Personality research is something very important in psychology today and has been researched and developed over the years. Personality is described as “individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.” (American Psychological Association, 2017). Research and development in this area is very important because it is what sets us apart from other people and makes us interesting. It has been studied since the most remote times, such as in ancient Greece, by doctors such as Hippocrates (460-370 BC) up to more well-known researchers such as Sigmund Freud (1856-1959) and Eysenck (1952, 1962, 1982) who argued that personality was based on biological factors. Personality has been broken down by many theories and approaches over time, for example implicit and explicit personality types and also models such as the Big Five which are very influential today. The purpose of this essay is to help understand the development of personality research and also how important it is in psychology. Personality is useful in ways we don't realize, from making friends to applying for jobs. Understanding personality can help psychologists predict how people will respond to certain situations by using personality tests to evaluate them and the types of things they prefer and enjoy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Personality has been studied for a long time. The “Four Temperaments” test was a personality test performed in ancient Greek times. According to a medical theory there were four fundamental components of the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. If any of these are out of balance, it will make you sick. It was developed into a medical theory by the physician Hippocrates who believed that certain behaviors, moods and emotions were caused by imbalances in these specific internal areas. It is described as part of an ancient medical idea called "humor" that focused on the medical system of the body's structure. However, with the development of psychology, the internal parts of the body are no longer believed to be related to personality. This theory of personality had developed over time, with Polymath (930-1037 AD) extending the theory with his own version. He applied the theory to aspects such as mental capacity and moral attitudes in the "Canon of Medicine", a popular and standard book in universities during the Middle Ages. After developing for many years, this theory is still relevant today. Writer Tim LaHaye tried to popularize this theory again by writing about it in his books and overall it is widely known and discussed. However, one criticism of this might be that we should not compare our physical body to our personality. Stereotyping this sort of thing has caused problems in the past, for example, a physically attractive person is less likely to be found guilty of a crime than a less attractive person found guilty of the same crime. Another popular theory is known as 'The 5' Factor Model' which is considered important and a fundamental model by psychologists today. The 5 factors include experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. As a reminder, it is often shortened to the acronym "OCEAN" and is used to measure and understand differences in our personalities. This approach is completely different from The Four Temperaments as it does not address internal factors. It was developed following the trait theory, which means that our personality can be classified into individual factors. Trait theory adopts alexical approach, which means that single adjectives or phrases alone can be used to describe personalities or traits. The initial model was made in 1961 by Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal but unfortunately did not gain any popularity until the 1980s. JM Digman developed this theory in 1990, with Lewis Goldberg stretching it to the max. Research into the big 5 personality traits has developed over time, with research into things like links to aggression, which is very important today considering the UK has high crime rates and violent crime has reached highest level in the last 7 years in Scotland. One particular study shows that openness and agreeableness were both directly and indirectly related to physical aggression, but only indirectly related to violent behavior. On the other hand, neuroticism was indirectly related to physical aggression through aggressive emotions but not violent behaviors. Comparing this to "The Four Temperaments", psychology has developed a lot over time. In ancient Greece people focused more on the internal factors that would lead to why a person is the way they are and lacked scientific knowledge. In modern times, ideas such as traits and the “5-Factor Model” mean that both genetic and environmental factors influence how we act, feel, and behave. Nowadays, we also have more resources and much more research done to support our theories. With science to back us up it's much easier to have a solid idea with supporting evidence. However, there are also criticisms of the five-factor model. In the five-factor test, it is easy to mark your answers corresponding to the personality type you want. Another problem is that people do not act consistently in every situation, we often change our behaviors based on the environment and the people we are with. This shows that some development is still needed in this test to achieve accurate results. Putting these criticisms aside, these tests can be useful in the real world in situations such as job interviews where some places require you to take a personality test such as the 5-Factor Model to assess your suitability for the role. Eysenck (1952, 1962, 1982) similarly proposed a theory of personality based on biological factors. He argued that individuals genetically have a type of nervous system that is what helps them adapt to their environment. In 1947 Eysenck discovered that personality can be classified into 2 parts, the first is Introversion/Extraversion and the second is Neuroticism/Stability. These were called second-order personality traits and were due to a different biological cause. This theory later developed in 1966 when he added a third category, Psychoticism/Normality. However, Eysenck does not take social factors into consideration. Other psychologists have developed this theory; Loehlin, Willerman, and Horn (1988) found that only 50% of the variations in scores in these categories are due to genetic traits. This particular theory is very important as it will lead to future research and further developments in this area of ​​psychology. Traits like extroversion can prove useful when it comes to jobs like retail where you will be required to be extroverted. Compared to the Four Temperaments, research on personality has developed a lot, as this theory examines traits with respect to the physical constitution of the body. In comparison to the 5-Factor Model, both are similar in that they focus on traits, however, the 5-Factor Model takes more traits into consideration instead of making comparisons to ideas such as whether you are introverted or.