Described personality is terms of fundamental traits (characteristic behaviors and conscious motives).

Less interested in explaining traits than in describing them.

Carl Jung’s Personality Types› Extraversion – Introversion› Sensing – Intuition› Thinking – Feeling

Isabel Briggs Myers added:› Judging - Perceiving

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator› Developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her

mother Katherine Briggs› Personality test that classified people

according to Jung’s personality types.

› Criticized for lack of predictive value, yet it has been used in business and career counseling.

What are all the ways we could describe an apple?

SmallLarge

Red

Green

Sweet

Sour

We can get a more complete picture of an apple by looking at it from multiple dimensions.

We can get a more complete picture of our personality by looking at it from multiple dimensions.

However, if we look at too many dimensions, we will become overwhelmed. It could also take forever.

Used by psychologists to reduce the number of personality traits to a few basic ones.

Trait psychologists tried to come up with the core personality dimensions.› Allows us to look at personality from

multiple angles but narrows it down to the essential dimensions.

Hans & Sybil Eysenck thought they could look at personality from two dimensions:

Emotionally Unstable

Introversion Extraversion

Emotionally Stable

Research shows that extraverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low.

Extraverts have › less activity in the frontal lobe portion of

their brain.› Higher dopamine and dopamine-related

neural activity. Dopamine influences movement, learning,

attention, and emotion.

Research shows the genes we receive from our parents play an important role in defining our temperament and behavioral style.

Variations in shyness and inhibition may be related to the automatic nervous system.

There is evidence among dogs, birds, and other animals that personality differences are stable in animals.

Questionnaires that categorize personality traits.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)› The most widely used personality

inventory.› Questions are grouped into 10 scales.› Was empirically derived

That is, developed by testing a large pool of items and selecting the items that differentiated particular individuals.

How stable are these traits?› In adulthood, they are quite stable.

› However, some will decline during early and middle adulthood. Example: neuroticism, extraversion,

openness

› Some increase throughout adulthood. Example: conscientiousness, agreeableness

How heritable are they?› The extent to which individual differences

are attributable to genes is generally 50%

Do the Big Five traits predict other personal attributes?› Yes

› Examples: Highly conscientious people earn better high

school and university grades.