Personality
“Every Human Being is a Unique
Creation of GOD”
Personality
can be defined by the
relatively permanent set of psychological and physical behavioral attributes
that makes a person distinctive from others. In other words personality is the
mind set, perception and actions of a person which makes one person different
from others.
Whenever we receive data from our
external environment through our sensory organs we analyze it on the basis of
the information we already have in our mind and based on our perception we
create something meaningful out of it which guides our behavior or action
towards such stimuli. This is called as personality.
Personality can be expressed as
internal and external elements the internal elements are the actions and
behaviors like dress sense, way of communication, style of walking and doing
things etc. which is visible to others, these external elements can be observed
and analyzed by others to define the personality of others, the internal
elements include the thought process, mindset, value system which is intangible
we can not observe them we can only know there presence through the actions of
the individuals only & this interpretation is correct to a certain extent.
It is considered that personality is
relatively stable and it only changes with passage of time or some significant
observation or learning by the individual.
The personality of a person is shaped
by three things, genetic material of the person, his observation towards
response and stimulus, the learning through education, experience etc. based on
the above we can say that every individual is having entirely different
personality.
Personality
of a person can be determined by following factors
Heredity
factors:- Heredity factors are the set of information
which passes from one generation to other through the genetic material. Many of
our physical attributes and mental framework is defined by our genes. The
heredity will define whether a person will be tall or short, thin or fat, fair
or dark etc, apart from these physical attributes our basic nature is defined
by our heredity. The basic instincts of human beings like fight or flight,
hunger and thirst or sexual attraction etc are all being defined by our heredity;
heredity is also responsible for emergence of diseases like diabetes,
Alzheimer, cardio vascular diseases etc. scientists also claims to conclude
through their researches that heredity is also responsible for typical set of
mental abilities like individuals having more ability in reasoning or logics or
in mathematical calculations etc.
Biological
factors:- the biological factors of a person like age,
sex etc also plays a decisive role in forming the personality of a person.
Family
and social factors:- After the heredity the family in which
the child grows has a tremendous influence on his personality, it is the family
from which the child begin to socialize and understand the world around him. Individual
from his beginning observe his parents and siblings and imitate them in
actions. These copying of actions develop the personality of the person. The
family teaches the ethics, value and cultural aspects which acts as a guiding
principles for to govern actions in future. After family the next is other
social factors like neighborhood in which an individual lives, the school or
college to which he go, the friend circle of parents and self and the society
in general define the personality of the person.
Individual learns from these social
factors things like acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, the reactions of the
society towards such behaviors, such things help in defining his own set of
behaviors crafting his personality.
Religion- religion followed by the individual
also define the personality of an individual, because when an individual have
faith in a particular religion he follows the tenants of that religion and try
to copy the behaviors which are considered more beneficial or sacred and
abstain from doing the things which are prohibited, and based on these
perception his personality is developed. E.g. a person having faith in Islam
will abstain from eating pork products or from eating during periods of ramzan
and he will also consider others as inferiors if they do eat pork products.
Environmental
factors:- the
environment in which the individual live including his surrounding, home and the area of activity
also shape the personality, the things which we observe on a continuous basis
in our life, the daily activity in which we are engaged, our society, work area
etc changes the way we think and act.
Experience:- the experience a person get through
in his life also shape the personality of a person, in life when individual
observe or experience things, he learn new things, his perception changes and
his personality is modified. Experience helps to testify the knowledge and
perception of an individual.
Education:-
the education also
mould the personality to greater extent,
through education an individual learn various new things, he his able to
acquire new and more practical knowledge which he can use in his life, with
education individual comes through various other principles and concepts which
makes the data set with the individual more broader, his perception towards
things and understanding power is also enhanced. The level and type of
education can also reshape total personality of a person.
Many experts and researchers had done
extensive research at varying times to know and define personality and their
types, based on their work various personality theories have been formulated.
Following is the list of such classification of theories for personality.
1
Type theory: - these theories of personality try
to define the personality on the basis of their physical and psychological
identifiable features and actions.
The earliest known type theory is
given by Greek physician
Hippocrates (c. 400 B.C.), considered as father of medicine, he characterized
human behavior in terms of four temperaments, each associated with a different
bodily fluid, or "humor."
