Read this article to learn about Human Personality: It’s Nature and Development!
“Personality is the whole individual considered as a whole. It may be defined as the most characteristic integration of an individual structure, modes of interest, attitudes, behaviour and capacities.” – Muirhead
Personality is the one word in Psychology which is used by most of us, rather carelessly and loosely. It is more comprehensive in its connotation than “temperament” or ‘character’ but we often confuse it with them.
We often identify it with the ‘externals’ of an individual, his looks, voice, dress, manners and gestures, when we remark, “Sunita has a wonderful personality or Anil has a poor personality.” The externals or physique and appearance constitute only one factor in one’s personality; they do not constitute the whole that is implied by the term personality.
Development of Personality:
Personality is a dynamic, growing thing, different in each person. Individuals are different from each other even at birth, in physical appearance, motivity or temperament.
These differences become more pronounced and complex with increasing age and maturity. They acquire more characteristics as a result of their interaction with the environment which is different from person to person. Thus the process goes on, each one of us developing a personality different from the others.
What causes these variations? Why do we develop different personalities inspite of basic or fundamental similarities? The answer to these questions can be found in the following discussions of the various factors which influence the growth of personality.
We can classify these factors under three heads:
(i) The physiological and physical factors,
(ii) The environmental or social factors, and
(iii) The psychological or mental factors.
1. The Physiological and Physical Factors:
These include the physique of the individual his size, strength, looks and constitution. They also include the physical deficiencies and the nature of glandular functioning. Physical appearance is the first thing that attracts our attention in meeting a person and our judgment of him is inheritably coloured by it. An attractive physical appearance helps to create self-confidence, poise, self-reliance and other similar personality traits in the individual.
A large person generally enjoys a forceful and impressive personality. He may develop a tendency to bully, or to dominate or to protect. The smaller man may feel belittled in the presence of large and tall people, he may try to compensate for his physical inferiority by being strenuous and hard-working.
Similarly physical attractiveness, strength and general health may determine in others certain reactions and traits. But it must be remembered that these things, in themselves, are not the major factors in the determination of one’s personality. What is important is how others react to these characteristics, how the group evaluates the presence or absence of these characteristics.
Physical handicaps such as orthopedic defects, a bad squint in the eye, snub nose or deafness etc. may cause shyness, reserve and unsociability in persons.
The endocrine glands produce hormones which have the power to raise or depress the activity of the various organs. They influence emotional behaviour and hence colour our personality. They bring about changes in physical appearance, motor functioning, intelligence and emotional stability.
For example an excess of insulin secreted by pancreas may take the individual fatigued, anxious or tremulous. Hypothyroidism may cause sluggishness inertia or dullness, dewiness or stupidity, whereas hyperthyroidism may cause nervous tension, excitement and activity. The disturbances caused by glandular imbalance may become worse because of the adverse comments and remarks of the other people.
Diagram:
The physiological conditions of the body brought about by drugs, disease, diet, toxins and bacterial infections may also influence our behaviour and personality. The changes brought by these conditions may not be always permanent. Alcohol depresses certain control functions and results in an apparent stimulating effect. Low blood-pressure results in irritability and apprehensive feelings.
Chronic illnesses may induce attitudes of dependence and “fatalism”. A syphilitic infection of the brain or general paresis may change a truthful, meticulous person into one who is dishonest and completely unreliable. Eucephalitis lethargica may cause serious behaviour problems in a child who has been a joy to both his parents and his teachers.
Even localised infections such as infected teeth, tonsils or appendix have been found to play havoc not only with digestion, circulation and other physiological processes but have been found to have adverse effect on the process of feeling, thinking and general temperament.
Man is a social animal. Psychologists call him a human plant, planted in the social soil, that grows as it spreads its roots in the soil. So society and human being become one total bio-sphere. The organism and the environment constitute the bio-sphere. Both are inter-dependent and interacting.
The environment constitutes:
(a) The surrounding geographical and biological environment.
(b) The cultural heritage, and the social setting.
