Report for the introduction to personality

Most psychologists assert that the word “personality” was coined from a Latin word persona. In Latin, the word persona refers to a theatrical mask that was worn in Greek dramas by Roman actors. This persona (mask) was used by the actors so that they can project false appearance or role. However, this is just but a surface view of the term personality. Psychologists use this term to refer to something that is deeper in meaning than the role played by a person e.g. in a drama as above stated. Going by this, analysis of different definitions given by different psychologists from all corners of the world show that there is no single and clear definition that has ever been agreed on by the psychologists. This is due to the fact that each one of them saw personality from a reference point that was purely individual. Several of them were born in Europe and they went on and continued to live there while others relocated to Americas.

Though theorists have never arrived at a harmonized definition of personality, generally personality is that pattern of unique characteristics and permanent traits giving a person a defined individuality and consistency in his behavior. Unique qualities in a person include attributes like physique, intelligence and temperament. This is what is referred to as characteristics. On the other hand, traits are also unique and they may be common in a group. They are also shared by the whole species though they have different patterns in each and every individual. In simpler terms, innate idiosyncrasy realization in a person is what is called personality. The issue of differences in individuals is so fundamental in studying this topic because it’s through it that we are able to declare that there are no two people who are and will ever be the same.

Different theoretical approaches have been used by different psychologists in this field of personality. A theory of personality explains both its structure and dynamics. In understanding personality, bio-social theory and biophysical theory are two approaches that deal primarily with explanation of structure (Schultz & Schultz, 2008). On the other hand, several theories have been generated by psychologists explaining personality based on its dynamics. Some of these theories include among others psychoanalytical theory, psychosocial, spiritual, personological and social learning theories.

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Bio-physical approaches to personality assert that personality of an individual will be determined by the constitutional and biological characteristics. To determine this, one uses popular wisdom. Popular wisdom normally relates impulsive anger with thin and lean and being jovial is linked with fat people. In this approach, different theorists use different propositions. Some like Kretschmer propose that a person personality can be determined by the body build reference. On the other hand, Sheldon proposes that an individual personality can only be determined by the nature in one’s embryonic development.

Bio-social approach to personality is a theory asserting that an individual’s personality is formed due to the interplay between both the social cultural forces and the biological dispositions. This approach has got two major proponents; Cattell and Eyesenck. The proposition of Eyesenck is that an individual’s personality is explained using two polarities. These are extroversion and introversion. From Cattell’s proposition, an individual’s personality can be explained using a profile or a psychograph. This psychograph shows the positions of an individual on bipolar “primary factors” or “source traits.” Psychoanalytical approach was generated by Sigmud Freud. He mainly used this theory in diagnosing and treating root psychic causes of any signs of pathological attributes in psychic patients. In his application of the theory, he used the past history of a patient. After using this past history, he came up with several propositions. He asserted that an individual personality formation is explained by using the interplay between the “superego” (formed due to internalization of external moral demands) and natural “id” (pleasure-seeking impulse). Freud also proposed that an individual’s personality can be explained if we dig the past history of the person during childhood (Egyankosh.ac.in, n.d). This includes the past and forgotten memories when one was young. This may take the form of toilet-training, breast-weaning and the relationships that are developed between the child and parents of the opposite gender. His last proposition was that one’s personality can be determined by furnishing his reality-self, “ego.” This tries to resolve any conflict in between the super-ego and the id by use of “defense mechanism” techniques.

Social learning approach explains personality using the basis of stimulus response. It asserts that an individual just like any animal learns to respond to present stimuli or those stimuli constructed in the surrounding environment. This is a theoretical approach to personality that differs with psychic interpretations. Theorists in this personality approach argue that the interpretations in the psychic approach are not empirical. It is in this approach where we have the proposition by the famous psychologist B.F. Skinner. Skinner proposed that personality of an individual can be shaped through manipulation of stimuli step by step and presenting the individual with the relevant/appropriate reinforcement. On the other hand, Couley proposed that one’s personality may be defined by reference to how individuals self concept develops relying on basis of how other significant people define him in the same environment.

Factors that influence the development of an individual’s personality are family, biological, situational and cultural. The most prominent determinant of personality in an individual is the biological factors. This consists of the brain, physical stature and heredity. It’s strongly asserted by geneticists and psychologists that heredity plays a major role in development of one’s personality. Heredity importance will however vary from a given personality trait to the other. One’s temperament is determined largely by heredity than the held ideals and values. Another outstanding influence on our personality is the physical stature. This explains if a person is good looking or not, skinny or fat, tall or short. These attributes influences the rest of the population and eventually affect the given person with a particular physical stature.

Social factors and one’s family shape our personality development. Our contact begins with our mothers and then the rest members of the family. Contact may then be extended to other social groups in the society who further shape our personality. Home environment is a factor that plays a big role in personality development. Parents create a certain type of home environment which plays a part in shaping our personality. Environmental effect on the development of personality is strong (Citeman.com, 2009). Language, skills and knowledge acquired by an individual are learned modifications of behavior. Since learned behavior modifications cannot be passed on to the siblings, they must acquire them through interaction with the environment, experience and personal effect. It is postulated that actions of an individual are mostly determined by the situation but not his behavior. Thus, a given situation has a greater impact on expressions and actions. Different cultural patterns shape a child’s physical appearance in the earlier stages of development. Such a growing child then faces and challenges varying environmental factors. This clearly shows that personality development is shaped due to interplay of several factors that are not only from genetics domain but also from the environment.