- Hello there, everyone, and welcome back to the Mr. Sinn channel. Today, we are going to be reviewing unit 7, topic 9 of AP Psychology-- trait theories of personality. First, when we're talking about trait theories, we have to understand what personality traits are. Personality traits are individuals' characteristics, behaviors, and their conscious motives. 

These remain stable over a long period of time. They do not vary depending on the situation, and each individual is different in how much of one trait they have. When looking at individuals, we can see that their personality traits create a pattern of behavior that can be identified. 

So, even though people have similar personality traits, we can see that everyone is unique because they have different combinations of different traits. Individuals such as Gordon Allport sought to better understand personality. 

Allport was more interested in describing personality in terms of behavioral patterns and less interested about individual traits. From his studies, he demonstrated that a person's personality is made up of central traits, secondary traits, and rarely cardinal traits. Cardinal traits are very strong, dominant traits that become only one identifying factor of a person. 

These traits are rare, and most people would not have them. Central traits are strong traits, but they're not the only defining traits that define an individual. Lastly, secondary traits are less influential. These are situation-specific characteristics, like being afraid of public speaking. 

Other individuals, such as Hans Eysenck and Cybill Eysenck, believed that we could look at individual personality in two ways-- extroversion versus introversion and emotional stability versus instability. By having individuals take questionnaires, researchers could analyze their answers and use factor analysis to identify clusters of test questions that connect with basic traits. Eysenck believed that it was an individual's biology that shaped why an individual had certain personality traits by giving them a predisposition towards those traits. Some individuals' nervous systems can handle more stress while others may more easily react to a stimuli. 

Lastly, we have Paul Costa and Robert McCray, who are known for the five factor personality model. We last talked about this model in our unit 7, topic 5 video. Costa and McCray looked at other studies that focused on personality traits and used factor analysis to come up with five different dimensions of personality-- conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion. 

The five factor personality model is something you'll want to remember. These traits are important and have a major impact on an individual's personality. If you need a more in-depth review of the five factor personality model, make sure to check out my unit 7, topic 5 video. And just like that, another topic review video is complete. 

As always, make sure to answer the questions on the screen and check your answers in the comments section down below. Also, make sure to subscribe to support the channel and make sure you don't miss out on future review videos and check out my ultimate review packet. It's a great resource that will help get you an A in your class and a five on the national exam. As always, thank you so much for watching the video. I'm Mr. Sinn, and I'll see you next time online.