There are three main psychological theories (or "perspectives") regarding our personalities. I shall list them in turn and give a brief description.
Traits, for the purposes of this theory, are defined as stable, enduring characteristics that contribute to personality. These are used to characterise people into different personality types.
Five distinct traits can be identified which define a personality:
Personality typing is often self assessed using written personality tests.
This theory is based on the idea that people are generally good and strive to better themselves.
There were two main practitioners of this theory, who stated the following:
This suggests that our personality is shaped by our interactions with the environment:
How we think about our life affects our behaviour. (This is similar to the Humanistic Perspective.) There are two main beliefs we can have about our lives:
Reference: Exploring Psychology (5th Edition) by David G. Meyers