Allport: Traits or Disposition

Allport Traits Theory

According to Allport traits constitutes the basic unit of individual personality traits as the predisposition to respond and react in the same or similar manner to stimuli in the environment. According to him, there are two types of traits (i) Common traits (ii) Personal traits or dispositions. Some of the important characteristics of traits are as given below:

1) Traits are not theoretical structures or constructs but are real and found within the individual.

2) Traits guide and direct behaviour and enable the individual to behave in a particular manner.

3) Traits are verified empirically.

4) Different traits are not absolutely independent of each other but have overlapping functions,

5) Stable traits can also change over time.

i) Common traits

We all are aware that persons belonging to a certain coun try or a community within a society behave similarly in a number of situations. They will hold the same view points and behave in like manner as others. This is so because cultural factors play a very significant rolc in the development of personality. Keeping this in view, Allport gave considerable importance to this factor and he stated that within any particular culture, there are certain behaviours that are commonly obtained as part of that culture and everyone in that culture recognises the same and even can label them. As for instance, greeting with a hand shake by the Europeans and greeting with a namaste by Indians. You can also obtain common behaviours in terms of eating, marriage ceremonies and many rituals that they follow.

Common traits can be considered abstractions which reflect social values and social mores. These traits originate from social pressure on members to behave in a particular manner. Allport did not attach much importance to common traits as they are only surface manifestations. In our culture, we commonly differentiate between introverts and extraverts or modern and traditional behaviours. We also know what we mean by traditional or modern, but a person from a different culture may not have heard about these terms in the same way as we are thinking or visualizing. Thus for them these words will have no meaning or value. Thus their behaviours will be different from that of ours.

ii) Personal traits or dispositions

Allport was of the view that personal disposition is something unique to the individual and this disposition makes him behave consistently in the same way in a number of situations that are similar. He said that it is a generalised neuropsychic structure that is unique to the individual concerned and this makes for the difference in the behaviours of many individuals even though they may face the same situation. For example, in a TV programme when a sad scene is shown one person cries, another turns the other way from the TV not wanting to see the scene, and the third criticizes the scene as most unreasonable and unrealistic. These three different reactions are typically due to the personal disposition of the three different individuals. own words, Allport defined this personal disposition as "a generalized
neuropsychic structure, unique to the individual, with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent or equivalent forms of adaptive and stylistic behaviour." (Allport, 1938)

Let us now see what are the important features of the above definition of personal disposition.

1) Apersonal disposition produces equivalences in function and meaning between various perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and actions that are not necessarily equivalent in the natural world, or in anyone else's mind. Personal dispositions have also been termed as morphological traits.

2) Personal dispositions guide and motivate a person's specilic acts of adjustment.

3) Personal dispositions are important as they reflect the structure and organisation of personality.

Initially Allport used the word trait for personal characteristics but later he substituted the word dispositions for traits and usage of traits was reserved for common traits. A person with the personal disposition of fear of certain phenomenon, as for example fear of speaking in public, may consider all persons who hositate to speak in public as similar to himself and respond to them in the same way. But according to Allport it must be kept in mind that one person may be basically an introvert and may not want to talk in public, another may have no idea about the language and so may not want to talk in public and yet the third person may find the topic uninteresting and so may not want to talk in public. Hence the individual concerned will have to interact with them diffcrently, and not in the same manner as he would respond to a person like him who is afraid of talking in public. Thus the peisonal dispositions are concrete can be easily recognised and they ae invariably consistent.

Allport believes that traits are essentially unique to each individual, as for example, one person's "fear of speaking in public for instance may not be the same for two different individual as mentioned above if one has to understand the person and his behaviour, it is important to study the individual in detail and in depth. This can be done by interviewing the person, or observing the person or analysing his speeches and writings to get a clear view of what is making the person afraid to speak in public. This method was termed as the idiographie method by Allport.

Also Allport categorized the personal dispositions into three groups, viz

i) Cardinal traits

ii) Central traits and

iii) Secondary traits

Let us see how these traits are explained by Allport

i) Cardinal traits

These are central to the individual and these traits manifest themselves in almost all situations and in the individual's very personality. For instance if we take compassion as a cardinal trait in one person, you will see that this compassion is manifested in almost all aspects of the individual's behaviour, as for begging, he will offer her some eatable or money. Such a person may also join many NGOs that are dealing with orphans and destitutes so as to help these needy persons. He would also write in newspapers and magazines about the conditions of such people and call for help and assistance to be given to them. So his behaviour will be reflecting this unique disposition of compassion in almost all aspects of his behaviour.

Thus Cardinal traits have an overwhelming influence on the behaviour of the individual in that they guide and direct almost all types of behaviour of the person. These traits are at the very core of the personality. These are considered as building blocks of the individual's personality. When you describe someone, you are likely to use words that refer to these central traits: aristocratic, street smart, timid, aggressive, arrogant etc. According to Allport each individual has about 5 to 10 such cardinal traits in them. One of these is indeed dominant while others do dominate but do not have the over riding influence on the person's behaviour. Through such traits one can define the personality of the individual concerned. These central traits reveal the structure and organisation of personality.

ii) Central Trait

This is general characteristics found in some degree in everybody these are the basic building blocks that shape most of our behaviour although that are car not over whelming as Cardinal trait.

iii) Secondary traits

These are not overwhelming like the cardinal traits but it can be reflected or seen in the various preferences and attitudes of the individual concerned. These to an extent are specific to situations, that is, for instance showing a disdainful attitude towards a particular community person. These are rather too general and are not as consistent as the cardinal traits. They can also change in certain special situations. For example the negative disdainful attitude may not be obvious when the person is with others who are in favour of that community person and his contributions.