"Personality" can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that

uniquely influences his or her cognitions, emotions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations.
The word "personality" originates from the Latin persona, which means mask.
ignificantly, in the theatre of the ancient Latin!speaking world, the mask was not used as a plot
device to disguise the identity of a character, but rather was a convention employed to represent
or typify that character.
Personality may also refer to the patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors consistently e"hibited by an
individual over time that strongly influence our e"pectations, self!perceptions, values and attitudes, and
predicts our reactions to people, problems and stress.
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences.
#ts areas of focus include$
%onstructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her ma&or psychological processes
#nvestigating individual differences ! how people are unique
#nvestigating human nature ! how people are alike
Personality development concerns how the parts of personality and their organization grow and
change over time. Personality development is often divided into stages or ages of development.
There are no hard!and!fast divisions, but some commonly seen divisions are as follows$
#nfancy
Toddlerhood
%hildhood
'dolescence
(merging 'dulthood
'dulthood, and
)ld 'ge*+aturity
Personality ,evelopment
Two widely cited approaches to personality development are those of igmund -reud and (rik (rikson.
Sigmund Freud's stages of psychosexual development. igmund -reud developed a treatment
theory called psychoanalysis, which is based upon a theory of psychosexual stages of
development .Table / 0.
TABLE 1 Freudian sychosexual Stages of !evelopment
Stage Age Erogenous "one#Activities
)ral 1 to /2 months +outh*sucking, biting, chewing
'nal /2 to 34 months 'nus*bowel and bladder control
Phallic 3 to 4 years 5enitals*masturbation
Latency 4 years to puberty 6*repression of se"ual feelings
5enital puberty7 +aturation of se"ual orientation
Eri$ Eri$son's stages of development. (rik (rikson proposed a theory of development that
continues throughout the life span. 8is theory states that there are universal life stages and that a
specific psychosocial dilemma occurs at each phase of development. These problems .crises0
must be resolved before an individual can move to the ne"t developmental stage .Table 9 .0
.(rikson:s theory has been credited for accounting for continuity and changes in personality
development. #t has also been criticized for vagueness and has not stimulated a great deal of
empirical research.
TABLE % Eri$ Eri$son's Stages of
!evelopment
Age sychological Stage eriod
;irth to / year Trust vs. Mistrust Learning that the provider of comfort is reliable,
consistent, and predictable
)ral!sensory
9 to 3 years Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Learning to e"ercise independence and
freedom of choice along with self!control
+uscular!anal
3 to < years Initiative vs. Guilt Planning and e"ecuting a task for the sake of actively
doing it
Locomotor!
genital
4 to // years Industry vs. Inferiority ,eveloping as a worker and producer Latency
'dolescence Identity vs. Role Confusion (volving a sense of self that is reliable and
consistent, both for oneself and for others
Puberty
=oung
adulthood
Intimacy vs. Isolation Preparing for a commitment to affiliation with
others and developing the ethical strength to abide by such
commitments
=oung
adulthood
+iddle age Generativity vs. Stagnation -inding a way to support in the
establishment and guidance of the ne"t generation
'dulthood
)ld age Integrity vs. Despair #ntegrating the earlier stages into an acceptance of
oneself and a sense of fulfillment rather than looking back in regret at
what might have been
+aturity
&. The sycho'iological approach
.The perspective that personality is determined by biological factors0.
Temperament ! a person:s characteristic emotional state, first apparent in early infancy
and possibly inborn.
A. (ippocrates' vie)
'ccording to 8ippocrates, temperament is determined by a person:s level of > different body
fluids, called humors.
/.0 ;lood was associated with a cheerful, or sanguine temperament.
90 Phlegm assoc. with a calm, or phlegmatic temperament.
30 ;lack bile was associated with a depressed, or melancholic temperament.
>0 =ellow bile was assoc. w* an irritable, or choleric temperament.