The term
personality has been derived from the Latin word “persona”, which means the mask that actors wore on the stage to define each role.
A personality consists of the sum total of all the tendencies that a
Person has either inherited or acquired. In other words, an individual’s personality develops by gaining experience, or by the process of growth. It is used to distinguish a member of a group from other members of that group. The study of human personality (and personality development) falls in the province of psychology, and has been the subject of intense research by noted psychologists such as Freud, Jung and Maslow.
The human personality is the end result of various factors, some of which are natural and others developed. Herdity, without doubt, is the most important factor. The genes that carry our physical and physiological attributes may also carry our mental traits. These traits are inherent in us. An individual’s beliefs and
values also contribute to his personality. These values are
acquired by an individual as he
grows up. And the extent to which an individual practices his professed values determines their influence on his personality. A person’s interests, whether they are cultivated or shaped by the external environment, also shapes the personality.
A person’s
feelings are an intagible factor – and they are the most difficult to comprehend. Because they do not follow any logical pattern. At most, we can learn to recognize our own feelings, and to accept that other people have feelings of their own.
Our imagination is another unknown factor. We are familiar with the term “flights of the imagination”, but we cannot say how and why they come about.
Our personality determines how we relate to other people. Of course, how a person reacts to a given situation (the environment) also moulds his personality to a certain extent. A person’s
experiences are important because they help to change his pre-conceived notions, and shape his charachter. These experiences may be his own, or the experiences of others upon whom he has an implicit trust.
And it cannot be denied (whether we like it or not) that a person’s physical attributes such as height and skin colour also determine how we regard ourselves.
Each human is unique, each individual has his own personality. And as a person grows, his personality grows along with him. The human personality is a collage of various instincts and impulses, some learned and others acquired. More than anything else, it is the interplay of these various influences, some conscious and others unconscious, that gives the final shape to our personality. That is why human personality is both complex and unpredictable.
A related concept is that of conscience. A person’s conscience is an attitude, a way of looking at things. It is our sense of right and wrong. The strength of our conscience depends on the strength of our values and experiences, and the lessons we draw from them.
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