Evaluating Trait Theories in Module 57 Trait Theories

Evaluating Trait Theories

Are our personality traits stable and enduring? Or does our behavior depend on where and with whom we find ourselves? In some ways, our personality seems stable. Cheerful, friendly children tend to become cheerful, friendly adults. At a college reunion, I [DM] was amazed to find that my jovial former classmates were still jovial, the shy ones still shy, the happy-seeming people still smiling and laughing 50 years later. But it’s also true that a fun-loving jokester can suddenly turn serious and respectful at a job interview. New situations and major life events can shift the personality traits we express. Becoming unemployed, for example, may make us less agreeable and open-minded (Boyce et al., 2015).

The Person-Situation Controversy

Our behavior is influenced by the interaction of our inner disposition with our environment. Still, the question lingers: Which is more important? When we explore this person-situation controversy, we look for genuine personality traits that persist over time and across situations. Are some people dependably conscientious and others unreliable, some cheerful and others dour, some friendly and outgoing and others shy? If we are to consider friendliness a trait, friendly people must act friendly at different times and places. Do they?

In earlier units, we considered research that has followed lives through time. We noted that some scholars (especially those who study infants) are impressed with personality change; others are struck by personality stability during adulthood. As Figure 57.3 illustrates, data from 152 long-term (longitudinal) studies reveal that personality trait scores are positively correlated with scores obtained seven years later, and that as people grow older their personality stabilizes. Interests may change—the avid tropical-fish collector may become an avid gardener. Careers may change—the determined salesperson may become a determined social worker. Relationships may change—the hostile spouse may start over and antagonize a new partner. But most people recognize just who they are, as Robert McCrae and Paul Costa noted (1994), “and it is well that they do. A person’s recognition of the inevitability of his or her one and only personality is . . . the culminating wisdom of a lifetime.”

This is an illustration of bar graphs showing trait scores. — Figure 57.3 Personality stability

With age, personality traits become more stable, as reflected in the stronger correlation of trait scores with follow-up scores 7 years later.

So most people—including most psychologists—would probably presume the stability of personality traits. Moreover, our traits are socially significant. They influence our health, our thinking, and our job choices and performance (Hogan, 1998; Jackson et al., 2012; Sutin et al., 2011). Studies that follow lives through time show that personality traits rival socioeconomic status and cognitive ability as predictors of mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment (Roberts et al., 2007).

Although our personality traits may be both stable and potent, the consistency of our specific behaviors from one situation to the next is another matter. What relationship would you expect to find between being conscientious in one situation (say, showing up for class on time) and being conscientious in another (say, avoiding unhealthy foods)? If you’ve noticed how outgoing you are in some situations and how reserved you are in others, perhaps you said, “Very little.” That’s what researchers have found—only a small correlation (Mischel, 1968; Sherman et al., 2015). This inconsistency in behaviors also makes personality test scores weak predictors of behaviors. People’s scores on an extraversion test, for example, do not neatly predict how sociable they actually will be on any given occasion.

The text reads: How Do You Describe Yourself? Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future. Describe yourself as you honestly see yourself in relation to other people you know of the same sex and roughly the same age. Use the scale below to enter a number for each statement. Then, use the scoring guide at the bottom to see where you fall on the spectrum for each of the Big Five traits. 1. Very Inaccurate, 2. Moderately Inaccurate, 3. Neither Accurate Nor Inaccurate, 4. Moderately Accurate, and 5.Very Accurate. 1. ___Am the life of the party; 2. ___Sympathize with others’ feelings; 3. ___Get stressed out easily4. ___Am always prepared; 5. ___Am full of ideas; 6. ___Start conversations; 7. ___Take time out for others; 8. ___Follow a schedule;9. ___Worry about things;10. ___Have a vivid imagination SCORING GUIDE SORTED BY BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS Conscientiousness: statements 4, 8; Agreeableness: statements 2, 7; Neuroticism: statements 3, 9; Openness: statements 5, 10; Extraversion: statements 1, 6. How to score: Separate your responses by each Big Five personality trait, as noted at left, and divide by two to obtain your score for each trait. So, for example, for the "Agreeableness" trait let's say you scored 3 for statement 2 ("Sympathize with others' feelings") and 4 for statement 7 ("Take time out for others"). That means on a scale from 1 to 5, your overall score for the "Agreeableness" trait is 3 + 4 = 7 ÷ 2 = 3.5. Scale data from Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26–42. — It’s not just personality that stabilizes with age.