The latter environment is more important in the development of personality. The existing world for a man is more than a play of atoms, charges, waves or tone. He finds some purpose in life, explores ideals – ideals of truth, beauty and goodness – and imposes judgment of things accordingly. The environment influences are discussed below.
2. The Environmental or Social Factors:
These also play an important part. The social aspects of an individual’s environment affect personality in a very striking manner Cruze says, “An individual’s personality is influenced more by the reactions of other people to him and by his reactions to other people than by any other in the environment.”
Of these social factors, the most important are the relationships that obtain in the home and the family, the influence of the school and the play-ground, the social codes and social roles which the individual has to play in the family and in the community.
(a) If the home is characterised by an atmosphere of peace, love, mutual understanding, harmony and respect for each member of the group, the child is likely to develop a self-confident and secure personality. If the child is not given opportunities to exercise his independence or use his initiative, if he over-protected, he is going to develop an over-dependent personality.
Repressive discipline will result in rebelliousness or dependence as personality traits. The only child, who is given extra protection and care, is likely to develop into an individualistic or self-centred child, demanding and selfish, if parents do not teach him to share what he has with parents and friends.
The early care given to the child or denied to him by his mother is an important condition in the home, according to Freud and his followers, the way the child is breast or bottle-fed, the way he is weaned slowly or suddenly and the way he is bowel and bladder controlled slowly or quickly – all influence the development of personality. Another factor in the home is the inter-sibling relationship.
Even the ‘sex’ of the child in Hindu homes is a factor to be reckoned with. Boys rather than girls are given more love and attention and that creates in girls many frustrations which lead to the development of regressive or rebellious tendencies in them. The latter, on account of our culture, take the form of intra-aggression.
How large is the family also matters. In a large family children learn to compete and cooperate, to live together and share things, to love and help one another. These attitudes may be carried into life. If quarrels are ramyant, jealousies are acute, these experiences produce attitudes which may affect adjustments outside the home and in later life.
(b) It is in the school that most children first learn to adjust to larger groups of people. The personality of the teacher, the richness or drabness of the curriculum, the presence of co-curricular activities, the methods of the nature of school organisation, particularly the type of discipline that prevails, all are going to affect the child’s personality.
Cruze is of opinion and rightly so that limited curricular offerings and failure to provide for individual differences are sometimes responsible for failure in class-work, habits of laziness, unruliness, day-dreaming, cheating, truancy and many other undesirable personality characteristics.
Over-aggressive and dominating, teachers encourage rebelliousness, resistance and emotional instability in children. Incompatible relationships between teachers and children may cause subject disabilities in reading, arithmetic or geography and these in turn may develop backwardness and feelings of inferiority.
A good school develops the child educationally and mentally. It provides opportunities for receiving knowledge, to think, to reason and to develop a broader outlook on life. It develops the child socially and emotionally and thus contributes to personality development.
Adequate recreational facilities and competent supervision, team games and cooperative enterprises will also develop socially desirable traits of personality in the children.
The personality of friends, and classmates has a powerful effect on the child’s personality. He competes with some and cooperates with others. Such attitudes acquired in the school last for years and affect an individual’s approach to life and society. They become integrated into his personality.
Modern democratic trends are affecting our school organisation. Democratic procedures in the classroom and in the organisation of school programmes and activities have beneficial effects on personality development. Children learn the lessons if equality, freedom, fair play and respect for the rights and opinions of others. These attitudes engendered in schools play a vital role in shaping the society in future.
(c) Besides the home and the school, we are influenced by the various social roles that we have to play in various situations and relationship. Then there are rules and regulations of society or the group to which we belong. We develop habits of controlling our behaviour and conducting ourselves in conformity with these rules, called the social code. Other social factors that influence our personality are the cinema, the newspaper and the radio as well as the growing power of television.
3. Psychological or Mental Factors:
These include our motives, acquired interests our attitudes, our will and character, our intellectual capacities such as intelligence i.e., the abilities to perceive, to observe, to imagine, to think and to reason. These factors determine our reactions in various situations and thus affect our personality, growth and direction.
An individual with a considerable amount of will power will be able to make decisions more quickly than others. He will be able to put in greater effort in order to solve a problem or a difficulty. Intelligence will help him in making adequate adjustments and in collecting facts and in-understanding relationships. All this will contribute to the development of personality.
