What is a trait of personality?

Traits, although appropriated by all manner of writers for all manner of purposes, may still be salvaged, and limited in their reference to a certain definite conception of a generalized response-unit in which resides the distinctive quality of behavior that reflects personality. Eight criteria are given to define a trait and to state the logic and some of the evidence for the admission of this concept to good standing in psychology.

Английский

The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. – 1931. – Vol. 25, № 4. – P. 368–372.