The Relationship Between Personality and Behaviour - Essay Example

The Relationship Between Personality and Behaviour Introduction Personality is defined to be set of organized and dynamic characteristics that a person possesses. These characteristics are usually unique and are said to have an effect on how an individual thinks and reacts to different environmental. These characteristics also influence a persons behavior and motivation. People exhibit different personalities. According to Higgins (2000), the difference in personality is an object of fascination. He further notes the point of fascination arises as a result of individuals being identified with certain behavior aspects in comparison to other individuals. The reason behind this is the existence of a certain force that exhibits itself, resulting in individuals exhibiting a range of behavioral tendencies. The author also notes that force is fascinating since it reveals common behavior traits in certain environments. For example, cleanliness is usually associated with neatness, tidiness, and even punctuality but at times, cleanliness can also be associated with stubbornness and stinginess among individuals. Such connections are not easily made without the critical understanding of personality and behavior. The argument to the various behavior traits are usually exhibited in a different situation set up by Higgins (2000). Therefore, it is essential to understand the reasons behind the behavior exhibited by individuals of different backgrounds. However, the behavior might be different, it is usually caused by the same psychological force. This paper will focus on understanding if personality exists and if it is needed in understanding the psychological force that causes different behavior traits. The paper will also seek to understand if personality caused can be concluded to have a basic structure. Personality Definition Personality has become one of the key aspects of psychology and exists in the society in various ways. This has led to various researches being conducted in order to understand the psychology. This is due to the fact that understanding of individual psychology can be used in the identification of behavior patterns of an individual (Burger, 2010). Therefore, psychology is defined as the unique character traits that an individual possesses. This implies each person possesses a unique trait that helps in defining who he or she is and how and individual perceives things. In common language, many people define personality as the outer appearance of how an individual looks physically. However, in psychology, personality is perceived to be the qualities an individual possesses both from an outside perspective that is physically and also the inner qualities that the person possesses. In psychology, personality is considered to be the inner spirit of an individual. A force that dictates the actions an individual takes when e or she faces certain situation (Burger, 2010). Therefore, personality cannot be defined as a constant entity in an individual. Also, the personality of an individual is subject to change on the different situations or environments that individual is exposed to. This shows that personality outlines the total quality of an individuals behavior rather than the total sum of individual special qualities. Various definitions have been developed in order to express the real meaning of personality. These definitions involve the following: 1. Omnibus. This is a school of thought that consider actions, reactions and biological traits in the definition of personality. One of the scholars in this school of thought is Kempf who reinforced Gour & Joshi (2009) definition of personality as the adjustment of an individual in an institutional environment that lead to certain practices. Thus, helping in exhibiting the characteristics of an individual in those environments. Gour & Joshi (2009) further quotes Morton Prince (1924) who define personality as the total number of activities that are biological, inherent, tendencies, basic instincts, endowment and also the consideration of the bearings of a man. 2. Integrative definitions. Under this school of thought, they emphasize on the consideration of the various characteristics an element of personality. This focus on the integration of the various characteristics in trying to define and understand an individual. According to this school of thought, personality can be defined as the complete organization of an individual at any stage of his development. Therefore, they consider personality as the integration of the characteristics of an individual that led to a trend or behavior of the individual. 3. Hierarchical definition. Under this school of thought psychologist such as William James and Maslow according to (Gour & Joshi, 2009) define personality as a composition of several hierarchies. The main hierarchies of personality laid emphasis include-: material, spiritual, ego and social self. 4. Adjustment. This is a group of psychologist who, when defining the personality of an individual put emphasis on the study and analysis of an individuals personality. They try to establish the characteristics of an individual that help in the adjustment of an environment. These characteristics may either be physical or mental. They consider personality to be the organization where, why by a person’s psychological system helps him or her in adjusting to the environment he or she is subjected to. Behavior According to Furr (2009) various researchers, that have been conducted, have not discussed the concept of behavior in a more comprehensive manner. The author starts by defining the behavior at the time an individual takes in search of help in a lab based situation. He also gives another definition of behavior as the verbal utterances made by an individual or the movements made which can only be noted by individuals who are keen observers using their normal sensory framework. From the latter definition, there is an exclusion of the verbal reports usually prepared in a psychological assessment context (Potter, 