Trait Psychology Research Articles

Seeking a Philosophical Basis for Trait Psychology.

I summarize an early effort to provide a conceptual basis for psychology. Natural science studies material objects, and its methods and assumptions may not be appropriate for the study of persons. Persons exist within the natural attitude and are characterized by such properties as temporality, responsibility, normality, and identity. Contemporary theories of mind focus on people's understanding of how minds make decisions and shape behavior, but say little about the nature of the entity that possesses a mind; ethnopsychologies are concerned with cultural variations in beliefs about accidental rather than essential aspects of human psychology. The lay philosophical view of the person sketched here is intended to be broader and deeper. It is particularly relevant to trait psychology, appears to have been implicit in much trait research, and is generally consistent with empirical findings on personality traits.

Impact of personality traits on study habits and educational aspirations of arts and science college students

Personality refers to individual differences in thoughts, emotions, behavioural thoughts or imaginary patterns. The study of personality concentrates on two wide areas: One is understanding individual variations in specific personality traits, like friendliness or peevishness. The other is seeing how the differentcharacteristics of an individual meet up overall. Trait psychology lays on the possibility that individualswill differ depending on where they stand on the side of a set of importantattributes that persist over time and conditions. The broadpattern of attributes is known as the Five Factor Model. Study skills, academic skill, or researchmethodologies are the concepts areutilised to learning. Study skills are a variety of abilities which tackle the most common way of taking and organizing in,innovativesource, retaining data, or managingappraisals. In a broader sense, subjects that supportthe ability of those study, retain and reviewuseful and tested informationcan be treated as learning skills, which may include time management and persuasivestrategies. Educational requirements reflect the educational goals that one has set. It is significance as it empowers and energizes the person to accomplish them. The reasons of this essay are to analyse the impact of three sets of indicators: background, parental involvement, and student personal or educational self-assessment.

From Metacybernetics to Mindset Agency Theory

Metacybernetics is a general theory of higher order cybernetics that can be used to generate cybernetics theories. Such theories will necessarily adopt the axioms of metacybernetics, but can develop through the use of relevant configurations. The topic of the set of slides explains the exemplar of Mindset Agency Theory - a trait theory of personality psychology that has some connection with Maruyama's Mindscape Theory. Mindset Agency Theory has a pragmatic dimension, delivering a model able to diagnose personality pathologies. The slide summarise the results of an analytic diagnosis of two cases studies, one being of the of late president Trump. The set of slides provides a takeaway summary from the book entitled Configuration Approach to Mindset Agency Theory: A Formative Trait Psychology with Affect, Cognition and Behaviour.

What is brand personality? A historical and prescriptive account

Despite decades of brand personality (BP) research, recent meta-analyses/reviews highlight how this stream of inquiry still lacks a commonly accepted construct definition. Moreover, definitions generally refer to brand personification and not personality in a proper psychological sense. This lack of conceptual specificity is problematic as it confounds research and practice. The present paper addresses this definitional confusion. It offers a historical account of the BP construct with some prescriptive advice for its future use. It thereby hopes to create awareness and discussion as to what BP actually is, or ought to be. Based on how trait psychology understands personality, a new definition is suggested, BP reconceived as ‘the distinct set of human personality traits that lead brands to regard their environment in characteristic ways, and as a result, communicate and behave consistently over situations and time’. By clarifying the BP construct, this paper aims to improve research. It also hopes to benefit practice. A better understanding of BP stands to enhance segmentation, positioning and differentiation, rendering branding efforts more effective.

Sordid genealogies: a conjectural history of Cambridge Analytica\u2019s eugenic roots

“Sordid Genealogies: A Conjectural History of Cambridge Analytica’s Eugenic Roots” explores the history of the methods employed by Cambridge Analytica to influence the 2016 US presidential election. It focuses on the history of psychometric analysis, trait psychology, the lexical hypothesis and multivariate factor analysis, and how they developed in close conjunction with the history of eugenics. More particularly, it will analyze how the work of Francis Galton, Ludwig Klages, Charles Spearman, and Raymond Cattell (among others) contributed to the manifold translations between statistics, the pseudoscience of eugenics, the politics of Trumpism, and the data driven psychology of the personality championed by Cambridge Analytica.

Why is an evidence-based classification of personality disorder so elusive?

