PERSONALITY

Ordinary conversation personality means external appearance

In philosophy personality means the self In psychology personality means neither

external appearance nor the self only, but it includes both and much more.

The word personality derived from the Latin word persona means mask, used by the actors to change their appearance, but in roman period it was taken to mean the actor

Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.

G.W.Allport

Definition of personality

An analysis of the above definition shows that

1.personality is dynamic 2.personality is an organized set 3.personality includes physical ,mental and

emotional traits. 4.personality is unique 5.personality is adjustment to one’s

environment.

An inherited or innate psycho-physical disposition which determines its possessor to perceive or to pay attention to objects of certain class, to experience an emotional excitement of a particular quality and to act in regard to it in a particular manner or atleast to experience an impulse to such an action.

Role of instincts

Escape Fight Repulsion Curiosity Parental instinct Construction Acquisition Gregariousness Sex Self assertion , appeal Self abasement , food seeking ,laughter

Instinctive behaviour is innate It is only a tendency to act Instincts are universal All instinctive activities are directed to the

well being of the individual Instinctive activity is not purely mechanical,

intelligence is also involved in it. Instincts are subject to modification

Characteristics of instincts

Instinct provide the driving force for action If instinct is left by itself it might lead to

undesirable behaviour So some sort of control is necessary Aim of education is to modify them and

direct them into healthy channels so that they may lead to socially desirable form of behaviour.

The development of character and personality depends on sublimation of instincts

Modification of instincts

A term frequently used as a synonym of personality

It said that personality is intelligence plus character

john Adam writes character is the moral estimate of the individual, an evaluation.

character

Like intelligence and physique, may be said to designate a certain class of raw material from which personality is fashioned.

Temperament is the affective nature of an individual

temperament

Are different dimensions of personality or its qualities

Woods worth says, a trait is some particular quality of behaviour which characterizes the individual in a wide range of his activities ,and which is fairly consistent over a period of time.

Personality traits

All personality traits will have influence on the behaviour patterns of an individual.

But the behaviour of each individual is mainly influenced by one or more strong and in-depth specific trait or a set of traits. The influence of such trait will be reflected in all behaviors of the individual. they said to be the robust personality trait of that individual

Eg:-a strong philosophical adherence to non violence and sincere social commitment were the robust traits of Gandhiji’s personality

Robust traits

Behaviour-integration of traits->personality Different traits acts independently-

>unbalanced behaviour Non integration of personality will allow

different traits act independently, without any co-ordination

The chaos and confusion in this case would result in the creation of the maladjusted person.

ADJUSTMENT AND INTEGRATION