Personality Development

Don’t we keep discussing and debating on how important is personal growth for us as an individual? But do we really know what personal growth is? We always try to associate monetary upscale as a personal growth but trust me the term personal growth encompasses much more than you can think and definitely more than just a rise in economic ladder.

Look at the world around you and you will see we are all personally undeveloped people and why do I say that? Everywhere you will see you will find violence, prejudice, illness and hatred and what does all this denote? It is time for us to spare time for ourselves and sit and think. We must ask ourselves why this happening is. What can we do to change this negativity? Could this be the reason why we need personal growth? Then is it possible that we can do something about it?

We need personal growth on our lives because the only person you can change is yourself, and who knows, maybe that change can affect everybody around you. However much you try you can not change other people, they might change after getting influenced by you but that is something that you think because if they change it will be because they feel it is high time. You may be a bit skeptical about this idea but there is proof. This proof is from a scientific study known as Quantum Physics and The Law of Attraction. So the question why we need personal growth can be answered by the Law of Attraction. Actually the laws of Quantum Physics prove that all things are made of energy. Hence, your desires and thoughts are just energy. They are non-physical realities that are not yet visible in the physical world.

Since our thoughts and desires are simply energy, this means that whatever you focus your thoughts on makes your reality. But when you focus on thinking about the things that you are afraid of, the things that you dislike or you do not want, you create and attract more of the negative in your life. However, when you focus your thoughts on the things that you want or you desire, you attract much of it in abundance. This is where personal growth plays a part.

When you think about good things, that energy attracts the same kind of energy. If your mind is focused on something that is positive and happy, you attract other people who are also positive and happy. Then the people around you, who are miserable or unsuccessful will either move away or change their thoughts into a more positive one. This is exactly why we need personal growth.

Personality development is a full fledged course as people have started understanding the importance of this is the true sense. A few years ago parents rarely gave any importance to personality development of their children. Emphasis was given only on physical appearance and expertise in work. In the changing times of competition and economic revolution Personality Development is gaining importance,

With the help of good training a child or an adult can learn communication skills, different subjects, driving or computer operating. Similarly, training in personality development enhances the general as well as unique traits of a person that is required for differentiating a person from another. A teacher of personality development helps a person to get positive thought pattern, gain confidence, improve behavior, learn better communication and develop a healthy physique.

Many people still think that personality is related to the physical appearance of a person. If a person is well-built and wearing a good dress it is said that he/she has a good personality. But this is not a rational approach. In case the inner personality of a person is weak he/she will lose impact as soon as he/she speaks or acts. Such a person fails to create a lasting impression on others and rising in his/her career becomes a very difficult task. Therefore, both the inner and the outer personality of a person should be strengthened.

You can develop your personality by practicing some interesting and easy things like- setting an aim in life; having the power of knowledge; looking confident as it shows on your face when you are confident of what you are doing and when you are not; speak in style because that reflects your personality, shows how learned you are and whether you are what you are; dress smartly because they say the first impression is the last one and people will judge you firstly by your looks before going in for anything else. Also good dresses act as a stimulus for the wearer. He/she feels more confident and relaxed.

Some other important things are having a healthy body and adopting good habits really nurture your inner strength. The personality development tests that you see online or on paper are to develop these things of you don’t have in your general routine. When you follow the principle of think big and live big, there is absolutely no stopping you. This is exactly where you need Personality Development.

There are many different types of personality tests. The most common type is the self-report inventory which involves the administration of many questions to the ones who take the test. The answers are then evaluated vis-à-vis something that rates them and then evaluates their resultant behavior.

Sometimes those questions are not just plain questions but statements on which the test takers are evaluated. They are usually asked to respond having two-three options to choose from which evaluates their result according to the highest inkling towards which section. On terms of scoring, these personality tests can be evaluated using a dimensional, normative or a typological approach. Dimensional approaches describe personality as a set of continuous dimensions on which individuals differ.

Many psychological researchers believe that the dimensional approach is more accurate, although as judged by the popularity, typological approaches have substantial appeal as a self-development tool. There are times when emotive tests could in theory become prey to unreliable results due to people striving to pick the answer they feel the best fitting of an ideal character and therefore not their true response. In practice, however, most people do not significantly distort. But mostly people pick their true answer as they don’t know which the ideal answer is.

The meaning of personality test scores are difficult to interpret in a direct sense. Due to this, efforts are made by producers of personality tests to produce norms to provide a comparative basis for interpreting a respondent’s test scores. Common formats for these norms include percentile ranks, z scores, and other forms of standardized scores.

