INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS

Individual Personality Characteristics

Individual Personality Characteristics

Introduction

Psychologists have devised a large number of distinct strategies for studying the personalities of a person. These approaches may be distinguished along two contrasts. First, some researchers prefer single case studies that concentrate on a single leader or a common man, whereas others favor multiple case studies that include a large sample of people. Second, whereas some researchers engage in qualitative assessments of personalities, others are committed to quantitative assessments of people who are at top-level positions. In theory, these two distinctions yield four different kinds of investigation: (1) qualitative single case, (2) quantitative single case, (3) qualitative multiple case, and (4) quantitative multiple case. In fact, the research literature includes examples of all four types (Hinshaw & Pennington, 2002). That said, two approaches have generated by far the most research: qualitative single case and quantitative multiple case studies to analyze the personality of a person. However, for analyzing the personality on psychological meter, MBTI or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Big Five factors are recommended mostly by researcher.

In this connection, MBTI and Big Five factors are considered useful in describing personality characteristics as they are efficient in characterizing the behavior of an average person on the street. In this paper, I will pick three personality characteristics of mine in accordance with the factors which will be selected from MBTI or from Big Five factors, and explain how my particular personality characteristics could have developed and relate this to examples from real life experiences for each of the following period's early development, family and social relationships, educational background. Finally the section will assess how these characteristics have influenced my social and occupational choices.

Background of the Study

Consider the following leaders: Hammurabi, Cyrus the Great, Pericles, Asoka, Cleopatra, Augustus Caesar, Harun al-Rashid Saladin, Genghis Khan, Moctezuma II, Louis XIV le Grand, Shaka Zulu, Abraham Lincoln, Meiji Mutsuhito, Chulalongkorn, Vladimir Lenin, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Kemal Ataturk, Mao Zedong, Indira Gandhi, Idi Amin, and Fidel Castro. These names certainly represent a heterogeneous group of people with respect to such demographic variables as birth year, geographic origins, ethnicity, and gender. Notwithstanding this diversity, they all count as exemplars of a special form of leadership (Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman & Teta et al, 1993). All occupied the top power positions in their respective nations. Of course, some inherited that position, others were democratically elected, and yet others attained the power through usurpation, revolt, or rebellion and some of these leaders might be considered far more successful than the others. However, psychological researchers believe the MBTI and Big Five factors are best in describing the personality of a leader or of a common man.

Big Five Factors

The Big Five Factors are comprised of following five factors:

Openness to experience (i.e., wide interests, imaginative, intelligent, original, insightful, curious, sophisticated, artistic, clever, inventive, sharp-witted, ingenious, creative, and wise);

Extraversion (i.e., talkative, assertive, active, energetic, outgoing, outspoken, dominant, forceful, enthusiastic, sociable, and adventurous);

Agreeableness (i.e., sympathetic, kind, appreciative, affectionate, soft-hearted, warm, generous, trusting, helpful, forgiving, pleasant, good-natured, friendly, ...