Understanding personality can be mind-boggling

When a bomb goes off many people flee from the area to save themselves. However, there are those who would try to go back to the scene of the explosion out of curiosity, to render first-aid to injured people or help themselves to valuables left by the dead.

This simple example shows that people have different personalities. They react differently in diverse situations. On the other hand, take the case of doctors, lawyers and other professionals who have the same academic qualifications. But some lawyers and doctors do better than their peers. There are legal luminaries and briefless barristers having the same qualifications.

If we take a cross section of the people we know, we can come to many conclusions. Some people are very optimistic and outgoing. There are others who are pessimistic about everything under the sun.

Haven't we come across people who are hot-tempered and always ready to fight with someone? We also come across the saintly types who never lose their temper. All this shows that each person is unique. No amount of education or character building can change their attitudes to life.

Alfred Adler: More optimistic than Sigmund Freud.

Psychology provides a reasonable definition of personality: "Personality refers to an individual's unique constellation of consistent behaviour traits." Although it says something about personality, it does not say everything about it. Instead of trying to define the term 'personality', we can make an attempt to understand various personality traits.

'Big Five'

According to a recent study by two leading psychologists - Robert McCrae and Paul Costa - the vast majority of personality traits are derived from five higher order traits known as the "Big Five". They are: Extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Most positive thinkers fall into the first category - extraversion.

They are not easily put off by life's temporary setbacks such as examination failures or losing their jobs. History is full of people who have been successful in their lives after being hit by one disaster after another. For instance, English poet John Milton did not give up writing even after he went blind. He used to dictate his poems to his daughter. Positive thinkers are usually outgoing and friendly.

Those who belong to the second category - neuroticism- are anxious, hostile and self-conscious. Some of them have feelings of insecurity. Most of these people are negative in their thinking and attitudes. For example, nothing is possible for them. Probably, they are fatalists who expect everything to fall from heaven. When it does not happen, they begin to sulk in their own tents.

Fortunately, society is not full of neurotics. There are people who are always trying to experience life's diverse situations with an unsullied will-power. Such a person is always curious and flexible. He is curious to know why the earth is moving round the sun or to know why people commit various crimes. They are also highly imaginative.

Mother Teresa

Most authors, poets and artists belong to this category. Being sensitive to both pleasure and pain, some of them turn to study psychology, philosophy and religion. Their unconventional attitudes somewhat baffle others. However, they remain good-hearted soulmates to others.

Agreeableness is another personality trait found among people.

However, they are not agreeable to do anything for others. They are a sympathetic lot who understand the suffering of others. They remain faithful to a cause and do their part in a straightforward manner.

Mother Teresa is a fine example of this personality type. Her unconventional attitude to the poor suffering people in the slums in Calcutta, India propelled her to be a living saint.

Those who are punctual, well organised and disciplined belong to the last category called "Conscientiousness." Most of the people who belong to this category can be seen rushing to their workplaces well ahead of the scheduled time. They do not leave office without doing their allotted part of the work . Although they are a dying breed, some of them can still be seen in both the State and private sectors.

Although psychologists have tried to divide people into several categories, we cannot put people in watertight compartments. Some of the qualities relating to one category can be seen in other categories.

As a result, there is a raging debate about the dimensions of personality among psychologists. While leaving them to dabble in their debate, we can be satisfied with a bird's eye view of the whole situation.

Self-analysis

Sigmund Freud was the first psychologist to investigate the dimensions of personality in a big way. His theory of personality was based on his psychoanalysis. He spoke to patients and gathered many salient facts about their illnesses. Although Freud was a physician specialising in neurology, he devoted most of his time for self-analysis.

Freud believed that a person's behaviour is the outcome of his ongoing series of internal conflicts. He made the startling assertion that the foundation of an individual's personality is laid down at the tender age of five!

However, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung in his "analytical psychology" viewed personality in a different light. He believed in a "collective unconscious" which is a storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from people's ancestral past that is shared with the entire human race.

Alfred Adler, however, stressed the social context of personality more than hereditary. Psychologists say that Adler's views are more optimistic than those of Freud. Unlike Freud, Adler argued that the primary human drive is not sexuality but a striving for superiority.

He said everyone of us has to work hard to overcome our feelings of inferiority - real or imaginary. However, Adler's views have been criticised by others. That leaves us with the million dollar question:What is personality?