Personality and its development

Definition As the characteristics and ways of behaving that determine a person’s adjustment to the environment. The fact that a man eats, sleeps and works does not define his personality, his personality is defined by what he eats, how he sleeps and how his work patterns.

The description of individual personality by the following factors: Appearance. Abilities. Motives. emotional activity. And the residues from previous experiences. Personality refers specifically to the given individual as differs from other individual.

The shaping of personality These are the factors lines of personality formation: Heredity. Maturation. Training in infancy through learning. Ways of perceiving.

The theories of personality One of the personality test called “ Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventor” (MMPI) studied 34 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) twins and 34 pairs of Dizygotic (DZ) twins of the same sex, all of high school age, he found that greater similarity between MZ pairs which indicate a greater similarity between MZ twins.

Theories of personality : 1. Type theory Sheldon system classify individual according to 3 components: The endomorphic characterized by prominence of intestines and other visceral organs (obese individual). Mesomorphic- refer to bone and muscle having wide shoulders, narrow hips.

Ectomorphic having delicate skin, fine hair, and sensitive nervous system. These are the relation between body type and the characteristic of personality. The process of growing up include learning to behave in ways expected by out society. Some roles are our own choosing but are also patterned by culture, occupation is an example.

One example of type theory study done by Exsenck’s two dimensional theory the terms Extraversion and Introversion. Ch. of introvert: tend to be withdrawn, shy, working alone. Ch. of extravert: very sociable, tend to work with people not alone, well dressed, outgoing.

Occupation may develop special attitudes and speech forms as well as special type of dress. - The suggestion has been made that each culture develops a characteristic personality structure, one culture may be more aggressive or passive than other.

2. Trait Theory Cattell makes distinction between surface traits and source traits. Surface Traits: call that because their similarity lies on the surface (that is it is evident in raw rating) without requiring transformation or interference. Examples of surface traits honest vs Dishonest, Sociable vs Shy. Source Traits: are found by factor analysis amore complicated technique. Examples of source traits Trustful vs Suspicious, optimistic vs Pessimistic.

3. Psychoanalytic theory concern with course of development from earliest childhood, it begin from earliest childhood a shaping process goes on that results in a complete personality structure and mature individual and identity achieved it passes through psychosexual stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, genital).

4. Social Behavioral Theory (Social Learning Theory) It include classical and operate conditioning, modeling, cognitive learning. Multiple Personality: In this term several personalities exist at once in the same person, so that the individual at some times behave in accordance with one integrated behaviour pattern, at other times in accordance with another.

self-esteem: The original self-esteem in early childhood have been studied, they found that parents who set firm limit for the child’s behaviour but did so in an atmosphere of warmth concern and respect raised children who at the ages of 10-12 years were high in their self-esteem that is they are self confident, optimistic, assertive and free of anxiety. Low self esteem related to many types of behaviour and reaction to failure.

Assessment of Personality The formal personality assessment are: Educational settings. Clinical settings – to relive suffering. Business and industry- in which any problem may arise. Legal setting- concern with the prisoner. Research setting- concern with improve the processes.

Personality assessment scales Rating scales: A variety is a device by which a rater can record his judgment of another person according to the traits defined by the scale. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Cattel’s 16 Personality Factor (PF) questionnaire. Eysenck Personality Inventory. Thermatic Apperception Test. Rorschach Inkblot Test.