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Chapter 15 overview of personality
Strengths and weakness of trait theory
Introduction about personality
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Chapter 15 overview of personality
Strengths and weakness of trait theory
Introduction about personality
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Every individual goes through different experiences that mold them into who they are. The combination of their genetic makeup, the environment in which an individual is exposed to, peers, culture, and many other factors determine who they are as an individual (Twenge & Campbell, 2016). This is also what is considered to be an individual’s personality. It is the greatest influence on how an individual will react in any given situation; not everyone will react the same in any situation. Personality is the recurring patterns of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings that can be seen across all situations and time (Twenge & Campbell, 2016, p. 6).
Within the past few decades there has been a large amount of research focused directly on the understanding of personality. Over the years personality psychologists have been searching for ways of mapping out personality as a whole, providing methods of measurement and a deeper insight into human behavior. The theories that have been developed help us understand and predict human behavior, whether that be within a group, society or as an individual. Trait theorist's work on the belief that a person's personality is defined by what kind of traits they possess. A personality trait can be defined as "… relatively stable cognitive, emotional and behavioral characteristics of people that help establish their individual identities and distinguish
Based on Pavlov’s theory of strong and weak nervous systems, which is if someone with a strong nervous system has a better chance of tolerating higher intensities of stimulation, while a weak nervous system a person has a lower chance of tolerating high intensities of stimulation (Cloninger, 2013, p. 176), Hans Eysenck expanded to say that there are three more factors of personality, other than a tolerance towards stress. Extraversion is the basically the same thing as strong nervous system, where a person is still social during high stressful times (Cloninger, 2013, p. 177). Neuroticism is the second factor, where a person tends to be extremely emotionally during times of stress (Cloninger, 2013, p. 178). And lastly, is psychoticism where a person does not conform to cultural norms and can be classified as a social deviant during stressful times (Cloninger, 2013, p.
All the last three traits, which is agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, are familiar for people who are outside the realm of psychology. Additionally, Personality can affected by some factor, which are families caring and birth order. First, for each person, family is the first communicate to the society and home is where the personality is made. Family environment play essential role in personality. [5]
Roger’s Humanist Theory believes, “That humans are innately good and that they are growth oriented,” (Nye, pg. 105, 2000). Due to the fact that this theory has the belief that individuals are inherently good, Beth’s negative behaviors are not part of her personality, but formed out of her early childhood environment. The Humanistic approach also states, to reach self-actualization, the environment surrounding an individual must be nurturing (Sougstad, Humanistic Psychology, 2018); Beth was not afforded with this type of environment, explaining her negative and harmful behaviors towards her family. In addition, the Humanistic Theory also concludes, “Humans basically need and want both personal fulfillment and close, intimate relationships with others,” (Nye, Pg. 98, 2000). Referring back to Beth’s early childhood environment again, the lack of an appropriate, intimate and caring relationship between her and her biological parents left her without the needed environment to fully develop.
Everyone has there own personality characteristic that makes a person think and behave. When those characteristic interferes with daily life actives, or cause interferes with personal relationship, and cause stress they are consider to have personality disorders. The DSM-5 splits the personality disorders into three main clusters. The first group is Cluster A that is entitled odd or eccentric disorder, which includes paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorder. The second group is Cluster B that is titled dramatic, emotional, or erratic disorder, which includes antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorder.
Factor analysis of the data led him to conclude that people can be divided into two groups of neurotic and normal. Later, Eysenck (1970) expended these two factors into five: extroversion-introversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. With regard to his model, Griffiths (1991) claims that Eysenck’s model is favored amongst other possible models because it includes a well-defined classification in an unambiguous framework. In addition, it entails a theory that has produced an ample amount of research most of which have been supportive. Moreover, the instrument that is used to measure the model’s factors has been standardized in 35 different countries, some of which are located in Asia such as Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and India.
Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details. The third dimension of personality types is Extraversion this dimension includes energy, positive emotions, urgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others. Extraversion - factor most strongly associated with leadership. Most important trait of effective leaders.
Personality is the way one behaves, thinks and feels. Theorists are interested to learn what shapes personality, what causes one to behave, think and feel the way one does. Different theorists have different beliefs in what causes these individual differences. These individual differences can be split into two categories, nature and nurture. Nature would be environment while nature would be the brain and the genes, also known as genotype.
Trait model is developed by Konstantin Vasily Petrides(2001). It encompasses behavioral dispositions and self perceived abilities and is measured through self report. Ability model is developed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer(2004). It focuses on the individual ability to process emotional information and use it to face the social circumstances.
Over the years, many theories have been developed to study the human personality. Some of the notable theories are psychoanalytic theory, trait theory, humanistic theory and behavioural theory. In this assignment, we have chosen to compare and contrast the psychoanalytic and humanistic theories. Psychoanalytic Theory
The concept of personality has fascinated psychologists for years. Allport proposed the hierarchy of traits – cardinal, central, and secondary traits (Allport, 1945). Cattell also proposed his theory, the sixteen dimensions of human personality (Cattell, 1944). Jung developed a type-based theory of personality, with different dichotomous personality categories, which was further developed by Myers and Briggs in 1962 to produce the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Ford, 2013). Some psychologists have even argued that personality does not exist; that people change behaviour over time and across various situations.
Personality is one of the main areas of psychology research. Over the years, researchers developed theories trying to explain how people are different and similar. Personality traits were grouped together to be determinants of more general traits such as Extraversion, Agreeableness or Neuroticism. The traits were tested for various correlations. All this to better understand why people behave the way they do and how big impact does the personality have on behaviour.
To begin with, there are areas of weakness pertaining to the research and measurement of trait theory. Even though Eysenck himself is aware of these, they nevertheless remain troublesome. For example, in investigating the links between individual responses and cortical arousal (Eysenck, 1991), he points out that "different systems of cortical arousal are activated in different people" (p. 90). Some individuals may respond with excessive sweating, while others respond with increased breathing. In other words, how could one be sure which arousal system is activated in a particular individual at a specific time?
Personality is defined as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual 's unique character. Personality theory is the approaches to understanding the “What”, “How” and “When” of characteristics and features that make up an individual 's personality. An insight into personality is important to understand the function of a person’s mind. By doing this you would be able to understand and observe your own psyche from an outside perspective, interact with others better and understand why they do what they do or predict how someone may react to something. My personality can be describe as Introverted since I am reserved, practical and quiet.