Two Trait Approaches to Personality - Allport & Cattell

 

The trait approaches are said to be the best examples of trait approach:

(a)    Allport’s Theory

Gordon W. Allport was the first theorist who by rejecting the notion of a relatively limited number of personality types adopted the trait approach for the description of highly individualized personalities. He gave the following three types of traits:

(i)               Cardinal Traits are primary traits that are so dominant in one’s personal disposition that they colour virtually every aspect of one’s behaviour and attributes. For example, if a person has humourousness as a cardinal trait, he will bring a sense of humour into almost all situations.

(ii)              Central Traits represent those few characteristics tendencies which can be ordinarily used to describe a person. For instance. Honesty, kindness, submissiveness etc.

(iii)            Secondary Traits are not as dominant as the cardinal or central traits. They appear in only a relatively small range of situations.

(b)   Cattell’s Theory

The most recent advanced theory of personality based on the trait approach has been developed by Cattell (1973). He defined a trait as a structure of personality inferred from  behaviour in different situations and described four types of traits:

Common traits – The traits found widely distributed in general population like honesty, aggression and co-operation.

Unique traits – Traits unique to a person such as temperamental traits, emotional reactions.

Surface traits – These can be recognized by manifestations of behaviour like curiosity, dependability etc.

Source traits – These are the underlying structures or sources that determine behaviour such as dominance, submission.

 

In 1946, Cattell compiled a list of 17,000 traits and then reduced it to 171 dictionary words related to personality and called these traits – elements.

In the next step, he identified 35 specific groups and called them surface traits.