Personality Theories Including Evolutionary and Dispositional Term Paper

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Dispositional and Evolutionary Theories

What makes some people extraverted and others introverted? Why are some people mellow and calm, while others lose their tempers at the drop of a hat? Personality psychology tries to answer questions like these by performing a twofold role. The first role of personality psychology is to explain how clusters of traits work together to cause behavioral or cognitive effects, and the other role is to simply explain individual differences or classify people according to clusters of traits (American Psychological Association, 2015). There are several schools of personality psychology, including dispositional and evolutionary theories. Dispositional theory is quite common in popular psychology and has been a prevalent mode of thinking in the history of philosophies throughout different societies. According to dispositional theory, people have immutable traits and personality "types." Occasionally a person might act out of character, but generally people have strong, innate personalities that remain with them throughout their lives. The two major assumptions of personality psychology are that personality is stable across the course of a person's life, and the other is that people with different personality types are inherently different from one another ("Personality: Theories and Perspectives," 2007).

Evolutionary theory of personality acknowledges that there are certain personality traits, but attributes those traits to biological or genetic factors. The underlying assumption of evolutionary theory is that genetics determines personality, but human personality and behavior can be changed when there are changes to the organism's biology such as through neurochemicals or hormones.

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Evolutionary theory is less concerned with traits and categories, but is concerned with cognition, behavior, and affect as it pertains to the ways people cope with stress or express themselves. Both personality and evolutionary theory are deterministic in nature, meaning individuals are not believed to be in control of their personality. Both also believe that personality is something that people are born with, but evolutionary theory believes that people are born that way due to genetics and human evolution. Both theories allow for situational variables to impact behavior or cognition, but both theories also hold that people will have patterned responses to stimuli. Furthermore, both dispositional and evolutionary theories can be tested empirically.

Strengths and Limitations

Both dispositional and evolutionary theories have strengths and weaknesses. Dispositional theory is widely popular, and allows people to classify themselves and people they know ("General Strengths and Limitations of Trait Perspectives," n.d.). Dispositional theory allows psychologists to measure personality using survey instruments, and assess for the potential presence of a personality disorder. Furthermore, dispositional theory allows psychologists to make recommendations for clients based on the observable traits.

Evolutionary theory is attractive because it can be proven using hard science….....

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