Aristotle,in The Nicomachean Ethics, expressed these wise observations on the subject of humor and people who do and do not indulge in it. In this quote we see Aristotle behaving much as a personality psychologist. Aristotle is analyzing thecharacteristics of persons who have an appropriate sense of humor, providing some details about what features are associated with a sense of humor. Aristotle adds to this description by comparing people who are extreme, having either too much or too little sense of humor. In his book on ethics, Aristotle described and analyzed many personality characteristics, including truthfulness, courage, intel-ligence, self-indulgence, anger proneness, and friendliness.
We might conclude that Aristotle was an amateur personality psychologist. But aren’t we all amateur personality psychologists to some extent? Aren’t we all curious about the characteristics people possess, including our own characteristics? Don’t we all use personality characteristics in describing people? And haven’t we all used personality characteristics to explain behavior, either our own or others’?When we say that our friend goes to a lot of parties because she is outgoing, we are using personality to explain her behavior. When we refer to another friend as conscien-tious and reliable, we are describing features of his personality. When we characterize ourselves as thoughtful, intelligent, and ambitious, we are describing features of our personalities.
Features of personality make people different from one another, and these features usually take the form of adjectives, such as John is lazy, Mary is optimistic, and Fred is anxious. Adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people are called trait-descriptive adjectives. There are nearly 20,000 such trait-descriptive adjectives in the English language. This astonishing fact alone tells us that, in everyday life, there are compelling reasons for trying to understand and describe those we interact with, as well as ourselves.
Notice that the adjectives describing personality refer to several very different as-pects of people. Words such as thoughtful refer to inner qualities of mind. Words such as charming and humorous refer to the effects a person has on other people. Words such as domineering are relational and signify a person’s position, or stance, toward others. Words such as ambitious refer to the intensity of desire to reach our goals. Words such as creative refer both to a quality of mind and to the nature of the products we produce. Words such as deceitful refer to the strategies a person uses to attain his or her goals.
Allof these features describe aspects of personality.
Exercise? Think of someone you know well—say, a friend, family member, or roommate. Consider the many characteristics that make this person unique. List the ve adjectives you think best capture this person’s personality. For example, if you were to describe this person to someone, what ve adjectives would you use? Now, ask your target person to list the ve adjectives he or she thinks best describe him- or herself. Compare your lists.
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