Question

How you would apply trait theories specifically to a modern issue such as teleworking, which would you choose and why, and how would you apply your chosen theory to the issue?

Answer 1

How you would apply trait theories specifically to a modern issue such as teleworking, which would you choose and why, and how would you apply your chosen theory to the issue?

Traits are the ways in which a person is generally described. It helps identify a person's personality and helps us analyze how a person would respond to situations. Traits are always considered to be constant.

Trait theory is used to identify traits and measure personality characteristics. Common trait theories are:

Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory: Gordon's theory viewed traits as the building blocks of personality. It has been characterized as:

1. Cardinal Traits: Traits that are the core of a person's life. These are the identifying traits of a person's life, so a person is in general, known for this trait. E.g., Kindness, Greed etc.,
2. Central Traits: Traits that are the major characteristics of a person. They lay the foundation for a person's personality. E.g., Intelligent, Honest etc.,
3. Secondary Traits: Traits that are observed only in certain situations. E.g., Nervousness, Excitement etc.,

Hans Eysenck's Trait Theory: Hans Eysenck's theory is based on two dimensions:

1. Shyness to social stability: He divided this into introversion and extroversion, such that introverts are shy in general and extroverts are outgoing.
2. Temperateness: Emotional stability - How stable or unstable a person is when faced with emotional situations.
3. Third - Psychoticism: This was added later on into the two-dimension model, People who exhibit this trait have problems relating to reality.

Raymond Cattell’s Trait Theory: Raymond Cattell's theory was founded based on many other theories. Traits were classified as,

1. Surface traits: Easily observable traits
2. Source traits: Underlying characteristics responsible for surface traits

The Big Five Factors Theory of Personality: Developed by Costa and McCrae in 1985, it states five big factors that affect a person's traits:

1. Openness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

Teleworking

It is when a person uses modern technological advancements to interact with a central work environment while avoiding traffic hassles or time constraints to work. It includes but is not limited to working from home or a local network as opposed to the office.

Which would I choose?
The Big Five Factors Theory of Personality

Why?
Because I feel these five factors would help me judge a person better and their intentions to use teleworking without abusing it.

How?

1. How outgoing or shy a person is. This helps one to know whether a person would lie in order to attain something at work.
2. Has the person proven to be careful and methodical or careless and disorganized?
3. Does the person perform better in groups or is he/she a good performer when working alone?
4. Is the person sympathetic? Is he or she stubborn, argumentative or weak-willed?
5. Is the person calm and reserved or prone to emotional outbursts?

By getting the answers to the above questions one can come to know whether or not a person can be effective at teleworking or if their presence at the office will serve everyone involved, better.