What is personality mean


personality | Definition, Types, Nature, & Facts

Margaret Mead

See all media

Key People:
Sigmund Freud Karen Horney Wilhelm Reich Harold Lasswell William Sheldon
Related Topics:
psychological development ego five-factor model of personality personality disorder hubris

See all related content →

Summary

Read a brief summary of this topic

personality, a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. It includes behavioral characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one person from another and that can be observed in people’s relations to the environment and to the social group.

The term personality has been defined in many ways, but as a psychological concept two main meanings have evolved. The first pertains to the consistent differences that exist between people: in this sense, the study of personality focuses on classifying and explaining relatively stable human psychological characteristics. The second meaning emphasizes those qualities that make all people alike and that distinguish psychological man from other species; it directs the personality theorist to search for those regularities among all people that define the nature of man as well as the factors that influence the course of lives. This duality may help explain the two directions that personality studies have taken: on the one hand, the study of ever more specific qualities in people, and, on the other, the search for the organized totality of psychological functions that emphasizes the interplay between organic and psychological events within people and those social and biological events that surround them. The dual definition of personality is interwoven in most of the topics discussed below. It should be emphasized, however, that no definition of personality has found universal acceptance within the field.

The study of personality can be said to have its origins in the fundamental idea that people are distinguished by their characteristic individual patterns of behaviour—the distinctive ways in which they walk, talk, furnish their living quarters, or express their urges. Whatever the behaviour, personologists—as those who systematically study personality are called—examine how people differ in the ways they express themselves and attempt to determine the causes of these differences. Although other fields of psychology examine many of the same functions and processes, such as attention, thinking, or motivation, the personologist places emphasis on how these different processes fit together and become integrated so as to give each person a distinctive identity, or personality. The systematic psychological study of personality has emerged from a number of different sources, including psychiatric case studies that focused on lives in distress, from philosophy, which explores the nature of man, and from physiology, anthropology, and social psychology.

The systematic study of personality as a recognizable and separate discipline within psychology may be said to have begun in the 1930s with the publication in the United States of two textbooks, Psychology of Personality (1937) by Ross Stagner and Personality: A Psychological Interpretation (1937) by Gordon W. Allport, followed by Henry A. Murray’s Explorations in Personality (1938), which contained a set of experimental and clinical studies, and by Gardner Murphy’s integrative and comprehensive text, Personality: A Biosocial Approach to Origins and Structure (1947). Yet personology can trace its ancestry to the ancient Greeks, who proposed a kind of biochemical theory of personality.

Physiological type theories

The idea that people fall into certain personality type categories in relation to bodily characteristics has intrigued numerous modern psychologists as well as their counterparts among the ancients. The idea that people must fall into one or another rigid personality class, however, has been largely dismissed. Two general sets of theories are considered here, the humoral and the morphological.

Humoral theories

Perhaps the oldest personality theory known is contained in the cosmological writings of the Greek philosopher and physiologist Empedocles and in related speculations of the physician Hippocrates. Empedocles’ cosmic elements—air (with its associated qualities, warm and moist), earth (cold and dry), fire (warm and dry), and water (cold and moist)—were related to health and corresponded (in the above order) to Hippocrates’ physical humours, which were associated with variations in temperament: blood (sanguine temperament), black bile (melancholic), yellow bile (choleric), and phlegm (phlegmatic). This theory, with its view that body chemistry determines temperament, has survived in some form for more than 2,500 years. According to these early theorists, emotional stability as well as general health depend on an appropriate balance among the four bodily humours; an excess of one may produce a particular bodily illness or an exaggerated personality trait. Thus, a person with an excess of blood would be expected to have a sanguine temperament—that is, to be optimistic, enthusiastic, and excitable. Too much black bile (dark blood perhaps mixed with other secretions) was believed to produce a melancholic temperament. An oversupply of yellow bile (secreted by the liver) would result in anger, irritability, and a “jaundiced” view of life. An abundance of phlegm (secreted in the respiratory passages) was alleged to make people stolid, apathetic, and undemonstrative. As biological science has progressed, these primitive ideas about body chemistry have been replaced by more complex ideas and by contemporary studies of hormones, neurotransmitters, and substances produced within the central nervous system, such as endorphins.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Morphological (body type) theories

