Personality psychology

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individualdifferences. Its areas of focus include:

Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes*Investigating individual differences - how people are uniqueInvestigating human nature - how people are alike

"Personality" can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by aperson that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, emotions, motivations, and behaviors invarious situations. The word "personality" originates from the Latin persona, which means mask.Significantly, in the theatre of the ancient Latin- speaking world, the mask was not used as a plotdevice to disguise the identity of a character, but rather was a convention employed to represent ortypify that character. Personality may also refer to the patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviorsconsistently exhibited by an individual over time that strongly influence our expectations, self-perceptions, values and attitudes, and predicts our reactions to people, problems and stress. In aphrase, personality is not just who we are, Gordon Allport (1937) described two major ways tostudy personality: the nomothetic and the idiographic. Nomothetic psychology seeks general lawsthat can be applied to many different people, such as the principle of self- actualization, or the traitof extraversion. Idiographic psychology is an attempt to understand the unique aspects of aparticular individual.

The study of personality has a broad and varied history in psychology, with an abundance oftheoretical traditions. The major theories include dispositional (trait) perspective, psychodynamic,humanistic, biological, behaviorist and social learning perspective. There is no consensus on thedefinition of "personality" in psychology. Most researchers and psychologists do not explicitlyidentify themselves with a certain perspective and often take an eclectic approach. Some researchis empirically driven such as the "Big 5" personality model whereas other research emphasizes theory development such aspsychodynamics. There is also a substantial emphasis on the applied field of personality testing. In psychological education and training,the study of the nature of personality and its psychological development is usually reviewed as a prerequisite to courses in abnormal orclinical psychology.

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Co nt ent s

1 Philosophical assumptions2 Personality theories

2.1 Trait theories2.2 Type theories2.3 Psychoanalytic theories2.4 Behaviorist theories2.5 Social cognitive theories2.6 Humanistic theories2.7 Biopsycho logical theories

3 Personality tests4 Personality and inner experience5 See also6 Notes7 References8 Further reading9 External links

Philosophical assumptionsMany of the ideas developed by historical and modern personality theorists stem from the basic philosophical assumptions they hold.The study of personality is not a purely empirical discipline, as it brings in elements of art, science, and philosophy to draw generalconclusions. The following five categories are some of the most fundamental philosophical assumptions on which theorists disagree:

1. Freedom versus Determinism This is the debate over whether we have control over our own behavior and understand the motivesbehind it, or if our behavior is causally determined by forces beyond our control; it being considered unconscious, environmental, orbiological by various theories.

2. Heredity versus Environment Personality is thought to be determined largely by genetics and biology, by environment andexperiences, or by some combination resulting thereof. There is evidence for all possibilities. Contemporary research suggests that mostpersonality traits are based on the joint influence of genetics and environment. One of the forerunners in this arena is C. Robert Cloningerwith the Temperament and Character model.

3. Uniqueness versus Universality

The argument over whether we are all unique individuals ( Uniqueness) or if humans are basically similar in their nature ( Universality).Gordon Allport , Abraham Maslow, and Carl Rogers were all advocates of the uniqueness of individuals. Behaviorists and cognitivetheorists, in contrast, emphasized the importance of universal principles such as reinforcement and self- efficacy.

4. Act ive versus React ive

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Do we primarily act through our own initiative (Active), or react to outside stimuli. Behavioral theorists typically believe that humans arepassively shaped by their environments, whereas humanistic and cognitive theorists believe that humans are more active.

5. Opt imist ic versus Pessimist ic

Personality theories differ on whether people can change their personalities ( Optimism), or if they are doomed to remain the samethroughout their lives (Pessimism). Theories that place a great deal of emphasis on learning are often, but not always, more optimisticthan theories that do not emphasize learning.

Personality theoriesCritics of personality theory claim personality is "plastic" across time, places, moods, and situations. Changes in personality may indeedresult from diet (or lack thereof), medical effects, significant events, or learning. However, most personality theories emphasize stabilityover fluctuation. The definition of personality that is most widely supported to date is attributed to the neurologist Paul Roe. He statedpersonality to be "an individual's predisposition to think certain patterns of thought, and therefore engage in certain patterns of behaviour".

Trait theoriesAccording to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, personality traits are "enduring patterns ofperceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and personalcontexts." Theorists generally assume a) traits are relatively stable over time, b) traits differ among individuals (for instance, some peopleare outgoing while others are reserved), and c) traits influence behavior.

The most common models of traits incorporate three to five broad dimensions or factors. The least controversial dimension, observed asfar back as the ancient Greeks, is simply extraversion and introversion (outgoing and physical- stimulation-oriented vs. quiet andphysical- stimulation-averse).

