Chapter 13

This chapter is called "Theories of Personality" so.. there's a good chance that I'll be talking about the different theories of personality.

The questions I'm going to answer are: what is personality and how do the different branches of psychology view personality?

Personality is considered the unique and relatively stable ways that people think, feel, and behave. To understand personality, it is important to note the differences between personality, character, and temperament. Character refers to the value judgments of a person's moral and ethical behavior while temperament involves the enduring characteristics that every person is born with.

To clear up any misconceptions, temperament is based in a person's biology, through genetic influences, prenatal influences, or a combination of those. Also, temperament forms the base upon which someone's larger personality is built.  However, character (along with temperament) is also a vital part in personality.

Now for how the different branches view this subject.

The psychodynamic perspective started with Sigmund Freud's work and his ideas, which have probably been discussed in an earlier blog along with the rest of the different branches' views. Anyway, this focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality. Also, this perspective heavily focuses on biology and the biological causes of different personalities.

The behaviorist approach focuses on the effect of the environment on behavior.

The humanistic perspective came about as a reaction to the perspectives mentioned above and emphasizes the role of each specific person's conscious life experiences and choices.

The last perspective is called the trait perspective and is different than the previous ones in the sense that the previous ones wonder about the process of personality while this one is focused on the end result.