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Two strengths and Two Limitations of the Trait Theory
Two strengths and Two Limitations of the Trait Theory
Strengths of the trait theory
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Curiosity is a personality trait that everyone has in some way or another throughout their whole life. How it is defined, however, is up for debate. Many people consider curiosity to be simply a desire to learn and know, but scholars tend to take the meaning deeper. George Loewenstein (1994) describes curiosity as the attraction to information that “confers no extrinsic benefit,” so people tend to delve more deeply into things than would serve to help them somehow. To define it in a more distinctive manner from other traits such as novelty-seeking, one may say curiosity is a, “positive emotional-motivational system associated with the recognition, pursuit, and self-regulation of novel and challenging opportunities” (Kashdan 2004). Researchers …show more content…
Trait theory is the idea that an individual’s personality is made up by many traits or characteristics that cause the individual to behave in one manner or another. One can easily see how curiosity fits into the trait theory. It is almost unanimously agreed upon that it is in fact a trait and is the motivator for countless actions people make every day. Trait theory, using the Big Five traits, would most likely categorize curiosity under openness to experience. From this, trait theory would claim that curiosity would lie on one end of the spectrum, while cautiousness on the other. The Big Five also commonly describes the curiosity as specifically intellectual curiosity; this would leave out, for example, a child’s natural curiosity about how the world works and focus solely on the more scientific, problem solving end of curiosity. The reason for this may stem from Hume’s original idea of ‘good curiosity’ being scientific in nature, while ‘bad curiosity’ being too keen an interest in one’s neighbor (Hume 1777/1888). Much of the research done about the trait is very focused on child development and self-growth, though, which shows that this trait is better studied outside the boundaries of the Big Five factor model (Loewenstein
Curious, from latin “cūriōsus” meaning careful, is an adjective defined as: eager to learn or know; inquisitive. It describes someone who is eager to find out answers and to explore and learn. Curiosity, from latin “cūriōsitās” meaning desire of knowledge, is a noun defined as: the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness. According to David Beswick, who is a graduate from the university of melbourne, curiosity is commonly regarded as the prime example of intrinsic motivation, which refers to behavior that is driven by internal rewards. Curiosity has, in the past, alluded to our most common meaning of desire, what we need, wish, want, or inclination to know or learn, but also onto the application of care or careful attention to any object in general, a learning task, or, a craft. While curiosity is a state commonly experience by all people, there are some events which arouse curiosity in mostly everyone. A simple example is the “Big Bang Theory,” which explains how the universe began. This speculation brought up question to people, who were not in the slightest way interested in science, due to the fact that it also ties into a religious claim: “God created the world out of nothing.” This led to many people in search of wether what was claimed in the religious writings, is true. Researchers had excavations in order to find information about this topic, and the religious people were also looking for explanations. Curiosity is also a trait which is more typical of some people that others. For instance a magician with the tricks he performs. Spectators tend to ask themselves “How did he do that?” Most of the time someone asks a question, or wants to get information about something, it is an expression of curiosity because if there was no envy of knowledge, there would most likely be no questions asked, unless the individual already had all the information he needed. Another possible reasons for asking question
The trait approach focuses on describing and quantifying individual differences. The approach tries to categorize people into groups based upon what traits they exhibit. According to the textbook, “The most important factors of personality ought to be found across different sources of data, and he [Cattell] developed a typology of data – including self-report, peer-report, and behavioral observations – that has become part of the foundation of the distinctions between S, I, L, and B data” (Funder, 2013, p. 222). As the essential--trait approach was being developed over the years, the amount of traits drastically changed over time. Multiple psychologists worked on this theory, all having different ideas and amounts of essential ...
Curiosity helps to learn more things. If you learn things by being curious you are more likely, than others, to be smarter because it shows you want to learn. It doesn't just show that
Personality is defined as, “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.” There are many different theories for what makes up a person’s personality. These theories are classified under 5 general categories. These categories are: biological, behavioural, psychodynamic, humanist, and trait theories. If we look at the trait theories category, two particular theories come to mind. These two theories are, “Big 5 theory” and Eysenck's “Three Traits Theory.” In this essay, I will approach the question, which personality trait perspective is the best way to think about personality? To solve this question I will compare the Big 5 theory to the Three Trait theory.
What is motivation? According to text, motivation is defined as a set of factors that activate, direct, and maintain behavior, usually toward a certain goal. Motivation is the energy that makes us do things: this is a result of our individual needs being satisfied so that we have inspiration to complete the mission. These needs vary from person to person as everybody has their individual needs to motivate themselves. Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of the productivity. There have been a wide variety of theories about motivation developed over the years. Several are drive-reduction theory, arousal theory, psychosocial (both incentive and cognitive) theory, and Maslow’s H...
The purpose of this research report is to investigate the personality of Beyoncé Knowles in terms of humanistic and trait conceptions of personality.
