Can individuals change their personality? Introduction Humans are constantly baffled at what constitutes an individuals personality and reprehensive changes. This essay will evaluate the question ‘can individuals change their personality?’. It will be argued with evidence that individuals can purposefully change aspects of their personality through actively changing behaviours. An understanding of three important and useful techniques, effortful control, psychoeducation Cognitive- Behavioural Therapy and, will be explained and demonstrate relevance on how and why it can successfully change personality facets. To date, psychologists do not have a cohesive/single definition for personality. Robinson (1999) holds a common view that; personality is a set of characteristics, behavioural and emotional traits that are consistently stable and enduring. Million’s (1969) perspective is that personality is a ‘characteristic and predictable pattern of deeply embedded and broadly exhibited cognitive, affect and overt behavioural traits that once developed tend to persist over the curse of a life time’(p. 229) while Alport (cited Everly & Lating 2004) definition explains that personality is an ever changing, pattern within an individual’s psychophysical systems which is structured by the past, and influences future behaviour. For the purpose of this essay personality will be definite using Alport’s definition. Behaviour Evidence shows (McAdams & Olson, 2009) that behaviours are the result of personality traits. Currently evidence (Funder, 2012) suggests that personality is consistent over time but behaviour, classified in terms of specific and concrete acts, is not consistent (Funder & Colvin, 1991). Personality psychologists understand th... ... middle of paper ... ...ur, with this essay centralising effortful control, psychoeducation and CBT. Effortful control is an inner-self technique shown to change behaviour. Psychoeducation provides knowledge to promote motivation and awareness to change behaviour. And CBT allows individuals to mange cognitions to change their behaviour. The first limitation of this essay was that was there is inadequate and unified techniques to measure personality. As a result independent researchers use differing techniques causing infrequent results and difficulty measuring long and short-term results of treatments. A second limitation is the varying definitions of personality. Hence this same research question could be answer in numerous different ways depending on the definition adopted. To improve this area unified definitions and measurement techniques need to be developed, so the field can grow.
Does personality determine behavior? Phelps (2015) dived into this discussion in his article by reviewing the perspectives of personality, how psychology relates to behavior and the idea of self, and further, how behaviorists define personality and all of its components. Phelps (2015) compares and contrasts the common beliefs of personality and the view of self as attributed to personality theorists with those characterized by behavioral theorists. A typical understanding of personality is one that defines it as an internal substance that drives behavior, and therefore, by seeking to understand a person's personality we can almost assume their actions (Phelps, 2015). Behavioral theorists, on the other hand, do not lean on vague internal conditions to explain behavior, but rather they evaluate a person's past and present settings to define behavior, according to Phelps (2015). The conclusion is that behaviorists' perspectives on these topics are far more parsimonious in nature and most popular views of personality speak to a more internal and far-reaching position rather than the behavior itself (Phelps, 2015). Likewise, Phelps (2015) addresses the issue of meeting specific criteria for discerning whether a theoretical viewpoint is valid in helping us understand people. He continued to remark that behaviorists' stances meet a large portion of the criteria as presented by Gordon Allport (Phelps, 2015). For example, they have less assumptions, they are consistent, and not to mention, they are testable and falsifiable, Phelps (2015) supports. In my opinion and critical review, this article is useful because it provides an unbiased assessment of a variety of personality theories and definitions of personality and the self. Likewise, it is simple and easy to understand, thus qualifying it as parsimonious. Overall, I think the article did its ultimate job of evaluating different perspectives and
This essay will explore one of the possible combinations of theories on personality and explain how it can be applied in practical therapy.
Psychologists defined personality as that make people uniquely themselves, to be all-inclusive characteristics, helped people appreciate the challenging environment of each individual Cervone & Pervin (2013). Beginning with, individuals that are unnatural by unconscious traits, push or pull into instant awareness. For example, the things people do to others that normally parents would do to their children without identifying whether they are encouraged by their aspiration to bear a resemblance to their parents. Following, ego forces people that are peculiar that provide a sense of personality or self. For example, we often strive to maintain a logic of comprehensive knowledge and reliability in one behavior. Next, biologically a person with a distinctive physiological, temperamental,
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
Cervone, D., Pervin, L. A. (2008). Personality: Theory and research (10th Ed.). New York: Wiley.
An individual’s behaviour may differ depending on the circumstances they are in though there are definite signs of repetitive behaviour when placed in majority of the situations. These characteristics are known as traits which make up the personality of each person (Engler, 2014). Personality theorists do not have a mutual agreement on how the term personality should be used. They each have their definition of personality thus providing a large number of diverse personality theories (Engler, 2014). For example, Eysenck (1970) defined personality as a relatively permanent and consistent composition of an individual’s disposition that in turn establishes how the person adjusts to their
A person’s personality has been the subject of psychological scrutiny for many years. Psychologists have drawn up several theories in an attempt to accurately predict and determine one’s personality. Foremost amongst these, is the “Big Five Trait Theory” which stemmed from Raymond B. Cattell’s theory.
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.
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2009). Personality traits. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Different people describe the word ‘personality’ differently. Martin et al. (2010,p.610) describes personality as a “particular pattern of behavior and thinking that prevails across time and situations, and differentiates one person from another”. According to Mullins and Christy (2013,p.136), they explain that Personality may be perceived as “consisting of stable characteristics that explains why an individual behaves a certain way. Independence, conscientiousness, agreeableness and self-control are all examples of personality characteristics”. Mullins and Christy (2013, p.136) further explain that we can only identify and understand a person’s personality from listening, watching and observing them. For instance, an independent person may show independence characteristic by demonstrating a strong sense of self-sufficiency. It would be expected that this individual would not be dependable on other people around him and if this is established, it can support the characteristic being a consistent part of the person’s behavior. Individuals are therefore generally consistent in the way they respond to situations. At...
P.J. (2004). Personality: Theory and Research. USA: Wiley. SMITH. T. W. and WILLIAMS.
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (5th ed). Boston , MA, USA: Pearson
The development of personality has long been an area of extreme interest to psychologists and psychoanalysts alike, and many different theories of personality have developed over the years. From Sigmund Freud to B.F. Skinner, everyone seems to have not only an opinion of what personality is and how it develops, but also an idea as to what is the best way to measure and report their findings. In order to test their theories, it was necessary to formulate methods of research that were effective, ethical and would provide a solid foundation for future personality research. Although both the clinical and experimental methods of personality research have lent themselves to our present day understanding of the human psyche and personality, each has done so in vastly different ways. Freud and his colleagues, who pioneered the clinical research method, chose to observe their clients in an up-close and personal fashion.
Personality is the study of an individual’s unique and relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time and across situations and it is what distinguishes one individual from another. In the past changes in personality were thought to have only occurred in the developmental stages of childhood and solidifies in adolescence. After the teenage years it was thought to be set like plaster or the change seen to be inconsequential or absent( Srivastava, John, Gosling, and Potter, 2003). However, recent studies have suggested that changes in personality traits continue to occur throughout an individual’s lifespan due to multiple reasons.
The concept of personality has numerous definitions (Fatahi, Moradi, & Kashani-Vahid, 2016). Schultz and Schultz (2009), define personality in its broad sense as the manner of an individual’s behaviour in different situations. This essay explores the nature of personality, with the intention of highlighting its flexibility. The results of numerous empirical research studies are examined in order to investigate if, and how personality changes over time. It will be argued that an individual’s personality has the ability to change throughout their life.