Despite recent revisions, the classification of personality disorder remains a matter of dispute, and there is little evidence of consistent progress toward an evidence-based system. This essay examines four issues impeding taxonomic progress and explores how they might be addressed. First, the phenomenological and aetiological complexity of personality disorder poses a formidable challenge to traditional taxonomic methods. Second, current classifications incorporate assumptions such as a stringent version of medical model and an essentialist philosophy that are inconsistent with empirical evidence. Third, despite the claims of trait psychology, a viable alternative to categorical diagnosis is not available. Contemporary trait models have not gained widespread clinical acceptance and substantial conceptual and methodological limitations compromise their clinical value. Finally, the processes used to revise official classifications are biased toward conservative revisions and difficult to shield from non-scientific influences. It is suggested that rather making further attempts to develop a general monolithic classification that meets all needs, consideration be given to developing a more flexible and multifaceted framework that combines diagnosis and assessment. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

French adaptation of the Mini-IPIP: A short measure of the Big Five

IntroductionThe Big Five, or the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality, is the dominant model in trait psychology. Instruments to assess personality traits are usually long and not available in French. The Mini-International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP) is a brief measure evaluating personality traits according to the Big Five model with promising psychometric properties. ObjectiveThe main purposes of this study were to develop and validate a French adaptation of the Mini-International Personality Item Pool. MethodIn Study 1, adaptation procedures that led to the translation of the French version as well as steps to maximize equivalence are described, in addition to internal consistency, temporal stability, and factor structure within a sample of 139 participants. In study 2, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out with a sample of 1308 participants, and convergent validity was explored with several pertinent constructs. ResultsInternal consistency and test-retest correlations over a four-week period suggest adequate reliability, with coefficients respectively ranging from .64 to .81 and .74 to .89. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a sharply delineated structure. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analyzes revealed a five-factor solution consistent with the Big Five model, and convergent validity with several constructs was detailed. ConclusionOverall, results pointed to a satisfactory equivalence between the original and the adapted instrument. The satisfactory indices of reliability and validity of the Mini-IPIP warrant the use of the French adaptation of the Mini-IPIP.

An evaluation of Jung’s psychological types and their relationship to psychopathology

This paper compares Jung’s original conception of psychological types with the modern Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Three and Big Five personality traits in order to evaluate their relationship to various forms of psychopathology. In doing so it becomes apparent that Jung’s original conception of psychological types are fundamentally different to both the MBTI and the Big Three and Big Five personality traits. Modern personality research focuses on categorisation for the purposes of defining diagnostic categories and treatment strategies but this was not Jung’s purpose in describing the types. Jung’s differentiation of the two psychological types and the four functions did not imply any value judgement or that one was more prone to psychopathology than another. Furthermore, Jung’s understanding of the introverted and extraverted types as fundamentally different ways of perceiving and comprehending the world has been overlooked by modern personality trait psychology,possibly to the detriment of the introverted type in our extravert-oriented society.

Interpersonal Dynamics in Personality and Personality Disorders

Clinical and basic personality psychologists interact less than they should, given their similar interests. In clinical personality psychology, available evidence supports a transition from the current categorical system to a hierarchical trait scheme for diagnosing the stable features of personality disorder. However, trait models do not capture the dynamic aspects of personality disorders as they have been described in the clinical literature, and thus miss a clinically critical feature of personality pathology. In contrast, basic personality psychologists have coalesced around a consensual structure of individual differences and become increasingly interested in the dynamic processes that underlie and contextualize traits. But trait psychology models are not sufficiently specific to characterize dynamic personality processes. In this paper, I filter clinical descriptions of personality disorders through the lens of interpersonal theory to specify a recursive within–situation interpersonal pattern of motives, affects, behaviours, and perceptions that could contribute to the stable between–situation patterns of maladaptive behaviour of historical interest to both basic and clinical personality psychologists. I suggest that this interpersonal model adds specificity to recent proposals regarding processes in the basic personality literature and has significant potential to advance research on personality dynamics. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

Some Metatheoretical Principles for Personality Neuroscience.

Theories in personality neuroscience must aim to be consistent with several levels of explanation. If we view personality traits as constructs located only at the psychological level, we must still make their explanations compatible with observations and theories at lower levels, particularly with what we know at the neural level. If we view personality traits as constructs located only at the neural level, we will still need to predict their emergent effects at the psychological level. Personality theory at present treats traits as psychological-level constructs, with even the recent neurally oriented Cybernetic Big Five Theory specified in terms of a "conceptual nervous system" and not requiring complete or immediate translation into neural mechanisms. Here, we argue for the existence of phylogenetically old, neural-level traits that are substantially conserved across many vertebrate species. We first ask what known mechanisms control trait-like properties of neural systems: Focusing on hormones, the GABAA receptor, and amine neurotransmitter systems. We derive from what we know about these sources of neuronal modulation some metatheoretical principles to guide the future development of those aspects of personality theory, starting with neural-level trait constructs and drawing implications for higher-level trait psychology observations. Current descriptive approaches such as the Big Five are an essential precursor to personality neuroscience, but may not map one-to-one to the mechanisms and constructs of a neuroscience-based approach to traits.

