Personality places its emphasis on understanding who we are, why we are the way we are, and usually is concerned with the possibility of change anywhere along the spectrum of psychopathology to self fulfilment. There are many approaches to understanding the personality, two of the most predominant being the phenomenological approach and the trait approach, which are both extremely similar and individual in their own ways.

The phenomenological approach emphasises the uniqueness and validity of each persons subjective experience, the subjective experience being of primary importance. It specifically focuses on the immediate perceived experiences and concepts of the individual and on their strivings towards growth and self actualisation. Phenomenological theorists centred on two main ideas - that people have an intrinsic tendency towards self actualisation and that people evaluate themselves with respect to values held by themselves and others.

The origins of the phenomenological approach

Since earliest times, people have labelled and classified each other according to their psychological characteristics. It has been proven however that an individual personality cannot be classified into one category or another. Traits are continuous dimensions on which individual differences may be arranged quantitatively in accord with the amount of an attribute that the individual has. People habitually use trait terms in everyday life to describe what people do and explain their behaviour. Trait theorists conceptualise traits as underlying properties, qualities or processes that exist in persons. Traits are also constructs to account for observed behavioural consistencies within persons and for the enduring and stable behavioural differences among them in response to situations.

The phenomenological theories do however encounter some problems. Focus on peoples subjective perceptions and cognitions does not necessarily uncover the causes of their behaviour. It is also difficult to research and test the theory of self actualisation and the conditions under which it occurs, as you need to know the areas of life to which the actualising tendency is most relevant for the person being studied.

Two other phenomenological theorists, Carl Rogers and George Kelly believed that private experiences, subjective perceptions and the self all have an important part in this approach to the study of the personality. Rogers believed that the way an individual sees and interprets the events in their life determines how they respond to them, and consequently how they behave. Rogers theory believed that to understand the personality, it was important to understand peoples constructs. He believed that the human should be viewed as an organised whole, and that motivation is an overall characteristic of being alive. This is known as self actualisation.

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