Personality

personality. Article #33. Vol 9, pg 312.

Simply put, a person’s personality is a description of the way that the person thinks, acts and feels.

The science of personality, however, goes far beyond a simple description.  We tend to act in a regular fashion, so people have tried for years to come up with various models that categorize people’s personalities, for the purpose of describing or even predicting behavior.

Here are some models that people have used over the years:

• Ancient Greeks: blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm  (combination dictates personality)
• Freud: id, ego, supergo  (forces driving personality)
• Jung: extroverted, introverted
• MMPI: 10 scales (e.g. hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, paranoia, etc)

Personally, it seems to me a little over the top to get so analytical about something as nuanced as human behavior.  But maybe I’m not enough of a Type A person to really understand it.

“personality.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed. 2010. Vol 9, pg 312.