Short Essay on Personality!

In daily life the term personality is very freely used by people with different
meanings. Some people refer to the physical appearance like height, weight, colour,
body built, dress, voice, etc. Some other people refer to intellectual qualities like
intelligence, activeness, way of speech, thinking and reasoning abilities, etc.
It is also referred to social characteristics like sociability, generosity, kindness,
reservedness, etc. On the basis of these characteristics they judge people as strong
or weak personalities, good and bad personalities, etc.
In this way we all make personality judgments about the people we know. A major
part of coming to understand ourselves is developing a sense of what our
personality characteristics are. We even form impressions about personalities of
people we do not know, but have only read about. As we shall see, these everyday
uses of the term are quite different from the meaning psychologists give to the term
personality.
The term personality has been derived from a Latin word persona- means mask.
In olden days, while playing dramas, in order to give good effects to the roles played
by them, the Greek actors used to wear masks.
The psychologists continue to use the term personality to indicate that, the real or
inner qualities of a person will be different from, that of the qualities seen
apparently. Hence, defining and understanding the personality is not very easy as it
appears. It is very difficult to define personality in a precise way. Different
psychologists have defined personality in their own ways. Two comprehensive
definitions widely accepted are quoted here under:
GW Allport defines that, personality is the dynamic organisation, within the
individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to
his environment.
According to this definition the different psychological traits which determine the
adjustment of the individual are organised into a dynamic (changeable or
modifiable) unit. So there will be flexible adjustment with the environment.
Eysenck defines that, personality is the more or less stable and enduring
organisation of a persons character, temperament, intellect and physique which
determines his unique adjustment to the environment.
Most of the definitions of personality have tried to Consider the totality of the
person, that means, all the abilities, tendencies and other characteristics, both
inherent as well as acquired, which are more or less consistent, and distinguishable
from the people are included in the personality.