The Trait Approach Page 1 Trait theories of personality have a markedly different flavor from any of the approaches we have looked at. Trait theories are more concerned with the adequate description of personality than with the explanation of personality.
Traits are descriptive dimensions.
Friendliness falls on a continuum, ranging from extremely unfriendly to extremely friendly, with many possibilities in between. The main issue focus for psychologists who have taken this approach has been to try to determine which traits are the important ones. The various answers to these and related questions have given rise to several trait theories. We'll briefly summarize two classic trait theories and then look at a contemporary trait theory. In various situations, a personality trait of friendliness might produce a range of specific responses, but those responses would be, in their essence, very much alike.