The Many Personality Traits Approach
Some theorists look at many traits at once when investigating
personality. They try to determine which traits are correlated with
certain behaviours, thereby gaining understanding of the underpinnings
of various behaviours as well as the more general workings of
personality. For example, personality research has investigated the
relationship between personality traits and the ability to delay
gratification, political orientation and drug taking.
For example, a study (cited in Carver &
Scheier, 2000) found young children rated as being emotionally
unstable, disobedient, domineering, aggressive, teasing, fidgety,
restless, and susceptible to stress were found nearly a decade later at
age 14 years to be more likely to be using illegal drugs.
The implication of using this many trait approach is you can get to have
an understanding of what sort of personality underpins a certain type of
behaviour (in this case drug-taking). The practical implications of this
are that instead of anti-drug campaigns targeted at 14 year olds we
should have campaigns at helping problem behaviours and susceptibility
to stress at an earlier age.
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