Personality and Psychology

Personality and Psychology

What Is Personality, Exactly?

The human personality is a diverse and colorful phenomenon, ranging from eccentric and reclusive to raucous and assertive. A person's particular patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving are referred to as personality. It is the result of a combination of innate proclivities and inclinations, as well as external circumstances and experiences. Although one's personality can vary during one's life, one's key personality traits tend to remain consistent throughout adulthood.

People have been trying to describe personalities since Hippocrates and the ancient Greeks established four basic temperaments, despite the fact that there are numerous qualities that can mix in an almost unlimited number of ways. Today, psychologists frequently divide personality into five categories. Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extra-version, agreeableness, and neuroticism comprise the so-called Big Five. HEXACO, a newer model, includes honesty-humility as a sixth essential feature.

What Personality Type Am I?

The concept of a personality "type" is widely held. For example, many people identify a "Type A" personality with someone who is highly organized, strict, competitive, and worried. However, there is little evidence to back up the theory. Scientists have questioned the personality types provided by the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

Personality psychologists argue that such typologies are often too basic to account for how people differ. They instead rely on frameworks such as the Big Five model of trait dimensions. In the Big Five model, each person falls somewhere on a continuum for each feature—a person may rank relatively high or low on a trait like extra-version or agreeableness, or on more particular facets of each trait, compared to the rest of the population (such as assertiveness or compassion). One's personality is defined by the mix of these many attribute degrees.

A variety of personality tests have been developed to examine these individual variances. People are frequently asked to rate how well certain descriptions of thinking or behavior match their own tendencies in these assessments. The exam generates a "personality type" description (in the case of a test like the MBTI) or reveals how a person relates to other respondents on a number of attributes based on their replies (in the case of the Big Five Inventory or similar measures).

Why Is Personality Matters?

Personality psychology, with its various methods for organizing, measuring, and comprehending individual variations, can assist people in better comprehending and articulating who they are and how they compare to others. However, the specifics of a person's personality are crucial to more than just their self-image.

Concepts like the Big Five describe tendencies in thinking and behaving that are linked to a number of other characteristics and results that people compare one another on. Differences in personal success, health and well-being, and interpersonal relationships are among them. Even the likelihood of dying appears to be linked to personality variations to some extent.

Personality disorders with long-term dysfunctional tendencies are diagnosed and treated by mental health professionals, who use a list of personality disorders to diagnose and treat individuals. The often mentioned narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder are among the categories used by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, but a prominent diagnostic guide, the DSM, contains a total of ten personality disorders.

Where Does Personality Originate?

Some of the most important questions in personality psychology are why people develop the personalities they do and how much their personalities vary over time. Although science provides some answers, there is still a lot of opportunity for argument and investigation.

Differential personality traits are partly explained by genetics, but other factors undoubtedly play a role. A variety of personality theories have been developed to explain what personality is and why people become who they are, with some relying more strongly on non-genetic elements than others, such as a person's taking on new social roles (like spouse or parent).

Despite its day-to-day consistency, personality can change over time, potentially to a significant degree. According to research, as people get older, they tend to show indicators of maturation (such as enhanced social sensitivity) in their personality test results. It may even be feasible to modify features of one's own personality by consciously acting differently on a regular basis.

Theories of Personality

Numerous theories and notions for explaining personality have been suggested, ranging from Aristotle to Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow. These and other great minds have spent much of history trying to figure out not just what personality is and how to best define it, but also what causes personality differences, such as those that make people more or less functional and resilient.

Some theories are still being investigated, while others have become obsolete. Some people compete with one another, while others compliment one another. A look at some of the most important ideas in personality psychology, both old and new, gives you a feel of the different ways to think about and discuss this difficult subject.

01. Personality, Inner Conflicts, and Early Life Psycho-dynamic Theories

Those anchored on psychoanalytic ideas, in contrast to modern characteristic theories, have tended to highlight the potential importance of early development in molding personality. The inventor of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, viewed personality as having three parts: an instinct-driven "id," a morality-bound "super-ego," and a relatively moderate "ego." The interplay between these aspects were presented as a way to explain why people behave the way they do. He also thought that a person's personality is shaped by their childhood experiences.

Many theorists who came after Freud (and whose thought is frequently referred to as psycho-dynamic rather than psychoanalytic) refined or expanded on his concepts. Carl Jung, for example, posited psychological "types" that inspired the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test.

Are psychoanalytic personality theories still in use?

While they have affected common perceptions of personality, they lack the empirical basis of contemporary theories and have no place in contemporary personality science. Some academics, such as those who examine attachment orientation and how it connects to children, continue to work in areas informed by psycho-dynamic notions.

What were some of the things that influenced Sigmund Freud's personality?

During early development, traumatic events or internal conflicts have been postulated as impacts on personality. Another aspect assumed to have a role is identification, or adopting the characteristics of someone else in one's life.

02. Personality Is Based on Biology, According to the Five-Factor Theory

Five-Factor Theory claims that biological variables, particularly genetics, play a substantial role in the formation of typical personality traits. It is based on the Big Five traits (or five-factor model). This viewpoint was informed in part by research showing that one's genes influence personality assessments and that non-genetic developmental variables (such as adoptive parents) play a relatively minimal contribution.

