Understanding The Development Of Personality

Understanding The Development Of Personality

Where does personality come from? Is it inherited? Or is it determined by a person's experience in life, and his or her interactions with other people? Research suggests that both heredity and environment play important roles.

Every mother knows that babies differ from one another from the time of birth. These differences seem to be due to heredity, but such factors as the mother's nourishment while she carried the child before birth may also be important.

An obvious biological difference exists between boys and girls. Later, as children grow and develop, sex differences become stronger. Certain glands called endocrines have different physical effects on boys than on girls. These effects, in turn, produce different psychological experiences.

But male-female differences in personality are not due solely to biology. The environment is equally important. Society tends to treat boys and girls differently from an early age. Mothers and fathers, for example, often give boys trains to play with, and give girls dolls to play with.

Many personality theorists emphasize the importance of early childhood experiences in the development of the personality. The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, held that childhood experiences determine the adult personality. Furthermore, he suggested that if a child were deprived of his mother's love at an early stage, for example, that child might develop a personality disorder.

Social and medical factors affect personality as well, both positively and negatively. Poverty, hunger, disease, pain, and violence may stunt the personality. Certain diseases can cause brain damage.

There is frequent disagreement among experts on the relative imporance of heredity and environmental factors in shaping personality. The thing to remember is that neither heredity nor environment alone is responsible – both play important roles.

Abnormal personality

At times, all of us do things that may be inappropriate and ineffective. For example, did you ever get angry at a friend or relative for something he actually did not do? Or were you ever afraid of something that really could not hurt you? On the other hand, some people characteristically act inappropriately to such a degree that we would consider their personality abnormal and describe them as mentally ill.

Traditionally, scientists have divided abnormal personality into two major categories, the neuroses and the psychoses. Have you ever heard the saying, "everyone is neurotic"? In one sense, this is true, because the neuroses are excesses or extremes of normal behavior. It is normal and desirable, for example, to be afraid of automobiles when crossing a street.

Some people, however, have such extreme fears of cars that they may be unable to cross a street, or leave their house or even think about cars. These people are said to have a phobia. They often require professional treatment.

Psychotic disorders represent the extreme form of mental illness. Interestingly, they show the strongest evidence of genetic and biochemical origins. A person with excessive, pent-up anger may develop high blood pressure. A person with strong needs for love and affection may, in the face of prolonged stress, develop stomach ulcers. In this area, however, as in many aspects of abnormal personality, there are still more questions than answers.