Personality Theories Explaining How I Changed My Anxiety
This reflective essay examines how three major personality theories — the Big Five model, George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory, and Carl Rogers' phenomenological humanistic approach — help explain a personal journey of overcoming anxiety and social shyness over a five-year period. The paper begins by defining personality using the APA's framework and acknowledging that, despite common assumptions, personality is not static. It then applies each theory to a first-person account of growth, arguing that Rogers' phenomenological model is ultimately the most useful for understanding and guiding meaningful personality change, due to its emphasis on unconditional positive regard, emotional validation, creativity, and a sense of fulfillment.
- Introduction: Defining Personality: APA definition of personality and personality disorders
- Change in Personality: Personal narrative of overcoming anxiety over five years
- The Big Five Personality Model: Big Five traits applied to personal anxiety experience
- Personal Construct Theory and Cognitive Reframing: Kelly's theory explains motivation to reshape thought patterns
- Rogers' Phenomenological Theory: Rogers' humanistic model as guide for personality change
- Conclusion: Rogers' theory endorsed as most useful for personality change
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper integrates personal narrative with formal academic theory, making abstract psychological concepts concrete and accessible without sacrificing analytical rigor.
- Each theory is applied directly to the same personal experience, allowing the reader to compare and contrast the explanatory power of each framework side by side.
- The paper arrives at a clear, argued conclusion — Rogers' phenomenology is the most useful theory — rather than merely summarizing the theories neutrally.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective comparative analysis: it introduces three distinct theoretical frameworks, applies each to an identical real-world scenario (overcoming social anxiety), and evaluates their relative strengths. Transitional phrases like "However, the Big 5 theory does not entirely explain..." signal where one theory's limitations motivate the introduction of the next, creating a logically progressive argument rather than a disconnected list of summaries.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an APA definition of personality and a brief note on personality disorders to establish the clinical stakes. A personal narrative section follows, grounding the analysis in lived experience. Three body sections, each organized around a single theory, build toward a hierarchy of explanatory usefulness. The conclusion synthesizes this hierarchy and affirms the writer's personal endorsement of Rogers' model. Citations from Psychology Today, Verywell Mind, Simply Psychology, and the APA support each section.
Introduction: Defining Personality
The American Psychological Association (APA) defines personality as the distinct, individual patterns of thinking and feeling that characterize a person ("Personality," 2021). Although there are certain traits that all human beings share to varying degrees — spanning from positive traits like empathy to negative ones like irritability — not all persons possess these traits to the same degree, nor do they exhibit them in the same manner.
The latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), currently used to diagnose clinical mental disorders, even includes a category of personality disorders, distinct from general mental illnesses. These are personalities that are significantly maladaptive in the ways they interact with the world (Robitz, 2018). This distinction suggests that an individual's personality is separate from an individual's mental state.
Change in Personality
Although personality is often represented as something fixed and unchanging — even in some psychological literature — this does not mean that the human personality is static. Aging, experience, and changes in the environment can foster profound personality changes. In my case, over the past five years, I have noted a considerable shift in my mental health, particularly in the ways I experience anxiety and stress.
Growing up, I had a very reactive personality. I was shy and afraid of speaking in front of people, as well as meeting new peers and teachers. I often worried about things other children were not concerned about, ranging from going to school, to earning good grades, to making a chosen sports team. For a long time, these worries consumed me. Over the past five years, however, I have acquired new coping mechanisms to deal with my stress, including meditation and yoga. I have also accomplished more things, and as I see myself as capable in one area of my life, that confidence spills over into other areas. The more I have pushed myself to engage socially, the more social I have become.
The Big Five Personality Model
I find the Big Five personality theory to be particularly persuasive in explaining psychological changes in my behavior. The Big Five is considered one of the most reliable and empirically validated personality frameworks, suggesting that all individuals possess, to varying degrees, traits such as openness (a willingness to embrace new experiences), conscientiousness (attention to detail), extroversion (outgoingness and the ability to be energized by others), agreeableness, and neuroticism (anxiety) ("Big 5," 2021). The model suggests that these characteristics are relatively stable in the short run, but less so over the long run — a finding that is consistent with my own experience of gradual change. It also suggests that my anxiety and neuroticism are not entirely abnormal.
Although the traits are found to be fairly consistent cross-culturally, it is also important to note that they are not the same as the static personality types found in the non-empirically validated Enneagram or Myers-Briggs assessments ("Big 5," 2021). In other words, someone can be agreeable but not extroverted, or anxious but not conscientious, even if those traits may appear related. In my own case, by working to change habitual personality patterns and thought processes, I was able to change specific features of my personality without altering my entire character.
Conclusion
Of the three major personality theories examined here, Rogers' phenomenological theory is the most convincing in offering a concrete framework for those who wish to make significant personality and life changes. While I did not have a personality disorder, my anxiety had solidified into a very fixed and rigid mindset, and shifting my perceptions and worldview required sustained, deliberate effort. I am glad to have done that work in a constructive and self-compassionate way — an approach that Rogers' humanistic model affirms and validates.
References
Big 5 personality traits. (2021). Psychology Today. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/big-5-personality-traits
Cherry, K. (2020). George Kelly and his personal construct theory. Verywell Mind. Retrieved from:
McLeod, S. A. (2014). Carl Rogers. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html
Personality. (2021). American Psychological Association (APA). Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/topics/personality
Robitz, R. (2018). Personality disorders. Psychiatry. Retrieved from: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/personality-disorders/what-are-personality-disorders
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