Personality Development

INTRODUCTION
 Personality Development
Introduction
•Definition.
•Personality development is the development of the organized pattern of
behaviors and attitudes that makes a person distinctive.
•Personality development occurs by the ongoing interaction of
temperament, character, and environment.
•Description
•Personality is what makes a person a unique person.
•It is recognizable soon after birth. A child's personality has several
components: temperament, environment, and character. Temperament is
the set of genetically determined traits that determine the child's
approach to the world and how the child learns about the world. There
are no genes that specify personality traits, but some genes do control
the development of the nervous system, which in turn controls behavior.
 Personality Development
Introduction
• A second component of personality comes
from adaptive patterns related to a child's
specific environment. Most psychologists
agree that these two factors—temperament
and environment—influence the development
of a person's personality the most.
Temperament, with its dependence on genetic
factors, is sometimes referred to as "nature,"
while the environmental factors are called.
 Personality Development
Introduction
• While there is still controversy as to which factor ranks higher in
affecting personality development, all experts agree that high-
quality parenting plays a critical role in the development of a
child's personality. When parents understand how their child
responds to certain situations, they can anticipate issues that
might be problematic for their child. They can prepare the child
for the situation or in some cases they may avoid a potentially
difficult situation altogether.
• Parents who know how to adapt their parenting approach to
the particular temperament of their child can best provide
guidance and ensure the successful development of their child's
personality.
 Personality Development
Introduction
• Finally, the third component of personality is
character—the set of emotional, cognitive, and
behavioral patterns learned from experience that
determines how a person thinks, feels, and
behaves.
• A person's character continues to evolve
throughout life, although much depends on inborn
traits and early experiences. Character is also
dependent on a person's moral development.
 Personality Development
Introduction
•The stages significantly influence personality development, with five of them occurring
during INFANCY, CHILDHOOD, AND ADOLESCENCE.
•Infancy
•During the first two years of life, an infant goes through the first stage: Learning Basic
Trust or Mistrust (Hope).
•Well-nurtured and loved, the infant develops trust and security and a basic optimism.
Badly handled, the infant becomes insecure and learns "basic mistrust."
•Toddlerhood
•The second stage occurs during early childhood, between about 18 months to two
years and three to four years of age. It deals with Learning Autonomy or Shame (Will).
•Well-parented, the child emerges from this stage with self-confidence, elated with his
or her newly found control. The early part of this stage can also include stormy
tantrums, stubbornness, and negativism, depending on the child's temperament.
 Personality Development
Introduction
• Preschool
• The third stage occurs during the "play age," or the later
preschool years from about three to entry into formal school.
• The developing child goes through Learning Initiative or Guilt
(Purpose).
• The child learns to use imagination; to broaden skills through
active play and fantasy; to cooperate with others; and to lead
as well as to follow. If unsuccessful, the child becomes fearful,
is unable to join groups, and harbors guilty feelings.
• The child depends excessively on adults and is restricted both
in the development of play skills and in imagination.
 Personality Development
• School Age
• The fourth stage, Learning Industry or Inferiority (Competence), occurs during
school age, up to and possibly including junior high school.
• The child learns to master more formal skills:
• relating with peers according to rules
• progressing from free play to play that is structured by rules and requires
teamwork (team sports)
• learning basic intellectual skills (reading, arithmetic)
• At this stage, the need for self-discipline increases every year. The child who,
because of his or her successful passage through earlier stages, is trusting,
autonomous, and full of initiative, will quickly learn to be industrious. However,
the mistrusting child will doubt the future and will feel inferior.
 Personality Development
• Adolescence
• The fifth stage, Learning Identity or Identity Diffusion (Fidelity), occurs
during adolescence from age 13 or 14. Maturity starts developing
during this time; the young person acquires self-certainty as opposed to
self-doubt and experiments with different constructive roles rather than
adopting a negative identity, such as delinquency.
• The well-adjusted adolescent actually looks forward to achievement,
and, in later adolescence, clear sexual identity is established. The
adolescent seeks leadership (someone to inspire him or her), and
gradually develops a set of ideals to live by.
 Personality Development
• Some hereditary factors that contribute to personality development do so as a result of
interactions with the particular social environment in which people live.  For instance,
your genetically inherited physical and mental capabilities have an impact on how others
see you and, subsequently, how you see yourself.  If you have poor motor skills that
prevent you from throwing a ball straight and if you regularly get bad grades in school,
you will very likely be labeled by your teachers, friends, and relatives as someone who is
inadequate or a failure to some degree.  This can become a self-fulfilling prophesy as you
increasingly perceive yourself in this way and become more pessimistic about your
capabilities and your future. 
• Likewise, your health and physical appearance are likely to be very important in your
personality development.  You may be frail or robust.  You may have a learning disability. 
