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Wynter Erickson

Professor Hanson

Psy 1010

December 8, 2017

Eportfolio Signature Assignment

One of the personality traits that I have is a sense of humor. Of course, I dont know if I

really have one or if I just think I do, but I can be pretty funny when I try to be and Im really

good at making people laugh (again though, maybe they are just laughing at me and not with

me). There are three different theories that I can explore to understand how I came to develop

this characteristic in my personality. The first theory is known as the humanistic perspectives

theory. In the book Experiencing Psychology by Laura A. King, chapter 10 in personality

defines the humanistic perspective theory as what stresses a person's capacity for personal

growth and positive human qualities. Humanistic psychologists believe that we all have the

ability to control our lives and to achieve what we desire (King 372). It has five different levels

of needs that help us to achieve this. Survival, being the most basic, safety, relationships, esteem,

self actualization, and self transcendence. I believe I developed my sense of humor in order to

achieve relationships and esteem. I wanted people to see me as funny so that they would be

drawn to me and I would feel good about myself for it. The second theory is trait theory. Laura

King defines it as this, According to trait theories, personality consists of broad, enduring

dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses. In other words, we can describe

people in terms of the ways they behave, such as whether they are outgoing, friendly, private, or

hostile. Although trait theorists differ about which traits make up personality, they agree that

traits are the fundamental building blocks of personality (King 375). I believe that my sense of
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humor is one of my traits of personality because I use it to make myself come across as friendly

and approachable. Now, people who know me, expect me to crack a joke often, so that would

make me high on that trait. The last theory is Personological and life story perspectives. King

defines it as what stresses that the way to understand the person is to focus on his or her life

history and life storyaspects that distinguish the individual from everyone else (King 381).

Many people have many of the same personality traits, but not everyone shows them in the same

way or for the same reasons. For example, my sense of humor comes from the love to laugh. I

love it more than almost anything and will do a lot of things to be able to. Because I love to

laugh, I want to let other people experience that love as well, so I provide a means for them to do

so while being able to enjoy the humor myself. Those are my reasons for being funny. But

maybe someone else is funny because they hate reality and want to joke around so that they

never have to face it head on. Our background stories have a lot to do with why we are who we

are and why we do what we do.