PSYC 102: Lecture #9

COMM 292: Organizational Behaviour Lecture #9 Discovering Traits:  Factor analysis - statistical technique identifies which characteristics are related to each other and together might identify a trait  Sample: I am dependable, I am a people person, I am honest, people say I am reliable, I like parties, people describe me as outgoing  Two factors: o Dependable, honest, reliable: 1, 3, 4 o People person, I like parties, outgoing: 2, 5, 6 Factor Analysis in Practice:  Hundreds of items/questions  Representing numerous possible traits  Administered to very large samples  Factors of correlated items interpreted to represent particular traits Hans and Sybil Eysenck's Personality Dimensions:  Extraversion-introversion  Emotional stability-instability The Big Five Factors:  Most popular trait theory of personality  Lots of research support  Our best guess at the fundamental traits of personality  Conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, extraversion (CANOE)  How stable are these traits? o Quite stable in adulthood; however, they change over development  How heritable are they? o Fifty percent or so for each trait  How about other cultures? o These traits are common across cultures  Can they predict other personal attributes? o Yes. Conscien