PSYC 2740 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Differential Psychology, Trait Theory, Silent Treatment
30 Jan 2017
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Despite their differences trait theories share three important assumptions about personality traits: meaningful individual differences, stability or consistency over time, consistency across situations. Form the basic foundation for trait psychology. Trait psychologists mainly interested in determining the ways in which people are different from each other. Any meaningful way in which people differ from each other may potentially be identified as a personality trait. Due to its emphasis on the study of differences among people trait psychology has sometimes been called differential psychology. Differential psychology includes the study of other forms of individual differences in addition to personality traits such as abilities, aptitudes, and intelligence. Trait perspective concerned with accurate measurement: takes a quantitative approach emphasizes how much an individual differs from the average. Out of all the perspectives and strategies for studying personality the trait approach is the most mathematically and statistically oriented (due to its emphasis on amount) Intelligence, emotional reactivity, impulsiveness, shyness, and aggression high test-retest correlations.
