News tagged with personality traits
Weight gain linked with personality trait changes
People who gain weight are more likely to give in to temptations but also are more thoughtful about their actions, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Scienc ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 06, 2013 |
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Study: Facebook profile beats IQ test in predicting job performance
Can a person's Facebook profile reveal what kind of employee he or she might be? The answer is yes, and with unnerving accuracy, according to a new paper published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 02, 2012 |
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Study supports alternative model for personality disorders in upcoming DSM-5
A new "alternative model" included in the upcoming Fifth Edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM -5) lines up well with the current approach to diagnosis ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 10, 2013 |
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Mental picture of others can be seen using fMRI, new study finds
It is possible to tell who a person is thinking about by analyzing images of his or her brain. Our mental models of people produce unique patterns of brain activation, which can be detected using advanced imaging techniques ...
Neuroscience
Mar 05, 2013 |
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Expensive egos: Narcissism has a higher health cost for men
The personality trait narcissism may have an especially negative effect on the health of men, according to a recent study published in PLoS ONE.
Psychology & Psychiatry
Jan 23, 2012 |
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Good night's sleep linked to happiness
(Medical Xpress)—Want a good night's sleep? Be positive – consistently. Although happiness is generally good for sleeping, when a person's happiness varies a lot in reaction to daily ups and downs, sleep suffers, reports ...
Health
Apr 29, 2013 |
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Not getting sleepy? Study explains why hypnosis doesn't work for all
Not everyone is able to be hypnotized, and new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine shows how the brains of such people differ from those who can easily be.
Neuroscience
Oct 03, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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Response and recovery in the brain may predict well-being
(Medical Xpress)—It has long been known that the part of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for recognition of a threat and knowing whether to fight or flee from the danger.
Neuroscience
Feb 05, 2013 |
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Frequent multitaskers are bad at it: Motorists overrate ability to talk on cell phones when driving
Most people believe they can multitask effectively, but a University of Utah study indicates that people who multitask the most – including talking on a cell phone while driving – are least capable of ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
Jan 23, 2013 |
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People love talking about themselves, brain scans show
(HealthDay) -- Got something to report about yourself? An opinion, perhaps, or a status update? Nobody may care except you, but new brain research suggests you can make yourself feel good simply by sharing.
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 07, 2012 |
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'Universal' personality traits don't necessarily apply to isolated indigenous people
Five personality traits widely thought to be universal across cultures might not be, according to a study of an isolated Bolivian society.
Psychology & Psychiatry
Jan 03, 2013 |
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Dopamine-receptor gene variant linked to human longevity
(Medical Xpress)—A variant of a gene associated with active personality traits in humans seems to also be involved with living a longer life, UC Irvine and other researchers have found.
Neuroscience
Jan 03, 2013 |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
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Calling Miss Congeniality—do attractive people have attractive traits and values?
We've all been warned not to "judge a book by its cover," but inevitably we do it anyway. It's difficult to resist the temptation of assuming that a person's outward appearance reflects something meaningful about his or her ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 15, 2012 |
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People with low risk for cocaine dependence have differently shaped brain to those with addiction
People who take cocaine over many years without becoming addicted have a brain structure which is significantly different from those individuals who developed cocaine-dependence, researchers have discovered. New research ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
Jan 17, 2013 |
4.3 / 5 (3) |
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Traumatic childhood may increase the risk of drug addiction: study
Previous research has shown that personality traits such as impulsivity or compulsiveness are indicators of an increased risk of addiction. Now, new research from the University of Cambridge suggests that these impulsive ...
Psychology & Psychiatry
Aug 31, 2012 |
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Trait theory
In psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over time, differ among individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing whereas others are shy), and influence behavior.
Gordon Allport was an early pioneer in the study of traits, which he sometimes referred to as dispositions. In his approach, central traits are basic to an individual's personality, whereas secondary traits are more peripheral. Common traits are those recognized within a culture and may vary between cultures. Cardinal traits are those by which an individual may be strongly recognized. Since Allport's time, trait theorists have focused more on group statistics than on single individuals. Allport called these two emphases "nomothetic" and "idiographic," respectively.
There is a nearly unlimited number of potential traits that could be used to describe personality. The statistical technique of factor analysis, however, has demonstrated that particular clusters of traits reliably correlate together. Hans Eysenck has suggested that personality is reducible to three major traits. Other researchers argue that more factors are needed to adequately describe human personality. Many psychologists currently believe that five factors are sufficient.
Virtually all trait models, and even ancient Greek philosophy, include extraversion vs. introversion as a central dimension of human personality. Another prominent trait that is found in nearly all models is Neuroticism, or emotional instability.
For more information about Trait theory, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
