Who is the proponent of the trait approach to personality ?
AAllport
BHull
CMaslow
DPiaget
Answer:
A. Allport
Read Explanation:
Trait Theory of Personality
- Gordon Allport is widely recognized as the founding father of the trait approach to personality.
- In 1936, Allport and his colleague H.S. Odbert identified nearly 18,000 words in the English dictionary that could describe personality traits.
- Allport categorized these traits into three hierarchical levels:
- Cardinal Traits: Dominant traits that shape a person's entire behavior and define their life (e.g., Christ-like, Machiavellian).
- Central Traits: General characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality (e.g., intelligent, honest, shy).
- Secondary Traits: Traits that appear only in specific circumstances or situations (e.g., getting anxious when speaking in public).
- Allport emphasized that personality is dynamic and that traits are neuropsychic structures that guide consistent behavior across various situations.
- This approach marked a significant shift from the Psychoanalytic focus on unconscious drives to an empirical study of observable individual differences.
- Other key contributors to the Trait approach include Raymond Cattell (who used factor analysis to reduce traits to 16 factors) and Hans Eysenck (known for the PEN model: Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism).