Introduction
Psychologists invoke the concept of trait to refer to stable, consistent, and coherent patterns of thinking, feeling, and action within individual persons. Personality theorists often invoke the concept of trait to account for differences between individuals. For trait theorists, traits operate as the universal building blocks of personality.
Definitions
There are two basic ways to define the concept of trait. The first identifies traits in terms of systems, entities, or processes that exist within individuals. Allport (1937) defined a trait as “a generalized and focalized neuropsychic system (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and expressive behavior” (p. 295). The second approach defines traits not as the inner causes of stable patterns of behavior, but in terms of the behavior patterns themselves. For example, McRae and Costa (1997) define...
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References
Allport, G. (1937). Personality: A psychological interpretation. New York: Henry Holt.
Cattell, R. B. (1965). The scientific analysis of personality. Baltimore: Penguin Books.
Cheung, F. M., Leung, K., Zhang, J., Sun, H., Gan, Y., Song, W., et al. (2001). Indigenous Chinese personality constructs: Is the five-factor model complete? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 407–433.
Dyson, M. W., Klein, D. N., Olino, T. M., Dougherty, L. R., & Durbin, C. (2011). Social and non-social behavioral inhibition in preschool-age children: Differential associations with parent-reports of temperament and anxiety. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 42, 390–405.
Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1976). Psychoticism as a dimension of personality. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (2006). Dynamic Development of Action and Thought. In R. M. Lerner & W. Damon (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Theoretical models of human development, 6th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 313–399). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Gottlieb, G., Wahlsten, D., & Lickliter, R. (2006). The significance of biology for human development. In R. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (Theoretical models of human development, Vol. 1, pp. 210–257). New York: Wiley.
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Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). The dynamic development of thinking, feeling, and acting over the lifespan. In R. M. Lerner & W. F. Overton (Eds.), Handbook of life-span development (Biology, cognition, and methods across the lifespan, Vol. 1, pp. 149–194). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1997). Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist, 52, 509–516.
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Online Resources
Trait Approaches
The Five Factor Model of Personality
Five Factor Model. (2001). Comparison of the five-factor model of personality with related trait-based models. Includes bibliography a links to other informative websites. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://www.personalityresearch.org/bigfive.html
Srivastava, S. (2012). Measuring the big five personality factors. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://psdlab.uoregon.edu/bigfive.html. Comprehensive discussion of the five-factor model of personality and assessment practices based on that model.
Sample Five Factor Model Assessments
Buchanan, T. (n.d.). Five factor personality test. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://www.personalitytest.org.uk/. A sample self-report five-factor personality test.
John, O. D. (2009). The big five personality test. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/
Heritability
Carey, G. (2001). Heritability: Introduction. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://psych.colorado.edu/∼carey/hgss/hgssapplets/heritability/heritability.intro.html. An accessible introduction to the concept of heritability.
Downes, S. M. (2010). Heritability, The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved November 23, 2012 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heredity/. Comprehensive discussion of philosophy behind the concept of heritability.
Block, N. (1996). How heritability misleads on race. The Boston Review, XX(6), 30–35. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/Heritability.html. A clear discussion of the concept on problems in interpreting heritability coefficients.
Epigenesis
Maienschein, J. (2005). Epigenesis and preformationism, The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epigenesis/. A comprehensive analysis of the history of the epigenesis-preformationism debate.
Miller, D. B. (2006). Gilbert Gottlieb (1929–2006). Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://icube.uconn.edu/GG/GG.html. A series of interviews (podcasts and transcripts) with Gilbert Gottlieb, a major figure in developing the modern epigenetic systems approach to behavioral development and evolution.
PBS (2007). Epigenetics (PBS Documentary). Retrieved November 23, 2012 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/epigenetics.html. From the website: “Environmental factors can alter the way our genes are expressed, making even identical twins different. Aired July 24, 2007 on PBS.”
Gene by Environment Interactions
Moffit and Caspi. Retrieved November 23, 12, from http://www.moffittcaspi.com/. Website devoted to Avshalom Caspi and Terrie Moffitt’s research on gene-environment interactions in personality.
Alternatives to Trait Theory
The Taos Institute. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://www.taosinstitute.net/. The Taos Institute is a community of scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value (from the website). Contains discussions relevant to providing alternatives to static models of human personality and social relations.
Murphy, M. D. (2009). Anthropological theories/culture and personality. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Culture%20and%20Personality. A rich resource devoted to classic and contemporary theoretical perspectives on the relation between culture and personality.
Foley Center for the Study of Lives. (2009). Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/foley/. Comprehensive website devoted to research on the development of human personality and life narratives conducted by Dan McAdams and his associates.
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Mascolo, M. (2014). Traits. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_475
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