The founders of the idea distinguish persistent personality traits from "characteristic adaptations," such as attitudes or striving s, which are influenced by both one's natural disposition and external forces.

Who is the creator of the Five-Factor Theory?

Psychologists Robert McCrae and Paul Costa Jr. first suggested the notion in the 1990s. In the 1970s, McCrae and Costa also developed the NEO Personality Inventory.

What's the difference between the Five-Factor Model and the Five-Factor Theory?

The concept (which is supported by many researchers) is a manner of expressing how personality traits are organized—that is, into the Big Five personality dimensions—despite their identical names. The idea explains how personality traits develop and evolve throughout time.

03. Personality is shaped by biology and experience, according to Social Investment Theory.

While personality traits are definitely linked to heredity, personality differences are not solely due to genetics. Environmental factors shared by siblings, such as parenting style or childhood environment, appear to play a modest role. Other elements, maybe several, must be at play.

One viewpoint, known as Social Investment Theory, contends that people's personal investment in new social responsibilities, such as marriage or employment, helps to explain personality development and change through time. People in new roles are exposed to the costs and advantages of acting in certain ways, which has the ability to change a person's style of being over time—even if their personality is determined by heredity.

Who was the inventor of Social Investment Theory?

It was developed with the cooperation of several researchers. Brent Roberts, a psychologist, is one of the proponents, having written about a "social investment concept" alongside colleagues in the 2000s. (Their concept is also known as the Neo-Socio analytic Model.)

What kinds of social positions could lead to a shift in personality?

In a new job, you might be awarded for being on time and working hard to finish duties, or you might be recognized for getting along with people. Personality qualities may be influenced by interpersonal or familial roles, such as being in a new relationship.

04. Personality and Situations in Cognitive-Affective Theory

Even someone who exhibits certain tendencies—for example, acting aggressively or passively in comparison to others—will not always act in the same way in every setting or type of social interaction. (The power of the person one is confronting, as well as whether or not one is in public, may play a role.) Some personality theorists have attempted to incorporate situational aspects into the concept of personality.

"Cognitive-affective mediating units" are supposed to interact with each other and with the features of different contexts to produce the patterns of behavior that identify individuals, according to one hypothesis, the cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS). Psychological aspects such as an individual's expectations and beliefs, objectives and values, and emotional responses may be included in these "units."

Who came up with the concept of the CAPS (cognitive-affective personality system)?

CAPS was created in the 1990s by psychologists Walter Mitchel and Yuichi Shoda. They wanted to discover a way to reconcile findings that showed both a high level of consistency in individual traits and variability in behavior across settings.

Does the fact that situations have an impact on qualities imply that they aren't real?

No. In some settings, a person may be more aggressive, restrained, or enthusiastic than in others. However, the person may still be more or less aggressive, reserved, or energetic in general than other people in a variety of situations.

05. Personality and Human Potential in Humanistic Theories

Humanistic psychology, pioneered by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers in the mid-twentieth century, focused on individuals and their positive attributes, such as their desire to reach their full potential.

Maslow's hierarchy of requirements is well-known, with basic needs like sustenance and safety at the bottom and self-actualization at the top. He claimed that those who achieve self-actualization—the realization of their own self-perceived human potential—have a "coherent personality syndrome." A healthy personality, according to Rogers, is the outcome of a match between one's perceived self and the self that one should be.

What characteristics did Maslow think self-actualizers possessed?

Maslow argued that self-actualized people were creative, caring, practical, and drawn to helping others, among other traits. Self-actualization, he explained, is a rather unusual feat, citing historical individuals such as Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein as instances of self-actualized persons.

What other points of view are associated with humanistic psychology?

Humanistic psychologists' theories are comparable to existential psychologists' (such as Viktor Frankl's) in that both professions are interested in people's ability to design their own lives. Positive psychologists, who have strived to focus emphasis on individuals' character traits and virtues, have been inspired by humanistic psychology.

Personality as a Story: Narrative Identity

While characteristics are universally regarded as essential to personality, theorists frequently mix them with additional factors in a multi-level approach. One of these elements is narrative identity. In summary, some argue that the specific narrative aspects of a person's significant life experiences—and how the individual relates and gets meaning from them—complete the complex portrait of who one is in relation to others. Researchers have attempted to find common features that separate these narratives, despite the fact that each person's self-written life story comprises innumerable pieces of information.

Who coined the phrase "narrative identity"?

Dan McAdams is the psychologist best identified with narrative identity. In the 1990s, he established a three-level model of personality: dispositional qualities related to general inclinations, how one responds to challenges and tasks in specific circumstances, and a self-identity based on self-stories.

What are some of the characteristics that set people's life stories apart?

In a recent study, proponents of the narrative identity view presented evidence for a tentative "Big Three" factor: autobiographical reasoning, or a change in one's understanding of one's self or past; structural aspects, such as overall coherence of the life story; and motivational and affective themes, which include aspects such as positive or negative feelings and a sense of agency.

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