Personality Essay - Personality Definition by Larsen & Buss

Personality Essay

Introduction

The paper focuses on the personality of the individuals that is described through the book of the Larsen and Buss. The personality psychology is defined by the Larsen and Buss in different perspectives that take into account important elements of the individual's personality.

Discussion

Personality Definition by Larsen & Buss

The personality definition given by the Larsen and Buss describe the human personality as the mixture of so many processes that is based on different experiences, interactions and alterations of one individual with other individuals in their environment. The environment includes disparate elements and base on the social, physical and intrapsychic environment. The definition can be understood in a better way by breaking it down into more than one part. The better way to understand this is through the biological domain and the use of a theoretical bridge. This shows how inputs react within the personality to form the output. The next part to look at is, within the individual that are relatively enduring (Larsen, 2010).

This looks at how our traits remain relatively stable over time and thorough different situations. If, a calm person gets angry they do not become an angry person because the anger is a state. The final part of the definition given by Larsen and Buss base on the adaptations (to the environment) like dealing with the challenges and problems we face throughout life. One way to examine this is through the cognitive, experimental domain and the concept of goals and personal projects. Personal projects are a set of relevant actions intended to achieve a goal that a person has selected as explained by the psychologist Brian Little. According to the belief of the psychologists, it is important to understand different actions of the individual in order to get know about the personality traits because people change their moods in everyday life. As we go through life, problems arise that can block our goals (called frustration) meaning adaption is necessary to achieving the goals we set (Larsen, 1999).

Costa and McCrae Five Factory Theory (FFT)

Five Factor Theory is considered to be one of the most important theories that enable to identify how the pieces of personality work together to make the whole and by connecting personalities to the domains, it creates a stronger understanding of personality. It is considered to be the model that has got the most attention of the researchers as it takes into account all forms of personality traits of humans. The theory is widely known as the Five Factor Model (FFM) (Lamiell, 1998).

The Five Factor Theory is based on five categories through which people can be rated in different categories. These categories include Conscientiousness (High rating is responsible, low undependable), Agreeableness (good natured vs. irritable), Emotional Stability (calm vs. anxious), Extraversion Sociable vs. reclusive), and Intellect openness (imaginative vs. simple). The individuals have a mix of these five traits that make up their personality (Sandvik, 2001). The largest factors in determining our basic tendencies are our biological bases, which associates strongly with the biological domain. A core principle of this is genetics. Genetics discuss how we get our personality traits, whether it is from our parents or our environment. One example of this is family studies, which looks at, what percent of our genes are related to our family such as 50% is shared with parents, 50% shared with siblings whereas cousins only share 12.5% and the percent goes down as you get further away in relatedness (Larsen, 2010).

If, there had to be one most important factor to the FFT it would be the Basic Tendencies. This is because it has the strongest relationship to traits and the disposition domain. Basic tendencies are the core and traits are the core of basic tendencies. However, what makes something a trait? The first way to look is the Lexical approach. (Diener, 1996).

Six Domains of Personality Functioning

The domains for the personality functioning describe the imperfect nature with respect to the scientific knowledge where the psychologists have emphasized on the determination of the characteristics of the individuals. The particular aspects of the personality have been described in the six domains of the personality functioning, and each one is categorized into certain groups of individuals. (Larsen, 2010).

Biological Domain

The biological domain interprets that individuals are part of the biological system, and their existence is based on different elements that include the emotions, thoughts and behavior. The biological domain can be linked with the Five Factor Theory in a way that many elements of the theory come under this domain. As biological domain