Psychology - Cattell's Trait Theory of Personality - Essay Writing Assessment Answer

Psychology Assignment

Assignment Task

Task: 1 - Essay synopsis

This assignment will require you to develop a plan for your second major assignment in this course - the essay. You will need to select one essay topic from the list below, analyse it in terms of its key components, locate and read at least five relevant journal articles and then prepare an essay synopsis (essay plan). This plan will indicate how you will address the topic and what resources and information you will need to locate to address the topic. This assessment assesses Graduate Qualities 2 (lifelong learning), 3 (effective problem solver), and 6 (communicates effectively).

Essay Topics

Choose ONE of the five topics listed below. This is the topic you will also be writing your Essay (Assessment 2) on, so make sure you think carefully before making your decision.

1. Describe the trait theory of personality. Select one "factor" or "trait" from a prominent trait theory and discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of someone who strongly exhibits this trait.

   2. Jean Piaget proposed a step-wise sequence of mental development during childhood. Provide an overview of Piaget’s core ideas, discussing the evidence for and against these ideas.

   3. Discuss the factors that affect the likelihood that people will engage in prosocial behaviour. What is the evidence for these effects, and how might changes in our society affect the likelihood of people acting pro-socially?

   4. Describe the main social factors that influence attraction between people. Select one of these factors and describe the empirical support for its influence.

   5. Select a psychological disorder that features in the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Describe this disorder, providing evidence for the major contributing factors to the onset of the disorder.

Presentation

Your work must be word-processed, font size 12, with a 3cm margin and with double-line spacing. American Psychological Association (APA; 5th edition or later)referencing conventions must bestrictlyadhered to both in the body of the synopsis for in-text citations and in the Reference List at the end of the synopsis. The recommended writing guide contains important information on APA style referencing & citation as well as how to prepare and present an essay.

The Essay Synopsis will be given a mark out of 15% of the total course grade,and you will be graded on the following criteria:

1. Topic analysis
2. Coherence and structure of plan
3. Clarity of expression
4. Adherence to word length (800 words)
5. Relevance of references

Task: 2 - Essay

Students enrolled in this course are required to submit one written essay of up to 2000 wordsin length on the topic they chose for their Synopsis (see list of topics under Assessment 1 – Synopsis). Word length must be strictly adhered to in written work. Essays that are too long will be penalised.Your essay should refer to and cite academic journal articles and books only (e.g. not Wikipedia or lay websites, although academic journal articles and books accessed online are OK) and it is expected that you will refer to a minimum of 10sources. You may refer to your textbook for basic definitions, etc. More detailed information will be provided during your Week 6 practical. In addition, your instructor will be available to answer questions about your essay.

This essay will be assessed for your understanding of the body of knowledge (Graduate Quality 1), ability to access, evaluate and adhere to referencing information (Graduate Quality 2), as well as your ability to both analyse the topic, apply critical and logical thought processes in your writing (Graduate Quality 3) and communicate your ideas clearly and in a manner that pays heed to acceptable writing conventions in psychology (Graduate Quality 6).

Presentation

Your work must be word-processed, font size 12, with a 3cm margin and with double line spacing. APA referencing conventions must bestrictlyadhered to both in the body of the essay for in-text citations and in the Reference List at the end of the essay (see additional instructions under Assessment 1 - Synopsis).

Essays will be marked for evidence of:

1. Research (evidence of wide reading from a variety of sources – remember to read journal articles)
2. Content, argument and thought (analyse the literature and develop a logical and coherent argument)
3. Use of evidence, especially primary evidence (use the references to support your points; focus on original sources)
4. Style and expression ( check your grammar and spelling; make sure you express your ideas clearly)
5. Relevance ( address the topic and its major issues)
6. Adherence to APA referencing conventions
7. Ability to reflect on the research material and relate it to your own life and experiences

Task : 1

Introduction

The psychology of a person defines the mental state and the behavioural patterns of the person. This essay introduces the psychological perspective of individuals and their associated behaviours, eating habits, social relationships along with their causes. The trait is the characteristic attribute of a person that reflects their entity – unclear definition of trait here. Raymond Cattell a psychologist evaluated 16 Personality Factors (16PF) within a person. These factors when altered from the basic influences change in the personality of the affected person. These theories formulated by psychologists are the tTrait theories of pPsychology. Understanding this concept is important to influence a positive wave of knowledge globally. It also enables people to respond to a situation, positively or negatively according to the expected outcomes.

