3 Approaches To The Study Of Personality
Burham’s phrase that “everyone knows what personality is, but no one can express it in words ” describes one of the biggest problems encountered in studying this psychological construct. If we look for a scientific definition of what it is, we find that there is almost one per author. We can nevertheless understand personality as a construct that includes traits that influence the behavior of individuals.
Different methodological problems have arisen in the study of personality. The main ones are the creation of instruments capable of measuring it and a clear approach serving as a starting point. We will deal below with the different approaches or models that were adopted to carry out research in this field. This is the internalist, situationist and interactionist approach.
The internalist approach
This theoretical approach understands the person as an active being and fundamental determinant of his overt behavior. The main characteristic to study are the personal variables of the subject. Therefore, the important thing here is to know the personality traits of each individual.
This is a personalist model. We can therefore deduce that it is also stable and consistent. The theorists of the approach therefore consider that the personality will be maintained over time and in different situations. This will allow us to predict a person’s future behavior if we can isolate their characteristics. Many tests that attempt to measure personality or even personality characteristics, such as the Big Five Inventory (BFI), have emerged from this approach.
Based on current scientific data, this model is often considered somewhat outdated and unrealistic. We find that individuals change their behavior depending on the context. We do not behave the same when we are with family, at work or with friends. Besides, trying to define a subject’s personality into a few stable factors predicting overt behavior is really complicated. Data obtained from personality tests show us the subject’s self-concept more than a true measure of personality.
Personality is something too complex. It cannot be summarized in simple personal variables. We have to do a thorough study of the personality to really understand it in depth.
The situationist approach
This approach understands the person as a passive subject and reactive to the context. What will influence the behavior prediction will be the situational variables. The traits and qualities of a person are irrelevant here. The most important is the strength of the situation.
This model is based on the assumption that all behavior is learned. The learning processes by which we acquire new ways of acting must therefore be studied. A stimulus / response approach very typical of behavioral paradigms has thus emerged. Its development is based on an experimental and highly positivist methodology.
This approach is more realistic when it comes to seeing the instability and uniqueness of the personality. It is nevertheless too reductive. It leaves aside all the personal variables whereas the attitude of a subject obviously affects his behavior. All individuals would behave the same in the same situation if it were not so.
The interactionist approach
The interactionist model of personality was born in an attempt to combine the two previous perspectives. To solve their mistakes. We understand from this paradigm that behavior is determined by the interaction between the subject’s personal variables and situational variables. An important aspect to understand is that personality is the product of the subject’s interaction with his context.
The person is here an active subject who observes and constructs his world through his own perception and his ways of acting. The interaction of personal variables with the situation in which the individual is immersed is what triggers one behavior or another. However, two aspects must be taken into account:
- We refer to the cognitive factors of the person when we speak of personal variables.
- We refer to the subject’s individual perception of its context when we speak of the situation. No to the objective characteristics of the latter.
This is a comprehensive model that overcomes the limitations of the other two. The problem with the interactionist approach in the study of personality is that it shows us a reality that is difficult to explore and study. This is because it tells us that behavior is the product of inaccessible cognitive factors and impassable context construction. This model remains however very interesting for the study of the personality.
Our thoughts The types of personality that Erich Fromm offers us allow us to cross-check certain universal truths about our behavior.
