Trait and Type Theories

and Humanistic
Theories
ALLPORT’S TRAIT THEORY, CATTELL’S THEORY,
EYSENCK’S THEORY, BIG FIVE THEORY, ABRAHAM
MASLOW, CARL ROGERS
 Allport’s theory
“Personality is the dynamic organization within the
individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought” (Allport,
1961)- Definition of Personality

What is trait?
A college man’s shyness is inferred from his inability to establish friendships
with other students, his avoidance of social gatherings, his enjoyment of
solitary recreational activities such as reading and stamp collecting, and
his hesitancy in participating in seminar discussions.

Cardinal, Central and Secondary traits

Cardinal
Characteristics that are pervasive and dominant in a person’s life he called cardinal traits. These
are master motives, ruling passions, eminent traits.

For example, a person may have an overwhelming need to be powerful, a need for power that
can be inferred from virtually all his behavior. Such a person would not only strive to attain a
position of power within society but would also interact with his golf partner, his mail carrier, his
children, and his marriage partner in a similar fashion. He would try to dominate his spouse and
would even try desperately to win a game of Ping-Pong with his 5-year-old daughter. A casual
conversation with an acquaintance might lead to a bitter struggle on his part to win on some
trivial issue
Central
Characteristics that control less of a person’s behavior but are nevertheless important are called
central traits. Such traits are the ones people mention when asked to describe another person
or to write a letter of recommendation. For example, we may say that someone is intelligent,
sincere, kind, possessive, competitive, ambitious, funny, and honest. These are major
characteristics that control the person’s behavior in a variety of situations, but they do not
possess the generality of a cardinal trait.
Secondary
Characteristics that are peripheral to the person––preferences, for example––are called
secondary traits. Food habits.
Cattell’s Theory
16 PF personality inventory
Surface and Source Traits

Surface traits are very obvious and can be easily identified by other people, whereas source traits
are less visible to other people and appear to underlie several different aspects of behaviour

(Being quiet, shyness, avoid crowds)- Introversion

Eysenck’s Type Theory

Type Trait Habit

Each of the type concepts is based on a set of observed intercorrelations among various traits.
Each trait, in turn, is inferred from intercorrelations among habitual responses. Habitual
responses, in turn, are based on specific observable responses.
For example, extraversion is based on observed intercorrelations among traits such as sociability,
impulsivity, activity, liveliness, and excitability. Each of these traits is inferred from
intercorrelated habitual responses such as going to parties, liking to talk to people, going to films
on the spur of the moment, and so forth. These habits are themselves inferred from observable
specific responses—actual occasions when the person went to a party, talked to people, and so
forth.
Typology
Introversion/Extraversion
Neuroticism/Stability
Psychoticism
Introversion/Extroversion
Neuroticism/emotional stability: This dimension of Eysenck’s trait theory is related to
moodiness versus even-temperateness. Neuroticism refers to an individual’s tendency to
become upset or emotional, while stability refers to the tendency to remain emotionally
constant.
Psychoticism: Later, after studying individuals suffering from mental illness, Eysenck added a
personality dimension he called psychoticism to his trait theory. Individuals who are high on this
trait tend to have difficulty dealing with reality and may be antisocial, hostile, non-empathetic,
and manipulative.
Psychoticism and Creativity-
Relationship
First, Eysenck pointed out that, throughout history geniuses—that is, those who demonstrate
supreme creative achievement—have tended to show episodes of various forms of
psychopathological behavior. Thus, creativity is linked to abnormality.
Second, many of the traits associated with high scores on the psychoticism dimension are
conducive to the pursuit of a creative career. Geniuses must buck tradition to strike out on their
own. They cannot be concerned about pleasing others; instead they must be selfcentered,
aggressive, tough-minded, and persistent to overcome the many obstacles placed in their path

Third, Eysenck noted that the hallmark of the creative genius is his or her ability to think in
unusual, almost bizarre ways. Many psychotic individuals, especially those diagnosed with
schizophrenia, also have concepts that are diffuse and overinclusive and, in consequence,
are able to connect ideas that others would see as unrelated
If psychotics and geniuses are both characterized by originality, why do geniuses produce
outstanding creative works that contribute greatly to society, whereas most psychotics spend
much of their lives in institutions and fail to achieve greatness?

