Personality Essay

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorUniversity, Bachelor's October 2001

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Personality Essay Every human being has a personality that will determine the limits of success. In order to understand what personality is let first define personality. According to the dictionary the definition of personality is the stable difference between people in the social, emotional and motivational characteristics. We use the word personality when describing others and ourselves. Personality can limit or expand option and choices of lives. It has also been said that personality is shape through environmental, learning, parental and developmental factors.

People developed different personality that can be can be studied through forces, factor and influences that shape personality. Different theories believe that personality is build on different factors such as the genetic, environmental factors, learning factors, parental factors and developmental factors.

The environmental factor acknowledges that personality is influences by social environment. According to Alder personality is influenced by our position in the family relative to that of our siblings.

Horney believed the cultures and time period reared different personalities. Fromm believed that historical forces and events influence people and as well as by the kind of society they construct. Ethnic background and culture influences our personality also differs in the gender and ethnic. According to Uba (1994) Southeast Asian cultures belief in supernatural spirits and in communicating with the deceased family members, is widely accepted there. While in the American cultures it is a disbelieve and lead to a misinterpretation of their personality to be delusional. Or gender, for example, it has been found that women tend to score lower than men do on test measuring assertiveness (Feingold, 1994). The difference may be that sex-role training in North American cultures traditionally teaches girls not to assert themselves. People from other countries have different values, religions and living standards and many more things that can affect their personalities which in effect can change our opinion about their personalities.

Other Theorist said that learning plays a major role influencing virtually very aspect of our behavior. According to Skinner learning variables influences personality such as positive reinforcement. Parental factors also emphasize personality. Freud believed in psychosexual stages of development influences once personality.

Theorists have their own ideas what personality is. The combination of all factors form personality. Each and every one of us develops our own unique personality. We can learn it from our parents, when we are imitating them, building relationship with them or observing them. From our experiences in the social world when we encounter a social situation that requires us to interact with new people, we forms a judgment about personality of other people while they are making similar judgments about us. These decisions are what shape our personalities and lives. Through these experiences is how we characterize people; by using words such as nice, affectionate, trusting, moody and tolerant.

Nevertheless everybody teaches or learns in different ways and constructs their own opinion about their personalities and it is that opinion and characteristic those can forms every once unique personality.