1. The sanguine, or optimistic, type was associated with blood
2. The phlegmatic type (slow and lethargic) with phlegm;
3. The melancholic type (sad, depressed) with black bile;
4. The choleric (angry) type with yellow bile.
According to him the amount of each of the four humors shape the
personality of a person.
Carl
Jung’s theory of personality
Carl Jung based on the psychological elements has stated that
personality can be classified as introvert and extrovert
Introvert is a person who is more aware of his or her inner world.
He gives more significance to thinking and pondering over dreams. According to
them the external behaviors are less important as compared to internal thoughts.
The introverted attitude is more concerned with subjective appraisal, introverts
are shy, quite and they try to remain in solitude. They don’t like the company
of people and avoid too much communication.
The extrovert is characterized by the outward movement of psychic
energy. This attitude places more importance on objectivity and gains more
influence from the surrounding environment than by inner cognitive processes.
They are more social and express more significantly. The outward expression or
action and communication are also one of their characteristics.
Each person can have qualities of both attitudes, considering both
subjective and objective information.
Jung’s Four Functions of Personality
Jung also defined four functions
that, when combined with one of the two attitudes, introvert and extrovert
gives eight different personality types.
These functions are
Feeling: - the method by which a
person understands the value of conscious activity.
Thinking: - ability to understand the
meanings of things. This process relies on logic and careful mental activity.
Sensation: - refers to the means by which
a person knows something exists.
Intuition: - knowing about something
without conscious understanding of where that knowledge comes from.
The Eight Personality Types Defined by Carl Jung
Jung developed a theory of eight different personality types. Jung's
personality types are as follows:
- Extroverted Thinking – Jung theorized that people
understand the world through a mix of concrete ideas and abstract ones,
but the abstract concepts are ones passed down from other people.
Extroverted thinkers are often found working in the research sciences and
mathematics.
- Introverted Thinking – These individuals interpret
stimuli in the environment through a subjective and creative way. The
interpretations are informed by internal knowledge and understanding.
Philosophers and theoretical scientists are often introverted
thinking-oriented people.
- Extroverted Feeling – These people judge the value of
things based on objective fact. Comfortable in social situations, they
form their opinions based on socially accepted values and majority
beliefs. They are often found working in business and politics.
- Introverted Feeling
– These people
make judgments based on subjective ideas and on internally established
beliefs. Oftentimes they ignore prevailing attitudes and defy social norms
of thinking. Introverted feeling people thrive in careers as art critics.
- Extroverted Sensing
– These people
perceive the world as it really exists. Their perceptions are not colored
by any pre-existing beliefs. Jobs that require objective review, like wine
tasters and proofreaders, are best filled by extroverted sensing people.
- Introverted Sensing – These individuals interpret the
world through the lens of subjective attitudes and rarely see something
for only what it is. They make sense of the environment by giving it
meaning based on internal reflection. Introverted sensing people often
turn to various arts, including portrait painting and classical music.
- Extroverted Intuitive
– These people
prefer to understand the meanings of things through subliminally perceived
objective fact rather than incoming sensory information. They rely on
hunches and often disregard what they perceive directly from their senses.
Inventors that come upon their invention via a stroke of insight and some
religious reformers are characterized by the extraverted intuitive type.
- Introverted Intuitive
– These
individuals, Jung thought, are profoundly influenced by their internal
motivations even though they do not completely understand them. They find
meaning through unconscious, subjective ideas about the world. Introverted
intuitive people comprise a significant portion of mystics, surrealistic
artists, and religious fanatics.
Dr. William Sheldon Personality Theory
Dr. William Sheldon
(1898-1977) was an American psychologist investigated the range of human
personality or temperament types. Sheldon stated that personalities can be
classified in three types which he called Viscerotonia, Somatotonia, and
Cerebrotonia. He propounded that these types are directly related to three
human body types ( or Somatypes ) namely Endomorph, Mesomorph and Ectomorph.
Based on the physique type and traits he had classified the personality of
people as
·
Endomorph:- Endomorphs were found to be related
with Viscerotonia which is being associated with a love of relaxation and
comfort. They tend to be more sociable, emotional and love food and people. As
being focused on the digestive system, particularly the stomach. Endomorphs are
short and plump persons and have far longer digestive tract. Endomorph is
emotional towards their life and lives a life with too many friends.
