Most psychoanalytic perspectives emphasize that early experiences with parents play a role in sculpting personality. Theoretical views emphasizing that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness). Tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.

The most popular way of measuring traits is by administering personality tests on which people self-report about their own characteristics.

On the situation side of the debate, referred to as “situationism,” psychologists such as Walter Mischel (1968) maintained that people’s behaviors are provoked or influenced by an external force: the situation or context.

Changing Your Perspective

1. Change your routine. Take that morning walk the opposite way you normally do. Head out the back door and go left instead of right.
2. Take back your power. Let’s face it.
3. Visualize. Practice visualizing the problem from different perspectives.

It is important to look at topics from multiple perspectives so that we are able to see the whole picture, which better enables us to find the root cause of the problem and discover a solution that takes the needs and feelings of everyone involved into consideration.

Immersing yourself in someone else’s story or experiences while talking one-on-one is another great way to experience a different point of view. When you talk with other people, listen closely. Make sure to listen even if you don’t share their perspective and disagree with what they have to say.

Perspective is how the characters view and process what’s happening within the story. Point of view focuses on the type of narrator used to tell the story. Perspective focuses on how this narrator perceives what’s happening within the story.