In: Psychology
How do you define personality? What are the main approaches to the study of personality.
Personality can also be defined as the unique and relatively stable qualities that characterise an individual's behaviour across different situations over a period of time.
Following are the approaches used in the study of personality:
a) Type approach: focuses on behavioural characteristics of individuals.
b) Trait approach: focuses on the specific psychological attributes in an individuals.
c) Behavioural approach: focuses on as to how an individual behaves when exposed in a particular environment.A person tend to learn new behaviours in response to the environments and stimuli.
d) Cultural approach: focuses on the personality in relation to ecological and cultural environment.
e) Humanistic approach: focuses on the study real self and the ideal self.
Personality is derived from the Latin word persona, the mask used by actors in the Roman theatre for changing their facial make up.