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CHAPTER FIVE
5. FACTORS AFFECTING PERSONALITY
Introduction
There are a number of factors that might positively or negative put their impact on individual’s personality development. In this section, we review some of the factors stressed by various personality theorists in their attempts to explain personality. The major factors affecting personality are biological, socio-cultural and situational; these issues will be dealt in detail in this chapter. General Objectives: After completion of this chapter, you should be able to: Identify the major factors affecting personality. Discern their roles of those factors in personality development. Overview: In this section we will concentrate on factors affecting personality, and their roles in personality development. Objectives: Upon the completion this section, you will be able to answer: What are factors affecting personality? What are their roles in personality development?
5.1Biological Factors
Heredity: refers to physical stature, facial attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are characteristics that are considered to be inherent. It plays an important part in determining an individual's personality. Heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual's personality is the molecular structures of the genes, which are located in the chromosomes. Recent research studies shows that young children lend strong support to the
power of heredity and finding shows that some personality traits may be built into the same genetic code that affects factors like height and hair color. Nervous System: It is the second biological factor to determine personality. Nervous system plays a vital role in the development of personality. Man’s intellectual ability, motor ability, physical strength and ability to adjust upon the structure and modification of nervous system. Any injury to nervous system will affect the personality of the individual. Nervous system limits one’s learning capacity. So it is evident that the development of personality is influenced by the nature of nervous system. Brain is part of the nervous system that plays an important role in determining personality. Electrical Stimulation of the Brain (ESB) and Split brain psychology results indicates that a better understanding of human personality and behavior might come from a closer study of the brain. The definite areas of the human brain are associated with pain and pleasure. Research study shows that these things are true. Biofeedback: It is third biological approach to determine personality. Physiologists and psychologists felt that biological functions like brainwave patterns, gastric and hormonal secretions, and fluctuations in blood pressure and skin temperature were beyond conscious control. Recent research shows that these functions can be consciously controlled through biofeedback techniques. For this purpose, individual can learns the internal rhythms of a particular body process through electronic signals that are feedback from equipment which is wired to body. In this process, the person can learn to control the body process through questions. It is one of the interesting topics to do future research work in personality. Physical Features is fourth biological factor to determine personality. It is vital ingredient of the personality, it focus an individual person's external appearance which also determined the personality. Physical features like tall or short, fat or skinny, black or white. These physical features will be influenced the personal effect on others and also affect self concept of individual. Recent research studies shows that definitely this features influence to individual personality in an organization. In totally, heredity would be fixed at birth and no amount of experience can be altering them through creation of suitable environment. Apart from this, personality characteristics are not completely dictated by heredity. There are other factors also influenced to determining personality.
Cultural factors are also major factors which influence to determine individual personality. It refers to traditional practice, customs, procedure, norms and rules and regulation followed by the society. It significantly influence to individual behavior compared to biological factors. Cultural factors determine attitudes towards independence, aggression, competition, cooperation, positive thinking, team spirit, and a host of the human being and discharge his/her duties towards valuable responsibilities to society. For instance, Western culture influenced Indian society. It is best example of the cultural factors also determine the personality. To a large extent, one’s culture determines what are considered proper practices in courtship, marriage, childrearing, politics, religion, education, and justice. These, and other cultural variables, explain many important individual differences among humans, that is, differences among people of different cultures. More specifically, some theorists say that one’s personality can be viewed as a combination of the many roles one plays. If you were asked to start a blank sheet of paper with the words “I am” and then to list all of your qualities, you would have a rather extensive list. For example, you may be female, 19 years old, a college student, a Lutheran, 5 feet 8 inches tall, attractive, a Cancer, a psychology major, and so on. Each entry on your list has a prescribed role associated with it, and for each role, society has defined what is called an acceptable range of behavior (norms). If you deviate from that range, you will confront social pressure of some type. Indeed, what is considered normal behavior and what is considered abnormal is, to a large extent, determined by how you behave relative to societal expectations. Other socio-cultural determinants of personality include the socioeconomic level of one’s family, one’s family size, birth order, ethnic identification, religion, the region of the country in which one was raised, the educational level attained by one’s parents, and the like. One simply does not have the same experiences in a financially secure home as one would have in an impoverished home. These fortuitous circumstances into which a person is born (e.g., culture, society, and family) certainly have a major impact on personality. Again, this point is one that all personality theorists accept; it is just a matter of how much each one emphasizes it. The theories of Adler, Horney, and Erikson stress the importance of socio-cultural determinants of personality.
Personality is said to be the image or mirror of culture. Both material and non- material culture play important role in shaping the personality of the individual. Material culture brings about the development of various material needs and goods. Non- material culture brings about the development of various social traditions and culture. Studies have been conducted by Mead, Ruth Benedict, Malinowski, Baldwin, Cooley and many others. Mead found that in the “Samoa” culture, girls are free from the stress and strain of modern society because early sexual relations are allowed. Similarly Malinowski has reported that adolescent period among Trobrianders also does not involve stress and strain because of the absence of sex taboos. In ‘Mundudumor’ culture persons are violent and aggressive, while in ‘Arapesh’ , they are responsive and mild. In ‘Tchambuli’ women are aggressive and sexually dominant, while men are submissive. In other words Ogburn and Nimkoof concluded that “Biological heredity ushers infant actors on the stage of which the physical environment, the group and culture have set. The dramatic actor now begins and new born baby transforms into social person.” They further said, “Birth is the signal of experience to begin its work of converting the biological individual into social person.”
5.3Situational Factors
Situational factors of personality also have a complete share in the formation of personality of an individual. Situational factors of personality are charging according to the social situations. Every person may face different situations in life, which demands change in his/her behavior. For example, a teacher may be rigid and strict with students but may not with his/her family. An officer may behave with the subordinates differently as compared to his/her friends. Personality is not the result of only one factor but every factor is responsible to give complete share in its formation. A person behave and his/her personality exists when interacts with the environment, culture, society, friends, and to those who come in contact by chance.
Summary
