Information AboutPersonality |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY | |
| branches of psychology | |
| personality | |
| psychology | |
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Personality psychology is a branch of Psychology which studies personality and individual different processes - that which makes us into a person. One emphasis is on trying to create a coherent picture of a person and all his or her major psychological processes. Another emphasis views it as the study of individual differences. These two views work together in practice. Personality psychologists are interested in broad view of the individual. This often leads to an interest in the most salient individual differences among people. WHAT IS PERSONALITY? In Psychology , ''personality'' is a collection of Emotional , Thought and Behavioral patterns unique to a person that is consistent over time. The word originates from the Latin ''persona'', which means "mask."1 Significantly, in the Theatre Of The Ancient Latin-speaking World , the Mask was not used as a plot device to ''disguise'' the identity of a character, but rather was a convention employed to represent, or ''typify'' that character. PERSONALITY THEORIES There are several theoretical perspectives on personality in psychology, which involve different ideas about the relationship between personality and other psychological constructs, as well as different theories about the way personality develops. Most theories can be grouped into one of the following classes. Generally the opponents to personality theories claim that personality is "plastic" in time, places, moods and situations. Changing personality may in fact resulting from diet (or lack of), medical effects, historical or subsequent events, or learning. Stage managers (of many types) are especially skilled in changing a person's resulting "personality". Most personality theories will not cover such flexible nor unusual people situations. 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. According to the theory, a friendly person is likely to act friendly in any situation because of the traits in his personality. One criticism of trait models of personality as a whole is that they lead professionals in Clinical Psychology and laypeople alike to accept classifications, or worse offer advice, based on superficial analysis of one's profile. The most common models of traits incorporate four or five broad dimensions or factors. The least controversial dimension, observed as far back as the ancient Greeks, is simply Extraversion Vs. Introversion (outgoing and physical-stimulation-oriented vs. quiet and physical-stimulation-averse).
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#Extroversion (i.e., "''extroversion vs. introversion''" above; outgoing and physical-stimulation-oriented vs. quiet and physical-stimulation-averse) #Neuroticism (i.e., ''emotional stability''; calm, unperturbable, optimistic vs. emotionally reactive, prone to negative emotions) #Agreeableness (i.e., affable, friendly, conciliatory vs. Aggressive , dominant, disagreeable) #Conscientiousness (i.e., dutiful, planful, and orderly vs. spontaneous, flexible, and unreliable) #Openness to experience (i.e., open to new ideas and change vs. traditional and staid)
#Extroversion vs. Introversion (see above) #Intuition vs. Sensing (trust in conceptual/abstract models of reality versus concrete sensory-oriented facts) #Thinking vs. Feeling (thinking as the prime-mover in decision-making vs. feelings as the prime-mover in decision-making) #Perceiving vs. Judging (desire to perceive events vs. desire to have things done so judgements can be made)
Psychoanalytic theories . 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 initiated by B. F. Skinner . According to these theories, people's behavior is formed by processes such as Operant Conditioning . Cognitive and social-cognitive theories In Cognitivism 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 Emotion s worked in conjunction with environmental influences. Humanistic theories In Humanistic Psychology it is emphasized 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 proponents of this view. Type A and Type B personalities During the 1950s, Myer Friedman and his co-workers defined what they called Type A and Type B personality types. They theorized that intense, hard-driving Type A personalities had a higher risk of coronary disease than those of Type B, people who tend to be relaxed, uncompetitive, and inclined to self-analysis. Dr. Redford Williams, cardiologist at Duke University was the first person to disprove Friedman’s theory that all Type A personalities have a higher risk of coronary heart disease. Other theories There are many other views on personality psychology, one of them George Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology . Other important contributors to the field are Anna Freud , Erik Erikson , Otto Rank , Alfred Adler , Karen Horney , Albert Ellis , Erich Fromm , Hans Eysenck , Snygg and Combs, Ludwig Binswanger , Medard Boss , Viktor Frankl , Rollo May , and Jean Piaget . The fields of Evolutionary Psychology and Buddhist Psychology are also of interest in this context. PERSONALITY TESTS Types of Personality Test s include the Holland Codes , the Rorschach Test , the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory , the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator , NEO PI-R , and the Thematic Apperception Test . Critics have pointed to the Forer Effect to suggest that some of these appear to be more accurate and discriminating than they really are. Personality psychology is often closely associated with Social Psychology . BRAIN RESEARCH Around the 1990s, neuroscience entered the domain of personality psychology. Whereas previous efforts for identifying personality differences relied upon simple, direct, human observation, neuroscience introduced powerful brain analysis tools like (PFC) and Amygdala in manifesting human personality. In particular, this research has looked at hemispheric asymmetry of activity in these regions. SEE ALSO
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