Sociology.

1. Personality
- Derived from the Latin word persona meaning a mask. Personality is a patterned
body of habits, traits, attitudes and ideas of an individual as these are organized
externally into roles and statuses and as they relate internally to motivation, goals
and various aspects of selfhood.
- The sociological approach considers personality in terms of the status of the
individual in the group, in terms of his conception of his role in the group of which
he is a member. What others think of us plays a large part in the formation of our
personality.
- Attitudes and values of a person which determine his role in society and form an
integral part of his character.
- Personality is acquired by the individual as a result of his participation in group
life. As a member of the group he learns certain behavior systems and symbolic
skills which determine his ideas, attitudes and social values. These ideas, attitudes
and values which an individual holds comprise his personality.

2. Filipino Personality
- The Filipino personality is a complex one. One of the main focuses for the Filipino
is family. They are loving and caring and feel that having successful relationships
with others is very important. The Filipinos like to dance and they like to have
large parties. They are outgoing and friendly and have a very strong work ethic.
The Filipino personality is one of survival as they will take on as many jobs as
necessary to take care of their families.


3. Perspective of Personality
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
- The psychoanalytic perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of early
childhood experiences and the unconscious mind. This perspective on personality
was created by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud who believed that things hidden in the
unconscious could be revealed in a number of different ways, including through
dreams, free association and slips of the tongue. Neo-Freudian theorists, including
Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Karen Horney, believed in the importance
of the unconscious, but disagreed with other aspects of Freud's theories.

Major Theorists and Their Theories:

- Sigmund Freud: Stressed the importance of early childhood events, the influence
of the unconscious and sexual instincts in the development and formation of
personality.

- Erik Erikson: Emphasized the social elements of personality development, the
identity crisis and how personality is shaped over the course of the entire lifespan.

- Carl Jung: Focused on concepts such as the collective unconscious, archetypes and
psychological types.

- Alfred Adler: Believed the core motive behind personality involves striving for
superiority, or the desire to overcome challenges and move closer toward self-
realization. This desire to achieve superiority stems from underlying feelings of
inferiority that Adler believed were universal.

- Karen Horney: Focused on the need to overcome basic anxiety, the sense of being
isolated and alone in the world. She emphasized the societal and cultural factors
that also play a role in personality, including the importance of the parent-child
relationship.

The Humanistic Perspective
- The humanistic perspective of personality focuses on psychological growth, free
will and personal awareness. It takes a more positive outlook on human nature
and is centered on how each person can achieve their individual potential.

- Major Theorists:

- Carl Rogers: Believed in the inherent goodness of people and emphasized the
importance of free will and psychological growth. He suggested that the
actualizing tendency is the driving force behind human behavior.

- Abraham Maslow: Suggested that people are motivated by a hierarchy of needs.
The most basic needs are centered on things necessary for life such as food and
water, but as people move up the hierarchy these needs become centered on
things such as esteem and self-actualization.



The Trait Perspective
- The trait perspective of personality is centered on identifying, describing and
measuring the specific traits that make up human personality. By understanding
these traits, researchers believe they can better comprehend the differences
between individuals.

- Major Theorists:
- Hans Eysenck: Suggested that there are three dimensions of personality: 1)
extraversion-introversion, 2) emotional stability-neuroticism and 3) psychoticism.

- Raymond Cattell: Identified 16 personality traits that he believed could be utilized
to understand and measure individual differences in personality.

- Robert McCrae and Paul Costa: Introduced the big five theory, which identifies five
key dimensions of personality: 1) extraversion, 2) neuroticism, 3) openness to
experience, 4) conscientiousness and 5) agreeableness.

The Social Cognitive Perspective
- The social cognitive perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of
observational learning, self-efficacy, situational influences and cognitive
processes.

- Major Theorists:

- Albert Bandura: Emphasized the importance of social learning, or learning through
observation. His theory emphasized the role of conscious thoughts including self-
efficacy, or our own beliefs in our abilities.