Trait Theories

Modified: 2024-07-09 6:31 AM CDST

• Trait theories attempt to describe personality by a series of descriptive statements.
  • As laypersons (non psychologists), we do the same thing.
  • If asked to describe a particular individual's personality we usually end up listing a number of traits, saying that the person is honest, outgoing, but overly suspicious, for example.

  • Scientific trait theories end up with a similar kind of description after asking people a long list of questions.
  • Those questions have been grouped together into clusters by a technique known as factor analysis.
  • Then those clusters are given arbitrary names.
  • An older classification of this type is the 16 PF, where PF stands for personality factor.
  • That test ends up describing individuals via 16 factors.
  • Other approaches yield from 3 (Eysenck) to 5 (Norman) factors.
  • The Five Factor Theory has proven to be very popular.
    • The factors are easily remembered by the acronyms CANOE or OCEAN. They stand for:
      • Conscientiousness
      • Agreeableness
      • Neuroticism
      • Openness
      • Extraversion
• The MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) is more similar to the 16 PF in its approach.
  • It asks subjects nearly 500 questions and ends up with 14 scales or traits to describe subjects.
  • The MMPI and 16 PF and other such instruments popularized the term personality profile because the results can be graphed in such a manner.
• Another secret trait approach is used at airports.
  • It is the Skyjacker Profile.
  • It was developed to catch potential skyjackers before they boarded a plane.
  • It is administered by observation by airport personnel.
  • Few know the behaviors sampled, and I urge you not to try to see what they are because you may miss your next flight.
• Police have also developed a similar behavioral assessment, a drug-runner profile.
  • Courts have ruled that using such profiles violates constitutional rights.
    • Police may get around such restrictions by stopping people who meet the profile for other violations (e.g.,. taillight out, speeding, or registration violations).
  • Members of our psychology department, for instance, were stopped once while returning from Houston, apparently because they were driving the speed limit and nobody else was, had a nice out-of-state car, and a woman was driving with two men.
    • The police detained the trio for awhile, and finally asked if they could have a dog sniff the car.
    • When the woman said that she thought that would be neat, because she had never seen a drug dog in action, the police let them go.
    • No citation was issued. Many drugs are confiscated along that particular stretch of road, however.
• You should be aware, however, that personality profiling is nowhere near the exact science it is often portrayed on TV or in the movies.