Introduction to Personality

Introduction to Personality Paper

Personality is the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character. Everyone has personality; it helps define one's way of thinking emotions and behavior which make them a distinctive person. My personality is outgoing so I often connect with other outgoing people. The certain definition of personality is still debated till this day. However, the term personality is derived from the Latin word "persona". According to (Feist & Feist, 2009), the term persona was used to explain a theatrical mask worn by actors. In the past actors often put on mask to present false persona (Feist & Feist, 2009). Psychologists agree upon the origin of the word personality, however many do not considered it an acceptable definition. The rolls a person plays not the only focus of personality. Many psychologists simply cannot agree upon one definition due to their many different theories and approaches towards the study of personality. Even though there has been no single definition accepted by all personality theorists, it can be said that personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both individuality and consistency in our behaviors and actions (Fiest, 2009). To understand personality a theorist needs to first understand what traits and characteristics are. Traits are the individual differences in behaviors, stability of behaviors during certain situation and the consistencies of those behaviors as time goes on (Fiest, 2009). Traits can be commonly shared with groups and species or they can be unique to the individual. The patterns are not shared and different among each person (Fiest, 2009).