Three major approaches to understanding personality development

Personality

The definition of personality can loosely be referred to as what encompasses the directly recognizable psychological orientation of an individual in the daily life. It portrays whether the individual is a bright or dull, happy or sad, quiet or extrovert, energetic or withdrawn person. Personality involves majorly the mental disposition of an individual. It deals more with the psychological aspect than the physical, which include the thoughts, motives, emotions and even intentions of a person.

Warren & Carmichael, (1930) further describes it as "the entire mental organization of a human being at any stage of his development. It embraces every phase of human character: intellect, temperament, skill, morality, and every attitude that has been built up in the course of one's life."

There have been over time varying approaches to personality postulated geared towards explaining the numerous human behavior and psychological disposition. However, there are three major approaches that are seen to capture the entire personality study in totality as below.

Biological approach

This approach presumes that the genetic composition of an individual is solely responsible for the personality that the individual displays or shows. There is an assumption that the personality that is displayed is passed on from one generation to another, in a nutshell, personality is heritable.

One of the major proponents of this theory is Hans Eysenck who argued that the introverts are so because they have high cortical arousal which makes them evade stimulation, and extroverts on the other hand possess low cortical arousal hence look for stimulation. This genetic orientation can therefore be passed from the parents to the offspring hence dictating whether the children will be extroverts or introverts.

Humanistic approach

Humanistic approach emphasizes the individual worth and the centrality of the value of a person. It is pegged on the philosophy of existentialism and emphasized on creativity, spontaneity and activeness of human beings. The approach focuses on the development and possibility of humans to defeat hardship and misery as opposed to defeat and pessimis.

Under this approach, there is emphasis on free will and the experience of an individual to be fundamental in the shaping of the personality. It looks at the concept of self-actualization, which is an internal natural need for personal growth to the fullest possible to be a motivator to behavior shaping hence personality. The major proponents of this theory are Carl Rogers and the renowned Abraham Maslow. The Maslow hierarchy of needs ranges from deficit needs to the being needs and each of these stages represent the various personalities that are portrayed by individuals. Overall concusses here is that the self-concept dictates the personality of an individual.

There are several other theories that attempt to explain the personality of individuals, however, it is noteworthy that these approaches mostly work hand in hand to shape the personality of an individual and it is almost impossible to point out the single approach that has contributed to an individual's personality in solitude.