·
Mesomorph:- mesomorphs were found to be related with Somatotonics which is being associated with
physical assertiveness. Mesomorphs are tall and large, the skeleton structure
is strong and body is well build. They have a masculine body and love to do
physical activity. They love physical competition in which they tend to expect
to do well. They are considered noisy and callous by nature. Preferring
physical activities they tend to like physical activities like sports or work
where physical activity is more important.
·
Ectomorph :- ectomorphs were found to be related
to cerebrotonia which is associated with need of privacy and thinking type.
They have a thin structure with slight masculine body; these people are more
focused about thinking and don’t like physical activity. They have a high level
of self awareness and avoid too much social interactions in their life. Such
personality love to do work where more concentration and thinking is required,
ectomorph prefer solitude over company.
2 Trait theory
Gordon Allport: Father of
personality theory
Gordon
Allport (1897-1967) is often called the father of personality theory: He was
very much a trait theorist and believed in the individuality and uniqueness of
the person and that people have consistent personalities. The trait is a
consistent and enduring attribute of a person which appears in a variety of
situations. Trait can be extracted from the behavior and serves as a useful
unit for analysis.
Allport
attempted to blend nomothetic and idiographic perspectives: he called this
blend the morphogenic approach.
Allport
believed that each person had traits of various types and defined the traits in
following manner.
·
Individual: traits possessed by one person
·
Common: traits possessed by many people
·
Cardinal
traits: One trait
that dominates the person
·
Central
traits: small number
of traits important traits that may affect many behaviours
·
Secondary
traits: many
consistent traits which are not often exhibited
·
Motivational
traits: Very strongly
felt traits
·
Stylistic
traits: Less strongly
felt traits.
3 Psychoanalytical theory:- According to Sigmund Freud, there
are only two basic drives that serve to motivate all thoughts, emotions, and
behavior. These two drives are, simply put, sex and aggression.
Also called Eros and Thanatos, or life and death, respectively, they underlie
every motivation we as humans experience.
As
you learn more about Freud's theories, you'll start to see a sexual pattern
develop, one that emphasizes sex as a major driving force in human
nature. While this can seem overdone at times, remember what sex
represents. Sexual activity is a means to procreation, to bringing about
life and therefore assuring the continuation of our bloodline. Even in
other animals, sex is a primary force to assure the survival of the species.
Aggression, or the death instinct, on the other hand serves just the opposite
goal. Aggression is a way to protect us from those attempting harm.
The aggression drive is a means to allow us to procreate while at the same time
eliminating our enemies who may try to prevent us from doing
so. While it sounds very primitive, it must not be looked at merely
as sexual activity and aggressive acts. These drives entail the whole
survival instinct and could, perhaps, be combined into this one drive: The
drive to stay alive, procreate, and prevent others from stopping or reducing
these needs. Looking at the animal kingdom it is easy to see these forces
driving most, if not all, of their behavior
·
Lets
look at a few examples. Why would an adult decide to get a college
degree? According to Freud, we are driven to improve ourselves so that we
may be more attractive to the opposite sex and therefore attract a better
mate. With a better mate, we are more likely to produce offspring and
therefore continue our bloodline. Furthermore, a college degree is likely
to bring a higher income, permitting advantages over others who may be seen as
our adversaries.
Freud's Structural and Topographical
Models of Personality
Sigmund Freud's Theory is quite
complex and although his writings on psychosexual development set the
groundwork for how our personalities developed, it was only one of five parts
to his overall theory of personality. He also believed that different
driving forces develop during these stages which play an important role in how
we interact with the world.
Structural Model (id, ego, superego)
According to Freud, we are born with
our id. The id is an important part of our personality because as
newborns, it allows us to get our basic needs met. Freud believed that
the id is based on our pleasure principle. In other words, the id wants
whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the
situation. When a child is hungry, the id wants food, and therefore the
child cries. When the child needs to be changed, the id cries. When
the child is uncomfortable, in pain, too hot, too cold, or just wants
attention, the id speaks up until his or her needs are met.
The id doesn't care about reality,
about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction. If you think
about it, babies are not real considerate of their parents' wishes. They
have no care for time, whether their parents are sleeping, relaxing, eating
dinner, or bathing. When the id wants something, nothing else is
important.
