What is a Theory of Personality?
Perhaps most psychologists would agree with Combs and Snygg who state that a theory is “an organzation of data, or a way of looking at data, to make them meaningful”.1 The scientist strives to make pre cise and accurate observations. But these observations by themselves have little meaning. They must be com bined into some kind of organized framework before they can contribute to our understanding or be useful in the solution of problems. Combs and Snygg2 suggest an illustration from the field of meteorology. At weath er stations all over the country, observers collect pre cise and frequent information regarding wind direction and velocity, cloud formations, amount of precipitation, temperature, and barometric pressure. When re ported to a central weather bureau, these varied and isolated facts have little meaning. Even when plotted all together on a large map of North America, these facts still are of little significance. It is not until the facts are brought together into a theory of
