PSYC 2130 Study Guide - Final Guide: Proxemics, Assortative Mating, Stimulus Control
15 Apr 2013
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Chapter 8: evolution of the trait concept (branch of dispositional strategy) (development of the trait concept) In their search for the most important traits, personality psychologists have used 3 approaches: The lexical approach: based on the assumption that the more important a disposition is, the more often it will be used in everyday language. The theoretical approach: relies on theory as a guide to suggest which human traits are most central/important. The statistical approach: analyzes very large collections of data about many people to identify the basic factors that underlie the data set. Factor analysis has been a favorite tool of researchers who use the statistical approach. Generally seen as the founder of modern dispositional strategy. His philosophy = heuristic realism = to discover or find out meaning that traits actually exist as part of the person. Every person has general traits and it is our job to discover what they are.
