CHAPTER TEN
OUTLINE
I.
Raymond Cattell
A.
The Life of Cattell
1.
B.
C.
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.
Source Traits: The Basic Factors of Personality
1.
D.
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.
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.
Dynamic Traits: The Motivating Forces
E.
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, selfassertion, 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.
The Influences of Heredity and Environment
1.
F.
Stages of Personality Development
1.
G.
Cattell’s data suggests that 80% of intelligence (Factor B) and 80% of timidityversus-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.
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, selfassertion, 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.
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.
H.
2.
Q-data, (Questionnaires); calls for observers to rate the research participants. Qdata 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.
Research in Cattell’s Theory
1.
I.
The Dimensions of Personality: Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism
1.
J.
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.
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.
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.
K.
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.
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.