Personality

Our personality is what makes us unique its the point of difference between us an others. It is our constancy and determines how we behave in a variety of situations.

Freud believed our personalities are formed in the first years of our lives. Skinner believed our personalities are developed through observational learning. Adler believed that our personality developed over our life span while biological psychologist believe our personality is genetically inherited and is formed through evolutionary brain development.

Who is right. It's my belief that a little of each of these theories are correct. I do believe that our childhood forms a lasting impression, our observational learning is strongly entrenched in our behaviour as an adult. We continue to learn and develop throughout our lives and it is my belief that we are a bag of chemicals formed through biology. I think all of these theories hold merit and some truth to them. Scientific evidence can't be wrong.

Personality test are a form of scientific research into what forms our personalities take. What areas are being tested. These are the areas:

Openness
Consciousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuratism

The big five personality traits. The Myers Briggs personality test is widely known. Its available freely and is seen as accurate. Versions of this test have been used for employment, dating websites and personal curiosity.

How accurate are these. Only honest answers will tell us. However, peoples perceptions of themselves are often highly inaccurate. Most people can work out what employers are looking for and will falsify their answers to get the job. However, the questions asked in these tests are very difficult to fudge. They are available online and are free to try.

It's possible to experience a shift in personality however, these shifts are usually short lived. I experienced a shift in my own personality. I have always tested high in extraversion and low in neuroticism. However, after a lengthy legal battle and years of working in an industry that didn't value me, my extraversion shot down to 35% and my neuroticism shot up to 70%.  Then when I was successful in my legal claim and got a job where I was valued my original personality scores in these areas returned to the original results over time. However, there has been a lasting change in regards to the Myer Briggs test. I tested high in logic and judgement perhaps a result of my life experiences.

So in conclusion personality while complex is based around our up bringing our biological make up and our social experiences over time. What we are, how we interpret and evaluate our experience and our social interactions such as cultural influences.