1. Trait Theory
Eysenck and The Big Five

2. What kind of person are
you?
• Two typical approaches:
i) a „type‟ of person (e.g. quiet type, outgoing type)
ii) give a description of their characteristics (e.g.
studious, shy, friendly)
• Both approaches involve describing themselves in
terms of relatively stable features of their
behaviour (as a type or certain traits)

3. Trait
• A trait:
• Is a dimension of personality used to categorise
individuals according to the degree to which they
show a particular characteristic.
• Is assumed to be stable across situations.
• Is assumed to be normally distributed.

4. The Trait Approach
• Less concerned with understanding one person
than in understanding how people at certain points
on the trait distribution behave.
• Attempts to describe average group behaviour.
• Attempts to describe personality variables and
predict behaviour (rather than explain it).
• Advantage – allows comparison across people.

5. Hans J. Eysenck

6. Background
• March 4, 1916 – September 4, 1997
• Raised by grandmother (parents divorced when he was two)
• Left Germany at the age of 18, when Nazis came to power
• In England - received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the
University of London in 1940
• During World War II - psychologist at an emergency hospital
• Post-war - taught at the University of London
• 75 books, 700 articles!
• Retired 1983

7. Eysenck‟ contributions
• Major contribution to personality psychology is his
work on identification of traits and what he calls
types, or supertraits.
• Eysenck divided the elements of personality into
various units that can be arranged hierarchically.
• Concluded that all traits can be listed within three
basic personality dimensions.

8. The Hierarchal Model
• 4 levels:
Specific Response – consists of specific behaviours
(e.g. spending an afternoon talking and laughing with
friends)
Habitual – Regular/frequent engagement of the specific
behaviours (e.g. many afternoons)
Trait – exhibition of trait (not just afternoons, weekends
too! Not just his/her friends, strangers too!
Sociability!)
Type/Supertrait– the major „type‟ in which the trait level
falls under (e.g. Extraversion)

9. 4 levels:
Specific Response – consists of specific behaviours (e.g. spending an
afternoon talking and laughing with friends)
Habitual – Regular/frequent engagement of the specific behaviours (e.g. many
afternoons)
Trait – exhibition of trait (not just afternoons, weekends too! Not just his/her
friends, strangers too! Sociability!)
Type/Supertrait– the major „type‟ in which the trait level falls under (e.g.
Extraversion)

10. The upertraits
• How many?
• Originally – two basic dimensions:
neuroticism and extraversion-introversion.
Neurotic
Introverted Extraverted
Stable

11. Dimensions of Personality
Neurotic Indicative of overreactivity.
Position on the scales High scoring tend to be emotionally
Would be determined overresponsive and have difficulties
Via the EPQ in returning to a normal state after
(Eysenck Personality emotional experiences”
Questionnaire) (Eysenck&Eysenck, 1968, p.6)
Introverted Extraverted
X
A person with a low
E score and a slightly
Low N score would be
At X
Stable

12. List down possible traits for each
quadrant/combination of Supertraits…
N
I E
S

13. Give yourselves a tick if you
wrote….

14. The Third upertrait
PSYCHOTICISM: High scorers are described as
“egocentric, aggressive, impersonal, cold, lacking in
empathy, impulsive, lacking in concern for others, and
generally unconcerned about the rights and welfare of
other people” (Eysenck, 1982, p.11)

15. Where would you put the
PSYCHOTICISM DIMENSION?
Neurotic
Introvert Extravert
Stable

16. Eysenck‟s biological theories
• Suggested that:
• Extraverts have a lower
resting cortical arousal rate
than introverts.
(understimulated)
• People whose autonomic
nervous system is highly
reactive is likely to develop a
neurotic disorder.

17. The Big Five

18. Very Moderatel Neither Moderatel Very
Unlikely y unlikely likely y likely likely
or
unlikely
1. Start a conversation
with a stranger
2. Make sure others are
comfortable and happy
3. Use difficult words
4. Prepare for things in
advance
5. Feel blue or depressed
6. Plan parties or social
events
7. Insult people
8. Think about
philosophical or social
questions
9. Let things get into a
mess

19. Scoring
• For all questions other than 7 and 9:
Very unlikely = 1
Moderately unlikely = 2
Neither likely or unlikely = 3
Moderately likely = 4
Very likely = 5
• For questions 7 and 9:
Very unlikely = 5
Moderately unlikely = 4
Neither likely or unlikely = 3
Moderately likely = 2
Very likely = 1

20. Scoring
• Sum up your score from the individual questions as
shown below:
O = Q3 + Q8
C = Q4 + Q9
E = Q1 + Q6
A = Q2 + Q7
N = Q5 + Q10
• 2, 3 and 4 are low scores, 5 and 6 are low-medium, 7
and 8 are medium-high, and 9 and 10 are high scores.

21. Basic Dimensions of
Personality
• Research conducted for decades found that
people had five key dimensions of personality.
• Costa & McCrae (1985)
• Five-factor Model (FFM), also known as “The Big
Five”

22. The Dimensions
• Openness to experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

23. Openness to experience
• A person‟s willingness to try new things.
• High scorers = creative, artistic, curious,
imaginative, non-conforming.
Low scorers = conventional, down-to-earth,
uncreative, simple, maintains status quo

24. Conscientiousness
• Refers to a person‟s organisation and motivation.
• High scorers: punctual, careful with belongings,
organised, neat, reliable, ambitious, responsible,
self-disciplined
Low scorers: unreliable, lazy, careless, negligent,
spontaneous

25. Extraversion
• One‟s need to be with other people
• High scorers: outgoing, sociable, talkative,
optimistic, affectionate
Low scorers: prefer solitude, reserved, stays in the
background

26. Agreeableness
• The basic emotional style of a person.
• High scorers: easygoing, pleasant, friendly, good-
natured, trusting and helpful
Low scorers: grumpy, crabby, difficult to get along
with, rude, uncooperative, irritable, aggressive,
competitive

27. Neuroticism
• Degree of emotional stability or instability.
• High scorers: worrying, insecure, anxious,
temperamental
Low scorers: Calm, secure, relaxed, stable

28. Revisit your results
• The test taken is the Newcastle Personality
Assessor (NPA), used to assess people on the big
five personality dimensions.
• There are copious online versions that are also
based on the Big Five.

29. Cross-Cultural
• FFM has been studied and tested by numerous
researchers.
• Cross-cultural studies have found evidence of the
Big Five in 11 different cultures, including
Japan, the Philippines, Germany, China and Peru
(McCrae et al., 2000)

30. Evaluation of Trait Approach
• In groups of four or five, brainstorm as many
strengths and weakness about the trait approach
so far.