Factors Affecting Human Personality

1. Childhood Experiences

Many personality theories in human development postulate a strong influence of childhood experiences on an individual’s personality later in life. However, there is a varying degree by which that influence happens depending on various factors. Some of these factors include the different aspects regarding development and nature of the mind. Bickhard (2010) makes this clear when he articulates that, personalities are not inherited, rather, people develop specific kind of traits based on what they go through in their childhood.

1. Sexual Instinct

Sexual instincts naturally develop in children as they grow biologically. Freud (2009) explains that as children continue to grow biologically, the psyche energy brought about by sexual instincts moves from one part of their body to another. The aim is to gratify the bodies’ various biological needs. This will subsequently make a person develop tendencies and behavior of being attracted and trying to attract the opposite sex. Freud continue to pose that each person requires some kind of sexual satisfaction, and a deficiency or lack of it may cause negative effects on the functioning of the body.

1. External Environment

An individual’s external environment is another factor that will influence his or her personality. For example, growing up in a family with abusive parents, negative environment, bad role models and violent siblings will subsequently generate negative personality on a particular person. How parents behave and acts at home ultimately determines the kind of personality the child will develop even into his or her adulthood. A child born and grows in a country typical of corruption has a high probability of developing develop corruption tendencies and the related vices.