The personality Paradox

Personality Paradox

Joe Koerner

Grand Canyon University

Personality Paradox

Personality as defined by America Psychological Association (2015) is “individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. The key to understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics, as well as understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole”. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary (2015) defines paradox as "someone who does two things that seem to be opposite to each other or who has qualities that are opposite”. Personality paradox is noted when the observable difference of environmental factor’s effect on perceived stable personality traits is circumvented. Brooks (2009) wrote, “according to the psychologist’s view, individuals do not have one thing called character. Psychologists say this is because a century’s worth of experiments suggests that people’s actual behavior is not driven by permanent traits that apply from one context to another”. A review of how personality paradox can occur in human beings will be analyzed. A discussion of the Cognitive Affective Processing System (CAPS) to explain personality paradox, as well as the way performers’ personality interacts with the environment will be reviewed. Mischel, and Shoda (1995) recommended CAPS to interpret the “ process of why and how individuals’ behavior varies across situations”.

How does Personality Paradox Occur

In a recent article in Biological Psychiatry regarding the role of genetic variations underlying human personality, the study found “no genetic variants that significantly contribute to personality variation were identified, while our sample provides over 90% power to detect variants that explain only 1% of the trait variance” (Lehrer, Wired (A), 2010)This research suggests that genetics do not play a significant role in contributing to personality paradox. One could argue the accuracy of this research. Kendler and Baker (2006) “suggests that genetic influences on measures of the environment are pervasive in extent and modest to moderate in impact. Every aspect of the environment that we were able to examine was significantly influenced by genetic factors” (p. 620). Many factors influence an individual’s personality development. Plomin, DeFries, Knopik, and Neiderheiser (2013) “personality is a good candidate to explain … how people select, modify, construct and perceive their environments”. Factors that can influence an individual’s personality include, but are not limited to: “genetics, cultural influences, environment, development process, as well as biological factors” (Morf,2006, p. 1533 ).

The human brain is the most complex organ in the human body. One may argue based on that premise that human beings are not always one thing. For example someone is driving erratically. One might assume that the individual has not regard for the law or the safety of others. If you follow the driver to they may be rushing to an accident involving their wife and/or children. If human beings assign a personality trait to another solely attributing the behavior to the individuals’ personality we have committed what is known as a fundamental attribution error. In the example the individual was labeled as reckless or inconsiderate in one situation, but may be a defensive driver in his/her everyday commute. This paradox in personality may lead some to believe that this is the personality of the person, rather than the persons’ situations or interactions with a stimulus from the environment being the cause of the individuals’ behavior. One of the metaphors used by Mischel as an example for interactions of individuals is as follows:

A car making a screeching noise. How does a mechanic solve the problem? He begins by trying to identify the specific conditions that trigger the noise. Is there a screech when the car is accelerating, or when it’s shifting gears, or turning at slow speeds? Unless the mechanic can give the screech a context, he’ll never find the broken part. Mischel wanted psychologists to think like mechanics, and look at people’s responses under particular conditions (Lehrer, Science Blogs, 2010B).

A majority of human beings find it difficult to focus on the things we can control and tend to focus on the outcomes. It is paramount to understand that there are many situations one encounters that they cannot control. Prior to assigning a label or a characteristic to that individual one should seek to objective review the situation from the individuals’ perspective before attributing their actions as part of their personality. One way to better interpret this information is by developing and understanding of Cognitive Affective Processing.

Cognitive Affective Processing to explain Personality Paradox

“According to the cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) model, behavior is a function of how the distinctive cognitive affective system of the individual responds to one’s subjective experience of the situation encountered” (Shoda, Wilson, Chen, Gilmore, & Smith, 2013). The CAPS model is used to develop an understanding of the causes and coping mechanisms that are brought specific situations experienced by the individual. As touched on before many factors influence persons’ behavior in a given situation. For example of an individual that has experienced a traumatic event, such as physical abuse from a parent may react in one of the following ways. The person may become sensory seeking and over indulge in eating, exercise and/or sexual activity. The other possible reaction is to withdraw completely from the situation so they do not have to experience those feelings associated with that stimulus. The CAPS model encompasses regulation of two areas of the self; motivation and competencies. “Regulatory motivation is the outcome of how the individual construes/encodes the situation as well as the values, beliefs, standards, goals, and emotional states that become activated by it. Regulatory competencies, we mean the cognitive and attentional mechanisms that help execute goal-directed behavior” (Mischel & Ayduck, 2013,p. 114).

Individual are unique they have different life experiences, belief systems, and standards. The way an individual construes a stimulus may vary based on the factors listed above, as well as other factors. Human beings process situations and interaction differently based on a number of factors. “Fundamentally different, conception of personality invariance has construed personality as a system of mediating processes, conscious and unconscious, whose interactions are manifested in predictable patterns of situation-behavior relations” (Mischel et al, 1995,p. 247) . Self-awareness in recognizing patterns that influence behavior will be paramount to mitigating situations that might create an observable personality paradox.

Cognitive Affective Processing to explain how the performer’s personality interacts with the environment.

A performer experiences psychological features, which are being acted upon by the certain factors; (i.e. biological history, genetics, culture, society, developmental history, etc…) . and the perception of the coach (observers) judgement regarding the performers’ behavior. The cognitive –affective personality system in then activated organizing potential responses, and cognitions associated with the psychological features, as well as being influenced by (i.e. biological history, genetics, culture, society, developmental history, etc…). The performer begins to develop alternative responses and out comes relevant to if –then scenarios that the performer identified. Concurrently dealing with the perception of how the coach (observer) will judge his performance. The process is fluid and can be changed when the people involved change their feelings and/or behaviors. Additional the process can change when the performer becomes aware of the tendency to react to a situation or stimulus. Once the individual understands his/her pattern on tendency to react it may change the consequences, which intern changes the performers’ reality.

Mischel and Yoda (1995) identified five cognitive-affective units that “influence how human beings process information. The five units are: 1) encoding, 2) beliefs and expectations, 3) goals/values, 4) affect, 5) competencies and self- regulation”. Understanding how performers individually process this information as it relates to situational and environmental stimulus is paramount to understanding how the personality of the performers’ personality interacts with the environment. Each of the five units may be more easily understood by the following explanation:

Encoding is the process performers use to determine how information is processed, stored, and used. Beliefs/expectations is what outcomes an individual expects from their actions. Goals/values are the performers’ life goals and rewards for performing an expected behavior . Affect describes how a person reacts emotionally to situations or triggers. Competencies/self-regulation describe the general intelligence, knowledge, and abilities of the performer. These units vary between individuals and personality develops according to how these cognitive-affective qualities interact with situational variables and the environment (Cognitive Affective Processing System, n.d.).

These five units can be used to help solidify the process the performer goes through to better understand how the performer’s personality interacts with the environment.

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