Gordon Allport delineated different kinds of traits, which he also called dispositions. Central traits are basic to an individual'spersonality, while secondary traits are more peripheral. Common traits are those recognized within a culture and thus may vary fromculture to culture. Cardinal traits are those by which an individual may be strongly recognized.

Raymond Cat tell's research propagated a two- tiered personality structure with sixteen "primary factors" (16 Personality Factors) andfive "secondary factors."

Hans Eysenck believed just three traits—extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism—were sufficient to describe human personality.Differences between Cattell and Eysenck emerged due to preferences for different forms of factor analysis , with Cattell using oblique,Eysenck orthogonal rotation to analyze the factors that emerged when personality questionnaires were subjected to statistical analysis.Today, the Big Five factors have the weight of a considerable amount of empirical research behind them, building on the work ofCattell and others.

Lewis Goldberg proposed a five-dimension personality model, nicknamed the "Big Five":

1. Openness to Experience: the tendency to be imaginative, independent, and interested in variety vs. practical, conforming,and interested in routine.

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2. Conscient iousness: the tendency to be organized, careful, and disciplined vs. disorganized, careless, and impulsive.3. Ext raversion: the tendency to be sociable, fun- loving, and affectionate vs. retiring, somber, and reserved.4. Agreeableness: the tendency to be softhearted, trusting, and helpful vs. ruthless, suspicious, and uncooperative.5. Neurot icism: the tendency to be calm, secure, and self- satisfied vs. anxious, insecure, and self- pitying[1]

The Big Five contain important dimensions of personality. However, some personality researchers argue that this list of major traits isnot exhaustive. Some support has been found for two additional factors: excellent/ordinary and evil/decent. However, no definitiveconclusions have been established.[1]

Michael Ashton and Kibeom Lee, in 2008, proposed a six dimensional HEXACO Model of Personality Structure . The HEXACOpersonality traits/factors are: Honesty-Humility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), andOpenness to Experience (O). The three dimensions - Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience are consideredto be basically the same as their counterpart dimensions in the Big Five Model. However, in the HEXACO model, Honesty-Humility,Emotionality and Agreeableness differ from the Neuroticism and Agreeableness factors of the Big Five Model. Ashton and Leeespecially emphasize the Honesty-Humility (H) factor as differentiating the HEXACO model from other personality frameworks.Specifically, the H factor is described as sincere, honest, faithful/loyal, modest/unassuming, fair-minded, VERSUS sly, deceitful,greedy, pretentious, hypocritical, boastful and pompous. The H factor has been linked to criminal, materialistic, power-seeking andunethical tendencies.[2]

John L. Holland's RIASEC vocational model, commonly referred to as the Holland Codes, stipulates that six personality traits leadpeople to choose their career paths. In this circumplex model, the six types are represented as a hexagon, with adjacent types moreclosely related than those more distant. The model is widely used in vocational counseling.

Trait models have been criticized as being purely descriptive and offering little explanation of the underlying causes of personality.Eysenck's theory, however, does propose biological mechanisms as driving traits, and modern behavior genetics researchers haveshown a clear genetic substrate to them.[vague] Another potential weakness of trait theories is that they may lead some people to acceptoversimplified classifications—or worse, offer advice—based on a superficial analysis of personality. Finally, trait models oftenunderestimate the effect of specific situations on people's behavior. It is important to remember that traits are statistical generalizationsthat do not always correspond to an individual's behavior.

Does the importance of genetic influences on personality characteristics change across the 5 year period?Are genetic influences important for the likeliness of co- twins to change in the same way over the period of time?Are there genetic influences on the tendency of the co- twins to change, without keeping in mind the direction of the change

Age differences create more variables even within a family, so the best comparisons are found using twins. Twins typically share a familyenvironment called a shared environment because they may share other aspects like teachers, school, and friends. A non-sharedenvironment means completely different environment for both subjects. "Biologically related children who are separated after birth andraised in different families live in non-shared environments." Identical twins separated at birth and raised in different families constitute thebest cases for heredity and personality because similarities between the two are due only to genetic influences. Vulnerability was a factorin this study that was taken into consideration regarding the issue of genetic influences on vulnerability. The study concluded that themonozygotic co- twins would be more similar than dizygotic co- twins in change over time. To answer the questions as to whether change

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is genetically influenced through personality, the data concluded that there was no significant differences for either variances between themonozygotic and dizygotic co- twins.[3][4]

