I hope you had a fantastic holiday… Now lets get Psyched up!!! Hello again class

Task 1. Think about one of your friends or a member of your family and write down eight words that describe their personality. Examples: AssertiveOutgoing ReservedTrusting CautiousAdventurous

In describing this person you may have identified some of their personality traits.

Trait Theories of Personality Chapter 12

Personality trait Personality characteristic which lasts over time and across different situations.

Trait theories Trait theories of personality focus on measuring, identifying and describing individual differences in personality in terms of traits. Differs to other theories of personality as it doesn’t construct an understanding of personality based purely on the similarities between people. Trait theories are also used to predict behaviour on the basis of an individual's traits.

Four main assumptions of trait theories. 1.Personality traits are relatively stable and therefore predictable over time. 2.Personality traits are relatively stable across different situations. 3.Trait theories take into account that personality consists of a number of different traits, and that some people have ‘more’ or ‘less’ of each trait than others. No two people are exactly alike on all traits. 4.Some traits are more closely interrelated than other traits and tend to occur together. Clusters of co-related traits are called ‘dimensions’. Therefore, a dimension is like a container that holds a set of traits that tend to occur together.

Trait theorists typically describe each personality trait or dimension on a continuum, which shows the trait or dimension in terms of its two extremities, or ‘opposites’. On most personality traits, or dimensions, the majority of people fall somewhere around the middle of the two opposites. Personality traits