Personality Disorders and Lexical Hypothesis

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Questions and Answers

What are the three clusters of personality disorders?

Cluster A, Cluster B, and Cluster C (correct)

Cluster X, Cluster Y, and Cluster Z

Cluster A, Cluster B, and Cluster D

Cluster 1, Cluster 2, and Cluster 3

What is the lexical hypothesis?

That personality is shaped by environment and upbringing

That personality traits are fixed and unchangeable

That personality traits are shaped by genetics

That all important individual differences are encoded within language (correct)

What is one of the criteria for identifying important traits according to the lexical approach?

Neither A nor B

Both A and B (correct)

Synonym frequency

Cross-cultural universality

According to Gordon Allport, what guides human behavior?

The present and our view of the future Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'psychophysical' mean in the context of personality?

The combination of mental and physical aspects of personality Signup and view all the answers

Who improved the work of Allport?

Cattell Signup and view all the answers

What did Cattell propose?

A system of 16 personality traits Signup and view all the answers

What is the nature of personality according to Allport?

Dynamic and constantly changing Signup and view all the answers

Which approach was used to identify nearly 18,000 trait terms in the English dictionary?

Lexical approach Signup and view all the answers

How many clusters of personality traits did Cattell end up with?

16 Signup and view all the answers

What is the main trait that includes being anxious, guilty, and lacking self-esteem?

Neuroticism Signup and view all the answers

Who discovered a five-factor solution through factor analysis?

Fiske Signup and view all the answers

What is the typical behavior of someone who scores high on neuroticism?

They are vigilant to threats and worry a lot Signup and view all the answers

What is the main trait that includes being aggressive, egocentric, and creative?

Psychoticism Signup and view all the answers

What is the characteristic of someone who scores low on neuroticism?

They are emotionally stable and calm Signup and view all the answers

Who developed the hierarchical model of personality with three main traits?

Eysenck Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Personality Disorders

The 10 personality disorders are categorized into three clusters: Cluster A (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal), Cluster B (antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic), and Cluster C (avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive).

The Lexical Approach

The lexical hypothesis states that all important individual differences are already encoded within the language.
The approach yields two criteria for identifying important traits: synonym frequency and cross-cultural universality.
Synonym frequency refers to the presence of many words to describe a trait, such as dominant, bossy, assertive, and powerful.
Cross-cultural universality refers to the existence of a term for an important individual difference in multiple languages.

Gordon Allport's Personal Approach

According to Allport, we are not prisoners of childhood conflicts and past experiences, but are guided more by the present and our view of the future.
Personality is the dynamic organization of psychological systems, meaning it is constantly changing and growing.
Personality is psychophysical, meaning it is composed of both mind and body functioning together as a unit.

Cattell's 16 Personality Factors

Cattell's work improved upon Allport's by identifying a continuum of personality traits, where each person contains all 16 traits to a certain degree.
The 16 traits were derived from the lexical approach, which started with Allport and Odbert's identification of 18,000 trait terms.

The Five-Factor Model

The five-factor model was originally based on a combination of the lexical and statistical approaches.
The lexical approach was used to identify 171 clusters of personality traits, which were then reduced to five factors through factor analysis.

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model of Personality

The three main traits identified by Eysenck are extraversion–introversion (E), neuroticism–emotional stability (N), and psychoticism (P).
Each trait sits at the top of its own hierarchy, with narrower traits branching out from them.
Neuroticism (N) consists of traits such as anxious, guilty, lacking self-esteem, tense, and shy, and is characterized by emotional instability.
Psychoticism (P) consists of traits such as aggressive, egocentric, creative, impulsive, lacking empathy, and antisocial.

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Description

This quiz covers the 10 personality disorders, including Cluster A, B, and C personalities, as well as the lexical hypothesis, which suggests that individual differences are encoded in language.