Modern personality psychology, on the other hand, does not look for specific personality types, but for the presence of individual, well-defined personality traits (e.g., conscientiousness) that are found in stronger or weaker forms in all people. Accordingly, a person’s individuality consists of a unique combination of such traits.
The common psychological determinants of personality
The approach commonly used in personality psychology today is based on the so-called lexical procedure, first developed in the 1930s by the psychologists Allport and Odbert. This method, based on everyday psychology, takes all conceivable vocabulary from common dictionaries that describe human traits. There are many thousands of such words, but their meanings overlap considerably. By repeatedly combining overlapping characteristics, usually with the help of factor analysis or similar statistical methods, we arrive at fewer and fewer personality traits until a few basic characteristics emerge. These should be as free of overlap as possible. However, experts disagree about how many basic traits should be assumed.
The personality tests used today are usually based on five basic factors:
- Extraversion
- Compatibility
- Conscientiousness
- Neuroticism
- Openness / Intellect