Types vs. Traits

1. Types vs. Traits General Psych 2 Module 40 February 12, 2004 Class #6

2. Types • Carl Jung (1933) • Are you introverted or extroverted??? • We are a “type”…either one or the other, distinct and discontinuous • Like male and female…can only be one • Any appearance to the contrary is just a distortion of one’s basic personality

3. Somatotypes • Can you tell someone’s personality by their body type?

4. William Sheldon(1898-1977) • Was an American psychologist who devoted his professional life to observing the range of human body types and he associatedthese tohuman personality traits or temperament types

5. Sheldon’s Biography • Sheldon graduated from Warwick High School in 1915 and entered Brown University • With the American entrance into World War I he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in a machine gun company • In 1919 he received a degree from Brown in absentia, and afterwards not really settled on a career he wandered westward • He entered the University of Colorado where he earned an M.A. in English in 1923

6. Sheldon’s Biography • Around this time he had meetings with Freud and later with Jung concerning psychological concerns that had interested him and he also meet with German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer who had started the scientific study of the relationship between physique and personality • He finally decides to pursue psychology at the University Chicago where he received his Ph.D. in 1925 • He taught psychology at the Univ. of Chicago and then at the University of Wisconsin

7. Sheldon’s Biography • He became very interested in Freudian ideas and also in how physical characteristics might influence personality • He read how William James (one of psychology’s founding fathers) had gone through medical school not to practice medicine but to become a better psychologist and religious philosopher…so he does the same • He enters the University of Chicago Medical School and received an M.D. in 1933

8. Sheldon’s Biography • During the late 30’s and early 40’s he dedicated himself to researching the thesis linking one’s physical features and psychological tendencies • Eventually, he was invited to work at Harvard where he conducted his most famous study • In 1942, World War II broke out and he enlisted – eventually earning the rank of major in the army • Stationed in Texas he was permitted to continue his research on somatotypes

9. Sheldon’s Biography • Unfortunately in 1945, he was struck down by a severe lymphatic cancer and given a medical discharge with 100% disability • He was not expected to live more than a year… • Interestingly, he made a remarkable recovery and became busier than ever before • He was instrumental in the opening of somatotype clinics on both the east and west coasts • His health probably began to fail again in the late 60’s and he basically retired at that point but he did live until 1977 (over 30 years longer than the doctors had predicted)

10. Sheldon (1942) • In original study at Harvard, he and his colleagues examined thousands of photographs of almost completely nude male bodies and concluded we have three components to our physiques…

11. Somatotypes • Endomorphs • Mesomorphs • Ectomorphs

12. Endomorphic Body Type • Physique • Tendency towards plumpness • Soft body • Underdeveloped muscles • Round shaped • Over-developed digestive system

13. Can’t help but think of John Candy in “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”… • Personality • Sociable • Amiable • Needy for affection and approval • Love of food • Tolerant • Evenness of emotions • Love of comfort • Good humored • Relaxed

14. Mesomorphic Body Type • Physical • Tendency towards muscularity • Hard, muscular body • Overly mature appearance • Rectangular shaped • Thick skin • Upright posture

15. Bruce Willis comes to mind… • Personality • Adventurous • Desire for power and dominance • Courageous • Indifference to what others think or want • Assertive, bold • Zest for physical activity • Competitive • Love of risk and chance • Dominating

16. Ectomorphic Body Type • Physical • Thin • Flat chest • Delicate build • Young appearance • Tall • Lightly muscled • Stoop-shouldered • Large brain

17. Manute Bol??? • Personality • Self-conscious • Preference for privacy • Introverted • Inhibited • Socially anxious • Artistic • Mentally intense • Emotionally restrained

18. Somatotypes • A person’s somatotype was defined by placing the individual at some point along each dimension • Your somatotype is designated by three numbers each ranging from 1-7 indicating the degree of each body type • Receiving a 1 would mean a person had none of the usual characteristics of that body type • Receiving a 7 would mean they would have all of the characteristics of that body type

19. Sheldon’s Temperaments • He also gave the subjects personality tests and categorized them into the following: • Viscerotonia – • Easygoing, relaxed, sociability • Somatotonia – • Courage, assertiveness, physical activity • Cerebrotonia • Tendency towards privacy, avoidance

20. High correlations between physique and temperament • Endomorphs and Viscerotonia • Mesomorphs and Somatotonia • Ectomorphs and Cerebrotonia

21. Criticisms of Sheldon’s research… • Experimenter bias • Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

22. What type was Sheldon himself? • His somatotype? • He was around a 3.5 - 3.5 - 5, and thus he falls sort of in the middle which more ectomorphic tendencies than the others • His psychological type? • From reading his biography he probably was an introverted thinking type

23. Traits: The Dimensional Approach • People differ across dimensions which are continuous • People differ in varying amounts • Differences among people are quantitative rather than qualitative • People vary from one another in varying amounts concerning their personality characteristics – not talking about different aspects just different degrees of the same aspect

24. What traits are basic to personality? • Factor analysis • Rates people on a number of items representing different dimensions (in this case, traits) • Looks at the correlations among the items (what traits were high at the same time and what traits were high when others were low) • Creates groups based on this correlations • Used to group a large amount of data

25. Gordon Allport(1897-1967) • Presentation by Jillian Branch

26. Hans Eysenck(1916-1997) • Hans Eysenck was born in Germany on March 4, 1916  • His parents were actors who divorced when he was only two, and so Hans was raised by his grandmother • He left there when he was 18 years old, when the Nazis came to power • As an active Jewish sympathizer, his life was in danger

27. Eysenck • He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of London in 1940 • During World War II, he served as a psychologist at an emergency hospital, where he did research on the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses • Later, he taught at the University of London • He has written 75 books and some 700 articles, making him one of the most prolific writers in psychology • Eysenck retired in 1983

