Personality Development Paper



Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion1

The Big Five Personality Traits2

Evaluation of Trait Approaches3

Biology and Evolutionary Approaches3

Twin Studies4

Conclusion5

References6

Personality Development Paper

Introduction

The personality is a topic very important in the personal, social and professional lives. Psychologists have invested mammoth amount of time and efforts to unfold the secrets of personality. Freud, Skinner and many other psychologists have tried their level best to describe the development of personality. Some have attributed it to the childhood experiences and things in the unconscious, while others have related it to the environment. There are biological theories as well, which prove that certain biological components also contribute to the personality and thus can be inherited through genes. This paper discusses the role of certain traits, genes, and environment to understand the role of each in the determination and development of personality.

Discussion

Personality is basically the pattern of enduring characteristics that produce individuality and consistency in a person. Many psychologists have studied the personality and its development right from its initiation. Freud is a famous psychologist who presented early literature as to how the personality is developed and he related it to the early stages of life and their influences on later life. He comprehended that, unconscious is more powerful in determining the personality and behavior of people rather than conscious conduct. However, his theories have been largely criticized.

A long debate in this regard is that, whether the personality is a genetic phenomenon which can be inherited to next generation from parents, or it is formulated as a result of environmental factors, which make each person unique. Trait theory is basically a model of personality which seeks to identify the basic traits necessary to describe personality. The definition of trait is that, these are consistent characteristics and behaviors displayed in different situations. The trait theorist assumes that, every person has got some trait, not bad or good but rather distinct enough to be identified. An example is that, two people can be highly friendly or less friendly; both are completely opposite to each other. However, both share a single trait that is friendliness, one being on lower degree and other on high.

Several theories have been proposed in the realm of trait theories. Allport, Cattel, and Eysenck all have presented their proposed answer for personality determination. Hans Eysenck proposed that, personality could be described in terms of just three major dimensions; extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. Extraversion is simply the degree of sociability. The neuroticism refers to the emotional stability and the psychoticism is the degree to which the reality is distorted. Eysenck gained wide popularity due to this theory and predicted the personality in variety of situations with these three dimensions.

The Big Five Personality Traits

Perhaps the most famous trait theory is big five personality traits, which have been standing now for more than two decades. This contends that, at the core of personality five basic traits define all personalities. A host of researchers have also confirmed the consistent presence of these five traits. These five factors include openness to ...