A substantial amount of research and thinking has gone into the topic of personality test development. Development of personality tests tends to be an iterative process in which a test is progressively refined. Test development can proceed on theoretical or statistical grounds. Theoretical strategies can involve taking psychological or other theory to define the content domain and then developing test items that should in principle measure the domain of interest.

This can then be accompanied by assessment by experts of the developed items to the defined construct. Statistical strategies are however varied. Common strategies involve the use of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to verify that items that are proposed to group together into factors that actually do group together empirically. Reliability analysis and Item Response Theory are additional complimentary approaches.

Do you know what your personality holds key to? Have you ever imagined what you could do if you realized importance of your being? Your personality has the power to make or break the world around you. No, I am not being philosophical about anything. It really means a lot to you as an individual and to your surroundings in a society.

Whether we are consciously aware of them or not, every individual has a core set of personal values. Values can range from the commonplace, such as the belief in hard work and punctuality, to the more psychological ones such as self-reliance, concern for others and harmony of purpose. When we read about the lives of famous people, we often see how personal values guided them, propelling them to the top of their fields. This is the power of every individual’s personality. In fact, if we were to examine any company, we would discover that one or more business values was the key to their success. In the same manner, the political parties and politicians subscribe to certain personality types.

Everybody’s personality charges them. The personality holds the key to every individual. Whatever source in which you channelize your energy defines you as an individual. For an individual, committing to and applying values releases fresh energies, which always attract success, achievement, and well-being. Likewise, when companies or other institutions adopt values, individuals working at the organization become energized, as do its customers, its products and services, and everyone and everything else associated with that organization.

We can energize our lives by making full efforts to implement the values we subscribe to. Once these values are defined and identifies there is no stopping you. When we make a concerted effort to implement strategies that will strengthen us, good fortune and lifestyle is sure to follow us. This can come in the form of new opportunities, new sources of income, fame, recognition, remuneration and more. The benefits could come in both material and psychological form. Sometimes we might even feel that we have good life responses because of this, that is, we see good fortune suddenly knocking on our door.

The power of personality is awesome in shaping our life. You will become what you want if rise yourself above every negativity that you harbor. Each of us is motivated to move our lives in certain directions. The motivation itself comes from the power of our personality. Harbor good feelings for others and you will see the difference.

Does it not happen all the time that we happen to underestimate ourselves? Don’t we just almost all the time give others the credit they deserve but not us? It is very important to know ourselves. We tend to neglect our own values, strengths each and every time we are judged. The true mantra for success is knowing yourself.

It’s necessary to know yourself. But how do you go about it, right? You must be aware of your strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Observe and be aware of your moods, reactions and responses to what is happening around you because then you will be able to react in the right manner. Then, become aware of how these moods and emotions affect your state of mind. Also examine how you interact with others and observe how your environment affects you.

Why is knowing yourself so important? Well, it is so because the knowing and understanding yourself part would help you to make much better decisions, it will improve your decision making habits, in setting and reaching appropriate goals and altogether living more productively and more. You can play many interesting personality tests and evaluations for self-discovery that can help you become more in tune to yourself.

You must question yourself on aspects like how well do you really know yourself? What unique gifts, talents and skills do you bring to this world? What specific issues represent your life challenges? How much of your life is controlled by your personality? Are you really inspired by your soul? What underlying motives run your life? What gives you meaning and purpose? These questions will lead you to a beautiful understanding of your own self. You must be confident about your answers wile answering these.

Interestingly there are many people who hardly know themselves. But how do you expect to grow in life and become better if you don’t? It’s perfectly ok to explore what the heart wants and to tune out the rest of the world long enough to build a relationship with your soul. In fact the moment you start interacting with yourself you will discover that you know so little about your own self. Knowing yourself will make you meet the world.

Knowing yourself is definitely beyond knowing your favourite colour or your ideal mate. It is about discovering yourself which will take you days, months or years. But once you do you will either love yourself or hate yourself, either ways it will be a cherishing experience.

Personality development as has been discussed several times can be developed through various means and measures. You can develop a good personality with strong character in the main lead. You have to recognize and understand the meaning of building a strong and good character. The key to success is hidden well within every individual whom has to be nurtured. Some components of personality development are defined below.

Be polite and speak sweetly as sweetly spoken every word is heard and often imbibed. It helps in developing a good personality because people then look up to you. In a crowd, a polite man or woman is given an upper hand against a rude and loud person. That is why we should always try and inculcate sweet and soft spoken words in our speech. A mind that is controlled by sweet words defines the personality.