Related to the biochemical theories are those that distinguish types of personalities on the basis of body shape (somatotype). Such a morphological theory was developed by the German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer. In his book Physique and Character, first published in 1921, he wrote that among his patients a frail, rather weak (asthenic) body build as well as a muscular (athletic) physique were frequently characteristic of schizophrenic patients, while a short, rotund (pyknic) build was often found among manic-depressive patients. Kretschmer extended his findings and assertions in a theory that related body build and personality in all people and wrote that slim and delicate physiques are associated with introversion, while those with rounded heavier and shorter bodies tend to be cyclothymic—that is, moody but often extroverted and jovial.

Despite early hopes that body types might be useful in classifying personality characteristics or in identifying psychiatric syndromes, the relations observed by Kretschmer were not found to be strongly supported by empirical studies. In the 1930s more elaborate studies by William H. Sheldon in the United States developed a system for assigning a three-digit somatotype number to people, each digit with a range from 1 to 7. Each of the three digits applies to one of Sheldon’s three components of body build: the first to the soft, round endomorph, the second to the square, muscular mesomorph; and the third to the linear, fine-boned ectomorph. Thus, an extreme endomorph would be 711, an extreme ectomorph 117, and an average person 444. Sheldon then developed a 20-item list of traits that differentiated three separate categories of behaviours or temperaments. The three-digit temperament scale appeared to be significantly related to the somatotype profile, an association that failed to excite personologists.

Also during the 1930s, personality studies began to consider the broader social context in which a person lived. The American anthropologist Margaret Mead studied the patterns of cooperation and competition in 13 primitive societies and was able to document wide variations in those behaviours in different societies. In her book Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), she showed that masculinity is not necessarily expressed through aggressiveness and that femininity is not necessarily expressed through passivity and acquiescence. These demonstrated variations raised questions about the relative roles of biology, learning, and cultural pressures in personality characteristics.

personality | Definition, Types, Nature, & Facts

Margaret Mead

See all media

Key People:
Sigmund Freud Karen Horney Wilhelm Reich Harold Lasswell William Sheldon
Related Topics:
psychological development ego five-factor model of personality personality disorder hubris

See all related content →

Summary

Read a brief summary of this topic

personality, a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. It includes behavioral characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one person from another and that can be observed in people’s relations to the environment and to the social group.

The term personality has been defined in many ways, but as a psychological concept two main meanings have evolved. The first pertains to the consistent differences that exist between people: in this sense, the study of personality focuses on classifying and explaining relatively stable human psychological characteristics. The second meaning emphasizes those qualities that make all people alike and that distinguish psychological man from other species; it directs the personality theorist to search for those regularities among all people that define the nature of man as well as the factors that influence the course of lives. This duality may help explain the two directions that personality studies have taken: on the one hand, the study of ever more specific qualities in people, and, on the other, the search for the organized totality of psychological functions that emphasizes the interplay between organic and psychological events within people and those social and biological events that surround them. The dual definition of personality is interwoven in most of the topics discussed below. It should be emphasized, however, that no definition of personality has found universal acceptance within the field.

The study of personality can be said to have its origins in the fundamental idea that people are distinguished by their characteristic individual patterns of behaviour—the distinctive ways in which they walk, talk, furnish their living quarters, or express their urges. Whatever the behaviour, personologists—as those who systematically study personality are called—examine how people differ in the ways they express themselves and attempt to determine the causes of these differences. Although other fields of psychology examine many of the same functions and processes, such as attention, thinking, or motivation, the personologist places emphasis on how these different processes fit together and become integrated so as to give each person a distinctive identity, or personality. The systematic psychological study of personality has emerged from a number of different sources, including psychiatric case studies that focused on lives in distress, from philosophy, which explores the nature of man, and from physiology, anthropology, and social psychology.

