The personality Is a construct, which like intelligence, has generated numerous investigations. Throughout history, many people have tried to define it, as well as to propose possible theories that facilitate the understanding of a concept, which at first sight seems easy.
The concept of personality is used in everyday life by many people, as Burham said in 1990,"Everyone knows what personality is, but no one can express it in words."
How many times have we used the word personality in our daily life? Usually used in different areas:
- To define those competent people in his life"Mateo is a boy with a lot of personality".
- To refer to some eminence who has done something important"Eysenck is a personality in his field".
- To refer to someone who is different from others , And that is not carried away by what others say"Marta has a lot of personality"; Or else"Rocio does not have any personality"...
Definition of personality
As we see the term is used to designate different aspects but, really, what do we mean by personality? There is no unanimity when defining it and there are different definitions:
- It is about the dynamic organization or set of processes that integrate the flow of experience and behavior.
- Others define it in relation to self-concept (how the individual is defined), or the sense of the individual of who he is.
- Characteristic way of thinking and behaving, such as habits, attitudes, or, in general, peculiar way of adapting to the environment.
For his part, Pervin and John define personality as the characteristics that account for the consistent patterns of feeling, thinking and acting. These patterns fulfill the function of adapting the individual to the environment, showing his habitual way of facing the situations.
Allport Said that it was the dynamic intra-individual organization of systems that determine their unique adjustment to the environment.
On the other hand, Eysenck understands the personality as the sum of the patterns of behavior determined by the inheritance and the environment that originate and develop through the interaction of the sectors: Cognitive or intelligence, attitude or temperament, character and constitution.
In conclusion, based on the definitions of personality that have been proposed over time, the following fundamental aspects are extracted:
- The personality is a hypothetical construct that includes a series of traits, relatively stable over time and consistent (do not vary from one situation to another) and allows predicting behavior.
- Personality includes other elements such as cognitions, affections and motivations that determine behavior and may explain that sometimes personality is not so consistent and stable in some circumstances.
- It covers all functions and behavioral manifestations, which will be the result of stable and dynamic elements, personal, social and cultural influences. It is something distinctive and proper to each individual and he will seek to adapt his behavior to the characteristics of the environment, this is called"behavioral coherence."
Related Constructions
To understand the personality is important to consider what is a trait, what is temperament and what is the character, since they are related concepts.
We understand by Personality trait , Those fundamental elements to understand the personality. They are elements not directly observable, which are inferred from the behaviors. In addition they are latent dispositions, that is to say, they are not present normally, but depend on the relevance of the situation, they are of general character and they are continuous in the time (stable) and present continuity in different situations (transituacional consistency).
As an example we can think of an extraverted person, of whom we would say that it is someone who seeks contact with others, but, we can argue, always seeks contact with others?. And the answer would be no (dispositional character). And on the other hand we could consider, at a glance can you see if someone is fun or not? No, it is something to be inferred (underlying character).
He temperament Refers to the constitutional style of behavior ie the constitutional differences that occur in the processes of physiological reactivity and self-regulation, and are influenced over time by inheritance, maturation and experience.
Characteristics associated with temperament:
- Biological dimension: innate and constitutional influence that influence the personality.
- Genetic origin and biological basis.
- Temporal development, that is to say, is subject to processes of maturation and experience.
- Early appearance (in the first years of life before personality).
- Linked to the sphere of emotions, including dimensions of form and style of behavior.
To better understand what temperament is, let us think of the neonatal tests that evaluate temperament, how long it takes to wake up and how much to calm down.
He character, Unlike temperament, is a function of the values of each society, of its educational system and how they are transmitted.
It is a set of customs, sentiment, ideals, values ... that makes the reactions of an individual relatively stable and predictable. It includes values (affective and cognitive components) and motivational and behavioral components.
An example would be:"If I have an idea, a custom, a value, that can do or will influence the behavior I have or the goals I intend to achieve.
History of the concepts of temperament and character
In relation to the concepts of temperament and character, several theories were formulated in antiquity. On the one hand those referring to the humors and on the other, the physiognomic, physiological and literary characterology approaches.
Doctrine of moods
This line of work goes back to Empedocles , Who considered that nature was composed of 4 elements (earth, air, water and fire). Subsequently they were Hippocrates Y Galen Those who followed this line.
Hippocrates was the first to enunciate the first theory of individual differences. He asserted that the basic elements of nature are represented in the human body in the form of four bodily humors giving rise to different temperaments.
