What are some ways that humans have evolved and that psychologists have chosen to examine personality theory?
Personality Psychology scientifically studies the whole person, including biology, culture, and individual differences. Amanda’s example shows how one person can unveil a lot about himself or herself in a limited amount of time and, by the same token, how one person can give the wrong impression about herself or himself in a short period of time and/or in the same setting. This happens frequently in today’s fast pace society. Traits are general dispositions people attribute to other people after observations that are consistent over time and across different situations.
One common way to quantify differences in personality or dispositional or individual traits is self-report questionnaires, given that people somewhat know themselves. I scored seventeen out of twenty in the extroversion questionnaire. It is accurate and in line with all the other scientific personality tests I have taken. I tend to be the leader in most situations and I love people, who re-energize me. Traits predict behaviors.
Out of the many traits, there are the Big Five main and general categories of traits, symbolized by the acronym O.C.E.A.N: Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism. Beyond the Big Give, there are individual details or characteristic adaptations to organize. Characteristic adaptations are attributes that are specific, versus generalized, to a setting or time, and/or role. There are three main theories of characteristic adaptations. One theory is the human motivation focusing on individual wants, desire, or motives. The second theory focuses on cognition, such as values, and beliefs and the other one focuses on the person’s development or evolution.
Identity or the person’s life purpose is part of determining a person’s characteristics. Overall identity is the same over time within the whole person. Identity is the person’s life story. Naturally people assess reality to create order and predict the future, such as protecting themselves, improving lives, and gaining knowledge. My life mission is to inspire and empower people and animals to live they best life they can. My mission has shaped my life and personality. Everything I do or say is in line with my mission. If I am forced to do something that goes against my life mission, I rebel because I would not be myself.
Personality Psychology, as a science, follows three steps of inquiry: unsystematic observation, building theories, and evaluating propositions, deriving hypothesis from theories and researching and testing the hypothesis. Another method is the experiment in which the researcher manipulatesd the independent variable to affect the dependent variable. Allport identified two ways to research personality: nomothetic which focuses on behaviors across many individuals and idiographic which focuses on the patterns of the single human life.
Personality psychology has to look at the human evolution to base its research and principles. Besides evolution, personality psychology looks at more proximal and immediate behavioral determinants. Inclusive fitness is the gene replication through progeny.
Humans, throughout several million years, have lived this environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA) and have developed cognitively. Humans’ greatest power is computation or the power of the human mind. Human minds have adapted to evolutionary challenges, such as reproduction and survival, creating loose subsystems or modules.
Evolutionary theories explain how females are pickier and more monogamous in choosing sexual partners, due to their need to care for their progeny, whereas males are more promiscuous, due to maximizing the quantity, versus the quality, of their offspring. I do believe in the power of the mind. I think the human mind has infinite or many more potentials that humans have not fully explored, yet. That is why my passion is psychology, to continue discovering the human mind potentials. I think, if there are lives on other planets in the universe, those lives are not as evolved as humans are.
Hogan’s socioanalytic theory describes how humans evolved in groups where the main goals are to get along and get ahead. Humans search for group acceptance and status with role playing, impression management and participation in social rituals or cultural life. High acceptance and status correlate with high inclusive fitness.
The evolutionary theory provides a distal explanation for human aggression but not a justification for it. On the other hand, humans are also altruistic. Both aggression and altruism are extension of the main aspect of human life in the EEA.
Human groups are hierarchical, which is a result of aggressiveness and dominance. Dominance allows for altruism. Humans have evolved systems for emotions, attachments, internalized social rules, giving, trading, negotiation, and other prosocial tendencies. I think that most of people’s behaviors nowadays have to fall into some social systems, or people would be emancipated, alienated or ostracized. I believe society or social rules govern people’s lives to control them, for better or worse.
Prosocial tendencies or evolved adaptations control aggression and undergird social cooperation that, inon its turn, correlates and contributes to inclusive fitness of the same subjects. Another distinct human aspect is caregiver-infant attachment. Caregiver-infant bond protects infants from dangers. As a result of this bond, then infants develop expectations about human relationships, which affect an internalized working model. During my hypnosis certifications, I have studies the attachment of people to mothers and fathers. According to hypnosis theories, the role model parents often determine how people learn, such as more emotionally, like doubting, or more physically or literally or logically.
According to the Strange Situation procedure, there are the following infant attachment bonds: secure (B-babies), avoidant (A-babies), resistant (C-babies), and disorganized (D-babies). B-babies are the most common. A, C and D babies have insecure attachments. Secure attachments correlate with positive independence, mastery and peer popularity in K through six school grades.
Adult attachments have also been studied. According to the Adult Attachment Interview, adults, as a result of early attachment relationships with parents, may work in one of the following ways: secure or autonomous, dismissing, preoccupied and unresolved. Romantic attachment styles correspond to the same secure, avoidant and resistant styles of infants. For instance, adults with secure attachment styles are more committed and self-disclosing with their significant others, offer and receive support during stress, have more positive social engagements.
I am single at the moment and, from previous romantically involved relationships, I can see how much my attachment with my parents, has shaped the relationships. I am very much aware and acknowledging of this attachment style now and I believe this awareness and knowledge will help me pick the right mating match. To conclude, I am looking forward to learning about the latest personality psychology research findings and contribute to future findings in this field.
Thank you.
Elena Pezzini, M.S., C.P.C.
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