Trait Theories of Personality and

Personality Assessment
By Ms. Falahat Maqbool
 Trait Perspective

• TRAIT
An inherited and permanent set of mental or
bodily characteristics.

• STATE
It is not permanent, it is situational and
urgent.
 Trait Theories
• Trait approaches have tried to identify the
most basic and relatively enduring dimensions
along which people differ from one another--
dimensions known as traits.
– How many trait dimensions are there?
– How can we measure these trait dimensions?
– Where do these trait dimensions originate?
 Trait Theories of Personality

• Personality traits are internally based, relatively stable

characteristics that define an individual’s personality
– Each trait is a dimension, a continuum ranging from one
extreme of the dimension to the other
 Allport
• Allport: Most important personality traits are
those that reflect our values.
• Allport suggested that there are 3 kinds of traits:
– Cardinal: a single personality trait that directs most of
a cardinal person’s activities (e.g., greed, lust,
kindness).
– Central: a set of major characteristics that make up
the central core of a person’s personality.
– Secondary: less important personality traits that do
not secondary affect behavior as much as central and
cardinal traits do.
 Eysenck’s Three-Factor Theory

• The biological basis for the extraversion-

introversion trait is level of cortical arousal
(neuronal activity)
– Introverts have higher normal-levels of arousal
than an extravert, so extraverts need to seek
out external stimulation to raise the level of
arousal in the brain to a more optimal level
 Eysenck’s Three-Factor Theory

• People who are high on the neuroticism-emotional

stability dimension tend to be overly anxious,
emotionally unstable, and easily upset because of a
more reactive sympathetic nervous system
• The psychoticism-impulse control trait is concerned
with aggressiveness, impulsiveness, and empathy
– A high level of testosterone and a low level of MAO, a
neurotransmitter inhibitor, lead to high levels of
psychoticism
 Five-Factor Model of Personality

• These five factors appear to be universal and

are consistent from about age 30 to late
adulthood
• These factors are measured using an
assessment instrument called the NEO-PI
 The Big Five Personality
Trait Dimensions

Dimension High End Low End

Openness Independent, imaginative, Conforming, practical,

broad interests, receptive narrow interests, closed to
to new ideas new ideas

Conscientiousness Well-organized, Disorganized,

dependable, careful, undependable, careless,
disciplined impulsive
Extraversion Sociable, talkative, Reclusive, quiet, aloof,
friendly, adventurous cautious

Agreeableness Sympathetic, polite, good- Tough-minded, rude,

natured, soft-hearted irritable, ruthless

Neuroticism Emotional, insecure, Calm, secure, relaxed, self-

nervous, self-pitying satisfied
The Behavioral Perspective
 The Behavioral Perspective

• This perspective views behavior (except for

genetically determined behavior) as the result of
environmental experience!
• Environmental experience (also called learning) is the
sum total of all life experiences that the individual
has been subjected to in the past and to the new
experiences that will impose on his or her behavior.
• For the behavioral perspective the emphasis is on
factors in the environment that influence behavior.
 The Behavioral Perspective

• Learning is the key word here; the process whereby behavior

changes in response to the environment.
• The contributions of the following four men had a
tremendous impact of behaviorism:
 Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) The Conditioned
Reflex
 J.B. Watson (1878-1958) The Founding of Behaviorism
 Thorndike (1874-1949) The Law of Effect
 B.F.Skinner (1904-1990) Radical behaviorism
 Abnormal Behavior as a Product of Learning

• In the behavioral view, personality development is the

result of the interaction between our genetic legacy and
the types of experiences we are exposed to in living our
daily lives.

• This holds true for abnormal development as well as

normal development.

• Behaviorists avoid terms such as normal and abnormal,

because these words imply an absolute distinction
between something healthy and something sick. That is
why behaviorists prefer to speak of "maladaptive"
rather than "abnormal" behavior.
self-esteem

a person's respect for himself self-image

self-image

one's conception of oneself and one's own identity, abilities, worth,

etc.

Self-Actualization

the process of fulfilling our potential

Self-image is thought to have three
components:

• The ideal self (the person you would like

to be)
• The public self (the image you think other
people have of you)
• The real self (what you really think about
yourself).
PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
 Personality Assessment
• The main uses of personality tests are to aid in
diagnosing people with problems, counseling,
and making personnel decisions

Personality
Inventories
Projective
Tests
 Personality Inventories

• Are designed to measure multiple traits of

personality, and in some cases, disorders
– Are a series of questions or statements for which
the test taker must indicate whether they apply to
him or not
• The MMPI (the Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory) is the most widely used,
translated into more than 100 languages
 MMPI

• Uses a “True/False/Cannot Say” format with 567 simple

statements (e.g., “I like to cook”)
• Developed to be a measure of abnormal personality, with 10
clinical scales such as depression and schizophrenia
• Items were developed and tested to differentiate different
groups of people (a representative sample of people
suffering a specific disorder versus a group of normal people)
on certain dimensions; to be retained, the two groups
generally responded to an item in opposite ways
 MMPI
• Contains three validity scales, which attempt to
detect test takers who are trying to cover up
problems and fake profiles or who were careless in
their responding
• Its test construction method leads to good predictive
validity for its clinical scales and its objective scoring
procedure leads to reliability in interpretation
 Projective Tests

• Contain a series of ambiguous stimuli, such as

inkblots, to which the test taker
must respond about his
perceptions of the stimuli
• Sample tests
– Rorschach Inkblots Test
– Thematic Apperception
Tests (TAT)
 Rorschach Inkblots Test
• Contains 10 symmetric inkblots used in the test, in
which the examiner then goes through the cards and
asks the test taker to clarify her responses by
identifying the various parts of the inkblot that led to
the response
• Assumes the test taker’s responses are projections of
their personal conflicts and personality dynamics
• Widely used but not demonstrated to be reliable and
valid
 Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)
• Consists of 21 cards with black and white pictures of
ambiguous settings and one blank card
• Test taker has to make up a story for each card he sees
(what happened before, is happening now, what the
people are feeling and thinking, and how things will
turn out)
• Looks for recurring themes in the responses
• Scoring has yet to be demonstrated to be either
reliable or valid