Scientific Study of Personality

Scientific Study of Personality

The question why do people do what they do is part of our daily conversation. The question exists in our daily conversation why people do what they do, do individuals have the capability to influence their own personality, and what makes someone so different from one another. There are an individual that have a particular trait or environmental influence that provide an insight to specific personality type, and others that are completely unpredictable; what exactly controls or is a factor in one's personality? Personality is a complex topic and different psychologists define this topic in several different ways. The complexity of personality has provoked researchers to use various methods of research which consist of three frequently used methodologies. In this paper I will describe how psychologist defines personality, the most common used methods that researchers implement. Each of the three frequently used methods, has different function and purpose which will be explained.

How Psychologist Define Personality

Each of us, as human beings, influences much that is within us and around us. Each of us has many psychological attributes -- feelings, thoughts, motivations, and the like. It is our personality that orchestrates our psychological qualities ( Mayer, 2012). The studies of personalities is multifaceted and a fascinating topic; because of the changes that occur so often it is a complex topic for theorists to narrow down one concrete definition. Since this has been an issue all personality psychologists have come up with a term that generally defines personality. Personality is described as psychological qualities that contribute to an individual's enduring and distinctive pattern of feeling, thinking and behavior (Cervone & Pervin, 2010. Some psychologist will talk about the mental organization at various stages of life; "Personality is the entire mental organization of a human being at any stage of his development. It embraces every phase of human character: intellect, temperament, skill, morality, and every attitude that has been built up in the course of one's life." (Warren & Carmichael, 1930, p. 333). Psychologist defines personality by using conceptions that each person has in his or her own identity. "Personality is made up of characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique" (Cherry, 2012, p. 1). Personality defines a human being as a person; it is one's personal identity, which makes each person unique from another person.