Personality vs Behaviour
The nature of human beings is influenced by various factors such as the environment they grow up in and the influences they are subjected to. Two crucial traits that help shape an individual are behaviour and personality.
Key Takeaways
- Behaviour is an expression of one’s personality, but it is prone to change according to situations, contexts, and age.
- Personality refers to the individual differences in cognition, behaviour patterns, and emotion, and is generally stable over time.
- Behaviour and personality are interrelated, but they are different from one another; behaviour can be discussed in terms of humans, animals, chemicals, and other inanimate components, whereas personality is mainly discussed in terms of humans.
What is Behaviour?
Behaviour refers to the wide array of mannerisms and actions displayed by an entity, biological or otherwise, within certain environments. It often results from beliefs and values and occurs in response to stimuli or input. Behaviour can be overt, covert, conscious, subconscious, voluntary, or involuntary. Human behaviour is affected by the nervous system and the endocrine system. Behaviour is useful in fields such as psychology, earth sciences, and management.
What is Personality?
Personality is described as “the relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals which distinguish them from other people and form the basis of our predictions concerning their future behaviour.” There is no definitive definition for personality, but it generally refers to individual differences in cognition, behaviour patterns, and emotion. It is often broken into five compartments known as the Big Five: conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience, extraversion, and neuroticism. These components are said to stabilize over time and are often the result of a person’s genetics rather than being attributable to their environment. Various tests are used to determine one’s personality, such as the Rorschach Inkblot test, self-report inventory, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), or the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
What is the difference between Behaviour and Personality?
Behaviour and personality are interrelated and both define an individual. However, they are very different from each other. Behaviour changes with age, maturity, wisdom, etc., while personality is often stable. Behaviour is an expression of one’s personality, and personality can be gauged by behaviour. However, there are times when a person’s behaviour may not be in line with their personality, such as when someone with a calm and composed personality exhibits tense and explosive behaviour under certain situations. Behaviour can be discussed in terms of humans, animals, chemicals, and other inanimate components, while personality is often only discussed with regards to humans.
