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Personality Paper

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Personality Paper
Personality
Robert White
University of Phoenix
PSY 405
Instructor: Dr. Rockel Etienne
22 July 2013

Personality
"We know what we are but not what we may be." Ophelia in Hamlet

According to Guralnik (1987), personality is defined as, the quality or fact of being a person or a particular person. Guralnik (1987) also defines personality as, distinctive individual qualities of a person, considered collectively. Personality is a definition that is hard to put one definition. Individuals each have their own definition. Even psychologists only agree on a vague term of personality. Instead of agreeing on one specific definition, psychologists have instead chosen to develop theories that describe the origins of an individual’s personality. …show more content…
This idea suggests that the most important aspect of a person’s behavior is the present time (Cherry, 2013). This theory is based on psychologically healthy people taking responsibility of their actions, positive or negative. This theory also describes that a person’s drive should be for personal growth and understanding (Cherry, 2013).
Trait Theory
Trait theory is the most widely accepted theory of personality (Cherry, 2013). This theory describes the development of personality is influenced by many traits. Traits are characteristics that cause a person to behave in a certain manner (Cherry, 2013). Trait theory is a collection of Cattell’s and Eysenck’s theories and factors of personality. It uses the 4,000 traits from Cattell and the three universal traits from Eysenck and forms the five-factor theory of personality, (Cherry, 2013) …show more content…
Like other areas of psychology personality deals with a wide range of behaviors and attitudes. Research in this field is ongoing. Researchers have to have the ability to understand the foundation of personality. Personality requires a level of perspective to understand that each individual goes through different life experiences, has a different genetic make-up, and lives within different social environments. It is import to understand the ideas that describe the origins of personality to fully recognize the reason for normal and abnormal behavior within different individuals. Understanding personality is made up of a wide variety of traits or characteristics that assist in the development of
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