The Trait and Its Constituents

Abstract

The results of 22 studies, in which 1,811 subjects participated, show that each of the 76 common personality traits correlates with a pattern of preferred meaning variables which is unique in its composition. This major finding deserves to be stated at the outset so as to serve as a guideline for the discussion in the subsequent chapters of Part I. The results of Studies 1–20 are summarized in Table 1 (Studies 21 and 22 served for control and further elaboration). At a later date—after completion of Parts I and II of the manuscript—the project was extended to two further sets of traits, those assessed by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Jackson’s Personality Research Form (PRF) scales (see Part III). The findings from these sets confirmed the conclusions obtained in the studies presented in Part II and served to extend them and to demonstrate their application. There is thus sufficient evidence for the generality of our findings. Moreover, as shown in this and the following chapter, conceiving of each trait in terms of its underlying meaning preferences widens our understanding of traits and explains many of the trait manifestations that were before regarded as inconsistent. Therefore, we feel justified in defining traits as unique patterns of meaning preferences or, in more dynamic terms, as patterns of preferred meaning-assignment tendencies.