Personality

Abstract

The reader will by now be aware that most topics in psychology can be viewed from a variety of different perspectives. This is particularly true in the field of personality, which deals with the entire range of human activity. In order to clarify what we mean, we shall start with a definition: ‘Personality consists of the individual characteristics, in particular the modes of thinking, feeling and behaving which in their organisation and patterning determine the individual’s manner of interaction with his environment.’ Thus we see personality as a kind of compendium of various processes, some of which we have covered in other chapters, e.g. motivation, perception and learning. This chapter, however, will not simply be a reiteration of other ones, for far more is involved in the definition than just that. Note particularly the words ‘organisation’ and ‘patterning’. Personality is a network of interrelated tendencies, some of which act in concert and others of which oppose each other in such a way that each individual’s pattern is different.