Personality - Meaning

PERSONALITY  is a pattern of enduring characteristics that differentiates a person from anotpheher person.
      These patterns of behaviour make each of us unique.
     The word Personality comes from the latin word "Persona" which means mask.

  Definition of Allport:
    "Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his/her characteristic behaviour and thought."
    Psychologists tried to understand the nature of personality along three lines.

  *Personality as social phenomena

   An individual's personality depends to a large extent, on how he acts and reacts in a social group. The traditions, customs, manners and philosophy practiced by a particular community or group, will all have their effect on the individual in the group.

  * The Ontological ( Existence)nature

         Inner structure is called personality. This view emphasises certain particular qualities such as intelligence, temperament and so on.

* Personality is a generic term consisting of emotions, motivation, intelligence, learning, memory etc. They called personality traits.
  

Traits of Personality

  

Determinants of personality

    There are two broad types of factors that influence the personality development.
    * Heredity factors 
    * Environmental factors

 

SELF as a third determinant

As the human infant grows he learns to distinguish between himself and others and things. This is the part of his perceptual field and gradually develops the sense of 'me' 'I' or 'self'. As this self-structure develops, it becomes the integrating core of his personality.
This becomes the reference point around which his personality is organised. When a problem arises, it is perceived, thought about and acted upon in relation to the self, even in a group. The self system works based on the assumptions an individual makes about himself and his world. These assumptions are of three types:

1. Reality assumptions - how things really are.

2. Possibility assumptions - how things could be and possibilities of change.

3. Value assumptions - right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable.

These assumptions give a sense of identity, a self-ideal and a picture of what one could and should become. Discrepancy between real and ideal selves can cause inner conflict. They also shape how we perceive, think, feel and act, develop a life style and influence our behaviour.