Introduction to Personality

doorway to spirit Paper Katie McMichael Axia College of University of Phoenix November 26, 2012 Introduction Who am I? What ar my good qualities? What be my bad qualities? Why do I absorb like that some times? Why tailt I better doing this? How do I see myself? How do others see me? How did my soulality mystify to be what it is today? How has it changed? When thinking almost our temper, these are questions that we ask ourselves. The tot whollyy way to answer these questions is to lionise ourselves and analyze what we found as a result of this research.thither are several theories of record that were introduced in order to do just that. The purpose of this paper is to further understand personality and its concepts by defining personality, Examining theoretical approaches in studying personality, and Analyzing factors that may work out an individuals personality instruction. Defining temperament Since so galore(postnominal) theories of personality exist, there is no single definition. The most widely recognised of personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique symptomatics that confront consistency and individuality to a persons behavior. (Feist & Feist, 2009) as you pot see from the definition, each personality is assorted from each other. Also, from the definition you can see that personality is made up from the combination of characteristics and traits and serves as its bottom structure. Characteristics and traits are adjectives such as pretty, overweight, athletic, anxious, smart, etc. These adjectives help to give you a sense of self as well as influence your behavior. The resolve that these traits and characteristics are the base structure of your personality is because they have consistency and constancy in your behaviors over time. Feist & Feist, 2009) Traits have more to do with actions or physical appearance. For character, blue eyes would be considered a trait. A characteristic is merely anything that sta nds out or is noticeable that can be apply to describe them. For example a pitched laugh can be a characteristic. Although similar, these two parts are contrastive, what is similar is that they work together in developing patterns what is known as your personality. People will have similar characteristics or traits that will produce similar personalities entirely no two personalities will ever be the same. Theoretical ApproachesAs stated previous there are many different theories of personality. Each theorist has different methods, research and obviously conclusions as to why personalities are what they are and why they are so different from one another. One thing is legitimate with each theory is that a specific order of approach is serious to substantiate a theory. Most theories of personalities grow from the personality of the theorist (Feist & Feist, 2009). As stated earlier, in order to get a better understand of personalities, including your own, you must start with ob servations and experimental research.Psychologists use systematic approaches such as discernment techniques to support their hypotheses. Tests such as the Big Five Personality Test are the most valid and accurate personality assessment to date. The Big Five Personality test breaks down five areas of personalities which take dimensions such as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. When it comes to other tests, the two types of validity focused upon by psychologists are become and predictive.In construct validity A test has construct validity if it demonstrates an association between the test scores and the prediction of a theoretical trait. (Cherry, 2012) An example of construct validity would be an IQ test. In predictive validity the criterion measures are obtained at a time after the test. (Cherry, 2012) An example of this would be a career aptitude test. two are hypothetical tests based on traits and preferences and neither would be passin g accurate. These tests would be a way to get an idea of where you are and where you baron end up based on your personality.Factors that Influence Personality There are two generally accepted factors that contribute to personality development which are heredity and environment. Obviously, if your traits are heretic, they were past to you through your genes from your parents and other ancestors. These traits are commonly skin color, eye color, hair color, face shape, height, and body shape. explore by psychologists over the last several decades has increasingly pointed to hereditary factors being more important, especially for basic personality traits such as aroused tone. (Neill, 2006) This is different than what most people think. Most people seem to believe that environmental factors are substantially more influential because they have expel in our morals, beliefs, and behaviors. Environmental facts that would influence personalities would be that of childhood upbringing, le arning atmospheres, kindly interactions, occupational interactions, and child rearing. All of these unique influences contribute to personality and so far if two people have the same experiences they will respond to them different.For example men and women are different and interact and respond different usually because their upbringing is different. Boys and girls are socialized differently to some extent in all societies. They receive different messages from their parents and other adults as to what is appropriate for them to do in life. (Neill, 2006) It is hard to tell which factor is more influential but as you can see each one plays an important part. It doesnt really matter what has the most influence, just important to remember that they some(prenominal) have influence. ConclusionWhether you take a test or just observe yourself for a while you might find out more about yourself than you k new-made. Observation and research are what really keeps us finding new things, why not ourselves? With a little time and effort, a person can accomplish anything. With each unique person and each personality we are doing more and learning more every day. The world never stops changing and neither do we. Our personality above all changes its face day to day from birth to death. That is what makes us unique, that is what makes us different from the animals.We have the ability to change and are smart enough to severalise it. We can define it, analyze it, study it, observe it, but our personality is always going to change as we do. In essence, our personality makes us the people that we are. References Cherry, K. (2012). What is validity? Retrieved November 26, 2012 from http//psychology. about. com/od/researchmethods/f/validity. htm Feist, J. , Feist, G. (2009). Theories of Personalities. (7th ed). New York McGraw-Hill ONeill, D. (2006). Personality Development. Retrieved November 26, 2012 from https//anthro. palomar. edu