Personality What is personality Personality can be defined

Personality

What is personality? • "Personality" can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, emotions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. The word "personality" originates from the Latin persona, which means mask.

Assumption regarding personality 1. Freedom versus Determinism This is the debate over whether we have control over our own behavior and understand the motives behind it, or if our behavior is causally determined by forces beyond our control; it being considered unconscious, environmental, or biological by various theories.

2. Heredity versus Environment Personality is thought to be determined largely by genetics and biology, by environment and experiences, or by some combination resulting thereof. 3. Uniqueness versus Universality The argument over whether we are all unique individuals (Uniqueness) or if humans are basically similar in their nature (Universality).

4. Active versus Reactive Behavioral theorists typically believe that humans are passively shaped by their environments, humanistic and cognitive theorists believe that humans are more active. 5. Optimistic versus Pessimistic Personality theories differ on whether people can change their personalities, or if they are doomed to remain the same throughout their lives.

What is development? • Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from birth to death. • This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality.

• The study of human development is important in a number of subjects, including; • Biology • Anthropology • Sociology • Education • History • Psychology.

PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS or FACTORS OF PERSONALITY

A: Personal 1. Brain • Brain is one of the most important factors of personality determinant. • Electrical Stimulation of the Brain(ESB) and Split Brain Psychology(SBP) and the outcomes of genetic transmissions and are the tools that are used by the management of any organization to mould and amend the employee’s behavior to a more positive and proper one.

B. Physical Factors • It is believed that this factor plays a vital role in determining one’s behavior in any organization. Physical features may involve the height of a person (short or tall), his color (white or black), his health status (fat or skinny) and his beauty (handsome or ugly). • These factors are involved when interacting with any other person and thus contribute in the personality development in many ways.

C. Social Factors • The things that revolve and evolve around us on a regular basis determine our personality. • The society that we live in, the cultural environment that we face daily, the community we get interacted to, all are included in this factor. • Relationships, co-ordination, co-operation, interaction, environment in the family, organizations, workplaces, communities, societies all contribute in way or another as personality

D. Cultural and Religious Factors • The culture in which one lives in, that may involve traditional practices, norms, customs, procedures, rules and regulations, precedents and values, all are important determinants of personality. • Moreover, the creed, religion and believes are also very important factors of personality determinants.

E. Heredity Factor: • Physical structure, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, energy level, aggression, element of love are some of the most notable features that affect the interaction with others and thus formulate the personality, BUT these things their selves come from the' Heredity Factor’.

F. Intelligence • Intelligence is mainly hereditary. • Persons who are very intelligent can make better adjustment in home, school and society than those who are less intelligent.

G. Sex Differences • Sex differences play a vital role in the development of personality of individual. • Boys are generally more assertive and vigorous. They prefer adventures. Girls are quieter and more injured by personal, emotional and social problems.

H. Nervous System • Development of personality is influenced by the nature of nervous system.

I: School Environment • Schools play an important role in molding the personality of the children because a significant part of a child's life is spent in school between the ages of 6 and 20 years. In the school, the teacher substitutes the parents. (a) Language (b) Social Role

Theories of personality development

Psycho-analytic theories ` 1: Freud’s Personality Theory • Freud’s theory of personality consists of three main aspects a): structure of personality b): development of personality c): dynamics of personality

Structure of personality • 1: The Id • The id is the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives. • The id contains the libido, which is the primary source of instinctual force that is unresponsive to the demands of reality. • The id acts according to the "pleasure principle", seeking to avoid pain or displeasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension.

The ego • The ego comprises the organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. • Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious. • The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us. • The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.

The Superego • The super-ego aims for perfection. It comprises that organized part of the personality structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual's ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called "conscience") that criticizes and prohibits his or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions. • "The Super-ego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.

Development of personality/Psychosexual development There are five stages of it 1: The oral stage During this stage stimulation of mouth such as sucking, biting, swallowing. 2: Anal stage Gratification shifts from mouth to the anus and the children drive pleasure from the anal area of the body. toilet training is also part of it

3: The phallic stage Childs are extremely curious even through their curiosity outstrips their ability to understand sexual matters intellectually. it has two types: a: Electra complex b: Oedipus complex

4: The latency stage This stage is expanded to twelve –thirteen years. The sexual calm during which all sexual things are inhibited or even repressed. 5: The genital stage This periods starts at about age 12 and carries the person through adolescence and onward.

DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY Life instincts and the death instinct These instincts perpetuate (a) the life of the individual, by motivating him or her to seek food and water, and (b) the life of the species, by motivating him or her to have sex. The motivational energy of these life instincts, the "oomph" that powers our psyches, he called libido, from the Latin word for "I desire. "

Types of anxiety 1: Realistic anxiety: It is a type of anxiety that is being experienced by the normal human beings in different situation. 2: Moral anxiety: This is what we feel when the threat comes not from the outer, physical world, but from the internalized social world of the superego. It is in fact, just another word for feelings like shame and guilt and the fear of punishment. 3: Neurotic anxiety: This is the fear of being overwhelmed by impulses from the id.

Defense mechanism • the ego deals with the demands of reality, the id, and the superego as best as it can. But when the anxiety becomes overwhelming, the ego must defend itself. It does so by unconsciously blocking the impulses or distorting them into a more acceptable, less threatening form. The techniques are called the ego defense mechanisms

• Denial involves blocking external events from awareness. If some situation is just too much to handle, the person just refuses to experience it • Repression, which Anna Freud also called "motivated forgetting, " is just that: not being able to recall a threatening situation, person, or event. This, too, is dangerous, and is a part of most other defenses. • Isolation (sometimes called intellectualization) involves stripping the emotion from a difficult memory or threatening impulse.

• Turning against the self is a very special form of displacement, where the person becomes their own substitute target. • Projection, which Anna Freud also called displacement outward, is almost the complete opposite of turning against the self. • Reaction formation, which Anna Freud called "believing the opposite, " is changing an unacceptable impulse into its opposite.

• Undoing involves "magical" gestures or rituals that are meant to cancel out unpleasant thoughts or feelings after they've already occurred. • Introjections, sometimes called identification, involves taking into your own personality characteristics of someone else, because doing so solves some emotional difficulty. • Regression is a movement back in psychological time when one is faced with stress. When we are troubled or frightened, our behaviors often become more childish or primitive.

Adler's theory • One of Sigmund Freud's earlier associates, Alfred Adler, did agree with Freud that early childhood experiences are important to development, and believed birth order may influence personality development. • Adler believed the oldest was the one that set high goals to achieve to get the attention they lost back when the younger siblings were born. He believed the middle children were competitive and ambitious possibly so they are able to surpass the first-born's achievements, but were not as much concerned about the glory. • He also believed the last born would be more dependent and sociable but be the baby. He also believed that the only child loves being the center of attention and matures quickly, but in the end fails to become independent.

Kohut’s theory • Heinz Kohut thought similarly to Freud's idea of transference. He used narcissism as a model of how we develop our sense of self. Narcissism is the exaggerated sense of one self in which one is believed to exist in order to protect one's low self esteem and sense of worthlessness. • Kohut had a significant impact on the field by extending Freud's theory of narcissism and introducing what he called the 'self-object transferences' of mirroring and idealization. In other words, children need to idealize and emotionally "sink into" and identify with the idealized competence of admired figures such as parents or older siblings. • They also need to have their self-worth mirrored by these people. These experiences allow them to thereby learn the self-soothing and other skills that are necessary for the development of a healthy sense of self.

Humanistic theories • Maslow theory Maslow spent much of his time studying what he called "self-actualizing persons", those who are "fulfilling themselves and doing the best they are capable of doing“. • Maslow believes all who are interested in growth move towards self-actualizing (growth, happiness, satisfaction) views. Many of these people demonstrate a trend in dimensions of their personalities. Characteristics of selfactualizers according to Maslow include the four key dimensions:

Hierarchy of maslow’s model

Client Centered approach This approach developed by Carl Rogers. According to him: 1: Each’s person world is the major determinant of his or her behavior and serves to make that person unique. 2: People have the capacity to be aware of their own behavior and what motivates them indeed greater awareness.

3: People are innately good and exceptive and disturbed only when faulty learning or traumatic experiences disrupt normal development. 4: People are able to achieve control over their lives and their destinies. 5: Psychologically healthy people are purposeful and goal directed He is also known for giving the concept of “self actualization” & “six core conditions”

Traits theories • Lewis Goldberg proposed a five-dimension personality model, nicknamed the "Big Five" • Openness to Experience: the tendency to be imaginative, independent, and interested in variety vs. practical, conforming, and interested in routine. • Conscientiousness: the tendency to be organized, careful, and disciplined vs. disorganized, careless, and impulsive. • Extraversion: the tendency to be sociable, fun-loving, and affectionate vs. retiring, somber, and reserved. • Agreeableness: the tendency to be softhearted, trusting, and helpful vs. ruthless, suspicious, and uncooperative. • Neuroticism: the tendency to be calm, secure, and self-satisfied vs. anxious, insecure, and self-pitying.