The personality Paradox
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The Personality Paradox
The Personality Paradox
Blaina J.T. Best
Grand Canyon University: PSY-831
April 23, 2014
The Personality Paradox
People all over the world are never the same in all of their aspects. Even though many might share the same physical body morphology and even skin color, their temperaments, and the way they react to situations. What causes these differences is what is referred to as personality. The personality is the expression of traits that are unique to particular individuals (Banner, 2012). However, research has shown that people do not portray fixed characters but they change their characters according to situations and conditions that confront them. Scientists have conducted extensive research to try and demystify the personality paradox. To explain this concept well, a theory has been advanced by psychologists.
Cognitive Affective Processing System
Cognitive Affective Processing System is the theory that has been advanced to support these beliefs (Fox, 2008). The paradox, therefore, in the theory of personality is that the character of a person is supposed to be what describes him or her before the world. However, it has been revealed by research that people tend to change their personalities depending on the situations that they are in. This therefore makes it difficult to tell the true nature of a person’s personality. The relationship that exists between the psychological features of the conditions, situations, and the human behaviors are determined by five key factors which include: construals and encodings, beliefs and expectations, emotions and feelings, values and goals, and finally self-regulatory activities and competencies. Construals and encodings refer to the affects that a person faces which mainly include the problems that come up in life and the good things that also come along the way in the life of an individual (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2012). People tend to act in a defensive manner whenever they are faced with unfavorable circumstances and, as a result, their personality changes accordingly. The reverse happens whenever they are faced with favorable conditions where, consequently, they tend to be receptive and welcoming leading to another shift in personality.
Effect of Human Beliefs and Expectations on Personality
Human personality is also influenced by the beliefs and expectations people have in their life. Taking the case of a person who has high expectations of a good future, the person is likely to show a positive attitude and a sudden change in character emanates from them in anticipation of the good things to come. The people who also expect good things to happen will tend to behave more jovially and warm to all people (Gennaro, 2012). Alterations on their talk ability and socialization habits also tend to scale up. On the other hand, the ones who are in an unlucky situation or expecting a bad situation to happen in the future will tend to keep to themselves, be reserved more, unfriendly, and in the worst case, hostile towards others. Beliefs also alter a person’s character or personality. The beliefs could be based on faith, religious beliefs or just some radicalization that results when one undergoes some brain washing and is made to hold dear some new beliefs about life. An instance of a case where someone undergoes a change of faith, for example, from a non-believer to a Christian, he/she is likely to portray a change in personality to one that conforms to the commands of the newly acquired faith (Banner, 2012). Therefore, somebody who had initially known these people before are likely to be confused when asked to comment about the character of the concerned individuals. This serves to demonstrate the paradox that exists in the human personalities - that it is never defined in constant terms that it is not invariant.
Role of Emotions and Feelings
Human emotions and feelings are also known to be very influential on a person’s behavior and mode of conduct. Emotions and feelings range from what they are termed as positive and others as negative. What brings about the divide is dependent on the nature of the results that they bring. Those that bring about disastrous effects are the negative ones, while the opposite ones serve as the positive ones (Fox, 2008). Emotions make people act differently from their normal way, so are feelings. Human beings naturally are very expressive in nature and will never hesitate to show their inner feelings. This phenomenon still serves to show the fact that the human personality is marred by paradox. Therefore, for one to fully understand one’s personality, a good time needs to be spent learning their habits over a considerably long time.
Role of Goals and Values
The Cognitive Affective Processing System also proposes that values and goals that a person has also have a way of influencing their personalities (Banner, 2012). Questions of values and goals all stem from the issues of morality and cultural practices. Some societies are cultured while others are liberal. This has a way of influencing their moral compass. The question of morality and values, however, is subject to personal view of life. The goals that a person has will, to a large extent, influence not only the way they view life but also the way they approach it, and consequently the kind of personality they are going to exhibit. Invariancy of the personality in this case shall be supported by the fact that these goals are never constant but they keep changing with time and age of the individuals (Gennaro, 2012). A good example would be that of a young college man who wants to be the star of his campus or be the talk of town. At this stage, he is likely to adopt a high life and care-free personality in order to attract the necessary attention. However, as he gets out of college and as he ages, the time to get married comes knocking. At the latter stage, he will want to portray himself as a good, responsible and dependable man; hence a total change of behavior and mannerisms ensues. This is in further support of the invariancy of human personality - the personality paradox.
Role of Competencies and Self-Regulatory Activities
Competencies and self-regulatory activities in life also influence the way human beings behave. Competencies have everything to do with the professions that the people belong to. There is a way people of the same profession tend to behave almost the same way. For instance, medics are mostly known to be reserved, composed and collected people, and this trait seems to transcend across the entire population of the members of this profession – even though initially they never behaved like this before joining their current profession. A regulatory activity, on the other hand, refers to external forces exerted on the people in order to make them behave in a particular way (Gennaro, 2012). A good example of this is in the military set up where soldiers are expected to all act in some prescribed code of conduct. Therefore, in the long run, their personalities are likely to change to a similar way – the one that they have been instilled to exhibit. Personality is thus seen as invariant in this sense.
Cognitive Affective Processing System and the Environment
Cognitive Affective Processing System has therefore been shown by the research discussed above that it has a direct relationship with the environment (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2012). The happenings that take place in a person’s environment have a direct impact on the personality that the person is going to exhibit. Perhaps that explains why children brought up in the low life estates and slums are likely to be hardcore, risk takers and care-free about life. On the other hand, those brought up in Porsche estates will likely show a personality of non-risk taker and will easily be easy to be affected by hardships that might come in life. The people around someone also influence their psychology. For example, if one is surrounded by harsh people, the person will likely act defensive and the resulting character they will exhibit will be one of an unfriendly person. The reverse happens when one is surrounded by loving and caring people.
Conclusion
Personality and character are never ingrained in a person’s life at birth. They are acquired as a person grows. Therefore, the environmental conditions that one is subjected to does have an impact on their personality. Cognitive Affective Processing System is the result of an extensive research that was done by scientists with the view of demystifying the human personality trends. This research can conclusively be said to be the accurate discovery into the personality paradox. We can therefore argue that the paradox that is in the human personality has everything to do with the invariance aspect – that one is never expected to exhibit one personality trend in their life but will keep changing according to the conditions and circumstances of life.
References
Banner, L. (2012). Marilyn: The passion and the paradox. New York: Bloomsbury.
