Components Of...

Components of Allen

What are we really talking about when we describe an individual? There are many fields in psychology that examine certain parts or particular views of the person, but only one field studies the person as a whole. With personality psychology we try to put all an individual’s components together. “The fundamental goal is to understand the person for the sake of understanding” (McAdams, 13).

Personality psychologists study the individual differences in people. They come up with ways to categorize, classify, and organize the diversity of human individuality, and they look for the environmental and biological factors that explain those differences. Personality theorists like Freud, Jung, and Adler wrote about personality psychology, but it was during the 1930s that a number of questions came together to generate a new field. Observations of everyday social interactions show that people make at least three kinds of attributions to their personality. These attributions correspond to the three levels of personality. Where we have dispositional traits, which are our behaviors in different situations and over time; characteristic adaptations, which are different personal adaptations that are tied to things like time and place, and life stories which are the stories that make up the meaning of an individuals life. I shall describe these levels and how they pertain to me.

A trait is defined as a general term in personality psychology referring to an individual-difference variable assumed to reflect an underlying, internal, and stable personality disposition. Traits are generally viewed to be linear and bipolar in nature, additive and independent, and suggestive of relatively broad individual differences in social and/or emotional functioning (McAdams, 2006). They are dimensions of personality that describe internal, global, and stable individual differences in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They account for the consistency in functioning across different situations and over time. Some examples of traits are a person’s dominance, their punctuality, or even their tendency toward depression.

Personality psychologists have identified different methods to quantify people’s differences in dispositional traits. The most common procedure is self-report questionnaires. I took the NEO-PI-R (Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory Revised). It is a test that assesses the Big Five Traits which are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Each of these traits are divided into six sub-categories called facets.

The Big Five Traits are supposed to sketch out an outline of a person. The facets of openness are fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values. The O domain measures responses to various kinds of experiences. I scored in the average range. I consider daydreaming and fantasy a waste of time, sometimes enjoy new and different activities, and have a moderate need for variety in my life. Conscientiousness’s facets are competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation. The C domain measures differences in motivation and persistence. I scored in the high range. I have a moderately high need for achievement, reasonably cautious, and generally finish the tasks I start. The Extraversion’s facets are warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, excitement seeking, and positive emotions. The E domain measures traits related to energy and enthusiasm, especially when dealing with people. I scored in the very high range. I am very warm and affectionate to others, enjoy large and noisy crowds, and frequently experience strong feelings of happiness and joy. The agreeableness’s facets are trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness. The A domain measures styles of interpersonal interaction. I scored generally low in this domain. I tend to be skeptical of human nature, sympathetic to those in need, and can be very competitive and ready to fight for my views if necessary. The Neuroticism’s facets are anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, and vulnerability. The N domain measure different was of reacting emotionally to distressing circumstances. I scored average in this domain. I am occasionally nervous or apprehensive; embarrassment or shyness is not a problem for me, and I am able to cope with stress well (NEO-PI-R, 2000). This test does describe me pretty well, and I agree with mostly all of the results it provided me, but if we want to get more details, we have to go beyond traits.

Characteristic adaptation is defined as a motivational, cognitive, or developmental concern the meaning of which comes in part from the particular temporal, situational, or social role-oriented context within which it is embedded (McAdams, 2006). They are facets of personality that describe adaptations to cognitive, motivational, and developmental challenges and tasks. They are usually contextualized in place, time, situation, or social role. Some examples are values, beliefs, attitudes, and goals. There are different theories concerned with characteristic adaptations. There are theories of human motivation, which talk about what people want in life. There is also another theory that talks about cognitive and social factors, which includes the roles of values, beliefs and other processes in human individuality. Finally, there are other theories that are more explicitly developmental, which focuses on the evolution of the self and the relationship to others throughout life. However, character adaptation is a component of personality that should be studied further.

Values are an important part. When I was a child, my values were more focused on being a good kid. I was interested in playing basketball with my friends. I liked to play outside, not worried about anything else but having fun. When my parents called me in for dinner, I listened without any questions. When I turned eighteen, my values changed. I was more interested in being out with my friends driving around. I was going out to parties on weekdays, not caring that the next day I had school. I was not interested in being good at all; instead, I was a typical rebellious teenager. Now, my values have totally changed. I am very conscious about consequences; I do not just act without thinking. I am more into respecting others. I am closer to my family and spend more time with them socially, and now I believe they are some of my closest friends.

Beliefs are another part. As a child, I did not have too many beliefs. I relied more on what my elders said. Since I was more of an obedient child, I believed what my parents told me to believe.