Nearly every day we describe and evaluate the personalities of people around us, but do we really know how ones’ personality is developed or formed? The purpose of this essay will be discussing what personality is, followed by the description of 3 personality theories, and lastly it will conclude with my view of how personality is developed.
Personality refers to a dynamic and complex set of unique psychological characteristics that every individual has instilled in them. Personality can thus be known as the consistency in an individual’s ways of being – that is, the way they think, act, react and perceive things. (Personality and Spirituality; n.d.). Many theories have been established to understand how personality develops. Examples of these theories include Erik Erikson’s Life Approach theory, Skinners Behaviourist theory and Maslow’s Humanistic Needs theory.
Erik Erikson’s Life approach theory focuses on what the impact of external
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Francis Galton is considered to be a pioneer in the debate and studies of nature versus nurture. He believed that nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world when he is born, whilst nurture refers to every influence that affects man after his birth. He believed that the DNA and genotype that we are born with determines who we are and the type of personality traits we have. Galton explored the world of inheritance and the progression of characteristics in personality. He believed that intelligence was largely inherited thus favouring the nature part of the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate. In his work he depicts the impact of previous generations on the hereditary of personalities. He suggests that parents can pass on certain characteristics down to their offspring. Galton concluded that intelligence was inherited when he began to see the achievement of his studies through the families he examined. (Origins;
Personality is defined as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character. Our personality has a huge influence on our enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors which influence how we adapt to our world. It’s how we define ourselves, and how others view you. Many psychologists have faced the challenge of trying to determine where our personality is derived from. Four main theories have been established on personality including psychodynamic, humanistic, trait, and social-cognitive. Using these theories, you can often better understand why people are the way that they are, such as Bill Cosby.
This course has taught me a lot about the different personality theories as well as the best known psychology theorists that have developed these theories. Personality consists of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make an individual unique. Numerous theories have been emerged to implicit the different features of personality. The main purpose of some theories is to focus on explaining how personality developed.
In conclusion, personality is a term that refers to the many patterns of similarities and patterns of differences among individuals. There are various ways with psychologists have examined individual differences in personality including the use of genetics. Through this method, psychologists have mainly examined biological underpinnings that contribute to individual differences in personality. While these measures provide some insights regarding personality, individual differences in personality cannot be adequately explained with reference to genes because of the weaknesses of these theories and the effect of environmental factors.
In its most basic form, personality is what defines a person through their “…expression of emotions, relationship building, and their individual patterns of behavior…” (CITE). Two of the most prolific theories on the formation of personality were developed by neurologist Sigmund Freud and psychologist Carl Rogers. Both Freud and Rogers worked in psychotherapy, the area of therapy, which “…focuses on fostering a positive mental well-being…” (CITE). These men based their general theories of personality on their experiences with patients, however their conclusions are worlds apart. Rogers is recognized for his approach to therapy where the “…client…” has a more direct role in the process (CITE). Whereas Freud is best known for his work on the unconscious mind.
When discussing personality one must understand the differences between personality and black personality. While it may be difficult to find an all-encompassing definition, personality refers to a person's unique and relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions. According to an excerpt presented in Psychological Principals and the Black Experience, "the personality represents the compromise between inner drives and needs, and the controls that limit and regulate their expression... Personality functions to maintain stable, reciprocal relationships between the person and his environment." Meaning that personality is made up of distinct characteristics that helps a person manage their day to day experiences under ordinary circumstances (Houston, 1990). There are many different theories on how one develops his or her personality. These theories include, the psychoanalytic theory which attempts to explain personality based on unconscious mental forces; the humanistic theory, which is the idea that all people are good and that they are striving for self-fulfillment; the social cognitive approach which states that people develo...
