Personality

 What is Personality?

    When you talk about someone's personality, what do you really mean? Have you ever heard someone say, 'She's very aggressive" or "He's so shy -- such an introvert!" or "My mother is really sweet"? Or how about "He's very dependent" or "She's got a terrific personality -- a lot of sparkle!" You may not have heard exactly those words, but you can see what we're suggesting. In contrast to psychologists' use of the term, when the average person uses the term, "personality" has a variety of meanings, each unique to the situation in which it appears.
      Many different descriptions are possible, but when most people use the term "personality," they are using it for one of two purposes. In several of the examples we just gave you, personality is labeling an obvious feature. Someone is sweet, or introverted, or shy, or aggressive. Of the many things that a person may be, we often identify him or her in terms of the single characteristic that is most obvious.

      The impression we make on people may be used by them to label our "personality." But there's another way in which most of us use the term "personality," and that is to indicate a more general kind of skill in representing ourselves to others. Someone who works as a receptionist or as a telephone operator or in a front office sales job is often thought qualified for the job because he or she has "a lot of personality." What's really being said here? Maybe it's just that such people can get along well with other people. Some of the traditional ads offering courses in personality are really offering little more than help in improving your skills in meeting, greeting, and working with others. And yet it's training identified as "improving your personality" or "allowing you to reach your full potential." 

Personality: Theories 432

PSYCHOLOGY: Exploring Behavior
Here personality is being used as a general label for the amount of social skill and finesse.
Think About It
 

The question: The skit that at the start of the chapter described two high school students talking about a sister's and a brother's "personality." What definition of personality were they using in their conversation?
 

The answer: As we've just discussed, "personality" was being used by the high school students to mean "social skill." Both the sister and brother who were being discussed were given credit for achieving various goals because they were popular or easy to get along with. These are uses of "personality" as social skill. It's one possible use of the term, but not one frequently used by psychologists.

Sunday, 2 October 2011 by Anonymous · 0