Abstract
Person-centered explanations of behavior based on “first-glance” observations provide a natural starting point for the study of motivation. Individual differences in behavior under equal, seemingly equal, or ignored situational conditions are usually eyecatching. Nothing seems more reasonable than to attribute them to varying dispositional strengths. That in itself provides the basis for a trait theory, albeit an incomplete one. Observed behavior, which leads to trait descriptions like “helpfulness” or “pugnacity” is endowed with motivational characteristics, i.e., it appears as though the individual strives to exhibit such behavior whenever possible.
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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Heckhausen, H. (1991). Trait Theories of Motivation. In: Motivation and Action. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75961-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75961-1_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-75963-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75961-1
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