A link was found between the personality trait of neuroticism and a polymorphism called 5-HTTLPR in the serotonin transporter gene, butthis association was not replicated in larger studies.[5] Other candidate gene studies have provided weak evidence that somepersonality traits are related to AVPR1A ("ruthlessness gene") and MAOA ("Warrior gene"). Genotypes, or the genetic make up of anorganism, influence but don't fully decide the physical traits of a person. Those are also influenced by the environment and behaviorsthey are surrounded by. For example, a person's height is affected by genetics, but if they are malnourished growth will be stunted nomatter what their genetic coding says. Environment is also not completely responsible for an outcome in personality. An example from"Psychobiology of Personality" by Marvin Zuckerman is alcoholism: Studies suggest that alcoholism is an inherited disease, but if asubject with a strong biological background of alcoholism in their family tree is never exposed to alcohol, they will not be so inclinedregardless of their genome.[6]

Another factor that can be addressed is biological versus adoptive relatives, a real- life experiment, adoption. This creates two groups:genetic relatives (biological parents and siblings) and environmental relatives (adoptive parents and siblings). So the question can beasked, are adopted children more like their biological parents, who share the same genes, or their adoptive parents, who share thesame home environment? And consequently to sharing that home environment, do those adopted siblings come to share traits as well?After studying hundreds of adoptive families, the discovery was that people who grow up together, whether biologically related or not, donot much resemble one another in personality. In characteristics such as extroversion and agreeableness, adoptees are more like theirbiological parents than to their adoptive parents. However, the minute shared-environment effects do not mean that adoptive parenting isineffective. Even though genetics may limit the family environment's influence on personality, parents do influence their children's attitudes,values, faith, manners and politics. In adoptive homes, child neglect and abuse and even divorce between the parents is uncommon. Inaccordance to that, it is not surprising, despite a somewhat greater risk of psychological disorder, most adopted children excel,especially when they're adopted as infants. In fact, seven out of eight have reported feeling a strong connection with one or even both oftheir adoptive parents.[7]

Type theoriesPersonality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of people. Personality types are distinguished from personalitytraits, which come in different levels or degrees. For example, according to type theories, there are two types of people, introverts andextraverts. According to trait theories, introversion and extraversion are part of a continuous dimension, with many people in the middle.The idea of psychological types originated in the theoretical work of Carl Jung[citation needed ] and William Marston, whose work is reviewedin Dr. Travis Bradberry's Self-Awareness . Jung's seminal 1921 book on the subject is available in English as Psychological Types .

Building on the writings and observations of Jung, during World War II, Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine C. Briggs,delineated personality types by constructing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.[8] This model was later used by David Keirsey with adifferent understanding from Jung, Briggs and Myers.[9] In the former Soviet Union, Lithuanian Aušra Augustinavičiūtė independentlyderived a model of personality type from Jung's called Socionics.

The model is an older and more theoretical approach to personality, accepting extraversion and introversion as basic psychological

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orientations in connection with two pairs of psychological functions:

Perceiving functions: sensing and intuition (trust in concrete, sensory-oriented facts vs. trust in abstract concepts and imaginedpossibilities)Judging functions: thinking and feeling (basing decisions primarily on logic vs. considering the effect on people).

Briggs and Myers also added another personality dimension to their type indicator to measure whether a person prefers to use a judgingor perceiving function when interacting with the external world. Therefore they included questions designed to indicate whether someonewishes to come to conclusions (judgment) or to keep options open (perception).[8]

This personality typology has some aspects of a trait theory: it explains people's behaviour in terms of opposite fixed characteristics. Inthese more traditional models, the sensing/intuition preference is considered the most basic, dividing people into "N" (intuitive) or "S"(sensing) personality types. An "N" is further assumed to be guided either by thinking or feeling, and divided into the "NT" (scientist,engineer) or "NF" (author, humanitarian) temperament. An "S", by contrast, is assumed to be guided more by the judgment/perceptionaxis, and thus divided into the "SJ" (guardian, traditionalist) or "SP" (performer, artisan) temperament.[9] These four are considered basic,with the other two factors in each case (including always extraversion/introversion) less important. Critics of this traditional view haveobserved that the types can be quite strongly stereotyped by professions (although neither Myers nor Keirsey engaged in suchstereotyping in their type descriptions[8][9]), and thus may arise more from the need to categorize people for purposes of guiding theircareer choice.[10] This among other objections led to the emergence of the five- factor view, which is less concerned with behavior underwork conditions and more concerned with behavior in personal and emotional circumstances. (It should be noted, however, that the MBTIis not designed to measure the "work self", but rather what Myers and McCaulley called the "shoes-off self."[11]) Some critics haveargued for more or fewer dimensions while others have proposed entirely different theories (often assuming different definitions of"personality").

