Personality Theory the Objective of This Study Term Paper

Personality Theory

The objective of this study is to focus on two perspectives of personality theory and for this study chosen are the two of: (1) traits; and (2) psychodynamic. The limitations and weaknesses of each will be examined and a preference for one chosen and the reason provided.

Narratives

The work of Johns, Robbins, and Pervin (2008) states in regards to the question of 'what does it mean to know a person?' that the way one knows another involves knowing what extent are the narratives related by a patient in clinical hours are best understood as: (1) a record, albeit an imperfect one, offered from one point-of-view, of something usually interpersonally insignificant that occurred in the patient's life; (2) an index of the patient's ways of experiencing the self and others ( a central aspect of personality); or (3) an index of the efforts of two people to come to terms with the person's past and present in the context of a particular relationship that is inherently shaped by the psychology of both participants (a mixture of true variance and error variance)? (p. 74) It is held that these issues are "central to the study of personality in psychology as well." (Johns, Robbins, and Pervin, 2008, p.74) It is additionally reported that clinicians have experienced a struggle about how much should be accepted as truth in what is related by patients concerning their lives and themselves. Researchers however, are reported to have a tendency to accept the self-reports of respondents when they are answering questionnaires. In contrast, researchers on personality make only occasional use of scales that are formulated for the purpose of assessing variables "such as social desirability and inconsistent responding when studying normal populations and they seldom attempt….....