AIRA ISABELLE PEJO

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
TRAIT THEORIES – Personality Theories

 an approach in identifying types of personalities

based on certain traits or attributes, which vary
from one person to another.  In 1936, psychologist GORDON ALLPORT found

Personality traits – are enduring patterns of perceiving, that one English-language dictionary alone

relating to, and thinking about the environment and contained more than 4,000 words describing

oneself, that are exhibited in a wide range of social differently personality traits.

personal contexts  he categorized these traits into three levels

Trait – what we call a characteristic way in which an

1. Cardinal traits
individual perceives, feels, believes, or acts.
 Traits that dominate an individual’s whole life
THEORISTS GENERALLY ASSUME: often to the point that the person becomes
known specifically for these traits.
Traits are:
 Freudian, Machiavellian, narcissism, Don
1. relatively stable over time
Juan, Christ-like, etc.
2. differ among individuals
2. Central Traits
3. bipolar
 These are general characteristics that form
4. influence behaviour
the basic foundations of personality

BIG FIVE TRAITS  Terms such as intelligent, honest, shy, &

anxious are considered central traits
3. Secondary Traits
 These are the traits that are sometimes
related to attitudes or preferences and appear
only in certain situations or under specific
circumstances.
 Some examples would be getting anxious
when speaking to a group or impatient while
waiting in line.

SIXTEEN (16) PERSONAL FACTOR THEORY

THREE TRAIT THEORY

  Trait theorist RAYMOND CATTELL ⃛ British psychologist HANS EYSENCK developed

reduced the number of main personality a model of personality based upon just three

traits from Allport’s initial list of over 4000 universal traits were sufficient to describe

down to 16 by means of a statisctical human personality.

technique called FACTOR ANALYSIS ⃛ Differences of Cattell and Eysenck emerged

due to preferences for different forms of factor
analysis, with Cattell using oblique, Eysenck
orthogonal rotation to analyze the factors that
emerged when personality questionnaires
were subjected to statistical analysis.

Emotional, easily Calm, stable

1. Introversion / Extroversion
upset
Intelligent Unintelligent ˃ Introversion involves directing attention on
Suspicious Trusting
inner experiences, while extraversion
Reserved, VS. Outgoing,
unfriendly friendly relates to focusing attention outward on
Assertive, Not assertive, other people and the environment. So, a
dominant humble
Sober, serious Happy-go- person high in introversion might be quiet
lucky and reserved, while an individual high in
Conscientious Expedient
Shy, timid Venturesome extroversion might be sociable and outgoing
Tender-minded Tough- 2. Neuroticism / Emotional stability
VS. minded
Practical Imaginative ˃ This dimension of Eysenck’s trait theory is
Shrewd Forthright related to moodiness versus even-
Self-assured, Apprehensive
temperedness. Neuroticism refers to an
placid
Conservative Experimenting individual’s tendency to become upset or
Group oriented Self-sufficient
emotional, while stability refers to the
Undisciplined Self-
disciplined tendency to remain emotionally constant.
relaxed Tense, driven
3. Psychoticism
˃ Later, after studying individuals suffering
UNIVERSAL TRAIT THEORY from mental illness, Eysenck added a
personality dimension he called
psychoticism to his trait theory.
 Individuals who are high on this trait tend 2. Conscientiousness: the tendency to be
to have difficulty dealing with reality and organized, careful, and disciplined vs.
may be antisocial, hostile, non- disorganized, careless, and impulsive.
empathetic and manipulative. 3. Extraversion: the tendency to be sociable, fun-
loving, and affectionate vs. retiring, somber,
and reserved.
BIG FIVE MODEL 4. Agreeableness: the tendency to be soft-
Both Cattell’s & Eysenck theory have been hearted, trusting, and helpful vs. ruthless,
the subject of considerable research, which
suspicious, and uncooperative.
has led some theorists to believe that Cattell
focused on too many traits, while Eysenck 5. Neuroticism: the tendency to be calm, secure,
focused on too few. and self-satisfied vs. anxious, insecure, and
self-pitying.
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Aside from the Big Five personality traits, perhaps

the most well-known and most often used
personality assessment is the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI).

MYERS – BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR

 Katherine Briggs & Isabel Briggs Myers –

 As a result, a new trait theory often referred to as
developed the MYERS-BRIGGS personality
the BIG FIVE theory merged. This five factor model
Model based on four preferences of individuals
of personality represents five core traits that
interact to form a human personality. LEWIS
GOLBERG proposed a five-dimension personality
model, nicknamed the big five.

HEXACO MODEL

 Michael Ashton and Kibeom Lee, in 2008,

proposed a six dimensional HEXACO model of

1. Openness to experience: the tendency to be personality structure. Ashton and Lee especially

imaginative, independent, and interested in emphasize the Honestly-Humility (H) factor as

variety vs. practical, conforming, and differentiating the HEXACO model from other

interested in routine. personality frameworks.

  Specifically the H Factor is described as sincere,  Earlier in 1890, a German philosopher and
honest, faithful / loyal, modest / unassuming, psychologist, Christian von Ehrehfels
fair-minded VERSUS sly, deceitful, greedy, introduced the concept of Gestalt
pretentious, hypocritical, boastful, and pompous.
 The H FACTOR has been linked to criminal,  This is defined by Merriam – Webster
materialistic, power-seeking, and unethical Dictionary as “something that’s made of
tendencies. many parts and yet is somehow more
than or different from the combination of
it’s parts; broadly, the general quality /
character of something.

WHOLE PERSON : emphasizing the complete aspect of

a person or his totality

FIVE ASPECTS OF HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Physiological
2. Cognitive
1. Honesty – Humility 3. Social
2. Emotionality 4. Moral or Spiritual
3. Extraversion 5. Emotional
4. Agreeableness
5. Conscientiousness HOLISM AND GESTALT
6. Openness to experience  In 1926, General Jan C. Smuts – South African
statesman, military leader, and philosopher ;

CRITICISMS OF TRAIT THEORIES wrote avout HOLISM in book HOLISM AND

EVOLUTION
1. Being purely descriptive and offering little
- He introduced the academic term for holism as
explanation of the underlying causes of
“the tendency in nature to form wholes which
personality
are greater than the sum of the parts through
2. Lead some people to accept oversimplified
a creative evolution”
classifications
3. Underestimate the effect of specific situations MIND & BODY DUALISM
on people’s behavior.
RENE DESCARTES
4. Poor predictions of behavior.
- One of the modern philosophers of our time,
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influenced much of mankind’s thinking with his
theory of duality or understanding the nature of
things in a simple dual mode.