Personality Theories, Traits

What Are Traits?

There has not yet been sufficient research to determine the nature of traits or their underlying mechanisms, that is, how they work. Personality psychologists take their starting point in common sense and in the everyday ways people describe each other. From there, they diverge, and there are still multiple competing definitions of traits and theories about how they work.

Agreement about What Traits Are

Despite these disagreements, there are at least five issues on which most trait theories agree. First, traits describe individuals and emphasize the style or manner in which individuals act, think, and feel. For example, bolder individuals act, think, and feel in a bolder manner. Second, traits are characteristics on which people differ from each other. For example, some individuals are bolder than others. Third, individuals most likely do not differ in whether or not they have the trait but rather in the degree to which they have the trait. For example, although it may be convenient to speak of bold people and timid people, it is more likely that individuals differ all along a continuous dimension of boldness.

Fourth, traits endure for at least some extended time. For example, describing someone as a bold individual is more accurate if that individual is bold for more than just a moment. Finally, traits are broad descriptions of some kind of regularity, generality, or coherence in behavior, thought, and feeling. This generality may refer to the way the individuals act across different situations, to the way they act in significant, defining situations, or to a wide range of ways they act. For example, bolder individuals engage in a variety of [Page 770]bold actions, such as stating opinions, taking risks, and making decisions.

In sum, trait theories generally agree that traits describe differences between people in their styles of acting, thinking, and feeling, on continuous dimensions that show at least some enduring stability and broad generality. To call someone bold is to say that he or she behaves, thinks, and feels in bolder ways than others do, and that he or she has done so for some period of time in a variety of situations with a variety of actions.

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