Type A and Type B personality theory : During the 1950s, Meyer Friedman and his co-workers defined what they called Type A andType B behavior patterns. They theorized that intense, hard-driving Type A personalities had a higher risk of coronary disease becausethey are "stress junkies." Type B people, on the other hand, tended to be relaxed, less competitive, and lower in risk. There was also aType AB mixed profile.

Psychoanalytic theoriesPsychoanalytic theories explain human behaviour in terms of the interaction of various components of personality. Sigmund Freud was thefounder of this school. Freud drew on the physics of his day (thermodynamics) to coin the term psychodynamics. Based on the idea ofconverting heat into mechanical energy, he proposed psychic energy could be converted into behavior. Freud's theory places centralimportance on dynamic, unconscious psychological conflicts.

Freud divides human personality into three significant components: the id, ego, and super-ego. The id acts according to the pleasureprinciple, demanding immediate gratification of its needs regardless of external environment; the ego then must emerge in order torealistically meet the wishes and demands of the id in accordance with the outside world, adhering to the reality principle. Finally, thesuperego(conscience) inculcates moral judgment and societal rules upon the ego, thus forcing the demands of the id to be met not onlyrealistically but morally. The superego is the last function of the personality to develop, and is the embodiment of parental/social ideals

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established during childhood. According to Freud, personality is based on the dynamic interactions of these three components.[12]

The channeling and release of sexual (libidal) and aggressive energies, which ensues from the "Eros" (sex; instinctual self- preservation)and "Thanatos" (death; instinctual self- annihilation) drives respectively, are major components of his theory.[12] It is important to note thatFreud's broad understanding of sexuality included all kinds of pleasurable feelings experienced by the human body.

Freud proposed five psychosexual stages of personality development. He believed adult personality is dependent upon early childhoodexperiences and largely determined by age five.[12] Fixations that develop during the Infantile stage contribute to adult personality andbehavior.

One of Sigmund Freud's earlier associates, Alfred Adler , did agree with Freud that early childhood experiences are important todevelopment, and believed birth order may influence personality development. Adler believed the oldest was the one that set high goalsto achieve to get the attention they lost back when the younger siblings were born. He believed the middle children were competitive andambitious possibly so they are able to surpass the first-born's achievements, but were not as much concerned about the glory. He alsobelieved the last born would be more dependent and sociable but be the baby. He also believed that the only child loves being thecenter of attention and matures quickly, but in the end fails to become independent.

Heinz Kohut thought similarly to Freud's idea of transference. He used narcissism as a model of how we develop our sense of self.Narcissism is the exaggerated sense of one self in which one is believed to exist in order to protect one's low self esteem and sense ofworthlessness. Kohut had a significant impact on the field by extending Freud's theory of narcissism and introducing what he called the'self- object transferences' of mirroring and idealization. In other words, children need to idealize and emotionally "sink into" and identifywith the idealized competence of admired figures such as parents or older siblings. They also need to have their self-worth mirrored bythese people. These experiences allow them to thereby learn the self- soothing and other skills that are necessary for the development ofa healthy sense of self.

Another important figure in the world of personality theory was Karen Horney. She is credited with the development of the " real self" andthe "ideal self". She believes all people have these two views of their own self. The "real self" is how you really are with regards topersonality, values, and morals; but the "ideal self" is a construct you apply to yourself to conform to social and personal norms andgoals. Ideal self would be "I can be successful, I am CEO material"; and real self would be "I just work in the mail room, with not muchchance of high promotion".

Behaviorist theoriesBehaviorists explain personality in terms of the effects external stimuli have on behavior. It was a radical shift away from Freudianphilosophy. This school of thought was developed by B. F. Skinner who put forth a model which emphasized the mutual interaction of theperson or "the organism" with its environment. Skinner believed children do bad things because the behavior obtains attention that servesas a reinforcer. For example: a child cries because the child's crying in the past has led to attention. These are the response, andconsequences. The response is the child crying, and the attention that child gets is the reinforcing consequence. According to this theory,people's behavior is formed by processes such as operant conditioning . Skinner put forward a "three term contingency model" whichhelped promote analysis of behavior based on the "Stimulus - Response - Consequence Model" in which the critical question is: "Underwhich circumstances or antecedent 'stimuli' does the organism engage in a particular behavior or 'response', which in turn produces a

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particular 'consequence'?"