Eysenck thought that we had to understand that originality was a necessary, but
not sufficient, condition for creative work. The other condition involved in creative work
besides originality is social usefulness. Works are creative if they are original and useful to
society. Geniuses embody both conditions because they have the right combinations of
personality traits, whereas psychotics do not
Examples
Class Discussion
BIG FIVE (OCEAN)
Openness to experience has been found to contribute to one’s likelihood of obtaining
a leadership position, likely due to the ability to entertain new ideas and think outside the box.
Openness is also connected to universalism values, which include promoting peace and
tolerance and seeing all people as equally deserving of justice and equality. Openness to
experience is perhaps the trait that is least likely to change over time, and perhaps most likely to
help an individual grow. 
Those high in conscientiousness are also likely to value order, duty, achievement, and self-
discipline, and they consciously practice deliberation and work toward increased
competence. Those with high conscientiousness should attempt to use their strengths to the
best of their abilities, including organization, planning, perseverance, and tendency towards high
achievement.
As long as the highly conscientious do not fall prey to exaggerated perfectionism, they are likely
to achieve many of the traditional markers of success.
Considering these findings, it follows that high extroversion is a strong predictor of leadership,
and contributes to the success of managers and salespeople as well as the success of all job
levels in training proficiency 
Agreeable individuals tend to value benevolence, tradition, and conformity while avoiding
placing too much importance on power, achievement, or the pursuit of selfish pleasures.
Agreeableness affects many life outcomes because it influences any arena in which interactions
with others are important—and that includes almost everything. In the long-term, high
agreeableness is related to strong social support and healthy midlife adjustment but is slightly
negatively correlated to creativity. Individuals high in agreeableness are likely to have many
close friends and a good relationship with family members, but there is a slight risk of
consistently putting others before themselves and missing out on opportunities for success,
learning, and development.
High neuroticism is related to added difficulties in life, including addiction, poor job
performance, and unhealthy adjustment to life’s changes. Neuroticism has been found to
correlate negatively with self-esteem and general self-efficacy, as well as with an internal locus
of control (feeling like one has control over his or her own life). Scoring high on neuroticism is
not an immediate sentence to a miserable life, but those in this group would benefit from
investing in improvements to their self-confidence, building resources to draw on in times of
difficulty, and avoiding any substances with addictive properties.
Humanistic Theories
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Maslow
According to Maslow, human beings have two basic sets of needs that are rooted in their
biology: deficiency (or basic) needs, and growth (or meta) needs. The basic needs are more
urgent than the growth needs and are arranged in a hierarchical order.

From most to least powerful, the basic needs are the physiological drives, safety needs,
belongingness and love needs, and esteem needs.

Once the basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy have been sufficiently gratified, the needs for self-
actualization become salient. People seek to gratify their innate curiosity about themselves and
the workings of the environment, to know and understand phenomena that go beyond the
gratification of basic needs, to move toward realization of their own unique potentialities.
Characteristics of Needs

