Personality

Nature approach to personality VS Nurture approach.

A way an individual’s personality is formed can be tracked down to two ways the Nature approach and the Nurture approach. Both of these affect the person and stem from how they were bought up as a child.

The Nomothetic approach

This approach looks at the fact that personality is “A measurable and specific perspective that looks at the identification of traits” (Mullins 2007). This looks at the characteristics of a person and their genetic makeup, with the idea that a person’s personality is fixed and determined by the traits that they posses and due to the fact that their personality is generic these people are very resistant to change. These people can be prone to impulsive decisions and behaviour’s, they are generally active as well as sociable, they are risk takers, practical but can also be irresponsible.

The Idiographic approach

This approach can be described as “Approaches the study of personality that focuses on understanding the uniqueness of individuals. These approaches regard personality as a process which is open to change” (Mullins 2007). This type of personality is related to the uniqueness of the person and their ability to adapt and change through experience they have gained, these people can easily interact with the environment and make things work for them.

What one is more dominate

After reading through this debate http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nomothetic-idiographic.html as well as looking at different text books and own knowledge it can be seen that both types nature and nurture play a big role in peoples likes and the evolution of their personality as people are born with certain traits, but it is also possible for them to learn new skills and traits as they grow older and gain life experience, resulting in nature and nurture playing a side by side role in development.

Personality test

To try and find out where my personality stems from I participated in 2 online tests the first test I took was www.initforlife.com/home/tm.asp where the results I received stated that my 5 mind frames consisted of

1. Sociability
2. Control
3. Proactively
4. Logic
5. Insight

Whereas the test identified 3 areas beyond my comfort zone were

1. Charisma
2. Sensitivity
3. Order

The second test I took was http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/whatamilike/index.shtml. This test reviled that my 5 traits were

1. Extroversion - In this trait I got a high score of 4/5, this trait means that I am prone to seek out pleasure-simulating or risk-taking activities and express energy, people with this trait enjoy socialising and forming new friendships. Extrovert people take to leadership easily and have the tendency to earn more money that people with lower scores.

2. Openness - In this trait I scored 3.9/5 this trait means that I have a fairly broad range of interests and sensitive to art or music. By having this trait people find it easier to come up with original solutions to problems.


3. Conscientiousness – In this trait I gained a medium score of 3.2/5 this trait means that the person is dependable, hard working and organised, this trait also is a good indicator for job success while still achieving a good work life balance.

4. Agreeableness – In this trait I scored highly with 4/5 this trait demonstrates how sympathetic a person is and how considerate they are, these people are more likely to get along with people easily and are comfortable in team working situations.

5. Neuroticism – I gained a medium score in this trait of 3/5. This relates to a person’s response in stressful or threatening situations, this makes people more prone to worry when uncertain with the future.
Is this a good type of selection tool?

I believe that this test can be used as an effective selection tool as it can show traits about people that they may not previously know they had. But for this to be affective the person taking the test needs to be completely honest and understand the questions they are answering.

Conclusion

All in all it can be seen that both nature and nurture play a large role in personality and can be analysed quite easily by businesses, but it cannot solely be used as a selection tool as some people may not be as open in the tests, resulting in the results being void.

References

Mullins, L. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8th edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited