimpanzees in zoological parks, a large
naturalistic sanctuary and a research laboratory. Neuroticism and Openness
factors were found in an original zoo sample, but did not replicate in a new
zoo sample or to other settings (perhaps reflecting the design of the CPQ).
CHAPTER-5
Criticisms
Much
research has been conducted on the Big Five. This has resulted in both
criticism and support for the model. Critics argue that there are limitations
to the scope of Big Five as an explanatory or predictive theory. It is argued
that the Big Five does not explain all of human personality. The methodology
used to identify the dimensional structure of personality traits, factor
analysis, is often challenged for not having a universally-recognized basis for
choosing among solutions with different numbers of factors. Another frequent
criticism is that the Big Five is not theory-driven. It is merely a data-driven
investigation of certain descriptors that tend to cluster together under factor
analysis.
5.1 Limited Scope
One
common criticism is that the Big Five does not explain all of human
personality. Some psychologists have dissented from the model precisely because
they feel it neglects other domains of personality, such as Religiosity,
Manipulativeness/Machiavellianism, Honesty, Self-Awareness, Thriftiness,
Conservativeness, Critical Judgement, Masculinity/Femininity, Snobbishness,
Sense of humour, Narcissism, Identity, Self-concept, and Motivation.
Correlations have been found between some of these variables and the Big Five,
such as the inverse relationship between political conservatism and Openness;
although variation in these traits is not well explained by the Five Factors
themselves. McAdams has called the Big Five a "psychology of the
stranger," because they refer to traits that are relatively easy to
observe in a stranger; other aspects of personality that are more privately
held or more context-dependent are excluded from the Big Five.
In
many studies, the five factors are not fully orthogonal to one another;
that is, the five factors are not independent. Negative correlations often
appear between Neuroticism and Extraversion, for instance, indicating that
those who are more prone to experiencing negative emotions tend to be less
talkative and outgoing.
Orthogonality is viewed as desirable by some researchers
because it minimizes redundancy between the dimensions. This is particularly
important when the goal of a study is to provide a comprehensive description of
personality with as few variables as possible.
5.2 Methodological
Issues
The
methodology used to identify the dimensional structure of personality traits,
factor analysis, is often challenged for not having a universally recognized
basis for choosing among solutions with different numbers of factors. That is,
a five factor solution depends on some degree of interpretation by the analyst.
A larger number of factors may, in fact, underlie these five factors. This has
led to disputes about the "true" number of factors. Big Five
proponents have responded that although other solutions may be viable in a
single dataset, only the five factor structure consistently replicates across
different studies.
A
methodological criticism often directed at the Big Five is that much of the
evidence relies on self report questionnaires; self-report bias and
falsification of responses are difficult to deal with and account for. This
becomes especially important when considering why scores may differ between
individuals or groups of people – differences in scores may represent genuine
underlying personality differences, or they may simply be an artifact of the
way the subjects answered the questions. The five factor structure has been
replicated in peer reports. However, many of the substantive findings rely on
self-reports.
CHAPTER-6
Further-research
Current
research concentrates on a number of areas. One important question is: are the
five factors the right ones? Attempts to replicate the Big Five in other
countries with local dictionaries have succeeded in some countries but not in
others. Apparently, for instance, Hungarians don’t appear to have a single
Agreeableness factor. Other researchers find evidence for Agreeableness but not
for other factors.
In
an attempt to explain variance in personality traits more fully, some have
found seven factors, some eighteen, and some only three. What determines the
eventual number of factors is essentially the kind of information that is put
into the factor analysis in the first place. Since theory often implicitly
precedes empirical science (such as factor analysis), the Big Five and other
proposed factor structures should always be judged according to the items that
went into the factor analytic algorithm. Recent studies show that seven- or
eighteen-factor models have their relative strengths and weaknesses in
explaining variance in DSM-based symptom counts in nonclinical samples[ and in psychiatric patients. and do not
seem to be clearly outperformed by the Big Five.
A
validation study, in 1992, conducted by Paul Sinclair and Steve Barrow,
involved 202 Branch Managers from the then TSB Bank. It found several
significant correlations with job performance across 3 of the Big Five scales.
The correlations ranged from .21 – .33 and were noted across 3 scales: High
Extraversion, Low Neuroticism and High Openness to Experience.
Another
area of investigation is to make a more complete model of personality. The
"Big Five" personality traits are empirical observations, not a
theory; the observations of personality research remain to be explained. Costa
and McCrae have built what they call the Five Factor Theory of Personality as
an attempt to explain personality from the cradle to the grave.
They don't follow the lexical hypothesis, though, but
favor a theory-driven approach inspired by the same sources as the sources of
the Big Five
Another
area of investigation is the downward extension of Big Five theory, or the Five
Factor Model, into childhood. Studies have found Big Five personality traits to
correlate with children's social and emotional adjustment and academic
achievement. More recently, the Five Factor Personality Inventory – Children
was published extending assessment between the ages of 9 and 18. Perhaps the
reason for this recent publication was the controversy over the application of
the Five Factor Model to children. Studies by Oliver P. John et al. with
adolescent boys brought two new factors to the table: "Irritability" and
"Activity". In studies of Dutch children, those same two new factors
also became apparent. These new additions "suggest that the structure of
personality traits may be more differentiated in childhood than in
adulthood", which would explain the recent research in this particular
area.
In
addition, some research (Fleeson, 2001) suggests that the Big Five should not
be conceived of as dichotomies (such as extraversion vs introversion) but as
continua. Each individual has the capacity to move along each dimension as
circumstances (social or temporal) change. He is or she is therefore not simply
on one end of each trait dichotomy but is a blend of both, exhibiting some
characteristics more often than others:
CHAPTER-7
CONCLUSION
This
chapter offers only an overview of the world of personality. It has examined
different theoretical explanations of why we show consistency in our behavior,
thoughts and actions and why these consistencies make us different from each
other. Psychoanalytic theorists focus on unconscious processes and the impact
of early childhood experience; in contrast, humanistic theorists emphasize
human experience and positive aspects of behavior. Trait theorists have been
concerned with the labeling and measurement of personality dimensions, based on
assumptions of stable genetic and biological explanations for personality. The
complex way in which genes and environment determine personality has presented
an important puzzle for personality theory. Social–cognitive theories provide
an explanation for differences in personality in terms of the ways we process
information and perceive our social world. Within psychology the complexities
of how our personality develops and determines our behavior have resulted in a
number of differing theoretical perspectives and debates. These debates – about
interactions between genes and environment, biology and experience, the person
and the situation – will continue to engage psychologists in the twenty-first
century.
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