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The dynamic interaction
between a person and the situation
he finds himself in is the best
predictor of behavior.BEHAVIOR WITHOUT
ENVIRONMENTAL
C U E S W O U L D B E
A B S U R D L Y C H A O T I C
W A L T E R M I S C H E L ( 1 9 3 0 – )
U
ntil the late 1960s,
personality was most
often described as a series
of individual behavioral traits
that were genetically inherited.
Psychologists worked to define
and measure these traits, because
this was thought to be essential
to understanding and reliably
predicting a person’s behavior.Raymond Cattell identified 16
different personality traits; Hans J.
Eysenck suggested there were only
three or four. In 1961, Ernest Tupes
and Raymond Christal proposed
that there are five major personality
traits (the “Big Five”): openness,
conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism or
emotional stability. Then, in 1968,IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Personality theoryBEFORE
c.400 BCE Ancient Greek
physician Hippocrates
suggests personality depends
on the levels of the four
humors in the body.1946 Raymond Cattell begins
developing his 16-factor model
of personality.1961 American psychologists
Ernest Tupes and Raymond
Christal propose the first “Big
Five” personality-factor model.AFTER
1975 Hans J. Eysenck’s
Personality Questionnaire
identifies two biologically
based, independent
dimensions of personality.1980 US psychologists Robert
Hogan, Joyce Hogan, and
Rodney Warrenfeltz develop
comprehensive personality
tests based on the “Big Five”
model of personality.Looking at
personality traits alone
gives us very few cues......we also need
to consider external
factors and context.How can behavior
be predicted?