Definition
In his Structure-Based Systems Theory of personality, Raymond Cattell (1979, 1980, 1987) distinguished between three main modalities of psychological traits: (1) ability traits that reflect how well an individual accomplishes tasks, (2) temperament/stylistic traits that indicate various ways in which a person tends to behave, and (3) dynamic traits that explain why people engage in certain types of behavior, regardless of how well or in what specific way they typically do things.
Introduction
Cattell maintained that dynamic traits are measured best by variables that change most in response to changes of incentives in the environment. He proposed that ability traits are estimated most validly by variables that correspond with differences in environmental complexity. He then defined temperament/stylistic traits by exclusion, as individual differences that are not primarily ability or dynamic traits. Cattell stressed that any actual behavior was...
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References
Boyle, G. J. (1988). Elucidation of motivation structure by dynamic calculus. In J. R. Nesselroade & R. B. Cattell (Eds.), Handbook of multivariate experimental psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.
Cattell, R. B. (1979). Personality and learning theory I. The structure of personality in its environment. New York: Springer.
Cattell, R. B. (1980). Personality and learning theory II. A systems theory of motivation and structured learning. New York: Springer.
Cattell, R. B. (1987). Psychotherapy by structured learning theory. New York: Springer.
Cattell, R. B., & Butcher, H. J. (1968). The prediction of achievement and creativity. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Madsen, K. B. (1977). The formal properties of Cattellian personality theory and its relationship to other personality theories. In R. B. Cattell & R. M. Dreger (Eds.), Handbook of modern personality theory. New York: Wiley.
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Stuart Gillis, J. (2020). Dynamic Trait. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1067
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