Understanding “Personality” from Psychological Perspectives

?“Oh, he has such a charming personality”, “He is a political personality”, “His personality makes him perfect for this position”, these are some of the phrases we say and hear when describing a personality.

?When asked to describe one’s personality, we use terms like good, lovely, honest, rude, ill-mannered, and like that. But this is not how psychologists define personality. They have their specific terminologies and definitions for describing personality, varying with the branch and type of psychology; clinical, behavioral, organizational, to name a few.

In this article, we will be talking about personality while staying within the areas of general and organizational psychology. Read till the end.

Definition of Personality

There have been many definitions of personality presented from many historical and modern-day persons coming from various backgrounds. To give you a general idea of personality from the perspectives of psychology, we will define it as:

?“A combination of patterns and traits that influence an individual’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors”.

?It is the personality that makes every individual unique from the other and makes the individual feel, think, behave and act in unique ways. Those unique patterns and traits strongly impact a person’s perceptions, values, attitudes, and expectations. Over time and growth, the personality attributes of a person greatly affect the overall life pattern of that person.

From the Window of Origin

The origin of the word “Personality” is derived from the Latin word ‘Persona’?which translates into “Speaking through Mask”. The idea behind this derivation is that personality is how others identify us through our external appearance. However, the idea is defied anymore because the personality is not only the external appearance.

A Deeper Look Through Psychological Sciences

Generally, personality is a whole of an individual, but in psychological sciences, the individual’s personality cannot be described based on his physical occurrence or personal appearance. Psychology takes into account all the physical, mental, emotional, and social aspects of a personality. The presence or absence of any of these individual attributes is not enough to label someone as good personality or bad personality. Instead, the pieces of all these aspects put together in a frame complete the pictorial puzzle of “Personality”.

Theories for Studying Personality

Famous thinkers and psychologists such as Erik Erikson or Sigmund Freud and many others have put their efforts into presenting their theories to understand the personality. In this article, we will brief you on 5 types of such theories which are most reliably studied across the world. Some of these theories explain personality with a broader perspective, while others only stay focused on a specific domain of personality.

●????Biological Theories

Biology suggests that personality comes with genetics. Biologists and geneticists believe that there is a strong connection between heredity and personality. They also link personality with nature as biology is all about the natural processes within a human body.

One of the famous biological theories comes from Hans Eysenck, who studied the links of biological processes with personality. According to his theory, personality is hugely influenced by cortisol (stress hormone).

●????Behavioral Theories

Behavioral theories emphasize the formation of personality as a result of individual interactions between humans and the environment. These theories nullify their counterparts which suggest that the personality is developed through internal thoughts, feelings, and moods. Behavioral theories only support the observable and measurable attributes that shape our personalities.

●????Psychodynamic Theories

The work of Sigmund Freud presented as psychodynamic theories define personality as something which comes from childhood experiences and unconsciousness. Freud gave six psychodynamic theories and identified 3 key components of personality as Id, Ego, and Superego. Id manifests the needs and urges of one’s personality, and the Superego revolves around morals and ideals. While the middle one, the Ego, sets the moderation of the two extremes.

●????Humanist Theories

These kinds of theories favor the significance of an individual’s ‘free will’ and ‘self-experiences’ in the adaptation of personality. Also, Humanist theories suggest that the ways of personal growth and the concept of self-discovery back personality behaviors in a person.

●????Trait Theories

In the field of personality psychology, trait theories play an important role in defining and understanding personality. According to these theories, personality is built by various broader traits. In psychology, a trait is considered a fingerprint that identifies certain behavioral patterns. A trait can be taken as a static characteristic that directs a person about how to behave or act in a specific situation.

?Wrapping Up

A personality seems as simple as a mirror, yet it is a complex phenomenon of human nature and nature itself. The complexity increases as we include other factors like social, environmental, and psychological factors. Whatsoever a personality is in psychological science, in plain language, personality is what makes you “You” and what makes me “Me.”