Incorporating Personality Trait Measures in Behavioral Assessment

Abstract

Articles by Collins and Thompson, Staats, and Williams and Thompson have taken different tracks, but all advocate the integration of "personality" measures with behavioral assessment. This article addresses several issues that have hindered such integration. First, many traits are poorly defined, inconsistently applied, and excessively molar. The concept of trait communicates a useful idea -that there are meaningful consistencies in behavior across situations. However, the concepts of personality and personality traits are superfluous. They are imbued with semantic imprecision, redundancy, and unwanted psychodynamic and causal connotations. Also, trait measures are insensitive to the dynamic aspects of behavior. Finally, personality assessment questionnaires are frequently used in behavioral assessment but most often for client or subject selection and molar therapy outcome evaluation. The goal of research in this area should be to determine the persons, situations, purposes, particular traits, and measurement methods affecting the utility of trait measures in behavioral assessment.