Personality Theory Blog - Assignment Example

Personality Theory Blog Personality Theory Blog The study of personality theory falls under the discipline of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. In psychological studies there have been several methods and practices to understand and analyze personalities. Many theories exist to comprehend the character. Personality psychology means studying human nature in all of its manifestations (Buss, 1991). Different approaches use different studies and methodology to analyze the character. Reason for Differences in Personality Theories The difference between personality theories is rooted in the difference in human nature. These distinctions are evaluated according to the personality study. In a broader context, this distinction can be based on two major categories; the approach that falls under the category of consistency (where personality is a fixed idea), and those strategies that focus on change (where personality is a fluid concept) (Larsen, 1989). Obviously such an oversimplification does not quantify every aspect of personality theory but it does give an overview how personality theories can be categorized. Big Five Personality Theory Model For instance, Lewis Goldberg proposed the big five personality theory model, which incorporates the compares and methodology. The big five model primarily depends on the study of natural languages. Big five model has been developed in view of partially independent course in the questionnaire domain; lexical studies give the most convincing evidence supporting the big five model. For instance, the big five model can be carried out to the personality questionnaire in which the items from the population of phrases and sentences is used. However, the sampling strategy can be problematic because an infinite population cannot be represented in the sample (Goldberg, 1996). Therefore to represent the sampling of personality descriptive terms, especially the adjectives might call for representing sampling of personality attributes (Goldberg, 1996). This is a psychometric a rationale which is consistent with the lexical hypothesis; that the most distinctive and widespread phenotypic attributes get encoded as single words in the concept reservoir of language, and the degree of representation of equality in terms of words corresponds to the importance of the attribute (Goldberg, 1996). The expert personality attribute distinctions can go beyond the emphasized transactions expressed in everyday language. Hence, the representation or the sampling through lexical approach can give the necessary features for an optimal representation of personality traits. An interesting take from the big five model study would be the relationship between intellect and creativity. The study by Goldberg (1996) suggest that both of these traits are substantially correlated, but the question is what is the correct position for the essence of the factor (known as the intellect factor)? For instance, a study reanalyzed 15 English and German language data sets and concluded that creativity lies at the core of the meaning of this factor, this factor was later named as a "creative mentality". Different studies of English language suggest the creativity adjectives form the core of this factor. The creative facets of openness to ask statics and ideas also form the core essence of the openness scale on the NEO personality inventory. Current Trends The big five personality traits model was developed to understand the connection between academic behaviors and the personality (Poropat, 2009). Neuroticism is a personality theory that analyzes the symmetry in a personality. It means that it discusses the state of being calm, satisfied and relaxed versus being anxious worried and self-loathing (Santrock, 2008). On the other hand, the aspect of agreeableness tests a person’s ability or tendency to be softhearted trustworthy and helpful, versus ruthless, distrustful and unhelpful (Santrock, 2008). The big five model does use the comparison approach, but this does not mean that this model is rigid because different researchers have incorporated this according to their own interpretation of gauging comprehending analyzing and predicting personalities. The way of using someone else’s strategy to modify and reform one’s own research is not only specific to the big five model. For instance, John Gittingers theory of Personality Assessment System (PAS) uses Weschler Intelligence Test (Winnie, & Gittinger, 1973). These tests are objective and not based on self-assessment and representation. Different aspects of a personality theory determine if it is suitable for the study at hand. Generally speaking, the personality-situation debate is ending, but still its not clear which strategy comprehensively integrates the two perspectives of personality (Fleeson & Leicht, 2006). Moreover, there is no solid projection into what the integration would look like. The density distributions approach is proposed as a path towards integration of the two perspectives, and at the same time delineating and maintaining their attributes and contributions personality (Fleeson & Leicht, 2006). There are four identified requirements of this integration, and the notion is that the density distributions approach would probably meet all four requirements. Questions There is no absolute truth or a comprehensive study that answers each and every question. The journals and studies discussed in this paper do give a lot of insights but they also generate questions. The obvious question is what criteria decides the preference of one personality theory over the other? The discussion about the big five model raises questions about the widespread nature of language and adjectives to describe the personality. There is a huge amount of data available in terms of words that represent different personality traits. For instance adjectives like simple, conventional, traditional, pompous, shallow, patronizing, ignorant, inarticulate, and the list goes on and on. These are just a few adjectives that describe the personality trait, but the question is how the average person can quantify or judge another person based on big five model? Another question is that people do not remain the same throughout their lives. They keep changing, and the attributes also change or modify a little. A person who was an intellectual in his teenage might be a scholar in his 30s or 40s. How does this transition gets incorporated in the big five model? The answer cannot to such questions cannot be definitive. A combination of different theories might give an intellectual and comprehensive concoction of answers. References Buss, D. M. (1991). Evolutionary personality psychology. Annual review of psychology, 42(1), 459-491. Fleeson, W., & Leicht, C. (2006). On delineating and integrating the study of variability and stability in personality psychology: Interpersonal trust as illustration. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(1), 5-20. Goldberg, L. R. (1996). Evidence for the Big Five in analyses of familiar English personality adjectives. European Journal of Personality, 10, 61-77. Larsen, R. J. (1989). A process approach to personality psychology: Utilizing time as a facet of data. In Personality Psychology (pp. 177-193). Springer US. Poropat, A. E. (2009). A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance" Psychological Bulletin 135, 322–338. Santrock, J.W. (2008). The Self, Identity, and Personality. In Mike Ryan (Ed). A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. (p. 411-412). New York: McGraw-Hill. Winnie, J.F. & Gittinger, J.W. (1973) An introduction to the personality assessment system. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Monograph Supplement, 38, 1-68 Read More