Molding the Personality Pattern Introduction Personality development begins

Molding the Personality Pattern

Introduction �Personality development begins at birth. �But there are evidences that environment has a significant influence on the development of personality. �Two major factors that influence or determine the personality pattern: �Hereditary potentials �Environmental influences

Hereditary Potentials �The principal raw materials of personalityphysique, intelligence and temperament-are the foundations of personality which are genetically determined through inheritance. �Physical capacities-energy, strength and attractiveness are also limited by inherent characteristics. �The hereditary endowment of a person determined at the time of conception, is the basis for individuality.

Environmental influences �The forms into which the hereditary potentials will develop will depend largely on the significant people in the individual’s environment. �It is they who determine what his physical and social environment will be. �It is they who determine what opportunities the individual will have for learning and what limitations will be placed on these opportunities. �Cultural environment will provide him with approved patterns to imitate, but it is the significant people in his life who will give him the training needed to mold his potentials and the motivation needed to call forth the effort to learn. �Example: Placing the triplets in three different families (high, medium and low social class) of same cultural

How the environment molds personality? �Environment molds the personality in three ways: �It encourages or stunts the maturation of hereditary potentials. �It provides personality pattern models which the individual uses as a guide. �It either provides or denies needed learning opportunities.

Maturation of hereditary potentials �Through maturation, the hereditary potentials established at the time of conception will eventually develop. �Some maturation occurs before birth and some after. �Maturation, however, depends upon the environment, and so whether hereditary potentials will develop to their maximum will depend upon the kind of environment in which the individual grows and lives.

Maturation before birth �Good physical and mental health on the mother’s part are conducive to a favorable prenatal environment and to the normal maturation of hereditary potentials. �Unfavorable conditions in the prenatal environment, caused by maternal malnutrition, infections, severe emotional stress, interfere with maturation and produce developmental irregularities. �And if child’s nervous system is affected by these irregularities, the individual’s ability to make life adjustments may be permanently impaired.

Maturation after birth �Poor health and nutrition, neglect and lack of stimulation o the part of those responsible for encouraging and motivating the use of developing abilities, and lack of opportunity to develop abilities due to overprotection, institutionalization and other causes- all show detrimental an unfavorable environment is. �The timing of unfavorable conditions is the crucial factor. �If particular ability is maturing rapidly, an environment that discourages development is much more damaging than when the ability is maturing slowly. E. g. Loss of mother is most damaging if it occurs in the early years of life.

Model of Personality Pattern � The second important way in which the environment influences the molding of the personality pattern is by providing models for the individual to follow. � A model that is acceptable to members of the group with which the person is identified acts as a guide for him as well as for those who are responsible for training him to conform to social expectations. � The members of the group, especially the parents and teachers, are responsible for molding the child’s personality pattern to conform to the group’s standard. � They do this directly by providing opportunities for learning, by preventing the child from learning what the group disapproves, by encouraging and rewarding him for learning what the group approves. � Indirectly, the cultural group influences the molding process by setting up models for the young to imitate and by making these models so prestigious that the young will want to imitate them.

Development of basic personality type Cultural traditions Uniform child training Adult basic personali ty personality pattern is molded According to Allport, the basic through the interrelationship of cultural tradition and uniform

Provision for Learning �The third important way in which the environment influences the molding of the personality pattern is by providing opportunities for learning and pressures to motivate the person to take advantage of these opportunities. �A person learns to behave in a culturally approved way and to think of himself as others with whom he comes in contact think of him. �Learning can be: �Self initiated �Outer directed

Factors affecting learning �Readiness of learner to learn �Attitude and behavior of those who direct the learning �Motivation for learning

Sources of molding �Family: �Child’s first social environment and social group with which he has the most frequent and closest contacts. �Within the home, the mother plays the central role in the molding process �School: �Molding process comes from social pressures by teachers and members of the peer group. �In the early years, teachers play the more important role, but in high school and college, the peer group is more influential.

Sources of Molding � Media of mass communication: �Books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, movies and comics play a large role in shaping attitudes and beliefs and in structuring behavior patterns. �How great an influence mass media have depends on where the individual lives. � Religion: �It shapes moral values and provides patterns for socially approved behavior. �Children brought up in homes where strict religious training prevails develop a more authoritarian personality pattern � Occupation: �Once in an occupation, a person usually tries to conform to the stereotype that is culturally associated with the people in it.

Molding Techniques �Two methods of learning are dominant in molding personality pattern: �Learning through guidance and control of behavior by another. It is outer directed method and is commonly referred as Child Training. �Learning through imitation of the beliefs, attitudes, and behavior patterns of another. This inner directed method and is known as identification.

Child Training Methods � Authoritarian Methods: �Use of strict rules and regulations to enforce the desired behavior. �The failure to come up to expected standards is severely punished. �It is not necessary to explain why the rules are important to the individual. � Democratic Methods: �Emphasize need for discussion, explanations and reasoning to help the young understand why they are expected to behave in one way rather than another. �Persons are awarded if they come up to expected standards. �Punishment is used only when the person willfully refuses to do. � Permissive Methods: �People learns more by trial and error than by guidance.

Effects of child training on personality �Authoritarian Training: �It produce a child who is quiet, well behaved, nonresistant, socially unaggressive, and restricted in curiosity, originality. �As he grows older, he develops feelings of guilt about independent thinking. �He think of himself as worthless and so lacks confidence. �Develops inferiority complex. �Democratic Training: �Greater independence in thinking and acting and in a healthy, positive, confident self concept. �More outgoing, active and spontaneous behavior.

Effects of child training on personality �Permissive Training: �Extreme leniency is detrimental to personality development. �Child become insecure and confused. �He feels unprepared to meet life’s problems. �They become selfish and self centered and show little compassion for others. �They do not learn to conform to others, but expect others to conform to others.

Identification �It is the process by which a person takes over the values of another by imitation. �Individual tries to duplicate in his own life the ideas, attitudes, and behavior of the person he is imitating. �When a child identifies with an adult, he learns to do what the adult does. �Child training accompanied by identification is far more effective in personality development.

Sources of identification �Home �School �Peer Group

Influence of identification on personality �Identification with parents affects the personality development of the child most notably in the areas of behavior, values and attitudes. �Older children, accept the value systems of their parents through identification with them and mold their own values along the lines of parental models.