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FAKULTI SAINS SOSIAL GUNAAN (FASS)

SEPTEMBER 2015

PERSONALITY

By
Padlyalpattani

ROSMADI HJ MOHD DAUD

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Content:1.0 Introduction.
2.0 Factors that influence the development of human personality.
1.

Heredity

2.

Psychological factors

3.

Environment
i.

Physical Environment.

ii. Social Environment.

iii. Family Environment.
iv. Cultural Environment.
v.

School Environment.

3.0 Continuity and Contrast in Social Identity.

1. Continuity.
i)

Gender Identity.

ii) Ethnic and National Identities.

2. Contrast
i)

Cognitive Aspects.

ii) Emotional and Motivational Aspects.

iii) Behavioral Aspects.
4.0 Identify your personality is different from others.
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5.0 Conclusion.
6.0 References.

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1.0 Introduction.
What does it mean when people say you have a nice or bad personality?
Personality is a mirror of what you do and say. Essentially, your personality defines
who are you. Your behaviour reflects your personality and informs how different you
are from others. A common saying in field of personality psychology is; Some things
change; some things stay the same. According to Allport (1961), Personality is a
dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the
persons characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors. The continuities,
consistencies and stabilities of personality traits and dispositions over time define
personality development (Larsen & Buss, 2008).
Social identity is a part of human personality. Social identity is about how you
present yourself to others. Social identity is a theory formed by Henri Tajfel and John
Turner to understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination. Social
identity is the self that is show to other people. This is the part of ourselves that we
use to create an impression, to let other people know who we are and what they can
expect from us. Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups (for examples, social class,
family, study group) which people belonged to were an important source of pride and
self-esteem. Groups gives us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the
social world. Therefore we divided the world into them and us based through a
process of social categorization. Social identity theory states that the in-group will
discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image. Tajfel and Turner
(1979) proposed that there are three mental processes involved in evaluating others as
us or them. There are social categorization, social identification and social
comparison.
Identity has an element of continuity because many of its aspects such as gender
and ethnicity are constant which means that people can count on you to be the same
person tomorrow as you are today. Contrast means that your social identity
differentiates you from other people. An identify is what makes you unique in the
eyes of others. Identity develops over time through relations with others. For many
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people, the development of an identity follows a period of experimentation, but for

others it happens more easily by adopting ready-made social roles. We will further
discuss how people develop their identity by choosing what they like to call attention
to about themselves in their self-identities.

2.0 Factors that influence the development of human personality.

What is thing we call personality? The characteristics or blend of characteristics
that make a person unique. (Weinberg & Gould, 1999). An individuals personality is
the complex of mental characteristics that makes them unique from other people. It
includes all of the patterns of thought and emotions that cause us to do and say things
in particular ways. At a basic level, personality is expressed through our temperament
or emotional tone. However personality also colors our values, beliefs, and
expectations. There are many potential factors that are involved in shaping a
personality. Research by psychologists over the last several decades has increasingly
pointed to hereditary factors being more important, specially for basic personality
traits such as emotional tone. However, the acquisition of values, beliefs, and
expectations seem to be due more to socialization and unique experiences, especially
during childhood.
1.

Heredity

Hereditary factors may be summed as constitutional biological and physiological

factors. The constitution of an individual is an effective factor in determining the
type of his personality. There are be three types of personality; short and stout,
tall and thin, and muscular and well proportioned. Height, weight, physical
defects, health and strength affect personality and 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 has an impact on how others see you and subsequently, how you see
yourself. These largely hereditary factors are likely to cause you to feel that you
are nice-looking, ugly, or just adequate.
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Biological factors refer to the working of the nervous system, glands, and blood
chemistry that determines our characteristics and habitual modes of behaviour.
Adrenal gland, thyroid gland, pituitary gland and endocrine gland affect
personality. Adler points out that personality defects lead to the development of
inferiority complex and the mental mechanism of compensation. This aspect also
includes the mental ability of the child. It is this ability which enables him to
mould the social environment according to his requirements.
Intelligence is mainly hereditary. Persons who are very intelligent can make
better adjustment in home, school, and society than who are less intelligent.
Sex differences play a vital role in the development of personality of individual.
Boys are generally more assertive and vigorous. Girls are quieter and more
injured by personal, emotional and social problems.
2.

