The Human Personality - Psychology Assignment

I am currently going through all of my old documents from almost 4 years of college. I will be adding them as much as I can, hopefully it can be of assistance to someone else who is writing reports or doing research. To find them, simply utilize the Archive on the right column. Enjoy!

The Human Personality

The personality is something exclusive to every human being. Our textbook (Wade & Tavris, 2006, p. 454) defines it as “a distinctive pattern of behavior, mannerisms, thoughts, motives, and emotions that characterizes an individual over time and across different situations.” Figuring out exactly who you are and how you think can be a rather interesting feat. With today’s resources (such as the internet) people are discovering more of who they are and work to change the problems with their personality that are counterproductive in their world.

According to most personality researchers, there are five main personality traits, known as the Big Five (Wade & Tavris, 2006, p. 464). The first is “extroversion versus introversion”. In other words is someone outgoing or shy? The next is neuroticism versus emotional stability. This is usually where pessimistic and anxious people are pinpointed. The third trait is “Agreeableness versus antagonism”. Is the person sociable and friendly or hostile and unfriendly? Fourth is “Conscientious versus impulsive”. Is the person dependable or are they reckless and careless? Last is “Openness to experience versus resistance to new experiences”. Is the person open-minded when it comes to experiencing life, or are they routine and against change?

Everyone can find themselves in those different groups. To find out which I was, I took a test (for entertainment purposes only) at Outofservce.com and found it to be very insightful. After answering various questions about my personality my results were sent to me (shown below):

Your Results

Closed-Minded
Conscientious
Introverted
Disagreeable
Agreeable
Calm / Relaxed

I agree, for the most part, with the results of the test. I can see where I am more closed-minded. I like routine more than I like to switch things up. I am very conscientious and can be introverted. In some situations I can be very outgoing, but in any given situation I can be more on the shy side. I also agree that I am more on the agreeable spectrum (How ironic?). And I am very calm and relaxed. I don’t get worked up much, unless I’m in traffic. But overall I’m a very dependable, hard-worker that takes responsibility very seriously and gets along great with lots of different types of people.

I believe that the introverted factor comes from genetics. People say they are more like their mom or more like their dad. I have to say most aspects of my personality come from my dad. I’m introverted, reasonably intelligent, modest, and a deep-thinker. My mother, on the other hand is the opposite. She’s very extroverted and carefree. With these two extremes I can see where genetics play a huge part on our personalities. My brother, who grew up in the same exact household, had more of my mother’s personality. We had the same upbringing environment but had two different personalities mirroring both parents. Genetics is a very important part of personality.

A person’s personality is something that is apparent on a daily basis, but what really makes up the personality and the forces that come together to make someone the way they are is very interesting. Hopefully everyone will take the effort to learn more about themselves and those around them. Maybe then we can learn to work better with each other through understanding.



References
Wade, Carole & Tavris, Carol (2006). Psychology. Eighth Edition. New York: Worth Effects of severe daily events on mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 137-144.

Porter, Jeff (2000-2003) The Big Five Personality http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive