personality essay

1. Personality is the sum of the typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that makes each person unique. Your personality defines you as a person, rather than just a biological conglomeration of organs. An individual s personality is composed of all the relatively unchanging psychological characteristics that are typical for that person. If people did not have at least some relatively unchanging qualities, we would never know what to expect from them. We know what to expect from our friends because of the relatively unchanging psychological characteristics that make up each person s personality. Each person’s unique pattern of typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling sets him apart from each other person. Each of us is a unique person because no one else has exactly our combination of typical psychological qualities. Psychologists who specialize in the study of personality want to know why each individual develops the unique personality that he or she does. Psychologists also want to know how to assess, or measure, personalities.

2. Freud distinguished three levels of conscious awareness the conscious mind, the preconscious mind, and the unconscious mind. We are presently aware of the contents of the first level of the mind, but temporarily unaware of the contents of the second level, and more permanently unaware of the contents of the third. Conscious mind is that portion of the mind in which one is presently aware. To Freud, the mind is like an iceberg; the conscious mind is merely the tip visible above the surface, whereas the bulk of the important workings of the mind lurk mysteriously beneath the surface. Just below the surface is what Freud called the preconscious mind. Preconscious mind is that portion of the mind containing information that is not presently conscious but can easily be brought into consciousness. The preconscious mind is the vast storehouse of easily accessible memories. The contents of the preconscious were once conscious