Cattell and Eysenck

Chapter 13

Outline

• Biography of Cattell• Introduction to Cattell’s Trait Theory• Basics of Factor Analysis• Source Traits• Personality Traits• Dynamic Traits• Genetic Basis of Traits

Cont’d

Outline

• Biography of Eysenck• Introduction to Eysenck’s Factor Theory• Measuring Personality• Dimensions of Personality• Related Research• Critique of Trait and Factor Theories• Concept of Humanity

Biography of Cattell

• Born in England in 1905• Second of three sons of middle-class

parents• Received his Ph.D in psychology from

University of London• Taught at Columbia, Clark University,

Harvard, and the University of Illinois• Died in 1998 at age 92

Cattell’s Trait Theory

• P Technique– A correlational method that involves one

person taking two or more tests on many occasions

• Media of observation– L data– Q data– T data

Basics of Factor Analysis

• Factor analysis• Factors• Factor loadings• Unipolar and Bipolar traits• Eysenck orthogonal rotation• Cattell oblique rotation

Source Traits

• Source traits refer to the underlying factor or factors responsible for the intercorrelation among surface traits

• Surface traits that consistently cluster together indicate the existence of an underlying source trait

• Source traits can be identified through each of the three media of observation; that is, L, Q, and T data

Personality Traits

• Temperament Traits– Normal traits– Abnormal traits

• Second-Order Traits

Dynamic Traits

• Attitudes• Ergs• Sems• The Dynamic Lattice

Genetic Basis of Traits

• Cattell and colleagues provided estimates of the heritability of the various source traits

• Heritability is an estimate of the extent to which the variance of a given trait is due to heredity

Biography of Eysenck

• Born in Berlin, Germany in 1916• As a teenager, moved to England to escape

Nazi tyranny• Received his Ph.D in psychology at the

University of London• One of the most prolific and controversial

psychologists in the world• Died in 1997 at age 81

Measuring Personality

• Criteria for Identifying Factors– Personality factors must:

1. Be based on strong psychometric evidence

2. Fit an acceptable genetic model3. Make sense theoretically4. Possess social relevance

Measuring Personality

• Hierarchy of Measures– Four-level hierarchy of behavior

organization: • Specific behaviors or cognitions• Habitual acts or cognitions• Traits or personal dispositions• Types or superfactors

Dimensions of Personality

• What Are the Major Personality Factors?• Measuring Superfactors• Biological Bases of Personality• Personality and Behavior• Personality and Disease

Related Research• Personalities of Creative Scientists and

Artists• In a quantitative review of the literature,

G.J. Feist (1998) found that – on Cattell’s 16PF writers and artists were more

intelligent, dominant, adventurous, emotionally sensitive, radical, and self-sufficient than other people

– on Eysenck’s EPQ creative artists scored high on the neuroticism and psychoticism scales

Critique of Trait and Factor Theories

• Trait and Factor Theories are:– Very High on Generating Research– High on Organizing Knowledge and

Parsimony– Moderate on Falsifiability, Guiding

Action, and Internal Consistency

Concept of Humanity

• The concepts of free choice, optimism versus pessimism, and causality versus teleology do not apply to Cattell and Eysenck

• Biology over Culture• Equal emphasis on Conscious and

Unconscious • Uniqueness over Similarity