The systematic study of personality as a recognizable and separate discipline within psychology may be said to have begun in the 1930s with the publication in the United States of two textbooks, Psychology of Personality (1937) by Ross Stagner and Personality: A Psychological Interpretation (1937) by Gordon W. Allport, followed by Henry A. Murray’s Explorations in Personality (1938), which contained a set of experimental and clinical studies, and by Gardner Murphy’s integrative and comprehensive text, Personality: A Biosocial Approach to Origins and Structure (1947). Yet personology can trace its ancestry to the ancient Greeks, who proposed a kind of biochemical theory of personality.

Physiological type theories

The idea that people fall into certain personality type categories in relation to bodily characteristics has intrigued numerous modern psychologists as well as their counterparts among the ancients. The idea that people must fall into one or another rigid personality class, however, has been largely dismissed. Two general sets of theories are considered here, the humoral and the morphological.

Humoral theories

Perhaps the oldest personality theory known is contained in the cosmological writings of the Greek philosopher and physiologist Empedocles and in related speculations of the physician Hippocrates. Empedocles’ cosmic elements—air (with its associated qualities, warm and moist), earth (cold and dry), fire (warm and dry), and water (cold and moist)—were related to health and corresponded (in the above order) to Hippocrates’ physical humours, which were associated with variations in temperament: blood (sanguine temperament), black bile (melancholic), yellow bile (choleric), and phlegm (phlegmatic). This theory, with its view that body chemistry determines temperament, has survived in some form for more than 2,500 years. According to these early theorists, emotional stability as well as general health depend on an appropriate balance among the four bodily humours; an excess of one may produce a particular bodily illness or an exaggerated personality trait. Thus, a person with an excess of blood would be expected to have a sanguine temperament—that is, to be optimistic, enthusiastic, and excitable. Too much black bile (dark blood perhaps mixed with other secretions) was believed to produce a melancholic temperament. An oversupply of yellow bile (secreted by the liver) would result in anger, irritability, and a “jaundiced” view of life. An abundance of phlegm (secreted in the respiratory passages) was alleged to make people stolid, apathetic, and undemonstrative. As biological science has progressed, these primitive ideas about body chemistry have been replaced by more complex ideas and by contemporary studies of hormones, neurotransmitters, and substances produced within the central nervous system, such as endorphins.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Morphological (body type) theories

Related to the biochemical theories are those that distinguish types of personalities on the basis of body shape (somatotype). Such a morphological theory was developed by the German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer. In his book Physique and Character, first published in 1921, he wrote that among his patients a frail, rather weak (asthenic) body build as well as a muscular (athletic) physique were frequently characteristic of schizophrenic patients, while a short, rotund (pyknic) build was often found among manic-depressive patients. Kretschmer extended his findings and assertions in a theory that related body build and personality in all people and wrote that slim and delicate physiques are associated with introversion, while those with rounded heavier and shorter bodies tend to be cyclothymic—that is, moody but often extroverted and jovial.

Despite early hopes that body types might be useful in classifying personality characteristics or in identifying psychiatric syndromes, the relations observed by Kretschmer were not found to be strongly supported by empirical studies. In the 1930s more elaborate studies by William H. Sheldon in the United States developed a system for assigning a three-digit somatotype number to people, each digit with a range from 1 to 7. Each of the three digits applies to one of Sheldon’s three components of body build: the first to the soft, round endomorph, the second to the square, muscular mesomorph; and the third to the linear, fine-boned ectomorph. Thus, an extreme endomorph would be 711, an extreme ectomorph 117, and an average person 444. Sheldon then developed a 20-item list of traits that differentiated three separate categories of behaviours or temperaments. The three-digit temperament scale appeared to be significantly related to the somatotype profile, an association that failed to excite personologists.

Also during the 1930s, personality studies began to consider the broader social context in which a person lived. The American anthropologist Margaret Mead studied the patterns of cooperation and competition in 13 primitive societies and was able to document wide variations in those behaviours in different societies. In her book Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), she showed that masculinity is not necessarily expressed through aggressiveness and that femininity is not necessarily expressed through passivity and acquiescence. These demonstrated variations raised questions about the relative roles of biology, learning, and cultural pressures in personality characteristics.