Richard Herrnstein extended this theory by accounting for attitudes and traits. An attitude develops as the response strength (the tendencyto respond) in the presences of a group of stimuli become stable. Rather than describing conditionable traits in non-behavioral language,response strength in a given situation accounts for the environmental portion. Herrstein also saw traits as having a large genetic orbiological component as do most modern behaviorists.

Ivan Pavlov is another notable influence. He is well known for his classical conditioning experiments involving dogs. These physiologicalstudies led him to discover the foundation of behaviorism as well as classical conditioning.

Social cognitive theoriesIn cognitive theory, behavior is explained as guided by cognitions (e.g. expectations) about the world, especially those about otherpeople. Cognitive theories are theories of personality that emphasize cognitive processes such as thinking and judging.

Albert Bandura , a social learning theorist suggested the forces of memory and emotions worked in conjunction with environmentalinfluences. Bandura was known mostly for his "Bobo Doll experiment". During these experiments, Bandura video taped a college studentkicking and verbally abusing a bobo doll. He then showed this video to a class of kindergarten children who were getting ready to go outto play. When they entered the play room, they saw bobo dolls, and some hammers. The people observing these children at play saw agroup of children beating the doll. He called this study and his findings observational learning, or modeling.

Early examples of approaches to cognitive style are listed by Baron (1982). These include Witkin's (1965) work on field dependency,Gardner's (1953) discovering people had consistent preference for the number of categories they used to categorise heterogeneousobjects, and Block and Petersen's (1955) work on confidence in line discrimination judgments. Baron relates early development ofcognitive approaches of personality to ego psychology. More central to this field have been:

Attributional style theory[13] dealing with different ways in which people explain events in their lives. This approach builds upon locus ofcontrol, but extends it by stating we also need to consider whether people attribute to stable causes or variable causes, and to globalcauses or specific causes.

Various scales have been developed to assess both attributional style and locus of control. Locus of control scales include those usedby Rotter and later by Duttweiler, the Nowicki and Strickland (1973) Locus of Control Scale for Children and various locus of controlscales specifically in the health domain, most famously that of Kenneth Wallston and his colleagues, The Multidimensional Health Locusof Control Scale.[14] Attributional style has been assessed by the Attributional Style Questionnaire, [15] the Expanded Attributional StyleQuestionnaire,[16] the Attributions Questionnaire, [17] the Real Events Attributional Style Questionnaire [18] and the Attributional StyleAssessment Test.[19]

Achievement style theory focuses upon identification of an individual's Locus of Control tendency, such as by Rotter's evaluations, andwas found by Cassandra Bolyard Whyte to provide valuable information for improving academic performance of students.[20]

Individuals with internal control tendencies are likely to persist to better academic performance levels, presenting an achievementpersonality, according to Cassandra B. Whyte[20]

Recognition that the tendency to believe that hard work and persistence often results in attainment of life and academic goals has

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influenced formal educational and counseling efforts with students of various ages and in various settings since the 1970's research aboutachievement. [21] Counseling aimed toward encouraging individuals to design ambitious goals and work toward them, with recognition thatthere are external factors that may impact, often results in the incorporation of a more positive achievement style by students andemployees, whatever the setting, to include higher education, workplace, or justice programming.[22] [21]

Walter Mischel (1999) has also defended a cognitive approach to personality. His work refers to "Cognitive Affective Units", and considersfactors such as encoding of stimuli, affect, goal- setting, and self- regulatory beliefs. The term "Cognitive Affective Units" shows how hisapproach considers affect as well as cognition.

Personal Const ruct Psychology (PCP) is a theory of personality developed by the American psychologist George Kelly in the 1950s.From the theory, Kelly derived a psychotherapy approach and also a technique called The Repertory Grid Interview that helped hispatients to uncover their own "constructs" (defined later) with minimal intervention or interpretation by the therapist. The Repertory Grid waslater adapted for various uses within organizations, including decision-making and interpretation of other people's world-views. From his1963 book, A Theory of Personality , pp. 103–104:

Fundamental Postulate: A person's processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which the person anticipates events.Construction Corollary: A person anticipates events by construing their replications.Individuality Corollary: People differ from one another in their construction of events.Organization Corollary: Each person characteristically evolves, for convenience in anticipating events, a construction systemembracing ordinal relationships between constructs.Dichotomy Corollary: A person's construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous constructs.Choice Corollary: People choose for themselves the particular alternative in a dichotomized construct through which they anticipate thegreater possibility for extension and definition of their system.Range Corollary: A construct is convenient for the anticipation of a finite range of events only.Experience Corollary: A person's construction system varies as the person successively construes the replication of events.Modulation Corollary: The variation in a person's construction system is limited by the permeability of the constructs within whoseranges of conveniences the variants lie.Fragmentation Corollary: A person may successively employ a variety of construction subsystems which are inferentially incompatiblewith each other.Commonality Corollary: To the extent that one person employs a construction of experience which is similar to that employed byanother, the psychological processes of the two individuals are similar to each other.Sociality Corollary: To the extent that one person construes another's construction processes, that person may play a role in a socialprocess involving the other person.

