Personality Trait Theories

PERSONALITY TRAIT THEORIES

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Introduction

The personality trait theory is an approach used by psychologists and scientists to try and understand the personality of an individual and what makes him/her different from the other individuals (McLeod, 2014). These unique characteristics are said to determine how an individual behaviors. This paper provides an analysis of how caring can be classified as a personality trait and how different theorists could have explained or described it. The paper hypothesizes that caring is a characteristics that is used to describe a person.

Theories

There are various psychologists that are known for the analysis and description of the personality trait theory. Each of these psychologists have their own theories that they used as an approach to describe how a personality trait is developed and how it comes to be used to describe an individual. Some of the theorists that we will be focusing on in this paper are: Gordon Allport, Raymond Cattell, Hans Eysenck and Sigmund Freud (McLeod, 2014). The Big Five theory will also be applied to describe the personality trait, "caring". According to all these theorists, a personality can be said to be a dynamic organization of an individual that helps determine one's behavior and characteristics that define them. Every individual hence has his/her idiographic view that makes them unique when compared to the other people (Sincero, 2012). For example, a loving, supportive and understanding friend can be said to be caring and this is used to describe them as a good quality.

Based on Freud's Theory, caring can be classified as an early childhood influence. This is because as a child develops, they tend to encounter people of various traits and their parents are mostly the people that influence how their kids turn out (Sincero, 2012). For instance, the parents that show their children the importance of sharing and caring for one another help the kids grow into responsible and caring individuals. This means that caring is one of the traits that can be obtained through early childhood influence. According to Eysenck’s Personality Theory, caring can be classified under an introverted but stable person. This is because caring requires a person who takes time to help or be kind hence has to have emotional calmness, hence stability. In addition to that, a caring individual is bound to be reliable, able to control his/her emotions, have a plans and most of them are reserved, hence the introversion (McLeod, 2014). The autonomic nervous system (ANS) of a caring person can be said to respond slowly and controllably to stress.

Cattell's 16 Personality Trait Theory does not use the same approach as Eysenck and he believed that personality traits can be surface or source based on the ease of others identifying it. Warm people are said to be caring and hence a person can be considered caring of he/she is supportive and comforting (Sincero, 2012). On the other hand, cold and selfish people cannot be caring according to Cattell. Based on Allport's Trait Theory, personality traits such as temperament and attitude are determined when someone is born and they are eventually shaped by the environment that an individual is in. Caring people are born able to control their temper and with a nice attitude. When they get to go to school and interact with other children at home, they learn that being nice to others, supporting them and comforting them are some of the ways one can show care (McLeod, 2014). Allport could therefore argue that caring is a central trait that is used to describe an individual. The Big Five: Five-Factor Model can be used to describe caring as an agreeableness trait because it is a tendency to be good-natured (Sincero, 2012).