The personality of the patient: going beyond the trait concept

The concept of dominance is a key concept in reversal theory and distinguishes the theory from traditional trait theories in personality psychology. By dominance is meant the individual's tendency to spend more time in one rather than another of the pairs of opposite emotional or motivational states identified in the theory. This is in many ways a more sophisticated concept than that of trait. Some psychometric scales that have been developed to measure different kinds of dominance are reviewed: the Telic Dominance Scale, the Nijmegen Telic Dominance Scale, the Paratelic Dominance Scale, the Negativism Dominance Scale and the Personal Orientation Profile. The relevance of the dominance concept is discussed in relation to patient management.