Feist8e SG Ch13

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory
Chapter 13
McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 13, you should be able to:
1.
Explain the basics of factor analytic procedures.
2.
Explain the importance of R. B. Cattell's pioneering work.
3.
Distinguish between the Big Five as a taxonomy and as a theory.
4.
List and briefly describe each of the Big Five factors.
5.
Discuss the evolution of the five-factor theory.6.
List and
briefly describe McCrae and Costa's three core components of

personality.
6.
List and briefly describe McCrae and Costa's three peripheral

components of personality.
7.
Briefly describe some of the cross-cultural research on McCrae

and Costa's Big Five factors.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e

13 | 1
Student Study Guide-
8.
Critique the pros and cons of McCrae and Costas factor and
trait theories.
9.
Discuss the relationship of parsimony to factor and trait

theories.
I.
Overview of Factor and Trait Theories

McCrae, Costa and others have used factor analysis to identify
traits, that is, relatively permanent dispositions of people.
Robert McCrae and Paul Costa have insisted that the proper
number of personality factors is fiveno more and no fewer.
II. The Pioneering Work of Raymond B. Cattell

In Chapter 13, we saw that Gordon Allport used common sense
to identify both common and unique personality traits. In
comparison, Raymond Cattell used factor analysis to identify a
large number of traits, including personality traits. Included in
personality traits were temperament traits, which are concerned
with how a person behaves. Temperament traits include both
normal and abnormal traits. Of the 23 normal traits, 16 are
measured by Cattell's famous PF scale.
III. Basics of Factor Analysis

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Factor analysis is a mathematical procedure for reducing a large

number of scores to a few more general variables or factors.
Correlations of the original, specific scores with the factors are
called factor loadings. Traits generated through factor analysis
may be either unipolar (scaled from zero to some large amount)
or bipolar (having two opposing poles, such as introversion and
extraversion). For factors to have psychological meaning, the
analyst must rotate the axes on which the scores are plotted.
Eysenck used an orthogonal rotation whereas Cattell favored
an oblique rotation. The oblique rotation procedure ordinarily
results in more traits than the orthogonal method.
IV. The Big Five: Taxonomy or Theory?

A large number of researchers, including Robert McCrae and
Paul Costa, Jr., have insisted that all personality structure can be
subsumed under five, and only five, major factors.
V.
Biographies of Robert McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr.

Robert Roger McCrae was born April 28, 1949 in Maryville,
Missouri, the youngest of three children. After completing an
undergraduate degree in philosophy from Michigan State
University, he earned a PhD in psychology from Boston
University. Following the lead of Raymond Cattell, he began
using factor analysis as a means of measuring the structure of
human traits. After completing his academic work, McCrae

13 | 3
began working with Paul Costa at the National Institute of

Health, where he is still employed. Paul T. Costa Jr. was born
September 16 in Franklin, New Hampshire. He earned his
undergraduate degree in psychology from Clark University and
a PhD from the University of Chicago. In 1978 he began
working with Robert McCrae at the National Institute of Aging,
where he continues to conduct research on human development
and aging. The collaboration between Costa and McCrae has
been unusually fruitful, with well over 200 co-authored research
articles and chapters, and several books.
VI. In Search of the Big Five
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Costa and McCrae, like most
other factor researchers, were building elaborate taxonomies of
personality traits, which they were using to examine the stability
and structure of personality. As with many other factor
theorists, they quickly discovered the traits of extraversion (E),
neuroticism (N), and openness to experience (O).
A.
Five Factors Found
As late as 1983, McCrae and Costa were arguing for a threefactor model of personality, but by 1985 they begin to report
work on the five factors of personality, having added
agreeableness (A) and conscientiousness (C). Costa and
McCrae did not fully develop the A and C scales until the
revised NEO-PI personality inventory appeared in 1992.
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Recently, the five factors have been found across a variety of

cultures and using a number of languages. In addition, the five
factors show some permanence with age; that is, adults tend to
maintain a consistent personality structure as they grow older.
B.
Description of the Five Factors
McCrae and Costa agreed with Eysenck that personality traits

