Respond to my collegues post and briefly state your position and discuss similarities and differences in your responses. Does the peer’s response reinforce your position? Does the peer’s response have you consider a different position?

Respond to my collegues post and briefly state your position and discuss similarities and differences in your responses. Does the peer’s response reinforce your position? Does the peer’s response have you consider a different position?

Collegue Post #1A Unified Theory is great in theory; placing the pieces of the puzzle together to create a beautiful picture which can explain human personality in totality. However, in reality it may just never happen. Simply put, even the major theories of personality psychology are still being critiqued, researched, and modified. Human personality can only account for .30 to .40 of variation in human behavior which means that knowing a person’s personality will not always predict how someone will act in any given situation (Funder, 2019). Our actions and behaviors are based on many different factors that go beyond just personality. Therefore, a truly fully functioning Unified Theory may be so complicated that it wouldn’t be useful. Also, there still might be missing pieces that are essential to understanding human personality that have yet to be discovered.
Some researchers have begun to explore what essential components are necessary to create a Unified Theory (Dwerk, 2017). What is clear is that motivation is a huge contributing factor to predicting behavior. Environmental factors are another major variable which must be considered. However, this is just the beginning of the discussion. First, personality psychologists must agree on what theories fundamentally define who a person is and which factors influence human behavior. At the end of the day, maybe there can never truly be a theory which can truly incapsulate the human experience.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2017). From needs to goals and representations: Foundations for a unified theory of motivation, personality, and development. Psychological Review, 124(6), 689–719. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1037/rev0000082

Funder, D. C. (2019). The personality puzzle. W. W. Norton & Company.
Colleague post #2 In my opinion the makeup of a person’s personality is made up of too much to be assessed with one unified theory. Could it be possible to create such a unified theory, yes. However, I think it would be detrimental to psychology. During the course one thing I learned is the importance of a person’s genetic make-up and how that plays into their personality. This alone side environmental issues and upbringing also play a huge role. Using and unified theory in my opinion would not be able to distinguish the genetic and environmental factors of each individual. Personality is a very large area to be studied and learned about too. If there was one unified theory, I feel like we would lack in learning new information through research. Funder (2019) stated, “The trait approach focuses on individual differences, consequences of individual differences, and personality change.” It’s important to take this into consideration as well because personality isn’t something set in stone and it can change. I’m not sure one unified theory could accommodate this. There are numerous personality theories out there and I believe each one adds something important to the topic of personality.

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