PERSONALITY –
Trait theories of personality
Basics of Psychology
Trait theories of personality
Trait theorists are primarily interested in the
measurement of traits, which can be defined
as habitual patterns of behavior, thought,
and emotion.
Traits - temperament
According to this perspective, traits are relatively
stable over time, differ across individuals, and
influence behavior.
States - character
Traits are in contrast to states which are more
transitory dispositions.
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Kretschmer (1988-1964)
His classification system was based on three main body
types and the neuroendocrine system.
Hippocrates (400 BC) and
Galenus
pszükhé, dietétika
humoral theory of disease
4 substances: earth, fire, air, and water
Galenus (130-200 AD) – humours and temperaments
• Melancholy (black bile corresponrs with melankholé)
– depressive
• Choleric (yellow bile, kholé) – irritable
• Sanguine (blood, haima) – optimistic, sanguine
• Phlegmatic (phlegm, phlegma) – calm, apathetic
Kretschmer (1988-1964)
His classification system was based on three main body
types and the neuroendocrine system.
• ASTHENIC/LEPTOSOMIC (thin, small, weak) –
Schizothymic (Hyperesthetic-sensitive and
Anesthetic-Cold)
• ATHLETIC (muscular, large-boned)
• PYKNIC (stocky, fat) – Cyclothymic (Depressive and
Hypomanic)
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 Criticism of
Trait theories of personality
Allport:
• Common traits: dimensions, with which
we can compare the persons
• Dispositions: the uniqe, special
organization of person’s traits (cardinal,
central, secondary)
Cattell’s factor analysis
Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
self-report personality test
16PF measures 16 primary trait constructs:
Warmth, Reasoning, Emotional Stability, Dominance,
Liveliness, Rule-Consciousness, Social Boldness,
Sensitivity, Vigilance, Abstractedness, Privateness,
Apprehension, Openness to Change, Self-Reliance,
Perfectionism, Tension
Warmth (reserved or outgoing), Reasoning (concrete or
abstract thinking)
Eysenk’s theoretical perspective
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)
Only 2 main dimensions
1. Introversion – Extroversion
2. Neuroticism – Stability
3. Psychoticism – Socialisation
• We can measure the personality only the
common properties.
• The question limits, makes simple the possible
answers.
• The question is a special glasses through which
I see the world.
• There isn’t only one theory or questionnaire that
can write the human personality.
• At the begining the psychologist search, are
looking for the main traits.
• Every theory, questionnaire, answers of the
questions a single point of view. 8
Cattell’s factor analyses
Lexical perspective –
Allport, Odbert, Norman, Goldberg
The language contains all personality dimensions
Webster – 550 words, factor analysis
Big Five, the most famous personality questionnaire
• Extroversion/Introversion
• Neuroticism
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Openness to experience
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 Factor analysis • there are two kinds of intelligence, "verbal
intelligence" and "mathematical
• Staistical method for simplefied the dataset: intelligence"
reduce the set of variables in a dataset
mathematical
• Searching the latent variables Mathematics,
Physics,
• from n-dimensional space to a smaller Chemistry
dimensional space
• Suppose a psychologist has the hypothesis that
there are two kinds of intelligence, "verbal
Literature,
intelligence" and "mathematical intelligence", History
neither of which is directly observed.
verbal
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Cloninger’s TCI – Temperament dimensions

a psychobiological model
Temperament and Character Inventory Personality dimension Neurotransmitter Behavioural reaction

– Temperament dimensions
• Novelty Seeking (NS) Exploration, Fight or
Novelty Seeking (NS) Dopamine
Escape, Flight
• Harm Avoidance (HA)
• Reward Dependence (RD)
• Persistence (PS) Harm Avoidance (HA) Serotonin Passive aviodance

– Character dimensions
Openness to warm
• Self-Directedness (SD) Reward Dependence communication,
Noradrenaline
• Cooperativeness (CO) (RD) Attachement,
• Self-Transcendence (ST) Dependence
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Temperament dimensions Questions

• Show the Big Five theory!
• Show the Cloninger’s personality model!

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