PERSONALITY PSY234

Lecture 4: Trait approaches to

personality

A/Prof Simon Boag

email: simon.boag@mq.edu.au
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Readings (suggested)

Revision: Boag, et al. (2015). Personality.

Additional:
• McCrae, RR (2004). Human nature & culture: A trait
perspective. Jnl of Research in Personality, 38, 3-14
• Gore, WL & Widiger, T. (2013). The DSM-5
dimensional trait model &FFM. Jnl of Abnormal
Psychology, 122, 816-821
• Gurven, et al. (2013). How universal is the Big Five?
Testing the FFM of personality variation among
forager–farmers in the Bolivian Amazon. Jnl of
Personality & Social Psychology, 104, 354-370
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Outline

1. Trait approaches
• What are ‘traits’?
• Lexical hypothesis & Factor Analysis
2. Five Factor Model & Theory
• Traits + cross-cultural evidence
3. Personality Disorders (PDs) & traits
• PDs & maladaptive traits

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1. Trait approaches (revision)

Gordon Allport (1897-1967)

• Founded Personality psychology at Harvard
Uni
• Wrote the first text book on personality:
• Personality: A Psychological Interpretation
(1937)
• Introduced idiographic vs nomothetic
distinction
• Interested in unique individual & traits
• Cardinal, Central, Secondary traits
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Personality traits

• Traits: Disposition or tendency to act in

meaningfully consistent ways across time &
situations
• Traits are stable
• Nature over nurture (but interaction)
• Number of traits? 3, 5, 16?
• Nomothetic approach
• Traits as dimensions
• Quantitative approach
• Application of trait research (eg.
Organisational Ψ)
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Identifying traits

Lexical hypothesis: traits can be identified

through language
• Factor analysis

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Eysenck’s 3 Factor account
(Revision)

Extraversion/introversion
Neuroticism/normality
Psychoticism
• Biological basis of traits
• Ascending Reticular Activation System (ARAS)
• Cortical excitation & inhibition
• High ARAS arousal predisposes to introversion
• Limbic system (visceral brain) & neuroticism

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Personality traits

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2. Five Factor Model/Theory

• Based on lexical hypothesis

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Five Factor Model & Theory
McCrae & Costa (1990, 2004, 2015)
• Traits: “… enduring tendencies to think, feel, &
behave in consistent ways…”
• Highly heritable: “relatively untouched by life
experience”
• Assessable via self-report NEO-PI-R (translated
into at least 40 languages); 240 items; 5
traits/30 facets
• Useful for job selection/screening tool
• eg Black (2000): NEO-PI-R useful in police
selection; used as screening measure in NZ
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Five Factor Theory
• Limited impact of the environment on
personality traits

“According to FFT, traits are not affected by

culture, but are instead shaped solely by
biology, which is the common heritage of the
human species” (McCrae, 2004, p. 7)

• Experience shapes expression of traits

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Five Factor Model & Theory
McCrae & Costa (1995, 2004, 2015)
• FFM as biologically based human universals
• Traits are stable but universal age-changes
• Age 30: N, E, O ↓; A, C ↑
• Intrinsic maturational processes (McCrae,
2002; Terracciano, et al, 2010)
• Are the Five Factors universal?
• Replication of FFM in over 50 societies across
six continents (McCrae & Terracciano, 2005)

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How universal is the FFM?

• Gurven et al (2013): FFM tested with the

indigenous Tsimane people in central lowland
Bolivia (N = 1,062)
• Forager-horticulturalists
• FFM not replicated
• Tsimane Big Two personality dimensions:
prosociality & industriousness

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Traits shape culture

• McCrae (2004): personality shapes society &

culture
• eg. A society of introverts will be v. different
from a society of extroverts
• Cultural differences & extraversion: Western
vs Eastern cultures

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Some challenges to FFT

Generational/cohort effects:
• Increases in N & E over last 50 years
• No similar change in population genetics
Acculturation studies:
• Recent immigrants from HK to Canada score
similar to Canadians on E, O, & A
Possible explanation: selective migration

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3. Personality disorders & traits

DSM-5 (2013, p. 645):

Personality disorders (PDS) are….

A) Enduring patterns of
thinking/feeling/acting/relating
B) Culturally deviant
C) Pervasive & inflexible
D) Lead to distress or social impairment

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Personality disorders types

Cluster A: Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal

• “Individuals with these disorders often
appear odd or eccentric”
• Cluster B: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic,
Narcissistic
• “Individuals with these disorders often
appear dramatic, emotional, or erratic”
Cluster C: Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-
compulsive
• “Individuals with these disorders often
appear anxious or fearful” 20
DSM-5: Personality disorders

Categorical (‘disease’) model: qualitatively

distinct clinical syndromes
• Ongoing problems with assessment, co-
occurrence, heterogeneity within diagnoses
Alternative DSM-5 model:
Dimensional model
“… personality disorders represent maladaptive
variants of personality traits that merge
imperceptibly into normality & into one
another” (DSM-5)
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Maladaptive personality traits

• Negative affectivity (Neuroticism)

• Detachment (Extraversion)
• Psychoticism (Openness)
• Antagonism (Agreeableness)
• Disinhibition (Conscientiousness)
• “… these five broad domains are maladaptive
variants of the five domains of the extensively
validated & replicated personality model
known as the ‘Big Five,’ or the Five Factor
Model of personality” (DSM-5, 2013, p. 773)
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FFM & Clinical implications

• Widiger (2017): FFM potentially better for

treatment options (greater uniformity)
• Ext/Agr: interpersonal
• Neur: emotional instability
• Consc: work-related
• Open: cognitive
• Psychotherapy & pharmacological
• Recent development of FFM PD assessment
scales (Crego et al, 2018)
• Clinical utility still unclear (Crego et al. 2016)
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Summary

• Traits are dispositions or tendencies to act in

meaningfully consistent ways across time &
situations
• The FFM/FFT is the dominant trait approach,
proposing 5 universal traits (OCEAN)
• Cross-cultural evidence generally supports the
FFM
• An alternative DSM-5 model views PDs in
terms of maladaptive variants of personality
traits
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