Humanistic theoriesIn humanistic psychology it is emphasized people have free will and they play an active role in determining how they behave.Accordingly, humanistic psychology focuses on subjective experiences of persons as opposed to forced, definitive factors that determine

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behavior. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers were proponents of this view, which is based on the "phenomenal field" theory of Combs andSnygg (1949).[23]

Maslow spent much of his time studying what he called "self- actualiz ing persons", those who are "fulfilling themselves and doing the bestthey are capable of doing". Maslow believes all who are interested in growth move towards self- actualiz ing (growth, happiness,satisfaction) views. Many of these people demonstrate a trend in dimensions of their personalities. Characteristics of self- actualizersaccording to Maslow include the four key dimensions:

1. Awareness - maintaining constant enjoyment and awe of life. These individuals often experienced a "peak experience". Hedefined a peak experience as an "intensification of any experience to the degree there is a loss or transcendence of self". A peakexperience is one in which an individual perceives an expansion of his or herself, and detects a unity and meaningfulness in life.Intense concentration on an activity one is involved in, such as running a marathon, may invoke a peak experience.

2. Reality and problem centered - they have tendency to be concerned with "problems" in their surroundings.3. Acceptance/Spontaneity - they accept their surroundings and what cannot be changed.4. Unhost ile sense of humor/democrat ic - they do not like joking about others, which can be viewed as offensive. They have

friends of all backgrounds and religions and hold very close friendships.

Maslow and Rogers emphasized a view of the person as an active, creative, experiencing human being who lives in the present andsubjectively responds to current perceptions, relationships, and encounters. They disagree with the dark, pessimistic outlook of those inthe Freudian psychoanalysis ranks, but rather view humanistic theories as positive and optimistic proposals which stress the tendency ofthe human personality toward growth and self- actualization. This progressing self will remain the center of its constantly changing world; aworld that will help mold the self but not necessarily confine it. Rather, the self has opportunity for maturation based on its encounters withthis world. This understanding attempts to reduce the acceptance of hopeless redundancy. Humanistic therapy typically relies on the clientfor information of the past and its effect on the present, therefore the client dictates the type of guidance the therapist may initiate. Thisallows for an individualized approach to therapy. Rogers found patients differ in how they respond to other people. Rogers tried to modela particular approach to therapy- he stressed the reflective or empathetic response. This response type takes the client's viewpoint andreflects back his or her feeling and the context for it. An example of a reflective response would be, "It seems you are feeling anxiousabout your upcoming marriage". This response type seeks to clarify the therapist's understanding while also encouraging the client tothink more deeply and seek to fully understand the feelings they have expressed.

Biopsychological theoriesSome of the earliest thinking about possible biological bases of personality grew out of the case of Phineas Gage. In an 1848 accident,a large iron rod was driven through Gage's head, and his personality apparently changed as a result, although descriptions[24] of thesepsychological changes are usually exaggerated.[25][26]

In general, patients with brain damage have been difficult to find and study. In the 1990s,researchers began to use Electroencephalography (EEG), Positron Emission Tomography (PET)and more recently functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which is now the most widelyused imaging technique to help localize personality traits in the brain. One of the founders of this

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Graphic by Damasio et al. [24 ]

showing how the tamping iron may havedamaged both frontal lobes. (A 2004study by Ratiu and colleagues suggeststhe damage was more limited.)[27]

Wikiversity has learningmaterials about Personality

area of brain research is Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Davidson'sresearch lab has focused on the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala inmanifesting human personality. In particular, this research has looked at hemispheric asymmetryof activity in these regions. Neuropsychological experiments have suggested that hemisphericasymmetry can affect an individual's personality (particularly in social settings) for individualswith NLD (non-verbal learning disorder), which is marked by the impairment of nonverbalinformation controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain. Progress will arise in the areas ofgross motor skills, inability to organize visual- spatial relations, or adapt to novel socialsituations.[clarification needed ] Frequently, a person with NLD is unable to interpret non-verbal cues,and therefore experiences difficulty interacting with peers in socially normative ways.

