For this blog, I will compare and
contrast the differences between the nature and nurture approaches to
personality, including the nomothetic and idiographic approaches and
summarisie my views about how I feel about the nature and nurture approach and
which one I feel has the dominant influence and I will visit the BBC website
and undertake their personality test and include my findings on the personality
results.
What is
personality?
Personality
is known as the totality of qualities and traits that form an individual, which
defines their character or behaviour. Personality is made up of a person’s
thoughts, feelings and behaviours that make an individual unique and different
from others, personality is formed within the individual and tends to remains
consistent throughout their life. Mullins, (2008).
Difference
between nature and nurture?
There are various differences
between nature and nurture approaches to personality. Nature personality is debated that it is
inherited through genes from members of the family for example the characteristics
and qualities of an individual could be inherited, characteristics we are born
with such as personality traits, for example being intelligent and bright if another
member of the family is intelligent and bright it is likely that you may end up
being intelligent like them as well. Whereas nurture has a much different
approach to the nature approach as it emphasises on an individual’s life
experiences such as how parents brought you up, what you were taught at school
and your culture and lifestyle. However relying too significantly on these
approaches is not good as you could lose yourself and belief on making reformed
decisions and choices, and could therefore affect your influences on choices
made in your life.
Nomothetic
and Idiographic approaches
There are two different views on
whether all traits and characteristics tend to exist within individuals.
Firstly nomothetic approach this is a measurable and specific perspective that distinguishes
an individual through personality questionnaires, and is based mainly upon the
statistical study of groups and objective questionnaire as well as personality
types. Nomothetic approach tends to link strongly to heredity, biography and
genetics. Nomothetic approach is based upon an individual’s personality being
constant, inherited whilst environmental influences do not affect the
individual. Therefore nomothetic approach shows that the way in which a
person’s personality will act under certain circumstances can be analysed and
imagined, and the individual’s personality is measurable. Secondly the idiographic approach on the other
hand is a study of an individual that examines the differences they have as
opposed to others and what aspects are unique to an individual. This approach states that a person reacts and
responses differently to the environment and people around them, therefore the
cultural and social environment plays an important role in establishing their
personality therefore personality cannot be psychologically measured as every
individual personality is unpredictable, adjustable and unique.
Nature or
nurture?
The aspect that I consider to have a dominant
influence is the nature approach as I believe an individual tends to have the
similar personality traits that another family member has as they spend most of
their time amongst them, this could be the characteristics and qualities they
have, also if a family member is intelligent it is likely that the individual
could end up being intelligent and bright. I do not believe in the nurture
approach as the impact of the environment does not affect an individual’s
personality traits whereas the nature approach has a strongly link to how an
individual could be like.
Personality test results and findings:
I undertook a personality test, which consisted
of a variety of different questions ranging from my personal life to everyday
life. Overall I believed that the results
were not 100% accurate as I received low for openness which meant that I
have a less broad range of interests, I did not agree with the result, as I
feel I like trying out new things and come up with imaginative ideas. For
conscientiousness I scored medium which meant that people with scores like myself are less likely to be workaholics, instead
achieving a good work-life balance, this is true as I believe I am not a workaholic I am more of a balanced individual. For
extroversion I scored quite high as this meant that people like myself tend to
be energetic and enjoy socialising and are quick to form new friendships, I
agree with this result as I feel it is more like me. “People with high extroversion
are more likely to lead risky lifestyles and take greater risks in pursuit of
rewards”, this is true however a study found out that people with high
extroversion tend to smoke however this is not like me as I do not smoke. For
agreeableness I scored low as it showed how sympathetic and considerate a
people is likely to be, it meant that I put myself first and other second, this
is quite true as I am tough-minded individual and tend to put myself before
others in any aspects. Lastly on neuroticism I scored low, ‘Neuroticism’
relates to a person’s response to threatening or stressful situations. People
with scores like myself are often seen as being calm and even-tempered. They
cope well with stressful situations and may seem calm despite adverse
circumstances, this is quite like me as I feel I can cope well with stress as I
do not let it get to me. In general I believe that the test results described
me to a certain extent, some described me well and others did not describe me
at all therefore personality test can only be used as a measure but they are
not always 100% correct. Below is a
print screen of my results obtained from my personality test taken showing how
much I scored on each section.
Overall I think that personality
plays an important role in all aspects of our lives. There are different
approached to personality and therefore vary for individuals debates still go
on for nature approaches (characteristics born with) and nurture approaches
(environmental factors). In general I believe that nature tend to be the
dominant influence. Also personality
tests are being used by many employers nowadays when individuals are applying
for jobs to give potential employers an idea of what type of personality they
are looking for however they only describe an individual to a certain extent
and should not rely too heavily on personality questionnaires.
References:
[1] Mullins, L. (2007) Management & Organisational
Behaviour: 4th edition.
Harlow: Prentice Hall.
[2] The Big Personality Test [online] Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/ [Accessed 18th December 2011]
[3] Mcleod, S. A. (2007). Simply Psychology;
Nomothetic Idiographic Debate in Psychology. [Online] Available from http://www.simplypsychology.org/nomothetic-idiographic.html
[Accessed 30th December 2011]
[4] Simpson, M.
(2011) PowerPoint.
