DETERMINANTS OF

PERSONALITY
Determinants of
Personality

IV. Group Experience

I. Biological a.Socialization
make-up b.Peer group
II. Physical c.The “generalized other”
Environment d. The “significant other”
III. Culture V. Unique Experience
BIOLOGICAL
MAKE-UP

SHELDON’S
BODY TYPES
Is there an association between
your body type and your
personality?
 SHELDON’S SOMATOTYPE THEORY

The first
comprehensive
system of
constitutional
psychology was
proposed by
American
psychologist
William H. Sheldon
(1943).
He believed that your body type can
be linked to your personality.

Based on his observations and

interviews of hundreds of people, he
proposed three body/personality
types, which he called somatotypes.
The Three Somatotypes: Endomorph, Mesomorph and Ectomorph
 Ectomorph
Ectomorphs are thin with a small bone
structure and very little fat on their
bodies.

The ectomorph personality is:

1. anxious
2. self-conscious
3. artistic
4. thoughtful
5. quiet
6. private.
They enjoy intellectual stimulation and
feel uncomfortable in social situations.
Endomorph

They are the opposite

of ectomorphs. They
have narrow shoulders
and wide hips, and
carry e

They have extra fat on

their round bodies.
Endomorph

They are described as being:

1. relaxed
2. comfortable
3. good-humored
4. even-tempered
5. Sociable
6. tolerant.
Mesomorph

Mesomorphs have
large bone
structure, well-
defined muscles,
broad shoulders,
narrow waists, and
attractive, strong
bodies.
According to Sheldon, mesomorphs
are:
1. adventurous
2. assertive
3. competitive
4. fearless
5. curious and enjoy trying new
things
6. obnoxious
7. aggressive.
PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT

Man comes to form ideas and

attitudes according to the physical
environment he lives in.
• Montesquieu, in the eighteenth
century, claimed that the bravery
of those blessed by a cold climate
enables them to maintain their
liberties. Great heat enervates
courage while cold causes a
certain vigour of body and mind.
• Even though, climate and
topography determine to a
great extent the physical and
mental traits of a people, it
cannot be said that they alone
determine human behavior.
CULTURE

Melfred E. Spiro has observed,

‘The development of
personality and the acquisition
of culture are not different
processes, but one and the
same learning process.
According to Lawrence Frank,
‘culture is a coercive influence
dominating the individual and
moulding his personality by virtue of
the ideas, conceptions and beliefs
which had brought to bear on him
through communal life.”
• In the earlier period when farming
was the principal business,
women generally had no
occupations outside the home,
and naturally, therefore, they
were economically dependent
upon their fathers or husbands.
Obedience was a natural
consequence of such conditions.
Hindu culture -The Hindu
child from the very birth
begins to acquire a
religious and philosophical
personality built on the
“inner life.”
It should not be concluded that culture is
a massive die that shapes all who come
under it with an identical pattern. All the
people of a given culture are not of one
cast. Personality traits differ within any
culture, some people in any culture are
more aggressive than others, some are
more submissive, kind and competitive.
GROUP EXPERIENCE

Personality is also
determined by another
factor the particular and
unique experiences. There
are two types of
experiences one those that
stem from continuous
association with one's
group, second those that
arise suddenly and are not
likely to recur.
 a. Socialization

One of the most

important sociological
approaches to the self
was developed by
American sociologist
George Herbert Mead.
Mead conceptualizes
the mind as the
individual importation
of the social process.
George Herbert Mead
I and Me
 b. Peer group – Group Socialization Theory –
(Harris, J. 1995)

1. Children learn separately how to behave at

home and how to behave outside the home.
2. As children get older, the outside-the-home
behavioral system takes precedence over the
inside-the-home system and eventually
becomes part of the adult personality.
 c. The “generalized
other”

From Mead’s point of view, she had no

“self.” Without others, or without society,
the self cannot exist: “[I]t is impossible to
conceive of a self arising outside of social
experience” (Mead, 1934).
c. Significant other

• An individual who is or has been

deeply influential in one’s life, and
in whom one is or once was
emotional invested, including
members of one’s family-of-origin
and people outside family
relations.
 UNIQUE
EXPERIENCE
a. If the parents are kind, tolerant of boyish pranks,
interested in athletics and anxious to encourage
their child’s separate interests, the child will have
a different experience and there shall be different
influence on his personality
b. The homewill largely characterize the individual
throughout his life.
c. Sometimes a sudden experience
leaves an abiding influence upon the
personality of an individual. Thus a
small child may get frightened at the
view of a bloody accident, and even
after the accident he may be
obsessed of the horror of fear.
d. a child who is robust, outgoing,
athletic would find his parents in the
first case a model for behaviour, a
model that would deepen the
already apparent personality traits.
But if the child is shy, retiring and
bookish he may find such parents’
personality distasteful and intensify
the opposed personality trends
already apparent.
References:
Dodds, A. E., Lawrence, J., & Valsiner, J.
(1997). The Personal and the Social:
Mead's Theory of the "Generalized
Other". Research Gate.

Harris, J. (1995). Where Is the Child's

Environment? A Group Socialization.
American Psychological Association,
Inc. - Psychological Review.

Manichander, T. (2016). Psychology of

the Learner. India: Laxmi Book
Publication.