PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Twin Study, Big Five Personality Traits, Dark Triad
2 Jul 2018
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09/04/2018 Eysenck’s Biological Typology and McCrae & Costa’s Five Factor Model
Currently dominates academic empirical psychology
Oldest of all approaches examined thus far
It goes back to Hippocrates but there is evidence it goes back even further (Iraq, Egypt)
Its roots are in the original categorisation of personality into 4 temperaments:
Sanguine (enthusiastic, active, social)
Choleric (short-tempered, fast, irritable)
Melancholic (analytical, wise, quiet)
Phlegmatic (relaxed, peaceful)
An individual would have 1 of these temperaments
The types were quite clear
Classical psychoanalysis – involves typology at its core, Freud introduced typologies for his
psychosexual analysis
Explains our behaviour
Parenting, socialisation in context of an individual’s stage of development
Now we identify using traits
The three-factor model (Eysenck, 1947): extraversion; neuroticism; psychoticism
The five-factor model (McCrae & Costa, 1997): neuroticism; extraversion; openness to
experience; agreeableness; conscientiousness
The dark triad (Paulus & Williams, 2002): narcissism; Machiavellianism; psychopathy
These are adjectives that capture a cluster of characteristics
Each trait sits on a dimension and we all sit on these dimensions depending on how much of
that characteristic we have
How many traits do we need to reliably describe people and accommodate their
differences? What exactly are these traits?
Eysenck’s hierarchical structure of the personality
1. Specific responses (observed act or response which occurs on one occasion and may not
be characteristic of the individual
2. Habitual responses (specific responses that reoccur under similar circumstances)
3. Traits (constructs based on intercorrelations of a number of habitual responses (accuracy,
irritability, persistence, rigidity, solitary, troublesome, insensitive, etc.))
4. Types (largely inherited, the most general extraversion, introversion, neuroticism,
stability, psychoticism, impulse controlled)
Eysenck’s conception: “at the third level, we have organisations of habitual acts into traits…
These traits, accuracy, irritability, persistence, rigidity, etc., are theoretical constructs, based
on observed intercorrelations of a number of different habitual responses; in the language
of the factor analyst, they may be conceived of as group factors… At the fourth level, we
have organisations of traits into a general type… This organisation is also based on observed
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Document Summary
Eysenck"s biological typology and mccrae & costa"s five factor model. Oldest of all approaches examined thus far. It goes back to hippocrates but there is evidence it goes back even further (iraq, egypt) Its roots are in the original categorisation of personality into 4 temperaments: An individual would have 1 of these temperaments. Classical psychoanalysis involves typology at its core, freud introduced typologies for his psychosexual analysis. Parenting, socialisation in context of an individual"s stage of development. The three-factor model (eysenck, 1947): extraversion; neuroticism; psychoticism. The five-factor model (mccrae & costa, 1997): neuroticism; extraversion; openness to experience; agreeableness; conscientiousness. The dark triad (paulus & williams, 2002): narcissism; machiavellianism; psychopathy. These are adjectives that capture a cluster of characteristics. Each trait sits on a dimension and we all sit on these dimensions depending on how much of that characteristic we have. Eysenck"s conception: at the third level, we have organisations of habitual acts into traits .
