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Meaning, Nature and Characteristics of Personality B.ed Notes
The Latin word persona, which means mask, is where the word personality comes from. the mask that Roman theatre performers wore to change their face makeup. The audience anticipated that the person would play a role in a specific way after donning the mask. However, it did not imply that the person playing the role actually possessed those characteristics.
For the layperson, personality often relates to a person’s physical or outward appearance. For example, we frequently think that someone with good looks also has a lovely demeanour. This idea of personality is based on quick assessments that might not be accurate. When psychologists refer to a person’s personality, they imply a dynamic notion that describes how their entire psychological system grows and develops.
Personality examines an aggregate total that is more than the sum of its parts rather than focusing on an individual’s component pieces. In psychology, personality refers to our distinctive ways of interacting with people and circumstances. People may be classified based on how they react in different circumstances. Characteristics like shyness, sensitivity, quietness, care, warmth, etc. are frequently employed to define personalities. These terms all pertain to various personality traits. In this meaning, personality refers to special, enduring traits that throughout time, in many contexts, characterise an individual’s behaviour.
Definitions of Personality by different Authors
- (Allport, 1930. Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.
- Woodworth defines personality as the quality of an individual’s total behaviour; that is, how he reacts when his activity is considered as a whole. Personality comprises an individual’s experience, his knowledge, skill, temperament, attitude, habits, character, and physical traits.
- According to Carver and Scheier (2000), personality is a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings.
- According to Lundberg and others, “The term personality refers to the habits, attitudes and other social traits that are characteristic of a given individual’s behaviour.”
- “Personality represents those structural and dynamic properties of an individual or individuals as they reflect themselves in characteristic responses to situations.” This is the working definition of personality given by Lawrence A. Pewin.
Characteristics of Personality
- Each person’s personality is distinctive in some way. Both internal and outward characteristics are referred to as personality, some of which are fairly universal. But each person’s experience is different. Any other person will not be able to duplicate or mimic the characteristics of the individual’s personality.
- Every person has unique feelings as well as other enduring characteristics, which are specifically referred to as their personality. The primary components of personality are the enduring or constant traits that manifest in social behaviour and an effort to adapt to the environment.
- Personality stands for an organism’s changing orientation to its environment and the learning process. It occurs in relation to the surroundings. Not all of our personality features are developed at once.
- Social interactions have a significant impact on one’s personality because personality is not an innate trait. It is the outcome of interpersonal contact. In other words, it indicates that when we interact with other people in the community, we develop some traits while displaying others. They all combine to create individuality.
- Personality is a unique organisation of enduring dynamic and social predisposition: varied attributes are not combined in personality. They are, in reality, combined into one. This integration is the outcome of the organisation, which may differ from person to person. A person’s behaviour focused on one specific individual may differ from the behaviour of another person. That is why we specified an appropriate atmosphere. Individual distinctiveness is taken into account in this appropriateness.