The temperament proper to an individual must be understood in terms of the predominance of one in the moods. He spoke of 4 typologies, and belonging to one typology excluded the others:
- Blood (blood)
- Choleric (yellow bile)
- Melancholic (bile black)
- Phlegmatic (Phlegm or mucus)
Galen, for his part, made a more psychological theoretical contribution and extends the previous theory. He attributed to humors the root of disease, he claimed that observing the palm of a person's hand could diagnose his illness. It spoke of two dimensions (cold-heat and dry-wet) and 8 kinds of temperament + temperament optimal balance.
Physiognomic and physiological approach
From this perspective it was postulated that the external appearance of individuals was a source of valuable information about the personal peculiarities of individuals, about their personality. Lavater is the exponent.
Within this approach emphasizes the literary caracteriología, where it was defended that the character could be defined from brief strict descriptions referring to common"types"of human beings. These descriptions anticipated the concept of trait, fundamental to understanding the personality.
Later between the XVII-XIX century, a new approach was formulated that related the corporal physiology and the personality. The Phrenology from Gall . This author was interested in discovering the primitive units of the personality as the traits and aptitudes, to explain the differences between the people. And for this it was based on cranial protrusions, because it ensured that all faculty was located in a region of the brain.
History of the concept"personality trait"
With regard to the concept of Personality trait , Stern from the German School, coined his name.
It is Allport shortly thereafter who develops it, defining it as"a generalized characteristic that reflects individuality"and studied it from an individual perspective (trait as a personal disposition that characterizes a single individual) and a dimensional perspective (trait conceived from the Position that individuals occupy along the dimension that the feature represents).
The trait can be considered from a dimensional perspective to a structural perspective.
With regard to your Dimensional character, Thanks to the traits, it is possible to order individuals. That is, the higher the score in a trait, the higher the probability of occurrence, the higher the frequency, the greater the intensity of the response and therefore the greater number of indicative behaviors. Thanks to self-reports, questionnaires and observation, these can be obtained.
As for his Structural and hierarchical , Traits are used to:
- Describe people and differences between them.
- Predict behaviors.
- Classify the individual into categories or classes.
- Explain the behavior and personality of the individual.
We emphasize the influence of Eynsenck, who formulates a model that perfectly clarifies the hierarchical structure of the personality, and where it combines concepts such as type and trait. He speaks of the existence of specific responses, habits, traits, and types.
- The Specific answers Are specific acts or conditions. For example: a person becomes angry and feels guilty in a particular circumstance.
- The Usual answers Are habitual acts or cognitions. For example, a person often gets angry and shouts at his relationship with his family.
- The Features Are primary factors defined as intercorrelations between the habitual behaviors. For example, a person is usually angry and has Feelings of guilt And anxiety, both at home and at work.
- And the types Are higher order factors. For example, tendency to get angry and feel guilty about a person. It also presents along with other traits such as anxiety, tension, irrational thoughts, Depressed moods And emotional changes.
In relation to the concepts of types and traits have been formulated throughout history several theories.
Theories on typologies
The biotipology or typology of the constitution is responsible for studying the constitutional component in the structure of personality. The interest of the personality based on these biotypes was based on the belief that certain behavioral tendencies, normal and pathological, are related to the constitutional characteristics.
They stand out in this line Kretschmer and Sheldon.
Kretschmer Associated the morphological or structural types with psychiatric disorders, starting from the idea that the psychoses were a rare exaggeration of the great constitutional groups common among the normal ones, differing the patients only in degree.
The biotypes he described were:
- Leptosomatic : Individual solitary, imaginary, idealistic, withdrawn, sober and tending to fanaticism. People used to tend to schizophrenia .
- Athletic : Practical, constant, energetic, dominant and balanced person. People like this tended to epilepsy .
- Pyknic : Person sociable, expressive, realistic, expansive, vital and tolerant. These people tended to manic-depression.
Sheldon , On the other hand formulated the idea that there was a precise and strongly stable relationship between body habit, neurohormonal functions, temperament, intelligence And the way of getting sick.
Identified 3 dimensions of the constitution:
- Endomorphy (people who tend to be thinner).
- Ectomorphy (people who tend to have more fat).
- Mesomorphy (tendency to be more muscular).
The former tended to mania-depression, the latter tended to schizophrenia and the latter to epilepsy.
Theories on personality traits
The trait models that have been developed to try to explain the personality follow two different lines.
On the one hand we find the Biological factorial models , Which are oriented to affirm that the individual differences in personality are found in the biological bases underlying the basic psychological processes. They are models that try to formulate an explanatory and causal model of the personality. Outstanding is the model of Eysenck, Gray's model, Zuckerman's model and Cloninguer's model.