Smart Conformists: Children and Adolescents Associate Conformity With Intelligence Across Cultures.

The current study used a novel methodology based on multivocal ethnography to assess the relations between conformity and evaluations of intelligence and good behavior among Western (U.S.) and non-Western (Ni-Vanuatu) children (6- to 11-year-olds) and adolescents (13- to 17-year-olds; N=256). Previous research has shown that U.S. adults were less likely to endorse high-conformity children as intelligent than Ni-Vanuatu adults. The current data demonstrate that in contrast to prior studies documenting cultural differences between adults' evaluations of conformity, children and adolescents in the United States and Vanuatu have a conformity bias when evaluating peers' intelligence and behavior. Conformity bias for good behavior increases with age. The results have implications for understanding the interplay of conformity bias and trait psychology across cultures and development.

Young Adults’ Trait Affection Given and Received as Functions of Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cultures and National Origin

Based on the work conducted by trait psychologists, this cross-cultural investigation sought to examine young adults’ trait affection given and trait affection received in the U.S., Russia, and Slovakia as functions of (a) Hofstede’s four primary dimensions of national cultures (i.e. masculinity–femininity, individualism–collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance), and (b) national origin. Undergraduate students (N = 558) from the U.S. (n = 214), Russia (n = 169), and Slovakia (n = 210) completed a questionnaire in their native languages. The results of regression analyses and analyses of variances supported the notion that the four dimensions of national cultures influence people’s trait-like attributes and therefore also result in significant differences among the three countries examined in this investigation.

The Psychoanalytic Mode of Thought and its Application To the Non-Normative Analysis of Sexuality and Gender.

Freud's psychoanalytic mode of thought, especially as interpreted by William Grossman, functions as an inherently non-normative means of analyzing both the psychic life of the individual and various historical and cultural phenomena. Application of this mode of thought to particular characterizations of gender and sexuality makes possible an essential critique of trait psychology and static formulations of human development, as restricting both clinical practice and theory building. An exploration of the complexities of sexuality and gender in gay men shows how Freud's insistence on variability lends conceptual power at the intersection of classical psychoanalysis, with its problematic history, and the many clinical and theoretical manifestations of contemporary psychoanalysis. The non-normative psychoanalytic mode of thought developed by Freud must be integrated with more recent formulations about gender and sexuality in order to conduct a psychoanalysis.

Refining Trait Resilience: Identifying Engineering, Ecological, and Adaptive Facets from Extant Measures of Resilience.

The current paper presents a new measure of trait resilience derived from three common mechanisms identified in ecological theory: Engineering, Ecological and Adaptive (EEA) resilience. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of five existing resilience scales suggest that the three trait resilience facets emerge, and can be reduced to a 12-item scale. The conceptualization and value of EEA resilience within the wider trait and well-being psychology is illustrated in terms of differing relationships with adaptive expressions of the traits of the five-factor personality model and the contribution to well-being after controlling for personality and coping, or over time. The current findings suggest that EEA resilience is a useful and parsimonious model and measure of trait resilience that can readily be placed within wider trait psychology and that is found to contribute to individual well-being.

Pathoplastic Effects of Personality in Fibromyalgia

Introduction Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and tenderness at palpation of specific points or associated symptoms of fatigue, un-refreshing sleep or cognitive dysfunction. Although his prevalence ranges from 2% to 6,4%, it remains a controversial and an exclusion diagnosis which causes are incompletely understood. Patients have been reported as being perfectionist, introspective, demanding and exhausting to manage. While such personality traits may appear to contribute to fibromyalgia symptoms, the links between them remain unclear. Objectives/Aims The author’s goal is to understand the complex role of personality traits in clinical presentation and management of patients with fibromyalgia. Additionally we present an illustrative clinical case. Methods A literature search was performed using the key words fibromyalgia, personality, trait psychology and retrieved papers were selected according to their relevance. The patient clinical record was reviewed. Results We discuss whether the personality traits result from or cause fibromyalgia symptoms and present a case of a 47 years old woman with fibromyalgia who presents to psychiatrist with a depression syndrome. The personality assessment revealed anxiety, immaturity and impulsivity. A multidisciplinary approach was made with rheumatology, psychiatry and psychology. The patient was treated with antidepressants, mood stabilizers, muscle relaxant and opioid analgesics, as well as psychoeducation. Eighteen months later, the patient remains with pain and concentration complaints, having improved sleep and functional capacity. Conclusions Personality might be involved in various aspects of chronic pain, as seen in fibromyalgia, and be involved in triggering, maintaining and exacerbation of the fibromyalgia’s process.

