Personalityrefers to the differentaspects of a person's charactersuch as his/herinterest,behaviour,cognition, etc. Itis a system that has bothpsychological and physical aspects, which interact between themselves.
- The interacting factors include at the physiological level are theendocrine system and the various glandsin the system.
- As for the interacting factors in the psychological aspectsincludetraits, emotions, intellect, temperament, character, and motives.
- According to trait theory,personality is made up of different traits. Traits are the building blocks and human behaviour can be described in terms of these traits.
- A trait generally is a description of behaviour, for example, friendliness, social, assertive, etc.
Trait approach got maximum impetus from the work of Cattell,Eysenck, andAllport.
Key Points
Let's Understand in Brief:
Trait Theorist | Proposed Traits |
R.B. Cattell | Cattell mentioned two types of traits:
|
H.J. Eysenck | Eysenck mentioned two types of traits:
|
GordonAllport | Allport mentioned two types of taits:
|
Important Points
SigmundFreud hadproposed the'Psycho-analytical Theory of Personality Development' which was not related to the trait.
According to his theory:
- Human behavior isdetermined largely by unconscious motives.
- Ouractions are determined by thoughts and feelings contained in the unconscious mind.
Hence, it could be concluded that Freud isnotrelated to the trait theory of personality.