Personality Theories Including Evolutionary and Dispositional

¶ … 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. 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 and empiricism, rather than the surveys and self-reports used in dispositional methodologies. Moreover, evolutionary theory can explain why people develop certain personality traits and what purpose those traits might serve from an evolutionary perspective. Dispositional theory does not explain the causal factors of personality as directly as evolutionary theory.

However, both dispositional and evolutionary theories have some limitations. Both are overly deterministic and do not account for the potential for people to change over time. Neither dispositional nor evolutionary theory takes into account ethnicity, gender, social class status, and other external variables, which can also change over time and which can strongly influence the emergence of traits in an individual. Dispositional theory can be misused, such as when employees in an organization are earmarked for leadership roles based on their possession of certain personality traits, rather than based on their merits, achievements, or potential to contribute to the organization. As McAdams & Pals (2006) point out, neither evolutionary nor dispositional personality theories have "yet to articulate clearly a comprehensive framework for understanding the whole person," (p. 204).

Big Five Personality Tests

Many psychological tests of personality are based on a dispositional approach known as the "Big Five," or the "five factor model." The "big five" personality traits include extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism (Cherry, n.d.). Obviously a subset of dispositional theory, the Big Five approach is commonly used in psychological testing. Some of the most common Big Five personality tests include the Five Factor Model, the Abridged Big 5 Circumplex (AB5C), and the Big Five Inventory, and these tests are similar to their predecessors such as the most commonly used personality tests: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. "In scientific circles, the Big Five is now the most widely accepted and used model of personality," ("The Big Five Personality Test," n.d.). These tests are used by psychologists in multiple scenarios, such as when assessing clients for the presence of possible personality disorders, or by employers to ascertain job placement.