The term personality is used to describe the apparent features of an individual. In psychology, however, character is used to refer to characteristics pattern of thinking, feeling and behavior. The features pattern in an individual must be consistent and distinctive in the way they are organized. Thus, personality refers to the totality of an individual. Many psychologists have developed various theories about personality. This is because understanding personality has become one of the most challenging and difficult tasks. The theories, therefore, approach personality from different angles describing what constitutes it, how it develops and most importantly what influences it. Theories of personality in particular provide different explanations about the role of conscious/unconscious, upbringing and genetic factors in determining the uniqueness of an individual personality. They are various theoretical perspectives of personality; psychoanalytic, trait, humanistic and social cognitive. This paper combines various theories in explaining what personality comprises of, but it will mainly delve into the social cognitive theory.
Definition of personality social cognitive theory
Social cognitive personality theory describes people as organized, proactive, reflective and self-regulating (Kelder, Hoelscher& Perry, 2015). In this theory, personality has three essential features. Reciprocal determinism is one of the essential features where the social environment plays a critical role in the development of personality structures. The individuals’ behavior is shaped and determined by the external environment. The second defining feature of personality is the fact that the analysis of personality is conceptualized according to the function and differences among individuals. This means that the personality variables are different depending on the social foundation of an individual. Lastly, personality according to the theoretical framework is categorized as a complex and a dynamic system. Personality, therefore, is a system of dynamically interacting social –cognitive and affective processes (Kelder, Hoelscher& Perry, 2015). The ability to control one’s thought processes, motivation and actions operate through mechanisms of personal agency.
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Defining Self
There are different theories and definitions of self among psychologist. The self mainly refers to the part that enables one to relate with others. For the self to function properly, three parts must always be incorporate; self-knowledge, agent self, and interpersonal self. Self-knowledge encompasses individual awareness of oneself, self-esteem and what others know about you. The interpersonal self on the other and is what is mainly referred to as the public person. This component is what enables an individual to interact with others as well as how they display themselves to the public. Lastly, the agent self is what enables one to take actions. It determines how individuals make critical decisions and regulate their behavior.
Characteristics of a healthy personality
A healthy personality According to the social cognitive theory personality is defined by the following characteristics. One is the mastery of oriented patterns where an individual seeks to involve in challenging tasks and can generate effective strategies in the face of obstacles. The willingness to sustain this kind of challenges in difficult tasks is as a result of an individual motivation towards the attainment of a valued goal. Additionally, the person recognizes the commitment towards the valued goals may result in maximum attainment in the long run. The mastery –oriented personality is optimistic and maintains a positive and mostly shows heightened positive affect in the face of difficult problems. Individuals do not only believe that they can surmount to challenges or obstacles and reach a solution.
Positive cognition is also reflected in the way an individual solves his or her problems. Individuals with this kind of personality succeed in maintaining high levels of problem-solving strategies. In the face of failure, individuals maintain and exhibit constructive self-instruction and self-monitoring positive prognosis and a positive effect. This is despite have received difficult tasks that are sometimes are difficult to achieve or unattainable.
What give’s life meaning?
The field of personality has for many years relied heavily on the determinants that give an individual’s meaning in life. The setting of goals is one of the major components that give an individual a sense of purpose. This is because it enables an individual to use his limited energy to what is really important and most important what is likely to achieve one's goals. The setting of goals is about intentionally creating the life that one wants to live one step at times. The setting of goals is not essential but having the right one who contributes a lot to one's happiness and life satisfaction.
Motivation
Social cognitive theory of personality asserts that people do not just simply respond to the environment influences, but they seek to interpret information. An individual therefore acts as a major contributor to his motivation and behavior (Dahling, Melloy & Thompson, 2013).Bandura, came up with four components: self-realization, self-observation, self-reaction, and self-efficacy that play an essential role in influencing an individual's motivation.
Self –efficacy refers to the ability of a person to organize and perform actions that will improve prospective situations. Self-efficacy works on the principle that people engage in actions. The basic principle behind self-efficacy is people are motivated to perform better if the tasks performed have high self-efficacy. In self-reaction, motivation is as a result of one’s reaction to the performance. If a person progress is seen as bearing fruits and acceptable, one will be motivated more towards the achievement and realization of their goal. On the contrary, a negative self-reaction may also be motivating as the individual will desire to work hard to attain the goals(Dahling, Melloy & Thompson, 2013).
Self-evaluation aims to compare how one has progressed regarding his current performance with the desired performance. This mainly depends on the standards set by the environment. Goals that are not specific in most cases are not motivating as they are considered as vague. Individuals who achieve goals that they desire and value are likely to become motivated to continue exerting high levels of effort to gain satisfaction. Self-observation can motivate a person. In this case, when one assess his or her progress towards his or her goals achievement the regularity and proximity to it are very motivating. Motivation is intrinsic depending on an individual’s purpose towards achieving his goals. Additionally, the environment plays an essential role as it sets what is expected of oneself. Motivation, therefore, is intrinsically and environmentally related.
