Good Example Of Personality Theory Essay

Using the McCrea’s trait model, following the ‘Big Five Personality Traits,’ my mother comes out as:

Openness- My mother is full of ideas, has a wide vocabulary and come up with hundreds of ways to solve a problem. Her keenness on her dressing reveals her appreciation for good fashion sense and by extension, art.
Conscientiousness- Unlike when she was in her young adulthood, in her late 50’s my mother is more spontaneous than she was. She can make random visits and does not keep a diary. Which supports McRae’s theory that Conscientiousness reduces with age.
Extraversions- She comes out as an introvert, as she prefers to keep to her own space, slow in making new friends and rarely attends parties.
Agreeableness- My mom scores high here. She always empathizes with people’s situations and has always lent a helping hand to others. For example, she has offered accommodation to homeless people on several occasions.
Neuroticism- She is the epitome of neuroticism. She is easy to anger and gets very emotional. Her anger is extreme and always hard to control, making her lash out at people. On this she goes against Mason’s indication that neuroticism is lower in adulthood (Mason, 2011 p. 115).
Also, my mother perfectly suits Erikson’s stage of generativity vs. stagnation. She is currently very concerned about mentoring the young generation-generativity. Eager to leave a legacy, she is completing projects that she had started seemingly in an effort to answer Erikson’s question, ‘does my life count?’ Mason states that personality changes across life with age (Mason, 2011). He gives predictable patterns of personality development through to adulthood and how one can prepare for them and deal with issues that emerge at each stage.
Even though the theories provided by psychologists effectively explain personalities, it is not sufficient to apply theories without considering other factors. Other factors may influence personality; for example, the environment one is brought up in, mental state of a person, life experiences that have molded the person and other beliefs that they subscribe to. Others are gender and culture.

References

Mason, M. (2011). Adulthood and aging. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.