Trait Theory by Dr. Suprerna

2. a ‘nomothetic’ quality, described by general principles applying to all individuals? or should
personality be studied ‘idiographically’, focusing on the uniqueness of each individual?
Doesbehaviourprimarilydependonpersonality,orisitmore powerfullyshapedbysituationand
context?
Is personalityinfusedintoconsciousexperience,sothat people canexplicitlydescribe theirown
traits? Or, as Freud argued, is much of personality unconscious,so that people lack insight into
their own natures?
Is personality primarily a consequence of individual differences in brain functioning, or of social
learning and culture?
Ispersonalitymainlydeterminedbythe individual’sDNA,orbyenvironmental factors?(note that
thisdichotomyisnotthe same as the preceding one: environment affects brain development)
Is personality fixedand stable throughout adulthood,or does the person generally change over
time, and perhaps grow into maturity and wisdom?

3. Aftertracingthe historyofthe term, hespelledout49definitions of personalityasusedin theology,
philosophy, law,sociology, and psychology.
50th definition offered by Allport was in 1937: “Personalityis the dynamic organization within
the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his
environment.”
Revised in 1961: “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought.”
 ‘Dynamic Organization – Anintegrationorinterrelatednessof the variousaspectsof personality.
 Psycho-physical – Importance of boththe psychological andthe physical aspectsof personality.
 Determine – Personality is something and does something.
 Characteristic – Marked with a unique engraving, a stamp or marking that no one else can
duplicate.
 BehaviorandThought – conveyed thatbehaviorisexpressive andadaptive,thatpeople notonly
adjusttotheirenvironment, butalsoreflectonitandinteractwithitinsuchawayastocausetheir
environment to adjustment .It refers to anything the person does. Meant to include internal
behaviors (thoughts) as well as external behaviors.
Allport’s definition of personality suggests that human beings are both product and
process; people have some organized structurewhile, at the same time, they possess the
capability of change. Pattern coexistswithgrowth, orderwithdiversification.
 He emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and consequently adopt an idiographic view.
 The idiographic view assumes that each person has a unique psychological structure and that
some traits are possessedby only one person; and that there are times when it is impossible to
compare one person with others. It tends to use case studies for information gathering.
 The nomothetic view, on the other hand, emphasizes comparability among individuals. This
viewpointseestraitsashavingthe same psychological meaningineveryone.Thisapproachtends
to use self-reportpersonalityquestions,factoranalysis,etc.People differintheirpositionsalong
a continuum in the same set of traits.
The proprium Putting so much emphasis on the self or proprium, self from two directions,
phenomenologically and functionally.

4. First, phenomenologically, i.e. the self as experienced:
He suggestedthatthe self iscomposedof the aspectsof yourexperiencingthatyousee asmostessential
(asopposedtoincidentaloraccidental),warm(or "precious,"asopposedtoemotionallycool),andcentral
(as opposed to peripheral).
His functional definition became a developmental theory all by itself.
The self has seven functions, which tend to arise at certain times of one’s life:
 Sense of body
 Self-identity
 Self-esteem
 Self-extension
 Self-image
 Rational coping
 Propriate striving
1. Sense of body develops in the first two years of life. We have one, we feel its closeness, its
warmth.It has boundariesthatpainand injury,touchand movement, make usaware of. Allport
had a favorite demonstrationof this aspect of self: Imagine spitting saliva into a cup – and then
drinkingitdown!What’sthe problem?It’sthe samestuff youswallow alldaylong!But,of course,
it has gone out from your bodily self and become, thereby, foreign to you.
2. Self-identity also develops in the first two years. There comes a point were we recognize
ourselves as continuing, as having a past, present, and future. We see ourselvesas individual
entities,separate anddifferentfromothers.We evenhave aname!Will yoube the same person
when you wake up tomorrow? Of course – we take that continuity for granted.
3. Self-esteem develops between two and four years old. There also comes a time when we
recognize that we have value, to others and to ourselves. This is especially tied to a continuing
developmentof ourcompetencies. This, for Allport, is what the "anal" stage is really all about!
4. Self-extensiondevelopsbetweenfourandsix.Certainthings,people,andeventsaroundusalso
come to be thoughtof ascentral andwarm, essentialtomyexistence."My"isveryclose to"me!"
Some people define themselves in terms of their parents, spouse, or children, their clan, gang,
community,college,ornation.Some findtheiridentityinactivities:I’mapsychologist,astudent.
Some find identity ina place: my house, my hometown. When my childdoes something wrong,
why do I feel guilty? If someone scratches my car, why do I feel like they just punches me?
5. Self-image also develops between four and six. Thisis the "looking-glass self," the me as others
see me.Thisisthe IMPRESSION Imake onothers,my"look,"mysocial esteemorstatus,including
my sexual identity. It is the beginning of what conscience, ideal self, and persona.
6. Rational coping is learned predominantly in the years from six till twelve. The child begins to
develophisorherabilitiestodeal withlife’sproblemsrationallyandeffectively.Thisisanalogous
to Erikson’s "industry."

