Trait theories of Gordon allport and Raymond Cattell:

Trait personal character:

Trait theories are attempts to explain personality and difference
between people in terms of their personal characters.
Gordon all post (1897-1967) claimed that personality traits are real
entities, physically located some where in the brain. Each person inherits
a unique set of raw materials for given traits, which are then shaped by
experiences.
All post identified two main categories of traits common traits
and individual traits common traits are those we share or hold in common
with most others in one own culture more important to all post were three
types of individual traits,
1) Cardinal
2) Central
3) Secondary traits
A cardinal traits is so strong a part of a persons personality that he or
she may become identified with or known for the trait.
Central traits are those, said all post that we said mention in writing a
careful letter for recommendation.
People also have secondary traits, but these are not a clinical in
defining personality as the cardinal and central traits. Secondary traits
such things as food and music preferences and specific attitudes. Each of
has many more secondary traits than cardinal or central traits.
Raymond Cattells theory:
He considered personality to be a pattern of traits providing the key
to understanding and predicting a persons behaviour. Cattle identified
two types. Surface traits and source traits.
Surface traits, Cattlells name for observable qualities of
personality such as those used to describe a friend.
 Surface traits, cattells name for the traits that make up the most
basic personality structure and cause behaviour.
A cattle personality profile can be used to provide a better
understanding of a single individual or to compare one persons traits
with those of others.
Learning theories and personality:
According to the learning perspective, personality consists of the
learned tendencies that have been acquired over a lifetime.
The behaviorist view of B.F. skinner:
Skinner denied that a personality or self initiates and directs
behaviour. The causes of behaviour, he stated, lie outside the person, and
they are based on past and present rewards and punishments. Thus,
skinner did not use the term personality. He simply described the
variables in the environment that shape and individuals observable
behaviour. Skinner (1.953) believed that healthy experiences in a healthy
environment make a healthy person and that psychologically unhealthy
people have been reinforced by the environment for behaving abnormally.
Humanistic personality theories:
Humanistic psychology is an approach to psychology that stresses
the uniquely human attributes and a positive view of human nature.
Humanistic psychologists developed their own unique view of human
nature, a view that is very positive. Human nature is seen as innately
good and people are assumed to have a natural tendency toward growth
and the realization of their fullest potential.
Abraham maslow: the self actualizing person:
For Abraham maslow, motivational factors were at the root of
personality. Maslow constructed a hierarchy of needs, ranging from
physiological needs at the bottom upward to safety needs, belonging and
love needs, esteem needs, and finally to the highest need or self-
actualization. Self actualization means developing to ones fullest
potential.
Maslow studied people the believed were using their talents and
abilities to their fullest in other words, those who exemplified self
actualization. He found self-actualization to be comfortable with life, they
accept themselves and others and nature as well, will good humor and
tolerance. Self actualizes tend not to depend on external authority or
other people but seem to be inner-driven, autonomous and independent.
They feel a strong fellowship with humanity and their relationship with
others are characterized by deep and loving bonds. Finally self-actualizers
are frequently occurring peak experiences-experiences of deep meaning,
insight and harmony with in and with the universe.
Maslow concluded that each of us has the capacity for self-
actualization. If we apply our talent and energy to doing our best in
whatever endeavor we choose, then we, too, can lead creative lives and
be self-actualizing.
Carl rogers: the fully functioning person:
Like Freud, Carl Rogers developed his theory of personality
through insights gained from his patients in therapy sessions. Rogers
viewed human nature as basically good. It left to develop naturally, he
thought people would be happy and psychologically healthy.
According to Rogers, we each live in our own subjective reality,
which he called the phenomenological field. It is in this personal,
subjective field that we act and think and feel.
Our parents set up conditions of worth conditions on which their
positive regard hinges. Conditions of worth force us to live and act
according to someone elses values rather than our own. In our efforts to
gain positive regard, we deny our true self by inhibiting some of our
behaviour denying and distorting some of one perceptions and closing
ourselves to parts of our experience. In so doing, we experience stress and
anxiety and our whole self-structure may be threatened.
For Rogers, a major goal of psychotherapy is to enable people to
begin to live according to their own values rather than according to the
values of others in order to gain positive regard. Rogers believes that the
therapist must give the client unconditional positive regard, that is
positive regard no matter what the client says, does, has done, or is
thinking of doing. The unconditional positive regard is designed to reduce
threat, eliminate conditions of worth and bring the persons back in tune
with his or her true self.
If successful, the therapy helps the client become what Rogers calls
a fully functioning person one who is functioning at an optimal level
and living fully and spontaneously according to his or her own inner
value system.
Conclusion:
Personality is purposive in nature it implies free decision making
and creative spontaneously. It orients biological creativity and utilitarian
creativity. Every personality is unique. As we all the health care
professionals we should help the person to adopt the positive personality
by providing reinforcement in his activities.
Bibliography:
Samuel E. Wood, Ellen Green Wood, The essential world of
psychology, 3rd edition, page no 324-348.
S.K. Mangal, Advanced educational psychology, 2nd edition, page
no - 392 - 428.
S.K. Chatterjee, Advanced educational psychology reprinted 2002,
page no - 29 to 51.
S.B. Kakkar, educational psychology, 2001 page no - 99 - 119.
 Shashi K. Gupta, Rosy Joshi, Organization behaviour, 2003, page
no - 4.1 to 4.19.
Morgan and King, Tata Mcgraw Hill, Introduction to psychology,
7th edition page no 563 - 610.
Annj. Zwemer, basic psychology for nurses in India, 1998 page no
- 144 - 166.
B.D. Bhatia, Ms. Margaretta craig, elements of psychology and
mental hygiene for nurses in India page no - 214 to 228.
 Freuds psychoanalytic theory:
Freud created of the first & most controversial personality theories.
Using information gained while treating his patients & from his own life
experiences, Freud developed the theory of psychoanalysis.
Freuds psychoanalysis became both a theory of personality and a
method of psychotherapy psycho analytic theory has their major parts.
1. A theory of his structure of personality \. In which the ego, id &
super ego are the principal parts.
2. A theory of personality dynamics in which conscious and
unconscious motivation & Ego- defense mechanisms play a
major role.
3. A theory of psychoserual development, in which different
motives & body regions influence the child at different stages of
growth, which effects persisting in the from of about personality
trails.
The conscious, the preconscious & the unconscious: Levels of
awareness:
The conscious consists of whatever a person is aware of at any
given moment a thought, a feeling, a sensation or a memory. When
attention shifts, there is a change in the content of the conscious.
Freuds preconscious is very much like long-term memory. It
contains all the memories, feelings, experiences and perceptions that you
are not consciously thinking about the moment, but that may be brought
to consciousness. Eg. Where did you go to high school?
In unconscious, which Freud believed to be the primary motivating
force of human behaviour, the unconscious holds memories that one were
conscious but were so unpleasant or anxiety providing that they were
repressed (involuntarily removed from consciousness). The unconscious
also contains all of the instincts (sexual and aggressive) wishes and
desires that have been allowed into consciousness. Freud traced the roots
of psychological disorders to these impulses and repressed memories.

