Understanding Self and Personality

Introduction to Self Understanding

• Understanding oneself helps one understand behaviors and beliefs that affect oneself and others.
• Self-understanding is essential to becoming an effective and successful person in life, work, and relationships.
• Self-understanding helps provide a sense of purpose.
• Self-understanding leads to healthier relationships.
• Self-understanding helps harness your natural strengths.
• Self-understanding promotes confidence.

Personality Etymology

• Personality comes from "persona", the word for theatrical masks worn by Romans in Greek and Latin drama.
• Personality also comes from the Latin words "per" and "sonare” which literally mean "to sound through"

Personality Definition

• Personality is the relatively permanent pattern of behavior.

Determinants of Personality

• Environmental factors of personality are composed of the surroundings of an individual.
• Biological factors of personality include hereditary factors, physical features, and the brain.
• Hereditary factors refer to the genetic make-up inherited from parents.
• Physical features include height, weight, color, sex, beauty, and body language.
• Brain research involving electrical stimulation gives indications that understanding human personality and behavior might come from studying of the brain.
• Situational factors of personality alter a person's behavior and response from time to time.
• Cultural factors are traditionally considered major determinants of an individual's personality and determine what a person is and will learn.

Personality Traits

• Personality traits reflect patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors implying consistency and stability.
• Trait psychology rests on the idea that people differ from one another in terms of basic trait dimensions that persist over time and across situations.
• The Five-Factor Model of Personality also known as The Big Five is the most widely accepted system
  • Goldberg, 1990
  • McCrae & John, 1992
  • McCrae & Costa, 1987
• The Big Five traits include Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, which can be remembered with the acronym OCEAN.

Description of Personality Traits

• Openness is the tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and behaviors.
• Conscientiousness is the tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, follow rules, and be hardworking.
• Extraversion is the tendency to be talkative, sociable, and enjoy others, and have a dominant style.
• Agreeableness is the tendency to agree and go along with others rather than assert one's own opinions and choices.
• Neuroticism is the tendency to frequently experience negative emotions, such as anger, worry, and sadness, and to be interpersonally sensitive.

Examples of Behaviors for Low and High Scorers in the Big 5 Traits

• Low scorers in openness prefer not to be exposed to alternative moral systems, are narrow in interest, inartistic, not analytical, and down-to-earth.
• High scorers in openness enjoy seeing people with new types of haircuts and body piercing and are curious, imaginative, and untraditional.
• Low scorers in conscientiousness prefer spur-of-the-moment action to planning and are unreliable, hedonistic, careless, and lax.
• High scorers in conscientiousness are never late for a date, are organized, hardworking, neat, persevering, punctual, and self-disciplined.
• Low scorers in extraversion prefer a quiet evening reading to a loud party and are sober, aloof, and unenthusiastic.
• High scorers in extraversion are the life of the party and are active, optimistic, fun-loving, and affectionate.
• Disagreeable people quickly and confidently assert their own rights and are irritable, manipulative, uncooperative, and rude.
• Agreeable people agree with others about political opinions and are good-natured, forgiving, gullible, helpful, and forgiving.
• People high in Neuroticism are not irritated by annoyances, calm, unemotional, hardy, secure, and self-satisfied.
• People low in Neuroticism constantly worry about little things and are insecure, hypochondriacally feeling inadequate.

Self-Concept vs Self-Understanding

• Understanding of who you are as a person is called self-concept.
• Understanding what your motives are when you act is called self-understanding
• According to the book Essential Social Psychology by Richard Crisp and Rhiannon Turner.

Types of Self

• Individual self consists of attributes and personality traits that differentiate on individual. Examples include introversion and extroversion.
• Relational self is defined by relationships with significant others. Examples include siblings, friends, and spouses.
• Collective self reflects membership in social groups like British, Republican, African-American, or gay.