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