5. 7. Propriate striving doesn’t usually begin till after twelve years old. This is my self as goals, ideal,
plans, vocations, callings, a sense of direction, a sense of purpose.
The culminationof propriate striving,accordingtoAllport,isthe abilitytosaythat I am the proprietorof
my life – i.e.the ownerandoperator!(One can't helpbut notice the time periodsAllportuses –theyare
veryclose tothe time periodsof Freud'sstages!ButpleaseunderstandthatAllport'sschemeisnotastage
theory – just a description of the usual way people develop.)
Tr aits or dispositions
Now, as the proprium is developing in this way, we are also developing personal traits, or personal
dispositions. Allport originally used the word traits, but found that so many people assumed he meant
traits as perceived by someone looking at another person or measuredby personality tests, rather than
as unique, individual characteristics within a person, that he changed it to dispositions.
A personal disposition is defined as "a generalized neuropsychic structure (peculiar to the individual),
with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent
(equivalent) forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior."
 A trait has more than nominal existence.
 A trait is more than a generalized habit.
 A trait is dynamic, or at least determinative.
 The existence of a trait may be established empirically or at least statistically.
 Traits are only relatively independent of each other.
 A trait of personality, psychologically considered, is not the same as a moral quality.
 Acts, and evenhabits,that are inconsistentwithatrait are not proof of the nonexistence of the
trait.
A trait may be viewed either in the light of the personality which contains it, or in the light of i ts
distribution in the population at large.
A personal disposition produces equivalences in function and meaning between various
perceptions,beliefs, PersonalityTheories feelings,andactionsthatare notnecessarilyequivalent
in the natural world, or in anyone else’s mind.
A person with the personal disposition "fear of communism" may equate Russians, liberals,
professors, strikers, social activists, environmentalists,feminists,and so on. He may lump them
all together and respond to any of them with a set of behaviors that express his fear: making
speeches,writingletters,voting,arminghimself,gettingangry,etc.Anotherwaytoputitistosay
that dispositions are concrete, easily recognized, consistencies in our behaviors.
Allport believes that traits are essentially unique to each individual: One person’s "fear of
communism" isn’t the same as another's. And you can’t really expect that knowledge of other
people is going to help you understand any one particular person.

6. For this reason, Allport strongly pushed what he called idiographic methods – methods that
focused on studying one person at a time, such as interviews, observation,analysis of letters or
diaries, and so on. These are nowadays generally referred to as qualitative methods.
Allportdoesrecognize thatwithinanyparticularculture,thereare commontraitsordispositions,
ones that are a part of that culture, that everyone in that culture recognizes and names.
In our culture, we commonly differentiate between introverts and extraverts or liberals and
conservatives,andwe all know(roughly) whatwe mean.But anotherculture may not recognize
these. What, for example, would liberal and conservative mean in the middle ages?
Allportrecognizesthatsome traitsare more closelytiedtothe proprium(one’sself)thanothers.
There are three types of traits as per Allport’s theory:
Central traits are the building blocks of your personality. When you describe someone, you are
likely to use words that refer to these central traits: smart, dumb, wild, shy, sneaky, dopey,
grumpy. He noted that most people have somewhere between five and ten of these.
There are also secondary traits, onesthataren’tquite soobvious,orsogeneral,orsoconsistent.
Preferences,attitudes,situational traitsare all secondary.Forexample,"he getsangrywhenyou
try to tickle him," "she has some very unusual sexual preferences," and "you can’t take him to
restaurants."
But then there are cardinal traits the traits that some people have whichpractically define their
life. Someone who spends their life seeking fame, or fortune, or sex is such a person. Often we
use specific historical people to name these cardinal traits: Scrooge (greed), Joan of Arc (heroic
self-sacrifice),MotherTeresa(religiousservice),Marquisde Sade (sadism),Machiavelli (political
ruthlessness),andsoon. Relativelyfew people developacardinal trait. If theydo, it tendsto be
late in life.
Psychological maturity: If you have a well-developed proprium and a rich, adaptive set of dispositions,
you have attained psychological maturity, Allport’s term for mental health.
Seven characteristics:
1. Specific, enduring extensions of self, i.e. Involvement.
2. Dependable techniques for warm relating to others (e.g. trust, empathy, genuineness,
tolerance...).
3. Emotional security and self-acceptance.
4. Habits of realistic perception (as opposed to defensiveness).
5. Problem-centeredness, and the development of problem-solving skills.
6. Self-objectification – insight into one’s own behavior, the ability to laugh at oneself, etc.
7. A unifying philosophy of life, including a particular value orientation, differentiated rel igious
sentiment, and a personalized conscience.

