Environmentalism comes into play in my theory of personality. Although I believe a person must claim ultimate responsibility for his or her actions, I also feel that the environment during early states of development has a profound effect on the way a person perceives his own reality. In turn, these perceptions will guide and direct his or her thinking, thus giving that individual their own personality.
As a person develops and grows older, there may be certain aspects of their personality they no longer desire. The power of thought can be used to eliminate or unwittingly reinforce these characteristics depending upon the person. A person can indeed change their character through thought.
In existentialism a man is defined by his actions. His actions are the result of his own thoughts. This gives credence to the statement that existentialism is mans refusal to grant himself an externally established nature. "I think, therefore I am." We make our own order in the universe as a result of our own thinking. We live by our perceptions of the nature of things. These are our own judgements born of thought. What the personality is depends on what you do, and man (and woman) has the freedom to respond through his own life via his thoughts. The environment man is born into (or as Jean Paul Sartre called it, Thrownness) does not control his life, but on the contrary, his thoughts do, and man controls his world to the extent that he controls his mind. Thus the personality and it's development, be it positive or negative, lies in thought. To say that society makes us who we are is to deny us of our real selves- our individuality. It turns control over to others, when in reality we alone are responsible for who we become and what our behaviors will be in any given situation. In other words, it is the person and their choice that makes the behavior, not the situation that makes them choose. If a situation could be used to predict behavior, then it would have to be universal but it is not. So when a person says "this situation makes me do this or that" they are merely going with the odds.
People have the ability to turn adverse situations into positive results. They also have the ability to take adversity and make it worse. It depends on how much that person uses the power of thought. We do not see things as they are, we see things as WE are. If the problem lies in the mind, the solution must also be within the mind. Positive thoughts tend to perpetuate themselves. We have to realize that we cannot control everything that occurs outside of ourselves, but we can control how we process the occurrence and the way we perceive it. The mind is the ultimate molder of personality. Everything we learn, we learn in the mind. Every action and every behavior is the result of a belief or a thought. Our perceptions mold our reality.
John Locke, in "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding", suggested humans were born as a "blank slate" or tabula rasa, where our own experiences mold who we are and our perceptions of the world around us. Each individual was free to define the content of his or her character. This fails to recognize such aspects like human nature, and instinctual behavior. So, with that being said, I feel we are born with some natural innate characteristics as well as being subject to development from external or environmental stimulus. An example of innate and observable characteristics in human behavior is "fight or flight". In the human fight or flight response in prehistoric times, fight was manifested in aggressive, combative behavior and flight was manifested by fleeing potentially threatening situations, such as being confronted by a predator. In current times, these responses persist, but fight and flight responses have assumed a wider range of behaviors. For example, the fight response may be manifested in angry, argumentative behavior, and the flight response may be manifested through social withdrawal, substance abuse, and even television viewing as reported in Foundations of Health Psychology, 2007. These fight or flight responses and their frequency as well as intensity in our daily life can have significant influence over the type of personalities we develop over time. If a person is constantly berated, criticized, put down, or never given support emotionally by those held in high regard the effect will be clear and observable. The individual will show characteristics of low self esteem and self confidence. The other traits would be demonstrated in an inability to facilitate or initiate conversations in peer groups or difficulty maintaining healthy relationships. The trauma of constantly being told how "worthless" they are will manifest itself in what is known as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). People over time may acquire coping mechanisms to stem the emotional pain and diminish the continued negative impact on their psyche' and self worth. Such mechanisms like avoidance, passive aggression, repression, and suppression slowly become ingrained in the personality over time and hinder any positive future growth from taking root.
It is not an impossibility to change the personality with the proper approach and mindset. It is all based in changing the way we perceive the world and the events we experience. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous has a famous passage that explains this concept very well. It is referred to as Page 449 of the Big Book and reads as follows, "And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.
Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.".
This approach is one way to make a positive step towards changing how we process and perceive our circumstances. In a spiritual context, I always try to find the blessing or purpose in those things in my life that can be so easily seen as curses or negative events. A person who has a good grasp on who he or she is or at the very minimum has the ability to take what many see as a negative event and perceive it as a potential gateway for growth and positivity is in control of their circumstances to the point that they do not control them.
That is the personality we all strive for, one that is not influenced by events as much as they influence the events themselves. One who stays positive in negative situations and perseveres during trying times. One that transcends any attempt to diminish who they are and instead takes what others see as adversity and uses it to become better for it. The personality is the sum of all our life experiences and it expresses the way we processed those events. The environment we spend our formative years in sets the groundwork for the perceptions we move forward with. Our interactions with others and our motivations consequent to those interactions determine how we build upon the personality. That is, do we determine who we are needs an overhaul and some work to change our view of the world and our experience of it, or do we see who we are as a something worth building upon and improving?
Life is a journey, not a destination as the bromide goes. Who we eventually come to be is the sum of all of our experiences and how we perceive them.
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