Personality Psychology

The famous person I am choosing to analyze would be Lauren Conrad. She entered reality TV in her high school years and was then followed into college years. Part of her developmental years were certainly spent being dissected by viewers. Past college and having TV shows Conrad continued on in the fashion world and has a successful clothing line. I am going to use trait theory or more specifically the big five factor in order to analyze Conrad. The five traits that are part of the five factor model are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Cervone & Pervin, 2015). Openness and extraversion seem to be the two obvious traits Conrad would score high in. Openness being creative and original and extraversion being sociable and talkative. Conrad’s fashion line implies her creative and original characteristics and her being part of reality TV lends her to being sociable and talkative. Beyond just being on TV Conrad was known for her clubbing and groups of friends. Conrad was also generally kindhearted to her friends and willing to lend a helpful hand. At the same time she was not always an angel. Due to these two aspects I would place Conrad on a moderate to high score for agreeableness. Conscientiousness is present to a degree but Conrad was not known for her punctuality. A moderate score would be most appropriate. This leaves neuroticism for scoring. The score should not be too high because if it was it would keep Conrad from scoring so high in openness and extraversion. However, it will certainly be evident because there was no one on her shows that cried as often. Conrad was in touch with her emotional side. That would be Conrad’s assessment according to me on the big five factor model.

            Since this is not the first time I have done personality assessments, especially, for classes I do not find that I have had any new insights into my personality. I am aware I am introverted and high on neuroticism. I am also high on conscientiousness. However, the five factor model put me on the low end for openness and agreeableness. There are aspects that are descriptors of the categories that I agree with but there are also some within the categories that I do not. The same insights apply as I had seen before. Conscientiousness keeps me timely and well-structured with the work, school and professional, that I take part in. Introverted means I need to work harder in order to build relationships. Neuroticism means I need to do more yoga and seek help when I feel that my anxiety is getting out of control. Openness and agreeableness seem to me to be situational traits. I think that being critical while also being considerate is important in the professional line of work. I also do not think of myself to closed minded to new ways or thoughts but skeptical. I think skepticism is important in order to keep from making rash decisions. It can also be the cause of missed opportunities. In the work place it is important to have a balance. I think one of the ways this can be applied through the rest of my life is to just continue to be aware of the personality traits. I think having awareness can explain why my disposition to act in certain ways is there. It can also motivate me to take different paths that are more apt for certain situations. There are times when the traits above will serve me well and others where I will have to try hard to combat them in order to succeed. I think the first step in that is just being aware of what it. I think when I approach more people through life I have more ways of assessing their personality. The studies that we have learned each had their different thoughts that they put forth. Taking away a little from each gives me a more comprehensive way of addressing different people. I think Cervone & Pervin (2015) stated it best when they described the different theories as different tool kits. Having a comprehensive approach from the combination of all really makes you stop and consider the person you are interacting with. It may even make it a little easier to understand. I was certainly drawn to the five factor model the most. I believe this is because it is something that is utilized in business often for staffing and such. Going into business administration I believe that this will be the most useful for me and I think I will come across it the most. That is not to say the other theories will not be useful. There was certainly a lot of good information presented in this course.

Discussion 2 Cait

Kanye West, according to himself, is the voice of God. He calls himself "Yeesus". He is a narcissist. A few of his lyrics show this: "If I was just a fan of music, I would think I was the number one artist in the world" "Rap is the new rock and roll...We the rock stars, and I'm the biggest of all of them" or with his song titled "I am a god". Lack of empathy� allowed him to charge a fellow song artist at an awards show, grabbing the award from her hand, claiming another artist deserved the award, having no regard for her feelings or the intelligence of the people who voted for the winner. Violent outbursts are common for him, as he cannot handle criticism. Also, there were leaked sex tapes of him, so he likes to look at himself, to say the least. Based on his random social media presence, he quite possibly shows signs of psychosis, as he doesn't seem to live in reality, saying he is a messenger of God, claims he is a genius even though he makes up words and� some of his rhymes make no sense at all, and is quite radical at times about politics and world issues, making accusations with no basis or facts.

I learned a lot about myself in this course. Have gotten to work on some behaviors in myself I have wanted to change for some time because I have an understanding of why they exist now. Avoidant personality can really take a toll. Turns out, it can be fixed if you put in the work. Thanks to unconditional positive regard from a great group of people I surround myself with, I am learning to break out of my INFP shell. My favorite takeaway from the course was from the Ted Talks video last week. Dream big...it just hasn't happened "yet". �

As far as in my career, it will be very beneficial to have an idea of how the personality works. Dealing with people in need of help is a tough job. Knowing how they tick from the get go gives me the advantage. I will definitely utilize personality assessments to get an understanding of my clients from the beginning. It would be fun to do a before, middle, and after assessment with them over a year period to see if any changes happen. I will be working with clients with addiction problems. People make a lot of changes, inside and out when in recovery. Some people don't even recognize themselves after getting a year or two clean off of drugs or alcohol.