Whole Trait Theory

“The trait approach, as instantiated in the Big 5/HEXACO model (Ashton & Lee, 2009; Costa & McCrae, 2006; DeYoung, Weisberg, Quilty, & Peterson, 2013; Goldberg, 1992; Johnson, 1997, Perugini & Gallucci, 1997; see also Wright et al., 2013), has made remarkable progress in identifying the content of…”

“The social cognitive approach starts with the observation that trait manifestations appear to be inconsistent (Cervone, 2005; Hartshorne & May, 1928; Mischel, 1968).”

“A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript A uthor M anuscript competencies, self-regulatory plans, and goals (Allport, 1937; Mischel & Shoda, 1995; Mischel, 1973).”

“Although the trait approach would allow for some variability in behavior, it does not appear to allow the high degree of variable responding required in the social-cognitive approach (Allport, 1937; Fleeson & Noftle, 2009; Mischel, 1973).”

“Traits matter to important outcomes (Duckworth, Weir, Tsukayama, & Kwok, 2012; Ozer & Benet-Martínez, 2006; Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, & Goldberg, 2007; Turiano, Chapman, Gruenewald, & Mroczek, 2013), and observers agree about Big 5 levels of targets (Vazire, 2010).”

“Furthermore, although traits do a reasonable job of describing behavior and identity, even on that front they fall somewhat short (Kandler, Zimmerman, & McAdams, 2014; McAdams & Pals, 2006).”

“The trait approach, as instantiated in the Big 5/HEXACO model (Ashton & Lee, 2009; Costa & McCrae, 2006; DeYoung, Weisberg, Quilty, & Peterson, 2013; Goldberg, 1992; Johnson, 1997, Perugini & Gallucci, 1997; see also Wright et al., 2013), has made remarkable progress in identifying the content of…”

“…in affect, something that is commonly known to vary so much that it is hard to conceive of it as a trait; and (iii) more than the amount of variability between individuals, meaning that individuals differ from themselves more than they differ from others (Fleeson, 2001; Noftle & Fleeson, 2010).”

“The state concept has been used to characterize emotions and anxiety for some time (e.g., Gerstorf, Siedlecki, Tucker-Drob, & Salthouse, 2009; Watson, 1988).”

“In short, trait theory has described the what, but few theories have attempted to explain the why or how (with a few, mostly biological, exceptions, e.g., Depue & Collins, 1999; DeYoung, 2010; DeYoung et al., 2010;H. J. Eysenck, 1997; Gray, 1981; see also DeYoung, 2014 and Read et al., 2010).”

“It includes variables such as goals, expectancies, competencies, and plans (Mischel, 1973), but goes beyond them to include narratives, scripts, defenses, and other variables (Demorest, Popovska, & Dabova, 2012; McAdams & Olson, 2010).”

“One distinctive feature that distinguishes Whole Trait Theory from existing social-cognitive approaches such as CAPS (Mischel, 2004; Mischel & Shoda, 1995) is its grounding in the Big 5.”

“This is a difficult move to make because of the long history of antagonism between social-cognitive and trait approaches (Funder, 2009; Kenrick & Funder, 1988; Lucas & Donnellan, 2009).”

“Additional evidence that distributions are the descriptive side of traits is that distribution parameters correlate with self-reported questionnaire scores on the corresponding traits (Fleeson & Gallagher, 2009).”

“The social cognitive approach starts with the observation that trait manifestations appear to be inconsistent (Cervone, 2005; Hartshorne & May, 1928; Mischel, 1968).”

“Finally, situations, behaviors, and the links between them may cause each other (Cramer et al., 2012).”

“Big 5 personality states are predictable from features of the situation (Bleidorn, 2009; Church et al., 2008; Clifton & Kuper, 2011; Côté et al., 2012; Fleeson, 2007; Fournier, Moskowitz, & Zuroff, 2009; Huang & Ryan, 2011; Judge et al., 2013).”

“…behaviors) count as internal or environmental events that feedback into the process, continuously adjusting the interpretative process (Mischel, 1973), and impacts of the outputs on the situation also change the environmental events, creating new situations (Snyder, 2006; Snyder & Stukas, 1999).”

“In short, trait theory has described the what, but few theories have attempted to explain the why or how (with a few, mostly biological, exceptions, e.g., Depue & Collins, 1999; DeYoung, 2010; DeYoung et al., 2010;H. J. Eysenck, 1997; Gray, 1981; see also DeYoung, 2014 and Read et al., 2010).”