Man, individual, personality - concept and features

Man as a biological species

not only biological, but also spiritual needs.

On the one hand, people, like animals, have instincts, but on the other hand, they are strikingly different from other representatives of the animal world. In the very definition of the concept of "man", social science lays down information about the biological and social essence of Homo Sapiens. The social component is precisely the main difference between humans and animals.

Animal

Man

1) All actions are caused mainly by instincts, the influence of which is irresistible.

1) Along with instincts, activity is regulated with the help of thinking, self-consciousness. There is an ability to overcome your instincts.

2) To survive, it adapts to the environment and changes its way of life only when external conditions change.

2) Can transform the environment, consciously change the way of life, create material and other values.

3) Some species can use improvised means to achieve their goals, but they are not able to create full-fledged tools of labor.

3) Can create a wide range of tools. Capable not only of physical, but also of creative, intellectual work.

4) Existence and interaction with other representatives of the species is determined by the biological entity.

4) In addition to the biological, there is a social essence and spiritual needs.

Practicing child psychologist Ekaterina Murashova

Free course for modern moms and dads from Ekaterina Murashova. Sign up and participate in the drawing of 8 lessons

Individual and personality

From the standpoint of social science individual is a separate representative of the human race with all the features inherent in it. This word was formed from the Latin individuum , which means "indivisible". Usually they designate a person as a biological being, without indicating how much his social essence is realized.

Let's explain with an example. Surely everyone has heard about the so-called “Mowgli children”, who, due to tragic circumstances, spent the first years of their lives in the circle of animals or in social isolation without communicating with people. There are several documented cases, in particular, the Indian girls Kamala and Amala, who grew up with wolves, the Italian boy Rono, etc. Unlike the fabulous Mowgli, the hero of the work of R. Kipling, after returning to civilization, these children never learned to speak , fully interact with other people and even eat our usual human food.

Can we call them individuals? Yes, you can. But the personality of these children remained undeveloped. Another example that makes it possible to see the difference between the concepts of "individual" and "personality" can be people with severe mental retardation or severe mental illness. Their personality remains unformed or gradually destroyed, but they are certainly individuals.

In social science personality is a complex of socially significant qualities and skills that allow a person to effectively interact with other people, engage in creativity, create material and spiritual values. This is a kind of superstructure of the psyche, which develops in the process of socialization (games, learning, work).

As you can easily see, the definition of a person accepted in social science says that one cannot become one from birth. It is related to the social essence of a person, to the development of social roles, social norms, rules of behavior, etc.

A huge role in this process is played by specific historical circumstances of life (the social norms of our time and, say, the 14th century differ significantly). Also, the formation of personality is influenced by the cultural environment with all its national, religious and other features. All these factors eventually turn the individual into a person.

Important!

Understanding social norms does not mean fulfilling them. If a person deliberately violates social rules (as do, for example, hooligans or criminals), he does not cease to be a person. This concept does not imply an ethical assessment of actions.

So, let's repeat once again how the biological component, which is included in the concept of "individual", differs from the social one.

The biological essence of man

Human social essence

Manifested in its anatomy, physiology, features of the circulatory, muscular and nervous systems, inherent in the entire human race.

Develops in the process of socialization, in the course of communication with other people. Manifested through the ability to creative work, understanding of social norms and rules, self-awareness.

Personality

In the process of becoming a person, a person not only learns social norms that unite people, but also realizes his differences from others. In part, the difference between people manifests itself from birth - even babies have different looks and different temperaments. Over the years, differences in knowledge, skills, worldview, etc. are added to this. This is called individualization - the self-determination of a person, the formation of its unique qualities, worldview, moral and philosophical foundations.

Individuality , as social science defines it, is a unique psycho-physiological structure of a person. A unique complex that consists of temperament, character, intellect, worldview, abilities and skills, external features, etc.

This term emphasizes the originality of each individual, his originality. After all, even monozygotic twins, who are exactly the same from a genetic point of view, acquire different life experiences over the years, and it entails more and more differences.

We will help you consolidate new material in social studies courses at the Skysmart online school.

Free English lessons with a native speaker

Practice 15 minutes a day. Learn English grammar and vocabulary. Make language a part of life.

