SOCIAL SCIENCES - PSYCHOLOGY

Comparison between Two Trait Theories of Personality: Neuroticism and Extraversion

Comparison between Two Trait Theories of Personality: Neuroticism and Extraversion

Introduction

Personality is a unique psychological makeup of an individual that consistently influences how that person responds to his/her environment. Personality is a combination of a person's traits, character, attitude and behavior that sets him or her apart from other people and works as his or her identity (Wilson et al. 2005, p.842). The personality of a person plays an important role in both personal and professional life. It guides and directs our behavior to achieve different goals in different situations. There are many theories of personality which are based on two basic premises: 1. individuals have internal characteristics or traits and 2. There are no consistent differences between individuals on these characteristics and traits that can be measured. Most theories assume that the features are formed at an early age and remain relatively unchanged over the years (Wismeijer and Assen 2008).

Neuroticism

Neuroticism is a personality trait characterized by emotional instability, anxiety, low self-esteem and a high sense of guilt, sometimes autonomic disorders. Neuroticism is a tendency to negative experiences, inadequate situation and do not have an adaptive nature. Person feels peace of discomfort with the external welfare (Fleming et al. 2007, p.357). In neurotic disorders, there is a simple change in the personality that remains coherent while there are psychotic disorders in the habits and traditions, different behavior leads to a radical change in personality, which has deteriorated in most cases of chronic. The neurotic personality is characterized by the expression of an intense conflict internally.

Elevated levels of neuroticism are characterized by constant inappropriate anxiety. For instance, fear of public transportation in the ordinary situation. Person tends to have exaggerated feelings about their appearance, sexual usefulness, faithful husband or wife. Excessive anxiety is due to possible problems with money. Excessive demands on us and others about their experiences and their imperfections or it can be about illness (Robinson, 2006).

Discussion

The most consistent and original concept of neurosis in learning theory is developed by Eysenck (1961, 1964), is considered a form of neurotic disorders of learning, but represents as misfit behavior: the individual receives what is unprofitable for him, not what is profitable. At the heart of a neurosis, it is autonomic liability and ability of the nervous system in the formation of conditioned reflexes. Individual differences in these two areas Eysenck highlights two basic "parameters":

1) "Neuroticism" - emotional reactivity or congenital pre-disposition determines the degree of liability of the autonomic system (sometimes seen in terms of "stable - unstable"),

2) "Extraversion "reflecting the ability to form a conditioned reflex (Robinson and Tamir 2006, p.110).

Extraversion depends on the balance between the processes of cortical excitation and inhibition, understood in the sense of reactive inhibition (but not in the sense of internal inhibition Pavlov, as stressed by Eysenck) and is to reduce the ability to respond after a previous action. When extraversion observed prevalence of inhibition over excitation, with introversion, it ...