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4. Theory of Personality
a. Definition of Personality
According to Davidoff , “personality is a summary construct that includes thoughts, motives, emotions, interests, attitudes, abilities and the like” 443.
However, Hjelle states, “a personality theory is descriptive in that it serves to organize human behavior systematically to render it intelligible” 2. This theory
provides a meaningful framework for simplifying and integrating all that is known about a related set of events. In this study, theory of personality is needed to
understand the meaning of individual differences and to know how personality changes or develops.
As quoted in Atkinson, Freud divides personality structure in three. Those are “Id, Ego, and Superego” 395. The Id consists of the basic biological
impulses: the need to eat, drink, eliminate waste, avoid pain and gain sexual pleasure. Unreasoning and irrational are the Id characteristic. A newborn baby is
the example of pure Id. The Ego develops as the young child learns to consider the demands of reality. The Ego obeys the reality principles: the gratification of
impulses must be delayed until the appropriate environmental conditions are found. The Ego handles the realities of as situation. The Superego is the
internalized representation of the value and morals of society as taught to the child by the parents and others. The Superego judges whether an action is right or
wrong. As quoted in Davidoff, Freud says, “in mature, adjusted individuals the Id,
Ego and Superego are in balance, though the ego is in command” 445. Though
22 not completely accurate, a popular way of describing maladjustment is to say that
adults who gratify all their desires have given in to the Id. People who satisfy none of their desires because of over concern with the reactions of society are
dominated by the Ego. However, people who are driven by a Superego over, they lose control to have an insatiable conscience. The interaction of the Id, Ego and
Superego are unconscious.
b. Personality Determinant
According to Hurlock there are twelve factors determining one’s personality. Those factors are “early experiences, cultural influences, physique,
physical condition, intelligence, emotion, the child name, success and failure, social acceptance, status symbols, school influences, family influences” 471-
479. The first factor is early experiences, “early childhood experiences and the
memory of these experiences are highly influential because children leave an indelible impression on the child’s self-concept” 471. Parents have the main role
when children build self-concept, because children spend much time in the family especially with their parents. Early childhood can influence the child’s self-
concept, because in this period, the children try to grasp the information surround them.
The second factor is cultural influences, “in every culture, children are subjected to pressure to develop a personality pattern that will conform to the
standards set by the culture” 472. Human being is the part of the culture, both of
23 them cannot be separated. Culture can influence the personality, because it forces
children to adapt. The third factor is physique. Directly it determines what the child can or
cannot do. Indirectly, it determines how the child feels about his body. The physique can influence the children if they are aware that people regard it as ugly.
This factor depends on how good the child can receive the body’s condition fat, thin, tall, short, blonde, or dark.
The fourth factor is physical condition. This factor is similar with the physique one. Physical condition influences personality directly, like how a
person acts or reacts to something. Indirectly, physical condition influences personality through the degree of satisfaction, as when a person compares his
physical condition to others. Therefore, the indirect influence gives greater effect than the direct one, because it is hard for people to get satisfy.
The fifth factor is intelligence. It gives direct and indirect effect through human’s personality. Human’s intelligent influences personality directly through
the kind of life adjustment the individual makes to the environment around them and himself. Intelligence indirectly gives effect when others make the judgment to
someone’s intellectual achievements. Intelligent sometimes makes someone feels inferior if he is not confidence with what he has.
The sixth factor is emotion. The emotion determinant influences in functioning of physical and mental. It is related to the reaction of events which are
faced. The seventh factor is the child’s name. It may influence the child who realizes how it affects the attitudes of significant people in his life. “If child’s
24 name elicits unfavorable, the treatment the children receives from others will be
less pleasant, and, as a result, he will develop an unfavorable self-concept” 474. The eighth factor is success and failure. How the child reacts to what he
regards as his success and failures will influence his personal and social adjustments and affect his self-concept. The harmful of failure effects come from
the child’s realization of the unfavorable evaluations of others as well as from his own self-evaluation. Success leads a good future adjustment. However, it cannot
be assumed that the more success the child has, the more favorable the effects on his personality. The achievement can satisfy or not it depends on whether the
person is judged as fail by others or only by himself. If the child can survive from his failure, he may become stronger but the opposite he may become more
depressed. The ninth factor is social acceptance. Any social group wants its member
to meet its expectation as a standard whether or not the group can accept him. Social judgment will be the basis for self-evaluation. Children who are accepted in
the social group develop self-confidence and poise, by contrast children feel inferior. The tenth factor is status symbols. Status symbols influence one’s social
acceptance. Children should be aware of the symbols that are valued by the group. Directly or indirectly, it can damage child’s personality. Status symbol only
affects in the group which judges from symbols of the family possess. The example of status symbol is cloth. Sometimes people judge others from their
clothe, whether it is branded or not.
25 The next factor is school influences. In this case, a teacher has main role to
students’ development. School is the first opportunity to assess their knowledge and to know the strengths and the weaknesses. However, how great the education
institutions’ influences on personality development, is largely determined by the children’s attitudes toward schools and colleagues and toward the value of
education. The chances of a child developing a healthy personality will be greatly increased if the teacher is a well-adjusted person.
The last factor is family influence. Family members are the most significant people in the child’s life during the years in which the foundations of
his personality are being laid. Children often imitate what the parents or siblings speak and act. It will directly influence the children’s personality development.
However, indirect influence comes from family members who evaluate them. Family background is one of factors of personality development.
According to Berk, there are two dimensions of parenting behavior. Those are “control or demand, and responsiveness or child-centeredness” 605. The first
is control or demand. The parents establish standards for what they expect of their children and insist that their youngsters meet those standards. The second
dimension is responsiveness or child-centeredness. The parents responsive to their children, they often open discussion and verbal give-and-take. The contrast is they
do not responsive to their children social initiatives. Based on two dimensions above, the parents’ types can be divided into
four combinations. Those are “authorative parents, authorian parents, permissive parents, and uninvolved parents” 606. The authorative parents are the parents
26 who control and demand their children. This type of parents has high expectation
to their children. Therefore, they enforce the children by using commands and consequences for disobedience. They use a rational, democratic approach to
rearing child in which the rights of both parents and children are respected. The authoritarian parents also control and demand their children.
However, they put the value of conformity and obedience that they are unresponsive. This type is biased in favor of parent’s needs, and the children get a
little independent self-expression. The third type is permissive parents. They are communicative. However, they avoid asserting their authority of any kind. They
are overly tolerant and permit children to make virtually all of their own decision. The last type is the uninvolved parents. This type gives little attention, because
they are not only low in control and undemanding but also unresponsive. These differences in child rearing can be the factor of spurring abuse. Therefore, they
should be careful in rearing the children because every child has different character. Those determinants are used to analyze how the personality is shaped.
It can be concluded that personality determinant can be from others and ourselves and it depends on how the individual is proactive to such kind of situation.
c. Changes in Personality
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