We are similar to each other in so many ways and we are different in so many other ways. No two people are the same. Like snowflakes we are unique. We are similar, however each of us has their own unique patterns of characteristics. Each one of us differ from the others in the way we think, the way we pay attention, the way we behave, talk and feel in the same exact situations. Our unique set of patterns is often referred to as our personality. But why are people different? Where do the differences in characteristics and personality come from? What does personality mean?

In this article, we briefly examine what researches say about personality and the personality types. Understanding your personality may help you to predict future behavior, to understand others at a deeper level and to make better choices about friends, life partner and career. Our personality is deeply connected to many layers of our lives.

In this article :

• What is the meaning of personality?
• Why to care about your personality?
• Where does your personality come from?
• Can we measure someone’s personality? How?

INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

How is personality defined?

Personality is the term we use to refer to who we are, who others are and how we perceive them. Personality is a term often used in the fields of psychology, education and recruiting. Nowadays it became such a common term, that we can often come across personality discussions in friendly, everyday conversations. But what does personality really refer to? Is it about the character of a person? Is it someone’s social identity or online identity?

The concept of personality has been studied for at least 2,000 years, but even after all these years of research there is no consensus among the scientist about what exactly does the term personality encompass. Because of this difficulty in agreeing upon the personality concept there are several different official and non-official approaches to the definition of what personality is.

Key concept in the definition of personality are:

Your personality is always with you. When we talk about personality we refer to a general, descriptive set of traits, characteristics, behaviors and vibes about a person that is always present. Your personality is not like a piece of clothing that you can take off and leave at home. Personality makes you who you are.

Personality is generally stable – Our personalities are viewed by scientists to be long term and relatively stable. Personality does not easily change over time. Some aspects of our personality differentiate us already as babies and toddlers, and although our circumstances, tasks, responsibilities and habits do change with age, most aspects of our personality remain relatively stable throughout our life.

Personality is consistent – When talking about the personality of a person we are usually referring to consistent behavioral patterns that we have identified. These patterns result in tendencies and these tendencies will form the choices, preferences of a person throughout their life. An outgoing person might need some me-time occasionally, but their consistent preference is to be among other people. Our personality is comprised of consistent choices and behaviors.

Personality is unique, but comparable -your unique personality can influence nearly every choice you make in your daily life from choosing the stairs over the elevator, to movie and music choices, which sports team you support, how you wind down after a stressful day, where you like to spend your vacation and so on. Your personality is a unique mixture of elements, but the ingredients are not unique to you. One element can be openness, or extraversion, that adds a unique flavor to your personality cocktail, but it puts you in the same group with all other people who are also open and outgoing.

Personalities are tendency based – Personality is not set in stone. Stability and consistency does not mean that you can only behave in one way or another. Your unique personality structure means that you have the tendency to behave in a certain way. These tendencies will result in repeating behaviors and choices, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t deviate from your rule base occasionally. Tendency gives your personality a structure. Yet, this structure has a dynamic, responsive interaction with the world.

Personality is usually segmented in layers and dimensions – It is typical to differentiate a basic personality pattern forming the core of your personality. These aspects are reviewed and revealed in personality tests. The other layers and dimensions of your personality are built upon this relatively stable, structured core aspect and give the spicing to your beautiful uniqueness. The characteristics, traits, cultural heritage, childhood bedtime stories you listened to all form the unique combination of who you are.

Personality is a dynamic system – the core personality stays rather stable over long periods of time, but our personality is in an active dynamic interaction with our environment. A healthy personality will react to and interact with its environment. A healthy personality builds up in complexity over time. Like an orchestra that starts with a few musical instruments and more and more instruments are added to the group. They are all playing the same tune – the base, chore personality vibe- , but over time, the orchestra is becoming bigger in size and in the variety of instruments. The same song can be played by an elementary school group or a trained, professional orchestra and it will sound different.

Defining Personality

Along the above listed key concepts about personality a subfield of psychology called personality psychology has evolved. Numerous personality theories have emerged and each one has it’s own definition. Each of these perspectives tries to describe how certain traits and characteristics develop in us and how they form patterns that make us similar to others with similar patterns and distinguish us from others with different personality patterns.

The word personality is derived from the Latin word ‘persona’ which means a mask.

Summary definition of personality: Personality is broadly described as the stable, consistent and characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. Personality refers to your unique nature and it is what makes a person different from another person. Your personality is what makes you you. Your preferences, likings, desires, the motives behind your actions are all determined by your personality.

According to Gordon Allport, “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to the environment.” (1937).

Do Animals Have Personalities Too?