are basically bipolar, with some people scoring high on one
factor and low on its counterpart. For example, people who
score high on N tend to be anxious, temperamental, self-pitying,
self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable to stress-related
disorders, whereas people with low scores on N tend to have
opposite characteristics. People who score high on E tend to be
affectionate, jovial, talkative, a joiner, and fun-loving, whereas
low E scorers tend to have opposing traits. High O scorers
prefer variety in their life and are contrasted to low O scorers
who have a need for closure and who gain comfort in their
association with familiar people and things. People who score
high on A tend to be trusting, generous, yielding, acceptant, and
good natured. Low A scorers are generally suspicious, stingy,
unfriendly, irritable, and critical of other people. Finally, people
high on the C scale tend to be ordered, controlled, organized,
ambitious, achievement-focused, and self-disciplined. Together
these dimensions make up the personality traits of the five factor
model, often referred to as the "Big-Five."
VII. Evolution of the Five-Factor Theory
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Originally, the five factors were simply a taxonomy, a

classification of personality traits. By the late 1980s, Costa and
McCrae were confident that they had found a stable structure of
personality. In shaping a theory from the remnants of a
taxonomy, McCrae and Costa were insisting that their
personality structure was able to incorporate change and growth
into its tenets and to stimulate empirical research as well as
organize research findings. In other words, their Five-Factor
taxonomy was being transformed into a Five-Factor Theory
(FFT).
A.
Units of the Five-Factor Theory
McCrae and Costa predict behavior through an understanding of

three central or core components and three peripheral ones. The
three core components include: (1) basic tendencies, (2)
characteristic adaptations, and (3) self-concept. Basic
tendencies are the universal raw material of personality.
Characteristic adaptations are acquired personality structures
that develop as people adapt to their environment. Self-concept
refers to knowledge and attitudes about oneself. Peripheral
components include (1) biological bases, which are the sole
cause of basic tendencies; (2) objective biography, which is
everything a person does or thinks over a lifetime; and (3)
external influence, or knowledge, views, and evaluations of the
self.
B.
Basic Postulates

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The two most important core postulates are basic tendencies

and characteristic adaptations. Basic tendencies have four
postulatesindividuality, origin, development, and structure.
The individuality postulate stipulates that every adult has a
unique pattern of traits. The origin postulate assumes that all
personality traits originate solely from biological factors, such
as genetics, hormones, and brain structures. The development
postulate assumes that traits develop and change through
childhood, adolescence, and mid-adulthood. The structure
postulate states that traits are organized hierarchically from
narrow and specific to broad and general. VIII.
Related Research
The five-trait theory of McCrae and Costa has drawn a
considerable amount of research, and isvery popular in the field
of personality. Costa and McCrae have developed a widely
used personality inventory: the NEO-PI (Costa & McCrae,
1985, 1992). Traits have been linked to vital outcomes such as
physical health (Martin, Friedman, & Schwartz, 2007), wellbeing (Costa & McCrae, 1980), and academic success (Noftle
& Robins, 2007; Zyphur, Islam, & Landis, 2007). Traits have
also been linked to more everyday outcomes such as mood
(McNiel & Fleeson, 2006).
A.
Personality and Culture
If personality has a strong biological bases, then the structure of

personality should not differ much from culture to culture. The
major traits do appear consistent in most countries of the world
(McCrae, 2002; Poortinga, Van de Vijver, & van Hemert, 2000).
Our biological makeup influences our personalities on similar
dimensions such as extraversion or neuroticism; how and when
13 | 7
traits are expressed are influenced by cultural and social

context. In short, personality is shaped by both nature and
nurture.
B.
Traits and Academics
Erik Noftle and Richard Robins (2007) studied the relationship

of traits and academic performance. They found that
conscientiousness was the most important trait for predicting
GPAs in high school and college, but not for SAT scores. The
Big 5 factors were not strong predictors of SAT math scores,
but openness was related to SAT verbal scores. These
differences are attributed to differences between aptitude and
achievement measured by SATs versus GPAs. Michael Zyphur
and colleagues (2007) studied the relationship between
neuroticism and retaking the SAT. Their findings are important
in that high scores on neuroticism are often viewed negatively,
but the anxious tendencies of those high on neuroticism were
very adaptive in this study, because these tendencies led them to
retake the SAT and score higher each time they did.
C. Traits and Emotion
Though the relation between traits and moods has been clear in
terms of positivity vs. negativity to early researchers, what has
not been clear is causality: Does the trait cause the experience
of a positive or negative mood, or does the experience of that
mood and its emotions cause people to behave in ways
concordant with the traits? And similarly, does the mood cause
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the behavior, or does the behavior cause the mood? Murray

