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It can be very difficult to define the personality. It is not the kind of topic that you put in a nut-shell. Perhaps the complexities run parallel to the fact that personality has been used interchangeably with behavior. Behavior is also another concept that does not seem to find a perfect harmony of thought because of overlapping similarities in the nature and features of other philosophical and psychological principles. However, many great minds have tried to churn their vast ocean of thoughts to get some analysis about personality. Human mind works in mysterious ways. Seamless observations and studies to understand the mechanism of mind have also turned up with nothing. The science and philosophy meet at the crossroads when the subject of personality turns up. Various philosophers like Freud, Carl Jung, Karen Horney, etc. shared their views with the world. Scholars had tried to understand and agree with the few of them and disagreed with a few. These debates are running since a very long time. Amidst these quandaries, let’s try and answer a few fundamental questions about the personality. This paper is written to find a common ground among the different theories written about personality in pursuit to answer the fundamental question about personality.
How does personality develop?
The question of how personality develops is probably as old as the question of man’s origin. Several theories were developed in the hope to provide some clarification on the matter. With all that has been written, two opposing sides were created—the naturalist and environmentalist. Popularly, this is called the nature vs. nurture debate. The two sides tried to resolve the question on personality by presenting each other’s argument on the light of how the other has framed their explanation.
For example, the naturalist argues that the personality is innate. In fact, they believe that people are born with a set of traits that distinctly identifies an individual which is also used to determine what makes up a person’s entire personality. These traits are hereditary according to them. The combination of the mother and the father’s chromosomes leads to the development of distinct personalities. Advocates of this belief argue that the reason children are a reflection of their parents because they acquire a fraction of their personalities from the moment of conception until birth.
On the other hand, environmentalist argues that personalities are developed, and genes had nothing to do with an individual’s personality. In fact, according to these people children are born with no previous knowledge or recollection. Therefore, he will begin to learn things based on how there are presented to them. John Locke probably said it best when he said that a child’s mind is a tabula rasa or a clean slate. However, in the process of growing up, a child began to learn things and these things are imprinted within the mind of the child.
Naturalist’s Point of View
According to the ancient texts, the personality of a human being is decided at the time of the conception of the womb. In the process of conception when sperm meets the ova, the psychological status of the mother decides the personality of the coming child. It depends on various emotions of the mother at the time of the conception. If it is happy, sad, feared, depressed, anxious, stressed, etc. based on these moods, the child will have similar personalities. We can find many such examples in various cultures. The idea is that the personality of a man is decided way before his birth. Another interesting fact about this theory is that there are two kinds of personality embedded in the womb, one is a permanent one which cannot change and another is the temporary which can change over a period of development.
This theory resembles the theory of Freud. He mentioned stages of the development of the personality based on psychosexual manner. As per few other philosophies, the stages are based on the psycho-somatic manner. Apart from the mother’s emotions, there are many other factors influencing the personality of the child. A few of them are the environmental factors, genetic factors of both the parents, and the biological factors. There are a few characteristics of personality that run in the family. Short temperateness, laziness, aggressiveness, etc. are a few personalities that a child inherits from its parents. There is a high probability that the child is born completely different from its parents. The personality of the individual is unique, and it improvises with the experiences and psychological status of a person. Factors like age, sex, hormones, genes and diseases also affect the personality of an individual.
The above theory can answer a few more fundamental questions given below:
1. Does genetic mechanism have any impact on personality?
2. Do biological factors have an influence on personality?
The answer is yes, and we can elaborate it furthermore. However, how and what genetic or biological factors exactly interferes with the personality is a whole different science altogether. There are cases where a child turns out to be a replica of its father. The physique, language, speaking style, behavior, thought process, etc. are replica of the father. These phenomena can be a result of the direct descent of the father’s genetic materials to the child. Biological factors also have wide scale influence on personality. Factors like mood swings in women are entirely a bio-chemical phenomenon. During the pregnancy, the cravings of the mother to eat specific food and sudden personality changes are also biological processes that contribute in defying the personality changes. Likewise, abundant illustrations can be given to prove the influence of biological and genetic factors on personality.
If one were to try and evaluate the naturalist’s perspective, then one could come to the realization that this theory only believes that heredity plays a very crucial role is not the only thing necessary, in the development of personality. Among the ardent followers and advocates, o this school of thought is Konrad Lorenz. His contention was simple; certain mannerisms of parents are acquired by the child even at the absence of parental exposure because Lorenz argue that this mannerism had been imprinted into the child’s DNA. Thus, if a family has a history of mental illnesses, it would be best to submit their kids to a newborn screening to determine is there is a possibility that the child would develop such personality.