Keep away from lies, fraud and deception because once a man resorts to lies for self gains and self protection, then he gradually becomes an expert in telling lies. Lies, treachery, manipulation and fraud are such aspects of our personality which will lead to our failure, insult and defamation at every step of life. It is necessary that we get rid of these negative shortcomings.

Believe in healthy competition as the path of all success is filed with thorns. There is no hindrance in the path of downfall, but no sooner we lift the first step towards progress we start facing difficulties. Only those people who have immense courage and enthusiasm can advance on this path. Having a positive attitude is also essential. You must also spare some time for social service. If we want to be recognized in the society and want to reach the height of success, we should not keep out self aloof from society. What makes us a good human being is having respect for the society and others. Always remember that society is ours.

Develop your creative power as our creative streak and positive propensity can pay us dividends. One who is engaged in constructive activity of one or the other kind is always happy. Everybody should channelize their energies in creative work. The door of progress and development remain open for the person who knows how to utilize time. These are some of the components of personality development.

Personality defines us as an individual. But how do we become what we really are? Sometimes we need to develop ourselves and that is what is called personality development. There are some things in us as an individual that we need to curb down and some to improve. This is possible only through personality development.

There are certain defined theories of personality development which we need to look at. These are various in numbers. Since Personality development has been a major topic of interest for some of the most prominent thinkers in psychology, these have been thoroughly defined and explained.

Many prominent theorists developed stage theories to describe various steps and stages that occur on the path of personality development. Described below are some of the theories that focus on various aspects of personality development, including cognitive, social and moral development.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development- Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is one of the most frequently cited in psychology, despite being subject to considerable criticism. While many aspects of his theory have not stood the test of time, the central idea remains important today that is, that the children think differently than adults. His theory has made significant contributions in the world of personality development.

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development- He was one of the best-know thinkers in the area of personality development and remains the most controversial too. In his well-known stage theory of psychosexual development, Freud suggested that personality develops in stages that are related to specific erogenous zones. Failure to successfully complete these stages, according to him would lead to personality problems in adulthood.

Freud’s Structural Model of Personality- Freud’s concept of the ego and superego has gained prominence in popular culture. Despite of lack of support and considerable skepticism from many researchers, he is one of the most researched one.

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development- Erik Erikson’s eight-stage theory of human development is one of the best known theories in psychology. While the theory builds on Freud’s stages of psychosexual development, Erikson chose to focus on the importance of social relationships on personality development. The theory also extends beyond childhood to look at development across the entire lifespan.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development- Lawrence Kohlberg developed a theory of personality development that focused on the growth of moral thought. Building on a two-stage process proposed by Piaget, Kohlberg expanded the theory to include six different stages. While the theory does not accommodate different genders and cultures equally, his theory remains important in the understanding of personality development.

Different people have different kinds of personalities. Some are introverts and some are extroverts by nature and personality. Most of us just limit ourselves to being known by just this differentiation, but do we know that a person has many more layers of distinction even under these two universal types of personalities.

Defined under these two types are many more like- the duty fulfiller, the mechanic, the nurturer, the artist, the protector, the idealist, the scientist, the thinker, the doer, the guardian, the performer, the caregiver, the inspirer, the giver, the visionary, the executive.

People who are very serious and quiet by nature and very responsible qualify as being the duty fulfillers. They have well developed powers of concentration. They are the ‘good people’. They are ISTJ. There is ISTP called the mechanics. They are quiet, reserved and are always interested in how and why of the things around them. They have excellent mechanical skills. There is ISFJ called the nurturer. They are kind, quiet, and conscientious. They put other people’s needs above theirs. There are artists who are ISFP. They are quiet, serious and do not like conflicts. They have a great aesthetic appreciation for every form of art. Protectors are INFJ. They are quietly forceful, original and sensitive. They are very intuitive about people and are concerned with their feelings.

There are INFP called the idealists. They are quiet, reflective, and idealistic. They are mentally quick and are able to see possibilities. There are INTJ who are called the scientists. They are independent, original, analytical and determined. They have an exceptional ability to turn theories into solid plans of action. You also have INTP which are called the thinkers. They are logical, original, and creative and can be very excited about theories and ideas. They are the absent minded professors.