One integrative, biopsychosocial approach to personality and psychopathology, linking brainand environmental factors to specific types of activity, is the hypostatic model of personality,created by Codrin Stefan Tapu.[28]

Personality testsThere are two major types of personality tests. Project ive tests assume personality is primarilyunconscious and assess an individual by how he or she responds to an ambiguous stimulus,like an ink blot. The idea is unconscious needs will come out in the person's response, e.g. anaggressive person may see images of destruction. Object ive tests assume personality isconsciously accessible and measure it by self- report questionnaires. Research on psychological assessment has generally foundobjective tests are more valid and reliable than projective tests. Critics have pointed to the Forer effect to suggest some of these appearto be more accurate and discriminating than they really are.

Personality and inner experienceThis section requires expansion.

Psychology has traditionally defined personality through behavioral patterns, and more recently with neuroscientific study of the brain. Inrecent years, some psychologists have turned to the study of inner experiences for insight into personality and individuality. RusselHurlburt, a psychologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has studied personality by having individuals record their individualexperiences at random times throughout the day.[29] In analyz ing the mental freeze- frames that his subjects report, he has foundsignificant variation in inner mental life, and several correlations with behavioral patterns.

See alsoBig Five personality traitsCareer development

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CareerClinical psychologyDissociative identity disorderEducational psychologyEnneagram of PersonalityHolland CodesIndividual differencesJournal of Individual DifferencesMyers-Briggs Type IndicatorPersonPersonality disorderProScan SurveyPsychological typologiesPsychotherapySelf- conceptSelf-esteemSelf-ConcealmentTeam CompositionTrait LeadershipTrait theoryType A personalityWill (philosophy)

Notes1. ^ a b Santrock, J.W. (2008). The Self, Identity, and Personality. In Mike Ryan (Ed). A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. (pg 411-412).

New York:McGraw-Hill.2. ^ Ashton, M.; Lee, K. (2008). "The HEXACO Model o f Personality Structure" . Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2 (5): 1952.

do i:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00134.x .3. ^ Pogue-Geile, Michael F.; Rose, Richard J. (1985). "Developmental Genetic Studies o f Adult Personality". Developmental Psychology 21 (3):

547–557. do i:10.1037/0012-1649.21.3.547 .4. ^ Scarr, Sandra; Webber, Patricia L.; Weinberg, Richard A.; Wittig, Michele A. (1981). "Personality Resemblance among Adolescents and Their

Parents in Bio logically Related and Adoptive Families". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40 (5): 885–898. do i:10.1037/0022-3514.40.5.885 .

5. ^ Terracciano, Antonio ; et al. (2009). "Variants o f the sero tonin transporter gene and NEO-PI-R Neuroticism: No association in the BLSA andSardiNIA samples" . Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 150B (8 ): 1070–7. do i:10.1002/ajmg.b.30932 . PMC 2788669 .PMID 19199283 .

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6. ^ Marvin Zuckerman7. ^ Myers,D. G. (2010). Psycho logy (9 th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.8 . ^ a b c Myers, Isabel Briggs with Peter B. Myers (1980, 1995). Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type . Mountain View, Califo rnia: Davies-

Black Publishing. ISBN 0-89106-074-X.9 . ^ a b c Keirsey, David (May 1, 1998) [1978]. Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence (1st ed.). Prometheus Nemesis Book

Co. ISBN 1885705026.10. ^ Pittenger, David J. (November 1993). "Measuring the MBTI. . .And Coming Up Short" (PDF). Journal of Career Planning and Employment

54 (1): 48–52.11. ^ Myers, Isabel Briggs; Mary H. McCaulley (1985). Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (2nd ed.).

Palo Alto , Califo rnia: Consulting Psycho logists Press. pp. 8 . ISBN 0-89106-027-8.12. ^ a b c Carver, C., & Scheier, M. (2004). Perspectives on Personality (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.13. ^ Abramson, Seligman and Teasdale, 197814. ^ Wallston et al, 197815. ^ Peterson et al, 198216. ^ Peterson & Villanova, 198817. ^ Gong-guy & Hammen, 199018. ^ Norman & Antaki, 198819. ^ Anderson, 198820. ^ a b Whyte, Cassandra Bo lyard (1978). "Effective Counseling Methods for High-Risk College Freshmen". Measurement and Evaluation in

Guidance 10 (4): 198–200.21. ^ a b Lauridsen Kurt (ed) and Whyte, Cassandra B. (1985) An Integrated Counseling and Learning Assistance Center-Chapter fo r New

