Psychology 2035A/B Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - Theories of Personality

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2035A/B
• Professor: John Ciriello

Document Summary

Learning objectives: clarify the meaning of personality and personality traits, describe the five-factor model of personality and relations between the big five traits and life outcomes. Consistency across situations, and distinctiveness lie at the core of the concept of personality. We use the idea of personality to explain: stability in person"s behaviour over time and across situations (consistency, behavioural differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness) Personality: an individual"s unique constellation of consistent behavioural traits. Personality trait: durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. Honest, dependable, moody, impulsive, suspicious, anxious, excitable, domineering, friendly. Small number of fundamental traits determine other more superficial traits. Factor analysis: correlations among variables are analyzed to identify closely related clusters of variables. Assumed that clustered variables are influenced by a single factor. Raymond cattell used factor analysis to reduce gordon allport"s 171 personality traits down to 16. Created by robert mccrae and paul costa (2003, 2008)