Trait Theory of Personality A trait, as defined by Gordon Allport, is a core tendency that underlies behavior across time and

situations. (There is some controversy over whether this is true.). The first person to think about traits was Hippocrates; an ancient Greek physician. He described 4 humors (personality traits) each corresponding to an excess of a specific bodily fluid. These humors were sanguine: (i.e. hopeful, cheerful) corresponding to an excess of blood; melancholic (i.e. sad, depressive), corresponding to an excess of black bile; choleric: irritable, corresponding to an excess of yellow bile, and phlegmatic (i.e. calm, listless) corresponding to an excess of phlegm. Hippocrates was an excellent observer of the ways people react, since modern personality theory describes categories of personality (i.e. personality factors) similar to his. Jung described introversion and extroversion. Introverts have an orientation to things within themselves, and extroverts have an orientation to things outside themselves. This is a very basic distinction, which is still used today, although today introversion and extroversion are more focused on sociability than were Jungs descriptions of them. For a long time, researchers have been interested in determining which are the key personality traits. One way of determining the key personality traits is proposed by the Lexical Theory. Basically, this theory states that people need words to describe their own and others personalities. Thus language will reflect the important aspects of personality with a large number of similar, but distinct words, which are usually adjectives. Personality theorists such as Gordon Allport used factor analysis to identify the most important categories of personality. Factor analysis is a statistical technique. Words that have something in common with each other but not with other variables form a

dimension or factor. People fall along the dimension, with most people in the middle and fewer at each end. Although some researchers have suggested there are 12, or 7 factors, most researchers agree that there are five main personality factors. These are Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience. These factors are similar in most cultures.