common trait

in the personality theory of Gordon W. Allport, any of a number of enduring characteristics that describe or determine an individual’s behavior across a variety of situations and that are common to many people and similarly expressed. Common traits, such as assertiveness, thus serve as a basis for comparison of one person to another and are distinct from personal dispositions.

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Psychology term of the day

December 26th 2024

factor method

any means by which latent variables (factors) are extracted or identified in factor analysis. Widely used factor methods include principal components analysis, which seeks to find a set of linear combinations called components that help explain the correlations among variables; and principal-axis factor analysis, in which underlying dimensions or factors are sought to explain the correlations among variables after separating out communality and putting aside the error variance in a set of variables.