Scientific Study of Personality

860 Words4 Pages
Scientific Study of Personality Paper Studies address three issues when it comes to the term personality. These issues are human universals, individual differences, and individual uniqueness (Cervone,& Pervin (2010). There is no set way to define the word personality. The word personality is used in different ways depending on what context it is in. Psychologists and individuals define the word “personality” differently. Psychologists have different studies that they go by to define personality. Whereas others use the term personality in their ever day language as a way to describe an individual. Personality researchers define the term “personality” the same. According to a personality theorists, “personality is defined as psychological qualities that contribute to an individuals enduring, and distinctive patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving. “Enduring” describes a person’s characteristics that remain the same over periods of time regardless of different situations a person encounters in life. Although people can change or act differently in certain situations. “Distinctive” is defined as psychological features that are different from one individual to the next. The term “contribute to” describes a person’s distinctive and enduring tendencies. Even though there’s more than one definition of personality, there are questions that still need to be answered. The three types of questions are; why a person acts the way they do, how did they become that individual, and what are they like. So to answer those three questions you have to look at four subjects. Those subjects are structure and process of personality which includes psychopathology and behavior change. Another unit that you can assess when looking at personality is a trait. A trait is based on a consistent style of emotion or behavior that an individual
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