Chapter 7:
Trait Approach
Trait Perspectives:
Trait theories suggest that personality can be understood by describing the organization
of traits within the individual.
A trait is an enduring personality characteristic that leads to certain behaviors.
fundamental building blocks of personality.
Personality consists of traits that tend to lead to characteristic responses. Each individual
has a unique set of traits
Trait theorists not concerned with any one person's behavior--instead describe behavior
typical of people at certain points along a trait continuum.
The trait approach assumes we can identify individual differences in behaviors that are
relatively stable across situations and over time.
Gordon Allport was the first acknowledged trait theorist. (central and secondary traits,
functional autonomy)
Henry Murray identified psychogenic needs as the basic elements of personality. A need
will affect behavior depending on where it lies on a person's need hierarchy and the kind
of situation the person is in.
Trait advocates: if traits and behaviors are measured correctly, a significant relationship
can be found, and the amount of behavior variance explained by traits is considerable and
important.
More recent research provides fairly consistent evidence that personality is structured
along five basic dimensions. While questions remain, evidence tends to support the fivefactor model.
The Big Five Personality Factors
Recent analysis has revealed the existence of five factors central to personality structure.
The big five factors of personality, or main dimensions of personality, are “supertraits”
that include openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and
neuroticism (emotional stability).
Research on the big five factors looks at the extent to which factors appear in personality
profiles in different cultures, factor stability, and the role these factors play in predicting
physical and mental health.
Five-factor model: explains personality in terms of the following five traits:
Openness: high scores  original, imaginative, curious, open to new ideas, artistic,
interested in cultural pursuits;
low scores  conventional, down to earth, narrower interests, not artistic
Conscientiousness: high scores  responsible, self-disciplined, organized, achieving;
low scores  irresponsible, careless, impulsive, lazy, undependable
Extroversion: high scores  sociable, outgoing, talkative, fun loving, affectionate;
low scores  withdrawn, quiet, passive, reserved
Agreeableness: high scores  good-natured, warm, gentle, cooperative, trusting, helpful;
low scores 
irritable, argumentative, ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative, vindictive
Neuroticism (emotional stability): high scores  emotional instability, prone to
insecurity, anxiety, guilt, worry, moodiness; low scores  emotional stability, calm,
even-tempered, easygoing, relaxed
Personality Traits in the Workplace
Psychologists debate usefulness of personality tests to predict occupational success.
Recent research with the Big Five traits provides strong support for the relationship
between personality and job performance.
Significant research indicates that, of the Big Five, conscientiousness may be the best
predictor of job performance.
Respondents who score high on this dimension are careful, thorough, and dependable. In
addition, they take time to do a job accurately and completely. They tend to be organized,
plan oriented, and persistent.
Consistent with other research, conscientiousness was a significant predictor of how
many appliances the salespersons sold. Highly conscientious workers set higher goals for
themselves than did other employees. they were more committed to reaching those goals.
They expended greater effort to reach their targets and were more persistent than others
when encountering the inevitable obstacles.
highly conscientious employees receive higher evaluations from their supervisors and are
least likely to be laid off when companies are forced to reduce their labor force.
Depending on role requirements, a case could also be made for hiring applicants high in
agreeableness. These people are trusting, cooperative, and helpful—characteristics
particularly important if the job requires teamwork. Other studies indicate that extraverts
may have the advantage over introverts in the business world
Evaluating Trait Perspectives
Studying people in terms of personality traits has practical value.
Viewing people only in terms of their traits may provide only a partial view of
personality. Trait measures by themselves do a poor job of predicting actual behavior.
A controversy in personality concerns the relative importance of traits compared to
situational determinants of behavior.
Strengths of trait approach: a strong empirical base, many practical applications, and the
large amount of research generated.
Criticisms are that traits do not predict behavior well and little evidence for crosssituational consistency. Limited usefulness of the approach for dealing with problem
behaviors and the lack of an agreed-upon framework.