Personality Theory and Practice | The Probabilist . com

Personality Theory and Practice November 3, 2006

Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Communication, Personal Growth, Psychology, Relationships, Abilities, Leadership , trackback

Personality by definition is the overall types and traits of a person that cause relatively stable, enduring and predictable patterns. It is the sum total of ways a person behaves and is expected to behave. In this introducing article I will start by taking somewhat of a theoretic standpoint to cover the basics and moving over to the more practical perspectives on how this knowledge can be of beneficial use on both an individual as well as a relationship based level.

We can either have a more idiographic or a more nomothetic belief about personality assessment. The idiographic view is that all people are unique, evolve constantly and classifying and comparing individuals is pointless.The nomothetic approach favors prediction and measurement. It focuses on basic, common characteristics of people that are quite fixed and resistant to change. Therefore, the most common personality tests are categorized as nomothetic approaches to understanding human behaviour.

The nomothetic branch is further divided into type and trait theories where the two most used personality assessment tools today are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the ‘Big Five’ personality traits (a.k.a. OCEAN). These two models can be considered slightly overlapping each other and even the preferences regarding a single theory may share overlapping influences. We’ll get back to this.

It’s perfectly understandable if you wish to hold a strictly idiographic standpoint and refuse to be ‘boxed’ into separate preferences or categories. These models explain why you think or feel this way regardless if you approve of it or not. I’ve found that the best way to critically analyze something new is to “not knock it till you’ve tried it”. The purpose and usefulness of these theories is quite similar in fact. Discover what you’re like so that you can distinguish yourself from other people in a productive and interdependent manner. Doing this you can learn to both appreciate who you are while still accepting the fact that your way of doing and thinking things through isn’t nearly always the best way. What is the best way anyway?

I will publish separate articles regarding the MBTI and Big Five theories since there are tons of material to write to really get the big picture of what their preferences and categories specifically define. I won’t be analyzing where the origins of personality more strongly stem from - genetic or environmental influences because as always, understanding the point and sense of using something strikes me as more important than why something works.

Knowing your own and others’ personality types and traits can help you with:

Matching the most suitable person with a specific task/role.

Matching yourself to the most suitable task/role.

Discovering your strengths and weaknesses regarding a specific situation.

Understanding what causes good and bad people chemistry.

Improving your people skills and acceptance of ‘tough characters’.

Learning to read people quicker to make a better impression of yourself.

Leading a team more efficiently by untapping everyone’s hidden potential.

Guiding your attitude and motivation to a more empowering track.

Discovering your areas of vulnerability and risk.

Getting closure on why past relationships went wrong.

Finding or creating a healthier working environment to everyone’s benefit.

Spotting the right person for your life with higher probability of success.

Raising your children with less guilt and confusion over what’s right.

Tackle the pursuit of your life’s purpose with a new angle.

It all has to begin with yourself. Know thyself, but beware of the following traps that may lead you astray. You have a real ego, ideal ego and a work/task ego. On top of that, different situations and settings can give you different answers to test questions. Don’t take a single free internet personality test and then hold the results as accurate and true, but take your time to really understand what the preferences and categories mean. Keep an open mind, but criticize any primary results if they seem even slightly off. In the next personality article we’ll explore the MBTI.