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Definition of personality
plural personalities
1
a : the quality or state of being a person
b : personal existence
2
a : the condition or fact of relating to a particular person; specifically : the
condition of referring directly to or being aimed disparagingly or hostilely at an
individual
b : an offensively personal remark angrily resorted to personalities
3
a : the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual or a nation or
group; especially : the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional
characteristics
b : a set of distinctive traits and characteristics the energetic personality of
the city
4
a : distinction or excellence of personal and social traits; also : a person
having such quality
b : a person of importance, prominence, renown, or notoriety a TV personality
http://www.sociologyguide.com/personality/meaning-of-personality.php
The Meaning of Personality
The term personality is derived from the Latin word persona meaning a mask.
Personality is a patterned body of habits, traits, attitudes and ideas of an
individual as these are organized externally into roles and statuses and as they
relate internally to motivation, goals and various aspects of selfhood.
According to Robert Park and Earnest Burgess Personality is the sum and
organization of those traits which determine the role of the individual in the
group.
Davis regards personality a psychic phenomenon which is neither organic nor social
but an emergent from a combination of the two. According to Young personality is
the totality of behavior of an individual with a given tendency system interacting
with a sequence of situations.
On the basis of these definitions it may be said there are two main approaches to
the study of personality:
The psychological
The sociological
The psychological approach considers personality as a certain style peculiar to the
individual. This style is determined by the characteristic organization of mental
trends, complexes, emotions and sentiments. The psychological approach enables us
to understand the phenomena of personality disorganization and the role of wishes,
of mental conflict and of repression and sublimation in the growth of personality.
The sociological approach considers personality in terms of the status of the
individual in the group, in terms of his conception of his role in the group of
which he is a member. What others think of us plays a large part in the formation
of our personality.
Thus personality is a sum of the ideas, attitudes and values of a person which
determine his role in society and form an integral part of his character.
http://personalityspirituality.net/articles/what-is-personality/
In some ways we are all the same. We all have the same human nature. We share a
common humanity. We all have human bodies and human minds, we all have human
thoughts and human feelings. Yet in other ways we are all completely different and
unique. No two people are truly alike. No two people can ever have the same
experience of life, the same perspective, the same mind.
Even identical twins are unique in this respect: twin number 1 will always be twin
number 1 and will never know what it is actually like to be twin number 2, to
experience life and see the world through number 2s eyes. (See No Two Alike [1].)
Twins
Somewhere between these two our common humanity and our unique individuality
lies personality.
Personality is about our different ways of being human. How we are all variations
on the same themes. How the human nature we all share manifests in different styles
of thinking, feeling and acting.
Defining Personality
Your personality style is your organizing principle. It propels you on your life
path. It represents the orderly arrangement of all your attributes, thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, behaviors, and coping mechanisms. It is the distinctive
pattern of your psychological functioningthe way you think, feel, and behavethat
makes you definitely you. The New Personality Self-Portrait by Oldham and
Morris. [2]
We can also sometimes see changes in an individuals personality over time. There
may be subtle developmental changes during adolescence, for example, or there can
be quite dramatic alterations following a massive brain injury.
Before we move on, here is a little puzzle to think about: Is personality simply an
umbrella term for all our dispositions (how we think and feel and act), or is it a
thing in its own right, something that causes us to think and feel and act they
way we do? For example, someone who is obviously outgoing, talkative, energetic and
assertive is described as having an extrovert personality. Does that mean that they
are outgoing, talkative, and so on because they are an extrovert? Or is extrovert
personality simply a shorthand way of describing someone with those patterns?
Four Types?
In ancient times it was thought that all people could be divided into four basic
types sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic. This was supposedly
something to do with the dominant fluids in their bodies (blood, yellow bile, black
bile or phlegm). This idea was briefly revived in Renaissance Europe and there are
some modern versions of it around today. (See Passions and Tempers [3].)
Despite the simple appeal of this approach, trying to fit all the worlds people
with their amazing range of differences into so few boxes is not easy. For example,
sanguine people are supposedly extroverted, creative, sensitive, compassionate,
thoughtful, tardy, forgetful and sarcastic. But in fact there is no evidence that
these characteristics go together at all. You can certainly be creative without
being extroverted. You can certainly be compassionate without being sarcastic. So
what does being the sanguine type really mean, if anything? Dividing people up
into a few types may be a nice and simple way of looking at the world, but in
reality it doesnt get us very far.
A Thousand Words?
For instance, we might describe some people as tall and some as short, though there
is no word in the dictionary to describe people of average height. Likewise, the
words we use to describe personality focus on how individuals stand out as above or
below average in their mental and behavioural characteristics. So, just as we might
describe someone as quite tall and completely bald based on their most obvious
physical attributes, we will also describe personality using phrases like very nice
but rather quiet. The words most often used refer to the extremes rather than the
averages.
And these extremes can be organised into pairs of opposites reserved as opposed
to outgoing, impulsive as opposed to cautious, dominant as opposed to submissive,
and so on.
Words like domineering, autocratic, and pushy all have a similar (though not
identical) meaning.
