Everyone's personality is distinct to his or her own self, as is mine. I have always been confused and/or frustrated at some aspects of myself that I didn't like, but I couldn't figure out what was causing my behaviors and how I could change them. All I knew is that it was just how I was.
After we learned about personality in this class, I realized that all these things I didn't like about myself were simply aspects of my, well, personality. For example, I had never really come across the word "neurotic", or at least knew what it meant, until I took the Big 5 test administered in class. Turns out, that one of my most expressed personality traits (farthest standard deviations out) was neuroticism. After looking up the definition, I saw that it did describe me to a T. I also read the section on defense mechanisms in the textbook, and was so shocked to see that there are psychological terms for what I do. All in all, I will remember these things years from now because I have learned that they are not weird or out of the ordinary. By understanding my personality better, I can accept it or change it, but at least now, I am a little bit more knowledgeable of it than I was before and can make informed decisions in regards to it.
Using Psychology to Understand Oneself
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The personality test came as a bit of a shock to me. But after studying the results more, it made sense why the results turned out the way they did. But I think it would be useful to take the tests twice, one week apart. The reason for this is the environment, you mood, etc can affect how you answer the questions, thus affecting the results.
For me, it seemed that the personality test didn't quite capture my personality too well. I felt that I was all but in a moderate amount (minus neurotic.... maybe a little bit). I always thought that understanding people's personalities was difficult- this model makes it seem overly easy; but then again it doesn't explain why or how the trait is manifested.
I also found myself to be neurotic. I shared the same moment of understanding with you when I read about what it was. This class has been so valuable in that way. I have learned, not only this, but so much about myself that is truly invaluable to me.
I also found myself to be pretty close to a t. I did not think that I would learn much from my personality test, but it was very interesting to see that it did reflect a lot of what i do and the traits I do show. I also think that it is hard to describe me with one personality trait specifically.
I agree with you about finding what parts of our personalities are all about! I noticed that I have some irksome behaviors myself but had no idea how to change them. Now I feel like I have some information in my tool belt and I can move forward and hopefully change some of my ways.
I also found myself acknowledging my own neuroticism and personality traits, it's definitely interesting. I think perhaps the sensitivity that comes with the higher neuroticism is expressed in the course with a negative connotation, which I found to be irritating to say the least. None the less, the I also find that I can now analyze myself in a better fashion then before, knowing now more specific information about individual personality traits, and the how they effect myself and others.
I also found the personality test we took to be very interesting and informative. It is amazing how a simple test can tell us a lot about ourselves. Like you said, it is good to know what kind of people we are. If we know our strengths and downfalls, we can set ourselves up for success.