In this article, we will Describe the Psychological Factors that Influence the Development of Personality.
Psychological Factors that Influence the Development of Personality discussed below:
Several psychological factors tend to determine the development of personality. Among those factors, the following can be discussed:
- Intellectual Determinants
- Emotional Determinants
- Self-Disclosure
- Aspiration and
- Achievements
1. Intellectual Determinants
These are some of the important factors which influence the development of personality. Researchers are of the view that intellectual capacities influence personality through various kinds of adjustments in life and indirectly through the judgments of other persons. This judgment affects the evaluation and consequently the development of personality.
Intellectually bright men and women make better personal and social adjustments than those of average or below-average intelligence. Several studies bear testimony to the fact that bright men and women are generally thoughtful, creative, introspective, adventuresome and have a strong concern with problems, meanings and values. They are found to show a wider interest, especially in the theoretical and aesthetic areas. Since they have stronger and greater mental ability, they have better control over themselves.
Having very superior intelligence affects personality development unfavourably. It creates special problems which are not encountered by those persons who are just bright. These various problems result in the development of a personality pattern, which is characterised by the traits like intolerance, negativism, emotional conflicts, solitary pursuit, self-sufficiency, dominance, etc. Evidence also has provided support to the fact that intellectual capacities, also influence the development of values, morality and human.
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2. Emotional Determinants
These are other important factors that shape the development of personality. Emotions are considered important personality determinants because they affect personal and social adjustment. Research has shown that several aspects of emotions like emotional balance, dominant emotions, emotional deprivation, emotional expressions, excessive love and affection, emotional catharsis and emotional stress, directly and indirectly, affect the development of personality.
Some people experience a predominance of pleasant emotions while others experience a predominance of unpleasant emotions. This predominance affects the development of personality. The cheerful persons are usually happy and even when they are in a depressive mood they can see the brighter side of things. Similarly, since apprehensive persons are full of fear, they even when there is a happy or enjoyable situation, feel depressed and remain fearful. Emotional balance which is a condition in which pleasant emotions outweigh the unpleasant emotion is considered essential to good personal and social adjustment.
When the person encounters obstacles and problems, unpleasant experiences like fear, anger, jealousy and other negative emotions are aroused. As a consequence, the person’s adjustments are adversely affected. Such conditions, in the long run, are responsible for the development of many pathological traits in the person. Also emotional deprivation of pleasant emotions like love, happiness and curiosity have an impact, which gradually leads to poor personal and social adjustment.
Research has revealed that the impact of emotional deprivation depends upon the extent to which a person is emotionally deprived. One of the common effects of deprivation of love and affection is the development of emotional insecurity. Much of adolescent and adult rebellion against authority stems from emotional insecurity which has its origin in unstable affectional relationships with parents and other members of the family during early childhood years.
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Excessive Love and Affection has a psychologically negative effect. Sigmund Freud had earlier warned that too much parental love and affection awakens a disposition for neurotic disorders, spoils the child and makes the individual a problematic adolescent. Strecker has pointed out that excessive mothering, that is, overprotective mothers turn their sons and daughters into dependent and immature adults.
Emotional expression, that is, how the person expresses emotion also affects the development of personality. If the person can express emotions in a socially approved manner, that person would be judged favourably and this provides a good mirror image of the self. Such emotional expression produces a better feeling both mentally and physically because homeostasis can be restored.
3. Self-Disclosure
Self-disclosure is considered basic to mental health and such disclosure helps to bring about a healthy personality pattern which is a guarantee for a socially desirable and favourable reaction from others. Emotional stress expressed in the form of frustration, anxiety, jealousy and envy also affects the development of personality. A person who suffers from emotional stress makes good personal and social adjustments. Intense emotional stress may motivate the person to go to excesses in hope of being relieved from it. For example, the person may resort to overeating and using drugs to dull the intense feeling of insecurity caused by emotional stress. It has been reported that women who experience a greater degree of emotional stress during the menstrual period, are found to develop depressive tendencies. Psychologists have shown that people with low self-esteem are more adversely affected by emotional stress than those with high self-esteem.
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4. Aspiration
These also affect the development of personality. Aspiration means a longing for and striving for something higher than one’s present status. Thus aspirations are the ego-involved goals that persons set for themselves. The more ego-involved the aspirations are, the more will be the impact upon behaviour and therefore, the greater will be the impact upon personality. There may be various forms of aspirations such as positive aspiration (to achieve success), negative aspiration (to avoid failure), realistic aspiration (within the range of the person’s capacity), unrealistic aspirations (beyond the capacity of the person), remote aspirations (to achieve a goal in the remote future) or immediate aspirations (to achieve a goal in the near future).
The motivating power of aspiration varies. In general, realistic and remote aspirations do provide stronger motivating forces than immediate and unrealistic aspirations. Negative aspirations are considered weaker in providing motivating strength than positive aspirations.
Level of aspiration, that is, the discrepancy between the goal an individual has achieved and the goal the person hopes to reach, affects the personality in terms of the size of the discrepancy. When the size of discrepancy is large, the person’s self-concept is severely damaged especially if the person fails to achieve the goal. Not only the individual will judge themself as a failure but others will also judge the person as a failure in particular if others know about the person’s goal and that goal had not been achieved.
Research studies have also shown that high aspirations aren’t necessarily a source of damage to the self-concept. They may be a source of motivation and pleasure. They may be a kind of wishful thinking that will not cause any damage to personality so long as it remains a form of fun and play.
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5. Achievements
These are other related factor that determines the development of personality. Achievement can be evaluated objectively by comparing one’s performance with those of one’s peers and subjectively by comparing the person’s achievement with the level of aspiration. Success and failure are the two different attitudes of the person towards achievement. If the person is pleased with their own achievement, the achievement will be considered a success and this has a favourable impact upon the self-concept. However, if the person’s attitude towards achievement is negative, then the achievement will not be considered a success but a failure.
Such persons will feel dissatisfied and miserable and in turn, their self-concept will be badly affected. Persons who feel that they have been successful remain satisfied with themselves and appear to be happy.
Besides building a favourable self-concept, achievement also raises the person’s self-esteem and increases the level of self-confidence. So that the individual can solve the many new problems of the future successfully. In addition to the personal satisfaction that a person derives from achieving the goal successfully. The achievement ensures that the person is appropriate in all the actions that are taken up, which in turn produce a stabilising impact upon the behaviour. Therefore, a successful person tends to be more relaxed than a person who has experienced failure.
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