Module Mirror Explorations Of The Self - 2514 Words

Module: Mirror Mirror: Explorations of the Self. Q. Of the many varieties of personality theory on offer, do you think any offer distinct advantages over the others, and if so, why? The study of personality, or human nature has been baffling the minds of great scholars for centuries now. It is not the recent development, but has a long history of progress. Some great scholars like Aristotle, Machiavielli, Descartes among a few other philosophers and writers had their interest invested in the workings of human nature. Recent theories developed after the 18th century to a great extent reiterate the theories once set by the early scholars. Therefore, it is no surprise that the study of personality has been underway since the presence of man†¦show more content†¦Primary to the explanation and critiques of the personality theories, it is important for us to clearly define the term ‘Personality’. Personality, has had varied definitions over the years depending on the works or the background of its developer. Simplified, the term refers to the public image of a person. On occasion it is also referred to as having ‘enduring characteristics’ or as stable and predictable (Schultz 2009). There has been little or no agreement between scholars about how this term should be used and what meaning would this term hold. According to Sigmund Freud, personality is something that is largely unconscious, unknown and hidden. Carl Rogers thought of personality or the ‘self’ to be something that is organized, has a consistent pattern of the perception of the ‘I’ or ‘me’ that lies beneath all the experiences the individual incurs. B.F Skinner, a well-known behaviorist, was of the opinion that the term personality, was completely unnecessary to understand the human behavior (Bender 2007). A theory is defined as, â€Å"a set of abstract concepts developed about a group of facts or events in order to explain them† (Engler 2009: 2). Consequently, personality theory is an organized set of thoughts, ideas or system of beliefs that helps explain understand the human nature or human behavior. (Ellis, Abrams and Abrams, 2009). Personality theories have been built on two types of view of the personality, idiographic view and nomothetic view. Idiographic view