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Trait

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

  • 131 Accesses

Synonyms

Personality

Definition

A trait is the basic unit or aspect that is used to describe and measure an individual’s patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are relatively consistent and enduring across situations and time. Traits have typically been thought of as descriptions of patterns of behavior, and new research is examining the explanatory value of traits.

Introduction

A trait is the basic unit or aspect that is used to describe and measure personality (John et al. 2008). Personality is an individual’s patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that are relatively consistent and enduring, both across situations and time. Therefore, traits are also relatively consistent and enduring. As a unit used to measure personality, traits have typically been thought of as descriptions of patterns of behavior rather than as explanations for behavior. Although traits are not currently used for causal explanations, they are useful for communicating about personality, and...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID, USA

    Jennifer McDonald & Tera Letzring

Authors
  1. Jennifer McDonald
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  2. Tera Letzring
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Correspondence to Jennifer McDonald .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Ashton Southard

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McDonald, J., Letzring, T. (2017). Trait. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1272-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1272-1

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