The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Personality

 Insights from the Past

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Many philosophers from the past wrote about personality traits, including David Hume and David Hartley.

Hume

Identified four most significant traits (Shiraev, 2016):  

1. 

   Pleasure Seeking                                                                   
2. Virtue Seeking
3. Philosophical devotion                    
4. Critical thinking.

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Hartley

1. imaginative
2. ambitious
3. self-interested
4. sympathetic
5. theopathetic
6. morally sensitive

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Early experimental psychologists such as Wilhelm Wundt were also interested in studying personality traits. Wundt believed that language had a big role in forming individual traits. He argued that people who spoke German as their first language were more likely to become more organized, orderly, and responsible. (Shiraev, 2016).

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Takeaway

Personality traits are relatively stable and unique characteristics that people possess

Language can play a role in shaping personality traits.

Early personality theories such as those of Hume and Hartley, shared common ground with modern trait theories of personality

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 References

Shiraev, E. (2016). Personality Theories. SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781506300795