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Intro to Personality

In: Philosophy and Psychology

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Introduction to Personality
Deanna Guarino-Embry
PSY/405
August 12, 2013
Les Binnix
Introduction to Personality

The fluidity of personality makes the subject difficult to pinpoint and define. The perception of personality continues to fill psychological literature and study with widespread research and theory. Personality is the continuous presentation of attributes and distinctions that contribute to variety in human thought and behavior (Feist & Feist, 2009). To enable more precise understandings of such differences and distinctions, psychological theorists develop explanations and parameters from various contexts. Psychoanalytic, humanistic and/or existential, dispositional, and learning theories help psychologists account for why and how people develop such individual and specific characteristics. They study these characteristics and the significant affects that the characteristics have on human development, as well as, the whole of human nature.

Personality Defined According to Feist,& Feist (2009) personality is a global concept referring to a relatively permanent pattern of traits, dispositions, or characteristics that give some degree of consistency to a person’s behavior. Feist & Feist (2009) also wrote "Although no single definition is acceptable to all personality theorists, we can say that personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person's behavior."(Feist and Feist, 2009) There are many different theories of personality which can be grouped into one of four classes: traits, psychoanalytic, social learning, and humanistic personality. At the begining an individual needs to understand exactly what is meant when viewing the term “personality”. The word personality itself stems from the Latin word persona, which referred to

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