Within the next three years, as the
child interacts more and more with the world, the second part of the
personality begins to develop. Freud called this part the Ego.
The ego is based on the reality principle. The ego understands that other
people have needs and desires and that sometimes being impulsive or selfish can
hurt us in the long run. Its the ego's job to meet the needs of the id,
while taking into consideration the reality of the situation.
By the age of five, or the end of the
phallic stage of development, the Superego develops. The Superego
is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical restraints
placed on us by our caregivers. Many equate the superego with the
conscience as it dictates our belief of right and wrong.
In a healthy person, according to
Freud, the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the needs of the id, not
upset the superego, and still take into consideration the reality of every
situation. Not an easy job by any means, but if the id gets too strong,
impulses and self gratification take over the person's life. If the
superego becomes to strong, the person would be driven by rigid morals, would
be judgmental and unbending in his or her interactions with the world.
You'll learn how the ego maintains control as you continue to read.
Topographical Model
Freud believed that the majority of
what we experience in our lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs, feelings,
and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level. He believed
that most of what drives us is buried in our unconscious. If you
remember the Oedipus and Electra Complex, they were both pushed down into the
unconscious, out of our awareness due to the extreme anxiety they caused.
While buried there, however, they continue to impact us dramatically according
to Freud.
The role of the unconscious is only
one part of the model. Freud also believed that everything we are aware
of is stored in our conscious. Our conscious makes up a very small
part of who we are. In other words, at any given time, we are only aware
of a very small part of what makes up our personality; most of what we are is
buried and inaccessible.
The final part is the preconscious or
subconscious. This is the part of us that we can access if prompted, but
is not in our active conscious. Its right below the surface, but still
buried somewhat unless we search for it. Information such as our
telephone number, some childhood memories, or the name of your best childhood
friend is stored in the preconscious.
Because the unconscious is so large,
and because we are only aware of the very small conscious at any given time,
this theory has been likened to an iceberg, where the vast majority is buried
beneath the water's surface. The water, by the way, would represent
everything that we are not aware of, have not experienced, and that has not
been integrated into our personalities, referred to as the nonconscious.
·
Social
learning theory ( this theory is discussed above in the section of learning in
this SSM )
·
Humanistic
theory
Machiavellianism:- personality trait based
on the way a person reach his goal, according to this theory we can classify
individuals as high mach or low mach.
Characteristics of high
mach person:-
·
Who thinks that any means is justified as long as it result in
achieving their goals.
·
Morality and ethics are for weak powerful persons should feel free
to lie, cheat and deceive wherever required to achieve their goal.
·
High machs are confident, eloquent and competent and using these
skills they reach to higher order.
·
High machs are often use the situations where their favorite
tactics are most likely to work.
·
They can interact face to face with their intended victims and use
their persuasive skills to get their things done.
·
They can use the emotions and feelings of other to manipulate
their judgement and decision making.
·
Able to make alliances and use them for their own advantages.
·
They believe that it is better to be feared than loved and is
willing to do anything to become more powerful.
Characteristics of low
mach person:-
·
They are the person who believes that not only the ends but also
the means should be justified.
·
They are emotional and sensitive to the effects of their decisions
on others.
·
They believe in morality and any immoral act for achieving success
is not for them.
Theory
of Type A and Type B behaviors
Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman two
cardiologists while trying to identify characteristics of individuals
susceptible to cardiovascular diseases found that people represent two types of
behaviors Type A and Type B, according to them people having Type A behavior are
more prone to heart diseases as compared to Type B behaviors. These behaviors
can also be analyzed to throw some light on the personality of a person.
People having Type A behaviors can be
identified by
·
Impatient
in nature and over schedule them.
·
Do
things in a hurry even they talk very rapidly even missing the last words in
sentences.
·
Try
to do multitasking even when not required.
·
Feel
acquisitive of money & personal possessions.
·
Feel
threatened by the success of others.
·
Over
reactive towards others.
·
Have
nervous tics like clenching fists or banging hands on the table etc.
·
Try
to compare results in numbers only.
People having Type B behaviors can be
identified by
·
They
are patient and composed.
·
Don’t
have time urgency.
·
Emphasize
quality rather than quantity
·
Active
in fun and recreation activity.
·
Wise,
not hasty and vary responses to specify challenges in their milieu.
·
Their
behaviors can’t be predicted with ease
