[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Personality
Personality is a collection of emotion, thought, and behavior patterns unique to a person. There are several theoretical perspectives on personality, which involve different ideas about the relationship between personality and other psychological constructs, as well as different theories about the way personality develops.Personality theories: There is a wide range of psychological theories about the way personality works. Most specific theories can be grouped into one of the following classes of theories.
Trait theories: According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association, personality traits are “prominent aspects of personality that are exhibited in a wide range of important social and personal contexts” (C.S. 2000). In other words: persons have certain characteristics, which partly determine their behavior. For example, a friendly person is likely to generally listen well and show interest in others.Three kinds of traits with varying degrees of intensity: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits, a two-tiered personality structure with fifteen primary factors and five secondary factors” (Arndt, 1974). A five-dimension personality model, nicknamed the Big Five: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Intellect.
A ‘RIASEC’ model of personality widely used in vocational counseling, RIASEC is a circumflex model where the six types, which are represented as a hexagon where physically closer types are more related than distal types: “Realistic - Physical, hands-on, tool-oriented, masculine. Investigative - Scientific, technical, methodological. Artistic - writing, painting, singing, etc. Social - nurturing, supporting, helping, healing. Enterprising - organizing, activating, motivating. Conventional - clerical, detail-oriented.
Psychodynamic theories: Psychodynamic (also called psychoanalytic) theories explain human behavior in terms of interaction between various components of personality. Behaviorist theories: Behaviorists explain personality in terms of reactions to external stimuli. According to these theories, processes such as operant conditioning form people’s behavior.Cognitive and social-cognitive theories: In cognitive, people's behavior is explained as guided by cognitions.....
