Trait Perspective of Personality

Key concepts:
Traits vs types
The Five Factor Model
Cultural influences
Applications
Traits
n A trait is a relatively stable and enduring
tendency to behave in a particular way.
n Traits refer to consistent patterns in the
way individuals behave, feel, and think.
n Traits are useful because they provide a
heuristic for describing someone's
personality.
Trait Theories - Key Elements
n Focus on describing personality
n Not interested in the mechanisms underlying
personality

n Focus on identifying & comparing the typical

behaviors of different groups of people
n Not interested in predicting one person’s
behavior in a given situation
 Types vs. Traits
Type
Type A Type B

Types (Discontinuous)

Trait

Hostility Traits (Continuous) Friendliness

 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
n Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on
the outer world or on your own inner world?
[Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)]
n Information: Do you prefer to focus on the
basic information you take in or do you
prefer to interpret and add meaning?
[Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)]
n Decisions: When making decisions, do you
prefer to first look at logic and consistency
or first look at the people and special
circumstances? [Thinking (T) or Feeling
(F)]
n Structure: In dealing with the outside
world, do you prefer to get things decided or
do you prefer to stay open to new
information and options? [Judging (J) or
Perceiving (P)]

Source: https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
MBTI: 16 Personality Types

Source: https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
An example of a personality type: ENFP
Evaluation of MBTI
n Low scientific merits
n Low reliability:
n low test-retest reliability (a different score in T2
assessment)
n Lack of validity:
n low predictive validity, esp job satisfaction,
despite its popularity in the personnel selection
n Views from an organizational psychologist:
Adam Grant
n https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/give-
and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die
How Are Trait Theories Developed?
n Theoretical approach
n Base on conceptual ideas
n Identified supertraits
n e.g., Hans Eysenck (1947, 1967):
n Extroversion (vs Introversion)
n Neuroticism (vs Emotional Stability)
n In 1966: Psychoticism (vs Normality)
n Many individual differences can be explained by the
interaction between extraversion and neuroticism
How Are Trait Theories Developed?
n Empirical approach
n Lexical approach: use words (mainly
adjectives) to describe each trait
n Factor analysis reduced many different
traits and resulted in various personality
factors (e.g., Gordon Allport, Raymond
Cattell)
Example of Empirical Approach
n Went through the dictionary and selected
every term that could distinguish differences
among personalities
n Found about 18,000 adjectives of which
4,500 were considered to fit their definition of
personality traits.

Gordon Allport (1897-1967)

Steps in a Factor Analysis
n Collect measurements on many variables
n Self-reports
n Observations
n Collect data from many people
n Compute correlations between all pairs of variables
n Extract factors
n Factor analysis: a statistical technique for decomposing
large numbers of intercorrelations into basic underlying
dimensions
n Label factors based on factor loadings
Correlation Matrix
(hypothetical statistics)
Warm Outgoing Dominant Hard- Rule- Sub-
working abiding missive
Warm 1 .80 0 .01 .02 .10

Out-going 1 .01 .05 -.03 -.10

Dominant 1 .30 .20 -.90

Hard- 1 .85 0
working
Rule- 1 .30
abiding
Submissive 1
Factor Loading (hypothetical statistics)
Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3
Warm .65 .15 .01
Out-going .70 .10 .10
Dominant .03 -.75 .12
Submissive .07 .80 .03
Hard-working -.02 .11 .68
Rule-abiding .08 .10 .73
The Five Factor Model
n Openness to experience
n Tendency to be curious about inner and outer worlds, willing to entertain novel ideas
n Conscientiousness
n Tendency to be purposeful, punctual and reliable, self-determined
n Extraversion
n Tendency to be sociable, active and assertive
n Agreeableness
n Tendency to be altruistic, sympathetic to others
n Neuroticism
n Tendency to experience negative emotions and irrational ideas, less able to control
impulses
The Five Factor Model
n Extroversion
n Sociability, warmth, assertiveness
n Relates to having social impact
n Agreeableness
n Straightforwardness, trust, altruism, modesty
n Relates to maintaining positive relations with others
n Conscientiousness
n Competence, persistence, carefulness
n Relates to will to achieve
n Neuroticism
n Anxiety, hostility, depression, vulnerability
n Relates to anxiety and distress
n Openness to Experience
n Imagination, curiosity, fantasy
n Relates to intelligence, social experience
 Impacts of Traits on Work and Academic Outcomes
Trait Work Outcomes
Openness + Creativity, job performance, optimistic
attitude toward training
Conscientious- + job performance, organizational
ness citizenship behaviors, leadership
- procrastination
Neuroticism - Job satisfaction, fixation on negative
work experiences
+ intention to quit, dissatisfaction
Extraversion + social relationship with coworkers,
performance, training proficiency,
leadership abilities, job satisfaction
Agreeableness + maintaining relationship with
coworkers; adaptability; helping
behaviors
Source: Educational Testing Service, 2012
Academic Outcomes
+ academic success, final grades,
Modestly effect on cognitive ability
+ academic achievement, grades,
organized and self-control
- Academic performance
+ anxiety, negative emotionality
(moderating factors such self-
control, motivation, etc)
No clear pattern with academic
performance, esp age moderates
this relationship;
Better at oral presentation but
poorer at essay writing
+ prosocial behaviors, adjustment
- Antisocial behavoirs
Cultural Differences in Personality Traits
(Allik, 2005)
Neuroticism

