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cardinal trait: a characteris- tic or feature that is so pervasive the person is almost identified with it
Gordon W. Allport (1897–1967) was an influential psychologist in his day. A trait, Allport said, makes a wide variety of situations “func- tionally equivalent”; that is, a person’s traits will be consistent in differ- ent situations. Allport, along with H.S. Odbert, probed an English dictionary, searching for words that described personality traits. They found almost 18,000 such words. They then narrowed the list by group- ing synonyms and keeping just one word for each cluster of synonyms. Finally, they found the opposites of each word and eliminated them. For example, if they found honesty and dishonesty, they eliminated dishonesty because it is the opposite of honesty. Allport defined common traits as those that apply to everyone and individual traits as those that apply more to a specific person.
Allport described three kinds of individual traits. A cardinal trait is one that is so pervasive that the person is almost identified with that trait. An example would be Scrooge, who is identified as stingy and cold- hearted in Charles Dickens’s tale A Christmas Carol. A central trait makes
us predictable (she’s assertive; he’s a flirt) in most situations. Secondary traits, such as our preferences in food and music, are least important to Allport and have a less consistent influence on us.
An example of an individual trait is found in Allport’s book let- ters from Jenny (1965), which con- sists of hundreds of letters that a woman whom Allport calls Jenny Masterson wrote to a friend (see Readings in Psychology, p. 408). Jenny reveals herself in these let- ters, which she wrote between the ages of 58 and 70, as a complex and fiercely independent woman. In his preface to the book, Allport wrote:
[The] fascination of the Letters lies in their challenge to the reader (whether psycholo- gist or layman) to “explain” Jenny—if he can. Why does an intelligent lady behave so persis- tently in a self-defeating manner?
Allport’s own attempt to under- stand Jenny began with a search for the underlying traits that would explain the consistency of her behavior.
GORDON ALLPORT: IDENTIFYING TRAITS
Figure 14.16 Cattell’s Sixteen Source Traits
Cattell used his sixteen source traits to develop a person- ality questionnaire, which was used to measure the traits in an individual. Each trait is listed as a pair of opposites on a continuum. What did Cattell believe measuring the source traits could predict?
Reserved
Less intelligent Affected by feelings Submissive
Serious
Expedient
Timid Tough-minded Trusting
Practical
Forthright Self-assured Conservative Group-dependent Uncontrolled Relaxed
Outgoing More intelligent Emotionally stable Dominant Happy-go-lucky Conscientious Venturesome Sensitive Suspicious Imaginative Shrewd Apprehensive Experimenting Self-sufficient Controlled Tense
400 Chapter 14 / Theories of Personality