3.1 Different approaches to personality

In Activity 4 in the previous section, you explored situational and dispositional factors and how these can explain our actions. Another way of saying this is that the activity allowed you to explore whether you feel that our actions come from our personalities or are a response to a specific situation. It might surprise you to hear, though, that within the academic study of psychology there is not agreement about exactly what constitutes personality. However, most psychologists, regardless of the approach they take to studying behaviour, accept that some form of ‘personality’ does exist (Ellis, 2024) that can to some extent be measured, although their view on what exactly constitutes personality can often differ.

Trait theory (which within the history of psychology is a more traditional or older idea) relies on the notion that people have consistent personality traits (i.e. tendencies to think or behave in particular ways) that are reasonably stable both across time and in different situations. Psychologists who take this approach look to measure different dimensions of personality through personality tests based on questionnaires. At some point during your life, you may have taken such a test, possibly as part of a recruitment activity if you were applying for certain types of employment.

However, the developments made in personality psychology by some psychologists (e.g. Mischel, 1968) have moved away from the idea of fairly stable traits which predict consistent behaviour over time. You might understand why if you think about your own behaviour in three different situations, such as ‘in work’, ‘out socially with your friends’, and ‘when discussing a health problem with your GP’. You may think that actually you behave quite differently in each, depending on the particular constraints of the situation. Psychologists have carried out research which suggests that people are not always behaviourally consistent, arguing that we behave quite differently depending on the circumstances we find ourselves in. Mischel (1968) posited the idea of ‘if… then…’ behavioural contingencies, i.e. if X happens (a situation) then behaviour Y is likely to happen as a result (Rubenstein and Terrell, 2018). This theory prioritised the situation as opposed to the personality traits of the individual in explaining human behaviour.

These debates in the academic discipline of psychology between the influence of both people’s dispositions or characters, and the influence of the situation, also seem to be reflected in comments from the authors regarding how they create characters. More than that though, these debates are also important when we move on to considering how we relate to other people in the real world. Specifically, what we understand about ourselves, and other people, is an important aspect of living in a society which involves living and working with many different types of people, and doing so in a way that is (hopefully) peaceful and pleasurable.