Leson 2 forum

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To respond to this discussion forum, you have two choices.

1. Respond to the following question: What evidence is there to support the claim that there are five basic traits and to what extent can personality be said to consist of only these five traits?

2. Start a discussion topic of your choice.

Perspectives On Personality, Ch. 4-5.

Class mates example,

1) What evidence is there to support the claim that there are five basic traits and to what extent can personality be said to consist of only these five traits?

Support:

· There thousands of different descriptors that can be applied to describe a person, but the descriptions tend to fall towards these 5 traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism (emotional stability), Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

· This model dominates the field for personality psychology currently (popularization comes from use of the statistical procedure known as factor analysis)

· The qualities that fall under these five traits are continuous meaning that when we talk about any of the five traits in the five-factor model, we are talking about the continuum of each trait/factor. THIS is one great way to support the claim that the five basic traits can encompass many different qualities (the thousands of descriptions to describe a person) into easily manageable ways.

· example: outgoing versus withdrawn (extraversion) or organized versus disorganized (conscientiousness).

· The five-factor model shares with Eysenck's model that core traits are super traits which are composed of many more specific facet traits.

· The five factors may be able to transcend many cultural and language boundaries and can possibly apply to lower animals (Gosling, 2001). It is most clear in Western languages however.

· some psychologists believe the five-factor model can be condensed: putting the five traits into a higher-order analysis yields two factors:

· Digman (1997): socialization (neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness) and personal growth (extraversion and openness)

· DeYoung (2006): stability and plasticity (same order as above).

Extent:

· there are disagreements in the interpretations of the name for the factors. Example: neuroticism versus emotional stability or intellect versus openness to experience.

· What factors look like depend on what items are measured. Studies with different measures can lead to different conclusions to the definitions of factors.

· Pattern for the five-factor model may be hard to find in some languages (even if it is identifiable in many cultures/languages as noted previously) and can be harder to accept/understand for people who are less educated on the subject/model.

· Some models use less than five-factors and others may have alternatives fives or more factors.

· Example: Tellegen's 1985 model (3 super traits: negative emotionality, positive emotionality, constraint). Zuckerman's "alternative 5" (sociability factor, neuroticism-hostility, aggression-hostility, impulsive sensation seeking, activity).

· some psychologists believe the five-factor model is incomplete: tests using seven languages revealed a 6th super trait called honesty-humility (this trait tends to be absorbed by agreeableness)

2) Discussion topic of choice:

Do you believe there is a way we can break behavioral confirmation effects (how we behave may get other people to behave in a manner that is consistent with the traits we believe they possess)? I primarily mean this for traits we may judge to be "negative" (subjective). Example: you hear that your potential date may be jealous, so you withhold information about your past relationships or other potential dates as to not upset them, but they feel that you are acting secretive/unopen and they proceed to become jealous. What are ways to promote productive/benevolent behavioral confirmation effects?