Tentative articles to cite for my wiki addition:

1. Marsella, A. J., Dubanoski, J., Hamada, W. C., & Morse, H. (2000). The measurement of personality across cultures: Historical, conceptual, and methodological issues and considerations. The American Behavioral Scientist, 44(1), 41-62. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.mta.ca/docview/214765921?accountid=12599 "the present article discusses historical, conceptual, and methodological issues associated with the cross-cultural measurement of personality. It documents the extensive debate and discussion that has emerged from the juxtaposition of the trait-situation, universalism-relativism, quantitative-qualitative, and anthropology-psychology polarities in the past decade."
2. Long, L. M. K. (1952). Alfred adler and gordon W. allport: A comparison on certain topics in personality theory. American Journal of Individual Psychology, 10(1), 43. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.mta.ca/docview/1303448172?accountid=12599
3. Darroch, J. (1938). Gordon W. allport, personality: A psychological interpretation.Journal of Social Psychology, 9(4), 493. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.mta.ca/docview/1290715060?accountid=1259
4. Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1998). Reconciling processing dynamics and personality dispositions. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 229-58. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.mta.ca/docview/205827602?accountid=12599 Developments in personality-social psychology, in social cognition, and in cognitive neuroscience have led to an emerging conception of personality dynamics and dispositions that builds on diverse contributions from the past three decades. Recent findings demonstrating a previously neglected but basic type of personality stability allow a reconceptualization of classic issues in personality and social psychology. It reconstrues the nature and role of situations and links contextually sensitive processing dynamics to stable dispositions. It thus facilitates the reconciliation within a unitary framework of dispositional (trait) and processing (social cognitive-affective-dynamic) approaches that have long been separated. Given their history, however, the realization of this promise remains to be seen.

Article Revision Draft

**My contributions and edits will be bolded for the purposes of making it easier to note my additions**

introduction

In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion.According to this perspective, traits are aspects of personality that are relatively stable over time, differ across individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing whereas others are not), relatively consistent over situations, and influence behavior. Traits are in contrast to states which are more transitory dispositions.

Trait theory allows for an interpretation and importance of the self when studying personality as well as an acknowledgement and consideration of the suggestibility of the self^[1]. In some theories and systems, traits are something a person either has or does not have, but in many others traits are dimensions such as extraversion vs. introversion, with each person rating somewhere along this spectrum.

There are two approaches to defining traits: as internal causal properties or as purely descriptive summaries. The internal causal definition states that traits influence our behaviours, leading us to do things in line with that trait. On the other hand, traits as descriptive summaries are descriptions of our actions that don't try to infer causality.

history:

Gordon Allport was an early pioneer in the study of traits, this early work was viewed as the beginning of the modern psychological study of personality^[2]. He also referred to traits within his work as dispositions. When Allport was 22 he met with Sigmund Freud, and during their meeting was when he learned to examine surface level aspects of personality before looking into the unconscious side of things. In his approach, "cardinal" traits are those that dominate and shape a person's behavior; their ruling passions/obsessions, such as a need for money, fame etc. By contrast, "central" traits such as honesty are characteristics found in some degree in every person - and finally "secondary" traits are those seen only in certain circumstances (such as particular likes or dislikes that a very close friend may know), which are included to provide a complete picture of human complexity.

A wide variety of alternative theories and scales were later developed, including:

• Raymond Cattell's 16PF Questionnaire
• J. P. Guilford's Structure of Intellect
• Henry Murray's System of Needs
• Timothy Leary's Interpersonal circumplex
• Myers–Briggs Type Indicator
• Gray's Biopsychological theory of personality

Currently, two general approaches are the most popular^{[citation needed]}:

• Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, (EPQ) ("the three-factor model"). Using factor analysis Hans Eysenck suggested that personality is reducible to three major traits: neuroticism, extraversion, and psychoticism.
• Big Five personality traits, ("the five-factor model"). Many psychologists currently believe that five factors are sufficient: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness

Gordon Allport investigated the use of "person" and "personality" within his work in order to study not only the development of traits, but how they are connected with the language and environment of the person^[2]. By doing this, trait theory is able to be applied in a variety of social contexts as he accounted for the use of language and environment and developed his theory with this in mind. Allport continued trait theory with this in mind, continuing his research as a critique of the past behaviourist views^[2]. Gordon Allport's research was not behaviourist, but rather, influenced by his time with Sigmond Freud, which is seen with his emphasis on the use of "person" and what that means for personality.

Trait Theory in Cross-Cultural Use

Cultures are widely known and accepted as being different in varying degrees. This can make the study of personality difficult as meaning and the expression of traits may be different within cultural groups. Trait theory uses a hierarchy of traits in order to separate culture from the traits, it can be said the the culture is ignored in order to focus of the individual traits and how they are connected to the individual^[3]. Gordon Allport's trait theory not only served as a foundational approach within personality psychology, but also is continued to be viewed and discussed by other disciplines such as anthropology because of how he approached culture within trait theory^[3].

Trait theory tends to focus on the individual over the situation in which they are in^[4]. This focus has relaxed within modern studies allowing for a consideration of the external factors outside of the self. As the focus becomes more relaxed (but still prominent as it is a main part of the theory) research expands.

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