Extraversion
World Values Survey
n http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp
IS FIVE FACTOR MODEL
INCLUSIVE?
HEXACO Model: The 6th factor
(Ashton & Lee, 2007; Lee & Ashton, 2018)
n Honesty – Humility (H)
n Fairness, sincerity
n Emotionality (E)
n Empathy, harm avoidance
n Extraversion (X)
n Sociability, leadership
n Agreeableness (A)
n Tolerance, forgiveness
n Conscientiousness (C)
n Organization, planfulness
n Openness to experience (O)
n Curiosity, imaginativeness
Cross-Cultural Personality Inventory
(CPAI-2) (Cheung et al., 2001)
n “Imposed etic” strategy
n Assume the underlying constructs of the translated
instruments are universal

n Problems in adapting Western instruments

n Poor translations
n Lack of local norms and local validation
n Cultural differences in interpretation of test results
n Omission of important aspects of personality in the local
context

à “… develop an indigenous instrument that covered personality

characteristics for normal as well as diagnostic assessment for
the Chinese people …”
The Factors of CPAI-2

n 28 Personality Scales, revealing 4 factors

n Social Potency
n Dependability
n Accommodation (Individualism)
n Interpersonal Relatedness (Chinese Tradition)

n A copyrighted scale

References: Cheung et al., 2001; Cheung, Cheung, Wada, & Zhang,

2003; Cheung, van de Vijver, & Leong, 2011
CPAI vs NEO-PI-R
Cheung et al. (2001):
n 3 samples
n 279 Chinese students from Mainland China
n 372 Guangzhou managers from a training workshop
n 273 college students (multiple ethnicities such as
Caucasian, Korean, Japanese) in Hawaii
n Interpersonal Relatedness was not found in NEO-
PI-R facets
n None of the CPAI scales loaded on the Openness
domain of the NEO-PI-R
Examples of Emic Constructs
o Renqing (Relationship Orientation) (人情)
o one’s adherence to cultural norms of interaction based on
various standards of social exchange.
o Social interactions involve courteous rituals, exchange of
resources, reciprocity, and maintaining and utilizing useful
ties.
o Harmony (和諧性)
o one’s inner peace of mind, contentment, interpersonal
harmony, avoidance of conflict, conflict resolution, and
maintenance of equilibrium.
o Face (面子)
o Concerns of maintaining face so as to enhance one’s face and
to avoid losing one’s face, emphasize hierarchy in social
interactions
Do Bilinguals have Two Personalities?
n Dual personalities: Acquire two internalized
cultures that guide feelings, thoughts and
actions
n Shift in personality when speaking another
language
n Cultural framing switching (Hong, Morris,
Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000)
n Bicultural individuals shift values and attributions
in the presence of culture-relevant stimuli
n Cross-cultural accommodation (Bond & Yang,
1982): greater accommodative shift when the
person is familiar with the second culture
Cultural Priming Effects on External Attributions
(Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martines, 2000)
Language Effects on the Expression of Personality
among Bilinguals (Chen & Bond, 2010)
Advantages of the Big Five
n Simplifies personality to a small number of basic
dimensions
n Good assessment techniques
n Allows for comparisons between individuals
n High consensus in personality judgments
n self-ratings
n peer-ratings
n spouse-ratings
Disadvantages
n Oversimplification
n Sometimes underestimates variability across
situations
n Lack of behavioral consistency
n Correlation between self-report traits and
behaviors: r = .3 (Mischel, 1968)
n Circular reasoning
n Label the personality factors without explanation
Applications in Everyday Life
n Personnel selection
n Clinical applications
Applications in Personnel Selection
n Identify the perfect candidate who are
complementary to your team
n An introverted candidate to join an extrovert
team
n A neurotic staff may bring down the morale of
a productive staff
n Predictive of job performance / work
outcomes
Clinical Applications
n Personality traits account for subjective well-
being, personality disorders, emotional well-
being (e.g., depression, anxiety), addictive
behaviors (e.g., drug abuse, alcoholism)
n Neuroticism is related to all personality disorders
except antisocial and schizoid (Ball, 2002), and
depression (Kotov et al., 2010)
n Extraversion and neuroticism are correlated with
subjective well-being (Lucas & Diener, 2015)
n Hostility is correlated with smoking (Potkin &
Fallon, 2004)
Conclusion
n Trait perspective provides a reliable measure
for understanding one’s personality
n It does not offer explanation how personality
was developed
n Ignores the potential influence of social
situation on behaviors