Concept of Personality

An Overview
 The term personality is derived from the Latin
word “persona” which means the masks that are
used by the Roman actors on the stage.

 It is the sum of individual's psychological and

behavioural characteristics that make them
unique from others.
Thus it has both physical and psychological
components. For a layperson, personality
generally is the physical or external appearance of
the individual. For example, when we find
someone ‘good-looking’, we also assume that the
person will have a charming personality. But this
notion is based on superficial notion which may
be incorrect.

 Personality is adaptive to situations. It is dynamic in the sense that change may

happen due to internal or external situational demands. However, its main
features do not change with situations.
 Thus personality can be defined as the unique
and stable qualities that characterise an
individual's behaviour across different situations
over a period of time.

 People always show variations in personality.

 Personality characterises individual’s as they

appear in most circumstances. Consistency in
behaviour, thought and emotion of an individual
across situations and time periods characterises
his/her personality. For example : an honest
person is likely to remain honest in most of the
situation. However, situational variations in
behaviour do occur as they help individuals in
adapting to their environmental characteristics.
 An understanding of personality allows us to deal with people in realistic and
acceptable ways.
Lets understand this by the help of small case studies over here : -

If you find a child who does not like orders, the most effective way to deal with
that child is not to give away orders but to present a self acceptable
alternatives from which the child may choose. Similarly, a child who has
feelings of inferiority needs to be treated differently from a child who is self-
confident. [ NCERT PG 29]

To be continued with the next portion