The Trait Theory of Personality

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Introduction

Personality traits reflect peoples characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Personality is defined as the enduring characteristics and behaviors that constitute a persons unique adjustments to life, including traits, interests, drives, values, and many more. The definitions are diverse and have myths surrounding them (Bergner, 2020). The first pertains to the consistent differences between individuals, in which the study of personality focuses solely on explaining stable human psychological characteristics. The second definition emphasizes the qualities that make all people alike and that which separates psychological man from other living species. This duality helps one to understand and embrace the complexity of personalities.

Psychology categorizes diverse personalities into groups explained by theories researchers have tried to explain over the years. There are six major categories of theories; Psychodynamic theory, by Sigmund Freud, divides the brain into three parts the ID, the ego, and the superego. The Trait theory, where personalities vary according to the continuum of essential personality traits. The third category is the Humanistic theory, where personality is seen as not just behavior but also as what someone believes in.

It proposes that someones personality heavily depends on their thoughts. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers (Purswell, 2019) are the fathers of these theories. Social cognitive theory; encompasses behaviorism, social learning theory (Rumjaun & Narod 2020), and expectancy-value theory. The fifth theory, biological theory, asserts that brain structures and neurophysiology determine a persons personality. Lastly, the Evolutionary theory by Charles Darwin explains that human personality is primarily the result of genes and most valuable traits (Maranges et al., 2020). In this paper, the trait theory, the most common theory, is described in depth concerning other theories; how similar and different they are.

Background of Trait Personality Theory

Trait theory in psychology is based on the idea that people differ based on the strength and concentration of simple trait dimensions and has been broadened to whole trait theory in some studies (Fleeson et al., 2019). There are three primary criteria for different personality traits (Prentice, 2019); consistency, the traits need to be different across different settings in their activities of daily living. Second is stability; a trait is to some extent stable over time as, at 20 years, if someone was a silent person, at 30, the trait will still be the same. Lastly, individual differences exist in behaviors related to a particular trait. For example, people vary in their levels of silence. All these three together describe what trait personality theory stands for.

Difference Between Trait Theory to Other Theories

As seen above, psychologists have developed various theories to explain the diverse personality types. However, they all focus on the trait theory, which explains how personality works. These traits are the building blocks of a particular personality. Unlike other personality theories like psychoanalytic or humanistic theory, the trait theory focuses on the differences between individuals (Fajkowska & Kreitler, 2018), whereby the combination and interaction of different traits build a distinctive personality in every person. Trait theory focuses on identifying and measuring these individual personality characteristics. It has recognized between-person differences and within-person variability (Lievens et al., 2018). This makes it easier to understand how people act within themselves and with others in society.

Traits are a variety of descriptions of human behavioral attributes. In 1936, Gordon Allport, a psychologist, researched to narrow down the millions of words that described different personality traits (Doremus, 2020). He came up with three categories; cardinal traits that develop later in life, central traits; which are usually general characteristics that form the foundation of a personality, for example, intelligent and lastly, secondary traits that are related to someones attitude and often manifest under certain situations such as impatient. Other psychologists, such as Raymond Cattell, adopted this categorization system but focused their research on the origins of personality formation (Edwards, 2020). The developments and studies described above have allowed science to make significant progress in studying human behavioral characteristics.

Differences and Similarities between Trait Theory and Humanistic Theory

In comparing the two, only a few similarities have been found by researchers in the past year, and on the other side, there are many differences. The only point where the two theories concur is where both agree that a persons personality is somewhat invented by the choices the person makes. Onto the differences, Humanistic theory allows a persons personality to be manipulated by external factors and viewed as a whole (Navy, 2020). These factors either positively or negatively alter someones personality, while trait theory does not.

Furthermore, the humanistic approach to personality highlights the subjective reality rather than the objective reality in the trait approach (Asare & Yeboah, 2021). It emphasizes how an individual sees themselves as Abraham Maslow, a Humanist put it in his hierarchy of needs, with psychological needs at the bottom and self-actualization at the top. He argues that a person acts according to where he finds himself to fulfill their needs is closely related to self-determination theory (Bland & DeRobertis, 2018). This contrasts sharply with the trait theory, where personality is seen as objective, and the person can manipulate the situation to suit their personality rather than their situation changing them.

Difference and Similarity Between Trait Theory and Psychoanalytic Theory

The psychoanalytical theory of personality by Freud focuses on three parts of the brain the ID, the ego, and the superego (Nagel, 2020). He argues that, in the end, human behavior is dictated by either their aggressive or sexual drive. This is an entirely different view from how the trait theory dictates the origin of personality, as described above. The psychoanalytical theory holds that control of traits is unconscious and that the unconscious part of the brain contributes to how people behave (Zhang, 2020). Another similarity is that they both oppose the idea that external factors control human behavior and personality. Trait and psychoanalyst theorists believe there is always a selfish motive behind an action. Lastly, Sigmund argues that a persons personality changes from infancy to adulthood.

