Personality and Major Approaches to Personality Assessment

There is no single position among psychologists about human personality and debate still rages whether personality can be in any way measurable. Below you can review two major approaches to study of personality and look at the key theories that form the bases of each approach.
personality_test Personality
The concept of personality has different meanings in different context and within psychology it has been defined in many different ways. It is a broad, integrating concept and the definition of personality is restricted to properties which are both stable and distinctive. According to trait theorists personality can be defined as more or less stable, internal factors that make one person’s behaviour consistent from one time to another whereas according to proponents of social learning theories personality is viewed as dynamic responding to environment and people around them. Both of these definitions conclude that personality relies on two key propositions; one concerned with pattern of dispositions and behaviours unique to individual while the other concerned with stable and consistent features that do not change frequently. Below paragraphs look more closely at these two key propositions and examine whether our personality is inherited and determined by genetics or shaped by environmental and social factors.
personality_tests Major Approaches to Personality Assessment
Figure below shows two fundamental approaches to the study of personality. Each approach makes different assumptions about human personality and offers different perspectives as how personality is understood.
Nomothetic and Idiographic Approach to the Study of Personality
personality_tests
personality_test Nomothetic Approach to Personality Assessment
Psychologists adopting nomothetic approach to personality assessment believe that personality is primarily determined by heredity, genetics and biochemistry of our brains. They argue that personality is stable, consistent and that environmental factors and social influences have little effect. They believe that traits are source of human personality which makes individual behaviour stable over lifespan. Read more about nomothetic approach to personality assessment and seen how psychologists predict human behaviour using this approach.
Additionally, below you can review the major type and trait personality theories that form the underlying bases of this approach.
personality_assessment Idiographic Approach to Personality Assessment
Psychologists adopting idiographic approach to study of personality consider measurement of traits as inappropriate because one person’s responses may not be comparable to another’s. They regard individuals as responding to environment and people around them and see the dynamics of the interactions as playing a critical part in shaping personality. Read more about idiographic approach to personality assessment and see why psychologists adopting this appraoch consider measurement of traits as inappropriate.
Additionally, below you can review theories that fit into this approach such as operant learning theory, Bandura’s social learning theory or Erikson’s eight stages of personality development theory.