Blog 8 - Personality

Personality is the combination of emotional, attitudinal and behavioural response patterns of an individual. It is a dynamic concept describing growth and development of the whole psychological system.

There is much debate on whether personality is inherited, this is nature debate, or whether it is developed in response to environmental conditions such as the way you are brought up by your parents, this is nurture debate. The nature debate suggests that someone’s personality is inherited and cannot be changed, this is called nomothetic. This says that a person’s personality can be linked to hereditary, biological and genes passed down from their parents. Nomothetic is objective, not subjective, an example would be a student putting their student I.D number on their work rather than their name. By putting their student I.D number on their work and not their name they will not be judged before the piece of work has been marked and can allow it to be completely unbiased. The nurture debate suggests that an individual’s personality is based upon their upbringing and environmental surroundings rather than their biological genes. It is said that individuals adapt to their upbringing and that this is a major influence on their personality. For example if two twins were separated at birth and one was brought up with a rich family and the other with a poor family, their personalities would be different even though they have a similar biological code. I have always believed that personality comes from nurture, as individuals learn their surroundings as they grow up and this impacts greatly on the way they act towards others and themselves.

I carried out a personality test on the BBC website to see which characteristics my personality was made up of. There are five main traits, these are: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. I will briefly explain what I got in each of these areas. Firstly I will talk about openness, this trait is sometimes known as ‘openness to experience’. I obtained a medium score for this which means I tend to have a fairly broad range of interests, also likely to find it easy to come up with original solutions to problems. It has been suggested that openness is related to a person’s likelihood to hold unusual beliefs. Next is conscientiousness, this describes how dependable, organised and hard-working a person is likely to be. This is the trait that is the most consistent indicator of job success. I scored rather low on this area meaning I can appear disorganised, but tend to be spontaneous and have a good sense of fun. People with low conscientiousness may well be suited to investigative or artistic careers. Then there is extroversion, this is characterised by positive emotions and the tendency to seek out stimulating or risk taking activities. I achieved a high score on this section which means im often perceived as gregarious, expressive and energetic, meaning I am more likely to enjoy socialising and be quick to form new friendships. Scoring high on extroversion often translates to a natural capacity for leadership, also am more likely to lead a risky lifestyle and take greater risks in pursuit of rewards. Then there is agreeableness which measures how sympathetic and considerate and individual is likely to be. I obtained a medium score for this trait meaning I am more likely to show concern for the feelings of others and will be inclined to help those in need. Finally there is neuroticism, this relates to a person’s response to threatening or stressful situations. I obtained high scores in this section meaning I often feel tense or anxious and may well experience changeable moods.

To conclude personality is something that is unique to every individual and makes us who we are. There are many things that can differentiate personality traits from one another. Looking at the personality test I believe that it is rather accurate but there are always going to be things that people do not want to believe about themselves. Overall I do think that an individual’s upbringing is essential to their personality and can decide how someone will be later in their life.

References

Mullins, L. (2010) Management and organisational behaviour.9^th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/feedback/big-five-text