Theories Of Personality And Personality

Personality is who an individual is, how one does things, manages events and situations, and how one describes other individuals. One 's personality can help guide an individual throughout one 's life, in addition to having power over the situation or task. Many, if not all of these factors of personality, traits, and genetics, make up who an individual is. One 's may believe an individual 's personality, differences, and individualities is the core of who an individual truly is.

Social psychology and personality psychology both came into fruition around the same time – the 1920’s and 1930’s. Needless

Burton, western & Kowaslki (2015) describes Personality as the enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances. In other words it can be defined as differences in characteristics in a person, including their way of thinking, likes, dislikes, sociability, openness, feelings and behaviour, which make them the person they are and differentiates them from others. All these traits when brought together is known to be the personality of that particular person.

Personality, like most core Psychology subjects, is difficult to define. Personality is essentially the science of describing and understanding people. No two people are the same; even identical twins will tell you that they are very different to their identical counterpart. There are some who are anxious and there are those who are risk-takers. There are some who are carefree while there are those who are highly-strung and there are those who are over-confident while some are just plain shy. It is this issue of differences that are fundamental to the study and examination of personality.

In psychology, there are four major theories of personality: psychodynamic, trait or five-factor model, humanistic, and social-cognitive. The psychodynamic theory primarily focuses on the role of the unconscious mind. The social cognitive theory focuses on the effect of the environment on behavior and is based on theories of learning. Whereas, the humanistic theory emphasizes conscious life experiences and choices. The trait or five-factor model focuses on characteristics themselves and not the roots of personality.

Personality is looked at everyday purposely and accidently. Whether you are judging how your new professor for the semester will be, or if you are studying your best friend for a project, personality is studied abundantly. While there are many ways to define personality, there is not a worldwide definition around. Personality is the unique combination of patterns that influence behavior, thought, motivation, and emotion in a human being (boundless.com). That is one of many ways of defining personality. When examining personality, there are four main approachable theories including: The Psychodynamic Approach, The Trait Approach, The Social-Cognitive Approach, and The Humanistic Approach.

Personality can be defined as patterns of a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviors in various situations. In its most basic form personality is attitude, values and interests. Personality traits can also be known as behavioral differences. Understanding and appreciating the diverse personalities of others can help people to interact and know why one person might act or respond in a certain way. This appreciation of personality diversity gives respect to the quirks and differences of individuals therefore respecting these differences as strengths.

According to Weinberg & Gould (1999) personality is “The characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique.”

Personality is defined as an individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking1. In psychology, personality is utilized to sum up all the ways of an individual’s thinking, feeling and acting that based on the environment and experience. Various personality theories exist and are categorized into four major perspectives—Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, Social Cognitive and trait perspective. These four major perspectives on personality help to describe the numerous patterns in each individual’s personality.

Theories of personality, among many other theories in the field of psychology, must use some sort of scientific basis in order for the theory or research to be looked upon by others as credible. Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior, therefore it should be crucial for theories of personality to be evaluated according to scientific criteria. Forming a hypothesis, testing it out, observing, racking up data -- it should all be used during research. There needs to always be a theory in conjunction with research (Cloninger, S. 2013). Scientific criteria gives psychologists or reseachers a firm base to follow, which makes it easier to validate theories. Evaluating a theory based on personality without using scientific criteria

Allport defines personality as ‘the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment’ (Allport, 1937). An individual’s unique personality traits and attributes are a powerful indicator of how he/she will interact with the work environment. The difference between average and outstanding employees can often be solely personality related. As the employee is the most valuable asset to the company, ‘selecting the right employee during the process is critical’ (Carbery and Cross, 2013, pp. 41-53)

Leigh Anne Touhy is the fictional representation of the real life Leigh Anne, famed adoptive mother of Michael Oher from the 2009 film The Blind Side. Leigh Anne is a white interior designer, living in the south with her husband and two children. The family is considered to be part of the upper class, and made their money from owning a string of fast food chains. Leigh Anne and her family take in a black homeless boy, Michael, and throughout the film experience a growing love and bond. They eventually adopt Michael and the Leigh Anne becomes a fiercely protective mother. Very little is revealed about her upbringing

I would define personality as what makes each individual different. Each human being’s personality is as unique as they are. While most people define personality to describe another’s more apparent characteristics, psychologists use personality to try to give reason to similar

Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that gives both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior (Feist & Feist, 2008).

Personality denotes a person’s distinguishing psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and enduring responses to various stimuli.