This document discusses factors that influence personality development. It notes that personality is shaped by both nature (heredity) and nurture (environment). The four major factors described are parents, birth order, cultural environment, and heredity. For heredity, personality is influenced by innate traits passed down from parents, while the environment shapes personality through experiences with family, culture, and learning. Case studies of feral children further support the importance of social interaction for normal personality formation.

1. Personality Development
T.Gnanaprakasam,
Assistant Professor,
Thiagarajar College of Preceptors.

2.  Major factors affect the
development of
personality.

3. What is personality?
 Common answer
 Characteristics of a
person
 Nice
 Good looking
 Social skills
 Polite
 funny

4. What is personality?
 Sociologists say
 Sum total of behaviors, attitude, beliefs, and
values that are characteristic of an individual.
 Personality traits
 Determine how we adjust
 To our environment
 How we react in specific situations

5. Personalities over time
 Personalities constantly change during the
first half of a person’s life.
 Find new interests
 Like new things
 Personalities change for all sorts of reasons
 2 largest reasons
 Nature
 Nurture

6. Nature vs. Nurture
 Heredity
 The transmission of
genetic characteristics
from parents to children.
 Social environment
 Contact with other people

7. Nature’s Argument
 Most human behavior is instinct in origin.
 Instinct
 an unchanging, biologically inherited behavior pattern.
 Birds = building nests
 Birds = migrate in winter
 This leads to humans having 10,000 instincts:
 Laugh
 Smile
 breath

8. Nurture’s Argument
 A person’s behavior
and personality are the
result of his or her
social environment and
learning
 Pavlov’s Dog
experiment
 Developed an
unconditional response

9. 4 major factors that shape individual
personality development
parents
Birth order
Cultural
environment
heredity
Personality

10. Heredity
 Characteristics present at
birth.
 Body build
 Hair type
 Eye color
 Skin pigmentation
 Aptitudes
 A capacity to learn a
particular skill or acquire a
particular body of
knowledge.
 Natural talents
 Sports
 Music

11. Birth Order
 Personalities are influenced
by whether we have
siblings:
 1st born
 Achievement oriented
 Middle child
 More affectionate but
confused
 Last child
 Risk takers
 Intellectual rebels

12. Parental Characteristics
 A parents personality
directly impacts a
child’s personality
 Hate
 Anger
 Happiness
 politeness

13. Cultural Environment
 Cultural environment
determines
 Basic types of
personalities found in
society.

14. Isolations of children
 Feral children
 Wild or untamed children
 Can children develop on
their own with no help?

15. 1938 “Anna”
 Born to unmarried woman
 Grandfather locked her in
the attic
 Only fed her once a day
 No interaction
 Found in 1938 by social
worker
 Could not
 Walk
 Talk
 Feed herself
 No facial expressions

16. Isabelle
 Born to unmarried woman
 Grandfather locked her and
Mother in the attic
 Only fed her once a day
 Interaction with mom only
 Found in 1960 by social
worker
 Could not
 Talk
 Walk
 eat with her hands

17. Thank You