ABSTRACT
Psychologists are interested in personality traits; psychiatrists in personality disorders. Both are powerful predictors of behaviour at work. Psychologists argue that each individual has a particular personality profile, which may be accurately assessed and mapped into personality space. Whichever taxonomic system is used, the assumption is that people have a unique personality profile. Just as all people have stable physical characteristics – height, weight, body mass index, eye colour – that may be measured and recorded so it is with personality traits. Psychiatrists interested in abnormal behaviour make similar assumptions.
