Tim+Gunn

= Tim Gunn =

Biography
Tim Gunn is a television personality and fashion consultant on the popular reality TV show, //Project Runway//. His role on the show is to advise the contestants on their designs for each challenge. He has had many other careers that were not associated with the show. However, Project Runway is one of the main role that he is best known for.

As well as having experience in the fashion industry, he also had an earlier experience in the arts in general. Tim attended and graduated from Corcoran College of Art and Design with a BFA in sculpture and later earned and honorary doctorate in 2009. Another major institution he is associates with include is Parson School of design where he attended in 1982 and served as the associated dean in 1989. He remained as the dean until 2000, when he was credited a department chair.

After a few years on Project Runway, Tim Gunn began to have more notoriety. He has had many guest star appearances on television shows including Ugly Betty, How I met your mother, etc. He has also appeared in his own show, //Tim Gunn's Guide to style//, which is a spin off of Project Runway where he in yet another situation as a fashion adviser.

Recently, is still associated with the show that has made him popular to begin with. He seems to be very devoted to his work in this fascinating industry, which has had a huge impact on his personality as a whole..

Trait Perspective
A few things can be determined by using the trait approach to access personality. Based on the Big Five trait theory, five specific dimensions are used to identify each aspect that best describes a person's personality. These dimensions are specific personality traits that are assumed to be shared by everybody's personality. There are different levels to the Big Five personality traits that make each person unique. As seen in the interactions between Tim and the contestants of Project Runway, it can be identified where he falls within these specific personality traits.

The first trait in this popular approach is extroversion. Unlike introverts, extroverts tend to be more enthusiastic, energetic, and sociable. From observing many seasons of Project Runway, it is apparent that Tim Gunn is very enthusiastic about working in the fashion industry. His role on the show as fashion consultant for the contestants also characterizes him as sociable and easy to talk to. Therefore, he appears to be high in extroversion in context with other people.

Since Tim is shown as extremely sociable and extroverted among the people he meets on the show, it is apparent that agreeableness is another trait that he is highly represented by. Agreeableness is one of the five traits in this approach that makes a person appreciated by other people. Usually people who are high in agreeableness express traits that are appealing by most. Tim Gunn articulates that he his friendly and cooperative among other. He eludes that he is also very trusting because he acquires traits that make him so likable. Contestants trust his fashion advice most of the time.

How well people trust Tim effects how much people find him dependable. His approachable personality that make people come to him for advice show that he his high in the conscientious trait of personality. He is conscious of the idea that everyone has their own sense of style and takes it into consideration when he advises each contestant. He encourages them to stay true to their own design aesthetic no matter how unfamiliar the challenge is. This attention to a person's individual personality shows that he is willing to get to know someone before making a judgment. People who are conscientious are this observant and attuned to other people's feelings.

Despite how frustrating it may be to interact with the occasional demur contestant, Tim manages to keep a calm temperament in most situations. This characterizes as low in the neuroticism trait. He maintains a placid manner no matter how chaotic or stressful things get among other people. He manages to keep people focused on completely a challenge without being high-strung or controlling. He keeps a positive attitude with his calm manner in the workroom even when there are only a few minutes left to finish.

With his background in art and fashion, Tim Gunn appears to be high in the openness trait of this approach. He is more open to how individual produce a garment because he understands the demands of the design process through is own experience working in an artistic setting. Experience is an important key feature that allows people to be more open in any situation. The more experience a person has, the more they have a more understandable comprehension of individual difference among other people and society in general. Tim Gunn is an excellent example of this trait because he is open-minded to any idea that he comes across even when he feels indifferent about it.

Cognitive Perspective
When analyzing personality with the cognitive perspective, psychologists study personality based on what a person thinks or knows. A key concern of this perspective is finding how thoughts, interests and the knowledge of the world effects who people are regarding their personalities. It is apparent that Tim Gunn's artistic knowledge defines his personality. He uses this knowledge to help to have successful social interactions. He shows confidence in a less arrogant way about what he knows, which make people more accepting.

Some of the ideas associated with this perspective are taken from the study of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt psychology is a movement in psychology that deal with three primary concepts. These concepts include humans seeking meaning in their environment, the organization of sensations around us into understandable meaning, and stimuli cannot be reduced into the sum of part. These specific concepts of Gestalt psychology can be used to depict Tim's cognitive style of problem solving through the the cognitive style variable known as field dependence. Field dependence takes into the account the idea that people see things as a whole, not in parts. Does a person make decisions based on a specific situation? From Tim's point of view, it appears that he is field dependent. That is, he is influence by the context of a problem or situation before making a full decision. Even though he appears to be calm and collected when discussing design with the contestants on Project Runway, he takes into account the person he is talking to before giving appropriate advice.

From working with contestants, he has a general idea what they are likely to make. The format of the show is often repetitive in a way that Tim Gunn is often the fashion consultant. According to Jean Piaget's schema theory this maybe way he know the designers individual style so well. The repetition of social interaction between Tim and the contestants throughout each season creates a script of the roles he plays as adviser. Through this repetition, aspects of people's personality stick out and he learns how to react to these individuals each week based on this new knowledge. Occasionally, he will make note that a particular designer is not producing a garment that does not fit their design aesthetic. Sometimes he knows their style better than they know their own.

With this strong attention a interpersonal situations, it is apparent that Tim Gunn is high in social intelligence. He has the ability to understand and influence other people with his personality, which is why he is so successful with social interactions. He has other intelligences that contribute to these interactions and his personality as a whole, but the fact that he is extremely social is a dominant feature in his personality.

Discussion
Tim Gunn provides an interesting assessment when studying his unique personality and character. It is obvious that his intelligence of the arts contributes to his career on Project Runway, and people tend to recognize him best in similar situations. However, I think what stands out more than this intelligence in his personality is the social interactions that he accommodates in these situations. The enthusiasm that he shows for his career has influenced the numerous contestants that appear on the reality TV show. They consequently tend to also have enthusiasm in their own designs and work to achieve their full potential. People are more likely to have a more positive relationship with him because he eludes to have a more positive personality. This appears to fit the traits of extroversion sense as stated before, but all these descriptors of extroversion does not fit Tim Gunn. In my opinion, he acquires some character associated to a more introverted personality as well. He expresses a more reserved personality when he is with colleagues in order to keep the situation at a more professional level. He is not over-bearing or dominant that is commonly seen paired with the extroversion trait. When he is giving advice everyone appears to be on the same level of authority, creating a more comfortable atmosphere for the contestant to express how they feel about their work. There is less control and more of a discussion. Obviously, this is only one context to help access Tim's personality. So I have no idea what he is like in when he is not on the set of Project Runway. However, I am assuming that it is probably not much different than how he acts on television because he does not get bad publicity when he isn't.