“Because of the person-situation debate, trait and social-cognitive theories have been largely at odds with each other (Fleeson, 2012; Funder, 2009; Hampson, 2012; Lucas & Donnellan, 2009).”

“For example, Costa and McCrae (2006) have motives and cognitions as an outcome of traits, McAdams and Olson (2010) and Roberts and Wood (2006) hold motivational and trait domains as separate domains of personality functioning, and Winter and colleagues (1998) suggested motives provide the direction…”

“First, the actual manifestation of traits in everyday life took a form amenable to social-cognitive explanations (Baird et al., 2006; Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson & Gallagher, 2009; Timothy Church et al., 2013).”

“Whole Trait Theory starts with the assertion that the descriptive side of traits is best thought of as density distributions of states (Baird, Le, & Lucas, 2006; Fleeson, 2001, 2012; Fleeson & Wilt, 2010; Judge, Simon, Hurst, & Kelley, 2013; Timothy Church et al., 2013).”

“Big 5 personality states are also predictable from the goals an individual is pursuing at the moment (Bleidorn, 2009; Heller et al., 2007; McCabe & Fleeson, 2012; Perunovic et al., 2011).”

“Because of the person-situation debate, trait and social-cognitive theories have been largely at odds with each other (Fleeson, 2012; Funder, 2009; Hampson, 2012; Lucas & Donnellan, 2009).”

“Fortunately, Whole Trait Theory is joined in this endeavor by theories engaged in at least partially overlapping activities (Baumert & Schmitt, 2012; Bleidorn, 2009; Cramer et al., 2012; Denissen, van Aken, Penke, & Wood, 2013; DeYoung, this volume; Little & Joseph, 2007; Perunovic, Heller, Ross, & Komar, 2011; Read e…”

“Evidence for the Big 5 includes strong crossquestionnaire (Costa & McCrae, 2006) and cross-cultural replicability (Saucier, 2009).”

“Finally, factor analyses of these states have revealed structures similar to the Big 5 (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1998).”

“Second, social-cognitive mechanisms were shown to predict the actual manifestation of traits, arguing that they are indeed at least part of the explanation of traits (Church et al., 2008; Clifton & Kuper, 2011; Fleeson, 2007; Heller et al., 2007; Judge et al., 2013; McCabe & Fleeson, 2012; McNiel, Lowman, & Fleeson, 2…”

“…in affect, something that is commonly known to vary so much that it is hard to conceive of it as a trait; and (iii) more than the amount of variability between individuals, meaning that individuals differ from themselves more than they differ from others (Fleeson, 2001; Noftle & Fleeson, 2010).”

“…(Ashton & Lee, 2009; Costa & McCrae, 2006; DeYoung, Weisberg, Quilty, & Peterson, 2013; Goldberg, 1992; Johnson, 1997, Perugini & Gallucci, 1997; see also Wright et al., 2013), has made remarkable progress in identifying the content of broad traits and in providing evidence for their existence.”

“Second, social-cognitive mechanisms were shown to predict the actual manifestation of traits, arguing that they are indeed at least part of the explanation of traits (Church et al., 2008; Clifton & Kuper, 2011; Fleeson, 2007; Heller et al., 2007; Judge et al., 2013; McCabe & Fleeson, 2012; McNiel, Lowman, & Fleeson, 2…”

“Whole Trait Theory starts with the assertion that the descriptive side of traits is best thought of as density distributions of states (Baird, Le, & Lucas, 2006; Fleeson, 2001, 2012; Fleeson & Wilt, 2010; Judge, Simon, Hurst, & Kelley, 2013; Timothy Church et al., 2013).”

“Although the trait approach would allow for some variability in behavior, it does not appear to allow the high degree of variable responding required in the social-cognitive approach (Allport, 1937; Fleeson & Noftle, 2009; Mischel, 1973).”

“(Hartshorne & May, 1928, p.385).”

