PERSONALITY, IS IT CONSTANT OR ARE WE RESPONSIBLE FOR DEVELOPING IT?

There is the popular adage “we are products of our environment”. Although this has an element of truth, our personalities keep evolving and we get to decide how we want to present ourselves to the world.  However, we all have a dominant personality, and that does not change.

Have you ever considered what makes you unique to others? It is called personality, those special characteristics that define us. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia defines personality as behavior patterns, thoughts, and emotions that are distinctive to a person and how they interrelate to assist or inhibit our change to other individuals and circumstances.  Various theorists have different ideas about what makes up personality and how our personalities develop. According to Freud, the characteristics of our personalities can be attributed to the environment we were born into.   Our dominant environment shapes our personality for life.  Feist, Feist, & Roberts (2018).

According to Hindle and Vaciago (1999), personality development starts in the womb. It continues throughout infancy and into adulthood where the emphasis is on the mental task that accompanies each stage of the development and the interaction of inner operations and outside conditions.  It can be a difficult question trying to figure out how we became who we are. As Winnicott (1949/1958) said, every person is attempting a rebirth wherein their lifespan continues with a greater quantity of reaction rather than what is experienced without the loss of the sense of the progression of individual existence Hindle & Vaciago (1999).

Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a very prolific writer. As a result, he had become a highly important contributor to 20th-century thought.  Freud postulates the Id is the centre of personality which is fully subconscious of the psychic region.  Although the Id is far from reality, it attempts to lower stress by fulfilling primary needs. A newborn baby personifies the Id as free from the limitations of ego and superego. The baby seeks the satisfaction of needs with no notion of the possibility.  Instead, it sucks whether the nipple is present or absent, failing to recognize that the sucking of its thumb cannot maintain life. Feist, et al. (2018).

Freud also said the ego is viewed differently when an infant knows how to determine himself from the external world.  Although the id stays the same, the ego persists by developing strategies for dealing with the id’s impractical and relentless desire to be pleased.  Sometimes the ego will control the id however, at other times it loses control.  The ego must balance and restrain the id’s impulses however, it appears to be at the mercy of the powerful and disorganized id.  The ego borrows its strength from the id and sometimes comes close to taking full control, for instance, during the prime of life of a psychologically mature person.  Feist, et al. (2018).

Freud said most of the personality is subconscious and that we conceal many unlikeable facts about ourselves that are unpleasant by being defensive. Wishes, fears, disputes, beliefs, and unconscious memories also control us.  The entire human nature is malevolent. Our inherent tendencies are erotic and hostile.

Like Freud, Jung’s theory of personality had its basis on the assumption that the mind has both conscious and subconscious levels.  He differed from Feud in that he fully declared that the most noteworthy part of the subconscious came from the history of human existence instead of the individual’s personal experience.  He called this concept the collective unconscious. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, (2019). Although he believed the unconscious is highly important, he disagreed with Freud in many respects:  Human nature is both good and bad. There are important instincts besides sexuality and aggressiveness (including individuation, the forerunner of the humanistic concept of self-actualization).  Feist, et al. (2018)

 There is a collective unconscious that contains archetypes, or inherited susceptibility to view the world in certain ways.  Introversion/extraversion is a major aspect of personality. Psychopathology occurs when personality becomes unbalanced, as when we cannot develop important aspects of personality or overemphasize aspects that are contrary to our true nature. Ewen, (2009).

 Jung’s concepts of introversion and extraversion came about after studying Freud’s and Adler’s theories. He agreed with them in some respect but had differing views in some areas. He referred to these two personalities as No. 1 being extraverted and No. 2 being introverted. He spoke about a period in his young life when he considered his personality introverted. However, when he contemplated the planning of his future profession and meeting other responsibilities, he became more extraverted.  He remained extraverted until he experienced a personal crisis that caused him to revert to being an introvert. He mentioned too that the part of our personality that is not developed leaves way for the other to dominate Feist, et al. (2018).

Could it be possible that personality is interchangeable and can be switched on and off? This resonates with me because I have struggled in my life with periods of introversion and extraversion and at the different points when I interchanged them, I either experienced more happiness or was the least happy. I am more introverted when I am handling crises and feel the need to shut out the world to take care of me.  I am sure that there are others who have similar issues.  I often wondered why some people were so kind and easygoing, yet would flip personalities when faced with challenges.  Jung’s rationale explains this.  This has led me to the belief that personality is fickle, and it is possible for people to change their personalities like the weather changes. However, there is still one personality that predominates, the one who you mostly are at your deepest core.

Personality is a very complex one, despite the differing thoughts of many theorists.  Although our personalities are shaped by the environment that we were born into and encompass all our behaviors it evolves, and we can nurture the personality that best defines us.