The Unconscious
Sigmund Freud is one of the personality theories that invented the conscious versus the unconscious part of the mind. According to him the unconscious part of the mind comprises of mental processes that are inaccessible but in most cases influences the way we think, feel, behave and judge. As individuals, we are not aware of what goes on in the unconscious mind as disturbing materials are often kept there as they may be threatening to our health life.
The concept of the unconscious mind for many years has proved to be a subject of frustration as it is difficult to measures as well to objectively test. I believe that human beings still have the unconscious part of the mind. Cognitive psychologists have identified it as a procedural memory that plays an essential role in automatic and implicit processing hence playing an important role in human behavior. The unconscious mind guides human behavior in that it protects individuals from experiencing anxiety. In that, its adaptive mechanisms act outside of the conscious for efficiency rather than repression of ideas.
Self-concept formation
Carl Rodgers, one of the humanistic psychologists, developed a personality theory that emphasized on the development of self-concept. Rodgers believed that self-concept develops based on the feedback individuals receive in their field of reality (Gessmann, 2013). Self-concept develops depending on the positive or negative regard. In an environment where there is no set of preconceived notions of value, an individual self-concept develops without too much restraint. However, in some cases, there are conditions that must be met or achieved to be considered successful. An individual self-concept develops when he or she identifies his ideal self and the real self. According to Gessmann (2013), the match plays an essential role in determining the life of an individual and the development of personality. I believe that the centrality of the formation and development of self-concept is determined by how one maintains his physical and psychosocial well-being. This means that there must be a correspondence between one real self and the ideal self on how the society wants one to be.
Differences and similarities among humans
Various factors determine the differences regarding behavior and personality among humans. Individuals are either similar or dissimilar depending on the pattern of their learned behavior through the environment they are brought or live in. The environment plays an essential role in shaping one's behavior either regarding rewards and punishments. Additionally, the cognition of an individual of a person in the learning process is crucial as it determines how one does perceive things and expectation. This, therefore, determines why humans behave differently from others. On the other hand, individuals are born differently because of their genetic compositions. Depending on one's genetic compositions different traits of personalities are formed, looks and the behaviors.
Human beings are alike in various ways. No matters their differences in language, religion, or the environment all of them have the exact feelings regarding sadness/happiness, despair/hope, and pride/shame. Additionally, humans process information and emotions the same way. The variation occurs due to the differences in their physical characteristics.
Normality in Human Beings
Normality in human beings is defined as the state if being normal as opposed to being deviant or unusual. Behavior is considered normal when it is consistent with the collective behavior of an individual. Additionally, if it conforms with what is expected by the society. However, the variation is different depending on the time, place, situation, and the person. Abnormal behavior according to psychologists is categorized into two categories: a typical and maladaptive. Others mostly interpret a typical abnormal behavior as deviant, eccentric and strange but occasionally it does not harm others. The individual deviates from what is expected especially from the society. The maladaptive abnormal behavior is harmful to people around but also mentally and physically to the person. Individuals who are abnormal may dance naked on highways and even drinking themselves into a stupor.
APPLICATION
Freya for many years has been diligent in the way she does her house works. Occasionally, she loves cleaning the house and digging her farmyard which most people dreads doing. She feels satisfied when people compliment her well-arranged and clean houses and her farmyard. Freya gets angry when things are not doing according to her wishes and often quarrels with the neighbors when dirt gets into his farmyard from their side. She gets frustrated when she visits her children home and find how messy they are, and she begins to clean them.
Despite being rich, her family never spends money on luxuries but very necessities. She is mainly concerned with saving but occasionally complains about being tired of spending money, especially when invited to family occasions. This has led to displaying disturbing patterns, especially when establishing a close relationship with others. This has also led to people often referring to her being rude. She complains how people have weird personalities and how they cannot take care of their homes well. Freya has learned this from her mother who believed in punishment if something was not done correctly. Freya was often punished if she did not clean something thoroughly.
Analysis
According to Freud psychoanalytic personality theory, the unconscious part of the mind plays an essential role in influencing behavior. Freya may be unconsciously motivated to be excessively clean and tidy due to her childhood experience in toilet training as well as to avoid the pain from her parent's punishment. According to Bandura's social cognitive personality theory, our individual reaction is powerful than the events themselves. The encounters and fortuitous events alter one path of living. Freya's behavior is reinforced by the compliments received from friends and admiration. This kind of reinforcement may have a direct or indirect consequence. Social cognitive theory has a reciprocal model that encompasses behavioral, environment and personal factors. Freya can regulate her life, and the cleanliness behavior has turned into a consistent way of evaluating her life and that of others. In humanistic personality, Freya’s self-concept has been formed according to how people think of her, the rewards received regarding applause and admiration and lastly what her parents taught her.
References
Dahling, J. J., Melloy, R., & Thompson, M. N. (2013). Financial strain and regional unemployment as barriers to job search self-efficacy: A test of social cognitive career theory. Journal of counseling psychology , 60 (2), 210.
Gessmann, H. W. (2013). Humanistic psychology & humanistic psychodrama (Abstract to e-book). Psychology and Law , 2012 (4).
Kelder, S. H., Hoelscher, D., & Perry, C. L. (2015). How individuals, environments, and health behaviors interact. Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice , 159.
