Personality

Development

Prof. Dr. Nasir Sulman

Department of Teacher Education
University of Karachi
What Is Personality?

 The word personality itself stems from the Latin word

persona, which refers to a theatrical mask worn by
performers in order to either project different roles or
disguise their identities.
 At its most basic, personality is the characteristic
patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that
make a person unique. It is believed that personality
arises from within the individual and remains fairly
consistent throughout life.
 Characteristics of Personality
 So what exactly makes up a personality? Traits and patterns of thought
and emotion play important roles as well as the following fundamental
characteristics of personality:
 Consistency: There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behaviors.
Essentially, people act in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situations.
 Psychological and physiological: Personality is a psychological construct, but
research suggests that it is also influenced by biological processes and needs.
 Behaviors and actions: Personality not only influences how we move and respond
in our environment, but it also causes us to act in certain ways.
 Multiple expressions: Personality is displayed in more than just behavior. It can
also be seen in our thoughts, feelings, close relationships, and other social
interactions.
Personality – Top 3 Determinants:
Heredity, Environment and Situation

1. Heredity refers to those factors, which

predisposes to certain physical, mental and
emotional states. It sets the outer parameters of
an individual. It also limits the range of
development of characters. The arrangement and
structure of genes that are located in the
chromosomes is passed around 20% to 50%
from one generation to another.
Personality – Top 3 Determinants:
Heredity, Environment and Situation
2. Environment refers to the surroundings in which the individuals are brought
up. The environmental factors relating to the formation of personality includes
culture, family, society upbringing and experiences.
 Experiences relate to the confrontation with that of family members,
relatives, and friends and to the social groups, which they belong. Culture
helps to find the similarity and difference in behavior.
 Environment tends to strengthen or weaken hereditary traits. For example,
when an individual interacts with the environment through speech, his
speech organs guarantee that he/she is learning to speak.
Personality – Top 3 Determinants:
Heredity, Environment and Situation
 Situation has an effect both on environment
and heredity. Situation demands certain
behaviour. Various psychologists have
discovered what personality trait matters to
an individual in his or her career. Being
successful or unsuccessful depends upon how
the individuals control their behaviour in
various situations. 
Determines of Personality
 A great deal of modern personality psychology is influenced by, and
attempts to answer, the following five philosophical questions about what
really determines personality:
1. Freedom versus determinism: How much, if any, of an individual’s personality is
under their conscious control?
2. Heredity versus environment: Do internal (biological) or external (environmental)
influences play a larger role in determining personality?
3. Uniqueness versus universality: Are individuals generally more alike (similar to
each other) or different (unique) in nature?
4. Active versus reactive: Is human behavior passively shaped by environmental
factors, or are humans more active in this role?
5. Optimistic versus pessimistic: Are humans integral in the changing of their own
personalities (for instance, can they learn and change through human interaction
and intervention)?
Some things on personality
disorders and illnesses
 There are several factors that may cause
personality disorders, or signal the presence or
onset.
1. Genetic predisposition
2. Verbal abuse by parents or colleagues
3. Your relationships with your peers
4. Childhood trauma
5. High sensitivity (sound, smell, emotions)
Psychoanalytic Theory
 Sigmund Freud (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) born in
Vienna was an Austrian neurologist who became known as the
founding father of psychoanalysis.
 Sigmund Freud developed the best-known theory of
personality focused upon internal growth or psychodynamics’.
The theory stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires
and motivation on thoughts and behavior. Freud
psychoanalysis became both a theory of personality and a
method of psychotherapy.
Psychoanalytic Theory
 Psychoanalytic theory has three major parts:
1. A theory of the structure of personality, in which the id, ego
and superego are the principal parts.
2. A theory of personality dynamics, in which conscious and
unconscious motivation and ego- defense mechanisms play a
major role.
3. A theory of psychosexual development, in which different
motives and body regions influence the child at different
stages of growth, with effects persisting in the form of adult
personality traits.
1. Rationalization
Definition: You come up with various explanations
to justify the situation (while denying your feelings).
Or supplying a logical or rational reason as apposed
to the real reason.
Example: Stating you were failed a test because you
didn't like by the teacher, when the real reason was
you didn't study.
2. Regression
Definition: Returning to a previous immature
stage of development. Example: Sitting in a
corner and crying after hearing bad news.
Example: Throwing a temper tantrum when
you don’t get your way.
3. Projection
Definition: When we attribute our own feelings,
shortcomings, or unacceptable impulses to others.
Or placing unacceptable impulses in yourself onto
someone else.
Example: When losing an argument, you state,
“You’re just stupid”. Example: Accusing your friend
of being a cheater when you’re the one with a
cheating problem.
4. Repression
Definition: When we exclude painful, unwanted or
dangerous thoughts and impulses for our conscious
mind. We put events/situations into the unconscious.
Example: Forgetting a bad dog attack from your
childhood due to the trauma and anxiety in caused.
5. Displacement
Definition: Taking out anger/impulses on a less
threatening target.
Example: Slamming a door instead of hitting a
person when you’re really mad. Example: Yelling at
your teammate after an argument with your coach.
Example: Screaming at your brother after your dad
makes you angry.
6. Sublimation
Definition: Acting out unacceptable impulses in a
socially acceptable way.
Example: A person who turns aggressive impulses
into becoming a boxing fan. Example: Writing a
poem about shame and anger instead of starting a
fight.
7. Reaction Formation
Definition: You turn your feeling into it’s opposite.
Taking the opposite belief because the true belief
causes anxiety.
Example: Hating a particular race or culture and
then embracing that race or culture to the extreme.
8. Denial
Definition: You completely reject thoughts and
feelings that cause you anxiety.
Example: Denying that your doctor’s diagnosis of
cancer is correct and demanding to seek a second
opinion.
Fixation in Different Stages
 Freud believed that gratification during each stage
in important if the individual is not to be fixated at
that level.
 A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier
psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved,
the individual will remain "stuck" in this stage. 
Fixation in Oral Stage
If fixation occurs at this stage, Freud believed the individual
would have issues with dependency or aggression. Oral stage
fixation might have 2 effects:
1. Neglected child might become psychologically dependent adult continually
seeking the oral stimulation denied in infancy, thereby becoming a
manipulative person in fulfilling his/her own needs, rather than maturing to
independence.
2. The over-protected child might resist maturation and return to dependence
upon others in fulfilling his or her needs. Theoretically, oral-stage fixations are
manifested as garrulousness (talkativeness), smoking, continual oral stimulus
(eating, chewing objects), and alcoholism
Fixation in Anal Stage
 According to Freud, inappropriate
parental responses can result in negative
outcomes.
1. Anal retentive (rigid and obsessive
personality) or
2. Anal expulsive (messy & disorganized
personality)
Fixation in Phallic Stage
 If fixation occurs at this stage, it will lead
to sexual identity problems, difficulty in
accepting authority.
Fixation in Latency Stage