Personality is defined to be a dynamic organization of psychophysical systems that create a person’s characteristic pattern of behavior, thoughts, and feelings (Carver & Scheier, 2012). The goal of the psychological field of personality is to explain how and why people are different from one another. This field began with Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Perspective; this perspective was founded on the premise that he believed that things hidden deep in a person’s unconscious could be revealed in a person’s daily acts such as dreams, free association, and slips of the tongue. Following Freud’s theory, a number of other theories were proposed in the attempt to explain the phenomenon of why people are all so different. Among these theorists were big names such as: Erik Erikson, Alfred Adler, Abraham Maslow, Carl Jung, Hans Eysenck, and Karen Horney. All of these theorists made grand attempts to explain the different patterns of personality and how they are formed. One trait that has gained much attention from psychologists and has been studied under a various number of perspectives is the character trait of curiosity. Curiosity is commonly viewed as the eagerness to learn about the unknown. This trait can have many effects on one’s life and behaviors. The trait of curiosity is typically seen as a combination of both a positive and negative aspect of one’s personality, depending on the situation in which it is observed. For example, a curious person may be very inquisitive and ask numerous questions on a daily basis. In this situation, curiosity is viewed as an annoyance and something that proves one’s incompetence. Another possibility is for a curious person to research multiple aspects of life and become very well-knowledgeable in m...
Since my youth, my curiosity correlated with my scientific endeavours. My biggest academic interests are Science and Mathematics, because the complexity of concepts intrigue and challenge me. I ask numerous questions, aiming to completely grasp notions, both on class material and on extra research done independently. Problem-solving always lit a spark in me: where most would abandon, I utilize my creativity to push forwards. Chemistry and Physics are omnipresent in everyday life,
A person’s personality has been the subject of psychological scrutiny for many years. Psychologists have drawn up several theories in an attempt to accurately predict and determine one’s personality. Foremost amongst these, is the “Big Five Trait Theory” which stemmed from Raymond B. Cattell’s theory.
Lastly, the findings of trait theory and its components described within the paper will be summarised. Major contributors to the trait theory of personality include three prominent psychologists. Boeree (2006) states that American born psychologist Gordon Allport has been described as the founding father of personality trait theory. Allport’s distinguished career included holding the presidency of the American Psychological Association (APA) and receiving the Gold Medal Award and a Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the APA (Carducci, 2009, p. 260). After meeting with Sigmund Freud in 1922 and studying his interpretation of personality, Allport developed the opinion that psychoanalysis was too in-depth while behaviourism was far too shallow in the field of personality psychology.
Some observations on interest’s. We may make several observations’ about interests and types of interests.
How many people wonder about holes in the ceiling and cracks on the floor? When did they happen? What caused them? Or what about when you see a cigarette in someone’s hand and ask yourself how do they feel about smoking even though they know it’s dangerous. And even if people do think about these things, why? For what purpose? I guess I do it out of boredom. But is boredom really an excuse? I mean, really, how bored can a person get? I don't believe it is boredom after all, probably curiosity, which can build to all sorts of lengths, and I believe it most certainly starts there. How else can you explain why I want to know what happened to a certain somebody when a certain somebody else, punches them in the eye? I am almost positive it isn’t boredom, but curiosity and that is where and how I try to make sense of this story.
Curiosity killed the cat they said, but people often forget it the satisfaction that brought it back. Throughout my childhood, I have been intrigued by everything around me. There was never a stone left unturned. Question after question after question, I asked until I was satisfied with the answer; it often drew my elementary teachers insane. As I grew older, I matured and learned more, but my childhood curiosity still lingered with me. In middle school, I was introduced to a club called science olympiad. While at first, I was weary to join -- memorizing textbooks and takings test wasn’t something I wanted to do for fun -- I soon found myself relishing in the task of mixing chemicals and doing lab tests. However, when it was time for the state competition, I was thrown last minute into two other events on top of the ones I was already in. I was only given a couple weeks to prepare.
Trait approach covers the big five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. These five traits have been identified as the most identifiable personality traits, even across cultures and societies. According to McCrae, Costa, and Busch’s (1986) study on personality system comprehensiveness, the big five personality model included the five traits most identified with by individuals asked to describe themselves and others. I found this segment of the class especially intriguing as it helped me not only learn so much about myself, but also take a deeper look into the personality of my family, peers, and even strangers. I am also more conscious of how I self-monitor my personality traits. For example, I am very much so an introverted person but at times I try to be extroverted based off the environment. In highly social environments, I consciously smile and try to talk to people because I want to be perceived in a favorable light, not actually because I feel the need to be sociable. In other words, I don’t want to be perceived as odd. I believe I developed this form of self-monitoring because when I am introverted at social events people will constantly ask me if I’m ok since I’m quiet, which makes me uncomfortable as they make me the focus. Being the center of attention makes me anxious, and therefore to prevent that I have developed being a fake-extrovert to avoid it. This exemplified how I apply self-monitoring to my everyday life. Trait approach gave me insight into how to identify vastly accepted personality traits, as well as, how each of these traits can be influenced and
Think of personality traits as a back door to understanding motivations. Because personality traits and consumer behaviors can be measured accurately, understanding the relationships between the traits and behaviors allows a researcher to understand the motivations in purchases without having to ask people for this