Do We as Individuals Derive Our Own Personality?

Do We As Individuals Derive Our Own Personality?

Personality is the multiple characteristics that make an individual unique from the rest. Personality also molds our personal values, beliefs and the expectations we set. There are many other factors that are involved in shaping our personality. It is usually believed that these factors are hereditary and because of our environment. However, our personality is due more to socialization. The values, beliefs, behaviors, and expectations that society ends up recreating a man's personality. Agreeing with what Benedict said, we cannot create a true image of ourselves because who we are is a direct result of society in which we come from.

Who we interact with and the social environment that we live in take a part in developing our personality. For instance, when we surround ourselves with a certain group of people we end up being influenced to act a certain way. If a person is generally good, he or she is respectable, responsible, gets good grades and helps out the community and then starts to surround themselves with a group of people who do the opposite he or she will eventually start to do the same in order to "fit in." Society influences an individual to act a certain way in order to fit in with the crowd.

The media is a significant role in developing an individual's personality. The models, celebrities, and other people we constantly see on display through magazines or television strongly influences who we are and the make up of our physical appearance and our personality. Trends are formed because of numerous amounts of people that follow what an editor for example says. When the Australian Uggs a couple years ago came out, it became a huge hit to women all over the world. It became so popular that those who could not afford the pricey boots were seen to be poor. Girls who weren't able to purchase them were being treated as outcasts. In some cases it would form such insecurity problems that people would around stealing these boots just to be able to fit in with the ongoing trend. A simple example such as this shows the power of how society and its behaviors and trends can affectively influence how someone acts and the way they feel about themselves.

Our personality goes along with what society will accept at the moment. If a person is encouraged to act in a particular way, or to believe in a specific way, or dress in a certain way he or she will be more than likely change their own self in order to be accepted. There are countless examples of how socialization affects an individual's personality. Whether it is in religion, in physical appearances, in behaviors, in goals, or in skills a person's personality is developed according to the traits society as a whole form.