McNiel and William Fleeson (2006) studied the direction of
causality for the relationships between extraversion and positive
mood, and neuroticism and negative mood. They wanted to
know if behaving in an extraverted manner causes people to
have positive feelings and behaving in a neurotic manner causes
them to have negative feelings. Their results showed that when
people act in a certain way, their behavior does indeed influence
their mood to fit the behavior. On the other hand, Michael
Robinson and Gerald Clore (2007) have found recently that
individual differences in the speed of processing information can
influence the relationship between neuroticism and negative
mood, such that not everybody who scores high on neuroticism
experiences more negative emotion. They discovered that
people who process environmental stimuli faster do not need to
rely on neuroticism to interpret events and interpret their
environment objectively, whereas slower processors are more
subjective in their evaluations by relying on trait dispositions to
interpret events. So those high on neuroticism but fast at
processing did not report any more negative emotion than those
low on neuroticism. These results show that the early research
findings that extraversion is related to positive mood and
neuroticism to negative mood, while not inaccurate, do not give
the full picture of the complex relationship between traits and
emotions. In sum, even though your traits predispose you to
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certain types of behavior, your actions can override those

dispositions.
IX. Critique of Trait and Factor Theories
The factor theories of Eysenck and of McCrae and Costa rate
high on parsimony, on their ability to generate research, and on
their usefulness in organizing data; they are about average on
falsifiability, usefulness to the practitioner, and internal
consistency.
X.
Concept of Humanity
Factor theories generally assume that human personality is
largely the product of genetics and not the environment. Thus,
we rate these two theories very high on biological influences
and very low on social factors. In addition, we rate both about
average on conscious versus unconscious influences and high on
the uniqueness of individuals. The concepts of free choice,
optimism versus pessimism, and causality versus teleology are
not clearly addressed by these theories.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks

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1. Social psychologists explain behavior by the situation, whereas:

personality psychologists attribute behavior to enduring ______.
2. The five major dimensions of personality are extraversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness, ________, and openness to
experience.
3. Big Five traits of personality and their widespread adoption and
acceptance owes much to the research and theory of Robert
McCrae and________
4. Presently, most researchers who study personality traits agree that
_____, and only _____, and no fewer than _____ dominant
traits continue to emerge from factor analytic techniques.
5. Hans J. Eysenck insisted that only _____ major factors can be
discerned by a factor analytic approach.
6. Allports major contribution to trait theory may have been his
identification of nearly ______ trait names in an unabridged
English language dictionary.
7. The Five-Factor Theory (often called_______) includes
neuroticism and extraversion; but it adds openness to
experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
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8. Cattell and McCrae and Costa both used an _______ of gathering

data; that is, they began with no preconceived bias concerning
the number or name of traits or types.
9. The largest and most frequently studied of the normal traits are
the __ personality factors found on Cattells (1949) ____
Personality Factors Questionnaire (__ PF Scale).
10. Factor analysis is largely the collection and quantifying of
observations, and then demonstrating ________.
11. Traits generated through factor analysis may be either _______ or
bipolar.
12. The advocates of the Five-Factor Theory favor the ________
rotation.
13. The Big Five began as a ___________________ ; that is, a
classification system.
14. Costa and McCrae's first two factors were neuroticism and
____________________.
15. Costa and McCrae's A factor represents __________________
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16. Characteristic adaptations are among the ________________

components of personality.
17. Everything a person does across the lifespan is an objective
________________.
18. McCrae and Costas Five-Factor Model (FFM) can both predict
and ______ behavior.
19. Research suggests that the traits of the Big Five are
____________________ over time and consistent across
cultures.
20. According to McCrae and Costa, personality traits are fairly
consistent after the age of _____________.
True-False
_____1.
Personality psychologists are more likely to attribute
behavior to situational traits.