28. Hans Eysenck • Eysenck regards personality as being primarily an inborn phenomenon-- that means that personality, to him, is more like eye color or height than it is like learned phenomena • He proposed that we have two super traits which operated on a type of continuum… • Unstable (neurotic) vs. stable • Extraverted vs. introverted • He used factor analysis to determine these dimensions

29. Super Traits • Neuroticism is the name Eysenck gave to a dimension that ranges from normal, fairly calm and collected people to one’s that tend to be quite “nervous”  • His research showed that nervous people tended to suffer more frequently from a variety of “nervous disorders” we call neuroses, hence the name of the dimension • But understand that he was not saying that people who score high on the neuroticism scale are necessarily neurotics -- only that they are more susceptible to neurotic problems

30. Super Traits • The extraversion dimension concerns tendencies towards sociability, craving excitement, liveliness, activeness, and dominance • The emotional stability dimension concerns the ease and frequency with which the person becomes upset and distressed • Greater moodiness, anxiety, and depression reflect greater emotional instability

31. Extraversion-introversion • Shy, quiet people “versus” out-going, even loud people. This dimension, too, is found in everyone, but the physiological explanation is a bit more complex… • Introverts were over-aroused individuals therefore they try to keep stimulation to a minimum • Extroverts were under-aroused individuals, therefore they tried to increase stimulation • He felt that personality was partly due to genetic factors

32. A Point for Nature… • Note: • Notice how the study of personality reflects the nature-nurture problem… • Eysenck's theory leans toward the nature end of the continuum • It is  based primarily on physiology and genetics • He considers personality differences as growing out of our genetic inheritance • He is primarily interested in a person’s temperament

33. The Big Five • Several researchers have found evidence for the existence of five basic dimensions of personality through factor analysis • 5 factors are independent of one another • Everyone can be placed along a continuum for all 5 factors/traits

34. The Big Five • Extraversion • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness • Emotionality (also referred to as Neuroticism) • Intellect (also referred to as Openness)

35. What researchers say… • From a review of literature the following are some of the important characteristics of the five factors: • The factors are dimensions, not types, so people vary continuously on them, with most people falling in between the extremes • The factors are stable over a 45-year period beginning in young adulthood • The factors and their specific facets appear heritable • The factors are considered universal • Knowing one's placement on the factors is useful for insight and improvement through therapy

36. What Are These Five Factors? • Extraversion • Bold versus timid • Outgoing versus introverted • Talkative versus silent • Agreeableness • Friendliness versus indifference to others • A docile versus hostile nature • Compliance versus hostile noncompliance • Conscientiousness • Responsible versus irresponsible • Hardworking versus lazy • Cautious versus rash

37. What Are These Five Factors? • Neuroticism • Adjustment versus anxiety • Level of Emotional stability • Dependence vs. independence • Openness • Reflection of an inquiring intellect • Flexibility versus conformity • Rebelliousness versus Subduedness

38. Okay, is behavior really trait-like? • Are traits stable across a wide range of settings? • Walter Mischel says no • See next slide

39. Mischel (1968) • A long-time personologist attacked trait theory • Disputed the “generalized and enduring causal effects on behavior” • Coined the phrase “personality coefficient” to characterize the modest correlations between trait self-reports and behavior which he said typically were between .20 and .30

40. Mischel (1968) • For example, the consistency between children's honesty in one social situation (e.g., one's willingness to steal some change left on the table of an empty classroom) and their honesty in a different social situation (e.g., willingness to cheat during an exam) amounted to a correlation of .20

41. Situationism: The person vs. the situation debate rages on… • Data of this sort, pointing to the low cross-situational consistency of personality traits, constitute a strong situationist challenge to the power of person factors in accounting for human behavior

42. Personality psychologists on the defensive… • Many personality psychologists were disturbed by these challenges, and some were even enraged because they felt it was an invalid attack against a whole discipline • The social psych camp went on an attack mode originated in the “heresy” committed by former personologist Mischel

43. The rebuttal… • Personality psychologists claimed that Social psychologists can easily create situations in which personality influences are minimized • Doesn’t give a true picture of what happens in the real world • The personality dispositions that a person values very highly or those that are integral to his or her goals in life will influence his or her behavior more markedly than other dispositions • The situation won’t affect behavior if its dealing with an important disposition

44. Mischel’s idea led to interactionism… • Its not the person or the situation but rather the person and the situation…??? • They interact to produce the behavior…??? • Variations in situations affect some people in one way and affect others in a different way • For example, last week’s video camera may have caused the extroverts in this class to want to give longer introductions whereas the introverts may have wanted to dig a hole and hide

45. Lets go a little deeper… • What is a situation? • Do situations change people? • Or do people change or even make a situation? • Hastorf and Cantril (1954)

46. Hastorf and Cantril (1954) • Princeton vs. Dartmouth football game • Very rough game – a Dartmouth player was taken off on stretcher with broken leg and a Princeton player broke his nose – many penalties throughout the game • A week later undergraduates were shown a film of the game and described it in two very different ways • Princeton students “saw” the Dartmouth team make twice as many penalties as the Princeton students “saw” them make

47. Interactionism in Behavior Problems • Diathesis-stress model • A person has a predisposition to develop an illness but it may remain dormant unless triggered by something (stressors) • Living in a poor environment might lead the vulnerable person into deep depression

48. Psychology of a stranger??? • Criticisms of Trait Theories • Tells us only things someone might want to know if they knew nothing else about a person • Labels them…but that’s about it • Circular explanations • Not really explaining why • A person’s behavior may not be stable across situations • Very debatable criticism