Personal Development ⚫ defined as a process in which persons reflect upon themselves, understand who they are, accept what they discover about themselves, and learn (or unlearn) new sets of values, attitudes, behavior, and thinking skills to reach their fullest potential as human beings. Personality psychologists have different viewpoints. One definition state, "personality refers to the unique and relatively enduring set of behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and motives that characterize an individual™ Two key components of personality ⚫ uniqueness relatively enduring Personality is influenced by both nature and Nurture It is always a complex combination of genes, environmental exposure and experiences, and cultural backgrounds. There are common personality traits that cross many cultures. Nature: Our genetics determine our behavior. Our personality traits and abilities are in our "nature." Nurture: Our environment. upbringing, and life experiences determine our behavior. We are "nurtured" to behave in certain ways. Psychologists Costa and McRae (1992) they discovered the existence of five universal and widely agreed upon dimensions of personality. This dimension is called the Five- Factor Model. For it to be easily remembered, it uses the acronym OCEAN Openness - measures the extent to which an individual is imaginative and creative, as opposed to down-to-earth and conventional.

Sensing (S)- Intuition (N)

This scale involves looking at how people gather information from the world around them. It is how one prefers to process information. Whether using senses such as being able to describe what one sees, or intuitively like dealing with ideas.

Just like with extraversion and introversion, all people spend some time sensing and intuiting

depending on the situation.

Thinking (T)- Feeling (F)

This scale focuses on how people make decisions based on the information that they gathered from their sensing or intuition functions. People who prefer thinking place a greater emphasis on facts and objective data.

They tend to be consistent, logical, and impersonal when weighing a decision. Those who prefer feeling are more likely to consider people and emotions when arriving at a conclusion.

Judging (J) - Perceiving (P)

The final scale involves how people tend to deal with the outside world. Those who lean toward judging prefer structure and firm decisions. People who lean toward perceiving are more open, flexible, and adaptable. These two tendencies interact with the other scales.

Conscientiousness - is a measure of how careful, deliberate, self-disciplined, and organized an individual is. Conscientiousness is often predictive of employee productivity, particularly in lower-level positions.

Extraversion - is a measure of how sociable, outgoing, and energetic an individual is. Individuals who score lower on the extraversion scale are considered to be more introverted, or more deliberate, quiet, low key, and independent. Some types of positions are better suited for individuals who fall on one side of the spectrum or the other.

Agreeableness-is a measure of an individual's tendencies with respect to social harmony. This trait reflects how well the individual gets along with others, how cooperative or skeptical they are, and how they might interact within a team.

Neuroticism- is typically defined as a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings. All personality traits, including neuroticism, exist on a spectrum-some people are just much more neurotic than others.

In the context of the Big 5, neuroticism is sometimes described as low emotional stability or

negative emotionality.

Ways to measure Personality

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a self-report inventory designed to identify a person's personality type, strengths, and preferences. The questionnaire was developed by Isabel Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs based on their work with Carl Jung's theory of personality types.

Today, the MBTI inventory is one of the world's most widely used psychological

instruments.

Extraversion (E) - Introversion (I) The extraversion-introversion dichotomy was first explored by Jung in his theory of personality types as a way to describe how people respond and interact with the world around them.

Extraverts (also often spelled extroverts) are "outward-turning" and tend to be action-oriented, enjoy more frequent social interaction, and feel energized after spending time with other people.

Introverts are "inward-turning" and tend to be thought-oriented, enjoy deep and meaningful social interactions, and feel recharged after spending time alone.

WHO AM I?

During the adolescent stage of development, the young person grapples with his or her identity. This may seem very philosophical to some, but to know oneself is the first step in personal development.

For Socrates, the most important thing to pursue was self-knowledge, admitting one's ignorance is the beginning of true knowledge.

Knowing yourself is beyond knowing your favorites. It is a long-term process and you may need to meet the world for you to find yourself.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE

When you know who you are and clearly understand what you want, you have a better chance of discovering on how to reach your own success, happiness and personal fulfillment in relationships.

Self-concept

Self-concept is the way people think about themselves. As a global understanding of oneself, self-concept shapes and defines who we are, the decisions we make, and the relationships we form.

Humanist psychologist, Carl Rogers believed that there were three different parts of self-concept:

SELF-IMAGE

SELF-ESTEEM

IDEAL SELF

SELF-CONCEPT

SELF-IMAGE = How you see yourself

SELF-ESTEEM = How much you value yourself

IDEAL SELF = How you wish you could be

1. Self-image - or how you see yourself. Each individual's self- image is a mixture of different attributes including our physical characteristics, personality traits, and social roles. Self-image doesn't necessarily coincide with reality.

2. Self-esteem - or how much you value yourself. A number of factors can impact self-esteem, including how we compare ourselves to others and how others respond to us. When people respond positively to our behavior, we are more likely to develop positive self-esteem. When we compare ourselves To others and find ourselves lacking, it can have a negative impact on our self-esteem.

3. Ideal self - or how you wish you could be. In many cases, the way we see ourselves and how we would like to see ourselves do not quite match up. If there is a mismatch between how you see yourself (your self-image) and what you'd like to be (your ideal self) then this is likely to affect how much you value yourself (self-esteem). Therefore, there is an intimate relationship between self-image, ideal self and self-esteem.

According to Carl Rogers, the degree to which a person's self-concept matches up to reality is known as congruence and incongruence.

A person's ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in the life and experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person's ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence.

Where a person's ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence.

Why self-concept important?

Knowing who you are will help you feel that you have worth and value in this world. When you can accept yourself for who you are, it will be easier for others to accept you, too. Learning about yourself can help you develop lasting relationships with others as well as help you make choices that will direct your life in the path you want to go.

The Benefits of Self-Concept

•Happiness

Self-control

•Less inner conflict

Resistance to social pressure

Better decision making

Tolerance and understanding others

PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Personal effectiveness means making use of all the personal resources - talents, skills, energy and time, to enable you to achieve life goals. Your knowledge of yourself and how you manage yourself impacts directly on your personal effectiveness.

Being self-aware, making the most of your strengths, learning new skills and techniques and behavioral flexibility are all keys to improving your personal performance. Our personal effectiveness depends on our innate characteristics - talent and experience accumulated in the process of personal development.

PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Talents first are needed to be identified and then developed to be used in a particular subject area (science, literature, sports, politics, etc.).

Experience includes knowledge and skills that we acquire in the process of cognitive and practical activities.

Knowledge is required for setting goals, defining an action plan to achieve them and risk assessment.

Skills also determine whether real actions are performed in accordance with the plan. If the same ability is used many times in the same situation, then it becomes a habit that runs automatically, subconsciously.