• His external appearance and behavior, or social stimulus value,

• His awareness of self as a permanent organizing force in his life,

• His particular pattern or organization of measurable traits, both “inner” and ‘outer’ ones.

The terms, personality, tends to include the whole person; all the abilities, tendencies, and other innate or acquired characteristics that are more or less consistent, from one day to the next and distinguish him from other people.

Personality comes from the Latin word, “Persona”, meaning, "mask". In early Greek drama, the actors wore masks, if they wanted to show the audience that they were performing the hero’s or the villain’s part.

One of the first attempts to describe personality types was that of the Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-377 B.C), who focused upon the four fluids or “humors” of the body, as they were perceived at that time: black bile, yellow bile, were classified as melancholic and presumed to be depressed and pessimistic. The choleric, possessing excessive yellow bile were described as quick tempered and irritable. Persons with a predominance of blood were

One of the first attempts to describe personality types was that of the Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-377 B.C), who focused upon the four fluids or “humors” of the body, as they were perceived at that time: black bile, yellow bile, were classified as melancholic and presumed to be depressed and pessimistic. The choleric, possessing excessive yellow bile were described as quick tempered and irritable. Persons with a predominance of blood were

A German philosopher Eduard Spranger, in a treatise called, Types of Men (1928), classified men according to six basic interests or values: theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political, and religious. His view is evident in psychology today as the framework for a test of personal values, known as the Study of Values (Allport el al., 1960).

Maybe the most widely known of all typologies, are Carl Jung's introvert and extrovert and Sigmund Freud’s oral and anal personalities, to which we will refer later.

At birth, babies differ in many aspects. In general, we may note that some are active, others generally passive and some are in-between. (Gesell & IIg., 1949).

Effects of the early feeding experiences are seen in the prediction of emotional relationship between mother and infant. Similarly, effects of early experiences, like availability, deprivation, parental support and attitudes with their consistency; child- parent interactions of acceptance, rejection, sibling relationships, interaction within the environment schooling, cultural influences, all mould a child’s personality.

The term that psychology uses to encompass the distinct qualities that make each person unique is, Personality, which we can define as, the organization of a person’s cognitive, motivational, and social characteristics.

Most of the theories lay stress on one aspect trait, or the other – either physiological or behavioural, but, we have learnt that no one definition would be applicable, unless it includes all the familial/parenting, educational, environmental and cultural influences in a person’s development of personality. We must also realize that we cannot attribute a trait to a person unless it has been there for a consistent period of time.

A widely known morphological theory is Sheldon’s somato-type theory. According to Sheldon’s classification there are three basic types, each identified with a corresponding personality type.

Endomorphic: tendency towards roundness (person who is very fond of food), apprehensive, social, sleeps well.

Mesomorphic: predominance of muscle and bone- inclined to being adventurous, likes strenuous exercise, dresses informally, and withstands pain easily and willingly.

Ectomorphic: Fragile in built, is asocial, not amiable and lacks a desire for sleep, non adventurous, does not withstand pain easily.

Other popular attempts to understand Personality are based on the individual’s expressive behavior, e.g. handwriting, voice and posture rather than, anatomy.