PLEASE NOTE IN REFERENCE TO INTRO ABOVE: The introduction is somewhat unclear and it is not clear from the above what the objective/ scope of the essay is. This will require considerable revision to ensure clarity. Also, what trait or factor will you be focusing on in the essay? This should be made clear in the introduction.

Trait Theory of Personality, researched and formulated by Raymond Cattell, Gordon Allport and Hans Jurgen Eysenck were the ones most extensively studied.

Discussing Strengths and Weaknesses of a Person Exhibiting Emotional Stability Trait as per Cattell's Trait Theory of Personality

Allport organised the traits into three factors: Cardinal Traits, Central Traits and Secondary Traits. The primary traits influence their behaviour. The central trait marks the virtues of the individual that outlines their behaviour. The secondary trait expresses the attitude with time. All these traits are controlled by the Phenotypes and Genotypes that are the External and Internal forces respectively. Cattell sampled life data, based on the regular behaviour of the person and experimental data, sampled from patients by analysing the reactions at different situations. Hans Eysenck had a more scientific approach to the field. He explained that extrovert people are readily connected to the world and introverts are aloof from the world. Neuroticism is also accounted in this theory because of overactive Sympathetic Nervous System. He also explained Psychoticism to be responsible for the evil activities and Socialisation responsible for perfect social behaviour.

As described by Cattell & Mead (2008), there are 16 Personality Factors known as the 16PF that has a very broad perspective and this article is based on the Emotional Stability. According to Terracciano et al. (2008), emotional stability is one reason to maintain the health stability, liked proportionately to each other. Cigarette smoking and oObesity may be a key factor that arises due to mental instability leading to illness and sometimes death. Age, personality, sex, education was listed to be the cause of Emotional instability. Personality traits may be linked to longevity, through direct or indirect influences on psychology and immaturity is a cause for this.

According to John & Srivastava (1999), Emotional Stability has the positive or negative influence on the psychology of an individual. Based on this study, people may face social, mental alterations and work manipulations.

According to Basten et al. (2016), mental stability in young allows the individual the ability to internalise or externalise the problem put forward by the individual. This was evident because of the fact that the young children were not able to communicate about their emotions to others. This pattern of internalising or externalising problems, change during the preschool tenure. According to Lazarevich et al. (2015), the transition from school to higher institutions induces pressure and emotions that outbursts to affect the stability. Therefore, eating behaviours may change during the course of time. Communications also decrease due to increased burden as they enter an earning phase. Moreover, this result in the mental breakdown as a feeling of being separated from the world is established. This changes the psychology of the individual and hence emotional instability may pose a negative threat to the health.

On the other hand, as argued by Cordina et al. (2015), people with stable emotions have resulted in the development patterns ofscore higher on/ report greater? (re-word here) willpower and mental satisfaction. Hence, feeling of confidence results, if the problems are imposed on them is resolved due to better health and psychology. People may also have a positive approach towards the job and mental health as they do not feel separated from the world and have the ability to communicate. This also creates a positive influence on abstaining from sSmoking and bad habits that may impair health. Besides, the parents play a role in a case of the children to be friendly with them. If an approach of friendship develops, the child may have a boost of confidence and cope up with the additional pressures in their schools. Therefore, it is necessary to cope up and resolve the ill effects of mental instability.

Conclusion

Analysing psychology is confusing, as nNumerous theories have been put forward to support the assessment of the psychological status traits? of an individual. Cattell’s theory takes into account broad evaluations of an individual, whose mental status or psychological evaluations are to be done. One drawback of this theory and its criticism is that this theory has never been entirely replicated. The primary factors mentioned by Cattell were also been not entirely verified. However, due to the absence of computers during Cattell’s time, manual calculations were done, and those results were sometimes error prone?.

Task: 2

Introduction

As explained by Buss and Plomin (2014), traits refer to the specific characteristics and behavioral elements that tend to define and form the overall personality of an individual. The traits of a person thus tend to describe and define his or her personality, i.e. the overall thinking pattern and behavior and hence are commonly studied and evaluated by psychologists to gain a better understanding of people. Some of the traits that define human personality include honesty, dependable, persistent, charming, humble etc (Buss and Plomin, 2014). Hence, psychologists have developed trait theory of personality, which suggests measurement of human traits, including their behavior and thoughts to understand their personality (Funder, 2015). The essay thus presents a discussion on some of the common trait theories and then evaluates the key strengths and weaknesses associated with a specific factor described in one of these prominent theories. The essay also takes an example of an individual to explain these strengths and weaknesses.

