Chapter 3: The Big Five Personality Traits

Factor Analysis

Analyzing correlations among items to see which form related clusters. Example: Extraverion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism.

Openness To Experience

Being interested in trying new activities and playing with new ideas, beliefs, and value systems; opposite: being conventional and less comfortable with change. Least defined of the traits, and least likely to appear in other cultures and languages. Connected to more liberal political beliefs, urban (vs. rural) dwellers. Comfort with change, theoretical and artistic ideas. Intellectuals, "hippies" interested in the unknowable. Creativity: States with high openness also have most patent applications.

Extraversion

Being outgoing and experiencing positive emotions; opposite: introversion or shyness. Midwest.

Agreeableness

Caring for others and getting along with other people; opposite : being argumentative, combative, and self-centered. Low agreeableness connected to: -Crime -Aggression -Risky behavior such as drug abuse and gambling Partially due to hostile attribution bias -Think others are jerks too May be the result of childhood abuse or bullying

Big Five

Five comprehensive personality domains: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Big Five across cultures: Spanish: Big Seven (adds positive valence and negative valance). Chinese: Openness is replaced by interpersonal relatedness. Animals differ in emotional reactivity: Nero, Extr, Agree, and Con

Facets

More specific components of the Big Five, subcategories of Big Five traits. Extraversion: friendliness, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity level, excitement seeking, cheerfulness. Agreeableness: trust, morality, altruism, cooperation, modesty, sympathy. Conscientiousness: self-efficacy, orderliness, dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline, cautiousness. Neuroticism: anxiety, anger, depression, self-consciousness, immoderation, vulnerability. Openness to experience: imagination, artistic interests, emotionality, adventurousness, intellect, liberalism.

Neuroticism

Negative emotions such as worry and anger; opposite: calmness and emotional stability. -Not good at dealing with stress -More likely to be depressed -In some studies, worse physical health -Higher among women, more recent generations, younger people -Can be reduced through therapy

Conscientiousness

Organized, ambitious, and self-controlled; opposite: being messy, unmotivated, and impulsive. -Overlap with self-control -Persistence, impulse control -Better workplace performance -Better physical health: More likely to eat well and exercise, less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol -Can be increased through practice Southwest and Southeast.

Traits

Relatively stable tendencies of individuals.

Hostile Attribution Bias

The tendency to see others as hostile and aggressive. See the worst in people.

Lexical Hypothesis

The traits important for survival and reproduction became embedded in our language, with the most important traits represented by the largest number of words.