Abstract
This paper outlines a theory of global traits based on the seminal writings of Gordon Allport and 50 years of subsequent empirical research. Personality research needs to refocus on global traits because such traits are an important part of everyday social discourse, because they embody a good deal of folk wisdom and common sense, because understanding and evaluating trait judgments can provide an important route toward the improvement of social judgment, and because global traits offer legitimate, if necessarily incomplete, explanations of behavior. A substantial body of evidence supporting the existence of global traits includes personality correlates of behavior, interjudge agreement in personality ratings, and the longitudinal stability of personality over time. Future research should clarify the origins of global traits, the dynamic mechanisms though which they influence behavior, and the behavioral cues through which they can most accurately be judged.
Keywords
Big Five personality traitsPsychologyTraitPersonalitySocial psychologyBig Five personality traits and cultureImplicit personality theoryTrait theoryCognitive psychology
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Personality in Adulthood
Now in a revised and expanded second edition, this influential work argues for the enduring stability of personality across adult development. It also offers a highly accessible...
Personality and Individual Differences: A Natural Science Approach
One: Descriptive.- One The Scientific Description of Personality.- Personality and Taxonomy: The Problem of Classification.- Type and Trait Theories: The Modern View.- Type-Trai...
Category‐breadth and social‐desirability values for 573 personality terms
Forty‐five British adults rated 573 person‐descriptive terms on category breadth (defined as the diversity of behavioural referents of a trait) and social desirability. These va...
Updating Norman's "adequacy taxonomy": Intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language and in questionnaires.
Research on the dimensions of personality represented in the English language has repeatedly led to the identification of five factors (Norman, 1963). An alternative classificat...
Five Robust Trait Dimensions: Development, Stability, and Utility
ABSTRACT Interest has grown in recent years in a five‐factor model for the organization of personality characteristics A brief history of the development of this model is given ...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1991
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 31-39
- Citations
- 479
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
479
OpenAlex
Cite This
David C. Funder
(1991).
Global Traits: A Neo-Allportian Approach to Personality.
Psychological Science
, 2
(1)
, 31-39.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1991.tb00093.x
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1991.tb00093.x