Personality Assessment and Theories
Personality is defined as a combination of emotional, attitudinal and behavioral response patterns of a person. When you look around you there are no two personalities that are the same, making us the individuals that we are. When it comes to personality there are five theories, each one having a different belief on what has an impact on a person’s personality. For instance Biological theories suggest that a person’s genetics is responsible for a person’s personality. Behavioral theories suggest that a person’s personality is formed from the interaction between the person and their environment. Psychodynamic theories suggest that a person’s personality is formed from a person’s unconscious mind and what they have gone through as a child. Humanist Theories suggest that a person’s personality is formed from free will and a person’s individual experience. Trait theory suggest that a person’s personality consist of many broad traits. A trait is described as being something that makes an individual behave in a certain way.
Knowing the different theories and having a better understanding of what they believe impacts a person’s personality, you can go into why people may have what is called a personality test. These personality test are usually used for assessing theories on subjects, to look at possible changes in an individual’s personality, to evaluate if therapy is working, to diagnose psychological problems, as well as screening job candidates. There are two forms of a personality test that are taken, the first being a self-report inventories, and the second is projective tests. Self-report inventories is a personality test that involves the person who is taking the test to rate how well a question or