Guiding the Growth of Integrated Personality:
What can parents and teachers do so that their children and pupils develop integrated personality? Personality integration depends on many factors such as maturation, inheritance, culture, health, knowledge, home and school influence – yet it is possible to deduce a few general principles for guiding personality integration.
These are as follows:
(a) Children should be encouraged and helped to set themselves well- defined goals and objectives which they can hope to achieve. Goals which are too high to reach may cause frustrations. Let us give them experiences that engender in them feelings of success rather than of failure and humiliation.
(b) The home and school environments should be stimulating and secure so that chances of frustration, anxiety, fear and uncertainly are reduced as much as possible. Encouragement, praise and appreciation are more effective than fault-finding, reprimand and scolding or ridicule.
(c) Life in homes and schools should be so-planned that children are able to express themselves fully, and they know they belong to parents and to teachers. Feelings of belongingness and acceptance are great antidotes to disintegration of personality functioning.
(d) Children should be helped to build their self-esteem, to develop a sense of worthiness and a positive ego-images.
(e) Their desire to make friends, to like people, to think well of them, to do good to others and to share common interests should be satisfied through encouragement.
(f) For proper personality integration, development of self-knowledge, self-understanding and self-acceptance is very much needed. Correct self- knowledge and self-understanding will give them an idea of realistic goals and tasks, what they can achieve and thus avoid unhappiness and frustration due to too high goals and consequent failure.
In short, our children, from infancy onwards to adolescence, should have satisfactions of two types:
(i) Affectionate, warm, security giving satisfactions
(ii) Self-enlarging, ego building, adequacy giving satisfactions.
Equipped with these satisfactions the possibility of their succumbing to behaviour deviations and emotional disturbance will be reduced to a minimum and the possibility of personality integration will be increased.
The Nature of Personality:
1. The Original Musk Idea:
In reviewing the literature on the history of the concept personality, Allport has identified 50 different meanings of the term. He points out that two opposing emphasis in these definitions stand out mask approaches and substance approaches.
In the former case the emphasis is on the superficial aspects of behaviour, the outward appearance or stimulus value of the individual whereas the latter class of definitions centres around the underlying nature of the person, that is, the basic determines of the behaviour patterns which are characteristic of him.
The ‘mask’ approach is conveyed in the derivative meaning of the word personality. It comes from the Latin word ‘persona’ which originally referred to the mask which the Roman and Greek actors used to wear in ancient times, to indicate to the audience whether they played the villain’s or the hero’s role in a drama. It distinguished him from the rest of actors. The emphasis on outward appearance and observable behaviour gives us a very limited understanding of the individual we are observing.
2. The Substance Approach:
The followers of the substance approach lay emphasis on the constructs or processes which are hypothesized to exist but cannot be observed directly, such as minor states, forces, motive systems, mechanisms, processes and structures. This sort of approach tends to dominate modern day personality theory.
Nature of Personality:
According to Stagnar & Korwaski (1952) personality has three fold meanings:
1. Personality as a stimulus.
2. Personality as a response
3. Personality as an intervening variable (Integrative approach or personality as an adjustment).
3. Definition given by Psychologists:
Theoretically speaking, personality has been defined differently by different theorists. Among the well-known theories, a mention may be made of the stimulus response theory, the trait theory, the type theory, the theory of needs and press, the psychoanalytic theory, the field theory of Lenin and theory of phenomenology. Students can study these theories in details in books on Personality and Personality Theories.
In a Layman’s terminology, by personality we mean the sum total of our ways of behaving, especially towards others. Popularly, it is understood to mean ‘that’ in which one person differs from another.
As for instance a person may have a beautiful physical appearance, a good character, a robust physique, aggressive or pleasant manners and accordingly he is a Tine’, ‘a strong’ or ‘a magnetic personality’. Philosophically if a person believes in ideals of life, and talks of spiritual values, he is said to have a “divine’ or ‘spiritual personality’.
