1. Discuss the importance of Cattell’s trait theory of personality. What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Key Points:

• The work of Gordon Allport, who made the first comprehensive attempt to develop a framework to describe personality using traits.
• Further developments of trait theory by Raymond Cattell.
• The application of factor analysis to determine the structure of personality.

• Cattell’s lexical criterion of importance.
• L-data, Q-data and T-data.
• Cattell’s 16 trait dimensions.
• Extra credit should be received for referring to trait theories (more generally), Eysenck’s supertraits, the five factors of personality and trait debates (including the question of whether we all possess all traits and the person–situation debate).