 Iffixation occurs at this stage, it

will lead to inability to
conceptualize, lack of motivation
in school or job.
Fixation in Genital Stage
 If the other stages have been completed
successfully, the individual should now
be well-balanced, and caring. The goal of
this stage is to establish a balance
between the various life areas.
RELEVANCE OF
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 Knowledge of the structure of the personality can assist
teachers to identify mental health problems of their students.
 The ability to recognize behavior associated with the id, ego
and the superego assists in the assessment of developmental
level.
 Understanding the use of ego defense mechanisms is
important in making determinations about maladaptive
behaviors, is planning care for student’s to assist in creating
change or in helping students accepts themselves as unique
individual.
Application
 In education we use Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial
development to assist in developing a comprehensive and
holistic plan of care for the students we teach.
 Erik Erikson’s various stages are simple to understand and
easily applied to all age groups. A prime example is in the
number of teenagers we teach.
 The stage identity versus role confusion relates to them
perfectly as it is obvious they are struggling to find where they
fit in with family, peers and society. Those that have adequate
support and encouragement become independent and develop
a strong sense of who they are while those teenagers that do
not will become insecure and confused about their future.
Critiques & Controversies of
Erikson
 Much research has been done on Erikson's ideas and theories.
"It has been proven difficult to create objectives to evaluate
Erikson's identity theory. Not only do many different threads
enter into the process of establishing an identity, but each
person must create a unique synthesis of all the disparate
parts" (Marcia,1980; Waterman, 1985).
 According to Cole and Cole (1989), one of Erikson's favorite
methods for testing his theory is the biographical case study. It
can be time consuming, expensive and difficult to apply these
methods to an individual experiencing role confusion.
Critiques & Controversies of
Erikson
 Many questions have been raised referring to
Erikson's belief of identity formation. What about
those adults who rediscover themselves and
develop a different understanding of their lives
due to life's changes and experiences? Is it
possible for an individual to change throughout
life? Other theories on development lean toward
the individual having psychological development
completed at much earlier ages.
Critiques & Controversies of
Erikson
 Another controversial aspect of Erikson's work is his
agreement with Freud that personality differences
between sexes are biologically based. Critics of
Erikson's theory say that his theory is more applicable
to boys than to girls, and that more attention is paid to
infancy and childhood than to adult life, despite the
claim to be a life-span theory. However, many have
found Erikson's theory offers a useful framework for
analyzing developmental histories.