“Psychologically, personality is the integrated and dynamic organisation of the physical, mental, moral, and social qualities of the individual as that manifests itself to others in social life.” Thus it is a constellation of physical, mental, moral, social, emotional and attitudinal traits, well-integrated in the man.
So it is the total being of man. It refers to ones total make up i.e., biological as well as sociological. His physique and chemique; his emotionality, his intelligence, his character, his sociability all make up his personality.
A few definitions are given below:
1. Morton Prince (1924) “Personality is the sum total of all the biological innate dispositions, impulses, tendencies, appetites and instincts of the individual and the acquired dispositions and tendencies.”
2. Floyed Allport (1924) states that “Personality traits may be considered as so many important dimensions in which people may be found to differ.”
3. Symonds (1928) has defined personality as “the portrait or landscape of the organism working together in all its phases.”
4. Linton – “Personality is the organised aggregate of psychological processes and states pertaining to the individual”.
5. Psychologists of Gestalt school define personality “as a pattern or configuration produced by the integrated functioning of all the traits and characteristic of an individual.”
6. Cruze defines Personality as “an organised and integrated unity consisting of many elements that work together as a functioning whole”.
7. Kimble Young. “Personality refers to the more or less organised body of ideas, attitudes, traits, values and habits which an individual has built into roles and status for dealing with others and with himself.”
8. Woodworth and Marquis define Personality as “the total quality of an individual’s behaviour as it is revealed in his characteristic habits of thought and expression, his attitudes, interests, (his manners of acting, and his own philosophy of life.
Some psychologists restrict their explanation to stimulus and response of Behaviourism.
9. Watson opines that personality is everything that we do.
Watson in his book “Behaviourism” defines “Personality is some of the activities that can be discovered by actual observations over a long enough period of time.”
Some psychologists emphasise the social aspect of personality.
10. Guthrie (1944) has defined personality as “those habits and habit systems of social importance that are stable and resistant to change”. But this definition is incomplete as it does not tell us about those habits which are not socially important. Habit of “posing” is not of social importance, but is certainly a clue for personality. Guthrie’s phrase “of social importance” is presumably equivalent to “which determine the impression we make on others. Another ‘objection’ is that a person does not behave in the same manner twice towards the same stimulus”.
11. Kempf (1918) has defined personality as “the habitual mode of adjustment which the organism effects between its own egocentric drives and the exigencies of the environment”.
12. May and Hartshorn stressed social aspect. According to them “Personality is that which makes one effective and gives influence over others”.
13. Garden W. Allport (1939) in his book, “Personality: A Psychological interpretation” states “Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment”. It recognises the changing nature of personality, “a dynamic organisation”. It focuses on the inner aspect rather than on superficial manifestations; but it establishes the basis for social stimulus value of personality (Unique adjustment to the environment).
14. R.B. Cattell, “Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation”.
15. Guilford, “Personality is an integrated pattern of traints”.
16. Baring, Langfalde Weild, “Personality is an individual’s consistent adjustment to his environment”.
A man’s real personality includes what he wishes to be, how he wishes to appear, how he appears to others, and how he appears to himself. It involves his evaluation of his environment of other people, and of himself.”Personality indeed, is truly an abstraction, inferred from behaviour, rather than anything tangible and measurable”.
Personality is intrinsically complex, we can offer no simple formula for reducing its rich variety to a dry definition some psychologists take personality as an integration and organisation.
Many of the above views remain incomplete in so far as these give the impression that personality is something possessed by man, just as he possesses property or wealth. In reality personality is the man. Personality is the behaviour of the individual, the ways in which man walks, talks, thinks and acts.
17. Eysenck is therefore, right in concluding that “Personality is the sum- total of actual behaviour patterns of the organism”.
All the three views described above talk of personality as if having so social bearing. But the most modern view takes into consideration the influence of environment and society upon the behaviour of a person. Lewin, Allport, Murray and Moreno have therefore, explained personality only in relation with social environment. Heredity alone does not count in the development of behaviour. The environment has a strong bearing upon the mental disposition.
18. Schwesinger:
The social concept of personality is again explained by Schwesinger in the following words, “The layman is usually concerned with the externality of the reason, his voice, his gestures, his mental coordination, his charm and reaction, in fact which are socially important”.
