Allport, in conjunction with Odbert,attempted to apprehend the potential domain
of common traits by identifying 17,953 words in the English language that refer to characteristics of personality (Allport & Odbert, 1936). To reduce this large number
of characteristics to a smaller number,Allport and Odbert determined the frequency
with which each characteristic was used in everyday language. This “lexical” aspect
of their research was predicated on the assumption that the more important a disposition is,
the more often it will be referred to in everyday language. Allport was also one of the first investigators to measure common traits. His study assessing the common trait of dominance-submissiveness using subjects’ self-descriptions of how they expected to act in a variety
of situations (Allport & Allport, 1928) is considered a classic.