Your personality influences everything from the friends you choose to the candidates you vote for in a political election. Yet many people never really spend much time thinking about their personality traits.
Understanding your personality can give you insight into your strengths and weaknesses. It can also help you gain insight into how others see you.
Most modern-day psychologists agree there are five major personality types. Referred to as the "five factor model," everyone possesses some degree of each.
1. Conscientiousness.
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People who rank highest in conscientiousness are efficient, well-organized, dependable, and self-sufficient. They prefer to plan things in advance and aim for high achievement. People who rank lower in conscientiousness may view those with this personality trait as stubborn and obsessive.
Fun fact: Studies show marrying someone high in conscientiousness increases your chances of workplace success. A conscientious spouse can boost your productivity and help you achieve the most.
2. Extroversion.
People who rank high in extroversion gain energy from social activity. They're talkative and outgoing and they're comfortable in the spotlight. Others may view them as domineering and attention-seeking.
Fun fact: Be on the lookout for a strong handshake. Studies show men with the strongest handgrips are most likely to rank high in extroversion and least likely to be neurotic. That doesn't hold true for women, however.
3. Agreeableness.
Those who rank high in agreeableness are trustworthy, kind, and affectionate toward others. They're known for their pro-social behavior and they're often committed to volunteer work and altruistic activities. Other people may view them as naïve and overly passive.
Fun fact: Seek a financial investor who is high in agreeableness. Studies show agreeable investors are least likely to lose money from risky trading. Avoid an investor high in openness--that personality is associated with overconfidence that can lead an investor to take excessive risks.
4. Openness to Experience.
People who rate high in openness are known for their broad range of interests and vivid imaginations. They're curious and creative and they usually prefer variety over rigid routines. They're known for their pursuits of self-actualization through intense, euphoric experiences like meditative retreats or living abroad. Others may view them as unpredictable and unfocused.
Fun fact: Openness is the only personality trait that consistently predicts political orientation. Studies show people high in openness are more likely to endorse liberalism and they're also more likely to express their political beliefs.
5. Neuroticism.
Neurotic people experience a high degree of emotional instability. They're more likely to be reactive and excitable and they report higher degrees of unpleasant emotions like anxiety and irritability. Other people may view them as unstable and insecure.
Fun fact: Neurotic people seek acceptance by publishing a lot of pictures on Facebook. Studies find they're less likely to post comments or updates that could be seen as controversial, and much more likely to post lots of pictures (they also have the most photos per album).
Understanding the basics of personality.
Personality remains relatively stable over time. The personality traits you exhibited at age 7 are likely to predict much of your behavior as an adult.
Of course, you can change some of your personality traits. It takes hard work and effort to make big changes, but most scientists agree that it is possible.
now we get to you kwon and moronic blight and gollum is back. 1. Paranoid personality disorder
Cluster A is comprised of paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders. Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive distrust of others, including even friends, family, and partners. As a result, this person is guarded, suspicious, and constantly on the lookout for clues or suggestions to validate his fears. He also has a strong sense of personal rights: He is overly sensitive to setbacks and rebuffs, easily feels shame and humiliation, and persistently bears grudges. Unsurprisingly, he tends to withdraw from others and to struggle with building close relationships. The principal ego defense in paranoid PD is projection, which involves attributing one’s unacceptable thoughts and feelings to other people. A large, long-term twin study found that paranoid PD is modestly heritable, and that it shares a portion of its genetic and environmental risk factors with schizoid PD and schizotypal PD.
2. Schizoid personality disorder
The term "schizoid" designates a natural tendency to direct attention toward one’s inner life and away from the external world. A person with schizoid PD is detached and aloof and prone to introspection and fantasy. He has no desire for social or sexual relationships, is indifferent to others and to social norms and conventions, and lacks emotional response. A competing theory about people with schizoid PD is that they are in fact highly sensitive with a rich inner life: They experience a deep longing for intimacy, but find initiating and maintaining close relationships too difficult or distressing, and so retreat into their inner world. People with schizoid PD rarely present to medical attention, because despite their reluctance to form close relationships, they are generally well functioning and quite untroubled by their apparent oddness.
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3. Schizotypal disorder
Schizotypal PD is characterized by oddities of appearance, behavior, and speech, unusual perceptual experiences, and anomalies of thinking similar to those seen in schizophrenia. These latter can include odd beliefs, magical thinking (for instance, thinking that speaking of the devil can make him appear), suspiciousness, and obsessive ruminations. People with schizotypal PD often fear social interaction and think of others as harmful. This may lead them to develop so-called ideas of reference — that is, beliefs or intuitions that events and happenings are somehow related to them. So whereas people with schizotypal PD and people with schizoid PD both avoid social interaction, with the former it is because they fear others, whereas with the latter it is because they have no desire to interact with others or find interacting with others too difficult. People with schizotypal PD have a higher than average probability of developing schizophrenia, and the condition used to be called "latent schizophrenia."
4. Antisocial personality disorder
Cluster B is comprised of antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders. Until psychiatrist Kurt Schneider (1887-1967) broadened the concept of personality disorder to include those who "suffer from their abnormality," personality disorder was more or less synonymous with antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial PD is much more common in men than in women and is characterized by a callous unconcern for the feelings of others. The person disregards social rules and obligations, is irritable and aggressive, acts impulsively, lacks guilt, and fails to learn from experience. In many cases, he has no difficulty finding relationships — and can even appear superficially charming (the so-called "charming psychopath") — but these relationships are usually fiery, turbulent, and short-lived. As antisocial PD is the mental disorder most closely correlated with crime, he is likely to have a criminal record or a history of being in and out of prison.
