Personality

According to Carver and Scheier (2000), “Personality is a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create a person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings.”

There is much debate centered on whether personality is inherited (nature debate) or developed in response to environmental conditions (nurture debate). These two very different opinions provide conflicting beliefs on how personality is created. They raise the questions of weather personality is something that humans are born with which is genetically passed down to us or weather our personalities are developed and influenced throughout our lives by our environment and other significant factors. It also raises the question of whether or not personality is created as a result of a combination of both nature and nurture.

There are also two views as to whether or not all traits exist in all people. These two different ideas are known as Ideographic and Nomothetic.

Ideographic:

The ideology which supports the opinion that each and every human being has a unique and individual personality and that some personality characteristics are exclusive to certain people, meaning that there may be instances where you cannot compare two peoples personalities as it is impossible for them to possess the same traits as each other. This approach encourages the idea that some people possess certain traits which would be impossible for others to have.

Nomothetic:

The opposing argument to the ideographic is approach is known as the Nomothetic view. This approach still believes that people’s personalities are unique; however it encourages comparability and believes that we all possess the same traits as each other and that the uniqueness lies in the different levels of importance of the traits. For example, the combination of traits may be the same but some people have more of one trait than another. This could also suggest that our traits may differ depending on the situation or position we may be in.

The fact that personality has become such an important aspect of life means that there are a number of different online tests and quiz’s which can be taken in order to determine ones personality preference or type. There are thousands of different personality tests available on the internet and the two that I decided to complete were the BBC’s ‘What am I like?’ and in it for life’s ‘MindFrames’.

The BBC test provides an extensive range of different types or personality outcomes which suggests that there are a wide variety of different personality traits amongst humans, however we can still be compared as two people can have the same outcome on the test which supports the Nomothetic theory. The different personality outcomes offered on the ’What am I like’ test are determined by your individual combination of traits, some of the names given to these outcomes are; ‘Big Thinker’, ‘Counselor’, ‘Go-getter’, ‘Idealist’, ‘Innovator’, ‘Leader’, ‘Mastermind’, ‘Mentor’, and ‘Nurture’ to name just a few. According to this test, I am a ‘Go-getter’. Go-getters are described as Inventive, resourceful problem solvers with a love of life. They can be tough-minded when necessary and think of themselves as enthusiastic, determined and alert. Apparently they may also become frustrated by rules and routines.

The second test I took was the MindFrames test (Initforlife, 2009), which determined that the combinations of traits which make up my personality are best described by words such as control, sociability, insight, proactive, logic and charisma. One thing that was interesting about this test is that it provided me with recommendations on how to develop my skills based on my personality.

I was surprised to discover how accurate both tests were as they both produced very similar results. Both tests determined my personality to be comparable with my own personal view of my personality which is that of an outgoing person who enjoys challenges.

Although on this occasion the tests I conducted produced reasonably accurate results, I believe that it is impossible for any personality test to be 100% accurate as I feel that each and every person has an individual and unique combination of traits. Nonetheless it provides us with a clearer understanding of the different possible variations, traits and types of personality. I also feel that it would be prejudice for personality tests to be the only tool used when determining which candidates to select as personality tests do not tell us everything about a person such as how good they are at handling certain situations. I believe that it is useful to have personality tests as one aspect of the selection process along with many other aspects, however to judge someone’s ability solely based on this would be unfair.

Conclusion

One thing I have learnt this week is that our personalities differ from person to person. We all possess a unique combination of characteristics and traits which stop us from being exactly the same as each other. The tests that I conducted have been useful also as they provided me with a clearer understanding of my own personality and increased my awareness of the different skills I have. The fact that our personalities may change over time make these types of tests worthless unless we constantly take new tests to stay updated. On the other hand, personality tests do assist employers in identifying the most suitable candidate in the selection process.