Analysis

The first modern trait theory was proposed by Allport (1966), wherein Allport divided all human traits into three categories based on their hierarchy, i.e. cardinal traits, central traits and secondary traits. As explained by Ryckman (2012), the cardinal traits are at the top of the hierarchy and tend to completely dominate the behavior of the individual, central traits are the next level of traits that are generally seen among people and tend to shape their overall behavior and lastly secondary traits are the ones that emerge under specific circumstances. While Allport’s categorization helped in understanding human traits in a simpler manner, Fleeson and Jayawickreme (2015) argue that the theory was not simple to implement. Hence, Cattell (1973) proposed another trait theory in order to make Allport’s traits more manageable, wherein Cattell categorized human traits into sixteen different dimensions of human behavior such as openness to change, intelligence, sensitivity etc. Other trait theories include Eysenck’s Three Dimensions theory and the Big Five Factor Theory of Personality, which have further narrowed down the study of traits to a few dimensions and characteristics to make it simpler for psychologists to understand human behavior (Matthews, 2016). However, these new theories are said to be based on Cattell’s theory and hence the essay evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of one of the traits of Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Theory.

The sixteen factors or dimensions that have been defined by Cattell’s are warmth, emotional stability, intelligence, abstractedness, apprehension, liveliness, privateness, perfectionism, vigilance, social boldness, tension, consciousness, tension, dominance, sensitivity and openness to change (Mischel, 2013). Emotional stability is considered as an important leadership trait and quality and has been a key area of focus for psychologists as well as organizational studies and hence is being analyzed here by assessing its strengths and weaknesses (Caprara et al 2013).

Emotional stability as defined by Cobb-Clark and Schurer (2012), refers to the trait or characteristic of an individual to be able to balance his or her emotions adequately under all given situations to ensure effective decision making. While Cattell’s theory established emotional stability as a personality trait, the Big Five Factor theory has defined neuroticism as a trait, which is the opposite of emotional stability and defines the trait or overall tendency of an individual to exhibit negative emotions (Brose et al 2013). As discussed by Brose et al (2013), emotional stability is said to be a desired and a positive personality trait because it helps people in being less stressed. Individuals with high scores of emotional stability are usually more calm and do not exhibit lot of negative emotions such as anger, anxiety and vulnerability and are usually happier in their lives. Though it can be argued that the trait is more relevant in personal life as compared to the professional lives, Cote et al (2010) argue that it is desired for leaders to be emotionally stable because they are then able to address workplace emotions and are also able to manage their subordinates better.

One such leader who has been commonly known and praised for being emotionally stable was Nelson Mandela. One of the biggest strengths of the emotional stability trait as identified by Nawi (2012) is that it helps people survive under stress and pressure; thus making them perform better. Similar discussions by Zeidner et al (2012) also suggest that when people have control over their emotions, they tend to remain calm and hence do not make impulsive decisions, thus leading to better performance. Nelson Mandela is a clear example of the same because he despite of being in jail, an extremely stressful situation, managed to remain calm and composed even in jail and instead of panicking under the situation, kept himself and others motivated, thus leading to enhanced performance and better outcomes (Schechter, 2013). Though it was widely argued and discussed by experts (Zhao et al 2010; McAdams and Olson, 2010) that emotional stability is something that a person is born with, Bontempo and Napier (2011) have stated otherwise. Bontempo and Napier (2011) argue that with adequate training and experiences, people tend to learn and develop the trait of emotional stability, which makes them more successful in life.

Another strength or benefit of emotional stability as identified by Nelis et al (2011) is that it results into better physical health of people. According to the discussions by Nelis et al (2011), mental and physical health of people are highly connected and related to each other and hence when people are mentally healthy and have stable emotions, their physical health also tends to improve considerably. The study carried out by Lahey (2009) suggests that though it has not been scientifically proven yet, it is estimated that there exists a strong correlation between neuroticism and different physical disorders and hence it is crucial and important for people to be able to manage their emotions to develop more of positive emotions, which then result into enhanced physical well being.

