Role of Will and Character in Personality Development!
Will:
“Will is a conscious organisation and self-regulation by the individual of his activity and his behaviour directed towards overcoming difficulties in the attainment of set goals”.
Will signifies the power of making decisions, determination, persistence and mobilization of increased effort and effect in overcoming obstructions and difficulties.
a. Age of the person:
For making a strong will, the age of the person is very important. A young child or an old person cannot make a strong determined mind to achieve something. For example, climbing a hill.
b. Physical and mental health:
The health conditions both physical and mental are very important to make a strong decision. A person with some physical health problems cannot have will power to attain any goal. So also, a person with some phobia, worry, anxiety, stress cannot dare to make strong will about any action.
c. Amount of practice:
Strong will depends upon the amount of practice or training. A person with good knowledge, training and practice can make a strong will to carry on a work.
Character:
The word character is derived from Greek—where it means ‘Engraving (art of cutting design and sign)’. The term character indeed denotes characteristic signs acquired by social man. It is defined as “the sum total of a person’s stable individual properties arising and revealing themselves in activity and communication, and determining his typical forms of behaviour”.
Alexander Shang has defined character as “the mental and moral equipment acquired from education and environment and is revealed in the conduct of individual and his relationship with people”. Hence it may be stated that the character is a mental structure, organised and enduring (long lasting), ever influencing our conduct and social behaviour.
Character is a lifetime gain of a person who, by getting involved in the system of social relations, in joint activity and communication with other people moulds his own personality and individuality. Character is the result of growth, it is not innate. That means, we are not born with character- we have acquired it.
Our emotional attitudes and sentiments lead to growth of character. Attitudes and habits are different from character. All acquired tendencies put together becomes character. Character may be good and strong like service motto, honesty, friendliness, etc. may be bad such as telling lies, deceiving others, dishonesty, etc.
Alterations in Personality:
Personality is the dynamic organisation of various physical, psychological and temperamental qualities of a person. Normal functioning of these processes will lead to a normal personality. On the other hand, any abnormality will lead to some changes or alterations in personality. This is truer in psychological disturbances.
When a person is experiencing severe frustrations, anxiety, stress, etc. he cannot manage his equilibrium. This results in disintegration of personality. In this state his thinking, reasoning, perception, memory and such other intellectual functions get paralysed. The disintegration in the functioning of these processes lead to certain alterations in personality.
Some of the commonly reported alterations in personality are, double or multiple personalities (in which the mind splits into more than one process, resulting in formation of different unique personalities).
This disorder appears in a condition called dissociative form of hysteria. Other forms of alterations include Somnambulism (sleep walking), Dementia of Alzheimer type, Dissociative identity disorder, Amnesia and Fugue, Senile psychosis, etc. During these altered states, there will be a set of different personality characteristics, expressed by the individual, which may be normal or abnormal, depending upon the physical and psychological conditions of the person.