Trait Theory
The Trait Theory maintains that a person is made up of a specific set of characteristics known as traits. These are distinctive, often enduring qualities or attributes that set an individual apart from the crowd.
The primary focus of trait theorists is on measuring traits, which are characterised as ingrained patterns of behaviour, cognition, and emotion. This viewpoint defines traits as those aspects of personality that influence behaviour, vary among individuals (e.g., some people are outgoing while others are not), are relatively consistent across situations, and are stable over time. States, on the other hand, are more ephemeral dispositions than traits.
Certain theories and systems view traits as something that a person either possesses or lacks, but many other theories and systems view traits as dimensions, such as extraversion versus introversion, that each individual rates somewhere on the spectrum.
Traits can be defined in two ways: either as purely descriptive summaries or as internal causal properties. According to the internal causal definition, characteristics have an impact on our behaviours and cause us to act in ways consistent with those features. Traits, on the other hand, serve as descriptive summaries of our behaviours; they do not attempt to establish causation.
The two most popular hypotheses of traits are:
The Trait Theory of Allport
This is Gordon Allport’s hypothesis. He claims that by making a distinction between an individual’s common traits and personal dispositions, one can study that person’s personality.
People are compared based on six values—religious, social, political, economic, artistic, and theoretical—using their shared characteristics. In addition to the universal characteristics, there exist distinct personal dispositions that fall into the following categories:
Few people have a personality that is dominated by just one of the powerful cardinal traits. Such as Mother Teressa’s altruism.
Central Traits: These are the universal qualities that many people have to differing degrees. Such as loyalty, friendliness, agreeableness, kindness, etc.
Secondary Trait: The secondary traits show why at times, a person behaves differently than his usual behaviour. Such as a jolly person may get miserable when people try to tease him.
Cattell’s Trait Theory
This trait theory is given by Raymond Cattell. According to him, the sample of a large number of variables should be studied to have a proper understanding of the individual personality.
He collected the life data (everyday life behaviours of individuals), experimental data (standardising experiments by measuring actions), questionnaire data (responses gathered from the introspection of an individual’s behaviour) and done the factor analysis to identify the traits that are related to one another.
By using the factor analysis method, he identified 16 key personality factors:
Abstractedness: Imaginative Vs Practical\sWarmth: Outgoing Vs Reserved\sVigilance: Suspicious Vs Trusting\sTension: Impatient Vs Relaxed\sApprehension: Worried Vs Confident\sEmotional Stability: Calm Vs anxious\sLiveliness: Spontaneous Vs Restrained\sDominance: Forceful Vs Submissive
Social Boldness: Uninhibited Vs Shy\sPerfectionism: Controlled Vs Undisciplined
Privateness: Discreet Vs Open\sSensitivity: Tender Vs Tough\sSelf Reliance: Self sufficient Vs Dependent\sRule-Consciousness: Conforming Vs Non-Conforming
Reasoning: Abstract Vs Concrete\sOpenness to Change: Flexible Vs Stubborn
The trait theory is based on the assumption that the traits are common to many individuals and they vary in absolute amounts. Also, the traits remain consistent over a period of time, and thus can be measured through the behavioural indicators.