The Trait Concept of Personality

Personality can be defined as the relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals that distinguish them from other people. This is the ‘trait‘ concept, traits being predis-positions to behave in certain ways in a variety of different situations. The assumption that people are consistent in the ways they express these traits is the basis for making predictions about their future behaviour. We all attribute traits to people in an attempt to understand why they behave in the way they do. As Chell (1987) says: ‘This cognitive process gives a sense of order to what might otherwise appear to be senseless uncoordinated behaviours. Traits may therefore be thought of as classification systems, used by individuals to understand other people’s and their own behaviour.’

The so-called big five personality traits as defined by Deary and Matthews (1993) are:

● neuroticism – anxiety, depression, hostility, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability; 

● extraversion – warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, positive emotions; 

● openness – feelings, actions, ideas, values; 

● agreeableness – trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, tendermindedness; 

● conscientiousness – competence, order, dutifulness, achievement-striving, selfdiscipline, deliberation.

Awidely used instrument for assessing traits is Cattell’s (1963) 16PF test. But the trait theory of personality has been attacked by people such as Mischel (1981), Chell (1985) and Harre (1979). The main criticisms have been as follows:

● People do not necessarily express the same trait across different situations or even the same trait in the same situation. Different people may exhibit consistency in some traits and considerable variability in others. 

● Classical trait theory as formulated by Cattell (1963) assumes that the manifestation of trait behaviour is independent of the situations and the persons with whom the individual is interacting – this assumption is questionable, given that trait behaviour usually manifests itself in response to specific situations. 

● Trait attributions are a product of language – they are devices for speaking about people and are not generally described in terms of behaviour.