Reflective Activity

Description

The tool used to analyze ones personality, as provided, was the International Personality Item Pool- Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness (IPIP-NEO). The tool was tested and proven to be suitable for all ages, races ethnicity, where criteria for translation was developed for the diversity of languages. It is a self-reported questionnaire that assesses someones personality according to the big five models (Johnson, Kajonius, 2019). It is an online page developed by AidaForm service and uses Formula Fields to calculate the scoring of every personality automatically. The tools incorporate the use of the five major personality factors; Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. These five factors show through research that it is a reliable tool to establish ones personality (Adani & Febriani2020). All these events can be described appropriately by following Gibbs reflective cycle.

To effectively fill a questionnaire, accessing it through to filling in the asked questions should be seamless and easy. For this particular tool, accessing it was a challenging task. More links were incorporated inside the webpage, thus making the recipient easily confused about which path to follow. The questions were asked in a simple, understandable way, and the a or b format of answering the questions made the process easier and more efficient. This format of answering questions enables one to concentrate more on which statement describes them more accurately than on ensuring their answer is well put for understanding. The experience of using the tool can be noted as successful since, with its help of it, all tasks were completed. After answering all the questions presented, the site gives the result corresponding to what answers the person gives. The experience of using the tool can be described as a new experience in the field of human characteristics analysis.

Feelings

Before undertaking the test, I felt excited to learn more and understand their personality better. It is important to know that after passing the test, people will see a result corresponding to their thoughts. After gaining access to the questionnaire, it was found that the questions were designed in such a way that, in some situations, they could be misleading. While answering the questions, I had mixed feelings about how they were asked. I would be confident that the questions were carefully structured to capture a particular trait and that each question was necessary. However, some questions were too similar, making them easier to answer.

Almost all questions except a few were clear and simple, especially for knowledgeable people. However, there is a possibility that an ignorant person will give answers in such a way that the results will be inaccurate. The system used to answer the questions was user-friendly as it only required me to click on the answer I agreed on. Despite the advantage of the criteria of answering questions, it could make uninterested candidates click without thinking through it, thus again making the quality of the results questionable.

Evaluation

The test results were categorized into five units; scores greater than 18, strong tendencies towards organism, and so on till the last, less than 14; with a relatively strong tendency towards a mechanism. The results about a personality type reflected my personality perfectly. It suggested leaning towards mechanism, which was explained as a group of people who view the world as a machine. These people have stable behavior that does not change over time, and physical progress is repeated until energy is exhausted. These characteristics explain my character, stable and repetitive behavior until something is done or energy is exhausted. In that case, I would agree with the findings of the assessment tool. The tool revealed that I am a more programmed person and work well with systems that are consistent throughout. That being in a system creates a better chance of me meeting my goals in anything than working in an environment with no particular system. On completion, what was good about it was the fact that it completely reflected the accurate personality, however, the only limitation was the process.

Some questions were in line with the theories of personality, for example, someones view on whether perspective on things and situations changes the outcomes. This is in line with the humanistic and, to some extent, trait theories. The two were very particular about the contribution of the external environment in influencing how one behaves and thus consequently dictates their personality (Eysenck, 2019). As seen in Maslows theory, stage one finds itself dictates how one behaves (Louca, Esmailinia & Thoma, 2021). Moreover, in trait theory, the external environment had little to do with the persons personality changes.

Conclusion

From the tool, a personality type could be the greatest blessing or obstacle in meeting goals. How one sees life is very important. This could be a motivator for one or the complete opposite. What aids in the perspective is the type of personality one has (Fickman, 2020). Under the five major personality types, as explained in a study published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 2001, the personality dimension that one has determined the chances one has at success. This factor thus emphasizes the importance of personality assessment because it could make someone understand their actions and feelings more. If needed, change is incorporated to improve the quality of life.

In this case, the personality reflected could elevate one to achieve their goals in all spectrums. However, when a personality does not develop, changing it is a practical way to correct the situation. Personalities that show more significant degrees of conscientiousness and stability, as in this case, have shown more capability to thrive in careers over the years. This thus shows the predictive power of personality in dictating the quality of life one lives socially and career-wise.

Therefore, personality has been discussed in depth, and various theories have been explained. Various theorists and psychologists who have contributed immensely to understanding different personalities have been seen and appreciated. Personalities are still under research and have yet to be fully understood, even though they have been seen to influence how individuals, lives run significantly. Therefore, more studies must be done to enable a broader understanding of personalities and their theories to improve the quality of living, the perspective of persons, and overall quality of life.

References

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