1987). Therefore, the definition focuses on the behavior of an individual that usually contains direct social consequences. This definition according to Furr (2009) excludes some of the internal psychological activities such as blood pressure or neural events. On the external context, the definition makes an exclusion of psychological activities such as sweating or even blushing. The definition however is the inclusion of the activities such as trembling, gazing and other physical movements that have social implications (Potter, 1987). The relationship between behavior and personality Most researches that have been conducted in the area of psychology indicate that personality provides an explanation of an individuals behavior (Donald, 2014). Since the personality is the set of organized characteristics, it is defined as traits an individual possesses. McKenna (2000), on the other end outlines behavior as what individuals do on a regular basis. Therefore, in order for personality to provide a framework on our uniqueness, and then there was need to formulate principles that would help to define and state different psychological states (Dumont, 2010). The development of these principles has helped scholars to understand more in the explanation of the unique traits exhibited by individuals differently. However, these psychological principles were in contrast of the social psychological principles such as obedience to the authority that seek in the explanation of the unique situational for the various psychological states. There exists a clear distinction between the principles that aid in the explanation of an individual. Also, the principles that are involved in the explanation of a situational environment may lead an individual into exhibiting certain characteristics (Carducci, 2009). In order for an individual to understand the variation of behaviors, it is essential to understand the principles that govern the personality of an individual. That is why more research being done on the psychoanalytic focus on the organization and the processes of integration in an individual. An approach adopted by the interactionist with other schools of thought, especially the one advocated by the psychoanalytic argue that socializations is usually combined with other situation variables to define the personality principles in affecting the behavior of a person. The school of thought advocated by the interactionist spell out that an individual’s variability and the current situation variables are the factors that influence the behavior of an individual (Allport, 1955). The interactionist school of thought uses the reciprocal determinism to advocate their ideology on the influences of behavior. Under this concept of reciprocal determinism, they stress on the framework that the person and situation forces influence each other on the assumption that the persons and situation principles used to explain each of them is different. Further, Higgins (2000) explains that under the interactionist approach, an individual can have a pattern of behavior which is usually exhibited under different situations. However, this pattern varies and stabilizes in conjunction to various situations. This means that the situational differences that are exhibited by individuals become part of their personality; therefore, it is not separated from it. Conclusion In summary, it is evident that personality is a set of organized characteristics that an individual exhibits. The characteristics that the individual exhibits helps in the determination of the various responses he or she might engage when faced with a certain situation. Further personality varies from one person to another. The reason behind this argument is that a person reacts differently from another when faced with the same situation. The research further noted that the same individuals might be influenced by the same psychological force yet their responses will be different. This led to the formation of different schools of thoughts in trying to define the definition of personality. Therefore, this is an indication that personality exists within human nature since it has attracted various scholars to define the true meaning of personality. Behaviour on the other hand is defined to be the actions that people have in response to different environments that they are subjected. This means that the personality of an individual affects the behavior an individual exhibits. Thus, behaviour changes with the various environments that an individual is likely to face and forms a varying pattern of activities or responses. Since personality affects the behavior patterns of an individual and the nature of behavior, it is unlikely that personality can have a basic structure. Instead, personality will keep on changing throughout an individual life cycle as they experience different contexts that form the various stages of life. References Burger, J. (2010). Personality. London: Cengage Learning,. Carducci, B. J. (2009). The Psychology of Personality: Viewpoints, Research, and Applications. New York: John Wiley & Sons,. Potter, J. (1987). Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. New York: SAGE. Allport, G. W. (1955). Becoming; Basic Considerations for a Psychology of Personality. London: Yale University Press,. Donald, C. (2014). The Social Psychology of Behaviour in Small Groups. London: Routledge,. Dumont, F. (2010). A History of Personality Psychology: Theory, Science, and Research from Hellenism to the Twenty-First Century. London: Cambridge University Press. FURR, R. M. (2009). Personality Psychology as a Truly Behavioural Science. European Journal of Personality, 369–401. Gour, B. P., & Joshi, H. (2009). Applied Psychology and Science of Living. Ladnun: Jain Vishva Bharati University. Higgins, E. T. (2000). Does Personality Provide Unique Explanations for Behaviour?Personality as Cross-PersonVariability in General Principles. European Journal of Personality, 391-406. McKenna, E. (2000). Business Psychology and Organisational Behaviour: A Students Handbook. New York: Psychology Press. Read More