19. Met-fessal:
A more concise definition of personality is given by Metfessel “Personality is the integrated organisation of all the mental-emotional, physical characteristics of the individual, in relation to his environment”.
20. Indian views:
While discussing personality, Indian philosophers have gone deeper than the psychological level and probed into the realms of spirit.
They have explained the following five sheaths enveloping the spirit (soul):
1. The physical self the body with its various systems etc., i.e., the five senses and five organs of action, the physical features, the health and vitality.
2. The vital air the respiratory system, the control of vital air over the working of the body.
3. The mental self the so-called mind with its dispositions, behaviour patterns, acquired and innate, altitudes, thoughts and habits the tendencies and the qualities.
4. The intellect the intelligence, experience and knowledge.
5. The blissful self the state in which the whole personality merges finally, a state of trance and ecstasy.
The last state concerns super normal human beings, Yogis and spiritually advanced people. But in our daily behaviour, we are concerned with only the first four aspects (called sheaths) of personality.
4. A Functional Explanation of Personality:
For functional purposes, we may ascribe to the following definition of personality which takes into consideration an integrated approach. According to this personality, is the total-quality of an individual’s behaviour as it is shown in his habits of thinking, in his attitudes, interests, his manner of acting and his personal philosophy of life.
It is the totality of his being. It includes his physical, intellectual, emotional and temperamental make-up and how it shows its behaviour. It is the “pattern developed by the integrated function of the traits and characteristics of an individual”. It is not more aggregation of his physical, mental and emotional traits and characteristics, it is more that.
It is an integration, a blend, a merger or an organised whole in which the individual’s modes of behaviour, interests, attitudes, beliefs, values, capacities, abilities, aptitudes, looks and physique, and experience lose their identity within the total pattern.
These various components do not stand apart from each other they are related to each other, they are inter-connected and as a result of this integration give rise to a characteristic, behaviour pattern or quality called personality.
It is true that some of these aspects may give more weight to the total product than others do or some of these components may play more vital role than others in the development of one’s personality. It is these variations that cause differences in personality from one individual to another although components and the principle of growth are the same in all the persons.
5. Aspects of Personality:
Taking into consideration the various views regarding the nature of personality, we can categories its various aspects in the following way:
1. Physical aspect the physical body, appearance, health, speech, action, gait, movement, the glandular system, the nervous and other systems.
2. Intellectual aspect, the various abilities, memory, thought, power, power to discriminate and reasoning, imagination and adjustment to situation.
3. Emotional aspect, the emotional reaction, temperament, various sentiments, desires, attitudes, complexes, and abnormalities.
4. Volitional aspect, the interests, will character and adjustment.
5. Social aspect, sociability, social adjustment, social behaviour, social ideals followed etc.
6. Variables and Personality:
On analysing the concept of personality as given above, we find that there are three basic factors or variables, which have to be considered.
These are:
(i) The internal aspects of the individual or organism the basic drives, covert feelings, the physiological systems glands and his inherently determined physical features,
(ii) The social and material stimuli or situations exterior to the individual. (These modify and direct his impulses and needs and they include the influence of the family and other groups to which one belongs, the influence of customs, traditions and culture), and
(iii) The reactions or behaviour or conduct which results from the interaction of the individual and the stimuli.
From these three basic variables it will be clear that personality is a dynamic thing. It grows in a social set-up, through social experiences. It consists in a continual adjustment to the environment. It is always striving after goals which are grounded either in original nature or determined by society and its varied social systems.
7. Personality Traits:
Before we conclude the discussion on the nature of personality, it will be interesting to note that quite a number of psychologists and teachers have tried to describe personality in terms of traits. These traits are the different “dimensions” or “facts” of personality or its “qualities”.
Woodworth says, “A trait is some particular quality of behaviour which characterises the individual in a wide range of his activities, and which is fairly consistent over a period of time.” For example, a person may display, more or less permanently, in his overt behaviour, honesty or dishonesty, cheerfulness, independence or dependence, flexibility or rigidity, emotional maturity or infantilism, egotism or modesty, sociability or withdrawal in various combinations and patterns.
