The variability between individuals both physical or psychologically is significant and unique among species. Psychologist differs on the meaning of personality a term that originates from persona a Latin word used to refer to the theatrical mask that was worn by Roman actors while performing in Greek dramas. Personal growth is an ongoing process where changes can be observed from childhood to adulthood. An individual can either pass through different stages where they undergo qualitative transition or experience gradual increase or decline in their traits. There are many advantages for a psychologist to understand personality both for career development and to support him in decision making. Managers and leaders also need to understand personality to be able to motivate their subordinates. There are many theories like psychodynamic, attachment, psychosocial, behavioral, cognitive, social learning and trait that try to explain personality each one has its unique characteristics and assumptions.
Development of personality
Human beings just like other species have differences that make them unique. The variability between individuals both physical or psychologically is significant and unique among species. Some people desire social contact and stimulation while others are quiet and introverted, others are calm and even-keeled yet others are persistently anxious and high strung. Psychologist differs on the meaning of personality a term that originates from persona a Latin word used to refer to the theatrical mask that was worn by Roman actors while performing in Greek dramas. Such actors wore a persona that helped them project a role or a kind false appearance. The use of the term personality by psychologist refers to something that is more than the individual roles. Theorists trying to understand the concept have not agreed upon a single definition of the term personality. Different theories have emerged because there is no agreement on the differences between individuals and each one perceived personality from a personal reference point (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013). The manner in which individuals perceive one another and the awareness of oneself and personal goals leads to the understanding of how impressions are formed, traits are evaluated and how opinions for individual potential are formed. The debate on the development of personality is helpful to the psychologist as they try to understand the behavior of an individual, their motivation, and formation of opinion and evaluation of traits.
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Personal growth
As an individual grows, they encounter different settings, groups, and situations at different stages and places. An individual's personality also changes over time where they become differentiated from their childhood to adulthood. The environment also influences such changes. An individual can either pass through different stages where they undergo qualitative transition or experience gradual increase or decline in their traits. The search for calmness, happiness, creativity, clarity, and perfection has led to extensive literature review as individuals try to establish what contributes to personal growth or development. It is the ability to apply self-awareness and to relate with others leads to contentment and growth in confidence that helps a person to be happy and be engaged in whatever they are doing. Growth is an evolving process and just like life, it is constantly changing and evolving. Personal growth involves the development and enhancement of all aspects of an individual including feelings about oneself and ability to live. It involves developing positive life skills as well as realistic self-esteem (Mayer, 2015).
Personal development relates to mental physical, emotional social and spiritual growth that empowers an individual to live a satisfying life in a society. Such growth is achieved by developing life skills that fall into feeling about self, family friends and the community including leisure, job and spiritual. Growth is a goal for individuals who suffer from issues with their relationships with others or suffering from feelings of anxiety, low self-esteem or depression. It can also include people who are successful but would like to improve their ability, efficiency and to feel intimate and relate to others. It can also involve a feeling of satisfaction and enjoyment (Uğur, Constantinescu & Stevens, 2015).
Importance of understanding personality
The understanding of personality is not only interesting for academic purposes but also has many benefits for the daily life. By understanding other people it will be easier to deal with different situations and people. To the psychologist, personality offers a practical subject that enables them to get people, influence and help them and to support them to achieve the desired goal. It is helpful in shaping the decision-making process and in the motivation of people. Similarly, it is a useful element in the management of people and conflict resolution. It also helps the psychologist to understand and manage how they impact others. By studying personality, one appreciates its stability in people and therefore would not try to institute actions to change it to fit the way they desire. Knowledge of personality helps leaders to understand their own dimensions thus try to emphasize on the positive while mitigating against the negative (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013).
