CHAPTER TEN - Cengage



CHAPTER TEN

OUTLINE

Raymond Cattell

1 The Life of Cattell

1 Raymond Cattell came from a happy home in Staffordshire, England. At 16, Cattell enrolled at the University of London to study physics and chemistry, here he graduated three years later with honors. Cattell studied psychologist-statistician Charles E. Spearman, who had developed the technique of factor analysis. Cattell received his Ph.D. in 1929 and decided to apply the factor analysis method to the structure of personality. Cattell eventually moved to Harvard University where his colleagues included Henry Murray, Gordon Allport, and William Sheldon. Further, at the University of Illinois, Cattell was employed as a research professor for more than 20 years while publishing over 500 articles. Cattell taught at the University in Hawaii in his seventies after achieving many awards in the field of psychology.

2 Cattell’s Approach to Personality Traits

1 Cattell defined traits as relatively permanent reaction tendencies that are basic structural units of the personality. A common trait is one that is possessed by everyone to some degree, such as intelligence or extraversion. People differ because of their unique traits, which are those aspects of the personality shared by few other people. Ability traits help us work efficiently towards goals, while temperament traits describe the general style and emotional tone of our behavior, such as being easygoing or irritable. Dynamic traits define our motivations, interests, and ambitions, according to Cattell.

2 Surface traits are personality characteristics that correlate with one another but do not constitute a factor because they are not determined by a single source. Anxiety, indecision, and irrational fear combine to make or form the surface trait Cattell labeled neuroticism. Source traits are those individual factors derived from factor analysis that combine to account for surface traits.

3 Constitutional traits originate in biological conditions, such as a propensity to consume alcohol leads to behaviors such as carelessness, talkativeness, and slurred speech. Environmental-mold traits are learned characteristics and behaviors that impose a pattern on the personality.

3 Source Traits: The Basic Factors of Personality

1 Cattell identified 16 source traits, (through factor analysis); as the basic factors of personality. Cattell called this objective personality test, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). A person can score high, low, or somewhere in between on these basic personality factors. Cattell added additional factors, which he called temperament traits, such as excitability, zest, self-discipline, politeness, and self-assurance.

4 Dynamic Traits: The Motivating Forces

1 Cattell proposed two kinds of dynamic, motivating traits. The word erg was used to denote the concept of instinct or drive. Cattell identified 11 ergs, which are anger, appeal, curiosity, disgust, gregariousness, hunger, protection, security, self-assertion, self-submission, and sex. A sentiment is an environmental-mold source trait and is a pattern of learned attitudes that focus on an important aspect of life, such as a person’s community, spouse, occupation, religion, or hobby. A sentiment can be unlearned and can disappear when it is no longer needed in a person’s life.

2 Attitudes are defined as our interests in and our emotions and behaviors toward some person, object, or event. To Cattell, an attitude is not just an opinion; an attitude encompasses all our emotions and actions toward an object or situation.

3 Subsidiation means that within the personality some elements subsidiate, or are subordinate to, other elements. Attitudes are subsidiary to sentiments; sentiments are subsidiary to ergs. These relationships are expressed by Cattell in what he called the dynamic lattice.

4 Each person’s pattern of sentiments is organized by a master sentiment called the self-sentiment. This is our self-concept, reflected in virtually all of our attitudes and behaviors, which further control all of the structures in the personality.

5 The Influences of Heredity and Environment

1 Cattell’s data suggests that 80% of intelligence (Factor B) and 80% of timidity-versus-boldness (Factor H) can be accounted or by genetic factors. Further, Cattell concluded that, overall, one-third of our personality is genetically based, and two-thirds is determined by social and environmental influences.

6 Stages of Personality Development

1 Cattell covered the entire life span with six stages of development. (A) The period of infancy from birth to 6 is a time to be influenced by parents and siblings, while between the ages of 6 to 14, marks the stage of (B) independence from parents and an increasing identification with peers. The third stage is from 14 to 23; (C) is marked by emotional disorders and possible delinquency as young people experience conflicts centered on the drives for independence, self-assertion, and sex. From age 23 to 50 marks the fourth stage which is (D) generally a productive, satisfying time in terms of career, marriage, and family situations. Late maturity, (E) is from the age of 50 to 65 and involves personality developments in response to physical, social, and psychological changes. The final stage, (F) is old age, according to Cattell. A person in this stage has adjustments to different kinds of losses, such as the death of a spouse, relatives, and friends, loss of a career, loneliness, and insecurity.

