Personality - Overview, Test & Podcast

1) Earlier in the quarter we learned that TEMPERAMENT is building blocks of our PERSONALITY.

Understanding your personality will assist you in better answering the questions in the last session (are you: social/loner, pessimist/optimist, shy, happy, agreeable, etc...), thus having a stronger SELF CONCEPT.

Just like TEMPERAMENT can be broken down into NINE characteristics, PERSONALITY can be understood by breaking it down.

Psychologists describe personality as the differences in the way people relate to people and objects in the world around them. Researchers have agreed on five major dimensions of personality referred to as the,

 Big Five:

  • O penness/intellect
  • C onscientiousness
  • E xtraversion
  • A greeableness
  • N euroticism

Research supports the Big Five in adults but we have yet to find out whether it is the optimal way of describing children's personalities.

REVIEW:

Developmental researchers study temperament instead of personality in children as the foundation upon which adult personality is built. There are three major views of temperament and researchers have yet to agree on the best way to characterize variations in early temperament. One of the most influential temperament explanations has been Chess and Thomas's description of the difficult, easy, and slow-to-warm-up temperaments.

  • Each individual is born with genetically determined characteristic patterns of responding to the environment and people
  • Genetic differences operate via variations in fundamental physiological processes
  • Temperamental characteristics interact with the child's environment in ways that strengthen or modify the basic temperamental patterns
  • Psychoanalytical theorists believe the interaction between the child's inborn characteristics and the environment play a role in shaping differences in personality.
  • An interactionist view of personality where temperament/personality depends on the transactions between a child's initial characteristics and the responses of the environment. Personality development is complex and research has not been fully able to explain it.

2) Now that you've read about Personality, you're going to have the opportunity to evaluate yours. 

Take the Big Five Personality Test Links to an external site.

3) Listen to this short Podcast on personality.

What does it take to be a waiter? Links to an external site.