PERSONALITY

Understanding personality in psychology

CONTENTS Introduction Definition Importance of personality Personality origins Personality assessment Drawbacks of personality assessment conclusion

PERSONALITY Psychology is a study about humans, to

find out what influences them to behave the way they do

One of the most important factors to this is their personality

How does one find out another’s personality?

PERSONALITY DEFINED... personality is the characteristic patterns

of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make a person unique. Personality rises from within an individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life

ITS IMPORTANCE As previously stated personality is the

prime contributing factor to why a person acts and thinks the way that they do.

Personality helps to choose one’s career in life by knowing whether they are suited to it or not

WHERE DOES PERSONALITY COME FROM?

type theory the early perspectives on personality.

this theory suggests that there are a limited number of personality types which are related to biological influences.

Psychodynamic theory emphasises the influence of the unconscious.

these are things that one does unknowingly.

There are many different theories about how personality develops. Here are some of the ideas:

WHERE DOES PERSONALITY COME FROM? CONTINUED...

Behavioural theories suggests that personality is a result of interaction

between the individual and the environment.

things that are around an individual play a large part in determining their personality

PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTThere are essentially 3 methods to

assessing an individual’s personality:

The clinical interview

Objective personality assessment

Projective personality assessment

CLINICAL INTERVIEW Way of assessing a patient’s personality Aims to measure an individual’s

behaviour Two people sit down and exchange

words, for the interviewer to try and understand the patient’s problem in order to diagnose it

Consists of structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews.

OBJECTIVE PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT Professional type of assessment with

controlled, consistent questions measured by scores.

Tests measure a person’s normal performance

Cut-score point on the scale

PROJECTIVE PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT Aimed to reveal hidden personality

traits. Reveals person’s inner feelings and

conflicts from previous life experiences Rorschach test interprets patient’s

responses to discover personality characteristics

DRAWBACKS OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT Tests may be dehumanizing. Tests may invade privacy. Tests may be biased. Tests may be culturally unsuitable.

CONCLUSION Psychology has come a great way in

figuring out how and why humans act the way they do but as seen above some methods have to be re-addressed to cover one more step to the ultimate goal of personality assessment perfection

REFERENCE LIST About.com. (2011). Behavioural

psychology. Available from: psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/Behavioral_Psychology.htm (accessed 21 September 2011)

Schneiderman, R. (2010). Career Planning. Why Is Personality Important? Available from: www.planningzone.com/120/personality/personality_intro.htm (accessed 22 September 2011)