The Five Factor Model Of Personality Essays -- Psychology essays resea

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The precise definition of personality has been a point of discussion amongst many different theorists within many different disciplines since the beginning of civilization. Personality can be defined as "the distinctive and characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior that define an individual's personal style and influence his or her interactions with the environment" (Atkinson, Atkinson, Smith & Bem, 1993: 525). It can be proposed that personality psychology has two different tasks. "The first involves specifying the variables on which individuals differ from one another. The second involves synthesizing the psychological processes of human functioning into an integrated account of the total person" (Atkinson et al., 1993: 532). There are many different theories of personality and many different theorists. The purpose of this essay is to examine the trait approach, specifically the five-factor model. Both the development and limitations of the Five-Factor model of personality shall be discussed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trait theory is based on several assumptions. The first assumption is that any difference between people that is seen as significant will have a name. Secondly, these names, known as traits, are conceived of as continuous dimensions. In general, trait theories assume that people vary simultaneously on a number of personality factors. These traits are of both the conjunctive and disjunctive form. Therefore, to understand a trait, it is necessary to understand what a particular trait is and what type of behaviour is evidence of that trait. (Atkinson et al., 1993). Five factor theorists are one set of trait theorists. The claim of five factor theorists is that behaviour can be best predicted and explained by measurement of five dominant personality factors. The five factor theory is a fairly recent proposal and has its basis in earlier work, which shall be discussed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the statistical techniques most commonly used in the study of personality is that of factor analysis: By identifying groups of highly intercorrelated variables, factor analysis enables us to  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  determine how many underlying factors are measured by a set of original variables. In other words, factor analysis is used to uncover the factor structure of a set of variables. (Diekhoff, 1992: 333) A factor analysis will generally show t... ...ratings, the big five model is extremely useful. If the purpose of the field is also to investigate observers' attributions about individual differences the five- factor model is less significant. If the study of personality aims to emphasise the whole person and the dynamic nature of personality, the model seems to be only of minor concern. As such, from the view of "multifaceted personology, the five-factor model is one model in personality... not the model of personality" (McAdams, 1992: 355).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, the support and criticisms of the five factor model are not as black and white as would be hoped. Each argument has logical reasoning and can provide evidence to support itself. Each view also has a large number of supporters. Neither one is necessarily correct, as it is possible for the model to be applicable at some stages, and not applicable at others. As a result, it is probable and acceptable to conclude that the five factor theory may or may not be an appropriate model of personality. Perhaps a comparison of how much supporting literature there is for each argument is a useful method for deciding which theory an individual may choose to support.