Literature Review
Overview of Personality Theories
There is no single definition that best fits personality and theorist have come up with different theories to try and explain the concept. The different theories are different on the basis of the nature of humanity where each reflects the assumptions on humanity made by the author. Such assumptions are based on a broad dimension that differentiates the various theorists. Six dimensions that are used as a framework for studying the different dimensions are available. They include the determinism vs. free choice, pessimism vs. optimism, causality vs. teleology, attitude towards conscience against unconscious determinants of behavior. Another is the biological vs. Social influence on personality and lastly uniqueness vs. Similarities (Spinath, Spinath, Riemann & Angleitner, 2003).
Psychodynamic
This theory incorporates all theories that see the functioning of the human based on the interactions of the drives and forces in the person especially in the unconscious and among different structures of personality. It was originated by Freud in his psychoanalysis but psychodynamic as a whole incorporates all theories that were based on his ideas in their entirety. They include theories from Freud and all his followers. Freud, for example, developed clinically tested theories which have formed the base for the psychodynamic approach (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013: Hogan & Smither, 2008).
Attachment theory
It is concerned with the developmental psychology that considers attachment in in terms of personal development. According to this theory, an individual's ability to form an emotional and physical attachment to others leads to a sense of stability as well as security which is necessary for growth, risk-taking, branching, and developing a personality. The theory was postulated by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013: Hogan & Smither, 2008).
Psychosocial theory
It was formulated by Erik Erickson and comprises eight stages that transcend from infancy to adulthood. According to him, at each stage, an individual experiences psychosocial crisis which can exhibit positive and negative outcomes for the development of psychology. His ideas were influenced by Freud but the two differed in that Freud was more of an id psychologist while Erik was more of an ego psychologist (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013: Hogan & Smither, 2008).
Behavioural theory
It is a psychological approach that considers the scientific as well as objectives to investigate. It is concerned with the visible stimulus-response behavior and realizes that behavior is learned through the interaction in the environment. It assumes that all behavior is learned from the environment. It also proposes that psychology should be taken as a science and is concerned with observable behavior (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013: Hogan & Smither, 2008).
Cognitive theory
This theory shows how a child develops a mental model and disagrees with the idea that intelligence is a fixed trait but rather a process that occurs with biological maturation as well as the interaction with the environment. According to Piaget, the wrong answers given by children to questions that needed logical revealed significant differences between the adults and the children. In 1936 he conducted a systematic study for cognitive development and was interested in measuring the ability of the children to count, spell and solve problems to establish their I.Q (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013: Hogan & Smither, 2008).
Social Learning
According to this theory, people learn through others using observations, imitation, and modeling. The outcomes of such behaviors affect the learning process. Observation, in this case, helps one to form an idea of the learning or performing of new behavior. The coded information can later be used as a guide for actions. The continuous reciprocal interaction between the environment, behavior, and environmental influences forms the basis for social learning (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013: Hogan & Smither, 2008).
Trait theory
According to this theory, personality is best understood by positing that all individuals have unique traits which are a characteristic way through which people behave. It recognizes issues like extraversion, introversion where a person can fall at any point along the continuum. The position of such an individual determines how they will react in different situations. Allport arranged traits into a hierarchy of three levels which are cardinal, central and secondary traits. Other contributors included Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck (Hudson & Fraley, 2015).
References
Feist, J., Feist, G., & Roberts, T. (2013). Theories of personality (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hogan, R., & Smither, R. (2008). Personality . Tulsa, OK: Hogan Press.
Hudson, N., & Fraley, R. (2015). Volitional personality trait change: Can people choose to change their personality traits?. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology , 109 (3), 490-507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000021
Mayer, J. (2015). The personality systems framework: Current theory and development. Journal Of Research In Personality , 56 , 4-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.01.001
Spinath, B., Spinath, F., Riemann, R., & Angleitner, A. (2003). Implicit theories about personality and intelligence and their relationship to actual personality and intelligence. Personality And Individual Differences , 35 (4), 939-951. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(02)00310-0
Uğur, Hasan, Petru-Madalin Constantinescu, and Michael J. Stevens. "Self-Awareness And Personal Growth: Theory And Application Of Bloom’S Taxonomy." Eurasian Journal of Educational Research 15.60 (2015): 89-110. Web. 15 Feb. 2018.
