Personality Examined Through Different Lenses
By
Robbyn Wallace
Personality has been defined and described from numerous perspectives, theories, studies, and/or models, but from a holistic view personality is "a living, active, and purposeful organism, functioning and developing as a total integrated being (pg. 428)". As co-creators, human beings are intentional by nature's design. In other words we create our reality through intentions, whether consciously or on a subconscious level. "The individual's selection, interpretation, and use of information from the environment plays a basic role in the way in which he/she functions and develops (pg. 429)." With mental processing being with and without awareness, this makes the self-reporting part of personality more complex and incomplete. The aspects of individual psychological functioning is described with the individual as an intentional, active being, a biological being, and a social being. The biological functioning is the processes contributed to the physiological functioning of the mind and body. The social being contributes to the formation of speech and language as a tool for thoughts and communication, which leads to development of perspectives and self-perceptions. An overview of the characteristics of personality research takes a look at the approaches which have been customarily used. Fragmentation, viewed as specialization, research approaches only certain criteria or variables pertaining to personality, such as mentalistic, biological and environmental paradigms. Research that emphasizes variables is reflective of the characteristics of the average person, such as trait impact on behavior. "The trait should be considered descriptive, but not explanatory (pg. 433)." Other characteristics of personality research include prediction, unidirectional causality, dominance of methods and statistics over analysis of the phenomena, and theory versus empirical research. Unidirectional causality assumes relations such as stimulus-response (S-R), and many personality models assume relation between cognitive-motivational factors and behavior. Methods and statics lead to tests and inventories as tools for data collection. A holistic view of personality is "the whole picture has an information value that is beyond what is contained in its specific parts (the doctrine of epigenesis): "Behavior, whether social or nonsocial, is appropriately viewed in terms of an organized system, and its explanation requires a holistic analysis" (Cairns, 1979, p. 325). (pg.436)" Interaction is a fundamental principle, which can be viewed through the interplay of biological and mental variables within the individual and variables in the environment. Experience and the maturation of the individual, from a developmental perspective, change or evolve interacting factors of the person. Individuals differ to an extent due to patterns within subsystems, "such as the perceptual-cognitive-emotional system, the immune system, the coronary system, and the behavioral system (pg. 439)." Therefore, from this perspective each subsystem, within the individual, and the individual as a whole must be analyzed as to figure the total functioning of the person-environment system. Significant events, or turning points, can change initial conditions or individual positions in the developmental process. Predication, in personality research, is used as both a goal and a tool. For example, when personality prediction is used for personnel selection or in decision making. Erikson's psychosocial model is the most current holistic view. The article states "the view of individual functioning as a holistic, dynamical and complex process leads to the conclusion that such a model must include and integrate psychological and biological factors with individual and environmental-situational factors (pg. 447)", which closely describes the psychosocial model. The holistic, dynamic interactionistic view may be unrealistic to demand that each and every variable and process is necessary for all inquiry.
Reference:
Magnusson, D., & Torestad, B. (1993). A holistic view of personality. A model revisited. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 427–452.