Directions Sourcebook. Jossey-Bass, Inc22. ^ Whyte,Cassandra and Whyte, William R.(1982)."Accelerated Programs Behind Prison Walls". Co llege Student Journal. 16.(1).70-74.23. ^ Combs, Arthur W., and Snygg, Donald. : A New Frame of Reference for Psychology . New York, Harper and Brothers. Article on Snygg and

Combs' Phenomenological Field Theory24. ^ a b Damasio H., Grabowski T,. Frank R., Galaburda AM., Damasio AR (1994). "The return o f Phineas Gage: clues about the brain from the

skull o f a famous patient". Science 264 (5162): 1102–1105. do i:10.1126/science.8178168 . PMID 8178168 .25. ^ Macmillan, M. (2000). "Chs. 6 ,13,14". An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage . MIT Press. ISBN 0262133636.26. ^ Macmillan, M. (2008). "Phineas Gage – Unravelling the myth" . The Psychologist (British Psycho logical Society) 21 (9 ): 828–831.27. ^ * Ratiu, Peter; Talos, Ion-Florin (2004). "The Tale o f Phineas Gage, Digitally Remastered". New England Journal of Medicine 351 (23): e21.

do i:10.1056/NEJMicm031024 . PMID 15575047 .28. ^ Tapu, Codrin Stefan. (2001). Hypostatic Personality: Psychopathology of Doing and Being Made . Plo iesti: Premier.29. ^ Hoffman, Jascha (December 21, 2009). "Taking Mental Snapshots to Plumb Our Inner Selves" . New York Times . Retrieved 3 April 2011.

References

This article lacks ISBNs for the books listed in it . Please make it easier to conductresearch by listing ISBNs. If the {{Cite book}} or {{ citation}} templates are in use, you may addISBNs automatically, or discuss this issue on the talk page. (April 2011)

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Santrock, J.W. (2008).The Self, Identity, and Personality. In Mike Ryan(Ed.). A Topical Approach To Life-Span Development . (pg 411-412). New York:McGraw-Hill.Abramson, L., M.E.P. Seligman, and J. Teasdale (1978). "Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation". Journal ofAbnormal Psychology 87 (1): 49–74. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.87.1.49 . PMID 649856 .Allport, G. W. (1937). Personality: A psychological interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Baron, J. (1982). "Intelligence and Personality." In R. Sternberg (Ed.). Handbook of Intelligence . Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.Bradberry, T. (2007). The Personality Code. New York: Putnam.Engler, Barbara (2006). Personality Theories . Houghton Mifflin.Foschi R. (2003). L’indagine sulla personalità alle origini della psicologia scientifica francese (1870–1885). Physis, Rivistainternaz ionale di storia della scienza, vol. 40 (1-2), 63-105, ISSN: 0031-9414Handbook of Personality, Third Edition: Theory and Research" by Oliver P. John PhD, Richard W. Robins PhD, and Lawrence A. PervinPhD, The Guilford Press, New York, 2008Hjelle, L. and D. Ziegler (1992). Personality: Basic Assumptions, Research and Applications. New York: McGraw Hill* Lombardo, Giovanni Pietro; Foschi, Renato (2002). "The European Origins of "Personality Psychology"". European Psychologist 7(2): 134–145. doi:10.1027//1016-9040.7.2.134 .Lombardo, Giovanni Pietro; Foschi, Renato (2003). "The concept of personality in 19th-century French and 20th-century Americanpsychology". History of Psychology 6 (2): 123–142. doi:10.1037/1093-4510.6.2.123 . PMID 12817602 .Ryckman, R. (2004). Theories of Personality . Belmont, California: Thomson/Wadsworth.Tapu, C.S. (2001). Hypostatic Personality: Psychopathology of Doing and Being Made . Ploiesti: Premier.

Further readingMischel, W. (1999). Introduction to Personality . Sixth edition. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace.Bradberry, T. (2007). The Personality Code. New York: Putnam.Buss, D.M., & Greiling, H.(1999). "Adaptive Individual Differences". Journal of Personality , 67, 209-243.Lombardo G.P., Foschi R. (2003), "The Concept of Personality between 19th Century France and 20th Century American Psychology",History of Psychology , 6, 133-142.Lombardo G.P., Foschi R. (2002). "The European origins of "personality psychology". European psychologist 7 (2): 134–145.doi:10.1027//1016-9040.7.2.134 .

External linksNorthwestern University- led collaboration between personality psychologists worldwide to "attempt to bring information about currentpersonality theory and research to the readers of the World Wide Web"Cambridge University based myPersonality project offering to researchers access to robust database of millions of detailed psycho-demographic profiles

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