Personality Traits: Individuality-The Lexical Approach and Allport's Idiographic Trait Theory In this video we will discuss Trait Approaches to Personality These approaches explain personality in terms of traits, which are defined as relatively stable and consistent personal characteristics. Trait approach attempts to explain personality and differences between people in terms of their personal characteristics, to devise ways of measuring individual differences in personality traits and to use these measures for understanding and predicting a person’s behaviour. Type approach assume that there are separate, and discontinuous categories into which persons fit whereas trait approach assumes that there are continuous dimensions such as warmth, extraversion, etc. that vary in quality as well as degree. We will discuss the viewpoint of Allport’s Trait Approach in detail in this video. Let’s start with Allport’s trait approach; Allport is regarded as the most important and influential personality theorists. Many years ago, Allport went through the English dictionary and painstakingly recorded a list of 17,953 words that described personal traits. It is quite obvious that it would be quite impractical to describe persons in terms of where they fall on roughly out of 18000 traits. However, on the basis of these words, attempt was made to propose traits like dominance, friendliness, self-esteem , etc. This is called as lexical approach to define personality trait. For Allport, traits are the building blocks of personality as well as the source of individuality. He is known as idiographic trait theorist who has a strong belief that each person has some unique as well as some common characteristics that together form a unique combination of traits. Allport believed that trait is something that exists but remains invisible. It is located somewhere in the nervous system. We infer the existence of a trait by observing consistencies in the behaviour of the person. Dissimilar stimuli tend to arouse a trait readiness within the person and then trait manifests itself through the varieties of different responses. All these responses are equivalent in the sense that they serve the function of expression of trait. Now to illustrate this let’s take the example of an employee working in a private organization. His shyness is inferred from his inability to establish friendship with others, his avoidance of social gatherings of the employees, his enjoyment with solitary entertainment activities and his unwillingness to participate in discussion, etc. Allport recognised two major categories of traits a).Common traits and b).Individual traits Common traits are those traits which we share in common with many others in our culture. For example being quite, showing due respect to seniors and making polite behaviour to others are the traits we share with others in Our Indian Culture. These illustrate the common traits. Individual traits are also called as personal dispositions are those traits which are unique to the person concerned and Allport regarded individual traits to be more important than common traits. He further classified individual traits into three categories a).Cardinal Traits , b). Central Traits and c).Secondary Traits Cardinal traits are traits which is so pervasive, dominant and outstanding in life that very behaviour seems traceable to its influence. Most people do not have cardinal traits but those who have them, are well known for those traits. Central traits are those traits which are generally listed in carefully written letter of recommendation. In fact traits like friendliness, dominance, self centeredness would be the example of central trait. Every personal has several central traits and there are five to ten most outstanding traits in each person around which a person’s life focuses. Secondary traits are traits which are less consistent, less generalised and less relevant to the definition of personality. For example, food habits, hair style, and specific attitudes are examples of secondary traits. All these traits are dynamic in the sense that they possess motivational power. Those individual traits or dispositions which are intensely experienced are said to be more motivational. Website:https://thepilgrimage.in/ YouTube: @TheHumanPsych-x1i Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/share/15k8rmXN6Y/ Your Queries: What was Allport's trait theory What is the Allport's theory of personality basically What are Allport's 6 criteria Who is the father of trait theory What is the concept of trait theory What are the 5 personality traits What are the types of functional autonomy Which concept best describes Allport's view of personality What are the stages of personality according to Allport What are the three types of traits proposed by Allport What are the five principles of personality What are Allport's three types of traits What is a weakness of Allport's theory of personality