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Components of Personality

Personality refers to individual differences in traits and types. There are several theories that attempt to explain personality: 1. Trait theories view personality as characteristics that determine behavior, such as extroversion and agreeableness. 2. Psychodynamic theories explain personality as interactions between the id, ego, and superego. 3. Behaviorist theories see personality as reactions to external stimuli formed by conditioning. 4. Cognitive and social-cognitive theories view personality as guided by cognitions and expectations, especially about other people.

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41K views

Components of Personality

Personality refers to individual differences in traits and types. There are several theories that attempt to explain personality: 1. Trait theories view personality as characteristics that determine behavior, such as extroversion and agreeableness. 2. Psychodynamic theories explain personality as interactions between the id, ego, and superego. 3. Behaviorist theories see personality as reactions to external stimuli formed by conditioning. 4. Cognitive and social-cognitive theories view personality as guided by cognitions and expectations, especially about other people.

Uploaded by

roxsunny
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Personality

Personality commonly refers to:

Personality psychology, the theory and study of types, traits, and individual differences

Personality trait theory, attributes by which people may vary in relative terms

Personality theories

There is a wide range of psychological theories about the way personality works. Most specific theories
can be grouped into one of the following classes of theories.

Trait theories

According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association, personality
traits are "prominent aspects of personality that are exhibited in a wide range of important social and
personal contexts. ...". In other words: persons have certain characteristics which partly determine their
behaviour. For example, a friendly person is likely to generally listen well and show interest in others.

Gordon Allport delineates three kinds of traits with varying degrees of intensity: cardinal traits, central
traits, and secondary traits.

Raymond Cattell's research propagated a two-tiered personality structure with fifteen "primary factors"
and five "secondary factors". Building on the work of Cattell and others, Lewis Goldberg proposed a five
dimension personality model, nicknamed the "Big Five":

1.Extroversion

2.Agreeableness

3.Conscientiousness

4.Emotional Stability

5.Intellect
John L. Holland proposed a "RIASEC" model of personality widely used in vocational counseling. The
RIASEC is a circumplex model where the six types, which are represented as a hexagon where physically
closer types are more related than distal types:

1.Realistic - Physical, hands-on, tool-oriented, masculine

2.Investigative - Scientific, technical, methodological

3.Artistic - writing, painting, singing, etc.

4.Social - nurturing, supporting, helping, healing

5.Enterprising - organizing, activating, motivating

6.Conventional - clerical, detail-oriented

Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Meyers alleged that the writings of Carl Jung delineated
personality types by constructing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Their personality typology has some
aspects of a trait theory: it explains people's behaviour in terms of fixed characteristics.

Psychodynamic theories

Psychodynamic (also called psychoanalytic) theories explain human behaviour in terms of interaction
between various components of personality. Sigmund Freud was the founder of this school. He broke
the human personality down to three significant components: the id, the ego and the superego.
According to Freud, personality is shaped by the interactions of these three components.

Behaviorist theories

Behaviorists explain personality in terms of reactions to external stimuli. This school of thought was
started by B. F. Skinner. According to these theories, people's behaviour is formed by processes such as
operant conditioning.

Cognitive and social-cognitive theories

In cognitivism, people's behaviour is explained as guided by cognitions (e.g. expectations) about the
world, and especially those about other people.
Albert Bandura, a social learning theorist suggested that the forces of memory and feelings worked in
conjunction with environmental influences.

Humanistic theories

In humanistic psychology, it is emphasized that people have free will and that they play an active role in
determining how they behave. Accordingly, humanistic psychology focuses on subjective experiences of
persons, instead of factors that determine behaviour. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers were famous
proponents of this view.

Components of Personality

While there are many different theories of personality, the first step is to understand exactly what is
meant by the term personality. A brief definition would be that personality is made up of the
characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. In addition to
this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.

Some of the fundamental characteristics of personality include:

•Consistency - There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behaviors. Essentially, people act
in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situations.

•Psychological and physiological - Personality is a psychological construct, but research suggests that it is
also influenced by biological processes and needs.
•Impact behaviors and actions - Personality does not just influence how we move and respond in our
environment; it also causes us to act in certain ways.

•Multiple expressions - Personality is displayed in more than just behavior. It can also be seen in out
thoughts, feelings, close relationships and other social interactions.

Theories of Personality

There are a number of different theories about how personality develops. Different schools of thought
in psychology influence many of these theories. Some of these major perspectives on personality
include:

•Type theories are the early perspectives on personality. These theories suggested that there are a
limited number of "personality types" which are related to biological influences.

•Trait theories viewed personality as the result of internal characteristics that are genetically based.

•Psychodynamic theories of personality are heavily influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, and
emphasize the influence of the unconscious on personality.

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