Which of the following best explains the concept of personality as discussed…

Concept

Personality (from the Latin persona, meaning 'mask') is not any single visible attribute of a person but the integrated whole of the psychophysical characteristics — traits, temperament, motives, attitudes, habits, emotional and cognitive tendencies — organised within an individual. G. W. Allport's classical definition states: "Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment."

Two attributes are built into this definition:

• Unique — the particular pattern in which the characteristics are organised belongs to that one individual; no two people carry the same organisation.

• Dynamic — the organisation is not frozen. It is continuously formed and reorganised through maturation, learning, socialisation and experience across the lifespan.

Application

Applied to this item, the description of personality as the unique and dynamic organization of characteristics within an individual carries both attributes, and it places personality inside the individual as an organisation of many characteristics rather than in any single external sign. That is the sense in which the term is used in personality development.

Contrast

Where the other descriptions fall short:

• Personality as solely determined by physical appearance and outward features — physique is only one determinant. Heredity, endocrine and nervous functioning, family, school, peer group and culture all shape personality; constitutional typologies such as Kretschmer's and Sheldon's treat body build as a contributing factor, not as the whole of personality.

• Personality as only how a person behaves in social situations — overt social conduct is one expression of personality. Covert elements such as motives, attitudes, values, self-concept and emotional make-up are equally part of it, which is why trait, psychoanalytic and humanistic accounts go beyond observable behaviour.

• Personality as constant and unchangeable throughout an entire lifetime — personality does show relative stability, in that a person keeps roughly the same standing on a trait over time, but it is not unchangeable. Erikson describes personality development through eight psychosocial stages across the lifespan, and mean levels of the Big Five traits shift with age.

Hence personality is best explained as the unique and dynamic organization of characteristics within an individual.