In fiction and journalism people use the terms "charming personality", "charismatic personality", "electrifying personality" …… "a milk-toast personality"……, and so on. These phrases/terms, however, do not use the scientific principles of vocabulary.

The term personality has been derived from Latin persona, a mask worn by actors in classical dramas. Behaviorist psychologists feel that if a person has some kind of impact, makes a certain impression on others, it must be because of his actions. The simplest possible way to explain the meaning of personality, therefore, is "the pattern of responses" which characterizes the individual. Contrary to the general idea that good personality refers to good physical features or trendy looking individual, the fact is the personality includes many other more important behavioral and mental features.

Think of a boy who is not handsome and attractive apparently, not even tall or robust, yet he has a commanding verbal influence which makes him a successful army officer. Think of Mahatma Gandhi for example. Most people did not find him to be attractive or impressive as far as his physical make - up was concerned. Short, meek looking, bard, dhoti - clad old looking man moved the whole India behind him. Even today he is known his 'Personality' which had its impact, and force with an everlasting impression on the people around him that made him the man of world - fame. Personality is the sum total of all physical, mental and emotional attitudes, values, interests and motivational factors. Personality is the core potential that determines one's success in life and career.

If you feel depressed or disheartened because you think that you are born with weak personality - stop thinking negatively. Personality make - up of yours is not only (totally) determined by heredity. There is another important factor that determines (influences) your personality -environment. It is the environment that can be manipulated to get the desirable positive effects in shaping the personality. Well known psychologist Watson (a behaviorist) emphasized the importance of environment in shaping personality of the child so much that he declared, "… give me a dozen mentally healthy infects, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in …… and I will guarantee to make any one at random and train him to be any type of specialist I desire - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant …..., even beggar man or thief!"This is obviously an extreme view that some behaviorists have taken to focus on the role of environment in personality development. The fact remains that enriching the environment of the individual does show significant improvement in developing your personality. At the same time, however, do not get blindly influenced by some non-standard, cheap publicity stunts of some people who sell their "personality-development" courses just to make quick money. You must use your brain and understanding before you join such courses.

Improving your personality requires a strong will and determination to achieve healthy growth. Any one of you who aspires for self-improvement should make an objective evaluation about himself. Then he must look into his positive potentials and also (confess) weaknesses. On this basis of this information, an objective self-evaluation may be carried.

At the same time it is also essential to counteract all negative and pessimistic thoughts. These negative thoughts/forces destroy many potential abilities of human beings. Brooding, self-debasement, feeling of inferiority, hate and jealousy are all negative and damaging emotions. One must face and tactfully weaken these negative forces to emerge as successful. You should not be fatalistic in your approach to life. Never feel you are at mercy of others.

So what if you have failed repeatedly? With all your intelligence, wisdom, and vigor make your positive potentials to grow. Reveal yourself with truth and you will find that there is a storehouse of virtues within you. You don't have to expect chances of miracles, just decide to move in a determined and positive direction, and move.

Social development is an important aspect of ideal personality development. Closed room with open books, may help you to fetch higher marks in certain exam, however, for a full and complete growth of personality, one must be able to expose himself to the social realities of life. Interaction with people around you may give you pain or pleasure but it certainly adds to your personality growth if taken from healthy frame of mind.

A school or university is just not a cramming machine. You may study at home too. The value of lectures over reading is that you get a sense of participation with other like you. Such a situation is also suitable for development of the personality. The class - room situation encourages debags and discussions and thus broaden the horizons of mind. There is always a need to socialize - mix with fellow colleagues to know them, feel them and understand them to grow socially (socially educated). There is a natural (social) need to know if other are like you or different. Some people are more social than others. Sociability is an art which should be cultivated to grow into effective personality.

Extrovert is a person whose basic orientation is towards external world. Such persons are outgoing (going out and socially mixing with others), sociable, rather impulsive and require constant stimulations from the environment. The psychological research shows that their (extreme extraverts) academic performance tends to be lower than that of introverts, because (mostly) concentration is not one of their strong points.

Introvert is a person who may be described at the other continuum of the bipolar scale, as hesitant, reflective, withdrawn ….., reserved etc. None of you fall on the extreme of the bipolar scale. Infect, most of the people have various degrees of the two types combined. At times you feel you are introvert and sometimes you feel you are extrovert. In reality most of us are ambivert - the mixture of two. The degree of the two sets of characteristics varies from person to person and that is what makes you different from others.

In case you find that you are basically an introvert but in peace and comfortable with yourself, fine! Don't push yourself out and out to be like extreme extroverts. You will have your own merits of uniqueness. Making fun, giggling, over-laughing or teasing, talking more are not the goals to be achieved by modeling others or practice. By asking you to socialize with people I don't mean to suggest that you become a joker or chirping bird.

The whole essence of social development as a part of personality improvement reminds us of the fact that we are social by nature. Total isolation from others is against the basic principles of social living - of which you and me are the part. Emotions, empathy, co-operation, competition, group working, group cohesiveness, ……being one like the others and yet unique in the whole world should be the outcome of healthy personality development.Have positive attitude towards people in general. It is wrong to think of people as always striving to side on one another's back. The natural urge is towards co-operation. Such attitudes always help you to cultivate stronger and healthy personality. Another interesting area of personality research has highlighted two types of personality - Type A and type B personalities. The individuals who are like Type A personality, are action - emotion oriented that can be observed in any person who is aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time, and if required to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons. It may also be seen as a temperament characterized by excessive drive and competitiveness, unrealistic sense of time urgency, inappropriate ambition, reluctance to provide self - evaluation and a tendency to emphasize quantity of output







over quality. Such people are believed to have greater chances of coronary disease. In contrast, Type B persons are characterized by a relaxed, easygoing approach to life. They focus on quality over quantity have low competitiveness and a tendency for self - reflection. A word of caution into a 'type' - don't fall into type fallacy. None of the above types are mutually exclusive or bipolar, in the sense that you need not label yourself at one or the other extreme. You may have the characteristics of both the types i.e., Introversion - Extraversion; type A - type B, and all the qualities have their virtues if used in a balanced and mature way at appropriate place.

PLZ DO RATE IT IF U FOUND IT USEFUL OR EVEN IF U DID NOT !