Introduction
People are constantly growing and changing from the moment they’re born until the moment they die. Yet, some researchers believe that the personality is the one thing about a person that does not change over time. Genetics and environment equally contribute to the development of the personality. This is shown through the nature/nurture principle. The way a person behaves towards others, and reacts towards the world around them is determined by that person’s individual personality. No two personalities are alike. This is because a person’s individual personality is made up of a unique variety of characteristics called traits.
Raymond Cattell, a researcher in the field of personality psychology, found that there were at least 171 traits identified and labeled by researchers. Many of these traits were closely related to each other, and carried the same meaning. Cattell realized this and “took a set of traits, collected ratings on them, and factor analyzed the ratings. The emerging factors were the traits he believed mattered.” (Carver and Scheier, 2012) This allowed him to narrow down the 171 traits into 16 primary personality traits. Cattell then used those 16 primary personality traits to create a personality inventory called the “16 Personality Factor Inventory”, or 16PF.
Another prominent researcher in the field of personality psychology was Hans Eysenck. He believed that the two super-traits, extroversion and neuroticism, were the key dimensions of personality. His research led to Paul Costa and Robert McCrae’s creation of the NEO Personality Inventory, which measured the “Big Five” personality traits: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. There ar...
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...al behavior, and altruism: Genetic and environmental mediation. Journal of Personality, 75(2), 265-290.
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These different traits of personality have an impact on each individuals’ lives and also how they behave. For instance, according to the text, “The neurotic person might be anxious a lot, but this might protect her from being a knucklehead who chases tornadoes.” (Twenge & Campbell, 2016) Each trait can have a negative effect or a positive effect. Personality can be shaped by genetics and the environment. The environment plays a big role in influencing who you are and how you may behave. Which brings us to the movie I Heart Huckabees written by David O. Russell. It talks about existentialism, which is a type of philosophical theory that articulates the existence of an individual as having free will. Free will is the idea that you go about life, choosing your course of action freely instead of living by a code or believing that God has placed you in this universe with a purpose. Free will sort of demonstrate how individuals will react differently from one another in the same situation. The movie I heart Huckabees is about a guy named Albert Markovski. Albert seeks help from two existential detectives, Bernard and Vivian Jaffe, in order to figure out why he has run into the same stranger 3
Post, S.G. (2005). Altruism, happiness, and health: it’s good to be good. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 12(2). 66-77. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1202_4
Our book was divided into different chapters on various theorists and explained the major theories of personality that were proposed by the different psychologists. One of the theories that we learned about was the trait theories. Gordan Allport introduced the trait theory and his theory suggested that individual personalities are primarily composed of broad dispositions’. Eysenck’s three dimensions of Personality was also a part of the trait theory. Eysenck developed that model of personality upon three universal trails. And at last, the trait theory had the Big five dimensions which proposed that there are give basic dimensions of personality. One of the four conclusions in our textbook suggested that “until more unambiguous empirical research is available, the best one can do is to evaluate the various theories personally, and to accept concepts that make sense and reject those that do not”(531).
...t altruism cannot exists and if a reciprocal altruism appears it will later on change into egoism or it will be overtaken by the group’s leader, and his altruism or egoism.
A model developed for using factor analysis to try to determine the key traits in human personality. Although trait theories were well established by the 1960s, there was no consensus concerning the number or nature of the traits that make up personality. Since then, further research has confirmed a basic five factor model of personality or ‘Big Five’ (Tomas 2007). This five factor structure has been replicated by Norma (1963), Borgatta (1964) and Digman and Takemoto-Chock (1981) in list derived from Cattle’s 35 variables (Lawrence &Oliver 2000).
Prosociality can be defined as a wide umbrella of behaviors and attitudes that are generally positive towards other people. Prosociality fits into the “Big Five” set of traits under agreeableness. This is still a broad term, but it is broken up into two major categories, which are politeness and compassion. Politeness is more like the tendency to respect people, conform to social norms, and ignore aggressive impulses. However, generosity tends to fit under compassion better. Compassion is the tendency to have concern for others and the urge to help them. A series of games were created in order to point out the differences in generosity and reciprocity. A major outcome that was found in this study is that humans care for the needs of others and have the want to help them. A study was created to find new social preferences, find differences in these preferences, and address limitations. The results show that social preferences for someone who is tolerant and forgiving, therefore portraying
People perpetrate seemingly selfless acts almost daily. You see it all over the news; the man who saved that woman from a burning building, the mother who sacrificed herself to protect her children from the bomb blast. But how benevolent are these actions? Are these so-called “heroes” really sacrificing themselves to help others? Until recently, it was the common belief that altruism, or selfless and unconditional kindness, was limited primarily to the human race. However, within the last century, the works of several scientists, most prominently George Price, have provided substantial evidence concluding that altruism is nothing more than a survival technique, one that can be calculated with a simple equation.
Personality is massive part of an individual’s identity. Our personalities dictate our patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. An individual’s personality exposes them to predispositions and habits that influence their actions and lives. Early on, personality assessments consisted of physical features ranging from head shape and facial characteristics to body type. In today’s world, personality assessments are mainly based around traits. Traits are simply descriptions of one’s habitual patterns of behavior, thought and emotion. The most popular personality assessment is the Five-Factor Model, also known as The Big Five. This model allows us to describe people based on the five main traits/dimensions. These traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Each of these five traits measures a different aspect of one’s personality. Extraversion is based on one’s level of engagement with the world,
The five-factor model includes five broad domains or dimensions of personality that are used to describe human personality. The five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. While these five traits should be sufficient on their own to describe all facets of a personality, there also should be no correlation between the main factors. The Five Factor Model is now perhaps the most widely use trait theory of personality and has achieved the closest thing to a consensus in personality research. The advantage of this theory is that there have been multiple research studies conducted on this theory. Results suggest that this theory is effective in describing and determining personality. However, this theory is very categorical and does not allow for much flexibility. It also looks at the person personality at that time and now how it developed.
Rushton, J. Philippe. “Is Altruism Innate?” Psychological Inquiry 2.2 (1991): 141-143. Web. 5 Feb. 2012.
Mccrae, R. R. and Costa Jr, P. T. 1997. Personality trait structure as a human universal. American psychologist, 52 (5), p. 509.
Later research attempted to reduce Cattell’s sixteen “source traits” to five universal personality dimensions resulting in what is now known as “The Big Five Personality Factors.” (Costa & McCrae, 2006; Noftle & Fleeson, 2010)
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (5th ed). Boston , MA, USA: Pearson
The norm of reciprocity can cause us to behave in both negative and positive ways towards our neighbours. Entirely altruistic behaviour is rare and egoistic motivations often underlie actions which cause the betterment of others lives. Just as a chimpanzee will groom another's body with the expectation of receiving the same service in return, so do we help others in the hope of being rewarded in some fashion, be it recognition, the avoidance of guilt or the long term well being of the group t...
The second major theory is called the trait or five-factor model. Often referred to as the "Big 5". The five personality traits described by the theory are extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. Beneath each proposed global factor, a number of correlated and more specific primary factors are claimed. One strength of the trait perspectives is their ability to categorize observable behaviors. In other words, observing the behaviors of an individual over time and in varying circumstances provides evidence for the personality traits categorized in trait theories. Another strength is that trait theories use