What My Personality Traits Say About Me (And How to Understand Yours): Understanding Yourself with a Psychiatrist in Nepal
Are you curious about why you’re attracted to certain careers, attracted to certain types of people, or react to stressful situations in a specific way? Personality is the key to finding the answer to this question. A person’s personality traits determine the way he or she thinks, behaves, and interacts with the world around them.
Understanding yourself and your personality traits can be a game-changer for your mental health and mental well-being.
So, how exactly do your personality traits “speak” about you? Let’s learn about personality and explore some of the important theories in the field of psychiatry.
Understanding the Big Five Personality Model:
The “Big Five” model is one of the most widely used frameworks for understanding personality. It identifies five core traits, each existing on a spectrum.
Openness to Experience:
Are you curious, imaginative, and open to new ideas and experiences?
- High: Creative, imaginative, open to new experiences.
- Low: Conventional, prefers routine, less open to novelty.
Conscientiousness:
How organized, dependable, and goal-oriented are you? Or are you more spontaneous, flexible, and easygoing?
- High: Organized, responsible, reliable, goal-oriented, disciplined.
- Low: Disorganized, careless, impulsive, less reliable.
Agreeableness: Are you cooperative, trusting, and eager to please others? Or are you competitive, assertive, and independent?
- High: Cooperative, friendly, empathetic, trusting.
- Low: Competitive, critical, less cooperative, skeptical.
Neuroticism: How prone are you to negative emotions like anxiety, worry, and anger? Or are you emotionally stable and resilient?
- High: Anxious, moody, prone to stress, emotionally unstable.
- Low: Calm, emotionally stable, relaxed, resilient.
Extraversion: Do you gain energy from social interactions or prefer solitude? Are you outgoing and talkative, or introspective and reserved?
- High: Sociable, outgoing, energetic, talkative, assertive.
- Low: Reserved, introverted, quiet, reflective.
Why Does Understanding Personality Matter?
Understanding your personality helps in:
- Improving your self-awareness, and understanding your strengths and weaknesses, can help you navigate life’s challenges more effectively.
- Understanding your own and others’ personality traits can foster empathy, improve communication, and strengthen relationships.
- Better career choices that align with your personality and provide fulfillment.
- Understanding your “why” behind certain thoughts and actions can be a powerful tool for managing stress, anxiety, and depression.
Understanding Personality Disorders:
In Clinical Psychology, personality disorders are often grouped into three clusters (A, B, and C) based on similar characteristics and symptoms. These clusters help in understanding and diagnosing personality disorders.
Cluster A: Odd or Eccentric Disorders
- Paranoid Personality Disorder:
- Suspicion of others
- Persistent grudges
- The belief that others are exploiting or deceiving them
- Interpretation of remarks as threatening
- Schizoid Personality Disorder:
- Detachment from social relationships
- Limited range of emotional expression
- Indifference to praise or criticism
- Lack of desire for close relationships
- Preference for solitary activities
- Schizotypal Personality Disorder:
- Eccentric behavior
- Odd beliefs or magical thinking
- Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation
- Cognitive or perceptual distortions
- Acute discomfort in close relationships
Cluster B: Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic Disorders
- Antisocial Personality Disorder
- Manipulation
- Violation of others’ rights
- Impulsivity and failure to plan ahead
- Irritability and aggressiveness
- Lack of remorse
- Borderline Personality Disorder:
- Instability in relationships, self-image, and emotions
- Intense and unstable relationships
- Impulsivity
- Recurrent suicidal behavior or self-harm
- Fear of abandonment
- Histrionic Personality Disorder:
- Excessive emotionality and attention-seeking
- Uncomfortable when not the center of attention
- Inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
- Rapidly shifting and shallow emotions
- Use of physical appearance to draw attention
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder:
- Grandiosity and need for admiration
- Lack of empathy
- Sense of entitlement
- Preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, or beauty
- Arrogant behavior and attitudes
Cluster C: Anxious or Fearful disorders
- Avoidant Personality Disorder:
- Hypersensitivity to negative evaluation
- Avoidance of occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact
- Reluctance to engage in new activities due to fear of embarrassment
- Social inhibition and feelings of inadequacy
- View of self as inferior
- Dependent Personality Disorder:
- Excessive need to be taken care of
- Difficulty making decisions without excessive advice and reassurance
- Fear of being left to take care of oneself
- Urgent need to seek another relationship when a close one ends
- Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (not OCD)
- Preoccupation with perfectionism, orderliness, and control
- Excessive devotion to work at the expense of leisure and friendships
- Rigidity and stubbornness
- Inability to discard worthless items
- Reluctance to delegate tasks
These clusters of symptoms help psychiatrists and psychologists to categorize and diagnose personality disorders, providing a framework for understanding different patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that can significantly impact an individual’s life.
A psychiatrist can help you identify areas for development and create strategies to build new skills and behaviors.
Taking the First Step Towards Understanding Yourself
Understanding yourself and your personality traits is a journey of self-discovery. But this journey doesn’t have to be taken alone. A qualified psychiatrist in Nepal can be a valuable guide, offering insights, support, and strategies for navigating the complexities of personality.