Personality

Almost every day we discuss and assess the personalities of people around us. When we talk about someone’s personality, we talk about what makes that person different from others. This can be unique to that person or is it, is there many with the same personality, as many as thousands? If so how is personality defined? Many theories have been introduced throughout history and even today.

Before making a theoretical approach, as a first step we need to understand the term personality. A personality is made up of characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make a person unique. [http://psychology.about.com/od/overviewofpersonality/a/persondef.htm ]

Different proportions can be categorized in to three categories. These are personality according to nature approach, nurture approach or mix of both. However the debate is whether ones personality falls on the nature category or nurture category. [http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro06/web1/ttomasic.html ]

Nature personality is gained through parents. The appearance of a person for example is gained through his or her parents, such as the skin colour, features of face, hair colour, etc.  The Nurture personality is gained through the life cycle of a person. The environment that a person lives in brings some characteristic to the person. An example for this would be a person’s language accent or a habit of smoking which largely depends on the environment he or she lives in.

Personality Traits: Idiographic vs. Nomothetic

Psychology has defined the trait theories to examine or determine the personality traits. These theories are major approach to study human personalities.

The Idiographic view

This view point emphasizes that each person has a unique psychological structure and that some traits are possessed by only some person. At some points it is impossible to compare one person with another due to unique characteristics. Traits may also differ in importance from one person to the other. This view point tends to use case studies, bibliographical information, diaries etc for information gathering.

The Nomothetic view

This view point emphasizes comparability among individuals as unique personalities in the combination of their traits. Views traits as having the same psychological meaning in everyone and believes people differ only in the amount of each trait. It is this which constitutes their uniqueness. This approach tends to use self-report personality questions, factor analysis etc. In this case it is also the communal genes which are passed on to children from their parents. These are the characteristics that can be expressed, recognised and even be measured.

From my point of view, I believe that both nature and nurture can be combined in personality and play a part in our personality. The reason for my thought of it being combined is that we generally inherit personalities from our mother and father, but at the same time the environment certainly affects our personalities. The long term personality depends on the way we were brought up, how our behaviour is towards the surroundings and the character in general. This could be positive as well as a negative impact on our personality and that same personality could be used to bring up the next generation. However the environment we were brought up also brings new personalities in our characteristics. An example is smoking as mentioned above, which mostly people start because of the close friends who smoke. Therefore I believe both nature and nurture play a role in our lives.

Big Five Personality Traits

I took the BBC personality Test, which is on the BBC website and have found out some interesting results about my personality. The test has finalised the Big five personality test which involved Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. My highest score was on Extroversion and Agreeableness, the lowest score was on Neuroticism.

Below you can see what the score exactly mean and how it reflects to my own Personality:

Openness:

I have scored 3.6 out of 5 on the personality test for Openness, which describes to what extent I am receptive to novel ideas, creative experience and different values. It also describes that you are open minded as well as having interest in art.  Those with higher score on openness tend to come up with original solutions to problems. From my point of view I agree with my score as I am person who is pretty open minded and I also ardour art. I would also try solving problems with my own knowledge, as my parents mostly ask me for solution in some situations.

Conscientiousness

On conscientiousness I have scored 3.8 out of 5, which describes how organised, dependable and hard-working a person is likely to be. People with higher score on conscientiousness are most likely to be successful in the career. The result shows that people like me with this score are less likely to be workaholics, instead achieving a good work- life balance. I do agree with this result as well, because I am not a person who is well motivated to work but instead I do balance my work life balance. I am organised at time also do have plans and ambitions, which I want to achieve successfully.  I do get off the track at times, example when it comes to a strict diet, as I am able to follow my plans for few days and then tend to come off the diet.

Extroversion

Extroversion is characterised by positive emotions and the tendency to seek out pleasure stimulation or risk taking activities. I have scored 3.8 out of 5 for it and again I do believe that this result is accurate as I am an energy person who is willing to take risk if needed. I am very comfortable in meeting new people and also if there is a family gathering or just any occasional gathering and if I was not part of it, people would notice I am not there as I am talkative and enjoy the times.   

Agreeableness

I have got my highest score on Agreeableness which is 4.2 out of 5 and this shows that agreeableness measures how sympathetic and considerate a person is likely to be. It shows on the result that people with score like mine are likely to find it very easy to get along with people. This result is indeed is true as I get alone with any different sort of people. I have also noticed that many of my friends are very comfortable talking to me about their problems as I give attention to how they feel.

Neuroticism

My score for Neuroticism was 2.5 out of 5, which was the lowest and it has been described as it relates to a person’s response to threatening or stressful situations. People with scores like mine are often seen as being clam and even tempered and they cope well with stressful situations and may seem tranquil despite adverse circumstances. I have scored low for neuroticism, I cannot admit that this statement is 100% correct. At times when I under pressure or stressed it is really difficult to put my mind on something else. Where it is meant that I can be calm and even tempered sound familiar to me, as I can control my temper and also I am calm at certain places where others might not.

Summary

Personality gained through nature is born with a person. And the environment that the person lives in brings nurture personalities. In my point of view a personality is more influenced by the experiences through life cycle. Although the qualities gained through nature stays within, the nature dominates once the person goes through time. The environment, interests changes a person’s personality. It is rather a mix of both, but nurture is the dominant force.

Reference:

Mullins. L. J. (1999) Management and organisational behaviour. 5^th ed. Prentice Hall 

from:http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/whatamilike/index.shtml[Assessed on 16th April 2011]

Anon. (Online). what is personality. Available: http://psychology.about.com/od/overviewofpersonality/a/persondef.. Last accessed 15th Apr 2011.

Dr. C. George Boeree. (2006). Personality theories. Available: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/persintro.html. Last accessed 15th Apr 2011.

Tamara Tomasic. (2006). Personality: Nature vs. Nurture or something in between?. Available: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro06/web1/ttomasic.html. Last accessed 16th Apr 2011.