Other theorists have examined human beings and have come to other conclusions. There are as many personality theories as there are theorists. While all of the theories have their place and are interesting in their own right, we will concentrate on just a few of the major perspectives taken by personality theorists. In your Reading Journal Use your textbook to fill in the missing cells in the following table. While most of us have not written extensively describing a theory of personality, we create our own theory as a way to predict the behavior of others.
Many people have a trait theory where other people are described using a list of adjectives.
Another common personality theory is a type theory . In a type theory, people are grouped based on a limited number of characteristics. An individual may be very strong on one characteristic, and moderate on another. Type theories are simpler, but they also may fail to discriminate between people who are really different from each other. Describe the characteristics of your own theory of personality.