Strong personality

Throughout life, a person can get into extreme situations, which become a test of how strong his inner core is - individuality and personality. How rooted and become part of the "I" of his beliefs, principles, worldview, etc.

Austrian psychiatrists Bruno Bettelheim and Viktor Frankl, who ended up in concentration camps during the Second World War, wrote that a person's life itself sometimes depends on the preservation of individuality. The conditions of the concentration camps led not only to physical exhaustion, but also to the destruction of the individual - the goal of the Nazis was to lower the prisoners to the level of an individual, occupied only with biological needs. In practice, such an individual, although he became an “ideal” obedient prisoner, quickly lost his will to live, memory, abilities, and even the instinct for self-preservation.

Frankl and Bettelheim, by their own admission, were helped to survive only by the desire to preserve their individuality — to continue mental work, to set life goals for themselves, even if their realization was unlikely at that time. So, Bettelheim, deprived of the ability to write, composed a book in his mind, and Frankl, together with a group of doctors, organized a secret psychological service for other prisoners. A strong personality as the highest stage of development is characterized by the ability to overcome life circumstances, placing spiritual values ​​not only above material, but also above biological needs.

So, we figured out what a person is in social science and how this term differs from such concepts as “individual” and “person”. In addition to the theoretical material, we offer a small test.

Questions for self-examination

  1. A person as a subject of social relations is characterized by the following term:

    a) individual,

    b) individuality,

    c) personality.

  2. Distinguishes man from animals:

    a) interaction with other members of the species,

    b) ability to overcome instincts,

    c) the ability to use improvised means as tools.

  3. Personality is influenced by:

    a) education in the family,

    b) cultural environment,

    c) historical terms,

    d) all of the above.

  4. Which of the following traits and qualities relate to the concept of "individuality":

    a) unusual hair color,

    b) high intelligence,

    c) creativity,

    d) all of the above.

  5. What characterizes a person as a personality?

    a) character and temperament,

    b) belonging to Homo Sapiens,

    c) traits that manifest themselves in interaction with other people.

Personality | it's... What is a Personality?

This article lacks links to sources of information.

The information must be verifiable, otherwise it may be questioned and deleted.
You can edit this article by adding links to authoritative sources.
This flag was set by on May 13, 2011 .

Contents

  • 1 The concept of personality in philosophy
    • 1.1 The history of the development of views on personality
    • 1.2 Modern concepts of personality
      • 1.2.1 Personalism
    • 1.3 Personal attributes
  • 2 Understanding personality in the social sciences
  • 3 The concept of personality in psychology
    • 3.1 Complex of stable personality components
    • 3.2 Person, individual and individuality
  • 4 The concept of personality in religion
    • 4.1 Christianity
    • 4.2 Buddhism
    • 4.3 Other religions
  • 5 See also
  • 6 Notes
  • 7 Literature
  • 8 Links

Personality is a concept developed to reflect the social nature of a person, consider him as a subject of socio-cultural life, define him as a carrier of an individual principle, self-revealing in the contexts of social relations, communication and objective activity [1] . By "personality" is meant: 1) a human individual as a subject of relations and conscious activity ("face" - in the broad sense of the word) or 2) a stable system of socially significant features that characterize an individual as a member of a particular society or community. Although these two concepts - the face as the integrity of a person (lat. persona) and the personality as his social and psychological appearance (lat. parsonalitas) - are terminologically quite distinguishable, they are sometimes used as synonyms [2] .

The concept of personality in philosophy

The history of the development of views on personality

  • was descriptive, it could be called the mask of an actor or the legal role that a person performed). The consequence of this identification was the emergence of a new concept of "personality", previously unknown in the ancient world. [3]
  • In medieval philosophy, personality was understood as the essence of God
  • In modern European philosophy, a person was understood as a citizen
  • In the philosophy of romanticism, a person was understood as a hero.

