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Dispositional Personality Theories

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Dispositional Personality Theories People are different, not just physically, but psychologically, also. As researchers use dispositional personality theories, they often include the trait and factor theory, as well as the psychology of the individual theory. In order to study the theories, it is necessary to recognize the differences and the similarities. Gordon Allport’s individual traits are separated into three categories – central, secondary, and cardinal. These categories render analysis as necessary for understanding. These traits, as well as others described by Hans Eysenck and Robert Cattell, reveal a certain consistency of comprehension of the dimensions of feelings, thoughts, and related behaviors. We are convicted by these theories in that the ever-expanding basis of traits generates a broader understanding. Allport said in his work, Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of Personality,
“The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer. Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems” (Allport, 1955, p. 67).
With this statement, we recognize the foundations of long-established, stable behaviors that are identified through careful and thorough accumulation of data and the subsequent analyses. Because of the efforts of these researchers, there is an ability now to see the strengths and unique patterns of every individual. Allport’s Psychology of the Individual
Gordon Allport’s contribution to the study of personality is known as the individual theory. “More than any other personality theorist, Gordon Allport emphasized the uniqueness of the individual” (Feist & Feist, 2009, p. 375). Other theories focused on understanding the

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