Knowra Personality Personality Personality is the relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors that distinguishes one individual from another. It reflects both characteristic tendencies and how a person responds across situations.
Personality trait : A relatively enduring tendency to think, feel, or behave in characteristic ways. Traits describe the stable individual differences that make up personality.
Big Five personality traits : A five-dimension framework describing personality through openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The Big Five offer a widely used model for organizing broad personality differences.
Personality assessment : The systematic measurement of personality using interviews, observations, or standardized instruments. Assessment turns descriptions of personality into evidence that can be compared or applied.
Personality disorder : A persistent, inflexible pattern of inner experience and behavior that causes significant distress or impairment. A personality disorder is a clinical diagnosis, not simply an unusual personality.
Temperament : Early-emerging differences in emotional reactivity and self-regulation, shaped partly by biology. Temperament supplies early patterns that can contribute to later personality.
Social cognitive theory : A theory that explains behavior through interactions among personal factors, actions, and social environments. It explains personality as patterns shaped by reciprocal person–environment influence.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory : A standardized self-report inventory developed to assess psychological symptoms and personality-related patterns. The MMPI is a prominent clinical instrument whose scales require trained interpretation.
Mood : A relatively diffuse emotional state that can persist for hours or longer and influence thought and behavior. Moods fluctuate over shorter periods than the enduring patterns used to describe personality.
Character : A person's evaluative qualities and habits concerning values, responsibility, and conduct. Character overlaps with personality but emphasizes moral and socially valued qualities.
Psychodynamic theory : A family of theories emphasizing unconscious processes and conflicts in mental life. Psychodynamic accounts connect enduring personality patterns to unconscious motives and early relationships.
Show all 22