The document discusses the concept and nature of personality, defining it as the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique and influence their behavior. It provides definitions of personality from several clinical psychologists and theorists, focusing on it arising from within an individual and representing their typical reactions to situations through integrated traits and characteristics. Self-awareness questions are also included to reflect on one's own personality.

1. BASICS OF
PERSONALITY
By:
Aastha Dhingra
Clinical Psychologist & Assistant Professor
( Concept & Nature )

5. What Is Personality?
The word personality itself stems from the Latin word persona, which refers to a theatrical mask worn
by performers in order to either project different roles or disguise their identities.
At its most basic, personality is the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that
make a person unique. It is believed that personality arises from within the individual and remains
fairly consistent throughout life.
While there are many different definitions of personality, most of them focus on the pattern of
behaviors and characteristics that can help predict and explain a person's behavior.
Explanations for personality can focus on a variety of influences, ranging from genetic explanations for
personality traits to the role of the environment and experience in shaping an individual's personality.

6. DEFINITIONS
• The words of “Munn”: “Personality is the most characteristic integration of individuals
structure, modes of behavior, interests, abilities and aptitudes”.
• Gordon Allport defines personality as : Personality is the dynamic organisation within the
individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his
environment”.
• According to K. Young, “Personality is a patterned body of habits, traits, attitudes and ideas of
an individual’s, as these are organised externally into roles and statues and as they relate
internally to motivation, goals, and various aspects of selfhood.
• Personality Ogburn means “the integration of the socio-psychological behaviour of the human
being, represented by habits of action and feeling, attitudes and opinions.”

7. • According to Lundberg and others, “The term personality refers to the habits, attitudes and
other social traits that are characteristic of a given individual’s behaviour”.
• “Personality represents those structural and dynamic properties of an individual or individuals as
they reflect themselves in characteristic responses to situations”. This is the working definition of
personality given by Lawrence A. Pewin.
• Woodworth and Marquis define Personality as “the total quality of an individual’s behaviour as
it is revealed in his characteristic habits of thought and expression, his attitudes, interests, (his
manners of acting, and his own philosophy of life.
• Watson opines that personality is everything that we do.Watson in his book “Behaviourism”
defines “Personality is some of the activities that can be discovered by actual observations over a
long enough period of time.”

8. • Morton Prince (1924) “Personality is the sum total of all the biological innate dispositions, impulses,
tendencies, appetites and instincts of the individual and the acquired dispositions and tendencies.”
• Symonds (1928) has defined personality as “the portrait or landscape of the organism working
together in all its phases.”
• Linton – “Personality is the organized aggregate of psychological processes and states pertaining to
the individual”.
• Psychologists of Gestalt school define personality “as a pattern or configuration produced by the
integrated functioning of all the traits and characteristic of an individual.”
• Cruze defines Personality as “an organised and integrated unity consisting of many elements that
work together as a functioning whole”.

9. SELF AWARENESS
ACTIVITY

10. 1. Am I using my time wisely?
2. Am I taking anything for granted?
3. Am I living true to myself?
4. Am I taking care of myself physically?
5. Am I putting enough effort into my relationships?
6. Am I thinking negative thoughts before I fall asleep?
7. Am I letting matters that are out of my control stress me out?
8. Am I achieving the goals that I’ve set for myself?
9. What worries me most about the future?
10. Have I made someone smile today?