Psychological factors

These include our motives, acquired interests, our attitudes, our will and
character,

our intellectual capacities such as intelligence, for examples, the ability

to perceive, to observe, to imagine, to think and to reason. These factors determine

our reactions in various situations and thus affect our personality, growth and
direction. An individual with a considerable amount of will power will be able to
make decisions more quickly than others.
3.

Environment

Some scientists are biologically oriented, while others stress on environment and
experiences. Today, many developmental scientists see heredity and environment
as fundamentally interwined (Parke, 2004) and also constantly interacting to
mould the developing person (Hetherington et al., 2006). They see both as part of
a complex development system (Gottlieb, 1991). It is the social environment, that
he comes to have moral ideas, social attitudes and interests. The important
aspects of the environment are as follows:

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Physical Environment.
It includes the influence of climatic conditions of a particular area or
country on man and his living.

ii. Social Environment.

The child has his birth in the society. He learns and lives there. Hence,
the social environment has an important say in the personality
development of the child.
iii. Family Environment.
The family is the first context for a child entering the physical world.
Within the family, the child learns language, skills, social and moral
values of their culture (Berk, 2005). Bronfenbrenners Ecological theory
viewed the family as a network of interdependent relationships where
each member influencing the behaviour of the other, in direct and
indirect ways. Within this network, the children themselves have a
significant influence. This perspective looks beyond the ages and stages
of child development to the large context in which children grow
(Gordon & Browne, 2004). Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) described
learning as the construction of knowledge within a social context and
development could not be separated from its social context. The type of
training and early childhood experiences received from the family play
an important role in the development of personality.
iv. Cultural Environment.
The cultural environment refers to certain cultural traditions, ideas, and
values which are accepted in a particular society. For example, in a
culture where a sport such football is played early and very
competitively, a parents assessment of a childs physical abilities may
be linked to performance on the football field. Thus latter all these
factors leave a permanent impression on the childs personality.
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School Environment.
School play an important role in molding the personality of the children
because a significant part of a childs life is spent in school between the
ages of six and twenty years. In the school, the teacher substitutes te
parents. The school poses new problems to be solved, new taboos to be
accepted into the superego and new models for imitation and
identification, all of which contribute their share in molding personality.

In addition to the above there are many other social factors which influence the
development of personality of child which are as follow:a) Language
Human being have a distinctive characteristic of communication through
language. Language is an important vehicle by which the society is structured
and culture of the race transmitted from generation to generation.
b) Social Role
The child has to play several roles like son, brother, student, husband or
farther throughout his life at rent stages of his development. Social roles may
be described as process by which the co-operative behaviour and
communications among the society members are facilitated.
c) Self-Concept/Self-Schema/Self-esteem/Self-discrepancies/SelfRegulation
/Self-Efficacy/Self-Awareness.
The above are several aspects of self-knowledge which influence our
personality development.
Gene play an important role in determining the predispositions of an individual.
Scientists have made significant breakthroughs in their understanding of the
relationship between genes and human behaviour. Many acknowledge that
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genetic endowment is only part of the equation; it is the dynamic relationship

between nature and nurture that shapes human development (Shore, 1997).

3.0 Continuity and Contrast in Social Identity.

Social identity theory (SIT) (Tajfel and Turner, 1986) is composed of
categorization or the way people come to understand groups by placing them into
a labeled category, identification or our association with groups, often to sustain
self-esteem and comparison or the way we compare our groups with other groups.

Social identity is a foundational aspect of human lived experience. Social identity

is both personal and social. A social persons identity resides in the existential
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question of who am I, but social identity can not be formed unless a person
assesses the question of who am I in relation to another. When a person assumes
the identity of a group, he will work towards maintaining the identity of that
group or community (Martin, 2002).
Social identity is the self that is shown to other people. This is the part of
ourselves that we use to create an impression, to let other people know who we
are and they can expect from us. Social identity is different from self-concept
because identity contains elements that are socially observable, publicly available
outward expressions of the self. Identity has two important features: continuity
and contrast.
1.