“Fortunately, Whole Trait Theory is joined in this endeavor by theories engaged in at least partially overlapping activities (Baumert & Schmitt, 2012; Bleidorn, 2009; Cramer et al., 2012; Denissen, van Aken, Penke, & Wood, 2013; DeYoung, this volume; Little & Joseph, 2007; Perunovic, Heller, Ross, &…”

“…situational, work, cultural, motivational, and interpersonal processes involved in causing Big 5 personality states (Côté, Moskowitz, & Zuroff, 2012; Fleeson, 2007; Heller, Komar, & Lee, 2007; Huang & Ryan, 2011; Judge et al., 2013; McCabe & Fleeson, 2012; Read et al., 2010; Church et al., 2013).”

“Big 5 personality states are also predictable from the goals an individual is pursuing at the moment (Bleidorn, 2009; Heller et al., 2007; McCabe & Fleeson, 2012; Perunovic et al., 2011).”

“Big 5 personality states are predictable from features of the situation (Bleidorn, 2009; Church et al., 2008; Clifton & Kuper, 2011; Côté et al., 2012; Fleeson, 2007; Fournier, Moskowitz, & Zuroff, 2009; Huang & Ryan, 2011; Judge et al., 2013).”

“Because of the person-situation debate, trait and social-cognitive theories have been largely at odds with each other (Fleeson, 2012; Funder, 2009; Hampson, 2012; Lucas & Donnellan, 2009).”

“We propose that several processes, including social-cognitive ones described by (but not identical to) CAPS (Mischel & Shoda, 1995), are the determinants of states (Fleeson & Jolley, 2006).”

“For example, the script of “The unknown-fear” may lead to reduced extraversion behaviors (Demorest et al., 2012).”

“…overlapping activities (Baumert & Schmitt, 2012; Bleidorn, 2009; Cramer et al., 2012; Denissen, van Aken, Penke, & Wood, 2013; DeYoung, this volume; Little & Joseph, 2007; Perunovic, Heller, Ross, & Komar, 2011; Read et al., 2010; Snow, 2009) Whole Trait Theory makes five primary points, as shown…”

“…shown to predict the actual manifestation of traits, arguing that they are indeed at least part of the explanation of traits (Church et al., 2008; Clifton & Kuper, 2011; Fleeson, 2007; Heller et al., 2007; Judge et al., 2013; McCabe & Fleeson, 2012; McNiel, Lowman, & Fleeson, 2010; Read et al.,…”

“Fortunately, Whole Trait Theory is joined in this endeavor by theories engaged in at least partially overlapping activities (Baumert & Schmitt, 2012; Bleidorn, 2009; Cramer et al., 2012; Denissen, van Aken, Penke, & Wood, 2013; DeYoung, this volume; Little & Joseph, 2007; Perunovic, Heller, Ross, &…”

“Big 5 personality states are also predictable from the goals an individual is pursuing at the moment (Bleidorn, 2009; Heller et al., 2007; McCabe & Fleeson, 2012; Perunovic et al., 2011).”

“For example, although self-ratings of personality traits are moderately heritable (40–55% range; Bouchard & McGue, 2003), personality expression varies across contexts (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015) and trait levels of personality change over time (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006).”

“Personality trait change presumably comes about because repeated states get ingrained and become long-term, consistent patterns (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Magidson et al., 2014; Roberts, 2009; W. Wood & Neal, 2007), the processes are detailed in the section “Processes of Transferring Short-Term…”

“…regarding the existence and consistency of personality to more fundamental questions about the mechanisms underlying personality (Fleeson, 2012; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2014), research on how different types of adverse and traumatic life events affect personality can provide important insights…”

“As argued by proponents of density-distribution models for understanding individual differences in personality (e.g., Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015), trait wisdom may be represented through data-intensive longitudinal observations of states.”

“The idea that learning is core to how personality changes has been inherent in various clinical conceptualizations from Dollard and Miller to Rogers to Beck (among others) and is the basis of developmental change in normal personality traits for at least one modern theory of traits (Whole Trait Theory, Fleeson & Jayaw…”

“…variability in personality states such as extraversion or neuroticism can be predicted from certain situational attributes (Fleeson, 2007; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Fleeson & Noftle, 2008), reflecting the fit between the situation and a certain trait-specific behavioral signature…”

“Future research should identify the exact nature of the causal relations between personality traits, individual needs, motivations and support for populist parties, and remain open to theories that differ in conceptualisation and causal order (Denissen & Penke 2008; Fleeson & Jayawickreme 2015).”

