Problems & Prospects for the Trait perspective

Question 1

Gordon Allport (1937) On problem with trait perspective

Answer 1

-the assumption that the trait doesn’t influence all behaviours & it may not influence a given category of behaviours at all times

Question 2

Interactionist approach

Answer 2

the susceptible person will avoid entering situations in which the relevant stresses are likely to occur

Question 3

Trait approach

Answer 3

pessimistic about change

• traits are stable
• any change that theraphy produces will likely be in how traits are displayed in behaviour

Question 4

Intrapersonal functioning?

Answer 4

• little to say, resulting in a picture of personality as static & empty
  ex: saying someone is friendly give a name to what you see but doesn’t tell you much about how or why the person is like that

Question 5

Circular reasoning

Answer 5

the information about the behavior is used to infer the existence of a trait, which is being used, in turn, to explain the behavior.

-to be broken: the trait needs to be used to predict something new and sometimes trait theorists can do that