Personality Analysis Psy 405
Personality Analysis Paper
University of Phoenix
Psy 405
August 22, 2011
Personality Analysis
Is a person’s behavior analyzed by the situation they are in or is their behavior guided by their personality? For instance, if an individual who is usually calm and mellow turns aggressive during a sports game, is it safe to say that the aggressive behavior is a result of the sport or is that part of his personality? This can be either or. Behavior can be understood by the person’s personality as well as the environments that they are put in, when the situation they are in changes their personality changes to accommodate the situation, this can be classified as situational behavior. The dispositional theory tries to identify psychological …show more content…
Allport believed that it was important to differentiate people from the general traits they posses and look at their individuality, it is that reason why Allport disagrees with trait and factor theories, because those theories do not focus on the individual instead they focus on the group. Allport concentrated his studies solely to individuals that he named the study of the individual morphogenic science and compared that to the study of groups, which is called nomothetic (Feist & Feist, 2009). Although Allport took suggestions from other theorist he believed that no one was able to adequately explain the uniqueness of an individual. Allport’s definition of personality was “ the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought” (Feist & Feist, 2009). In other words according to Allport personality is both physical and psychological. He made it clear to distinguish between common and personal traits. Common traits are general characteristics held in common by many people, while personal traits or personal dispositions are traits held by only one person (Feist & Feist, …show more content…
The process of learning focuses on what occurs when learning takes place some explanations of what occurs are considered to be learning theories, these try to describe how people and animals learn, which in return allow us to understand the process of learning. There are three categories in which learning theories fall under: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Behaviorism concentrates on the observable conditions of learning. Cognitivism looks past behavior and concentrates more on brain-based learning. Lastly constructivism focuses its views on learning as a process where the learner is active and builds new concepts. As we learn we change the way we see our environment, the way we understand the incoming information, which leads to the way in which we behave. Classical and Operant conditioning are two major types of learning. Ivan Pavlov accidently discovered classical conditioning while researching digestive patterns with dogs. He used to put meat powder in the mouths of dogs that had experimental tubes in them which measured bodily response. He discovered that the dogs would start to salivate before as soon as the person feeding them walked into the room. His discovery states that we develop responses to stimuli that do not occur naturally. For example, when we
University of Phoenix
Psy 405
August 22, 2011
Personality Analysis
Is a person’s behavior analyzed by the situation they are in or is their behavior guided by their personality? For instance, if an individual who is usually calm and mellow turns aggressive during a sports game, is it safe to say that the aggressive behavior is a result of the sport or is that part of his personality? This can be either or. Behavior can be understood by the person’s personality as well as the environments that they are put in, when the situation they are in changes their personality changes to accommodate the situation, this can be classified as situational behavior. The dispositional theory tries to identify psychological …show more content…
Allport believed that it was important to differentiate people from the general traits they posses and look at their individuality, it is that reason why Allport disagrees with trait and factor theories, because those theories do not focus on the individual instead they focus on the group. Allport concentrated his studies solely to individuals that he named the study of the individual morphogenic science and compared that to the study of groups, which is called nomothetic (Feist & Feist, 2009). Although Allport took suggestions from other theorist he believed that no one was able to adequately explain the uniqueness of an individual. Allport’s definition of personality was “ the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought” (Feist & Feist, 2009). In other words according to Allport personality is both physical and psychological. He made it clear to distinguish between common and personal traits. Common traits are general characteristics held in common by many people, while personal traits or personal dispositions are traits held by only one person (Feist & Feist, …show more content…
The process of learning focuses on what occurs when learning takes place some explanations of what occurs are considered to be learning theories, these try to describe how people and animals learn, which in return allow us to understand the process of learning. There are three categories in which learning theories fall under: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Behaviorism concentrates on the observable conditions of learning. Cognitivism looks past behavior and concentrates more on brain-based learning. Lastly constructivism focuses its views on learning as a process where the learner is active and builds new concepts. As we learn we change the way we see our environment, the way we understand the incoming information, which leads to the way in which we behave. Classical and Operant conditioning are two major types of learning. Ivan Pavlov accidently discovered classical conditioning while researching digestive patterns with dogs. He used to put meat powder in the mouths of dogs that had experimental tubes in them which measured bodily response. He discovered that the dogs would start to salivate before as soon as the person feeding them walked into the room. His discovery states that we develop responses to stimuli that do not occur naturally. For example, when we