Persoanlity Patterns

Personality differs from mental disorder in that the behaviours which define it have been present throughout adult life, whereas the behaviours that define mental disorders differ from the person's previous behaviour. The term patterns means a design or configuration.

The two major components of the personality pattern are -

1) The core, the concept of self

2) The spokes of the wheel, the traits that are held together and influenced by the core.

The real self-concept is the concept people have of who and what they are, it is a mirror image, determined largely by their roles, the relationship with other and what they believe the reactions of others to them are. The ideal self-concept is the picture, people hold of what they would like to be.

Each kind of self-concept has a physical and a psychological aspect. The physical aspect is composed of concepts, individual have of their appearance, their sex appropriateness, the importance of their bodies in relation to their behavior and the prestige their bodies give them in the eyes of others. The psychological aspect is composed of concepts individual have of their abilities and disabilities, their worth, and their relationship with others. At first, these two aspects are separate; and they gradually fuse as childhood progresses.

Traits are specific qualities of behavior or adjustive pattern, such as reaction to frustrations, way of meeting problems, aggressive and defensive behavior and out-going or withdrawing behavior in the presence of others. Traits are integrated with and influenced by the self-concept. Some are separate and distinct, while others are combined into syndromes or related patterns of behavior.

Traits have two outstanding characteristics individuality, which is shown in variation in the quantity of a particular trait rather than a trait peculiar to that person and .consistency, which means that the person behaves in approximately the same way in similar condition. Sheldon classified in terms of the following body types and personality characteristics: They are:

1. Metamorphic: These persons are of slim and trail bodies cerebrotonic in nature manifested sensitivity, restraint, a liking to be alone not mixing with others and interested in academic pursuits.

2. Meseomorphic: Individuals are with muscular, strong and tough bodies they are related to the stimulating situation, a trait can be viewed as a social attitude. Psychologist like Cattel, Guilford and Thurstone have identified a certain number of primary traits by making use of the statistical technique known as factor analysis. For instance the following seven primary traits identified by Thurstone- pressure for activity, masculinity-feminity, impulsiveness, dominance, emotional stability, social ability and reflective ness.

Type theories of personality seek one or more qualities or characteristics or traits. Type theories are criticized by some psychologist on the ground that a label or a tag cannot adequately and subtly describe the personality of an individual, still such a procedure is found to be useful and is utilized by a number of psychologists. Earliest work on personality type theory was that of the Greeks.

Physician Hippocrates postulated that there were four different kinds of fluids or humors. Black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm in the body and he categorized people in to four types depending upon the predominance of particular humor respectively as choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phelegmatic. Choleric persons were thought to be headed with an irritable temperament, melancholic persons were supposed to be possessing a sad, pessimistic and depressed temperament, melancholic persons were supposed to be possessing a sad, pessimistic and depressed temperament, those with sanguine type of personality were found to be confident, hopeful, somatotonic in nature, manifesting a tendency to be active, aggressive, and competitive in their behavior.

3. Endomorphic: Person with this kind of body type has a fat, soft and round body. They are of viscertotonic nature showing a cheerful disposition and a desire for the visceral comforts of relaxation, eating, and sociability. According to Sheldon a high degree of correlation was found between the types and their temperaments.

The contribution of Sheldon is significant inspite of suffering criticisms of defective methods of investigating.