Introduction
There are so many people in the world, and each of them has a different personality. In addition, many external factors have an important influence on determining personality, and there are inherently inherited characteristics.
What is personality?
The patterns and characteristics of human behavior, thoughts, and emotions are referred to as personality.
When people reach a particular age, their personalities don’t change easily. Because of their personalities, they will think or act in a similar way in various situations. But particular behavior patterns and personality traits may vary over time (Ferguson, 2022).
How External Factors Affect Our Personality Development
Personality development is very complicated because it is determined by various elements. External elements play a very important role in forming a person’s personality. Coworkers, family, media, culture, and other environmental effects are included as external factors.
There are the following factors:
- Environment
- Culture
- Social interaction
The effects of social interaction on the formation of a person’s personality
Social interaction on a person’s personality can have a negative as well as a positive effect. Like maintaining good relationships with family members and people around them, positive social interactions make people feel confident and raise their self-esteem.
However, hanging out with critical people can reduce their self-esteem. It can cause a person to question their beliefs and values on their own and not be sure about their behaviors and decisions.
Also, people’s behavior can be influenced by social interaction. If you hang out with people who think positively about life, it will help you take risks and stay optimistic. However, hanging out with pessimistic people can lead to situations in which you are unsure of yourself and make decisions that you regret later.
Environmental impact on a person’s personality
The environment in which people grow up plays a very important role in the development of their personalities. For example, if they are raised in a bad family environment, such as being abused, they can easily feel anxious, whereas if they are raised in a stable family, they can have outgoing and confident personalities. During adolescence, they can be constantly influenced by the environment.
People’s personalities can be influenced not only by their past home environment but also by the surroundings where they work and live. If a person works in a positive environment, he or she can change his or her personality to be more optimistic and outgoing, and if he or she is doing a stressful job, he or she can become more easily annoyed and less patient.
Lastly, the environment can affect their ambitions and motivations. If people around them are driven and successful, they may also be helped to achieve their goals. However, if there are only lazy people around, they can’t be motivated.
The influence of culture on a person’s personality
Culture has a strong influence on a person’s behavior and personality. The way people feel, think, and behave is shaped by culture. People’s society consists of values, norms, beliefs, and traditions that are defined by culture and influence their behavior. Culture can determine how people interact with others, what language they use, what they eat, what they wear, and so on.
People’s beliefs and values are influenced by culture. It also affects how they understand and interpret the world around them. A person’s view of life can also be influenced by culture. It can affect how people define their goals and the criteria for judging success and failure.
Also, people’s relationships are influenced by culture. It determines how they communicate with the people around them and how they express their emotions. Finally, people’s lifestyles are affected by culture, how they spend their time, and what is important to them (Prakash, 2023).
Inherited personality traits
Neuroticism
One of the important personality types is neuroticism, even if it contains negative meanings.
Everyone has a certain degree of neuroticism. But how neurotic they are depends on how threatening and painful their lives are. Whether a person is anxious or not depends on neuroticism, so it has an important effect on a person’s personality. If you are a person with low neuroticism, it will be easier to deal with stress. The degree to which people feel anxious is related to many genes and can be inherited by parents, scientists say.
If you have a lot of nervous genes, you will easily feel anxiety, tension, and irritation. On the other hand, if you have fewer neurotic genes, you are more likely to have a positive mindset.
Leadership
People think of leadership as a skill, so it can be surprising to learn that it is a personality trait. Leadership is something that can and should be learned. However, it can be inherited and born with a more leadership-like tendency.
The pursuit of danger
To what extent a person enjoys and pursues danger is a personality trait that can be inherited genetically.
Passion and happiness for life
There is evidence that up to 50% of total life satisfaction depends on genes. 40% depends on intentional activities, which are their choices, and the remaining 10% are due to external situations that people cannot control.
Respect for authority
While there are people who follow rules and norms well, there are also people who do not conform to them and reject them. And this is determined by genes.
Ambition
Also, if you are ambitious, it is very likely that you have inherited it from your parents.
Researchers said that 50 percent of ambition is based on people’s life experiences, and the other 50 percent is hereditary (Jackson, 2023).
Conclusion
Of course, there are personality characteristics that are embedded, but people are greatly influenced by their surroundings. And you can constantly change your personality before a certain age. Therefore, if you constantly try to improve your surroundings, such as by hanging out with good people and working at a low-stress workplace, you will be able to have a better personality, which will have a very positive effect on our lives overall.
References
Ferguson, S. (2022). What Is Personality? Definition, Development, and Theories. [online] Psych Central. Available at: https://psychcentral.com/health/what-is-personality#personality-definition [Accessed 29 May 2023].
Jackson, L. (2023). 6 personality traits you may have inherited from your parents. [online] Hack Spirit. Available at: https://hackspirit.com/personality-traits-inherited-from-parents/ [Accessed 29 May 2023].
Prakash, V. (2023). EXTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT – EXTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT. [online] www.sarvayog.com. Available at: https://www.sarvayog.com/external-factors-affecting-personality-development/ [Accessed 29 May 2023].