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_____2.
Historically psychologists concur on a unique set of
personality traits that target the major dimensions of personality.

_____3.
There are ten major dimensions of personality that have
been widely accepted by personality psychologists.

_____4.
Hans J. Eysenck insisted that only seven major factors
can be discerned by a factor analytic approach.

_____5.
The Five-Factor Theory (often called the Big Five)
includes neuroticism and extraversion; but it adds openness to

experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
_____6.
Traits are more stable than states.
_____7.
Cattell and McCrae and Costa both used an deductive
method of gathering data.

_____8.
Cattell used three different media of observation to
examine people called X data, Y data, and Z data.

_____9.
Cattell classified traits into temperament, motivation, and
ability.

13 | 14
_____10.
The largest and most frequently studied of Cattells
normal traits are the 16 personality factors found on Cattells

(1949) Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16 PF Scale).
_____11.
Factor anaylsis is based solely upon the observations of
peoples behaviors.
_____12.
The advocates of the Five-Factor Theory favor the
orthogonal rotation to demonstrate fewer, meaningful traits.

_____13.
McCrae and Costa are currently the only researchers
seriously investigating the Big Five factors.

_____14.
McCrae and Costa do not consider the Big Five to be a
theory.
_____15.
According to McCrae and Costa, the Five Factor Model
and the Five Factor Theory are terms that can be used
interchangeably.
_____16.
Although they have published much together, Robert
McCrae and Paul Costa live nearly 3,000 miles apart.

_____17.
The A factor in the Big Five theory represents anxiety.

13 | 15
_____18.
People in the United States score considerably higher on
measures of extraversion than do people in Spain.

_____ 19. According to McCrae and Costa, the ultimate source of
human behavior is childhood experience.
_____ 20. McCrae and Costa believe that personality traits are
nearly completely determined by early adolescence.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Personality psychologists are more likely to attribute
behavior to_________.
a.
day to minute situation
b.
enduring traits
c.
cognitive displacement
d.
overt emotionalism
______2.
A trait is best described as
a.
a cluster of surface factors.
b.
a temporary attitude toward a person or event.
c.
a relatively permanent disposition of a person.

13 | 16
d.
an environmentally determined hypothetical construct that
shapes an individual's behavior and thought.

_____3.
Mathematically, the technique of reducing a number of
variables to a smaller number is called

a.
induction.
b.
the experimental method.
c.
variance.
d.
factor analysis.
_____4.
Today most researchers who study personality traits agree
that __, and only __, and no fewer than __ dominant traits
continue to emerge from factor analytic techniques.
a.
b.
c.
d.
16
_____5.
Which of the following statements is true?
a.
Traits are of two kindsdispositional and hypothetical.
b.
Traits are more permanent than states.
c.
Traits represent a broader concept than factors.
d.
Traits cannot be extracted through the use of factor
analysis.

13 | 17
______6.
Hans J. Eysenck insisted that only __ major factors can
be discerned by a factor analytic approach.

a.
b.
c.
16
d.
18,000
______7.
Cattell and McCrae and Costa both used an (a)
_________ of gathering data.

a.
deductive method
b.
comparison method
c.
intuition method
d.
inductive method
______8.
Cattells famous personality scale is called the _______.
a.
NEO-Personality Inventory
b.
FIRO-B
c.
MBTI
d.
16 PF Scale
______9.
The advocates of the Five-Factor Theory favor the
_______ rotation of factor analysis.

a.
orthogonal

13 | 18
b.
triangulated
c.
oblique
d.
hexagonal
_____10.
McCrae and Costas Five-Factor Model (FFM) can both
______ and _____ behavior.

a.
forecast, foretell
b.
predict, explain
c.
identify, analyze
d.
measure, hypothesize
_____11.
The Five Factors have been found across cultures and
show some permanence with _____.

a.
race
b.
age
c.
gender
d.
sexual orientation
_____12.
The fifth factor of the Big Five is _______ and describes
people who are ordered, controlled, organized, ambitious,

achievement focused, and self-disciplined.
a.
conscientiousness
b.
agreeableness
c.
neuroticism
d.
extraversion

