Your personality is what makes you, well, you — even if experts can’t settle on an exact definition of the word. Most agree, however, that personality is the overall pattern of how a person feels, thinks and behaves throughout life.
Theories
Over the years, psychologists studying personality have had no shortage of theories about how it develops and how it affects an individual. Some haven’t gotten much traction. Others once had a strong following but have since fallen out of favor. Take Sigmund Freud, for instance. In the early 1900s, he argued that our unconscious drives who we are. His take inspired others like Alfred Adler and Carl Jung to develop their own views. Although their contributions are important to the field’s history, modern personality psychologists tend to focus on other major theories. Here, we’ll take you through just some of those, as well as popular tests designed to reveal what makes you tick.
Personal Construct/Cognitive