Psychological theories of personality



Psychological theories of personality

Introduction (200 words)

There are billions of human beings currently in existence the world. Yet, in spite of being in such huge numbers, each human being or person is different and unique. They bring with them a different mindset, a different variety of skill, and a different set of circumstances. All of these factors contribute towards creating or influencing their personalities. Psychology is the study of these individual behaviors, identifying a set of patterns that are common to the individuals and using them as benchmark for evaluation purposes. However, as I mentioned before, all people individual characteristics, so psychology is never 100% accurate. There is always a margin of error present and that is being of the human factor involved, of the testers and the test subjects both. Still a few generalized tests have been created corresponding to the most common set of personality traits exhibited by the majority of humanity, and their effects on the mould of the personality.

I shall be evaluating two such personality tests available to the general populace who claim to give a basic idea or structure for an individual's personality, by asking them a series of questions and judging their answers.

Discussion (700)

In spite of having belonged to different sets of backgrounds and having different equations, the personalities of individuals can be roughly identified to be more or less consistent with one another. Which is why it becomes a little bit easier to predict the behavior of the individual once the personality has been identified.

In personality determinants, I shall be evaluating two tests, the MBTI-type inventory and the Big Five Inventory. Just like different words could be used to identify the same two different factions, similarly, these are different tests proposed by two different scientists who also describe the same personality traits, albeit in different fashions.

The MBTI test or the Myers Briggs Personality Test has been in operation since 1943. It works by classifying the personality into 4 segments, 2 options in each segment out of which the subject is allowed to pick only one corresponding to his preferences or habits. They each take one letter out of the segment and in the end the set of 4 letters is said to be the personality type the person belongs to. It classifies the 4 segments as follows

Energy orientation

Extraverted (E): This personality type is for people who are more inclined to act without thinking, thrive on the attention of other individuals and may get depressed if they don't have multiple interactions with different individuals.

OR

Introversion (I): People belonging to this personality type look before they leap, are much more comfortable in isolation and are generally happy as long as they secluded with only one or two people for company.

Perceiving or understanding

Sensing (S): Thrives in the present and thinks practically. The like clear concise and concrete data and possess richly detailed memories of their past

OR

Intuition (N): Dreamers, preferring to live in the future, exercise their imaginations for ...