Concept of Personality

Personality is the whole aspect of an individual from general point of view. It includes a person’ physical, psychological and emotional aspects.

The term personality has been derived from the Latin word ‘Persona’ that was associated with Greek theatre in ancient times. In those days when an actor performed on stage, they worn mask and it is called persona. According to the concept of mask, personality was thought to be the influence and effect which the individual wearing a mask left in the audience.

Definitions

According to Watson- “ Personality is the sum of the activities that can be discovered by actual observations over a long enough period of time to give reliable information.”

R.S. Woodworth- “ Personality is the quality of the individual’s  total behaviour.”

R.B. Cattle – “ Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation."

Meaning of Personality

With the above mentioned definitions we can understand that a person’s personality is made up of the distinctive patterns of thoughts, feelings and actions that characterize him or her. These characteristics distinguish a person from others. Personality is something specific and unique. Personality is a process of change and modification in person’s character hence it is not static but dynamic. It includes everything about a person’s behaviour. The main characteristic of personality is self-consciousness. The man is described as a person or to have a personality when the idea of self enters into his consciousness.

Personality is the sum total of one’s way of behaving towards oneself and others as well. It also predicts one’s nature of behaviour as how one will behave in a particular situation and one’s pattern of adjustment to the ever-changing forces of environment.