Continuity means that people can depend on you to be the same person

tomorrow

as you are today. Obviously, people change but many important

aspects of social identity remain relatively stable such as gender, ethnicity,

nationality, and sex

orientation. To understand more about the nature of social

identity in particularly on continuity concept , let us consider two identities in

more detail: gender, and ethnicity and nationality
i)

Gender Identity.
Most typically as a man or woman is one of the most frequently mentioned

identities when people are asked to describe themselves, and it is also one of the
categories most often used by others to describe us. It is perhaps not surprising
that a great many meanings and implications are associated with gender.
Personality traits ( for example, being competitive or being aware of the feelings
of others), role behaviors (for example, taking care of children or assuming
leadership roles), physical characteristics (for example, having broad shoulders or
a soft voice), and a host of other associations can be linked to gender categories.
As the same time, many investigators believe that it is not useful to think of
gender as a single social category. Rather, many have argued for a concept of
gendered identities, which recognizes the multiple social identities that may be
influenced by ones gender. As noted earlier, both occupations (for example,
nurse) and relationships (for example, wife) often have gender implications.
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Thus, in adopting a perspective of gendered identities, one acknowledges that

social identities can intersect and overlap with one another.
ii) Ethnic and National Identities.
For many people, ethnicity is a central element of self-definition and becomes an
important social identity. In the past, social scientists categorized human beings
in terms of basic racial categories, such as Asian, Caucasian, and Negroid. With
increasing awareness of the arbitrary nature of the social construction of race,
more common today is categorization on the basic of ethnicity, defined in terms
of culture, language, and country of origin. Like gender, the analysis of ethnic
and national identity is more complex that it sometimes first seems.

2.

Contrast means that your social identity differentiates you from other people.

An identity is what makes you unique in the eyes of others. Identity develops
over time through relations with others. There are periods in life when some
people undergo identity crises and have to redefine their social identities.
According to Erikson (1968), coined the phrase identity crisis meaning the
feeling of anxiety that accompany efforts to define or redefine ones own
individuality
an identity

and social reputation. For most people, the process of going through
crisis is an

important and memorable phase of life. Psychologist Roy

Baumeister suggests that there are two distinct types of identity crisis that is
identity deficit and

identity conflict (Baumeister, 1986). A social identity is

first of all a label or a category a way of grouping a number of people together on

the basic of some shared features. Beyond the labeling, however, social identity
has many more implications, both for the person as individual and for others who
see them as members of particular categories or groups. Thus the category label
can in a sense be considered the frame for a painting that is rich in cognitive
beliefs, emotional associations, and behavioral consequences.
i)

Cognitive Aspects.

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The cognitive aspects of a social identity can be extensive and varied, including
personality traits, social and political attitudes, and memories for identity related
events. Because social identities are developed and defined within a social world,
many of these cognitions are shared. Indeed, some investigators talk in terms of
self-stereotyping, suggesting that when one views the self in terms of a particular
social category,one takes on the stereotypes by which society has defined that
category. Another way of talking about these shared definitions is to refer to the
social representations of salient categories.
ii) Emotional and Motivational Aspects.
In many cases, social identities include not only cool cognitions but hot
emotions as well. For example, ethnic and national identities often carry deep
emotional meanings. Consider conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, among Serbs,
Croatians, and Muslims; and the continuing conflicts in the Middle East between
Palestinians and Israeli Jews. In each case, identification with ethnic group has a
strong affective element that underlies the cognitive meanings associated with the
identity. Sigmund Freud, for example, described identification in terms of the
emotional ties one has, first with a parent and latter with members of groups.
iii) Behavioral Aspects.
To the extent that one defines oneself in terms of a particular group, it affects the
behaviors one enacts for oneself and the way one interacts with others who may
be members of different group. Early research on social identity by Tajfel and his
colleagues emphasized the intergroup aspects of social identification. One reason
why social identification is a topic of such high interest is because categorizations
have implications for behavior.