13 | 19
_____13.
The A in McCrae and Costa's theory stands for
a.
anxiety.
b.
aggression.
c.
agreeableness.
d.
activity.
_____14.
Currently, the Big Five can most accurately be called
a.
a model.
b.
an armchair speculation.
c.
a taxonomy.
d.
a theory.
_____15.
Factor C in the Five-Factor theory is
a.
consistency.
b.
cooperation.
c.
conscientiousness.
d.
compromise.
_____16.
People who score low on ______________ tend to be
quiet and reserved.

a.
intelligence
b.
psychoticism
c.
compromise
d.
extraversion

13 | 20
_____17.
According to McCrae and Costa, the ultimate contributor
to personality is
a.
biology.
b.
self-concept.
c.
childhood experience..
d.
the ability to adapt to new experiences.
_____18.
A person's view of what he or she is like is called _____.
a.
self-concept.
b.
objective biology.
c.
external influences.
d.
characteristic adaptations.
_____19.
According to McCrae and Costa, the Big Five factors
comprise a person's
a.
characteristic adaptations.
b.
objective biography.
c.
basic tendencies.
d.
external influences.
____20.
The theories of McCrae and Costa and of Eysenck rate
a.
high on biological determinants of personality.
b.
high on teleology.
c.
low on their ability to generate research.

13 | 21
d.
high on free will vs. determinism.
Short Answer
I. Define a unipolar trait.
2.
List and elaborate on McCrae and Costa's five factors.
3. Explain the difference between the Five Factor Model and the FiveFactor Theory.

13 | 22
4.
Explain the difference between the self-concept and objective

biography.
5.
List and discuss McCrae and Costas predicting of behavior by

an understanding of three central or core components and the
three peripheral ones.

13 | 23

13 | 24
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
True-False
Multiple Choice
1.
traits
1.
1.
2.
neuroticism
2.
2.
3.
Paul Costa
3.
3.
4.
five
4.
4.
5.
three
5.
5.
6.
18,000
6.
6.
7.
the Big Five
7.
7.
8.
inductive method
8.
8.
9.
16
9.
9.
10.
correlations
10.
10.
11.
unipolar
11
11.
12.
orthogonal
12.
12.
13.
taxonomy
13.
13.
14.
extraversion
14.
14.
15.
agreeableness
15.
15.
16.
core
16.
16.
17.
biography
17.
17.
18.
explain
18.
18.
19.
stable
19.
19.
20.
30
20.
20.

13 | 25

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Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

Explain the basics of factor analytic procedures.

Explain the importance of R. B. Cattell's pioneering work.

Distinguish between the Big Five as a taxonomy and as a theory.

List and briefly describe each of the Big Five factors.

Discuss the evolution of the five-factor theory.6.

briefly describe McCrae and Costa's three core components of

List and briefly describe McCrae and Costa's three peripheral

Briefly describe some of the cross-cultural research on McCrae

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

Discuss the relationship of parsimony to factor and trait

Overview of Factor and Trait Theories

II. The Pioneering Work of Raymond B. Cattell

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

Factor analysis is a mathematical procedure for reducing a large

IV. The Big Five: Taxonomy or Theory?

Biographies of Robert McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr.

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

began working with Paul Costa at the National Institute of

Five Factors Found

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

Recently, the five factors have been found across a variety of

Description of the Five Factors

McCrae and Costa agreed with Eysenck that personality traits

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

Originally, the five factors were simply a taxonomy, a

Units of the Five-Factor Theory

McCrae and Costa predict behavior through an understanding of

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

The two most important core postulates are basic tendencies

Personality and Culture

If personality has a strong biological bases, then the structure of

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

traits are expressed are influenced by cultural and social

Traits and Academics

Erik Noftle and Richard Robins (2007) studied the relationship

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

the behavior, or does the behavior cause the mood? Murray

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

certain types of behavior, your actions can override those

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

1. Social psychologists explain behavior by the situation, whereas:

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

8. Cattell and McCrae and Costa both used an _______ of gathering

Student Study Guide-

Chapter 13 McCrae and Costas Five Factor Trait Theory

16. Characteristic adaptations are among the ________________