Dr Asangba Tzudir
One of the most intriguing so also the most complex term associated in the study and understanding of human beings is the term ‘personality’. The exhibition of multifaceted personalities comes to be shaped by a person’s patters of thinking, feeling and the way they behave which is derived from the innate dispositions and inclinations along with external experiences, so also the kind of relationship with the environment. What makes personality more interesting and also equally baffling is the fact that, a person’s core personality may remain the same throughout, yet, their extended personalities and the way in which one respond to the same situation may even vary in the same person at different times of the day.
This also takes us to the question of how personalities develop and how it works. Carol Dweck in an article in Psychological Review proposes that our personalities develop around three basic needs – “the need to predict our world, the need to build competence to act on our world, and because we are social beings, the need for acceptance from others.” To a large extent infants are born with the capacity to feel the need and pursue thereon. The world where they are to grow should not be painful or one that gives discomfort is expressed by way of crying, which is their first language. Responses in the form of experiences gives rise to beliefs coupled with the emotions and action tendencies and responses play an important role in development of personality.
Besides, some people are conscientious which makes them set targets and work towards achieving while exercising self-discipline and perseverance. While this is also a need, whether it was done conscientiously will depend on whether their acts were based on their beliefs, emotions and which leads to certain actions. On the flip, the question also arises as to how, certain people when confronted by challenging tasks tend to choose the easy way out instead. Such tasks often comes with a risk, the very understanding of risk that comes with non-fulfillment of the challenging task. But it only undermines one’s ability as deficient and competence. Yet, the conscientious believe that their abilities can be developed while facing the challenging tasks and thereby develop their competence.
As such, one’s temperament also becomes an important aspect. Say for example, someone who is shy or fearful will feel a stronger urge to come out of it. However, along with temperament, is the aspect of ‘motivation’ which will ultimately make one come out by way of overcoming, or instead get more cocooned. However, the ’weakness of the will’ also dampens the motivation and turns it into a weakness. As such, our personality and the way we respond and exhibit is not simply about the traits we are born with but also on our temperament and motivation.
To put it in perspective, the pursuit of the basic needs operates in varying degrees among each and every individual where predicting and creating one’s world is an ongoing process, while the aspect of competence is subject to ones motivational levels, and then a lot of fear and liberating things comes into play in the pursuit of social acceptance within the underlying social norms.
So one can understand the context in which our personality develops and the difficulty of understanding human personality. The external experiences of social, religion, culture, political, etc. which shapes ones beliefs and which in turn moulds the pattern of thinking, feeling and the way in which an individual behaves, gives rise to multifaceted personality exhibition. Nonetheless, the role of competence and motivation also has a telling effect on the very understanding of personality which goes beyond the simple understanding of human nature.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes guest editorials for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