Modern concepts of personality

Personalism

According to the logic of personalism, the existence of an individual, woven into a complex network of social relations, subject to social changes, excludes the possibility for him to assert his own, unique "I". Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of the individual and the individual. Man, as part of the genus (Homo Sapiens), as part of society, is an individual. Nothing is known about such a person - a biological or social atom. It is anonymous (to use Kierkegaard's phrase)—only an element, a part determined by its relation to the whole. A person as a person can assert himself only through free will, through a will that overcomes both the finiteness of a person’s life and social barriers, as it were, from within a person. In the sphere of ideas of personalism, a trend develops that will then become the commandment of existentialism - the assertion of the fundamental hostility of society and the individual.

Attributes of personality

  • Will (see also: Freedom)
  • Mind
  • feelings

Understanding personality in the social sciences

According to V. A. Yadov, in the social sciences of the 20th century, at least 4 broad approaches to understanding personality can be distinguished in relation to a certain understanding of culture, and the conceptualization of cultural relations and personalities: [4]

  1. Culture and the unconscious - psychoanalytic anthropology, presented in the works of: Z. Freud, whose personality, and its deep behaviors, are limited and directed by culture, understood as a system of totems and taboos; C. G. Jung, whose deepest level of personality is represented by archetypes.
  2. Culture and personality - includes four concepts, in particular: "configuration of cultures" by R. Benedict, "basic and model personality" by A. Kardiner, R. Linton, A. Inckels, "national character" by F. L. K. Hsu, J. Gorera; and the comparative cultural approach of J. and B. Whiting. Sustainable cultural formations in this direction serve to form the core of the identity of each individual.
  3. Culture and cognitive processes - cognitive anthropology, represented by the works of ethnographers and psychologists who dealt with the problems of child development, "primitive" thinking and ethno-semantic studies, in particular, F. K. Bock, M. Cole, and others. From the position of this direction personality does not have a significant impact on the development of cognitive processes.
  4. Social structure and personality combines three anthropological positions - materialistic - K. Marx, F. Engels and their followers, positivist - M. Weber, K. Merton, and interactionist (J. G. Mead). According to representatives of this approach, a personality is formed depending on the position it occupies within the social structure and carries the features of the culture to which it belongs.

The concept of personality in psychology

Personality is a basic category and subject of study of personality psychology. Personality is a set of developed habits and preferences, mental attitude and tone, sociocultural experience and acquired knowledge, a set of psychophysical traits and characteristics of a person, his archetype that determines everyday behavior and connection with society and nature. Personality is also observed as manifestations of "behavioral masks" developed for different situations and social groups of interaction.

Complex of stable personality components

  • Temperament
  • Character
  • Abilities
  • Motivation

Personality, individual and individuality

  • An individual is a single person, a representative of the human race.
  • Individuality expresses the specificity of an individual, and this specificity may be hereditary or random.

The concept of personality in religion

Christianity

In Christianity (Orthodoxy) are considered persons [ source not specified 901 days ] :

  1. Three Persons of the Holy Trinity
  2. Angels and demons (fallen angels)
  3. People (as created in the image and likeness of God)

Each person, according to the teachings of the Church, is incomprehensibly a full-fledged personality immediately at the moment of his conception in the mother's womb. However, having appeared by the will of God, the personality of a person is eternally revealed, developed, enriched, improved. [1] All people (as well as all spirits) are considered free and unique (unique, created in the image and likeness of God) personalities, including: human embryos, babies, children and others. [2]

The Orthodox understanding of personality, in contrast to the Catholic one, implies that in the axiological and ethical sense, the human personality surpasses the concepts of "human nature" and "human individuality". Personality, including nature and individuality, at the same time belongs to the highest category. It presupposes the presence of such abilities as free will, determination of a goal, choice of motives, moral sense, literature (reasonableness), creative orientation in their manifestations, sacrificial love. Personal development means for a Christian approaching the ideal model of a person who was given to us in His Person by Jesus Christ. Man is a person precisely because he is the image of a personal God in the impersonal world. A person exists as a person because he is the image of God, and vice versa - he is the only image of God because he exists as a person. The personality of a person is not determined by his nature, but can itself liken nature to the Divine Archetype. The ability to be a person is essential for a person: personality and nature are combined in a person into a kind of unity that distinguishes him from other creatures. But at the same time, the personality itself is not reducible to human nature, which makes it practically inaccessible for scientific research.

