WHAT IS PERSONALITY?

 Do you know what personality is?

We judge a person's personality by their attitudes and morals. And most people comment and criticize the personality. But we never thought that what we actually think of as a personality and what we comment on people is really his personality? Or just our fantasy??

In today's article, we will try to understand what personality really is. Not only this, with the help of fire you can do welding.

Let's start again.

WHAT IS PERSONALITY?

The personality is made up of a series of characteristics that we use to describe ourselves and that are included throughout what we call the self or "self" forming a coherent unit.

Among these characteristics are what are called traits in psychology (such as aggressiveness, submission, sociability, sensitivity...); trait sets (such as extroversion or introversion), and other aspects that people use to describe themselves, such as their desires, motivations, emotions, feelings, and coping mechanism.

That is, personality is the way we think, feel, behave and interpret reality.

Personality through time stability and change

To a large extent, personality is determined by genes, which provide us with a wide variety of predispositions. But the environment and life experiences (parents, society, friendships, culture, etc.) take care to mold all those possibilities in one direction or another. Therefore, although we can change our way of being, we do it based on those personality characteristics with which we have come into the world.

 

Generally, there is a tendency to behave in a certain way over time, but this does not mean that a person behaves that way in all cases. For example, if we say that a person is an introvert, it means that they are most of the time, but not all the time. Moods also influence behavior, so a person can vary depending on their mood swings. However, and as we will see later, this variability is an indication of good psychological health (as long as it is not extreme), since it indicates the existence of a flexible personality, capable of adapting to different situations.

The healthy personality

The psychologically healthy and balanced personality has the following characteristics:

It is flexible. These are people who know how to react to situations and to others in various ways. That is, they have a wide repertoire of behaviors and use one or another to adapt to the demands of life, instead of behaving in a rigid and inflexible way.

He leads a more varied life, carrying out various activities, instead of centering his life on the same theme.

He is able to tolerate pressure situations and face them and does not collapse in the face of difficulties and setbacks.

Her way of seeing herself, the world, and others are quite close to reality.

Our concept of ourselves

A very important aspect of our personality is the way we see ourselves and the world around us. Two different people can interpret reality differently. Observing a forest in the distance, both will agree that there are trees and mountains there, but while one of them can see a place full of danger, the other can be seeing a paradise in which she would like to get lost for several days.

Personality determines the way we see the world and ourselves, but at the same time, the way we see ourselves influences our personality. For example, if several people tell a child that he is very intelligent, he is very likely to think of himself as being so, while if they tell him otherwise, he will come to consider himself an unintelligent person. This is because it is difficult to check whether or not we are intelligent (while it is quite easy to check, for example, physical strength). For this reason, we often turn to others to define ourselves, based on the opinion that others have of us. On other occasions we describe ourselves taking others as a point of reference. If someone tells us "I'm a sleepyhead", what he is telling us is that he sleeps more hours than most people.

The perception of ourselves and others are often related. For example, sometimes we attribute to other personality traits that belong to us, because that way they are easier for us to understand and because sometimes the knowledge we have to explain the causes of our behavior is the only one we have. . That is, if I do such a thing, I would do it for reason X; therefore, this person has done it for the same reason (of course, this does not have to be true). Therefore, when someone changes her self-concept, the way he sees other people also changes.

When self-concept and reality do not coincide

It is normal that there is some distortion between self-concept and reality. Some people see themselves as more or less capable than they are. But when this mismatch is very large, psychopathology occurs.

Suppose a person considers himself to be able to remain calm in tense situations. If a fire breaks out and she locks up, being unable to react properly and becoming excessively nervous, there will be a fairly large incongruity between her self-concept and reality, because her behavior has not been in accordance with said self-concept. When this type of incongruence (called dissonance) occurs, it is intolerable and we try to eliminate it immediately. This is achieved in two ways: 1) changing the self-concept to fit reality, or 2) distorting reality to fit the self-concept. In this second case, a psychological disorder could occur.

Therefore, to prevent these dissonances from occurring, we always try to behave in accordance with our self-concept. Thus, if we think something of ourselves, we behave accordingly, whether it is positive or negative. For example, if someone considers himself aggressive, he will feel uncomfortable behaving in a loving way, because it creates an inconsistency with his self-concept. This can make change difficult, but not impossible.

Psychopathology and personality disorders

As we have seen, people who resist adjusting their self-concept to reality are more likely to suffer from some type of psychopathology. An overly rigid and inflexible way of being is less willing to make such adjustments. In this way, we see how personality exerts a great influence on the existence of emotional problems. In fact, most people with psychological disorders have difficulties that are caused, at least in part, by certain characteristics of their personality. The way we have of seeing ourselves, the world, and others may be causing us problems and suffering.

 

Depressed people, for example, see themselves as worthless individuals whom nobody loves; they interpret neutral behaviors as rejection, contempt, etc. They tend to give great emphasis to negative events and almost exclude positive ones.

 

Personality disorders are exaggerations of normal ways of being. The altruistic person, for example, can become a martyr and a defeatist if his giving of himself to others becomes too exaggerated. People who are very sure of themselves, with great confidence and high self-esteem can end up being narcissists if these traits are exaggerated to the point of detachment from reality. The vigilant and suspicious person who does not miss any detail and whom no one manages to deceive can become paranoid, etc.

Psychotherapy and personal development

Personal development consists of enhancing our own skills according to our way of being; learning to use those qualities constructively and balancing the different aspects of oneself so that they work in unison and not in a contradictory way.

 

An important aspect of psychotherapy is to help people understand their self-concept, objectively observe reality, and adjust the two so that there are no inconsistencies. The therapy would produce a change in self-concept leading to a change in behavior. That is, it consists of changing the inaccurate representations of self-concept and reality, replacing them with more appropriate and realistic ones.

 

So, readers, this is the true nature of personality and some of its types. Don't forget to mention in the comments section what kind of personality you have.

In the next post, we will give you some tips on how to improve your personality, by following which you can make your personality more attractive and interesting. So don't forget to read the next post.

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Thank you very much for your attention and reading.