Personality-This are characteristically patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that makes a person to be unique from other individuals. It mainly consists of who you are, who you have been and what you will become. There are a number of different theories that have emerged to explain different aspects of personality. Some focus on explaining how personality develops while others focus on individual differences in personality. According to Freud, the mind is divided into the conscious mind which is composed of all things we are aware of and the unconscious mind which has things we are not aware of. He also goes on and divides the human personality into: the identity, Ago and the superego. He terms the Identity as the most primitive part and it’s the source of all the basic wants. It is generally unconscious and hence serves as the main source of libidinal energy. Ego component focuses on reality matters and ensures satisfaction of the identity in a realistic manner that is safe and socially accepted. The superego component holds internalized behavior and standards we learn from the surrounding environment like our parents and society. Freud came up with four stages of psychosexuality: Oral, Anal, Phallic and Genital. At each stage different parts of the body are able to produce pleasure hence they serve as the main source of pleasure, frustration and self-expression. If at all a conflict remains unresolved at any particular stage, the individual might remain fixated at that particular point of development. A fixation can involve an overdependence or obsession with something related to that phase of development. When a person is considered to have oral fixation is one who stuck in the oral stage of development him/her posse’s...
An individual 's personality is what makes a person unique. The uniqueness of a person is what makes a person interesting to observe and study. Personality has a complexity and involves many different type of ideas and theories to figure out a person 's identity. Personality is something that can be shared and help people to relate to one another. Individuals have interesting personalities, and we will learn more about a specific individual 's personality, and discuss their personality analysis from Abraham Maslow and Carl Jung. Using the information from these two theorists we will have a better understanding of their personality and behaviors.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Personality is characterized by many dimensions of a person’s overall being. The belief that personality stems from one origin is small minded and on many levels, unsupported. If the scope of personality is expanded, it suggests that there is not a single explanation determining a person’s personality and how it is formed. Personality Theories have been generated for centuries by individuals who desire to identify what distinguishes a person’s personality and how it affects their behaviors. What is it that comprises all the unique characteristics about a person?
Personality is a branch of scientific discipline that studies temperament and its variation among people. It is a dynamic and a set of characteristics possessed by their atmosphere, cognitions, emotions, motivations and behaviours in various things. Personality conjointly refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings, social adjustments and behaviour consistently exhibited over time that powerfully influences one’s exceptions, self-perceptions, values and attitudes. It also predicts human reactions to different folks, problems and stress.
I believe our personalities make up who we are and how others perceive us at times. Personalities are our own unique qualities, that we possess as individuals. In writing this short paper, I have found that psychologists use assessments to define an individual’s personality to determine their qualities and what makes them different from other individuals. Through the Big Five Personality test, I found it difficult to define and understand an individual personality
Personality can affect many things in a person’s life. This includes how a person will react to a situation. One can attribute different personality traits to different dispositional or learning theories, such as linking the dehumanizing of a victim to social cognitive theory. One can make an association between interpersonal relational aspects and some of these theories. Personality is an aspect of the self that people often think about but most never truly contemplate the meaning or depth of personality.
Human personality is a complex area of study. This is because in different situations, a human being will portray a certain behavior and this may be part of culture that is developed over a long time. There have been diverse observations on explanations regarding human personality. Over the time, theories have been developed attempting to explain this complex human phenomenon. Theories of personality have taken different approaches that try to make people understand the human personality. It is evident that no single theory can effectively describe personality in totality. This is because personality is not a stagnant thing but rather is an ever evolving thing. It evolves because it is an aspect of human being and naturally human beings change with time. What they used to be a 100 years ago is not what they are today. Even within a span of one week, a human being can decide to completely change his behavior due to an encounter with a compelling situation. Therefore, personality theories can be said or viewed to be valid for only a certain period of time. However, there are concepts embedded on personality theories that give them long term validity.
When we are born, over time we grow up and develop a personality. For each person, our personalities differentiate between one another which presents a wide variety of individuals. According to psychology, there are different factors that make up who we are. Today, I will be talking about the four major theories of personality (Psychodynamic, five-factor model, humanistic, and social-cognitive).
Personality is the unique characteristic patterns of thinking, feelings and behaviours of a person. Each person has different personality which distinguishes a person from another. In our life, we have to make decisions every day. The decision-making process is influenced by our logical thinking as well as our personality.
Personality is the expression of a person’s traits according to ones feelings, mentality and behavior. It involves understanding individuals’ traits such as withdrawal and willpower and how various parts of an individual link together to form personality. Personality expresses itself from within an individual and is comparatively regular throughout in an individual’s life. Different people have different personalities dependent on factors such as environment and genetic composition. Our personality is dependent on the success or failure of our development in the eight stages of life. This is proposed by Erik Erikson. Success in the development stages lead to virtues while the failure leads to malignancies.