Attempting to make sense of what makes people who they are has been a persisting challenge in the world of personality psychology. Personality can be defined as a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person 's behaviour (Feist and Feist, 2009).
Several theories and models have been developed over time to better understand the human personality.Type theories are the early perspective, which suggest that there are a limited number of personality ‘types’ related to biological influences. Psychoanalytic theorists such as Freud and Bowlby emphasise the influence of the unconscious, mental conflict and drive. Behavioural theories suggest that personality is a result of
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The model offers causal explanations as well as simply describing personality traits (Costa & McCrae, 1992).
Cattell and Eysenck arrived at two very different, but not irreconcilable theories of personality. The two theorists used factor analysis very differently, but actually their conceptualisations are not fundamentally different. Eysenck 's extraversion-introversion supertrait is highly similar to Cattell 's exvia-invia, and neuroticism is very similar to anxiety. Eysenck preferred to work with a broad three dimensional picture, whereas Cattell believed that working with a larger number of traits, a more accurate perception of personality is obtained (Hampson, 1988).
Eysenck’s strategy of looking for broad themes to categorize groups of traits was admired by other psychologists, but it was also recognized that his dimensions didn 't exhaust the full range of personality characteristics (McCrae & John, 1992). Through investigation of the validity of Cattell and Eysenck’s structures of personality however, researchers made a monumental discovery in personality theory; the Five Factor model of Personality (Fehriinger,