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Personality psychology

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces.[1] Its areas of focus include:

"Personality" is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by an individual that uniquely influences their environment, cognition, emotions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. The word personality originates from the Latin persona, which means "mask".


Personality also pertains to the pattern of thoughts, feelings, social adjustments, and behaviors persistently exhibited over time that strongly influences one's expectations, self-perceptions, values, and attitudes.[2] Personality also predicts human reactions to other people, problems, and stress.[3][4] Gordon Allport (1937) described two major ways to study personality: the nomothetic and the idiographic. Nomothetic psychology seeks general laws that can be applied to many different people, such as the principle of self-actualization or the trait of extraversion. Idiographic psychology is an attempt to understand the unique aspects of a particular individual.


The study of personality has a broad and varied history in psychology, with an abundance of theoretical traditions. The major theories include dispositional (trait) perspective, psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, behaviorist, evolutionary, and social learning perspective. Many researchers and psychologists do not explicitly identify themselves with a certain perspective and instead take an eclectic approach. Research in this area is empirically driven – such as dimensional models, based on multivariate statistics such as factor analysis – or emphasizes theory development, such as that of the psychodynamic theory. 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 psychology or clinical psychology.

Freedom versus determinism – This is the question of whether humans have control over their own behavior and understand the motives behind it, or if their behavior is causally determined by forces beyond their control. Behavior is categorized as being either unconscious, environmental or biological by various theories.

[5]

Heredity (nature) versus environment (nurture) – Personality is thought to be determined largely either by and biology, or by environment and experiences. Contemporary research suggests that most personality traits are based on the joint influence of genetics and environment. One of the forerunners in this arena is C. Robert Cloninger, who pioneered the Temperament and Character model.[5]

genetics

Uniqueness versus universality – This question discusses the extent of each human's individuality () or similarity in nature (universality). Gordon Allport, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Rogers were all advocates of the uniqueness of individuals. Behaviorists and cognitive theorists, in contrast, emphasize the importance of universal principles, such as reinforcement and self-efficacy.[5]

uniqueness

Active versus reactive – This question explores whether humans primarily act through individual initiative (active) or through outside . Traditional behavioral theorists typically believed that humans are passively shaped by their environments, whereas humanistic and cognitive theorists believe that humans play a more active role.[5] Most modern theorists agree that both are important, with aggregate behavior being primarily determined by traits and situational factors being the primary predictor of behavior in the short term.[6][7][8]

stimuli

Optimistic versus pessimistic – Personality theories differ with regard to whether humans are integral in the changing of their own personalities. Theories that place a great deal of emphasis on learning are often more optimistic than those that do not.

[5]

Many of the ideas conceptualized 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 general conclusions. The following five categories are some of the most fundamental philosophical assumptions on which theorists disagree:[5]

Perceiving functions: sensing and intuition (trust in concrete, sensory-oriented facts vs. trust in abstract concepts and imagined possibilities)

Judging functions: thinking and feeling (basing decisions primarily on logic vs. deciding based on emotion).

Verifiability – the theory should be formulated in such a way that the concepts, suggestions and hypotheses involved in it are defined clearly and unambiguously, and logically related to each other.

Heuristic value – to what extent the theory stimulates scientists to conduct further research.

Internal consistency – the theory should be free from internal contradictions.

Economy – the fewer concepts and assumptions required by the theory to explain any phenomenon, the better it is Hjelle, Larry (1992). Personality Theories: Basic Assumptions, Research, and Applications.

Allport, G. W. (1937). Personality: A psychological interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Mischel, Walter (1999-01-01). . John Wiley & Sons Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-470-00552-1. Retrieved 30 April 2012.

An Introduction to Personality

Buss, D.M.; Greiling, H. (1999). "Adaptive Individual Differences". Journal of Personality. 67 (2): 209–243.  10.1.1.387.3246. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.00053.

CiteSeerX

Lombardo, G.P.; Foschi, R. (2003). "The concept of personality in 19th-century French and 20th-century American psychology". History of Psychology. 6 (2): 123–142. :10.1037/1093-4510.6.2.123. PMID 12817602.

doi

Lombardo, G.P.; Foschi, R. (2002). "The European origins of "personality psychology". European Psychologist. 7 (2): 134–145. :10.1027//1016-9040.7.2.134.

doi

Engler, Barbara (2008-08-25). . Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-547-14834-2. Retrieved 30 April 2012.

Personality Theories: An Introduction

John, Oliver P.; Robins, Richard W.; Pervin, Lawrence A. (2010-11-24). . Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-60918-059-1. Retrieved 30 April 2012.

Handbook of Personality, Third Edition: Theory and Research

Hall, Calvin S., and Gardner Lindzey (1957). Theories of Personality. New York: J. Wiley & Sons. xi, 571 p., ill. with diagrams.

Hjelle, Larry A.; Ziegler, Daniel J. (1992-01-01). . McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-029079-2. Retrieved 30 April 2012.

Personality theories: basic assumptions, research, and applications

Ryckman, Richard M. (2007-03-15). . Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-495-09908-6. Retrieved 30 April 2012.

Theories of Personality

Northwestern University-led collaboration between personality psychologists worldwide to "attempt to bring information about current personality theory and research to the readers of the World Wide Web"

Psychology, Art of Human Life : Personality

Cambridge University based myPersonality project offering to researchers access to robust database of millions of detailed psycho-demographic profiles

Personality Theories

Personality: Theory & Perspectives – Individual Differences

(PDF)

Holland's Types

Murray, Henry A.; Kluckhohn, Clyde (1953). .

"Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture"

What is Personality Psychology?