Similarity and Its Connection to the Strength, Success, and Overall Happiness of Interpersonal Relatonships

Guilford (1959) defines personality traits as being ‘any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another’. Subsequently, trait theory can be identified as an approach to the study of human personality. The aim of psychologists, specifically trait theorists, is to explain similarities and differences between individuals based on traits. Although numerous psychologists differ on the amount of traits that are significant, each theorist categorizes personality traits along several broad type spectrums. This assignment will focus on comparing and contrasting Eysenck’s Hierarchical Theory of Personality and Costa and McRae’s Five Factor Model (FFM), two different trait theories of personality.

As humans, we have always stayed in groups of similar interests, and we can see this is clearly

Humans typically live together in groups (family) and daily interact with others. We will work together, eat together, play together, and even sleep together. According to Leary, Kelly, Cottrell, and Schreindorfer (2013) “Although all normal individuals desire to be accepted and to belong to social groups, people differ in the strength of their desire for acceptance and belonging. Some people seem content with only a few relationships and do not concern themselves with being valued and accepted by individuals outside this circle. In contrast, other people have a strong need for acceptance and belonging, seek a large number of relationships, worry about how they are valued by others, and put a great deal of effort into sustaining interpersonal relationships (Kelly,

We, as human beings, are social creatures, and most of us can’t handle loneliness and try to avoid it at any costs. Some people close their eyes on the obvious problems that their favorite politician has, only to continue feeling cared for by him. Others close their eyes on the problems that their close friends have, only to keep the interaction going instead of sitting at home lonely and being mad at each other after a fight that occurs. Humans have to interact with one another; it’s in our DNA as a part of survival instinct if not anything else, the proof for which we can see even when we study our ancestors back during the time of the forming stages of humanity. But with every interaction comes the clash of diverse personalities and various beliefs, and a lot of times those interactions result in the participating parties’ views to mold into something new, sometimes completely different from their original perception of an issue. With the change of our beliefs, comes the change in our character and in our behavior. Social psychology studies just that - how people influence each other, in what ways, what areas, and to what degree.

In the first assessment tool “What Is My Basic Personality?” the focus was on the five-factor model of personalities which

From the beginning on time, being around others makes us feel affiliated. It is human nature to form relationships with people who attract us. As human beings, there has always been a desire to form relationships. The lack of relationships and bonds with other individuals can lead to negative feelings, such as loneliness. In order to figure out the need to form bonds we must analyze the benefits and factors of attraction and relationships.

The information from this survey parallels similar studies in the field to contribute a deeper understanding of personality in

Many contemporary psychologists believe that there are five basic dimensions of personality and refer to them as the ‘Big Five’. The five-factor model (FFM) of personality is a theory based on five core categories of human personality – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. While different theorists may use different terminology, the five factors or personality traits have shown a rather consistent pattern over time. This study briefly examines the history, strengths and limitations of the five-factor model.

Theorists have suggested that the human’s motivation for creating and preserving social relationships reflects a connate impulse that is adaptive and essential for survival (Ainsworth, 1989; Axelrod &

Interpersonal attraction, as defined by social psychologists, refers to attitudinal positivity (Huston and Levinger, 1978). Although, this attitudinal positivity may not refer a romantic attraction, it still refers to an attraction that is compelling enough to form a relationship with another individual. Interpersonal relationships are formed when an individual feels the ‘need to affiliate’. This ‘need to affiliate’ is critically important to human beings. Individuals who achieve high levels of affiliation often form successful interpersonal relationships. Those who develop strong relationships with other members of society acquire a strong sense of belonging which contributes to a higher level of self esteem. There are many factors that influence the formation of successful

The measuring of personality traits has been the subject of debates between many researchers over the past 45 years. In the past, theorists believed that there were many personality traits that a person could be measured on. Today, it is widely accepted that there are only 5 dominant traits personality can be measured upon (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013). Before there were 5 personality factors found, McCrae and Costa were determined focus on the three-factor model. The three “dimensions” that they were focusing on were neuroticism, extraversion, and openness. McCrae and Costa then started to report on the five factors of personality in 1985. These five factors of personality were neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Personality traits are bipolar, and follow a bell shaped distribution according to McCrae and Costa (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, 2013). Not many people will score at the extreme of any of the traits, with most people scoring near the middle. According to the research article “An Alternative “Description of Personality”. The Big- Five Factor Structure”, because the 5 traits were discovered using Cattell's 35 variables, some argue that the current 5 factors have not been generalized anymore than the set of initial variables (Goldberg, 1990).The two main personality traits in the big five are neuroticism and extraversion. These traits are found everywhere and are very strong. Someone who scores high on neuroticism are usually

The Big Five model of personality traits is a widely accepted and popular framework in personality psychometrics that is aimed at assessing personality according to traits. Traits refer to an individual’s stable characteristics that predispose them to behave in particular ways across contexts (de Bruin & Taylor, 2013). In other words, trait psychologists aim to assess the consistencies in an individual’s behaviour in order to gain insight into the individual’s general ways of interacting with people and the environment. Using factor analysis on multiple personality scales, psychologists have described and summarised personality traits in terms of five broad traits: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion,

We calculated descriptive statistics for each of the Big Five personality traits. The means, standard deviations, and medians for each are as follows: Extraversion (E; M = 3.16, SD = .94, Mdn = 3.25), Agreeableness (A; M = 4.24, SD = .71, Med = 4.25), Conscientiousness (C; M = 3.46, SD = .786, Mdn = 3.5), Emotional Stability (ES; M = 3.11, SD = .75, Mdn = 3.00), and Openness (O; M = 3.69, SD = .76, Mdn = 3.75). The median would be a more accurate measure of central tendency for Agreeableness. The scores in this subscale were

People are all connected in some ways. Either they are close-minded or social. There always exist a kind of bond that connects people with other people and the society. The fact that people are all connected in different ways is not unique, it can actually be applied in many other living organisms’ groups-working such as the ants moving heavy stuff together, or predators chasing for their preys. In fact, the connections between living organisms can be concluded into the following categories: Antagonism; Symbiosis; Neutralism

The understanding of personality has evolved over the years as numerous researchers have added their thoughts and findings to create the depth of knowledge that can be found today (Schneider, 2007). Included in this evolution were trait theorists such as Gordon