Chapter 3 Key Terms
Introduction to Personality: Toward An Integration 7e
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Chapter 3 – Key Terms
Ability traits – Cattell’s term for traits that are concerned with effectiveness in gaining the goal
(p. 51)
Act trends – general behavioral trends; Buss & Craik view traits as descriptions of individual
differences in act trends instead of underlying internal causes (p. 66)
Agreeableness (A) – good-natured, helpful, trusting, lenient; opposite of antagonism (p. 58)
Big Five Structure – a popular taxonomy for characterizing individuals in terms of five major
traits based on factor analysis of bipolar trait ratings and questionnaires (p. 58)
Cardinal traits – Allport’s term for highly generalized dispositions or characteristics that
influence most aspects of an individual’s behavior throughout life (p. 48)
Central traits – Allport’s term for traits that are less important and pervasive than cardinal traits
but that still influence much of a person’s behavior (p. 48)
Common traits – according to Allport, traits that are shared in different degrees by many people
(p. 49)
Conscientiousness (C) – careful, self-reliant, goal-directed, scrupulous; opposite of
undirectedness (p. 58)
Constitutional traits – those source traits that reflect constitutional factors (p. 50)
Domain of interpersonal behavior – according to Wiggins, a comprehensive taxonomy of
personality dimensions discovered through factor analysis (p. 56)
Dynamic traits – Cattell’s term for traits that are relevant to the individuals being “set into
action” with respect to some goal (p. 51)
Emotional stability – the opposite of neuroticism, according to Eysenck, who viewed emotional
stability-neuroticism as an important trait dimension (p. 53)
Environmental-mold traits – those source traits (according to Cattell) that reflect environmental
conditions (p. 50)
Extraversion (E) (Extraverts) – according to Jung, an individual who is conventional, sociable,
and outgoing and who reacts to stress by trying to lose himself or herself among people (p.
44)
Factor analysis – a mathematical procedure for sorting trait terms or test responses into clusters
or factors; used in the development of tests designed to discover basic personality traits; it
identifies items that are homogeneous or internally consistent and independent of others (p.
57)
Chapter 3 Key Terms
Introduction to Personality: Toward An Integration 7e
2
Introversion (Introverts) – tendency to withdraw into oneself, especially when encountering
stressful emotional conflict; according to Jung, the introvert is shy and withdrawn, and
prefers to be alone (p. 44)
NEO-PI-R – a personality inventory that measures individuals along the Big Five personality
trait dimensions (p. 58)
Neuroticism (N) – the opposite of emotional stability, according to Eysenck, who viewed
neuroticism-emotional stability as an important trait dimension (p. 53)
Openness to experience (O) – willingness to try new things, original, independent; opposite of
closed-mindedness (p. 58)
Prototypicality – the degree to which the member of a category is representative of that category
or exemplifies it (p. 65)
Psycholexical approach – a research strategy that seeks to classify people into different trait
groups by identifying differences among individuals on the basis of ratings with natural
language terms (adjectives) that are factor analyzed (p. 56)
Secondary dispositions – the most specific, defined traits or “attitudes” that influence an
individual’s behavior (p. 49)
Source traits – In R. B. Cattell’s theory, the traits that constitute personality structure and
determine surface traits and behavior (p. 49)
Surface traits – R. B. Cattell’s term for clusters of overt or manifest trait elements (responses)
that seem to go together; the manifestations of source traits (p. 49)
Temperament traits – R. B. Cattell’s term for traits that determine emotional reactivity (p. 51)
Trait – A persistent (enduring) characteristic or dimension of individual differences; defined by
Allport as a generalized “neuropsychic system,” distinctive to each person, that serves to
unify many different stimuli by leading the person to generate consistent responses to them
(p. 44)
Trait approach – an approach to personality that categorizes individuals in terms of traits (p. 43)
Trait structure – unique structure of trait as it exists in a particular individual (p. 49)
Unique traits – in Allport’s theory, traits that only exist in only one individual and cannot be
found in another in exactly the same form (p. 49)