Personality Theories

Posted by on Jun 24, 2009 in Personality Theories | 0 comments

“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” Albert Einstein
“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.” Zig Ziglar

Personality Theories

We need to know ourselves in order to understand others.

First, let’s cover some history… The study of personality is at least 25 centuries old.  In 450 B.C., Hippocrates described four temperaments. Galen, in 100 A.D. also described four temperaments.  Both scholars differed in their ideas and descriptions. Personality Type theories put everyone into one of several “types” of personalities.  This could be as simple as Type A and Type B, or one of 16 4-letter personality types such as “INFA” which stands for “Introverted, iNtuative, Feeling, Adapting”.  It is also called “The Advocate” and it’s believed that only 1% of the population shares INFA.  So it’s possible 99% of people the INFA interacts with experiences the world differently.

Some differences….. Gordon Allport (1897-1967) was one of the first psychologists to study personality, human attitudes, prejudices and religious beliefs. His theory of personality, which rejected both Freudian psychology and behaviorism, emphasized the uniqueness of the individual and the need to treat problems in terms of present conditions as opposed to childhood experiences.

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