7 Assessment in Cattell’s Theory

1 Cattell used three primary assessment techniques. L-data, (life records); is a technique which involves observers’ ratings of specific behaviors exhibited by research participants in real-life settings such as a classroom or office. L-data involve overt behaviors that can be seen by an observer and occur in a naturalistic setting rather than in the artificial situation of a psychology laboratory.

2 Q-data, (Questionnaires); calls for observers to rate the research participants. Q-data requires research participants to rate themselves, however; Cattell warned that Q-data must not be automatically assumed to be accurate.

3 T-data, (Personality); involves the use of what Cattell called “objective” tests, in which a person responds without knowing what aspect of behavior is being evaluated.

4 Cattell developed the 16 PF, which is based on 16 major source traits. The 16 PF is widely used to assess personality for research, clinical diagnosis, and predicting occupational success. There are variations of the 16 PF that measure such specific aspects of personality as anxiety, depression and neuroticism. The test has been translated into more than 40 languages and can be used with adults, adolescents, and children.

8 Research in Cattell’s Theory

1 Of the three ways to study personality in research, Cattell chose the multivariate approach, which yields specific data through the statistical procedure of factor analysis. Cattell collected large amounts of data with the R technique, where correlations among all scores are made to determine personality factors or traits. With the P technique, Cattell collected a large amount of data from a single subject over a long period. Cattell and his associates conducted hundreds of factor-analytic studies.

9 The Dimensions of Personality: Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism

1 Hans Eysenck was born in Germany but immigrated to England to flee Hitler in 1934. Eysenck published over 79 books and over 1,097 journal articles. Eysenck developed several personality assessment devices including the Eysenck Personality Inventory, The Maudsley Medical Questionnaire, and the Maudsley Personality Inventory. He conducted research on the measurement of personality at the University of London’s Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry. Eysenck used factor analysis to uncover personality traits and supplemented the method with personality tests and experimental studies that considered a wide range of variables. Eysenck’s theory of personality is based on three “super factors”, defined as combinations of traits or factors. Dimension E is extraversion versus introversion, Dimension N which is neuroticism versus emotional stability, and Dimension P, psychoticism versus impulse control (or superego functioning). Research has shown that traits and dimensions proposed by Eysenck remain stable throughout the life span from childhood through adulthood.

10 Robert McCrae and Paul Costa: The Five-Factor Model

1 McCrae and Costa, who worked for the Gerontology Research Center of the National Institutes of Health in Baltimore; identified five so-called robust or Big Five factors in their research. The five factors are: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. These factors were confirmed through a variety of assessment techniques including self-ratings, objective tests, and observers’ reports. In studies of twins, four of the five factors show a strong hereditary component. Agreeableness was found to have a stronger environmental component. These five factors have been consistently observed in both Eastern and Western cultures, which supports a genetic component. The five factors are found in children as well as adults and in longitudinal studies, these five factors demonstrated a high level of stability for all five traits.

2 In several studies, extraversion was positively related to emotional well being, whereas neuroticism was negatively related to emotional well being. From the evidence of research, it is clear that the five-factor model of personality has a high predictive value. McCrae and Costa’s findings have been replicated and continue to inspire considerable research.

11 Arnold Buss and Robert Plomin: The Temperament Theory

1 Buss and Plomin identified three temperaments that they believe are the basic building blocks of personality. The temperaments combine to form personality patterns or so-called super traits, such as introversion or extra-version. These three temperaments are: (a) emotionality, (B) activities, and (C) sociability. Buss and Plomin developed two tests to assess personality: the Emotionality, Activity, Sociability Survey for Adults (EAS), and the Emotionality, Activity, Sociability Infant Temperament Survey (EASI) for children. Based on extensive research with twin studies, Buss and Plomin concluded that temperaments are primarily inherited. These findings have been replicated with further research and research also suggests the existence of a strong relationship between the temperamental dispositions and the Big Five personality factors.

2 The Emotionality temperament refers to our level of arousal or excitability. The Activity temperament is defined by Buss and Plomin in terms of physical energy and vigor. The Sociability temperament refers to the degree of preference for contact and interaction with other people. From research, strong evidence exists that temperaments remain stable from birth into adulthood and that the strength of that stability increases dramatically after age 3. Plomin also suggested that genetic factors influence our perception of stressful life events, so inherited temperaments exert pervasive, long-lasting influences on our behavior.

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