How Does Your Personality Affect Your Behavior?
How Does Your Personality Affect Your Behavior?
Your personality plays a role in almost everything that you do. If you are familiar with someone’s personality, you can often predict how he or she will be likely to act in a particular situation.
A workable definition of Personality is that it is the constellation of traits unique to the individual. Your personality is like a psychological fingerprint. Only you have your particular personality.
The word Trait, as used above, refers to your relatively stable behavioral dispositions. However, your personality is somewhat more than your traits. Your personality also consists of the ego, the conscious “I” at the center of the personality. Also, your personality contains the self, the personality as viewed from within, as you yourself experience it. These points will be elaborated in later sections.
The Three Faces of You
According to Freud, there are three parts to the human personality: (1) the Id (2) the Ego (3)the Superego.
The ID is inborn, and it is present at birth. It is the psychological expression of the biological drives such as hunger, thirst, the need for sleep, and so forth. The word id is derived from Latin, and means simply “it.” In other words, the “it” of the human personality is not uniquely individual. It is impersonal and roughly similar in all of us. The id is present in the infant, and Freud said it follow the Pleasure Principle, indicating that the id seeks relief from hunger, thirst, and other irritating states. Although the id is present at birth, it never departs. It is as much a part of the adult personality as the personality of the child.
The Ego emerges with experience. It arises because of various frustrations and the need to cope with the world as it is, not as it is wished to be. The word ego is also derived from Latin, and means simply “I.” the ego, or the “I’ of the personality, follows the reality principle, suggesting that the ego helps the individual tolerate frustration and devise ways around obstacles to gratification. The ego takes from around the age of two or three. Like the id, it too will become a part of the adult personality.
The Superego emerges last. It reflects the influence of the family. The family is usually the agents that represents the values and norms of a larger culture to a growing child. This includes the family’s religious beliefs and its participation in the rules and laws of a given nation. If a child identifies with the family, the super-ego will be introjected, meaning that it will become an integral part of the individual personality.
Feeling of guilt arise when the demands of the superego are violated. This makes a reference to the Conscience, one of the aspects of the superego. The conscience acts as a kind of inner police officer, guiding the individual in the direction of conforming to social expectations. The superego is relatively well established around the age of seven. Like the id and the ego, it is also a part of the adult personality.
The Self-Shaping of the Personality
The individual is, of course, shaped by powerful forces, the kinds of forces already described in this chapter. However, it is possible to shift the emphasis from a generally reactive process to a proactive one. A Proactive behavioral process focuses on the role played by consciousness in the acquisition of personality. The Humanistic viewpoint recognizes that the individual can think, reflect, and decide.
The Self-concept, the way in which one perceives one’s own personality. The self-concept exists in contrast to the ideal self, the way one would like to be. If the self-concept and the ideal self are far apart, then a state of incongruence exists. Incongruence tends to induce depression and anxiety.
The humanistic viewpoint attempts to put the individual in the psychological driver’s seat. It asserts that a human being’s personality doesn’t just happen. The individual, to some extent, creates his or her own personality.
this Book is Suggest to you Personality
Written by Arshad. A
