Types vs. Traits

General Psych 2Module 40

February 12, 2004 Class #6

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

Somatotypes Can you tell someone’s personality by

their body type?

William Sheldon (1898-1977)

Was an American psychologist who devoted his professional life to observing the range of human body types and he associated these to human personality traits or temperament types

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

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

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

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

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)

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…

Somatotypes Endomorphs Mesomorphs Ectomorphs

Endomorphic Body Type Physique

Tendency towards plumpness Soft body Underdeveloped muscles Round shaped Over-developed digestive system

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

Mesomorphic Body Type Physical

Tendency towards muscularity Hard, muscular body Overly mature appearance Rectangular shaped Thick skin Upright posture

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

Ectomorphic Body Type Physical

Thin Flat chest Delicate build Young appearance Tall Lightly muscled Stoop-shouldered Large brain

Manute Bol??? Personality

Self-conscious Preference for privacy Introverted Inhibited Socially anxious Artistic Mentally intense Emotionally restrained

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

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

High correlations between physique and temperament

Endomorphs and Viscerotonia Mesomorphs and Somatotonia Ectomorphs and Cerebrotonia

Criticisms of Sheldon’s research…

Experimenter bias Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

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

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

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

Gordon Allport (1897-1967)

Presentation by Jillian Branch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Big Five Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Emotionality (also referred to as

Neuroticism) Intellect (also referred to as Openness)

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

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

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

Okay, is behavior really trait-like?

Are traits stable across a wide range of settings?

Walter Mischel says no See next slide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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