The early work in the structure of personality revolved around attempts to iden-
tify and label enduring characteristics that describe an individual's behavior.
Popular characteristics include shyness, aggressiveness, submissiveness, laziness,
ambition, loyalty, and timidity. These characteristics, when they are exhibited in
a large number of situations, are called personality traits.⁸ The more consis-
tent the characteristic and the more frequently it occurs in diverse situations, the
more important that trait is in describing the individual.

Early Search for Primary Traits    Efforts to isolate traits have been hindered
because there are so many of them. In one study, 17,953 individual traits were
identified.⁹ It is virtually impossible to predict behavior when such a large num-
ber of traits must be taken into account. As a result, attention has been directed
toward reducing these thousands to a more manageable number.
   One researcher isolated 171 traits but concluded that they were superficial
and lacking in descriptive power.¹⁰ What he sought was a reduced set of traits
that would identify underlying patterns. The result was the identification of 16
personality factors, which he called the source, or primary, traits. They are shown
in Exhibit 4-2. These 16 traits have been found to be generally steady and con-
stant sources of behavior, allowing prediction of an individual's behavior in spe
cific situations by weighing the characteristics for their situational relevance.