Is Personality Science?

Is Personality Science?

Is Personality Science? The science of personality focuses on the field of personality psychology, also known as personology. It is the study of the person, that is, the whole human individual. The main part of personality psychology addresses the broader issue of “what is it to be a person”. There are two classes of research methods: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative methods involve measurements and qualitative methods do not. Measurement is very important to science because scientists want to get beyond the purely subjective and to the more objective. Creating personality tests to measure personality traits is a common activity of personality psychologists (webspace.ship.edu). Personality tests produce a wide range of self-descriptions. The responses are fairly repeatable over intervals of many years. They also correlate quite well with ratings of the person given by their spouse, friends or colleagues. Over the last 20 years, many studies in several different cultures have shown that much of the systematic variation in personality can be reduced to scores along five dimensions (the “Big Five”): Extraversion, Neurotism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness. These are all continuous dimensions (alternet.org). When we look at different personalities, we need to discuss them more in depth. Everyone has different personalities. Some people have personality disorders. There are many personality disorders. One I would like to discuss is borderline personality disorder (BPD). Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior (National Institute of Mental Health). Originally thought to be at the “borderline” of psychosis, people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation. While less well known from other personality disorders, BPD is more common, affecting 2 percent of adults, mostly young women (nimh.org). Recent research finds both environmental and genetic factors are thought to play a role in predisposing patients to BPD systems and traits. Studies show that many with BPD report a history of abuse, neglect, or separations as young children (nimh.org). NIMH-funded neuroscience research is revealing brain mechanisms underlying the impulsivity, mood instability, aggression, anger, and negative emotion seen in BPD (nimh.org). Treatments for BPD have improved in recent years. Psychotherapy is at least partially effective for many patients. Within the past 15 years, a new psychosocial treatment termed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was developed specifically to treat BPD, and this technique has looked promising. Pharmacological treatments are often prescribed based on specific target symptoms shown by the individual patient. Antipsychotic drugs may also be used when there are distortions in thinking (nimh.org).
There is also a treatment called transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP). TFP centers on the relationship between you and your therapist. This is to help you understand the emotions and difficulties that develop in your relationship, so you can use what you have learned in other relationships (mayoclinic.com). Psychotherapy is the core treatment for borderline personality disorder. If developments within psychology have facilitated the renaissance of personality studies, it is at the interface with biology where the exciting developments are beginning to come. With the use of brain imaging techniques that are now available, those simple pencil-and-paper personality test scores correlate significantly with the size of specific regions of the brain. I believe all people have good and bad personalities. Personality traits are aspects of our personalities that are shown in a wide range of important social and personal contexts. Do you think our genetic make-up only gives us our gender, if we are blonde/ brunette, etc? Or do our choices along the way make us who we are? But on the other hand, I would have to argue that it could be genetics that shape our personalitiesIt’s an interesting thought if we are handed down through our genes” who we are” to become before we are even born So to end my discussion, is our personality in our genes or in our environment? I believe it’s a little of both.

References
The science behind personality. (2007). Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://www.alternet.org/health/62829
Borderline personality disorder. (2010). Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/borderline-personality-disorder/DS00442/DSECTION
National Institute of Mental Health. (2010).Borderline personality disorder. Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/borderline-personality-disorder-fact-sheet/i
Personality theories: An introduction. (2010). Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/personalityintroduction.html

References: The science behind personality. (2007). Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://www.alternet.org/health/62829 Borderline personality disorder. (2010). Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/borderline-personality-disorder/DS00442/DSECTION National Institute of Mental Health. (2010).Borderline personality disorder. Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/borderline-personality-disorder-fact-sheet/i Personality theories: An introduction. (2010). Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/personalityintroduction.html