Explanation:
What is personality and how does it shape who I am? This is a question someone may ask themselves, and while there is no simple answer, it can certainly be addressed. Personality defines who we are. It determines whether we like attending parties, how we tolerate uncomfortable situations, and much we procrastinate. Determinism and free will, depending on which you believe, can give us a basis on whether or not we can change ourselves.
Someone’s personality is a set of characteristics used to describe their overall character. It’s a mixture of biology, genetics, psychology, and other factors in the external world. Human beings are shapeshifters when it comes to living in a society, and many factors go into determining who they are. While there is no set definition of personality, this what I believe to be an overarching view of it. The characteristics of personality can be inherited or shaped from your previous experiences in life, whether it was from something that happened during your childhood or something that occurred yesterday. My definition would actually be considered an omnibus definition of personality by psychologist Gordon Allport, one of the first psychologists to do in depth research about personalities. “...Allport called them omnibus definitions. A sweeping, all-purpose definition is one that attempts to cover all influences or factors that might affect personality… Allport said this type of definition was useless. It covered all the possibilities, but it did not provide any useful guidance. It did not tell how to distinguish different personalities, for example”
In psychology, there are many theories that describe what personality is and how it is shaped. Some of these theories are the social learning theory, the psychodynamic theory, evolutionary theories, behaviorism, and trait theories
Without personality, there wouldn’t be much excitement or variation in life. Everyone would be the same, and we’d be dull duplicates of one another. But because there are so many differences among people, we are ourselves, shaped by genetics and our surroundings. Theories of free will and determinism may lead us to the answer to if who we are is determined beforehand or if we morph as we grow, and research is still looking to answer that question. We may or may not be able to change certain qualities about ourselves; some things can be altered or improved through meditation and hard work, and others may not. The qualities we cannot change should be embraced, because after all, that is who we are.