On the other hand, we find Lexical factorial models , Who consider that in language we can find the only reliable source of data relating to the characteristics that can define or constitute the personality. It highlights the model of the big five of Costa and Mcrae.
Biological Personality Factor Models
Eysenck model or PEN model (Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism)
Eysenck considers that Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism are the three types that account for the hierarchical structure of the personality and group the rest of personality traits in an interrelated way.
Extraverts are sociable, active, vital, assertive, dominant people, seekers of sensations and carefree. Neurotics are anxious people, depressed, guilty, with low self-esteem in tension. Finally, psychotics are aggressive, egocentric, Impulsive , Antisocial, empathic and cold.
Extraverts under resting conditions show a chronically low level of arousal (unlike introverts). Neurotics are those whose autonomic nervous system Has a maximum level of lability, ie are those people in which this system is easily activated and changes the direction of its activity quickly. On the other hand, the highs in psychoticism are those that have low levels of serotonina.
Model of J. Gray
For Gray the basic dimensions of the personality are two: Anxiety and Impulsiveness, which arise from a combination of the dimensions defined by Eysenck (E and N).
The anxious are introverted people, susceptible to punishment, that is, they are better conditioned by punishment, while the impulsive, extroverted, susceptible to reward, more sensitive to reward signals.
The biological bases behind these dimensions are two: the behavioral approximation or activation system (BAS) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS). The functioning of these systems self-regulate and maintain the level of arousal or activation of the Nervous System. The anxious present a BIS system, and the impulsive ones a BAS system.
Model of Zuckerman
Zuckerman works on this model with a new dimension"the Search for sensations". This trait is defined by the search for intense, novel, varied and complex experiences and feelings, the willingness to experiment and participate in experiences that involve physical, social, legal and financial risk. This trait has higher scores in males.
This trait is formed by four sub-dimensions: search for adventure and risk, search for experiences, disinhibition and susceptibility to boredom. And it is associated with low levels of Monoamine oxidase (MAO).
When these levels are low, subjects have orientation responses toward low stimuli, weak defense responses, and a greater brain response under intense stimuli.
Cloninger's model
In this model Cloninger says that personality is constituted by 7 broad features that can be divided into two groups: 4 temperamental traits (Search for novelty, avoidance of pain, dependence-reward and persistence) and 3 characteristics (self-determination, cooperativity and spirituality).
It is the interaction between these temperamental and characteristic traits that determines the appearance of specific responses to concrete situations. This justifies the variability of the normal personality, the alterations of the personality and the development of the same.
The biological systems that support the personality traits are the following:
- Search for novelty : low Dopamine , That is, responds intensely to new stimuli and reward signals.
- Avoidance of pain : high Serotonin , That is, responds intensely to aversive stimuli.
- Reward dependency : low Noradrenaline , That is, it responds to rewards and rewards.
Lexical factorial models
Model of the Big Five
This model proposes the existence of Five personality traits Such as anxiety, extraversion, cordiality, responsibility and openness. The facets that characterize these people are the following.
It is not a biological model, although they believe that basic personality tendencies must have a certain biological support. This model is applicable cross-culturally and has a universal value.
With respect to these traits, it is important to note:
- Extraversion and Neuroticism : They are the clearest features (with greater consensus), they are the nuclear character of the personality (as opposed to the cordiality and responsibility with a limited consensus)
- Opening : Feature highly questioned because it contains elements related to intelligence. McCrae and Costa consider that either intelligence predisposes to openness or it collaborates in the development of Intelligence.
- The Independence of the Facets Hostility and Impulsivity .
- Eysenck suggests that Responsibility, Cordiality and Openness, equal to the feature Psychoticism Which he proposes.
- It has also been suggested that Responsibility and Cordiality are not traits of temperament But of character.
conclusion
Personality has been a concept that has generated great controversy and has proved very fruitful for researchers.
There are many developed theories, it is true that each one brings something different and interesting that entails the opening to new lines of future research.
Bibliography
- Bermudez Moreno, J. (2014). Psychology of the personality: theory and investigation. UNED.
- Pueyo, A. (1997). Manual of Differential Psychology. Barcelona: McGraw-Hill
- Pueyo, A. and Colom, R. (1998). Science and politics of intelligence in modern society. Madrid: New Library.
- Sánchez-Elvira, M.A. (2005). Introduction to the study of individual differences. Madrid: Sanz and Torres.