Personality: The combination of essential characteristics or qualities that form an individual distinctive character. The sum total of physical, mental, emotional and social characteristics of an individual.
A personality is a unique as a fingerprint and the very thing that we most need to document about the people we love. Yes, you already have a "people" topic, which should be viewed as an opportunity to scrapbook an array of individuals in your immediate and extended family, as well as friends and people you admire. Certainly "personality will shine through on those pages, but for the people you scrapbook in an ongoing way, there is more digging and documenting to be done, and that effort is in excavating and celebrating personality.
With this topic, we are attempting to notice and record the totality of behavioral and emotional aspects in those you love the most. You are to describe moods, attitudes, opinions, motivations, and style of thinking, perceiving, speaking and acting. Personality is something that continues to be shaped and refined our world. But yet if you are the parent to more than one child, you know that each child comes to earth with a distinct disposition and makeup. Pay attention to the details and use both your pen and your camera to pay tribute to the special, unrepeatable and exclusively uncommon traits, quirks, features and foibles of those closest to you...
And do it with personality.
If you want to take a free “Big FIVE” personality assessment that I took, visit www.outofservice.com/bigfive.
Extensive research has been done into nearly every area of human behavior based on these five personality traits. As you might guess, there are some gender differences that have emerged across cultures. For example, women consistently report higher neuroticism and agreeableness, and men often report higher extroversion and conscientiousness. Gender differences in personality traits are largest in prosperous, healthy, and egalitarian cultures in which women have more opportunities that are equal to those of men. Both men and women tend to grow more extraverted and conscientious and less neurotic and agreeable as cultures grow more prosperous and egalitarian, but the effect is stronger for men.
Conclusions about personality traits and birth order are many, but they are also inconclusive. There are scholars that hold to the idea that first-born children tend to me more conscientious and agreeable than later-born children, but genetics far outweigh birth order in these traits. Newer research does show evidence for a maturation effect. On average, levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness typically increase with time, whereas extraversion, neuroticism, and openness tend to decrease. In addition to these general group effects, there are individual differences: different people demonstrate unique patterns of change at all stages of life – which in the context of personality exploration should seem obvious, hey?
Ok … enough of scientific research, let’s move on.
Adjectives—words you can use to help you describe the personality of people you love. Scrapbookers are known for our overuse of words like cute and fun, so I thought I’d put some effort into the opportunity you have for much more compelling descriptions. I’m inviting you to print this list, hole-punch it and keep it with your other handouts, as a reference. Beyond that, you might print additional copies to play with. What if you read and highlighted one list for you, your spouse and/or your children—mark those words that describe each
Was mother right? If you can’t say something nice, don’t say something at all? It’s certainly true that we’re not all nice all the time, so I encourage you to familiarize yourself with this collection of useful words … I’m one who believes honesty can be achieved in the context of positive affirmation. In other words, you can throw in a few “less positive” traits as you take a more comprehensive view of people. I might use the following words to describe myself: warm, talkative, cheerful, demanding, distractible, impulsive, intelligent and impatient – since they’re not all bad, you get a much more authentic view of my traits. And if you’re like me in your neuroticism, you’ll want to be sure NOT to work with the Personality Plus list if you’re in an emotionally reactive mood. That just wouldn’t be fair!
The important thing is to observe and value the behaviors that stay with a person consistently over time and throughout a variety of circumstances. These persistent patterns, personality traits, are stable and consistent in a variety of situations, and truly define one individual from the next and what a boring world it would be if we were all the same!
As I send you off to contemplate the intricacies of personality, remember that we are all approaching this class from a unique place. Please don’t compare your efforts with others in class and please grant yourself the acceptance to be different in your objectives, adaptations and results.
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