What is the definition and concept of Personality.
Definition and concept of personality.
A common understanding is to define people’s personality in terms of how they appear to people around them. Impressive people, both from the point of view of their looks and from their ability to impress others are considered to have a good personality, otherwise a poor personality. Being attractive or unattractive to others is not what personality is all about.
This approach to personality is criticized by scientists as:
- It does not have room for various types of behaviours important for the study of personality, and
- It has no scope for people with unique abilities and qualities.
Individuality and consistency of behaviour define that there is difference in the thoughts, actions and feelings of people in different or same situations. We are identified in the special and unique way in which each of us behaves. According to Kluckhohn and Murray, in certain respects we are like all other persons, in someways like some other persons and in some ways unlike any other person existing in the past, present or future.
Consistency is an important to define personality. A person has his own way of reacting to certain situations and that reaction is the same always. It does not change drastically over time, but the responses of a person to the world, its situations, remains somewhat same. A person’s personality determines his responses.
Personality, thus, can be defined as the distinctive and unique ways in which each individual thinks, acts and feels, which characterize a person’s response throughout life. It can be said that personality refers to the permanent qualities or features in the person which influence his consistent behaviour. These may be qualities common to a group or may be unique to the individual, but the pattern would differ from person to person.
Thoughts, feelings and actions determining personality have three features:
- To differentiate between individuals, thoughts, feelings and actions are considered as behavioural components.
- Internal factors are more responsible in influencing a person’s behaviour than environmental factors.
- There is a certain degree of organization and pattern in a person’s behaviour.
We can fit together the behaviors of a person and locate a pattern in it. All port’s definition of personality as. The dynamic organization within the person of the psycho physical systems that determine the unique adjustments to one’s environment is in keeping with the fact that people’s behavioral structure and pattern tends to change over time, meaning it is not fixed but dynamic. There is an internal personality of people that determines the way they behave.
