The Healthy Personality

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The term personality is taken from the Latin term Persona meaning “masks” which was first used in Greek drama, and later adopted by Roman players. While it originally referred to masks used in comedy or tragedy to distinguish the roles of Roman players and therefore, to the external and superficial aspects of the individual, it has now come to refer more to the central and enduring aspects of the individual.

Hilligard defines personality as the arrangement and configuration of individual characteristics and ways of behaving that determine one’s unique adjustment to his environment. It is an all-exclusive term that covers appearances, abilities, motives, emotional reactivity and experiences that have shaped him to his present person.

Gordon W. Allport mentions at least 50 different meanings that personality has in philosophy, theology, law, sociology, and psychology. In philosophy, it is synonymous with self-hood, with the ideal of perfection, and with the supreme value. In theology, there is mention of the three Divine persons in one God. In law, those enjoying legal status or an incorporated group of persons constitute personality or person. In clinical parlance however, it is the totality of the person himself, the actual core of his being.

While most definitions are agreed that personality is the totality of one’s physical or inherited attributes as well as those psychological factors that determine one’s characteristic or behavior - one must, however, mention that personality is also unique in the sense that how this totality is so arranged in an individual is what sets him apart from the rest.

Hence, personality involves characteristics like: 

1. Physical: bodily build, height, weight, texture of skin, shape of the lips, etc.;
2. Mental: range of ideas, mental alertness, ability to reason, to conceptualize, etc.;
3. Emotional: one’s temperament, moods, prejudices, bias, emotional responses (i.e. aggressiveness, calmness, etc.);
4. Social: relations with other people, likes, dislikes, social responsiveness, concern for others, etc.;
5. Moral: his positive or negative adherence to the do’s and don’ts of his society, his value systems, moral principles, etc.;
6. Spiritual: his faith, beliefs, philosophy of life, etc.

These characteristics, however, in no way divide one’s personality into five or six spheres as one would a piece of cake. They form the constructs that make one unique and different from the rest.


Contributed by Hannah Krystelle Del Rosario

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