92 I. THEORETICAL  PERSPECTI vES AND  CONCEPT uAL uNITS
ior. Their CAPS model portrays the way in 
which the processing units that are most ac -
cessible in particular contexts can give rise 
to characteristic and relatively stable pat -
terns of behavior. Their model thus puts for -
ward a mechanism through which traits can 
come to life. Indeed the proposal of such a 
mechanism is what makes this theory pow -
erful and has made it one that must be con -
tended with in future theories of personality 
(see Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Rob -
erts, 2009).
As I suggested at the outset, for some time 
the two theories were seen as two opposing 
viewpoints, but personality psychologists 
have increasingly called for their integration 
(Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015; Read et al., 
2010; Roberts, 2009). The current theory, 
building on these prior approaches, attempts 
to address this call by bringing together traits 
and mental representation within a unifying 
motivational framework. Like CAPS, the 
current theory seeks to capture the under -
lying psychological dynamics of personality 
and is built on mental representations, but 
the current theory has a motivational core: 
the mental representations (BEATs) that de -
velop around people’s needs and goals, then 
shape their future goals. Like the five-  factor 
model, the current theory is interested in 
common, widely shared traits (common on -
line acts and experiences), but it also seeks 
to understand the motivational origins and 
the ongoing motivational underpinnings of 
traits.
What Is Personality and What 
Does a Motivation -Based Theory 
of Personality Require?
In the current theory, personality is made 
up of the elements portrayed in Figure 3.2b. 
These are precisely the same  elements that 
make up motivation and its outcomes (Fig -
ure 3.2a), except that here we are dealing 
with characteristic  and recurrent  patterns: 
(a) characteristic and recurrent online acts 
and experiences underpinned by (b) charac -
teristic and highly accessible BEATs. Let us 
look at each.
Characteristic, recurrent online acts and 
experiences are patterns of thoughts, feel -
ings, and behavior that accompany need- fulfilling goal pursuit. This is the more man -
ifest or overt part of personality. As I noted 
earlier, these online acts and experiences are 
the thoughts people actually think, the feel -
ings they actually feel, and the actions they 
actually perform as they pursue their need- 
fulfilling goals. These recurrent online acts 
and experiences can be thought of as traits, 
and this is the part of personality that the 
five- factor model has primarily addressed. 
Indeed, traits in the five-  factor model are 
assessed in terms of people’s report of their 
characteristic patterns of thoughts (e.g., 
being a person who worries a lot; likes to 
reflect, plays with ideas; is curious about 
many different things), feelings (e.g., being 
a person who is depressed, blue; can be 
moody) and behaviors (e.g., being a person 
who tends to be lazy; perseveres until the 
task is finished) (John, Chapter 2, this vol -
ume).
Characteristic and highly accessible 
BEATs (in the context of needs) make up 
the latent, background part of personality. 
These BEATs are the subset of mental repre -
sentations that are highly and stably acces -
sible (readily activated)—but not necessarily 
conscious—  and consist of prominent beliefs, 
representations of strong emotional tenden -
cies, and representations of high-  probability 
action tendencies. In the context of needs, 
these highly accessible BEATs set the stage 
for goal pursuit and thus for the characteris -
tic and recurrent online acts. This is the un -
derlying part of personality that the CAPS 
theory has, by and large, sought to capture.
Thus, the current model portrays both 
personality traits (recurrent online acts and 
experiences) and the representational and 
motivational processes that give rise to them 
(BEATs in the context of needs). In this the -
ory, then, personality is not just about hav -
ing traits or being a certain kind of person, 
but is rather about people having a palette of 
needs and a repertoire of mental representa -
tions (BEATs) that lead them to pursue their 
need-  fulfilling goals in particular ways in 
particular contexts (see Cantor, 1990).
Matching Needs and BEATs to Traits
In this section, I suggest, in a very prelimi -
nary way, how particular needs and BEATs 
may contribute to the expression of traits.