TRAIT THEORIES

MIDTERM
• PERSONALITY DEALS WITH TRAITS AND THAT TRAIT OR DISPOSITION
IS A MAJOR FACTOR IN PERSONALITY

• TRAIT THEORY IS AN APPROACH IN IDENTIFYING TYPES OF

PERSONALITIES BASED ON CERTAIN TRAITS OR ATTRIBUTES WHICH
VARY FROM ONE PERSON TO ANOTHER.

DEFINITION OF TERMS:
Personality – collection of characteristic thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors associated with a person.
Traits – characteristic behaviors and feelings that are consistent
and long lasting.
 BIG FIVE OR FIVE-FACTOR MODEL
• Is a framework used to describe and classify personality traits. It uses
five (5) primary traits across which people vary. It enhances your self-
awareness. To easily remember these, you may use the acronym
OCEAN. These dimensions are:
• Openness to experience – curiosity, interest, imagination, and creativity to
new ideas.
• Conscientiousness – planning, organizing, hard-working, controlling,
persevering, and punctuality.
• Extraversion – sociable, talkative, active, outgoing, and fun-loving.
• Agreeableness – friendly, warm, trusting, generous, and kind-hearted.
• Neuroticism – calm, relaxed, and comfortable.
 BIG FIVE OR FIVE-FACTOR MODEL
LOW SCORES HIGH SCORES

EXTRAVERSION LONER, QUITE, PASSIVE, RESERVED JOINER, TALKATIVE, ACTIVE,

AFFECTIONATE

AGREEABLENESS SUSPICIOUS, CRITICAL, IRRITABLE TRUSTING, LINIENT, SOFT-HEARTED

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS NELIGENT, LAZY, DISORGANIZED CONSCIENTIOUS, HARD-WORKING,

ORGANIZED

NEUROTICISM CALM, COMFORTABLE, EVEN- WORRIED, SELF-CONSCIOUS,

TEMPERED, UNEMOTIONAL EMOTIONAL

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE DOWN-TO-EARTH, UNCREATIVE, IMAGINATIVE, CREATIVE, ORIGINAL,

CONVENTIONAL, UNCURIOUS CURIOUS
PERSONALITY TRAITS
MIDTERM
• PERSONALITY TRAIT IS A DISPOSITION TO
BEHAVE CONSISTENTLY IN A PARTICULAR
WAY, WHILE PERSONALITY IS BROADER
TERM THAT COMPRISES OF TRAITS,
MOTIVES, THOUGHTS, SELF-CONCEPT AND
FEELINGS. AN EXAMPLE OF PERSONALITY
TRAIT IS SHYNESS OR SOCIAL
AWKWARDNESS.
 MEASURING PERSONALITY
• There are different ways to measure personality. One is
by observing people’s behavior. This is quite limited as
other people may not be able to observe all aspects of
personality such as loneliness, which is internal and is
observed by others very subjectively.
 MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers developed the Myers-Briggs
personality model based on four preferences of individuals. These are:

• E or I (Extraversion or Introversion) is how an individual prefers to

channel his or her energy when dealing with people, whether it is
inward (introversion) or outward (extraversion).

• S or N (Sensing or Intuition) is how one prefers to process

information, whether through the use of senses such as being able to
describe what one sees, or intuitively like dealing with ideas.
• T or F (Thinking or Feeling) is how an individual prefers to make
decisions, either thinking or using logic and analysis, or feeling which
uses cognitive senses based on values or beliefs.

• J or P (Judgement or Perception) is how an individual prefers to

manage one’s life, whether through judging, which means a planned
and organized life, versus perception, which has more flexible
approach to living.