What are the purposes that theories of personality serve?

Theories of personality represent elaborate speculation or hypotheses about why people behave as they do and they serve the following functions 1. A personality theory is descriptive. In other words, a theory provides a meaningful framework (i.e. a kind of map) for simplifying and integrating all that is known about a related set of events. 2. A theory should not only describe past and present events but also predict future ones. The second function of a personality theory is therefore to provide a basis for the prediction of events and outcomes that have not yet occurred. 3 This purpose clearly implies that a theory’s concepts must be testable and capable of being confirmed or disconfirmed.