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Personality is difficult to define because it is such a broad concept. A useful definition was provided by Eysenck (1994, p556), "stable, internal factors which underlie consistent individual differences in behaviour." There are several different approaches to personality psychology. This essay will focus on two important theories - trait theories and motive theories, and proceed to discuss their similarities and differences. Both concepts can be traced back to the Ancient Greeks (Winter, John, Stewart, Klohnen, and Duncan, 1998). Empedocles (5th century BC) emphasized motive forces of love and strife. Hippocrates (4th century BC) and later Galen (2nd century AD) divided people into four different personality types - choleric, melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic. These describe distinct, discontinuous categories of membership which a person either belongs to or not; contrasted to traits which are dimensions of personality that people vary. Today personality theorists prefer to think of people in terms of continuous...

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