Personality style
Encyclopedia
Personality style has been defined as "an individual's relatively consistent inclinations and preference
s across contexts."
Personality
can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of personal traits
and patterns of behavior
. "Personality includes attitudes
, modes of thought
, feeling
s, impulses
, strivings, actions, responses to opportunity and stress
and everyday modes of interacting with others." Personality style is apparent "when these elements of personality are expressed in a characteristically repeated and dynamic combination."
According to Oldham and Morris, "Your personality style is your organizing principle. It propels you on your life path. It represents the orderly arrangement of all your attributes, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviors, and coping mechanisms. It is the distinctive pattern of your psychological functioning—the way you think, feel, and behave—that makes you definitely you."
The origin of personality style is in some combination of genetic inheritance and environmental influence
.
The concept of personality style is broader than and includes the concepts of "personality traits", "personality type
", and "temperament
".
Personality style is usually represented dimensionally, as with the Big Five personality traits
, or as a classification of type, as with the Holland Codes
.
"Personality styles should be recognized as constructed approximations of human experience" and should be arrayed on a continuum rather than be reifed
or totalized. One should be vigilant to deconstruct
the uses of personality style in favor of an ongoing reflexivity
about the use and misuse of such labels
.
McAuliffe, Eriksen and Kress contrast personality style theory with stage theory
. Style "represents long-term constructive preferences whereas stage represents current constructive capacity." Also, "style is relatively long-term and consistent over time, whereas stage tendencies are mutable..."
Personality style assessment
can help individuals and practitioners appreciate human diversity, or, in the words of Isabel Briggs Myers
, respect "gifts differing".
"The range of normal variation in styles can explain much human behavior without reference to notions of pathology
." Personality disorders can be reconceptualized as being on a continuum, with one end being a more adaptive inclination. And style assessment can also complement the search for personality disorder.
Specific personality style theories that might be useful include Costa and McCrae's NEO PI-R
personality inventory, Holland's
person-environment matching theory, Isabel Briggs Myers' personality type
theory, Oldham and Morris' derivation of personality styles from DSM
personality disorders, and Ivey's reconceptualization of the DSM personality disorders as a continuum of personality styles.
Preference
-Definitions in different disciplines:The term “preferences” is used in a variety of related, but not identical, ways in the scientific literature. This makes it necessary to make explicit the sense in which the term is used in different social sciences....
s across contexts."
Personality
Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...
can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of personal traits
Trait theory
In psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over...
and patterns of behavior
Behavior
Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment...
. "Personality includes attitudes
Attitude (psychology)
An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for something. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event— this is often referred to as the attitude object...
, modes of thought
Thought
"Thought" generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas. Similar concepts include cognition, sentience, consciousness, and imagination...
, feeling
Feeling
Feeling is the nominalization of the verb to feel. The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch through either experience or perception. The word is also used to describe experiences, other than the physical sensation of touch, such as "a feeling of...
s, impulses
Impulse (psychology)
An impulse is a wish or urge, particularly a sudden one. It can be considered as a normal and fundamental part of human thought processes, but also one that can become problematic, as in a condition like obsessive-compulsive disorder....
, strivings, actions, responses to opportunity and stress
Stress (medicine)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
and everyday modes of interacting with others." Personality style is apparent "when these elements of personality are expressed in a characteristically repeated and dynamic combination."
According to Oldham and Morris, "Your personality style is your organizing principle. It propels you on your life path. It represents the orderly arrangement of all your attributes, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviors, and coping mechanisms. It is the distinctive pattern of your psychological functioning—the way you think, feel, and behave—that makes you definitely you."
The origin of personality style is in some combination of genetic inheritance and environmental influence
Environmental psychology
Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field focused on the interplay between humans and their surroundings. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments...
.
The concept of personality style is broader than and includes the concepts of "personality traits", "personality type
Personality type
Personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of individuals. Personality types are sometimes distinguished from personality traits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of behavioral tendencies. Types are sometimes said to involve qualitative differences...
", and "temperament
Temperament
In psychology, temperament refers to those aspects of an individual's personality, such as introversion or extroversion, that are often regarded as innate rather than learned...
".
Personality style is usually represented dimensionally, as with the Big Five personality traits
Big Five personality traits
In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....
, or as a classification of type, as with the Holland Codes
Holland Codes
The Holland Codes or the Holland Occupational Themes represents a set of personality types described in a theory of careers and vocational choice formulated by psychologist John L. Holland...
.
"Personality styles should be recognized as constructed approximations of human experience" and should be arrayed on a continuum rather than be reifed
Reification (fallacy)
Reification is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction is treated as if it were a concrete, real event, or physical entity. In other words, it is the error of treating as a "real thing" something which is not a real thing, but merely an idea...
or totalized. One should be vigilant to deconstruct
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
the uses of personality style in favor of an ongoing reflexivity
Reflexivity (social theory)
Reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect. A reflexive relationship is bidirectional with both the cause and the effect affecting one another in a situation that does not render both functions causes and effects...
about the use and misuse of such labels
Labelling
Labelling or labeling is describing someone or something in a word or short phrase. For example, describing someone who has broken a law as a criminal. Labelling theory is a theory in sociology which ascribes labelling of people to control and identification of deviant behavior.It has been argued...
.
McAuliffe, Eriksen and Kress contrast personality style theory with stage theory
Stage theory
Stage theories are based on the idea that elements in systems move through a pattern of distinct stages over time and that these stages can be described based on their distinguishing characteristics...
. Style "represents long-term constructive preferences whereas stage represents current constructive capacity." Also, "style is relatively long-term and consistent over time, whereas stage tendencies are mutable..."
Personality style assessment
Psychological testing
Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct, such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics...
can help individuals and practitioners appreciate human diversity, or, in the words of Isabel Briggs Myers
Isabel Briggs Myers
Isabel Briggs Myers was an American psychological theorist. She was co-creator, with her mother, of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ....
, respect "gifts differing".
"The range of normal variation in styles can explain much human behavior without reference to notions of pathology
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
." Personality disorders can be reconceptualized as being on a continuum, with one end being a more adaptive inclination. And style assessment can also complement the search for personality disorder.
Specific personality style theories that might be useful include Costa and McCrae's NEO PI-R
Revised NEO Personality Inventory
The Revised NEO Personality Inventory, or NEO PI-R, is a psychological personality inventory; a 240-item measure of the Five Factor Model: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. Additionally, the test measures six subordinate dimensions of each of...
personality inventory, Holland's
Holland Codes
The Holland Codes or the Holland Occupational Themes represents a set of personality types described in a theory of careers and vocational choice formulated by psychologist John L. Holland...
person-environment matching theory, Isabel Briggs Myers' personality type
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions...
theory, Oldham and Morris' derivation of personality styles from DSM
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders...
personality disorders, and Ivey's reconceptualization of the DSM personality disorders as a continuum of personality styles.