The differences in personality between two human members of your family.( You can't be one of them) - Essay Example

Each and every person in this world is unique in his or her own ways regardless of the relationship existing between him and others, whether familyor otherwise. It is for this reason therefore, that different people exhibit different personality traits. This paper is a critical evaluation of the differences in personality with regard to two of my family members i.e. Patrick and George. The relationship between these two is that Patrick is my brother, who comes last whereas George is a first cousin based on the fact that his father and mine are brothers.

Patrick, George and I have spent a significant amount of time together especially since we studied in the same primary and secondary schools and also due to the fact that we belong to the same age group, which brought us closer in terms of participation in childhood games, which would have otherwise seemed odd, was there a huge age difference. Despite their differences in personality as will be discussed here under, both individuals have various similarities such as the tendency to be disagreeable almost in all issues requiring a consensus.

This can be illustrated by the fact that, in most of the decisions such as what type of game to play, what type of music to watch or listen to, what subject to revise on among others, Patrick and George had to first engage in a heated argument such that it had become a tradition to rely on the tossing of a coin in order to determine their way forward. Their distrustfulness to each other as well as other people is also a major trait, which is evident in the way they handle their affairs. They are people who hold every one else in suspicion, either in money matters, leadership or relationships and this may tend to explain why none of them has ever fared well in managing businesses due to unfounded suspicions against their employees, not withstanding intimate relationships, which rarely survive more than a year.

This may also be as a result of their nature of being self centered such that they expect every other person to care and respect them and their ideas and failing to recognize that other people also have feelings and therefore deserve to be respected and cared for. On the other hand, there are various differences between Patrick and George in terms of their personalities. For example, Patrick exhibits a high level of neuroticism as compared to George, who scores low on this dimension. Neuroticism is a personality dimension in the five factor model of personality, which is characterized by a lack of emotional intelligence among other issues (Wiggins 23).

Patrick is a person, who shows a tendency to get angry at the slightest provocation, a factor which has gotten him into trouble in various occasions. One of these is when he was taken into custody by the police for hitting and injuring a fellow student in the university, for allegedly making a practical joke on him. A person with a high emotional intelligence such as George would have just walked away or laughed off the joke in an effort to avoid unnecessary trouble. Lucky for him, the victim dropped the charges but not without Patrick paying for the medical expenses incurred while treating the student.

In contrast also to George, Patrick tends to show a lot of sensitivity and lack of confidence while dealing with issues, which is also a characteristic of neuroticism (Wiggins 28). In this context, he takes a lot of time worrying about things, which acts as a stumbling block while tackling life challenges and marketing him self as a leader. Once, in high school, he was offered the chance to act as the captain to the school’s football team but he declined stating that he was not prepared to take the responsibilities that accompanied this position among them, the making of weekly speech during Friday’s morning parade on the progress the team is making and its expectations.

In this context, he is a person who enjoys taking a back seat and paying behind the scenes while George is a person who is always actively involved especially in circumstances that call for volunteering. Patrick also exhibits a lot of extraversion as opposed to George whom, to a greater extent, is an introvert. An extrovert is a person who responds positively to opportunities that present a chance to involve one self in social activities especially those that attract attention. Introverts on the other hand tend to lack the strong urge to socialize (Wiggins 39).

For instance, it is very difficult to get George to attend parties or social gatherings and when around people, he rarely contributes much to conversations. Patrick on the other hand needs only to be asked or invited to such places and in observation, he is always the one who starts and contributes much to conversations. Sometimes it gets to a point where some people get irritated especially if they are tired of talking and listening, and looking at their facial expressions, one may tell that they would ask him to shut up were it not that doing so would be seen as arrogance.

However, this does not imply that George is not outgoing or outspoken; the difference is that he does it only when he feels there is need for him to do so or when he is surrounded by people he considers as closest friends and when he has nothing else important on his schedule. In one occasion, he defended his lack of interest in socializing saying that it was wastage of time and that he had enough friends in his circles. Works Cited Wiggins, Jerry. The Five-Factor Model of Personality: Theoretical Perspectives.

New York: Guilford Press, 1996