Question

Briefly explain the following terms:
(a) Personality
(b) Personality Traits

Hint:

Personality defines who you are — your consistent pattern of behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
Traits are building blocks of personality — they describe consistent aspects of a person's behavior.

Answer 1

(a) Personality refers to the unique and enduring patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize an individual.
It is what makes each person distinct in terms of how they think, feel, react, and interact with the world around them.
Personality develops over time through a combination of genetic, environmental, and social influences.
It encompasses characteristics like temperament, habits, values, interests, and emotional responses.
A person’s personality can influence their relationships, career choices, coping strategies, and overall well-being.
Psychologists often study personality through theories such as the Big Five model (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism).
(b) Personality traits are specific characteristics that describe how a person typically behaves, thinks, and feels.
They are stable over time and help in understanding and predicting an individual's behavior across different situations.
Traits such as honesty, kindness, extroversion, responsibility, and creativity are examples of personality traits.
These traits form the foundation of an individual's personality profile.
For instance, someone who is consistently sociable and outgoing is said to have the trait of extroversion.
Researchers have identified broad trait categories through psychological models — one of the most accepted being the Big Five.
These traits are used in career assessments, psychological evaluations, and even workplace recruitment.