Personality development

Personality is the relatively stable organization of a person's motivational dispositions, arising from the interaction between biological drives and the social and physical environment. The term implies both cognitive and physical attributes, but usually refers chiefly to the affective-connative traits, sentiments, attitudes, complexes and unconscious mechanisms, interests and ideals, which determine man's characteristic or distinctive behaviour and thought. Many different definitions of personality exist and a number of divergent theories of personality are currently in use.

Personality development refers to a description and theoretical understanding of the establishment of those stable response dispositions that differentiate adult humans. Although it was believed previously that all personality traits were formed by the age of five years, this is now disputed. The current belief is that personality continues to develop during childhood and adolescence and maybe into young adulthood. There is also controversy on the relative importance of heredity and environment on personality development.

[Depersonalization]

is equated with loss of identity, when the individual no longer feels familiar even with himself. Such feelings may be symptoms of mental disease, or a reaction to conditions of extreme sensory deprivation, torture, pain, emotional stress or to circumstances involving grief, ecstasy or unexpected escape from death.