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DEFINITION AND FACTORS THAT DETERMINED PERSONALITY


PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Personality is the complex patterns of thought, feeling and behavior that make each individual to be unique. Each person is a unique being. People differ in their approaches to life and ways of responding to the social environment. Some people are quiet – introverted, some are loud – extroverted, while others are sociable, aggressive, ambitious or assertive.

Personality has been defined in various ways. It is a person’s fairly consistent pattern of thinking and acting. It is a pattern of stable states and features of a person that influences his / her behavior (towards goal achievement).
Further, it is the distinctive combination of the psychological features employed to describe a person. It is the dynamic organization within an individual of those psychological systems that determines hid unique adjustment to his environment.
Lastly, it is the “who of an individual” _ this distinctive inner self that uniquely influences an individual’s behavior toward the environment and goal achievement. It is the physical (i.e. biological) and social make – up of an individual. 

Personality involves the following:

FEATURES OF PERSONALITY
Below are some of the features of personality

1.     External appearance and behavior_ weight, height, facial look, humility, joviality etc.

2.     Inner awareness of self as a permanent organizing force_ self_ concept (what an individual thinks of himself)

3.     The specific pattern of measurable inner and outer traits.        
        
FACTORS THAT DETERMINES PERSONALITY
The following three (3) factors determined personality
1.     heredity
2.     Environment
3.     Situation
 
HEREDITY: This refers to trait inherited from the parents through the genes. It is inborn e.g. height, gender, temparent, facial look etc.

ENVIRONMENT: This refers to the surrounding in which a person grows up. It includes social and cultural background, parentage, religious and peer influences, early life experience etc.

SITUATION: This means certain life conditions which exert an important press on an individual. They exercise constraints and might provide push conditions which might make a person who was quiet and passive before to become loud and aggressive: a humble and kind person to become arrogant and stone hearted.

Characteristics of personality
An individual’s personality is characterized by the following:
1.     Physiology:  It is the physique of an individual, his biological reflexes and functioning. E.g. stature, facial looks etc.

2.     Intelligence: It is a measurable trait which is a product of both nature and nurture. It is the ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things.

3.     Fear and anxiety: These are state of the mind which is induced by environmental insecurity and life experience.

4.     Anger: This is yet another state of the mind which is a reaction to certain worries / disturbances in the environment.

TECHNIQUES OF MEASURING PERSONALITY TRAITS

Personality trait can be measured via:
1.     Sensation: The ability to feel through the sense of touch.
2.      Intuition: The ability to know feelings rather than considering the facts.
3.     Thinking and Feeling: Behavioral test or self-assessment.
4.   Action and Reaction: how does one react back to nature occurrence.

*How one relate to others in the society can also be one way of measuring traits.

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