SP Traits Critical Analysis

Created by: Psych951
Created on: 30-04-19 17:31


	SP Traits Critical Analysis
	Advantages Complexity and dynamics of personality considered Attempts to explain personality development Cross-cultural relevance of traits Temporal validity Correlates with social media and interaction behaviour Level of objectivity and replicability from statistical approach Construct validity of Big 5 when using the personality measures	Disadvantages Lexical approach may simply describe ability to verbally-express personality in historical context Circular arguments and questionable relationship to behaviour. Some predictive capability but over-relied on in workplace Exclude evaluative traits, providing limited understanding Link to behaviour is dependent on social context, and so understanding of impact on behaviour is limited to knowledge of situation Inappropriate and biased design of measures
	Evaluation Traits provide a fairly universal structure of personality - with the big 5 offering the best balance between comprehension and simplicity - that captures a good understanding of the characteristics that define a person. However, the use of traits to understand actual behaviour is very dependent on knowledge of the situation, and circular reasoning means that it is impossible to confirm the causal assumption. Therefore, traits have limited application to make specific behavioural predictions, although they do provide an idea of general behavioural tendencies.

SP Traits Critical Analysis

Advantages

Complexity and dynamics of personality considered
Attempts to explain personality development
Cross-cultural relevance of traits
Temporal validity
Correlates with social media and interaction behaviour
Level of objectivity and replicability from statistical approach
Construct validity of Big 5 when using the personality measures

Disadvantages

Lexical approach may simply describe ability to verbally-express personality in historical context
Circular arguments and questionable relationship to behaviour. Some predictive capability but over-relied on in workplace
Exclude evaluative traits, providing limited understanding
Link to behaviour is dependent on social context, and so understanding of impact on behaviour is limited to knowledge of situation
Inappropriate and biased design of measures

Evaluation

Traits provide a fairly universal structure of personality - with the big 5 offering the best balance between comprehension and simplicity - that captures a good understanding of the characteristics that define a person. However, the use of traits to understand actual behaviour is very dependent on knowledge of the situation, and circular reasoning means that it is impossible to confirm the causal assumption. Therefore, traits have limited application to make specific behavioural predictions, although they do provide an idea of general behavioural tendencies.

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SP Traits Critical Analysis