Personality

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: 4^th edition.

Harlow: Prentice Hall.

[2] The Big Personality Test [online] Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/ [Accessed 18^th 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.