trait theories of personality

1. TRAIT THEORIES
OF PERSONALITY

2. GORDON ALLPORT’S TRAIT
THEORY
RAYMOND CATTELL: PERSONALITY
FACTORS
HANS EYSENCK’S TRAIT
THEORY
FIVE FACTOR MODEL OF
PERSONALITY

3. GORDON ALLPORT’S TRAIT
THEORY
• Cardinal Traits: Allport suggested that cardinal traits are rare and dominate,
usually developing later in life. They tend to define a person to such an extent
that their names become synonymous with their personality.
• Central Traits: These general characteristics form basic personality foundations.
While central traits are not as dominating as cardinal traits, they describe the
major characteristics you might use to describe another person.
• Secondary Traits: Secondary traits are sometimes related to attitudes or
preferences. They often appear only in certain situations or under specific
circumstances.

4. RAYMOND CATTELL: PERSONALITY
FACTORS
Trait theorist Raymond Cattell reduced the number of main personality traits from
Allport’s initial list of over 4,000 down to 171. Cattell rated a large sample of
individuals for these 171 different traits. Using a statistical technique known as
factor analysis, he then identified closely related terms and eventually reduced his
list to just 16 key personality traits.
• Source traits: Source Traits are stable, and are considered as the building blocks
of personality.
• Surface traits: Surface traits are those that result out of the interaction of source
traits.

5. HANS EYSENCK’S TRAIT
THEORY
• Neuroticism: This dimension of Eysenck’s trait theory is related to moodiness
versus even-temperateness. Neuroticism refers to an individual’s tendency to
become upset or emotional.
• Introversion: Introversion involves directing attention to inner experiences,
while Extroversion relates to focusing attention outward, onto other people
and the environment.
• Psychoticism: This dimension is considered to interact with the other two
dimensions mentioned above. A person who scores high on psychoticism
dimension tends to be hostile, egocentric, and antisocial.

6. FIVE FACTOR MODEL OF
PERSONALITY
• Openness to experience: Openness to experience refers to one’s willingness to
try new things as well as engage in imaginative and intellectual activities.
• Conscientiousness: Conscientiousness describes a person’s ability to regulate
their impulse control in order to engage in goal-directed behaviours.
• Extraversion: Extraversion reflects the tendency and intensity to which someone
seeks interaction with their environment, particularly socially.
• Agreeableness: Agreeableness refers to how people tend to treat relationships
with others.
• Neuroticism: Neuroticism describes the overall emotional stability of an
individual through how they perceive the world.