What is Personality?

Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others. Or Personality
is generally defined as the deeply ingrained and relatively enduring patterns of thought, feeling and
behavior. In fact, when one refers to personality, it generally implies to all what is unique about an
individual, the characteristics that makes one stand out in a crowd.
Personalities is the sum total of individual’s Psychological traits, characteristics, motives, habits, attitudes,
beliefs and outlooks.
Personality determinants:
Heredity : Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Physical structure, facial
attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological
rhythms are characteristics that are generally considered to be either completely or substantially influenced
by who your parents were, that is by their biological, physiological and inherent psychological makeup.
Environment : The environmental factors that exert pressures on our personality formation are the culture
in which we are raised, our early conditioning, the norms among our family, friends and social groups, and
other influences that we experience. The environment to which we are exposed plays a substantial role in
shaping our personalities.
Situation : A third factor, the situation, influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality.
An individual’s personality although generally stable and consistent, does change in different situations.
The varying demand of different situation calls forth different aspects of one’s personality. We should not
therefore look upon personality patterns in isolation.

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