Trait Approaches to Personality:
1. Describe trait approaches to personality. Briefly describe Allport’s, Cattell’s, and Eysenck’s trait theories of personality. Identify the Big Five personality dimensions central to contemporary trait approaches. Outline several ways in which the validity of the Big Five theory is supported. Discuss the virtues and drawbacks of the trait approaches to personality as outlined in your text.
2. What are psychological tests and what is the goal of them? Discuss reliability, validity and norms in the context of how researchers ensure they have “good measures” of personality traits.
3. What are the three tips your book describes to become an informed consumer of psychology with regards to personality assessments?
4. Application Question: Now that you are an informed consumer, take this Big Five mini-test online. It will take 5 minutes max. Do not overthink your responses: https://www.ship.edu/%7Ecgboeree/bigfiveminitest.html.
Then, take this “shareware” version of a Five Factor test. It is longer (300 questions) and will take about 20 minutes to complete. Again, do not overthink your responses: https://www.personalitytest.net/ipip/ipipneo300.htm.