Personality

An individual's unique and relatively stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, and emotions. The [Page 378]study of personality has been undertaken throughout the history of psychology, yet the debate still remains as to whether individual personalities are stable enough over time to warrant their study. Some state that people show too much variability across situations and that no stable predictions about behavior can be made from personality. Others argue that there is ample evidence to show that people behave in a consistent manner across situations, and even if contrasting patterns are displayed at times, these are functionally equivalent for that person. That is, the behaviors have the same meaning for the individual. Thus, behavior in any given situation is a complex interaction of both personality features and the situational factors of the world around us. This is known as the interactionist perspective and is currently accepted by most psychologists. There are numerous theories of personality, with contrasting views of the origins and nature of human uniqueness. None of these theories are accepted as a whole by psychologists, but each offers new insights and a unique view of the study of personality. For more information, see Nelson and Miller (1995).