Due to your unique personality, you are who you are. It has a significant impact on everything from your relationships to your way of life; your way of thinking; your relationships with your family, friends, and your future.Your personality is taught in a branch of psychology called personality psychology.
Personality psychology focuses on how to learn more about what your personality is, how your personality is tested, the theories surrounding its development, and what it means to have a personality disorder. If you want to know more about personality psychology, you can dive into our post below. Here you go!
What Is Personality Psychology, According to Psychologists?
Of course, there are so many opinions about the concept of identity, and there is no universally agreed-upon definition of personality. According to kampuspsikologi.com, personality psychology is a study of how to think, behave, and also human behavior towards social circumstances that are consistent during the lifetime of an individual.
Some sources reveal that personality psychology is the study of how personality develops. It is known that personality psychology is one of the largest and most popular psychology branches. The experts who study personality psychology definitely study how our personalities develop and how they affect the way we think and behave.
Psychologists often look at how personality varies from one individual to the next, as well as how it might be similar. The psychologists would be tasked with the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of personality disorders.
Understanding someone’s personality allows psychologists to have the ability to predict a person’s response to a given circumstance. Not only that, your personality can also help them know, along with the things you like and value.
Popular Theories of Personality Psychology
There are a number of theories that have emerged to explain aspects of personality, including biological theories, behavioral theories, psychodynamic theories, humanist theories, and trait theories. Some focus on describing how personality develops, while others focus on the differences in human personality.
In this post, we will explain one of the personality psychology theories that is popular among personality psychology theories, i.e., the trait theory of personality. What is it?
Trait Theories of Personality
Trait theories are one of the most popular areas in personality psychology. According to trait theories, personality is made up of a number of broad traits. This theory centers on the idea that personality is composed of various traits. Various theories have emerged to identify the traits that are an important part of personality. There is also an attempt to determine the number of traits in a personality.
Gordon Allport was one of the first experts to describe personality in terms of individual traits. Based on his perspective, he revealed that there are some types of traits, i.e., common traits, central traits, and cardinal traits.
Here’s the explanation:
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- Common traits are the traits shared by various people in a particular culture.
- Central traits are traits that build a person’s personality.
- Cardinal traits are traits that are very dominant in a person, so that he or she becomes known for these traits.
Allport stated that there are at least 4,000 individual traits. In his contract with Allport, Raymond Cattel proposed that there are only 16 individual traits. He believed that those traits are always present and that everyone has each trait to varying degrees of intensity.
Another psychologist, Hans Eysenck, also narrowed down the number of human traits into three; extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. One of Eysenck’s theories that is very well known and accepted at this time is the theory of “The Big Five.” This theory actually carries the idea that personality consists of five broad categories. Here are they:
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- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Neuroticism
- Openness
The Big Five theory reveals that every trait has to exist in another trait. Someone’s personality will lie somewhere on the spectrum of each trait. Another popular theory is the MBTI and its cognitive functions, but its validity and reliability are still under debate.
Personality Psychology: Developments and Changes
Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual development is one of the most well-known theories that emphasizes the importance of the unconscious mind, dreams, childhood experiences, and symbolism. According to Freud, children progress through a series of stages during which libidinal energy is focused on certain sexual zones.
If these phases are completed, the children can move onto the next phase of development. Failure in any phase will lead them to fixation or addiction, which can affect their personality as adults. You may now know why this theory is so controversial.
Another psychologist, Erik Erikson, described eight psychological phases in human life. Just like Freud’s theory, each phase will play a significant role in the development of personality and psychological abilities.
At each phase, you will go through a period of crisis which becomes a turning point in the development of your personality. If you succeed in this phase, it will lead you to a healthy personality.
A Method to Test Your Personality
So, how do you know your personality? To know what your personality is, many psychologists have developed various tests, assessments, and inventories to measure and study personality.
It is known that the tests developed by psychologists can be utilized in various circumstances. One of the well-known tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test, which is often used for employee selection.
These assessments can also be used to help you learn aspects of your personality to improve your quality of life. For example, your relationship with your family may improve when both parties know that you prefer time apart to being together.
You might have seen the website that offers tests to find your personality. However, those tests are only created to entertain and do not provide you with real facts. So, never take the results of a personality assessment that you do online for granted.
Indeed, they may offer informative tools and can increase your knowledge, but a personality assessment should be carried out by a trained and educated expert in order to be used as a formal assessment or diagnosis.
Unfortunately, humanity is not perfect and personality disorders can occur. You can find information about personality disorders in the following section.
Personality Disorders
It is no wonder if personality psychologists are very interested in studying personality issues that arise. It is known that a personality disorder is described as a chronic mental illness which can affect the person’s thoughts, behaviour, and interpersonal skills.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders recently listed 10 personality disorders, some of which are antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
It could be hard to know that you or someone close to you has been diagnosed with a personality disorder, but you do not give up since there are treatments to recover from their mental issues.
What you should do is to ask for the help of an expert. By doing this, you can learn about the difficulties the personality disorder causes and strategies for overcoming them. Generally, you will feel scared and sad due to the future that you’ll face, but keep in mind that you’re not alone.
Remember that there are people who love you who are willing to help you heal, and there are also experts who are trained, talented, and ready to help you at every step of your treatment.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