Buddhism

Buddhists considered the word “person” to be equivalent to the word “soul” (Skt. atman) and used the word “pudgala” to designate a person [5] . According to the anatmavada or fundamental Buddhist doctrine of "not the soul", Buddhism denies the existence of atman, soul, self [6] and personality [7] . The teaching of Buddhism conventionally defines personality as an ordered set of five groups of elements (skandh dharmas) [6] . The five groups include the physical group (body and material, referred to as rupa) and four "soul" groups: 1) the feeling of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral (vedana), 2) the ability to discriminate and form concepts (sanjna), 3) will and activities leading to the formation of karma (samskara) and 4) consciousness (vijnana) [8] [6] . These groups of elements are not proof of the existence of a personality as something independent, but show the conditionality of personality [9] , which, based on the “higher reality”, is unreal [10] .

The first truth of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism states that the five skandhas that make up the personality are directly related to suffering, the vivid forms of which are birth, death, separation from the pleasant and collision with the unpleasant [11] . The rest of the noble truths indicate the cause of suffering, the method of its cessation and the path leading to the complete cessation of suffering [12] . Belief in a person in Buddhism gives rise to an erroneous state of consciousness associated with delusion and ignorance [13] .

Other religions

There are religions (Hinduism) where it is strictly forbidden to kill any living creatures, as they are potential personalities and in one of their next lives they can become a person, that is, an individual. In addition, each person can become one with God (go into nirvana, dissolve in the abstract divine nature, stop suffering).

See also

  • The nature and essence of man
  • Self-consciousness
  • Consciousness
  • Personalism
  • Inner world
  • Self-knowledge
  • Integral individuality
  • Individual
  • Specimen
  • Hypostasis

Notes

  1. Abushenko VL Personality // The latest philosophical dictionary / Comp. A. A. Gritsanov. — Mn.: Ed. V. M. Skakun, 1998.
  2. Kon I. S. Personality // BES
  3. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity of the great Cappadocians. Ternary terminology
  4. Makhovskaya O. I. Communicative experience of personality. - M .: Publishing House "Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences", 2010. - S. 25-26.
  5. Shcherbatskaya, 1998, p. 109
  6. Torchinov, s. 17
  7. Shcherbatskaya, 1998, p. 123
  8. Shcherbatskaya, 1998, p. 111
  9. Shcherbatskaya, 1998, p. 112-113
  10. Zhukovskaya, 1992, Dharma
  11. Torchinov, 2002, p. 20
  12. Torchinov, 2002, p. 20-21
  13. Zhukovskaya, 1992, Mokha

Literature

  • Abaeva LL, Androsov VP, Bakaeva EP and others Buddhism: Dictionary / Pod obshch. ed. N. L. Zhukovskaya, A. N. Ignatovich, V. I. Kornev. — M.: Respublika, 1992. - 288 p. — ISBN 5-250-01657-X
  • Artemova O. Yu. Personality and social norms in the early primitive community. M., 1986.
  • Asmolov A. G. Psychology of personality. M.: MGU, 1990.
  • Bozhovich L. I. Personality and its formation in childhood. Moscow: Education, 1968.
  • Psychology of Personality: Texts / Ed. Yu. B. Gippenreiter, A. A. Puzyreya. M., 1982.
  • Kobzev AI On the understanding of personality in Chinese and European cultures (the problem of organismic models) // Peoples of Asia and Africa. M. Science. 1979, No. 5, p. 43 — 57.
  • Kon IS In search of oneself: Personality and its self-consciousness. M.: Politizdat, 1984.
  • Myasishchev VN Personality and human relations // Personality problems: Proceedings of the symposium. M., 1969.
  • Rubin VA «Personality and Power in Ancient China. Collection of works” Publishing company “Eastern Literature” RAS. Moscow. 1999
  • Rusalov V. M. THEORETICAL PROBLEMS OF BUILDING A SPECIAL THEORY OF HUMAN INDIVIDUALITY http://imp.
    Learn more