• The lower the need is in the hierarchy, the greater are its strength, potency, and
priority. The higher needs are weaker needs.
• Higher needs appear later in life. Physiological and safety needs arise in infancy.
Belongingness and esteem needs arise in adolescence. The need for self-actualization
does not arise until midlife.
• Because higher needs are less necessary for actual survival, their gratification can be
postponed. Failure to satisfy a higher need does not produce a crisis. Failure to satisfy a lower need does
produce a crisis. For this reason, Maslow called lower needs
deficit, or deficiency, needs; failure to satisfy them produces a deficit or lack in the
individual.
• Although higher needs are less necessary for survival, they contribute to survival and
growth. Satisfaction of higher needs leads to improved health and longevity. For this
reason, Maslow called higher needs growth, or being, needs
Hierarchy of needs
Characteristics of a Self actualised
person
Carl Rogers
Within each of us, according to Rogers, is an innate motivation called the self-actualizing
tendency—an active, controlling drive toward fulfillment of our potentials that enables us to
maintain and enhance ourselves. (Master motive- self actualizing tendency)
Self image: At a simple level, we might perceive ourselves as a good or bad person, beautiful or
ugly. Self-image affects how a person thinks, feels and behaves in the world.
Ideal Self: This is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and ambitions in
life, and is dynamic – i.e., forever changing.
The ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our teens or late twenties etc.
A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and experiences of
the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience.
This is called incongruence.
Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of
congruence exists. Rarely, if ever, does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a
certain amount of incongruence.
The ideal condition for development of a healthy self-concept and movement toward becoming
fully functioning, in Rogers’s view, is unconditional positive regard—a deep and genuine caring
by others, uncontaminated by judgments or evaluations of our thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.
With unconditional positive regard, the self-concept carries no conditions of worth, there is a
congruence between the self image and ideal self, and the person is psychologically healthy.
Unconditional positive regard is where parents, significant others (and the humanist therapist)
accepts and loves the person for what he or she is.  Positive regard is not withdrawn if the
person does something wrong or makes a mistake. 
The consequences of unconditional positive regard are that the person feels free to try things
out and make mistakes, even though this may lead to getting it worse at times.
People who are able to self-actualize are more likely to have received unconditional positive
regard from others, especially their parents in childhood.
Conditional positive regard is where positive regard, praise, and approval, depend upon the
child, for example, behaving in ways that the parents think correct.
Hence the child is not loved for the person he or she is, but on condition that he or she behaves
only in ways approved by the parent(s). 
At the extreme, a person who constantly seeks approval from other people is likely only to
have experienced conditional positive regard as a child.
Carl Rogers (1959) a person who has high self-worth, that is, has confidence and positive
feelings about him or herself, faces challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times,
and is open with people.
A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in life, not accept that life can be painful and
unhappy at times, and will be defensive and guarded with other people.

Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the
interaction of the child with the mother and father. As a child grows older, interactions with
significant others will affect feelings of self-worth.
Fully functioning persons- such individuals have the following characteristics, according to
Rogers:
1. They are open to experience. Fully functioning people are nondefensive individuals who are
open to all their feelings—fear, discouragement, pain, tenderness, courage, and awe. They are
fully aware of their experiences and accept them, rather than shutting them out.
2. They are characterized by existential living. Fully functioning people live their experiences as
they occur in the present, without trying to superimpose preconceived meaning on them. They
are open and flexible, deal with the experience as it is, and discover its meaning for themselves.
3. They trust themselves. Fully functioning people do what feels right. This does not mean they
are inevitably right in their choices, but rather that they make their own choices, experience the
consequences, and correct them if they are less than satisfying.
4. They are creative. Creative products and creative living emerge when individuals are open to
new experiences, able to trust their own judgments, and willing to take risks if they feel good
about a new venture.
5. They live richer lives than do other people. Fully functioning people live the good life, not in
the sense of happiness, contentment, security, and bliss—although they experience each of
these feelings at appropriate times—but a life that is exciting, challenging, meaningful, and
rewarding. Not a life for the fainthearted, it involves taking risks, experiencing pain occasionally,
and facing challenges courageously
Rogers not only created a theory of how the self evolves and is related to actualization; he also
posited a theory of psychotherapy that focuses on the kind of relationship between the
therapist and client that must be attained before positive growth is possible.
Person-situation interaction
Behaviour is a function of personality factors and the environment.

A commonly used example of person-situation interaction is the Stanford prison experiment,

where college students participated in a study that simulated a prison setting with some
students acting as guards and others as prisoners. The study was terminated when the guards
became even more abusive than anticipated. While Philip Zimbardo concluded that the study
shows evidence of the effect of the situation transcending personality traits

Importance of context- Individualistic versus collectivistic culture