When looking at the personality of an individual, two key words are used, ‘Nomothetic’ and ‘Idiographic’. When looking at ‘Nomothetic’ personality, we refer to Cattell and Eysenck. The ‘Nomothetic’ approach is described to us as having characteristics that can be applied to a lot of people, not just an individual. An individual can fit into a personality type which is fixed to that specific person; it can be found out by taking an objective questionnaire.
It is believed that the ‘Nomothetic’ approach is linked to the heredity, biology and genetic side of an individual. It is believed that the traits and personality of a person can be clustered together in groups such as ‘introvert’, ‘extrovert’, ‘emotional stability’ and ‘emotional instability’.
Moving onto the ‘Idiographic’ approach, we refer to Jung, Rogers, Skinner and Kelly for our research. This approach looks at the idea that personality is based on uniqueness and being open and adaptable to change. It is believed that when the interaction with the environment changes, the individual may change too. This approach believes that the depth and richness of a person’s personality can not be depicted from an open personality test and they can not tie down and pin point exactly which group a personality fits into as it has many and is adaptable to change. A person’s self- concept of their identity is entirely dependant on how they see themselves and interoperate their understanding.
It is my belief that one’s personality can not be wholly dependant on either the ‘nature’ or ‘nurture’ side of the debate but in fact they both work together and are both as prominent in creating an individuals personality. After taking the BBC personality test, I can see from the results that I am an introvert person who has low openness and a high agreeable nature. I conscientiousness is classed as being medium and my neuroticism is high. I can safely say that i agree with these results, i think the test got my personality spot on and i can now go on to develop my personality knowing my weaknesses and knowing where i need to improve within myself.
To conclude, the ‘nature’/ ‘nurture’ debate is still going on and although there are differences of opinion, mine is still that both are needed in order to create an individuals personality. I believe that there has been enough research and evidence collected to conclude that both are vital when looking at personality.
Referencing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/
L. J. Mullins Management & Organisational Behaviour (2010) 9th Edition.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/nindex/g/nature-nurture.htm
Referencing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/
L. J. Mullins Management & Organisational Behaviour (2010) 9th Edition.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/nindex/g/nature-nurture.htm
Excellent detailed work on the nature nuture debate. Well done for completeing the test, although you have listed the results do you agree/disagree with them, there is no right or wrong, what do you understand by them? link into the Big 5 for example.
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