Basic Postulates

• Postulates for Basic Tendencies

  1. Individuality
  2. Origin
  3. Development
  4. Structure
• • stipulates that adults have a unique set of traits and that each person exhibits a unique combination of trait patterns.
  • is consistent with Allport’s idea that uniqueness is the essence of personality.

  Individuality postulate
• • takes a clear if somewhat controversial stance: All personality traits are the result solely of endogenous (internal) forces, such as genetics, hormones, and brain structures

  Origin Postulate
• • addresses the question of what is the difference in the correlation on a given personality trait between individuals who are genetically identical (identical twins) and those who share only about 50% of their genes (all other siblings).

  Heritability
• • assumes that traits develop and change through childhood, but in adolescence, their development slows, and by early to mid-adulthood (roughly age 30), change in personality nearly stops altogether.

  Development Postulate
• • states that traits are organized hierarchically from narrow and specific to broad and general, just as Eysenck (1990) had suggested.
  • This postulate grows out of McCrae and Costa’s long-held position that the number of personality dimensions is five and only five.

  Structure Postulate