Personality Theories
The Big Five Approach has played a major role in the process of understanding and analyzing a child’s outcome as well as any adjustment issues that may occur during a child’s development. Along with these accomplishments, the Big Five approach has proven to be able to cover children, adolescents, and adults under one spectrum (Van den Akker et al., 2013). The article, “The development of personality extremity from childhood to adolescence: relations to internalizing and externalizing problems” provides an intense amount information on personality theories and goes into depth about how about how personalities develop and how to distinguish between them as well. This study not only incorporated the study of personality
According to the American Psychological Association, section 3.09, psychologists must cooperate with other professionals in order to provide the best advice, treatment, and research ideas possible (APA, 2017). Throughout this article, it is very clear that all of the professionals involved worked well together in order to provide clear information, collaborate on research theories, and to provide a new perspective on the personality theory. According to Henriques, 2017, it is not uncommon for personality researchers to mistreat individuals during within-person approach and between-person approach and the Big 5 personality test is described as questionable because it does not go into detail about the personality aspects of the within-person approach (Henriques,
The social learning theories opened the gate into the study and research of the social cognitive theories that focuses on aggressive behavior and aggressive inputs are a major contribution to the theories of personality (Yeager et al., 2013). The insights provided by the professionals throughout this article focused on personality extremities and how they affected individuals involved in the study, while reflecting on internalizing and externalizing factors. The way individuals handle their differences in personality traits depends heavily upon several factors that begin affecting at an extremely young
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.
A Comparison of Psychodynamic and Social Learning in Regards to the Development of Personality "No Works Cited" “Psychologists define personality in many ways, but common to all of the ways are two basic concepts, uniqueness and characteristic patterns of behaviour. We will define personality as the complex set of unique psychological qualities that influence an individuals characteristic patterns of behaviour across different situations and over time.” (Psychology In Life, Phillip .G. Zimbardo, page 509)
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
Many psychologists throughout many years present theoretical approaches in an attempt to understand personality. Hans Eysenck’s approach of personality differed from that of Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalytical theory of personality. Eysenck’s theory of personality relies on the scientific basis of biology in explaining human personality. Although Freud’s theories are intriguing to an open mind, Eysenck’s approach made measurable scientific sense. He relied on the use of trait and factor analysis, which is a statistical method. Freud relied on faith and his personal opinions based on observational research to reach the assumptions that set forth his theories (Feist & Feist, 2009). Eysenck and Freud did not agree on anything about understanding how and why the mind operates the way, it does.
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,
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.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2009). Personality traits. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: a Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature." Psychological Science (2001). EBSCO. DePaul Library. 7 Mar. 2008.
In the study of psychology there are four major theories of personality. They are Social Cognitive, Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, and Behavioral. Of course, they are all different and portray different types of behavioral patterns. Personality studies have been founded on the perception that all people are alike in some ways, but can be different in other ways. I have placed the four personality theories where I think they belong on the nature versus nurture continuum.
Personality can be defined as an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting. Many personality theorists have put forward claims as to where personality is derived from and how it develops throughout an individual’s life. The two main personality theories this essay will be focusing on is the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986) and the Trait Theory – Five Factor Theory (FFT) (McCrae and Costa, 1995). The SCT allocates a central role to cognitive, observational learning and self-regulatory processes (Bandura, 1986). An individual’s personality develops through experiences with their sociocultural environment. Whereas the Trait Theory proposes that all individuals are predisposed with five traits (Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) which determines our personality. This theory also puts forward that personality is stable and cannot change as it’s biologically determined.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality gives an insight to psychologists when dealing with patients and test subjects. Due to this theory, research psychologist are able to research personality more accurately and uphold a better understanding when discussing the reasoning behind certain pre-disposed tendencies. Also, counselors which practice different types of therapy are enabled to learn details concerning their patient that can assist in the treatment of that specific patient. There have been multiple disputes in regards to the validity of the Five-Factor Model of Personality theory. Many skeptics believe that there are too many variations that come into play when dealing with personality in order to accurately depict and diagnose a 100% accurate declaration of ones’ characteristics (McCrae, 1991). The issue with relying on the model in order to declare one’s characteristics is that there is often overlap between the degrees of high and low (Popkins, 1998). Although this is a valid statement, the model is a significant role in sorting through the variations to achieve a probable consensus. Therefore, the model cannot achieve a result without any probable cause for doubt but generally will provide a clear depiction of ones’ traits and
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 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.