Who Am I?

Who am I?

In the following case study I will attempt to analyze myself and what I think of my personality, and that of what others might perceive as well. I will do my best at making an attempt to give the reader a better understanding of who I am by analyzing my personality and the changes it has undergone over the years. I will do this by placing myself under the microscope of three major approaches taken by personality researchers. I have chosen the following three approaches based on the criteria for this study.

I will first of all examine personal traits and what I consider my stronger personal traits to be. Thus we will examine the trait approach first. I will touch on some of my adverbial traits, which Gordon Allport insisted were the most important aspects of our personality. I will then focus my attention on the cognitive approach to myself over the course of my life. The cognitive approach digs deeply into how we think, our perception and how we process information. I will attempt to apply George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory to that of myself and my struggle. I agree with his view that we are our own personal scientist, constantly probing for answers to questions about our self and how our personality is reflected to others. I will attempt to explain how I arrive at conclusions and deductions now and compare that with how it has changed drastically since adolescents. I will do this by opening up and revealing some things about my life that I would rather not go into. I believe if I were to leave these critical stages, or turning points in my life out, this study would be completely biased.

The last approach I will apply to myself is the motivational approach. I believe this will give the reader a better look at me as a whole. I believe that I have gone through many drastic changes in life and this approach best suits describing my personality on a grander scale. I will refer to, Freud's Drive Theory, since I am very well acquainted to constant debating between my ego and superego. It took a great amount of work to ground me within the principles I live by today, and overall, how people perceive me and classify my personality.

The Trait Approach

First and foremost, I am well aware that I am a very complex creature. My traits of personality have undergone some changes over my life, and I hope to portray this in a way that doesn't stigmatize me. Traits are defined as basic units of personality. In Cattell and Allport's eyes these could be broken down into simply how we referred to one another. The race was on to narrow the study of traits down to a specific group of traits that could be used as a basis for researchers. However, personality traits are far more complex than, i.e. having your fathers blue eyes. The trait approach has undergone much criticism due to the fact that the human personality is such a complex monster to simply be broken down into these basic units.

Allport came up with the idea that traits should be able to be applied to groups of people. They might be different age groups, possibly different in gender or even differ culturally. He referred to this as the nomothetic view. The nomothetic view involves studying groups of individuals and generalizing across them. I will however be taking the idiographic approach and focusing on myself in an intensive case study. I will start out by focusing on a few of my inherent and unique traits.

I am generally an honest person, at least to others. I tend to not be as honest with myself at times, which I will touch on in greater detail as we progress. I would have to label myself as somewhat a selfish individual, which I believe we all are to an extent. I would have to say that this is not a true statement when my daughter is involved, since I tend to think of how my actions could affect her. My daughter is my inspiration and she alone has been the greatest factor in my changes in personality over the last decade. However, my years of dishonesty with myself about finishing school, my job situation and my divorce played a key role in establishing my cardinal traits.

I spent several years of my life like a lab rat trying to find my way in a world of so much uncertainty. It was then, I began to realize, I had not been this honest person I had thought I was. I lost everything that I cared about and was forced to start a new life because of my actions and those of my ex-wife. I went through some major psychological changes and my life is much better now. I met a wonderful woman that possesses every positive trait you could imagine, and I lacked. She has truly brought out the best in me over the last three years we have been together. Her morals and positive attitude have penetrated my character like some kind of osmosis. Although I am not the social bug, or as extraverted as I once was, I find myself much more comfortable with me now than ever before. I am less impulsive and more grounded than I ever was before meeting her.

I know my personality has changed drastically from what it was during my downfall, which I will be discussing next. My neurotic traits seem to be the ones most affected by my life experiences, and I am fortunate to say, "I feel better about my overall personality, than I have in years.

The Cognitive Approach

The Cognitive approach, and specifically, Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory, would probably be better for understanding my personality and the changes it has underwent. As I mentioned before, I went through some very traumatic events that would alter my perception and how people perceived me as well. The environment I lived in was negative, but I believe toxic would better define it. During this time I reached out