Only those traits are called personality traits which are found in an individual’s behaviour, more or less consistently, in similar situations. They are generally found in a certain pattern or form or unity, e.g., honesty and independence, or honesty, sociability and emotional maturity may be the pattern.
Although the individual changes from year to year as he grows, this trait pattern trends to continue or persevere. Thus, unity, consistency and continuity mark the personality traits and also the behaviour which is the result of one’s personality.
Attempts at Explaining Personality:
1. The Four Temperaments:
Hippocrates (400 B.C.) and later Galen (A.D. 150) attempted to classify personality types according to body humors as follows:
This theory, of course, is no longer, accepted. However, there is a slight similarity between it and the relationship that now is recognized to exist between the functioning of endocrine secretions and emotional reactions.
2. Physical Types:
According to Kretschmer, individuals can be classified into four groups in terms of their physical form and structure:
Athletic – muscular and responsive to desirable adjustments.
Asthenic – tall and thin, critical of others but sensitive to criticisms of themselves.
Pyknic – short and stout, easygoing and popular with people.
Dysplastic – abnormal build with characteristics growing out of the abnormality.
Despite the fact that trained observation of people’s behaviour does not substantiate this theory, there still can be found those who assume, for example, that short, stout men are jolly and that tall, thin persons are hard to live with.
3. Somatypes:
A recent classification of individuals by Sheldon on the basis of physical characteristics includes the following body or some types:
Endomorphic – body soft and round, and behaviour dominated by massive disgestive viscera.
Mesomorphic – muscular and bony, hard and heavy physique and thick skin.
Ectomorphic – fragile and sensitive to exposure. Sheldon suggests that educational techniques and modes of discipline should be adjusted to the child’s somatic type.
4. Endocrine Types:
Attempts have been made to associate the possession of certain personality qualities with degree of balance or imbalance of the ductless glands, as illustrated in the following:
Hyperthyroid – overambitious and dominercering.
Hypothyroid – lazy and intellectually dull.
Pituitary type – good-humored, patient, considerate, docile, diffident, tolerant of physical and mental pain.
Adrenal cortex (cortin)-the prematurely developed, in females leading to adiposity and beards.
Parathyroid (calcium metabolism)-the explosive type, showing aggressive conduct.
Gonads, hyper-active – the more aggressive personality.
Gonads, hypo-active – the less aggressive personality, interested in art, literature, and music.
5. Sociological Types:
Spranger classified individuals according to their reactions toward society as:
Theoretical – metaphysician and pure scientists.
Economic – typical “business” man.
Esthetic – sensuous gratification, unreliable.
Social – interested in fellow beings and social movements.
Political – desires power over others.
Religious – either mystic and pietistic or missionary type.
6. Extrovert – Introvert Type:
One of the most challenging of the modern theories is Jung’s extrovert-introvert classification. According to Jung, people tend to differ in their relations with others to the extent that they are extrovert (socially adaptable and interested in people) or introvert (socially shy and retiring, and interested in their own feelings and reactions). The following list represents some of the characteristics of the extremely extroverted and the intensely introverted person respectively.
Extrovert Characteristics:
1. Fluent in speech.
2. Free from worries.
3. Not easily embarrassed.
4. Usually conservative.
5. Interested in athletics.
6. Governed by objective data.
7. Friendly.
8. Likes to work with others.
9. Careful of ailments and personal belongings.
10. Flexible and adaptable.
Introvert Characteristics
1. Better at writing than at speaking.
2. Inclined to worry.
3. Easily embarrassed.
4. Inclined to be radical.
5. Fond of books and magazines.
6. More influenced by subjective feelings.
7. Rather reserved.
8. Likes to work alone.
9. Neglectful of ailments and personal belongings.
10. Lacking in flexibility.
Classifications similar to the above have gained wide popularity because they place emphasis on behaviour aspects of personality traits which are relatively easy to discern in our daily relations with people. Unfortunately, not all persons give evidence to the same degree of all the behaviour reactions associated with any one classification.