If we remember such results, we will be more cautious about labeling and pigeonholing individuals (Mischel, 1968). Years in advance, science can tell us the phase of the Moon for any given date. A day in advance, meteorologists can often predict the weather. But we are much further from being able to predict how you will feel and act tomorrow.

This is an image of a man sitting in a living room. A woman is walking toward him wearing a dress and coat. The caption reads, “I’m going to France—I’m a different person in France.” — *“I’m going to France—I’m a different person in France.”*

However, people’s average outgoingness, happiness, or carelessness over many situations is predictable (Epstein, 1983a,b). People who know someone well, therefore, generally agree when rating that person’s shyness or agreeableness (Jackson et al., 2015; Kenrick & Funder, 1988). By collecting snippets of people’s daily experience via body-worn recording devices, Matthias Mehl and his colleagues (2006) confirmed that extraverts really do talk more. (I [DM] have repeatedly vowed to cut back on my jabbering and joking during my noontime pickup basketball games with friends. Alas, moments later, the irrepressible chatterbox inevitably reoccupies my body. And I [ND] have a similar experience each time I try to stay quiet in taxis. Somehow, I always end up chatting with the driver!) As our best friends can verify, we do have persistent (genetically influenced) personality traits. And our personality traits get expressed in our:

music preferences. Your playlist reveals something of your personality. Classical, jazz, blues, and folk music lovers tend to be open to experience. Extraverts tend to prefer upbeat and energetic music. Country, pop, and religious music lovers tend to be cheerful, outgoing, and conscientious (Langmeyer et al., 2012; Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003, 2006). On first meeting, students often disclose their music preferences to one another; in doing so, they are swapping information about their personalities.
written communications. If you have ever felt you could detect someone’s personality from their writing voice, you are right!! What a cool finding!!! People’s writings—even their brief tweets and Facebook posts—often express their extraversion, self-esteem, and agreeableness (Orehek & Human, 2017; Park et al., 2015; Pennebaker, 2011). “Off to meet a friend. Woohoo!!!” posted one Facebook user who had scored high on extraversion (Kern et al., 2014). Extraverts also use more adjectives.
online and personal spaces. Are online profiles, websites, and avatars also a canvas for self-expression? Or are they an opportunity for people to present themselves in false or misleading ways? It’s more the former (Back et al., 2010; Gosling et al., 2007; Marcus et al., 2006). People who seemed most likable on their Facebook or Twitter pages also seemed most likable in person (Qiu et al., 2012; Weisbuch et al., 2009). Even mere photos, with their associated clothes, expressions, and postures, can give clues to personality (Naumann et al., 2009). Our living and working spaces also help us express our identity. They all offer clues to our extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness (Back et al., 2010; Fong & Mar, 2015; Gosling, 2008).

In unfamiliar, formal situations—perhaps as a guest in the home of a person from another culture—our traits remain hidden as we carefully attend to social cues. In familiar, informal situations—just hanging out with friends—we feel less constrained, allowing our traits to emerge (Buss, 1989). In these informal situations, our expressive styles—our animation, manner of speaking, and gestures—are impressively consistent. Viewing “thin slices” of someone’s behavior—such as seeing a photo for a mere fraction of a second, or seeing several 2-second video clips of a teacher in action—can tell us a lot about the person’s basic personality traits (Ambady, 2010; Tackett et al., 2016).

This is an image of a young man sitting at a desk below an elevated bed in a dorm room. In the foreground are a microwave, easy chair, and a music keyboard. — Room with a cue Even at “zero acquaintance,” people can catch a glimpse of others’ personality from looking at their online and personal spaces. So, what’s your read on this person?

Some people are naturally expressive (and therefore talented at pantomime and charades); others are less expressive (and therefore better poker players). To evaluate people’s voluntary control over their expressiveness, researchers asked people to act as expressive or inhibited as possible while stating opinions (DePaulo et al., 1992). Their remarkable findings: Inexpressive people, even when feigning expressiveness, were less expressive than expressive people acting naturally. Similarly, expressive people, even when trying to seem inhibited, were less inhibited than inexpressive people acting naturally. It’s hard to be someone you’re not, or not to be who you are.

To sum up, we can say that at any moment the immediate situation powerfully influences a person’s behavior. Social psychologists have learned that this is especially so when a “strong situation” makes clear demands (Cooper & Withey, 2009). We can better predict drivers’ behavior at traffic lights from knowing the color of the lights than from knowing the drivers’ personalities. Thus, teachers may perceive certain students as subdued (based on their classroom behavior), but friends may perceive them as pretty wild (based on their party behavior). Averaging our behavior across many occasions does, however, reveal distinct personality traits. Traits exist. We differ. And our differences matter.