If you have a pet you know the answer is Yes. Animals do have their own unique characteristics and personalities. Even if you have 2 dogs from the exact same kennel you will discover that they will have different behaviors, different preferences, different ways to express affection. Cats that are siblings and are raised by the same person will show differences in how open and playful they are, how much attention and caring they need.

WHY CARE? IS UNDERSTANDING YOUR PERSONALITY IMPORTANT?

We can easily differentiate between outgoing, talkative, extrovert type people and shy, introvert type personalities. So why care about this personality thing? We all heard these two terms and they are rather obvious categories, but personality is so much more than that. There is so much more complexity to our personality. And complexity is the key word here, that answers the question why studying your personality type can benefit you. Knowing your personality, knowing who you are, what are your tendencies can change your life for the better.

The Benefits of Understanding Personality

Knowing more about our personality and how it works helps us understand the way we think, feel, and make decisions in our day-to-day life, but the most important of all the advantages is that it can help us gain a better understanding of ourselves and others.

Knowing yourself can help you understand that there’s nothing wrong with you. There are many people out there who have similar personalities to yours. It can be comfortable knowing that you belong to a great group of people and there are other groups who all have their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes just like you do. Knowing your personality type can help you be yourself, feel good about yourself and love yourself.

5 advantages of knowing your personality type:

• better mastery of emotional responses – emotions and personality are closely related. Understanding one can shed more clarity on the other. Emotions are our own personal experiences of life. How we feel influences how we act, communicate and operate in the world. Feelings and emotions come and go and we experience them as a dynamic flowing river. Our personality is than, in this example, the river bed. Regular flow of emotions create a tendency, a characteristic shape of the river bed. This unique and characteristically shaped river bed is our personality. We can recognize the depth, the power and the major tendency of the stream. based on your personality type, you may learn efficient coping techniques and improve on stress management skills that work for your personality type in particular.
• better lifestyle decisions – Just because your friends enjoy a particular place, vacation, job or hobby it doesn’t mean you will automatically enjoy the same things. And the fact that you don’t like it doesn’t mean that something is wrong with you. You are just different. Some people, for example, like crowded streets, coffees, restaurants and some don’t. No personality type is better than the others. Identifying your personality type and knowing what you like and what you don’t like can help you in making better lifestyle choices. Better choices lead to feeling more satisfied and leads to a more joyous experiencing of your daily life. It is important, however, to differentiate opinion and experience. Nothing can replace having the experience with something to see if you like it or not.
• better career and profession choices – Understanding some of your core personality traits can clarify your strengths and weaknesses. You can also gain a better understanding on how some characteristics are strengths in a certain situation and weaknesses in an other situation. Knowing your behavioral and decision tendencies can help you know when to step forth in the spotlight and when to let others shine. For example, creativity and artistic vision is great in marketing, but a person with such inclinations will not be the best decision maker in productivity and optimization. An outgoing person might enjoy giving public speeches and presentations while a more reserved type might experience anxiety and panic attacks in the same situation.
• better relationships and social life -When you understand your personality type, it becomes easier to understand others as well. We all have a different way of interacting with the world, because we all see the world a little different. Each perspective is valuable and brings an extra nuance to the colorful social web. When you understand your own personality it gives you insight into how to fit in, or not, if that’s your preference, and to be okay with that. You might even try to give a chance to people who don’t like the same things as you do and learn from the different ideas and approaches to life.
• better personality match in relationships – It is very important to understand that there are differences between people that are deeply rooted and won’t change much over time. There are branches that can be manicured, but the deep roots won’t change. Some people vibe with you instantly and you feel relaxed and good around them. Some people just don’t like you no matter what you do, because your chore personality layers are in a mismatch. Chances are that you are perfectly fine and they are fine too, but the two of you just have mismatching traits and characteristics. Personality can help you in making better choices when it comes to choosing your relationships, friends and partners. Learning about personality can help you understand their strengths and see their good sides. And it can help you let go of those who want to go.

CONCLUSIONS

Your personality shapes you as the unique person you are. Your personality includes how you think, how you feel, how you communicate, how you operate in your day to day life, how you learn and how you recharge and refuel.

Understanding personality can help you in recognizing emotional tendencies and thinking patterns. Tendencies can give and idea about what decisions and actions might follow, but you will never know how you (or someone else) will actually respond in certain situations. Personalities are complex and dynamic systems that evolve over time so I feel we will never know and completely understand our personalities, because what we can investigate is already old news.

Discovering who we are is a constant never ending quest, a journey.

More from Lifestyle: SELF-DISCOVERY QUESTIONS, The 16 Personality Types

Sources, credits : Personality theory ; Overview ; Meaning; Definitions ; Outgoing personality picture