“From a Whole Trait Theory perspective (Fleeson and Jayawickreme, 2015), people’s responses to items in self-report questionnaires correspond to their locations and maximums of their density distributions for the respective within-person states (Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson and Gallagher, 2009).”

“Structural models based on lexical studies are purely descriptive (e.g., Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Jayawickreme, Zachry, & Fleeson, 2019) and place labels on groups of adjectives or items.”

“…the consideration of situation- (or state-) specific responses is essential for understanding the nature of personality constructs as a whole (e.g., Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Fleeson & Noftle, 2008b, 2012; Funder, 2009; McLean, Pasupathi, Greenhoot, & Fivush, 2017; Mischel, 2004; Mischel,…”

“…van Aken, Penke, & Wood, 2013; Denissen, Wood, & Penke, 2012; DeYoung, 2015; Durbin & Hicks, 2014; EbnerPriemer & Trull, 2009; Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Funder, 1991; Geukes et al., 2018; Hennecke, Bleidorn, Denissen, & Wood, 2014; Huprich & Nelson, 2015; McCrae & Costa…”

“Importantly, this resolution of the person-situation debate is premised on a reconceptualization of traits as density distributions of traitrelevant behaviors or states (Fleeson, 2001), as well as a more precise understanding of behavioral consistency (Fleeson & Noftle, 2009).”

“This line of research is based on the tenet of whole trait theory that individuals differ in the amount of intraindividual variability in cognitions, emotions, and behavior they display over time (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Fleeson et al., 2002).”

“…Fleeson and colleagues (Fleeson, 2001, 2007; Fleeson, Furr, Jayawickreme, Meindl, & Helzer, 2014; Fleeson & Gallagher, 2009) presented a recent and promising development in personality research that is directly related to virtue science called whole-trait theory (WTT; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“Thus, a maladaptive personality “trait” refers to a tendency that is relatively stable across time and place, but also is amenable to change (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“Consistent with cognitive-affective personality systems (Mischel & Shoda, 1995), trait activation (Tett & Guterman, 2000), and whole trait (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015) theories, the personality states, motives, and strivings that drive individuals to engage in servant leadership behaviors can…”

“One of its central claims is that ‘traits can be conceptualized as density distributions of states’ (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015, p. 82).”

“…processes—the dynamic patterns of how people feel, think, strive for, and behave in specific situations (e.g. Cervone, 2005; Denissen & Penke, 2008; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Mischel & Shoda, 1998; Robinson, 2007, Robinson & Wilkowski, 2015; Wood, Gardner, & Harms, 2015; Wright & Hopwood,…”

“In addition, we sought to link the daily expression and variability of PD features to dispositionally assessed pathological personality traits. sonality traits (DeYoung, 2015; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Fournier, Moskowitz, & Zuroff, 2009; Revelle & Condon, 2015).”

“…witness a rekindled interest in the dynamic, more state related, aspects in personality research (e.g., Anonymous, 2017a; Anonymous, 2017b; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Rauthmann et al., 2015; Rauthmann & Sherman, 2016a), we aim to explore in this review how an inclusion of a dynamic…”

“Others have described how this type of measurement might be accomplished (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Jayawickreme & Fleeson, 2017a, 2017b; Ng & Tay, 2020; Wright et al., 2021; Zachry et al., 2018).”

“We locate our approach within this broad view of trait self-control as reflecting a group of processes that determine how people pursue goals in different situations (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; McCabe & Fleeson, 2016).”

“…this work is that it demonstrates how laboratory insights concerning the benefits of distanced self-reflection for self-regulatory processes (Kross et al., 2014) and wisdom-related processes (Grossmann & Kross, 2014) (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015) to self-distance in the face of social conflicts.”

“In contrast, contemporary personality theories elaborate within-person dynamic processes that putatively give rise to the major individual difference domains (e.g., Baumert et al., 2017; DeYoung, 2015; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Pincus, Hopwood, & Wright, in press).”

“A distribution is not a single number and Whole Trait Theory argues that individuals’ actual behavior should be described by entire distributions rather than by single numbers” (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015, p. 89).”

“…accessibility, interrelationships, and organization of social – cognitive mechanisms that guide the way in which individuals encode and interpret salient and conse-quential situational cues, which translate into behaviour (cf. DeYoung, 2015; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Mischel & Shoda, 1995).”

“Fleeson and Jayawickreme ( 2015 ) , in their Whole Trait Theory , explain that people experience between - and within - individual variation in personality .”

