How do we define our individuality, what is it that sets us apart from our fellow man? Our personalities, patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions are what make us who we are. Because there are so many aspects to the make-up of what constitutes a personality and outside stimuli it is difficult to focus on it's study. There are four major schools of though when it comes to understanding and researching personalities. The Psychodynamic approach, which is Freudian in it's roots; the Trait approach, which focus on different characteristics and their strengths; the Social-Cognitive approach, which focus's on what is learned in the social world; and finally Phenomenological approach, which says that personality is based on the way each individual views the world.
             Lets take for example my friend Bob, there are many ways to describe someone but mostly there certain characteristics that set us apart and there various combinations is what makes us all different. Bob is a hacker; he spends a lot of time indoors and alone. He is shy, introverted, pensive and even-tempered. He doesn't like people very much and thinks he is smarter then most every else he meets, he has a hard time forming meaningful relationships with people in the "real" world almost 90% of his friends he has never met face to face. The basis of his friendships is competing. He rarely speaks to any of his family and has severe insomnia, which accounts for the nights he spends in front of a monitor. He is very good at what he does and he knows it, some might even say he has a god complex. He has a never-ending thirst for knowledge and keeps challenging himself to meet his desires. He has no desire to be accepted by the "in" crowd and doesn't believe in institutions governmen!
             t and religion included. We can examine Bob using all four approaches to personality, and determine various factors that make him who he is.
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