Intellectualist Aristotelian Character Education: An Outline and Assessment

Since its resurgence in the 1990s, character education has been subject to a bevy of common criticisms, including that it is didactic and crudely behaviorist; premised on a faulty trait psychology; victim-blaming; culturally imperialist, racist, religious, or ideologically conservative; and many other horrible things besides. Matt Ferkany and Benjamin Creed examine an intellectualist Aristotelian form of character education that has gained popularity recently and find that it is largely not susceptible to such criticisms. In this form, character education is education for practically intelligent virtue, or the intrinsically motivated and psychically harmonious exercise of robust and stable traits involving practical intelligence conducive to individual and collective human flourishing.

Personality psychology: lexical approaches, assessment methods, and trait concepts reveal only half of the story--why it is time for a paradigm shift.

This article develops a comprehensive philosophy-of-science for personality psychology that goes far beyond the scope of the lexical approaches, assessment methods, and trait concepts that currently prevail. One of the field’s most important guiding scientific assumptions, the lexical hypothesis, is analysed from meta-theoretical viewpoints to reveal that it explicitly describes two sets of phenomena that must be clearly differentiated: 1) lexical repertoires and the representations that they encode and 2) the kinds of phenomena that are represented. Thus far, personality psychologists largely explored only the former, but have seriously neglected studying the latter. Meta-theoretical analyses of these different kinds of phenomena and their distinct natures, commonalities, differences, and interrelations reveal that personality psychology’s focus on lexical approaches, assessment methods, and trait concepts entails a) erroneous meta-theoretical assumptions about what the phenomena being studied actually are, and thus how they can be analysed and interpreted, b) that contemporary personality psychology is largely based on everyday psychological knowledge, and c) a fundamental circularity in the scientific explanations used in trait psychology. These findings seriously challenge the widespread assumptions about the causal and universal status of the phenomena described by prominent personality models. The current state of knowledge about the lexical hypothesis is reviewed, and implications for personality psychology are discussed. Ten desiderata for future research are outlined to overcome the current paradigmatic fixations that are substantially hampering intellectual innovation and progress in the field.

Personality and Fibromyalgia Syndrome

Objectives: We aimed to review how personality characteristics contribute to the onset, maintenance or modulation of fibromyalgia. Method: The databases Medline and PsychINFO were examined from 1967 to 2012 to identify studies that investigated associations between fibromyalgia and personality. Search terms included fibromyalgia and personality, trait psychology, characteristics and individual differences.Results: Numerous studies indicate that patients with fibromyalgia experience psychological distress. Various instruments have been used to evaluate distress and related psychological domains, such as anxiety or depression, in fibromyalgia. In many cases, these same instruments have been used to study personality characteristics in fibromyalgia with a subsequent blurring of cause and effect between personality and psychological distress. In addition, the symptoms of fibromyalgia may change pre-illness personality characteristics themselves. These issues make it difficult to identify specific personality characteristics that might influence the fibromyalgia process. Despite this inherent problem with the methodologies used in the studies that make up this literature review, or perhaps because of it, we found no defined personality profile specific to fibromyalgia. However, many patients with fibromyalgia do show personality characteristics that facilitate psychological responses to stressful situations, such as catastrophising or poor coping techniques, and these in turn associate with mechanisms contributing to fibromyalgia.Conclusion: No specific fibromyalgia personality is defined but it is proposed that personality is an important filter that modulates a person’s response to psychological stressors. Certain personalities may facilitate translation of these stressors to physiological responses driving the fibromyalgia mechanism.

Diagnosing Personality Disorders

Diagnosing Personality Disorders

Surviving Two Critiques by Block? The Resilient Big Five Have Emerged as the Paradigm for Personality Trait Psychology

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgments The work of the first author on this article was supported, in part, by grants from the Retirement Research Foundation and the Metanexus Institute as well as by a sabbatical leave provided by the University of California, Berkeley. The work of the second author was supported by an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship. We are grateful to Lewis R. Goldberg and Samuel D. Gosling for their thoughtful comments on this article.