“This advancement in personality modeling was recently applied to assessing virtues (e.g., Bleidorn & Denissen, 2015), and extensions of that model have been argued for as applicable to virtues (i.e., whole trait theory; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Jayawickreme & Fleeson, 2017a, 2017b).”

“Density distributions theory (Fleeson 2001, Fleeson & Jayawickreme 2015) is the second theory that has led to a surge of recent interest in within-person variability in personality.”

“…of IHrelated qualities in daily life are needed to gain an accurate understanding of individuals’ trait standing on IH (Brieza & Grossmann, 2017; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015), as well as whether specific situational contingencies (Fleeson, 2007) predicts cross-situation variability in daily…”

“Trait theorists define personality traits as habitual patterns of behaviors, thoughts, and emotions [7].”

“Conversely, personality states relate to changes (increases or decreases) in action tendencies across situations (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“Fleeson and Jayawickreme (2015) have recently called for greater attention to within-person variability in traits in the context of the Five Factor model, employing methods such as experience sampling.”

“However, personality assessments have been shown to portray the core dispositions of a person, which subsequently have been used to predict behavior in many situations.(29) For example, an individual’s level of agreeableness has been found to predict the frequency and number of hours he or she will spend playing smart…”

“…Five” over the 20th century and the appeal of this model has been largely due to development of measures; currently, there are full theories (e.g., Whole Trait Theory, Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015) that are emerging that would not have been possible without the measurement work of the 20th century.”

“…Stokols, 1978), person–environment transactions (e.g., Buss, 1987; Furr & Funder, 2018; Oishi & Graham, 2010; Wrzus et al., 2016), and personality dynamics (e.g., Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015) to investigate the extent to which personality and places may be influencing one another.”

“Perhaps the most empirically well-supported social-cognitive model of personality is Fleeson’s Whole Trait Model (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“Based on insights in personality research (e.g., Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Fleeson & Noftle, 2008), states may reflect individual behavior in a given moment rather than in general.”

“These differences have considerable clinical importance when one considers traits in terms of social-cognitive processes (e.g., Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“Whole Trait Theory postulates that repeated measures of a person’s self-reported personality states (i.e., the average of many state self-reports) can be an alternative and potentially superior way of measuring a person’s trait level (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“…across situations should take important places in personality conceptualizations (e.g. Dunlop, 2015; Fleeson, 2001; Hogan & Roberts, 2000; Johnson, 2015; Judge, Simon, Hurst, & Kelley, 2014; Roberts, 2007), as reflected in, for example, ‘whole trait theory’ (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“…anticipate, and communicate about the behaviour of other people in everyday social life (Buss, 1996, 2011; Buss & Craik, 1983; Dunbar, 1996; Fiddick et al., 2016; Goldberg, 1981; Hogan et al., 1985; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Funder, 1995; Saucier et al., 2014; Wood, Gardner, & Harms, 2015).”

“Because states are manifested in situations (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015), it makes sense to use situation characteristics as important correlates.”

“Based on whole trait theory (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015), Judge et al. (2014) demonstrated in a diary study that daily manifestations of the Big Five personality characteristics had both stable and variable components.”

“State extraversion and state neuroticism represent the psychological (i.e., affective, behavioral, cognitive) content of each respective trait except occurring over a relatively short timeframe (Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson & Gallagher, 2009; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“Others have examined how within-person variability and density distributions of personality states serve as an organizing withinperson structure for personality and psychopathology (Cervone, 2005; Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015).”

“Quantitative modeling of individual differences in diagnostic patterns has uncovered several broad domains of mental disorder liability, of which the Internalizing and Externalizing spectra have garnered the greatest support.”

“The issue of just how personality traits interact with context to create specific outcomes at the individual level is a cutting edge issue in personality psychology (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015), and one we cannot resolve definitively here.”

“A major criticism often levied upon personality psychologists is that personality traits are a-theoretical and merely serve to explain behaviors of individuals (though see recent advances from Denissen & Penke, 2008; DeYoung, 2015; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Wood, Gardner, & Harms, 2015).”

“As one of the Big Five Personality Traits, agreeableness, which is conducive to shaping social attitudes and philosophies of life (Costa et al. 1991), affects how individuals interpret external events (Fleeson and Jayawickreme 2015; Leybman et al. 2011).”