Trait Theory

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Traits

v A distinguishing quality or characteristic of a person

v Odbert (1936) identified almost 18,000 English personality-relevant

terms; more words than Shakespeare used!

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Traits
Ratings of likeableness of some favorable, neutral and unfavorable traits

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The four humours

v Galen’s temperamental terms,

Ø Melancholic
§ Tending towards low mood
Ø Choleric
§ Tending towards anger
Ø Phlegmatic
§ Tending towards stolid calmness
Ø Sanguine
§ Tending towards optimism and confidence

v When the humours were blended in a balanced fashion, an optimal

temperament resulted.
v Imbalance led to physical illness, but also to mental disturbance.

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The four humours

Immanuel Kant Wilhelm Wundt

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Scientific conception of Traits

v Two key assumptions

Ø Traits are stable over time.
Ø Traits directly influence behaviour

v Traits Vs temporary states (eg. mood)

v Scientific conceptions of traits

Ø Traits are unique and defining characteristic of personality (Buss, 1989)
Ø Many of these words have overlapping meanings
§ precise, careful, meticulous and painstaking would all seem to relate to some
common quality of conscientiousness.
§ Such overlapping traits can be grouped together as a broad aspect or
dimension of personality
Ø The simplest technique for personality measurement is just to ask the
person to rate how well trait adjectives apply to himself or herself.

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Scientific conception of Traits

v We need a theory of personality traits

Ø One difficulty is that personality may be represented at a variety of levels
of psychological description.
Ø For example, extraversion might be associated with simple properties of
the central nervous system, such as the excitability of individual neurones,
or with style of information processing, or with acquired social knowledge
and beliefs.

v There is some question over whether we can ever develop a general

scientific theory of traits at all.
Ø The idiographic approach to personality (e.g., Lamiell, 1981) considers
that all aspects of personality are fundamentally unique and idiosyncratic
to each individual, so that no generalised theoretical statements are
possible.

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Scientific conception of Traits

v Causal primacy.
Ø Dominant direction of causality is from trait to behaviour.
Ø Gordon Allport (1937), saw traits as organised mental structures, varying
from person to person, which initiate and guide behaviour.
Ø Explaining behaviour requires different levels of analysis, including
genetics, physiology, learning and social factors. Allport’s notion that all
the various manifestations of traits can be explained at a single level of
‘mental structure’ is simplistic.
Ø The causal effects of traits on behaviour may be indirect.

v Inner locus.
Ø A second traditional assumption is that of the inner locus of traits.
Ø The most important traits, such as extraversion and neuroticism (a broad
tendency to experience negative emotions), are assumed by some to
relate to some fundamental, core quality of the person, which might be
influenced substantially by genetic factors

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Gordon Allport

v Trait
Ø Predispositions to respond, in the same or a similar manner, to different
kinds of stimuli
Ø Traits are consistent and enduring ways of reacting to our environment
Traits are measured on a continuum
Ø Traits are subject to social, environmental, and cultural influences

v Characteristics of traits as follows (Allport, 1937)

Ø Personality traits are real and exist within each of us.
Ø Traits determine or cause behavior.
Ø Traits can be demonstrated empirically.
Ø Traits are interrelated
Ø Traits vary with the situation.

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Types of traits (Allport)

v Cardinal trait
Ø Pervasive and influential traits that touches almost every aspect of a
person’s life.
Ø A ruling passion, a powerful force that dominates behavior.
§ Sadism and chauvinism.

v Central traits
Ø Five to Ten themes that best describe our behavior.
§ Allport’s examples are aggressiveness, self-pity, and cynicism.
§ Characteristics we would mention when discussing a person

v Secondary traits
Ø Appear much less consistently than cardinal and central traits
Ø Secondary traits may be so inconspicuous or weak that only a close friend
would notice evidence of them.
§ Minor preference for a particular type of music or for a certain food.

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Raymond Cattell

v Traits
Ø Relatively permanent reaction tendencies that are the basic structural units
of the personality.
Ø He classified traits in several ways

v Common trait
Ø Possessed by everyone to some degree
Ø Common traits are universal is that all people
§ Intelligence, extraversion

v Unique Traits
Ø Those aspects of personality shared by few other people.
Ø Particularly apparent in our interests and attitudes.
§ Genealogy, Law, music

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Raymond Cattell

v Ability Traits
Ø Determine how efficiently we will be able to work toward a goal.
§ Intelligence

v Temperament Traits
Ø Describe the general style and emotional tone of our behavior
§ assertive, easygoing, or irritable

v Dynamic Traits
Ø driving forces of behaviour
§ motivations, interests, and ambitions.

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Raymond Cattell

v Surface Traits
Ø Personality characteristics that correlate with one another but do not
constitute a factor because a single source does not determine them.
§ Anxiety, indecision, and irrational fear combine to form the surface trait labeled
neuroticism

v Source Traits
Ø Unitary personality factors that are much more stable and permanent
Ø Each source trait gives rise to some aspect of behavior.
Ø Individual factors derived from factor analysis
§ Combine to account for surface traits.

Ø Constitutional traits
§ Originate in biological conditions but are not necessarily innate.
Ø Environmental-mold traits
§ Derive from influences in our social and physical environ- ments.

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Cattell’s source traits

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The Big Five

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