A key trait of Nelson Mandela that made him a great leader and also helped him in being successful at what he did was his ability to form and manage strong relationships with others. Singh (2013) explains that a key strength of Nelson Mandela was that he was able to form strong ties with others and always made people around him feel bigger. This can be considered as strength because Mandela was able to understand the behavior of himself and others, which helped him in ensuring that he was able to accomplish his goals and that he had the support of others around him (Singh, 2013). This is hence a key strength of the trait of emotional stability. As discussed by Komarraju et al (2011), emotional stability helps people in becoming emotionally strong and also helps them in understanding the emotions and behaviors of others, which enhances their teamwork and collaborative working. It can be argued that emotional stability might not result into better understanding of others, but Komarraju et al (2011) explain that people who are emotionally stable tend to evaluate others’ emotions and behaviors calmly, which enhances their understanding of others, resulting into better team work. In fact, Carstensen et al (2011) have even discussed the same in personal lives of people and established that people who are emotionally stable tend to be less jealous and abusive of their spouses and life partners because they understand them better and hence the trait of emotional stability can be said to be advantageous for both personal and professional lives.

While a person exhibit emotional stability has been found to possess multiple strengths, there are also some weaknesses that have been associated with the same. An interesting discussion presented by Diddams and Chang (2012) suggests that emotional stability needs to be handled adequately and managed with the help of other skills and traits. Diddams and Chang (2012) further elaborate that an emotionally stable person definitely tends to manage his emotions and does not succumb under pressure, but at the same time, the person needs to possess other strong characteristics and traits to be able to still succeed in whatever he or she is doing. Similar discussions by Mishcel (2013) argue that being extremely emotionally stable can prevent people from succeeding if they do not have the desired or adequate resources because lack of resources can prevent them from being able to make practical decisions. For example, lack of enough resources is considered as a key problem or challenge for Mandela for not being able to accomplish his goals as a president (Schechter, 2013). Hence, trait of emotional stability is not enough alone and the person possessing this trait requires additional resources and traits and characteristics for achieving the desired success.

Another weakness of the trait of emotional stability, as identified by Buckner et al (2012) is that it can be misused by others. It has been discussed earlier that people with emotional stability can understand the behavior and emotions of others, which helps them in being a good leader and a good team-member. But Jia et al (2013) argue that this ability of an individual to understand others’ emotions and behaviors can result into negative usage of the same, wherein people can tend to manipulate others. Similar discussions by Buss and Plomin (2014) discuss that people with this trait can take undue advantage of emotions and make people do things without giving them complete and adequate information. Though there are no discussions regarding this with respect to Nelson Mandela, it is a key problem or weakness that is often associated with people exhibiting this trait and it is hence often suggested that people must be careful while dealing with people who are extremely emotionally stable.

In fact, the trait of emotional stability is also difficult to measure it and it tends to change over time. It has been discussed by Specht et al (2011) that emotional stability is something that cannot be measured and it is hence difficult for a psychologist or any other individual to measure the same and to determine this trait. This thus makes it s difficult trait to evaluate and study the behavior of people. It can be argued that there are questionnaires and instruments that have been developed for the purpose of measuring emotional intelligence and emotional stability trait of people (Specht et al 2011), but Vernon (2014) even discusses that the emotional stability of people tends to change with time, which further adds to the difficulty of being able to analyze and evaluate the characteristics of people. This becomes a weakness because people are not then able to understand their emotional stability and also tend to show different and changing behavior from time to time. This weakness thus needs to be overcome.

While there seems to be some weaknesses or challenges associated with the trait of emotional stability in people, Vernon (2014) argues that the weaknesses of an emotionally stable individual can be overcome because of such people to be able to exhibit higher confidence. Nelson Mandela is said to possess all the important characteristics of a leader and was hence found to be extremely confident (Olesen, 2015). As discussed by Jia et al (2013), people who are emotionally stable tend to maintain their calm and performance at all times and hence exhibit high levels of confidence. The communication abilities of Nelson Mandela clearly exhibited his confidence, which also made him a good leader and a person who was looked upon by people. Thus, the strength of confidence tends to contribute towards higher success of individuals with the trait as compared to the weaknesses.

Conclusion

The discussions presented in the essay reveal that the trait theories of personality help the psychologists and people in evaluating traits and personality characteristics of people. As the theories have developed over time, one trait that has been identified by multiple theories is emotional stability. Discussions presented above with respect to the example of Nelson Mandela demonstrate that people with the trait of emotional stability tend to exhibit multiple advantages such as higher ability to make practical decisions, ability to understand others and perform better in teams. However, a key point that has emerged is that people with this trait also face certain weaknesses and it can be hence suggested that people with the trait of emotional stability must focus upon on acquiring new skills and additional resources for being able to leverage upon their skills in a more adequate manner.