5. Borderline personality disorder
In borderline PD (or emotionally unstable PD), the person essentially lacks a sense of self and, as a result, experiences feelings of emptiness and fears of abandonment. There is a pattern of intense but unstable relationships, emotional instability, outbursts of anger and violence (especially in response to criticism), and impulsive behavior. Suicidal threats and acts of self-harm are common, for which reason many people with borderline PD frequently come to medical attention. Borderline PD was so called, because it was thought to lie on the "borderline" between neurotic (anxiety) disorders and psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It has been suggested that borderline personality disorder often results from childhood sexual abuse, and that it is more common in women, in part because women are more likely to suffer sexual abuse. However, feminists have argued that borderline PD is more common in women, because women presenting with angry and promiscuous behavior tend to be labeled with it, whereas men presenting with similar behaviour tend instead to be labeled with antisocial PD.
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6. Histrionic personality disorder
People with histrionic PD lack a sense of self-worth and depend on attracting the attention and approval of others for their wellbeing. They often seem to be dramatizing or "playing a part" in a bid to be heard and seen. Indeed, "histrionic" derives from the Latin histrionicus, "pertaining to the actor." People with histrionic PD may take great care of their appearance and behave in a manner that is overly charming or inappropriately seductive. As they crave excitement and act on impulse or suggestion, they can place themselves at risk of accident or exploitation. Their dealings with others often seem insincere or superficial, which in the longer term can adversely impact their social and romantic relationships. This is especially distressing to them, as they are sensitive to criticism and rejection and react badly to loss or failure. A vicious circle may take hold in which the more rejected they feel, the more histrionic they become — and the more histrionic they become, the more rejected they feel. It can be argued that a vicious circle of some kind is at the heart of every personality disorder and, indeed, every mental disorder.
7. Narcissistic personality disorder
In narcissistic PD, the person has an extreme feeling of self-importance, a sense of entitlement, and a need to be admired. He is envious of others and expects them to be the same of him. He lacks empathy and readily lies and exploits others to achieve his aims. To others, he may seem self-absorbed, controlling, intolerant, selfish, or insensitive. If he feels obstructed or ridiculed, he can fly into a fit of destructive anger and revenge. Such a reaction is sometimes called "narcissistic rage" and can have disastrous consequences for all those involved.
8. Avoidant personality disorder
Cluster C is comprised of avoidant, dependent, and anankastic personality disorders. People with avoidant PD believe that they are socially inept, unappealing, or inferior, and constantly fear being embarrassed, criticized, or rejected. They avoid meeting others unless they are certain of being liked and are restrained even in their intimate relationships. Avoidant PD is strongly associated with anxiety disorders, and may also be associated with actual or felt rejection by parents or peers in childhood. Research suggests that people with avoidant PD excessively monitor internal reactions, both their own and those of others, which prevents them from engaging naturally or fluently in social situations. A vicious circle takes hold in which the more they monitor their internal reactions, the more inept they feel; and the more inept they feel, the more they monitor their internal reactions.
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9. Dependent personality disorder
Dependent PD is characterized by a lack of self-confidence and an excessive need to be looked after. This person needs a lot of help in making everyday decisions and surrenders important life decisions to the care of others. He greatly fears abandonment and may go through considerable lengths to secure and maintain relationships. A person with dependent PD sees himself as inadequate and helpless, and so surrenders his personal responsibility and submits himself to one or more protective others. He imagines that he is at one with these protective other(s), whom he idealizes as competent and powerful, and towards whom he behaves in a manner that is ingratiating and self-effacing. People with dependent PD often end up with people with a cluster B personality disorder, who feed on the unconditional high regard in which they are held. Overall, people with dependent PD maintain a naïve and child-like perspective and have limited insight into themselves and others. This entrenches their dependency, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
10. Anankastic (obsessive-compulsive) personality disorder
Anankastic PD is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with details, rules, lists, order, organization, or schedules; perfectionism so extreme that it prevents a task from being completed; and devotion to work and productivity at the expense of leisure and relationships. A person with anankastic PD is typically doubting and cautious, rigid and controlling, humorless, and miserly. His underlying anxiety arises from a perceived lack of control over a world that eludes his understanding, and the more he tries to exert control, the more out of control he feels. As a consequence, he has little tolerance for complexity or nuance, and tends to simplify the world by seeing things as either all good or all bad. His relationships with colleagues, friends, and family are often strained by the unreasonable and inflexible demands that he makes upon them.
Closing remarks
While personality disorders may differ from mental disorders, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, they do, by definition, lead to significant impairment. They are estimated to affect about 10 percent of people, although this figure ultimately depends on where clinicians draw the line between a "normal" personality and one that leads to significant impairment. Characterizing the 10 personality disorders is difficult, but diagnosing them reliably is even more so. For instance, how far from the norm must personality traits deviate before they can be counted as disordered? How significant is "significant impairment"? And how is "impairment" to be defined?
Whatever the answers to these questions, they are bound to include a large part of subjectivity. Personal dislike, prejudice, or a clash of values can all play a part in arriving at a diagnosis of personality disorder, and it has been argued that the diagnosis amounts to little more than a convenient label for undesirables and social deviants.
