Understanding Personality Theories and Traits

A Theory Defined

A theory is a set of hypotheses, assumptions, and data models that relate empirically to a system. Theories allow us to understand interrelationships and make predictions about future development.

Personality Theories Seek Answers

Personality theories attempt to answer fundamental questions:

• What characteristics define people and how are they organized?
• How do genetic and environmental factors interact?
• Why does every person behave differently in a situation?
• How can we explain changes in behavior and the causes of abnormal behavior?

Major Personality Study Approaches

The study of personality is based on different theories:

• Psychodynamic Theories (Freud): Attach great importance to the unconscious and focus on personality functioning, particularly internal conflicts.
• Trait Theories (H. Eysenck): Try to identify personality traits and how they relate to actual behavior.
• Humanistic Theories (C. Rogers): Emphasize private subjective experience and personal growth.
• Behavioral Theories (J. Rotter): Highlight the external environment and the effects of conditioning and learning on personality.

Traits Versus Types in Personality

Personality traits are enduring qualities of a person, which are inferred from behavior.

Types are role models that do not strictly exist, but each person can be loosely included in one, though never fully agreeing with the description.

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model

Eysenck proposed a hierarchical model of personality with four levels of behavior:

• Specific Responses: Behaviors that occur only once.
• Common Responses: Regular forms of someone's behavior.
• Primary Traits: Usual responses that interrelate to form a group defining a feature.
• Macrorrasgos (Superfactors): The stable organization of features capable of making predictions of behavior.

Dimensions of Personality (Typological)

Psychological organization is dimensional; a person possesses ratings in each of the three typological dimensions:

• Extraversion versus Introversion: Reflects the degree to which a person is sociable and participatory in their relationships.
• Emotional Stability versus Instability: Refers to the individual's adaptation to their environment and expression of emotional consistency over time.
• Psychoticism: Corresponds to an individual who is solitary, insecure, careless of others, and may become insensitive or inhuman.

The "Big Five" Personality Traits

The five major dimensions include:

• Agreeableness (Kindness): Usually nice people in treatment, avoiding conflict and hostility, and getting along well with those around them.
• Extraversion: Friendly and outgoing people.
• Neuroticism: People with low emotional stability, low personal control, and inability to maintain life goals.
• Conscientiousness (Responsibility): The ability to control impulses and the will to set goals or objectives.
• Openness to Experience: Typically thoughtful people who have broad interests and are attracted by culture and the arts.