Traits
Compare the phenomenological and trait approaches to psychology, the ways in which the differ in both origin and content, and whether the two approaches make different predictions about the relationship between personality and behaviour. Personality places its emphasis on understanding who we are, why we are the way we are, and usually is concerned with the possibility of change anywhere along the spectrum of psychopathology to self fulfilment. There are many approaches to understanding the personality, two of the most predominant being the phenomenological approach and the trait approach, which are both extremely similar and individual in their own ways. The phenomenological approach emphasises the uniqueness and validity of each persons subjective experience, the subjective experience being of primary importance. It specifically focuses on the immediate perceived experiences and concepts of the individual and on their strivings towards growth and self actualisation. Phenomenological theorists centred on two main ideas - that people have an intrinsic tendency towards self actualisation and that people evaluate themselves with respect to values held by themselves and others.The origins of the phenomenological approach
Galen thought our personality reflected bodily fluids, and each temperament was attributed to a predominance of one of the bodily humors - yellow bile, black bile, phlegm and blood. George Kelly's theory stresses the necessity of understanding the individuals own dimensions, categories and hypothesis and constructs for dealing with experience. The self or self concept is a conscious perception of self as the self as an object. Sheldon, in 1942, came up with a three dimension model of physique and corresponding temperaments. Groups of observations that are correlated constitute what Cattell called surface traits. These were endomorph (obese), mesomorph (athletic build) and ectomorph (tall, thin and stooped). Constitutional source traits are traits that are determined by heredity , conversely, environmental-mould traits are a resultant of experience or culture. For Cattell, personality was the sum of a person's traits and syntality was a summary of a group's traits (Hergenhahn, 1990). Self concept develops as the result of direct experience with the environment and the perceptions of others. On the other hand, a pattern might be imprinted on the personality by something external to it. Carl Jung's later trait model grouped all people into two rather ambiguous categories of introverts and extraverts. Kelly's theory of personal constructs develops this principle further, by considering whether and how we modify our constructs when faced with contradictory information, and what are our 'core constructs', the deeply-held values and principles which are unlikely to change. By the time we are adults, we will have developed a very complex model of the world and our place in it.
Common topics in this essay:
George Kelly's,
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Analysis MAVA,
George Kelly,
Gordon Allport,
Gordon Allport's,
Raymond Cattell,
Cattell Sheldon,
Hergenhahn1990 Cattell,
Carl Jung,
source traits,
self actualisation,
phenomenological approach,
kelly's theory,
constitutional source traits,
rogers theory,
traits hand,
determine behaviour,
phenomenological theories,
traits determined,
phenomenological theorists,
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Acceptance Essays
