How useful is Personality Theory? Essay

What motivates human behaviour? Why is the past present and future important to the development of personality? How constant is human behaviour? These questions along with many others determine the need for a theory that will answer some of the questions. Personality Theories aim to provide a viable description for people’s individual differences, it attempts to answer the questions mentioned above and assign some kind of meaning into people’s behaviour. (Furnham & Heaven pg10) There are many different theories in order to explain personality; some would explain people’s unique behaviour as being a product of our environment or social situations, personal learning or part of our genetic makeup. Personality theory attempts to explain the how is our behaviour shaped, what makes us behave in certain ways in certain social situations and why do we behave in this manner. The notion is that people are unique and no two people behave alike in a predicament, no matter how close they are. (Furnham & Heaven pg4) The method in which personality theorists look at the development of personality all differ, some examine the structure which attempts to reach below the surface of observable trait type behaviours. Some explain the actual processes of personality; others investigate the development of personality. An important reason for studying personality is to gain scientific knowledge and to try to assess people so that deviant behaviours can be modified. (Roth pg365) Concerning the different personality theories only one theory will be mentioned in this essay, that being the trait-type approach which explains personality as inherited differences that are biological. This theory of personality is used quite often in our every day life and the benefits and implications of using personality theories will be examined in detail, throughout the progression of this essay. Personality is a pro-active process and the theories attempt to stabilise one’s behaviour, and because personality is an implicate theory we can predict that people will behave in a certain way. The well-known scale for introversion and extraversion as described by (Hippocrates, Galen, Winott, Jung, Eysenck, and Cattell among others) has been shown to be directly related to mental health, learning and education, risk taking, criminality and other social behaviours. These behaviour patterns may not become known by observation, or just meeting a person, this is why this approach has some benefits. (Wallace pg10) Individual differences in personality have long been recognised, in the last hundred years psychologists have made a great deal of progress in developing procedures for assessing personality. A large number of assessment methods, tasks and gadgets have been used to assay mans behaviour, attitudes, thoughts, aspirations and deviations. All of these approaches to assessing categorising, or measuring personality, have involved collecting responses from, or making observations about, the subject which could be used to infer more general personality traits or status characteristics. (Butcher page 4) The use of personality testing in occupational assessing has been increasing over the past two decades. Some recent surveys have, for example suggested that up to two thirds of large organisations in the UK use personality assessment for selecting managers. The vast majority of organisations use tests responsibly and wisely, although it is undoubtedly true some do not. The British psychological Society (BPS) aim to promote responsible use. (Dr Russell Drakeley pg29) Personality assessment can be used for staff selection, promotion, individual personality development, team development, career guidance, counselling, educational or learning difficulties or clinical personality assessment. The possibilities of personality testing are varied, and some of the ones included in the above list would not meet with universal approval. Using personality tests for promotion and redundancy are especially controversial and in the past have caused much consternation, both within and outside occupational psychology. (Dr Russell Drakeley pg28)