Dwannda Tolston
PSY/201
April 26, 2015
Jacqueline Marinaro
There are several different perspectives to consider when discussing personalities. Psychoanalytic, humanistic, trait, social cognitive, and biological, are some examples of these perspectives. The word personality has many definitions. According to “Merriam Webster” personality is defined as, “the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual especially in relationship with others.” It is also defined as, “the organization of the individual’s distinguishing character traits, attitudes, or habits.” ("Merriam Webster", 2015) Psychoanalytic perspective is the effect that the unconscious mind and past experiences or early childhood has on your personality. Humanistic perspective is focused more on the effects of psychological growth and personal awareness. Trait perspective is an approach to studying human personality that identifies and measures the degree to which certain personality traits—recurring patterns of thought and behavior, such as anxiousness, shyness, openness to new things—exist from individual to individual. (“Trait Theory”). Social cognitive perspective shows the effect of learning by observing others within our social interactions. “Biological perspective on personality emphasizes the internal physiological and genetic factors that influence personality. This is primarily accomplished through correlating personality traits with scientific data from experimental methods such as brain imaging and molecular genetics.” ("Evaluating The Biological Perspective On Personality", 2014) I believe that our personalities are very changeable, however I think that this is also an extremely difficult task, because it also involves changing numerous things about our self. Our personality automatically changes throughout our life span. We are very different as adults than we are throughout our childhood and adolescent years. I do believe that as we reach adulthood changing our personalities can be very difficult. In order to change our personality we have to also change our psychoanalytic and trait perspective. Also some of your beliefs may have to be changed. Changing our unconscious mindset, beliefs, and our recurring behavior and thoughts take a lot of work.
Reference:
Merriam Webster. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/personality
Trait Theory . (). Retrieved from http://traittheory.com
“Evaluating the Biological Perspective on Personality.” Boundless Psychology. Boundless, 03 Jul. 2014. Retrieved 23 Apr. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/personality-16/biological-perspectives-82/evaluating-the-biological-perspective-on-personality-319-12854/
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