4.0 Identify your personality is different from others.

In some ways we all the same. We all have the same human nature. We share a
common humanity. We all have bodies and human minds, we all have human
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thoughts and human feelings. Yet in other ways we are all completely different
and unique. No two people are truly alike. No two people can ever have the same
experience of life, the same perspective, the mind. The development of the
beliefs, moods, and behaviors that differentiate among people. Contemporary
theorists

emphasize personality traits having to do with individualism internalized

conscience, sociability with strangers, the ability to control emotion and impulse,
and personal achievement.
There are five different hypotheses regarding the early origins of personality. One
assumes that the childs inherited biology, usually called a temperamental bias. It
is an important basic for childs later personality. Alexander Thomas and Stella
Chess suggested there were nine temperamental dimensions along with three
synthetic types they called the difficult child, the easy child, and the child who is
slow to warm up to unfamiliarity. Longitudinal studies of children suggest that a
shy and fearful style of reacting to challenge and introverted in mood.
A second hypothesis regarding personality development comes from Sigmund
Freuds suggestion that variation in the sexual and aggressive aims of the id,
which is biological in nature, combined with family experience, leads to the
development of the ego and superego. Freud suggested that differences in
parental socialization produced variation in anxiety which, in turn, leads to
different personalities.
A third set of hypotheses emphasizes direct social experiences with parents. After
World War II, Americans and Europeans held the more benevolent idealistic
conception of the child that described growth as motivated by affectionate ties to
others rather than by the narcissism and hostility implied by Freuds writing.
John Bowlby contributed to this new emphasis on the infants relationships with
parents in his books on attachment. Bowlby argued that the nature of the infants
relationship to the caretakers and especially the mother created a profile of
emotional reactions toward adults that might last indefinitely.
A forth source of ideas for personalty centers on whether or not is necessary to
posit a self that monitors, integrates, and initiates reaction. This idea traces itself
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to the Judeo-Christian assumption that it is necessary to award children a will so

they could be held responsible for their action. The notion that each child imposes
a personal interpretation to their experiences makes the concept of self critical to
the childs personality.
A final source of hypotheses comes from inferences based on direct observations
of a childs behavior. This strategy, which relies on induction, focuses on
different characteristics at different ages. Infants differ in irritability, three year
olds differ in shyness, and six year olds differ in seriousness of mood. A major
problem with this approach is that each class o behavior can have different
historical antecedents. Children who prefer to play alone rather than with others
do so for a variety of reasons. Children might be temperamentally shy and uneasy
with other children while others might prefer solitary activity.

5.0 Conclusion.
In addition to the long-term shifts in social identities, which develop overtime and
often change quite slowly, the expression of social identities can fluctuate
considerably. If we assume that people have multiple social identities, each of
which may be characterized by distinct attributes and behaviors, then we need to
consider the ways in which people may shift from one identity to another. Such
fluctuations in identity, rather than evidence of instability or whimsy, provide
evidence of the ways in which people respond to their environment and can make
choices that seem most appropriate to that setting. In short, social identity is, as
the term suggests, an inherently social phenomenon that must be understood as a
product of both individual and contextual-historical forces.
On the other hand, although to study individual differences seems to be study
variance, how are people different, it is also to study central tendency, how well
can a person be described in terms of an overall within-person average. Indeed,
perhaps the most important question of individual differences is weather people
are more similar to themselves over time and across time and situations than they
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are to others, and whether the variation within a single person across of similarity,
for people differ in their similarities to each other. Question of whether particular
groups, for examples, groupings by sex, culture, age, or ethnicity are more similar
within than between groups are also questions of individual differences.
Evidence reveals that relationship between heredity and environment is not a one
-way street, from genes to environment to personality. Instead, it is bidirectional.
Gottlieb (1998, 2000) called this the epigenetic framework which means
development resulting from ongoing, bidirectional exchanges between heredity
and all levels of the environment (Berk, 2005).

(3333 words)

6.0 References.

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Shore, R. (1997). What have we learned? in Rethinking the brain. New York:
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Tajfel, H. (1978). The achievement of group differentiation. In H. Tajfel (Ed.),

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