When Allport initially met with Freud when he was a young man, he was unamused by Freud’s notion to dissect everything about every action, this is what made him move more towards a humanistic theory development.

Allport's Humanistic Reasonings

Personality is the organization of a person’s psychophysical systems that make up their characteristic behaviors and thoughts.

Allport's Personality Definition

It is a predisposition to respond to stimuli in a very certain and specific way in accordance with each individual.  

Allport's Definition of a Trait

Habits are the simpler and meaningless actions a person may do that are not important enough to be traits. This could be like someone’s preference to folding clothes a certain way.

Allport's Definition of a Habit

The key item to hold all traits together is called “The Proprium.” It is also defined as the “real self” in Allport’s theory. There are different stages of development of the Proprium.

The Proprium

-	Widely extended sense of self
-	Warm relating of self to others
-	Emotional security
-	Realistic perception, skills, and assignments
-	Capable of self-objectification
-	A unifying philosophy of life


Allport’s Characteristics of a Mature Person

Based on the provided description of an individual named Alex, analyze their personality by identifying one example of a cardinal trait, one example of a central trait, and one example of a secondary trait. For each trait you identify, briefly explain your reasoning for placing it in that specific category.

Analysis of Personality Traits

Read the following description of an individual's personality. Identify one cardinal trait, one central trait, and one secondary trait exhibited by this person. For each trait you identify, provide a brief justification explaining why it fits into that specific category based on the information given.

Description: Elena has dedicated her entire life to animal welfare. She founded a non-profit animal rescue, lobbies for animal rights legislation, and lives a vegan lifestyle. Her friends would describe her as a generally compassionate and determined person. However, they also note that she becomes extremely anxious before public speaking engagements and is very particular about how her kitchen is organized.

According to Gordon Allport, personality traits are the foundational components of an individual's personality, developing over time and influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. After identifying 4,500 words in the English language that could describe individuals, Allport proposed organizing these personality traits into three main categories: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits.

Columbia University

Google

Butler University

Trait theorists suggest that individuals have certain characteristics that tend to remain stable over time and appear in many situations. These theorists suggest individual traits to be the unit of analysis. They aim to determine which traits occur together and their specific patterns of organization within individuals.

Trait Theories

Olson, Matthew H., et al. An Introduction to Theories of Personality. 9th ed., Pearson, 2020. 

Reference

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Relates to how we use traits to describe others

Traits and Personality/Person Descriptions

Critique of the Big 5 Model that adds a honesty-humility dimension to the existing extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness dimensions.

HEXACO Model

This approach focuses on a single trait and aims to learn as much as possible about behaviors and life outcomes associated with that trait. 

Examples: 
-  Self Monitoring
-  Narcissism 

Single Trait Approach 

This approach focuses on one behavior and investigates how that behavior correlates with many different personality traits in order to explain that behavior. 

Examples:
-  California Q set 
-  Political Beliefs/Behaviors

Many Trait Approach

This approach focuses on narrowing 1000's of traits and terms into shorter, meaningful lists. 

Examples:
-  Theoretical Approach 
-  Big 5 Personality Traits

Essential Trait Approach

This approach focuses on identifying types/groups of individuals based on patterns of traits. Results are often very descriptive as they analyze the entire individual, not just a single trait. 

Example:
-  Myers Briggs Type Indicator

Typological Approach 

Relatively consistent patterns of thought and behavior.

Personality Traits

Allport's Theory of Personality

A model of personality with the HEXACO acronym for six traits: honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

The HEXACO Model of Personality

Attribution is the process of inferring the causes of events or behaviors. In social psychology, this often involves determining whether a behavior is due to internal factors, such as personality and character (a dispositional attribution), or external factors, such as the environment and social context (a situational attribution).

Attribution

Which of the Following Describes Trait Theories of Personality?

In contrast to earlier theories that focused on explaining the origins of personality, the modern study of personality has adopted a more quantitative approach. This method centers on identifying and measuring specific personality traits to understand how they interact and predict an individual's behavior in various situations.

Quantitative Approach in Personality Research

A personality trait is a relatively consistent and enduring pattern of thought and behavior that an individual exhibits across various situations and throughout their lifespan. Modern personality research focuses on identifying and measuring these traits to predict behavior.

Personality Trait

The Five-Factor Model, commonly known as the “Big Five,” proposes that human personality variations can be captured by five core dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Research indicates that these five trait dimensions are influenced by genetics and remain relatively stable throughout an individual's lifespan.

The Big Five Personality Traits (Five-Factor Model)

Based on an extensive survey of psychological literature, Walter Mischel concluded that empirical data failed to support the core principle that an individual's personality traits remain consistent across various situations. This finding suggested that the situation itself could be a more powerful determinant of behavior than internal traits.

Mischel's Critique of Trait Consistency

Early trait theories represent foundational attempts to systematically identify and organize the fundamental components of human personality. Prominent examples include the theories developed by Raymond Cattell and Hans & Sybil Eysenck.

Early Trait Theories

Early trait theories were criticized for their scope. Raymond Cattell's 16-factor model was often viewed as too broad and complex, while the Eysencks' two-factor system was criticized for being too narrow and simplistic. The Five Factor Model emerged as a widely accepted middle ground, providing a more balanced framework for describing personality.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After