There is the ESTP, called the doer. They are friendly, adaptable, and action-oriented. They are Doers as they are focused on immediate results. There is also ESTJ called the guardian. They are practical, traditional and organized. They like to be in charge. There is ESFP, called the performers. They are people oriented and fun loving. They love experiencing new things, they love life. They are likely to be the center of attention in a crowd. There is ESFJ called the caregivers. They are warm hearted, popular and conscientious. They put other’s needs before theirs. There is ENFP, called the inspirer. They inspire others with their own enthusiasm.

There is ENFJ called the giver. They are popular, sensitive and have outstanding people skills. They see everything from the human angle and dislike any impersonal analysis. There is ENTP called the visionary. They are creative, resourceful and intellectually quick. They have an excellent ability to understand concepts and apply logic to find solutions. There is in the last the ENTJ called the executive. They are assertive, outspoken and are driven to lead. The come up with solid solutions. They value knowledge, competence and are intolerant towards inefficiency or disorganization. People have different personality types and it’s important for one to know our own type that we fall into.

Titanic got sunk, though it was prepared by professionals. This shows that one wrong move can spoil your personality entirely, however good it may be. Ignoring any of the criteria like behavior pattern, attitude towards life, etc related to personality development can be quiet risky.

It is essential to understand the importance of grooming yourself in order to create win-win situation in life. Personality development is just not physical development, but it includes more of brain development or mental development.

Focusing on below mentioned factor can assist in enhancing personality to maximum extent:

Try to be always polite and bring smile to your face

It is essential to always react as per the situation demands. Being polite can highly work in your favor. Showing harshness might create bad impact, then whether you are at work place or at home or at any social event. Try to always be polite as it is the best way to win someone’s heart.

Smiling face can put forward some respectful attitude. To tackle any kind of situation you need to react in a calm and decent manner. Now to smile always does not mean that even in serious or critical situation you should keep smiling.

“Keep smiling”!

Have positive attitude towards life

Being positive in life can always work in your favor. Just let the negativities pass away in order to reach to the heights of success. Positive or negative vibes around you might affect your work and so to make environment positive you need to look at life in a positive manner.

This is important part of personality development as your positive attitude towards life might inspire other person to have same kind of attitude.

“Try it today”!

Enjoy the work you do

Are you enjoying your work? This is the crucial part of personality development. If you are not having fun while carrying out office or household work then it would not make you feel happy. Ultimately if you are not happy, it won’t assist in personality development.

Key point is that enjoy the work you do in order to bring positive energy in life.

“Do the work that you enjoy”.

Learn some good etiquette

Good etiquettes are all about being well mannered person in life. Good etiquettes involve proper shake hand, table manners, polite language, body language, etc and this creates great impact on your personality development.

Present yourself in a well decent manner so that people around you do not take you for granted.

“Follow mannerism”!

Good command over language

The way you speak and what you speak are two different aspect which assists in analyzing your personality. You need to have good command over English language in order to successfully carry out various objectives like cracking deals, influencing people, etc.

“Talk sensibly, talk conspicuously”!

Don’t be monotonous

“Happy go lucky”, type of personality can always be advantageous. Being monotonous in life can create bad impact at the work place. Your dynamic appearance includes everything from proper dressing sense to behavior pattern.

Don’t be a bore; be happening in life so that you can bring in charm near to your surroundings.

“Say no to boredom”.

Personality development is partially about learning how to react in certain situations. You may have some bad programming sitting in your subconscious that stems from a traumatic experience or have been taught the wrong way to do something since childhood. The power of personality development stems from being able to change this programming. You can alter the way you react to certain situations through therapy. However, therapy is not the only way to alter this programming. Gaining access to your subconscious mind can also be done using hypnosis. I am not referring to stage hypnosis where someone makes you act like a chicken for the amusement of others either.

Hypnosis works by relaxing you to the point of sleep. This is the time that our minds are most vulnerable because it opens up a direct link to our subconscious. Personality development that stems from hypnosis has been proven to work. People use hypnotherapy in order to stop smoking or rid themselves of another bad habit. Generally, this altering of the subconscious programming has a wide reaching effect on how the conscious mind works because the conscious mind takes its cue from subconscious thought processes. The subconscious is responsible for reactionary behavior – what can be termed as instinctual behavior.

You do not need to see a hypnotherapist in order to gain access to your subconscious. As you are waking up in the morning and falling asleep at night you can give yourself a direct link to your own subconscious. This can be used as a form of self imposed personality development. It can be quite expensive for therapy or hypnosis and this is one way you can exact change without spending a cent. You just need to remain aware of what you want the subconscious to know while you are drifting off to sleep.