7. Functional autonomy: Allport didn’t believe in looking too much into a person’s past in order to
understandhispresent.Thisbelief ismoststronglyevidentinthe concept of functional autonomy:Your
motives today are independent (autonomous) of their origins. It doesn’t matter, for example, why you
wantedto become a doctor, or why youdevelopedataste for olivesorfor kinkysex,the fact isthat this
is the way you are now!
Functional autonomy comes in two flavors: The first is preservative functional autonomy. This refers
essentially to habits – behaviors that no longer serve their original purpose,but still continue. You may
have startedsmokingas a symbol of adolescentrebellion,forexample,butnow yousmoke because you
can’t quit!Social ritualssuchassaying"blessyou"whensomeonesneezeshadareasononce uponatime
(duringthe plague,asneezewasafarmore serioussymptomthanitistoday!),butnow continuesbecause
it is seen as polite. A present motive is functionally autonomous to the extent that it seeks new goals,
meaning that the behavior will continue evenasthe motivationsforit changes.
Propriate functional autonomy is something a bit more self-directed than habits. Values are the usual
example. Perhaps you were punished for being selfish when you were a child. That doesn’t in any way
detract from your well-known generosity today – it has become your value!
1. the theoretical – a scientist, for example, values truth.
2. the economic – a businessperson may value usefulness.
3. the aesthetic – an artist naturally values beauty.
4. the social – a nurse may have a strong love of people.
5. the political – a politician may value power.
6. the religious –amonkornunprobablyvaluesunity.Perhapsyoucansee how theideaof functional
autonomy may have derived from. Isfound inanimalsaswell ashumans and isbasedon simple
neurologicalprinciples. Example is addiction to alcohol, tobacco or other drugs, whenthere isno
physiological hunger for them.
Processesthat Are Not FunctionallyAutonomous
1. Biological drivessuchaseating, breathing, andsleeping.
2. Motivesdirectly linkedtothereduction of basicdrives.
3. Reflexactionssuchasaneye blink.
4. Constitutional equipment, namely physique,intelligence and temperament.
5. Habits in the process of beingformed.
6. Patterns of behavior that require primaryreinforcement.
7. Sublimations thatcanbe tiedtochildhood sexual desires.
8. Some neurotic or pathological symptoms.

8. Based more onphilosophical speculation andcommonsense than on scientific investigations.
He neverintendedhistheory tobecompletely new orcomprehensive, ratherhe was eclectic.
Most people are best thoughtof as conscious, forward- looking, and tension-
seekingindividuals.
Allport defined personality and categorized other definitions of the term. His
writingsconstituteatheoryinthe sense of statingasetof relatedassumptions
that generate testable hypotheses.
Offers explanations for a fairly narrow scope of personality, namely certain
kinds of motivation.
Receives a moderate rating on generating research.
On the criterion of fi ability, his theory must receive a low rating.
Only for a narrow range of adult motives does the theory offer a meaningful
organization for behaviors.
Has moderate usefulness as a guide for the practitioner.
On the final criteria of a useful theory, Allport’s psychologyof the individual is
highlyrated.Hisprecise language rendersthe theorybothinternallyconsistent
and parsimonious.