Define personality. Explain the concept of trait and personal dispositions.

 Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.[ALLPORT,1937,P.48]

The term dynamic organisation refers to important points: Not only is personality constantly developing and changing, but there is within the person some kind of central organisation that holds the components of personality together and relates them to each other.

The term psychophysical systems implies that person is not just a hypothetical construct formed by the observer but a real phenomenon composed of mind and body elements fused into ‘a personality unity’[Allport,1937,p.48]

Characteristics in Allport’definition signifies the uniqueness of the single person. No two people are alike in this personological systems. Finally, behaviour and thought means everything a person does. Personality expresses itself in some way in virtually all observable human actions.

While defining personality, Allport clearly makes a distinction between character and temperament. Character means some code of behaviour in terms of which people or their acts are evaluated e.g. a person may be described as having a ‘good’ or’ bad’ character. Temperament refers to those dispositions that are closely linked to biological or physiological determinants. Here, heredity plays an important role,which is the raw material, along with intelligence and physique,out of which personality is made.

CONCEPT OF TRAIT AND PERSONAL DISPOSITIONS

Allport defines trait as a neuro psychic structure having the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide equivalent (meaningfully consistent) forms of adaptive and expressive behaviour.[Allport, 1961,p.347]

In simpler terms, a trait is a predisposition to act in the same way in a wide range of situations. For example, if a person is basically shy, s/he will tend to be quiet and reserved in many different situations, that is sitting in a class room, eating at the cafeteria, etc.

Traits are psychological entities that render many a stimuli as well as many responses functionally equivalent. In other words, many stimuli may evoke the same response, or many responses (feelings, perceptions,interpretations,actions) have the same functional meaning in terms of the trait.

Allport [1966] published an article entitled “Traits Revisited” in which he proposed eight basic defining characteristics of trait.They are as follows:

1) A trait has more than nominal existence. Personality traits are a very real and vital part of everyone’s existence. Everyone possesses certain ‘generalised action tendencies’. For example, aggressiveness, honesty, etc. These personal characteristics are real and actually exist inside people. To cite an example from real life situation, imagine a person always telling the truth even at the cost of apprehending one’s own intimate friend.

2) A trait is more generalised than a habit. Traits account for the relatively permanent and general features of our behaviour. While habits refer to more specific tendencies and are less generalised in terms of the situations which may arouse them or the responses which they evoke. For example a child may brush his teeth twice daily. This is a habit. But over the years the child may learn to brush the hair, wash and iron clothes, clean the room and many such activities which are all learned over a period of time and not necessarily habits. All these habits woven together may form the trait of personal cleanliness.

3) A trait is dynamic or at least determinative in behaviour. Traits do not lie dormant waiting to be aroused by external stimuli. Traits motivate people to engage in behaviours that are conducive to expressing their traits. To give an example, a student with high sociable trait does not just sit around and wait to attend parties, but actively seeks out parties so that the sociability trait can be expressed.. Thus, traits guide and direct a person’s actions.

4) A trait’s existence may be established empirically. Traits cannot be observed directly, but it is possible to verify their existence. To give an example, repeated actions of the subject, case histories or biographies, or statistical techniques that determine the degree of coherence among separate responses.

5) A trait is only relatively independent of other traits. No trait is independent of the other. They overlap. There is no rigid boundary separating one trait from another. The personality is comprised of a network of overlapping traits only relatively independent of one another. 6) A trait is not synonymous with moral or social judgement. Personality is important, not character. Many traits like loyalty, greed, etc. are bound by social demands and socio cultural factors.

6) A trait may be viewed in light of either the personality that contains it or its distribution in the population at large. To give an example, take for instance, the trait of shyness which has both unique and universal aspects. It is unique for the person because it influences a person’life, while as the trait can be studied universally by constructing a reliable and valid “shyness scale” and determine how people differ on it. 8) Acts or even habits that are inconsistent with a trait are not proof of the nonexistence of the trait.

Not everyone shows the same degree of integration with respect to a given trait. Also, the same person may possess contradictory traits. Lastly, there are instances where social situations, rather than personality traits are the prime movers of behaviour

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