Traits – The Big Five

1. Traits – The Big Five Kimberley A. Clow kclow2@uwo.ca http://instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/257e-570

2. Outline • Development of the Big Five • Lexical Approach • Intro to Factor Analysis • The Big Five • Admin • Extra Optional Paper • Discuss Exam • Sample Questions • Discuss Paper

3. Development of the Big Five • LEXICAL APPROACH • Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis • “Those personality traits that are most salient and socially relevant in people’s lives have become encoded into their language; the more important such a trait, the more likely is it to become expressed as a single word” (Goldberg, 1982, p.204)

4. Remember Correlations? high Participant 1 Remaining Participants Dancing in Public Participant 3 Participant 2 low low high Shy

5. Correlation Coefficients +1 0 -1 +.8

6. Sample Correlations

7. Factor Analysis • Statistical tool that looks at the correlations among many variables (e.g., various behaviours) and groups these variables in clusters • called factors or dimensions • Each factor (or dimension) includes all the variables that correlate highly with each other • co-exist in people • Each factor is interpreted as a psychological disposition or trait

8. Factors

9. True or False • Am the life of the party. • Feel little concern for others. • Am always prepared. • Get stressed out easily. • Have a rich vocabulary. • Don't talk a lot. • Am interested in people. • Leave my belongings around. • Am relaxed most of the time.

10. Have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. • Feel comfortable around people. • Insult people. • Pay attention to details. • Worry about things. • Have a vivid imagination. • Keep in the background. • Sympathize with others' feelings. • Make a mess of things. • Seldom feel blue. • Am not interested in abstract ideas.

11. Start conversations. • Am not interested in other people's problems. • Get chores done right away. • Am easily disturbed. • Have excellent ideas. • Have little to say. • Have a soft heart. • Often forget to put things back in their proper place. • Get upset easily. • Do not have a good imagination.

12. Talk to a lot of different people at parties. • Am not really interested in others. • Like order. • Change my mood a lot. • Am quick to understand things. • Don't like to draw attention to myself. • Take time out for others. • Shirk my duties. • Have frequent mood swings. • Use difficult words.

13. Don't mind being the centre of attention. • Feel others' emotions. • Follow a schedule. • Get irritated easily. • Spend time reflecting on things. • Am quiet around strangers. • Make people feel at ease. • Am exacting in my work. • Often feel blue. • Am full of ideas.

15. Going Further Extraversion PersonalityO C E A N Conscientiousness Agreeableness Openness Neuroticism FACTORS FACETS O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 O6 E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 TRAITS

17. Admin Stuff • People are nervous about the exam • Proposing an extra OPTIONAL paper • If you don’t like your Christmas exam grade, next term you can choose to write an ADDITIONAL paper to cover for it • If you take this choice, this additional paper will REPLACE your Christmas exam grade (40%) • For better or worse • This is an essay course, after all, so I feel justified in adding another paper for those who want it

18. Mandatory Paper • Three Steps (20% Paper) • Review a theory of personality • One discussed in class • Another psychological theory • No new age stuff or horoscopes; must be a psych theory! • Make up your own questionnaire (15-20 questions) that captures the essence/main points of this theory • Write up how the questions you made up capture the essence/main points of this theory