Personality Paper
PSY/405
November 20, 2011 Personality Paper
Personality doesn’t have a single definition but the term “personality” is more than the part in which individuals take place in. Personality is derived from Latin meaning persona, it is also a type of mask that was used in by roman actors in theatrical performances (Fiest & Fiest, 2009). Personality theorists have developed unique and vital theories, because personality is so different the theorist couldn’t agree to the nature of humanity. An individual’s behavior is defined by the unique and unusual characteristics and traits these consistency add character to the persons personality. Traits can be common, unique or shared by a group, therefore giving individual differences in behavior. Personality can be the quality or condition of being a person. It can also be the pattern of temperamental, emotional, or mental traits of a person, making distinctive qualities to the person. Personalities can determine friends. Personality can also be furnishings that make a room unique. A person’s personality embraces their attitudes, opines, style of thinking, there moods, motivations, speaking, acting, and of course perceiving, these make the individual distinct. Personality theories have been in most cultures throughout recorded history (Fiest & Fiest, 2009). People have to use their personalities in everyday life, from their job to the people in their lives. Some people also see personality in many ways as, the story of the secularization of the human soul. It has also been linked to what it means to be a person. Most research has been guided by the same fundamental questions even through all the differences in orientations. Is personality one thing or many? How does personality develop? How can it be changed? Can it be changed? How does personality become pathological? Is it relative constant or does it varies from situation to situation? Even though we can’t answer all these questions personality can be summed up to the behavioral and mental characteristics which make individuals or a place unique.
What are theoretical approaches in studying personality? First, describe-the objective is to watch the behavior and give a description of it. Second, explain- explain your observation in other words, why did that person do what they did? Third, predict-when you know what and why something happens and you will expect the same results in the years to come. Fourth, control- when you know it has happened and it will happen again in the years to come you can maintain some form of discipline over the issue. Another way to put it would be, as a child your father was abusive this makes causes you to choose partners that are abusive in behavior, assumption leads us to assume that any future partners will be abusive in behavior based on the past partners action, this leads to an intervention to change the current unconstructive behavior. Last, improve- psychologist- theory that the way to maintain ones behavior but to do it in a reinforced way. The purpose is to improve the individual’s life; this may include changing the individual’s behavior. They want to make a person’s life better, not make it worse. This is not always what happens, but it should always be their intentions. Scientist relies on logical reasoning to help formulate what is called a testable hypothesis, because the scientific theory is based on more than one single assumption. “Why do we have so many different theories of personality if they are truly scientific?” This is because the very nature of a theory allows speculation from their own point of view. (Fiest & Fiest, 2009) The five theoretical approaches are, Evolutionary Psychology, Behavior Genetics, Biological Theorizing, Social Cognitive, and Psychoanalytic Techniques. Since personality theory grows from a theorist’s own characteristics and behavior, this would mean that studding the behavior and characteristics of these theorists would be appropriate (Fiest & Fiest, 2009).
There are many factors that can influence someone’s personality. For example your culture and religion. If you are around those influences long enough your personality is likely to be like that group of people. Another example is family. Your family has a lot to do with your personality. If you have kids and an adopted child their personalities may have similar characteristics to their siblings that are blood related to the parents. Your upbringing and life of those you live with or are around a lot can make or break you. A person’s personality traits are developed early on, but can change as they mature. Culture and environment serve to heavily influence these traits from the very begging of a person’s life. Lifestyles and experiences continue to do so even after adulthood have been reached. Out of all these things life experiences are probably what shapes a person’s personality the most. How a person deals with their life experiences is strongly related to their coping mechanisms. Take someone from a certain culture that has a set way, they may take specific events differently. Age is also a factor that is used when studying coping mechanisms. Can people live a happy normal life or are they doomed to live a miserable, conflicted, and troubled life? This is called pessimism versus optimums. This theory just wonders personality happy or you just have to live unhappy your whole life. Another dimension is causality versus teleology what it is causality deals with the past experiences while teleology is behavior in of the plans, goals for the years to come (Fiest & Fiest, 2009). The question of an individual’s conscious behavior versus their unconscious is another one. What this means is are people aware of their behavior and why they are behaving in the way they are behaving or are they completely unaware that they are even behaving in this way. Another one is biological behavior verses social influences and how this affects ones personality what is meant by this is do individuals act out of natural biology or is their behavior a product of their personality. The last one is uniqueness versus similarities that is the aspect of a person and their individuality, or is it their common traits. Reference
Fiest, J., & Fiest, G. (2009). Theories of Personalities (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.