Defining the Human Personality

TUTORIAL

Defining the Human Personality

Psychology 105

What is Personality in all fairness? For years there have been many controversial and argumentative theories as to what makes up a person's personality. This leaves room for defining Personality in many different ways. In general, a good definition of Personality by means of Psychology is a compilation of distinctiveness which defines the kind of behaviors people have.

In retrospect, this is why I expressed particular behaviors and started to consider the manner in which I reacted to ahead of the stimulus within my own personal surroundings and environment at that time. For this reason, I became inquisitive to personal answers concerning the challenges of my life, which in turn, altered my personal way of thinking and perspectives of feeling, guessing, and reasoning as I grew older.

Can a person change their personality? In my opinion, it all depends on the individuals personal experiences since their childhood. But truly, people in general are habitual by nature. One personality perspective theory that any individual can closely relate with is the Behavioral Cognitive perspective. Cognitive psychology manifests for the most part, from the social learning theory and extension of the behavioral concept of individuals. It also has clear links to humanistic psychology as its "center of attention" on the information stored about one's self and in signifying the capability for adjusting their personality and mental health through changing their patterns of assessment and thinking (Carver, & Scheier, 2000).

A significant influence on the cognitive perspective of personality is regarding George Kelly's individual constructs theory. This theory emphasizes an individual's concept in support of their judgment regarding the world around them, which in turn, shapes that individuals personality and behavior (Kelly, 1955).

George Kelly explicitly stated that people cultivate constructs as internal ideas of reality to better understand events that surround them. They can be based on observations, interpretations or experiences and that every construct is bipolar, specifying how two things are alike to each other and different from a third thing but can be expanded with new ideas (Kelly, 1955). It is by this reasoning that the "shaping" of one's personality is more likely learned than innate as you get older.

Personality, in regards to Behavioral and Social Cognitive perspectives, is both conscious and unconscious. Since personalities are shaped

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