Types of interview:
1) Group
2) Stress
3) Situational
4) Panel
Psychoanalytic theory is based on the in-depth study of individual
personalities and because motivation is believed to be unconscious;
self-reports are not necessarily considered accurate. Instead, a persons
representations of underlying unconscious processes.

Iceberg theory:
Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg the small part that
shows on the surface of the water represents conscious experience, while
the much larger mass below water level represents the unconscious a
storehouse of impulses, passions, and primitive instincts that affect our
thoughts and behaviour. It was this unconscious portion of the mind that
Freud sought to explore, and he did so by the method of free association.
The method requires that the person talk about everything that comes in
to the conscious mind, no matter how ridiculous or trivial it might seem.
By analyzing tree associations, including the recall of dreams and early
childhood memories Freud sought to puzzle out the basic determinants of
personality.
Psychosexual stage:
Oral stage: (Birth to 1 year)
 According to Freuds theory the infant obtains sensual pleasure
first by sucking and later by biting. Feeding and contact with the mother,
mouthing new objects, and even relief of teething pain by biting all help
to make the mouth the focus of pleasure during the first year. A baby
given too little opportunity to such (or too much) or made anxious about
it, may acquire an oral fixation which in adulthood, may foster excessive
oral behaviour for eg. taking in in concrete forms such as smoking or
in psychological forms such as dependency, fixation during the oral biting
stage may produce a critical, biting personality.