PSY230H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Raymond Cattell, Trait Theory, Gordon Allport
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Trait theories: gordon allport the outstanding characteristic of man is his individuality. Later on they reduced down to 450 hundreds of words and trying to group them: proposed 2 different approaches to understand individual: Nomothetic approach people can be described along a single dimension according to their level of a particular trait. Idiographic approach identifies the combination of traits that best accounts for the personality of an individual. To combine different traits to figure out a person"s personality: there are 3 different type of traits that could be used to describe an individual, cardinal traits dominates a person"s personality. Sum up who they are by only 1 trait. Central traits traits that best describe a person. Traits that most people have and greatly consistent with different situations. Most people have 5 central traits (the big five) Secondary traits less relevant traits, only present in certain situations. You will be very disagreeable when you really care about something.
