Which of the following assumptions underlies the trait approach to personality?

A) Each person belongs in one and only one personality category.
B) Personality characteristics can be represented along a continuum.
C) People in one personality category are distinctly different from people in other categories.
D) Personality can change as a function of the situation the person is in.

Trait Approach

A perspective in psychology that focuses on identifying and measuring individual personality characteristics that are thought to be relatively stable over time.

Personality Category

A classification within a theoretical framework for grouping individuals based on shared psychological traits or characteristics.

Continuum

A continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly different from each other, although the extremes are quite distinct.