You may be slender in a culture that considers obesity attractive or vice versa.  These
largely hereditary factors are likely to cause you to feel that you are nice-looking, ugly, or
just adequate.  Likewise, skin color, gender, and sexual orientation are likely to have a
major impact on how you perceive yourself.  Whether you are accepted by others as being
normal or abnormal can lead you to think and act in a socially acceptable or marginal and
even deviant way.
 Personality Development
• There are many potential environmental influences that help to shape
personality.  Child rearing practices are especially critical.  In the dominant
culture of North America, children are usually raised in ways that
encourage them to become self-reliant and independent.  Children are
often allowed to act somewhat like equals to their parents.  For instance,
they are included in making decisions about what type of food and
entertainment the family will have on a night out. 
• Children are given allowances and small jobs around the house to teach
them how to be responsible for themselves.  In contrast, children in China
are usually encouraged to think and act as a member of their family and to
suppress their own wishes when they are in conflict with the needs of the
family.  Independence and self-reliance are viewed as an indication of
family failure and are discouraged.  It is not surprising that Chinese children
traditionally have not been allowed to act as equals to their parents.
 Personality Development
• Despite significant differences in child rearing practices around the
world, there are some similarities.  Boys and girls are socialized
differently to some extent in all societies.  They receive different
messages from their parents and other adults as to what is
appropriate for them to do in life.  They are encouraged to prepare
for their future in jobs fitting their gender.  Boys are more often
allowed freedom to experiment and to participate in physically
risky activities.  Girls are encouraged to learn how to do domestic
tasks and to participate in child rearing by baby-sitting.  If children
do not follow these traditional paths, they are often labeled as
marginal or even deviant.  Girls may be called "tomboys" and boys
may be ridiculed for not being sufficiently masculine.
 Personality Development
• There are always unique situations and interpersonal events that help to
shape our personalities.  Such things as having alcoholic parents, being
seriously injured in a car accident, or being raped can leave mental scars
that make us fearful and less trusting.  If you are an only child, you don't
have to learn how to compromise as much as children who have several
siblings.  Chance meetings and actions may have a major impact on the
rest of our lives and affect our personalities.  For instance, being accepted
for admission to a prestigious university or being in the right place at the
right time to meet the person who will become your spouse or life partner
can significantly alter the course of the rest of your life. 
• Similarly, being drafted into the military during wartime, learning that you
were adopted, or personally witnessing a tragic event, such as the
destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York, can change your
basic perspective.
 Personality Development
• We often share personality traits with others, especially members of
our own family and community.  This is probably due largely to being
socialized in much the same way. 
• It is normal for us to acquire personality traits as a result of
enculturation.  Most people adopt the traditions, rules, manners, and
biases of their culture.  Given this fact, it is not surprising that some
researchers have claimed that there are common national personality
types, especially in the more culturally homogenous societies. 
• During the 1940's, a number of leading anthropologists and
psychologists argued that there are distinct Japanese and German
personalities that led these two nations to view other countries as
trying to destroy them.
 Personality Development
•Subconscious Programming :Most of us sometimes get programmed / conditioned by a wrong
messages that “ do not do that”, “don’t take the risk”, “you can not do that” you are not good in …
and so on…..
You can imagine the bad effect such message can have on any person. Our Conscious Mind is like a
watch man. And the Subconscious Mind is a store of all the previously programmed or conditioned
information / knowledge/ believes. Now programming personality means putting positive believes/
information into the store with out the knowledge of the watchman (conscious mind). Suppose you
tell yourself that “you are good at Public Speaking”. And the store has stored based on peoples
comments and experience that “you are poor in communication” “you can not speak well in public”,
“you don’t have an impressive body language” …..
•The watch man sees your sentence and compares it with the knowledge in its store and says “this
information is wrong”. The watchman throws the new information away. He does not allow the new
positive information into the store. This is the fundamental difficulty in changing personality &
behavior of a person.
 Positive
Personality Development
• High self-esteem leads to a happy, gratifying and powerful life. Unless you perceive
yourself as worthwhile, you can not have high self esteem. All great world leaders and
teachers throughout history have concluded that one must be internally driven in
order to be success.

•
People with high self-esteem grow in conviction, competence and willingness to
accept responsibility. They face life with optimism, have better relationships and are
more sensitive, motivated, and ambitious. They are open to new opportunities and
challenges. They can give and receive criticism and compliments tactfully and with
ease.
•
Self-esteem is a feeling which comes from an awareness of what is good and having
done it.
 Positive
Personality Development
• Advantages of high Self-esteem :
• Build strong conviction.
• Creates willingness to accept responsibility.
• Builds optimistic attitude.
• Leads to better relationship and fulfilling lives.
• Makes a person more sensitive to other’s need and develop a caring
attitude.
• Makes a person self-motivated and ambitious.
• Makes a person open to new opportunities and challenges.
• Improve performance and increase risk taking ability.
• Helps a person give and receive both criticism and complements
tactfully and easily.