In-depth Psychology Personality Reflection: Self-Assessment Essay

This essay presents a detailed personality reflection, exploring the author's strengths, weaknesses, and insights gained through a psychology course. It covers Jungian personality types, MBTI analysis (ESTJ), the concept of real, despised, and ideal selves, and Horney's personality types. The reflection also examines the influence of family, parenting, and Sheldon's somatotypes (mesomorph) on the author's personality. The essay further delves into the Big Five personality factors, highlighting extraversion and conscientiousness as dominant traits, and addresses the impact of atheism on the author's worldview. The reflection concludes with insights into family dynamics and a commitment to personal growth, aiming to improve self-awareness and achieve a more ideal self. Desklib provides this essay as a study resource, along with many others.

Psychology
Personality reflection

Personality Reflection 1
Introduction
Personality is ideally the set of traits and attributes that form an individual’s unique character. Through
this course, I have been able to gain a deeper insight about my own personality. This reflection
highlights upon my strengths as well as weaknesses and several intricate details about my personality.
Personality reflection tests have also been taken and the results for the same have been shared in this
report. The entire process was that of immense learning and helped me understand my personality
better.
Jungian Personality type
Jungian personality type identifies two different personality types including extraverted and introverted.
I fall under the extraverted personality type. This suggests that I am social, objective and creative. I
agree with the analysis. I have always had a big group of friends and I find it easy to interact with new
people. I believe in facts and find it difficult to blindly follow any faith or practice. This analysis also
helped me understand that several times I miss out on a hunch solely because of lack of facts. However,
these hunches and gut feelings have almost always been right. Therefore I must pay closer attention to
them.
MBTI
Myer’s Briggs type inventory is based on Jung’s personality types. MBTI defines sixteen unique
personality types based upon different combinations of four pairs of characters. These four pairs are
extraversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving. My personality
type is ESTJ. This suggests that I believe in facts and am highly objective. I am straightforward with
people and honest. I agree with the analysis of the test because there are several facets of this
personality type that I have noticed in my everyday life. I am an atheist and do not believe in the
existence of God solely due to lack of evidence. This majorly guides my life and I tend to find objectivity
in everything.
The Self – Real self, Despised self and Ideal self
The real self of an individual includes the real and true aspects of someone’s personality. The despised-
self depicts those attributes which the individual does not like of themselves and the ideal self is the
desired state of personality that an individual aims to achieve. The real side of my personality is largely

Personality Reflection 2
marked by my honesty, extroversion, sports and creativity. There are certain aspects of my personality
that I despise. This particularly includes my fear of commitment and inability to make long term
promises. I have even failed a few relationships in my life due to this attitude and I sincerely hope to
work on this. Secondly, I am a single child and hence have always been pampered. Several times I feel
my parents have pushed the envelope to fulfil my whims and fantasies and I often take advantage of
their giving attitude.
My ideal self includes a healthier personality who shares a positive relationship with all those around
me. I would like to have a strong flamboyant personality that can motivate others.
Horney’s personality types:
Horney outlined her theory of neurosis that defines different types of neurotic behaviour as a result of
overusing some coping strategies in order to deal with basic anxiety. These can include neurotic needs
for power, affection or prestige. According to the three personality types defined by Horney –
Aggressive, detached and healthy, I believe I have a healthy personality but can also sometimes be
aggressive. Sometimes I act be completely devoid of emotions and detach myself from interpersonal
relationships but sometimes I can get truly aggressive. I have noticed that the aggressive side of my
personality predominantly surfaces while interactions with my close ones.
Family and parenting
Since I am the only child of my parents, I have always received 100% attention and I am pampered.
Sometimes I feel that this makes it difficult for me to share with peers. I like being the centre of
attention and it is often difficult for me if things do not function as I want. I have noticed that I place very
strong demands and expect them to be fulfilled. However, since the last few weeks I have been putting
conscious efforts towards being more sensitive and self-less. I have also started gaining feedback from
others. I have always been very poor at handling criticism or dislike.
Sheldon’s somatypes
Sheldon has defined three types of human physiques. These are mesomorph, endomorph and
ectomorph. I have been actively playing football and tennis since I was a child. I take my physical fitness
very seriously and work out at least four times in a week. My physique type is Mesomorph. In fact a lot
of attributes of my personality are a result of my participation in sports. This makes me very competitive

Personality Reflection 3
and assertive. Sports have been a vital part of my life and personality which have enabled me to lead a
healthy lifestyle.
The big five personality factors
There are five critical personality factors that include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness and neuroticism. Extraversion and conscientiousness are the most important facets of my
personality and predominantly define my behaviour and attitude. Due to extraversion, I am a very social
person. I have always had a large group of friends and am considered warm and friendly. I can easily
communicate with absolute strangers. One of the important traits of extraversion is ‘excitement
seeking’. This is most true for my personality. I prefer that my weekends are involved in doing
interesting activities. I also effectively participate in several treks and camps. I read new books and
watch new movies and it helps me by making me excited. I tend to greet everyone positively and with
excitement.
As a conscientious individual, I am very self-discipline and this is something that I have learnt from
sports. My index of achievement is high and give my best in every endeavour that I undertake. I can get
highly competitive and this motivates me to continue performing to the best of my abilities. Also, I am
highly self-motivated individual. Failures also motivate me to prepare better. I like my daily discipline
and that is how I have been raised. As a family, we have a fix schedule of eating, sleeping, working out
and reading. I wake up at the crack of the dawn and go for a run four times a week.
My level of neuroticism is something I must work upon as I often tend to get overly aggressive and loud.
I seldom take impulsive decisions and can be emotional vulnerable at times. However, this is that aspect
of my personality that I need to work upon. There is a sixth trait as well. This is honesty and humility vs.
dishonesty and egotism. I am a very honest individual but I am rarely modest. Through this course, I
seek feedback from my friends and family and realized that my achievements very often make me
egotistic. I need to work upon being more modest and let my actions speak louder than my words.
Effect of religion on personality
As an individual I am an atheist and do not believe in the existence of God. I am absolutely against idol
worships and fasting. Religion for me is my own spirituality. My disbelief in the concept of God has also
shaped my personality. I tend to be highly self-dependent and I believe that nothing supersedes
individual hard work. I am very objective and trust facts more than feelings. I love indulging into

Personality Reflection 4
discussions with believers and understand their perspective. However, I support religion as long as it
makes someone a better human being and people work upon themselves. If not, I find the concept
flawed and hypocritical.
Personality of my family
My family has always been individualistic. The family culture that I have been brought up in respects
individual space. I have always had a personal room and have been given the freedom to decorate it
however I want. However, we three (my parents and I) are very close and tend to look out for each
other. We seek advice before taking big decisions and my mother calls a family meeting if either of
myself or my father breaks the rules. We extend unconditional support towards each other during the
hours and need and hence despite living in an individualistic culture and having immense respect for
self-space, we continue to be a collectivistic family at large.
Conclusion
The above reflection throws light on my individual personality traits including my strengths and
weaknesses. I am single child and have always had 100% attention of my parents. I have realized that I
have a strong and individual personality which has been shaped over a period of time. Sports have
played a significant role in shaping my attributes. I am highly objective and hold strong views on politics
and religion. There are certain aspects of my personality that I do not like and have gained a deeper
insight about those aspects through this course. I will surely work towards improving upon my real self
and achieve the ideal self that I aspire.