An Environmentalist’s Perspective on Personality
There are various factors that change a person’s personality. One of them is an experience. Throughout the journey of life, a person encounters various endeavors, and it changes a man from the root. When a boy transforms and becomes a man, his personality takes a new shape. A few examples are a girl becoming a woman; a person experiencing the death of someone close to the heart, a soldier facing the death in the war, a couple getting its first baby, all these experiences contribute a massive change in individual’s personality. It changes the way people see things.
Now, let’s see the process of recognizing our own personality. The quest to be self-aware begins at the question, ‘Who am I?’ when a man gets this question in his mind, his introspection with inner conscious begins. Every activity, every decision, every emotion gives him some hints and leads him towards the answer. This process of self-awareness is the only way to find one’s own personality. It doesn’t matter what society or the community thinks of that personality. The only thing that has meaning and value is what one’s personal perception of himself and what one believes about one’ self. Man’s mind cannot process two tasks at one time; it can process only one thought at time. Its correlation is with the following example. When the needle pierces through a thousand leaves, it passes through each leaf on at a time, even though it looks like it penetrates all at once. This is the process of how man’s mind works. So, how fast man configures his mind and brings his body and senses on the same level is the most important thing.
Knowing of one’s limitations is also crucial. When one gets overconfident about himself and his abilities, he starts to lose all the control of his senses. He faces massive break-down at some point of his life from which he cannot recover. One should be always careful regarding this aspect. Falling in true love and surrendering one’s self to someone other than one’s self is another way to meet their true self. A person, who is infatuated with someone, comes closer to his inner self and becomes aware. The divinity in love creates this huge arena of positive energy that makes all the perception of the outer world very clear. In love, you understand that the temporary materialistic happiness is worth nothing. The true happiness and solace is in the company of the loved ones. One rediscovers one’s true self in love. That is the power of divine love. All one needs to do to recognize one’s self is to fall in love. In love, a person can achieve unimaginably. The force and the energy are enormous in love. It feels as if one is not from this world at all. Man tends to live in a matrix of misconception and delusion. The things around him like media, wars, politics, economics, etc. also keep us in fear. When individuals discover their personality, they come out of the delusion and perceive what is real.
Trying to harmonize the two theories together
The only way to improvise is to observe. Only by perfect sense of observation and exclamation one can develop one’s self. Anything that one see or feel one should never react to it; rather becoming exclaimed about everything is the way to handle the reality. All other emotions can give a negative image on one’s personality, but being amazed gives man strength and zeal. Following your passion in life is another way to develop our personality. Doing things that we don’t like all our life can be damaging to the inner self. Finding some lone time to follow the passions, the things that you want to do can be very helpful to retain you personality to its optimum. The goal should always be to inculcate more positive attributes in the development of the personality. The environment around us should be positive. The company of good people, healthy lifestyle and habits can help build a strong personality.
Conclusion
Overall, it can be that the personality that takes birth with or one simply develops over a period can always be changed and improvised. Man should be in the pursuit of finding his true self and following the heart can flourish your personality. Being in love is the greatest state of the mind and soul. Every school of thought and philosophy has its own ups and downs. Truth and false, reality and delusion are always relational. One man’s reality is other’s delusion. So, it doesn’t matter what the other's perception think about another or another person’s personality. Instead, it is what one thinks about one’s self is the only thing that matters. There are people with intimidating personalities; they have a certain aura in them that dominates over the people around them, and they achieve tremendous success in their life. It takes a great effort to develop a personality like that. There are other methods as meditation, breathing techniques and yoga which can help reaching out to the inner core of the body. Practice of the above way of living can give a jump start to personality development.
References
Engler, B. (2009). Personality Theories. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Richards S. & Bergin A. (2005) A theistic, spiritual view of personality and mental health. 2nd ed. In S. Richards & A. Bergin (Eds.), A spiritual strategy in counseling and psychotherapy. p. 75 - 112. Washington, D.C.: APA Books.
Slife, B.D., Mitchell, L.J., & Whoolery, M. (2004). A theistic approach to therapeutic community: Non-naturalism and the Alldredge Academy. In S. Richards & A. Bergin (Eds.), Casebook for a spiritual strategy in counseling and psychotherapy. p. 35 - 54. Washington, D.C.: APA Books.
