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being used in helping researchers understand the dimensions of psychological disorders such as
anxiety and depression (Oldham, 2010; Saulsman & Page, 2004). [15]
An advantage of the five-factor approach is that it is parsimonious. Rather than studying
hundreds of traits, researchers can focus on only five underlying dimensions. The Big Five may
also capture other dimensions that have been of interest to psychologists. For instance, the trait
dimension of need for achievement relates to the Big Five variable of conscientiousness,
and self-esteem relates to low neuroticism. On the other hand, the Big Five factors do not seem to
capture all the important dimensions of personality. For instance, the Big Five does not capture
moral behavior, although this variable is important in many theories of personality. And there is
evidence that the Big Five factors are not exactly the same across all cultures (Cheung & Leung,
1998). [16]
Situational Influences on Personality
One challenge to the trait approach to personality is that traits may not be as stable as we think
they are. When we say that Malik is friendly, we mean that Malik is friendly today and will be
friendly tomorrow and even next week. And we mean that Malik is friendlier than average in all
situations. But what if Malik were found to behave in a friendly way with his family members
but to be unfriendly with his fellow classmates? This would clash with the idea that traits are
stable across time and situation.
The psychologist Walter Mischel (1968) [17] reviewed the existing literature on traits and found
that there was only a relatively low correlation (about r = .30) between the traits that a person
expressed in one situation and those that they expressed in other situations. In one relevant study,
Hartshorne, May, Maller, & Shuttleworth (1928) [18] examined the correlations among various
behavioral indicators of honesty in children. They also enticed children to behave either honestly
or dishonestly in different situations, for instance, by making it easy or difficult for them to steal
and cheat. The correlations among children’s behavior was low, generally less than r = .30,
showing that children who steal in one situation are not always the same children who steal in a
different situation. And similar low correlations were found in adults on other measures,
including dependency, friendliness, and conscientiousness (Bem & Allen, 1974). [19]