Words like domineering and submissive or friendly and hostile have opposite
meanings, just like tall and short.
Words like domineering, patient, and playful have no particular relationship, just
like tall and bald.
So if we cluster together all words that have a similar meaning, how many clusters
do we get?
The main question psychologists have been interested in is: How few clusters can we
reduce all these words to? (Scientists are always looking for ways to reduce
complex things to the most simple account possible.) And by doing exactly this kind
of analysis, what psychologists have found again and again is that personality
words can be reduced to just five clusters. In other words, there are five big sets
of words (including their opposites) which contain pretty much all of the words we
might use to describe personality. This is one of the most robust findings to come
out of decades of research into human personality.
These five sets are commonly known as the Big Five. We could simply call them
Factor 1, Factor 2 and so on, but they have been labelled as follows:
The H Factor
The five factors are not etched in stone. Many studies suggest that we can (and
should) include a sixth factor, called Honesty/Humility (or the H factor). This is
essentially a dimension of character maturity, ranging from high selfishness to
high integrity. Adding this H factor to the other five gives us a six-factor view
of personality that is more popularly known as the HEXACO model. (See The H Factor
of Personality [5].)
Multiple Facets
A problem with the five or six factors is that they dont really account for
personality. They just organise the words that people use to talk about personality
into the fewest number of sets, and treat those sets as dimensions of
personality.
In fact, many now see each of the Big Five factors as a sort of general super-
trait, each one covering a number of specific sub-traits or facets that are
narrower in scope:
Neuroticism:
Irritability
Insecurity
Emotionality
Extraversion:
Sociability
Unrestraint
Assertiveness
Activeness/Adventurousness
Openness:
Intellect
Imagination/Creativity
Perceptiveness
Agreeableness:
Warmth/Affection
Gentleness
Generosity
Modesty/Humility
Conscientiousness:
Orderliness
Decisiveness-Consistency
Reliability
Industriousness
Different researchers have identified different facets, but generally they describe
3 to 5 facets associated with each of the five big factors. These 20 or 30 facets
seems to give a much richer description.
So if the question is How many personality traits are there? The answer is How
many do you want? Its all about whatever is convenient for any given discussion.
If you want to divide people into two types (say, extravert versus introvert), then
you can. If you want to describe people in broad brush-strokes, then you can use
the Big 5 (or 6) factors. If you want a high resolution picture of individual
differences, then you can use 20-30 facets or more.
Just remember: these factor/trait models are all about the words we use to talk
about personality which begs the question: How much do they tell us about
personality itself? For example, what if there are some aspects of personality that
do not manifest as dimensions with polar opposites (as in dominant-v.-submissive)
but instead, like eye colour or hair type, do actually manifest in discrete
categories? (Could the psychopathic type be one of them?)
Personality Disorder!
Funnily enough, despite widespread confirmation of the Big Five (or six), there is
still no agreed psychological understanding of personality. This is because
psychologists have yet to agree on their understanding of human nature. Different
psychologists hold fundamental beliefs that are diametrically opposed.
(As an aside, many students who study psychology are disappointed to find that this
is the case. They begin hoping to learn what makes people tick based on good
science. Instead, they just learn about competing theories and schools of thought.)
The many classical branches of psychology include psychodynamics (or Freudian
psychology), behaviourism, neuropsychology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive
psychology, and social psychology. Each takes a different approach to explaining
human nature, human behaviour and human personality. For example:
One thing that all of the classical branches of psychology do tend to agree upon is
that our every thought, feeling and action is determined by pre-existing forces
beyond our control. That is, we are merely the products of our genetic programming
and social programming, our upbringing, our environment, the blind forces of nature
and/or nurture, or whatever. We are nothing but biological machines, genetic
puppets, trained monkeys.
But since the middle of the 20th Century, some psychologists have questioned this
assumption:
So in reaction to the view of the person as a biological machine, there has been a
new wave of psychologists who deliberately emphasise the role of consciousness and
free will:
Humanistic psychologists focus on our use of free will in shaping our own personal
development.
Positive psychologists focus on enhancing the experience of life, rather than just
just repairing psychological damage.
Transpersonal psychologists focus on exceptional human experiences which suggest
the role of spiritual factors in human life.
Humanistic psychologists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow have emphasised
that personality development is at least partly the result of our conscious choices
in life. If people want to change their own personalities, their intention to do so
is important. (It is this perspective that has given birth to the hugely popular
self-help and personal growth movements.)
Suggesting that we have free will doesnt mean denying that we are constrained by
the forces of nature and nurture. Both can be true. For this reason, some
psychologists have come to see personality as both pre-determined and self-made. Or
to put it another way:
where
So What is Personality?
Bottom line: It depends upon your perspective on human nature. If you believe that
people are biological machines driven by their genes, their brains, and their
environments, then personality is simply due to variations in temperament or
programming, i.e. differences in behaviour caused by nature and nurture (genetic
and social factors). If you believe that people can consciously change and improve
themselves to some extent, then personality includes character: a set of strengths
and virtues (as well as weaknesses and vices) which we can consciously develop
throughout life.