What does the term “individual” mean? From Latin the word is translated as “indivisible,” a unique complex of innate and acquired qualities that a person possesses. We are all born as individuals, and over time, thanks to the experience gained, a transition is made to a completely different level, a person becomes an individual. Psychologists use a number of methods to study an individual, considering the person as part of some group in society.
Everything is very simple, in psychology this concept is usually used in a broad sense, but the foundation is the presence of a special integrity, as well as the unity of the subject and a number of features that are characteristic of him. Psychology characterizes an individual as a result of the development of life, the so-called product of interaction with people around him. Each person is the bearer of a special series of properties that were given to him by nature and now, in the process of their development and improvement, they have become mature. Properties can change and also become more complex due to the conditions that change in the life of each person.
Properties that characterize an individual
Each concept has its own special features that it possesses. The thing is that in psychology the term “individual” can be characterized by a number of properties. First of all, these are: gender, age category, body features, and characteristics of the functioning of brain activity. Secondly, other inclinations of a person, for example, the type of temperament, can be safely attributed to the properties of an individual. Age qualities can determine a number of characteristics of a person that identify him, the process of his formation as a result of ontogenesis.
Sexual characteristics are the distinctive features of gender. One can name a number of individual-typical parameters that are presented from the point of view of general somaticity, or as constitutional qualities that have neurodynamic distinctive features. Neurodynamic characteristics in this context should be considered as separate aspects of the human psyche.
Individual psychological characteristics of personality
People differ from each other by personal properties, that is, by traits inherent in one individual. The definition of “individual characteristics” denotes psychological and somatic (from Latin “body”) definitions of a person: height and figure, skeletal formation, eye color, hair, and so on.
An individual personality trait is the facial expressions of a person. A person’s face reflects not only the anatomical, but also the psychological specificity of a particular person. For example, when they say: “this person has wicked eyes”, “you have a conscious face”, they mean precisely the peculiarity of a psychological character inherent in a particular individual.
Let us summarize individually - psychological characteristics into four facets of personality:
- Social qualities (moral orientation, worldview).
- Biological qualities (vital needs, temperament, inclinations).
- Individual traits that have a different mental nature.
- Experience (a set of skills, habits and skills).
How psychologists view this term
An individual is called the exact bearer of all the traits that are given to humanity. But in psychology, the term individual is characterized by the integrity of the psychophysical organizations of the body, its activity, as well as resistance to manifest actions. A person lives as an individual from the beginning of his birth until the moment of death. This condition is the initial one on the planet from the point of view of its phylogenetic formation, as well as ontogenetic development. It is a concrete product of the creation of life, which actively interacts with a variety of surrounding criteria, and not a series of conditions that appeared suddenly. One thing is clear: it is impossible to consider a personality without close attention and emphasis on his individual characteristics.
They thus act as the foundation of human content. It is on them that a number of conditions for the development of each representative of the human race will depend, that is, on the inclinations that were invested in him at the genetic level. An individual has a number of basic functions, and specifically there are two of them. One is classified as conservation, thanks to which the process of distribution of energy and dynamic characteristics occurs, as well as a number of resource characteristics. But the other one is responsible for the function of so-called changes, from the point of view of plasticity of behavior.
Definition of Personality
But the term individuality is more difficult to define, since in addition to personal properties it includes the physiological and biological qualities of a person.
Individuality is a specific person who has a special combination, distinctive from other individuals, of social, physiological and mental characteristics. Their difference is manifested in human communication, actions and activity.
There have been cases in history when a person lived and was raised among animals. Such people lost their social foundation - the ability to express themselves clearly, and lost their mental abilities. Returning back to human society, they could no longer take root in it. Such cases once again prove that a person who has only a biological beginning cannot become a full-fledged individual.
The transformation of a biological individual into a full-fledged personality is facilitated by labor activity. By doing something important to society, a person can prove his uniqueness.
Features of man as an individual
Each generation, sooner or later, asks the question of what information was contained in it. Man himself is a phenomenon, and he has a number of basic properties and requirements with which he has been awarded since birth. A person is forced to obey from a very early age not only the laws of the universe, but also all the numerous rules of society. We can call the functioning of an individual within this framework a continuation of the process of evolution. It has already been proven that every year human properties and qualities only become more complex and all these changes are included in the characteristics of an individual. A person will be considered with all his natural properties, as well as the fundamentals with which psychology has awarded him, and temperament will be at the head.
Structure
To understand the definitions, it is worth considering the principles of individuality. In psychology and biology, representatives of the human race are usually called human. However, there is also another division in psychology.
| Definition in psychology | Description |
| Human | A representative of the human race, which is characterized exclusively by physical and genetic characteristics. |
| Individual | A single representative of the human race. That is, a specific instance. Individuals have their own individuality, as they differ in height, weight, body type, hair color (that is, mainly biological characteristics). |
| Personality | An individual who has certain properties developed in him under the influence of society, life expectancy and other factors. Personality is formed in the process of family upbringing, understanding of traditions, the influence of school, relatives, friends, teachers. |
| Individuality | A person with certain spiritual and moral qualities, habits, and character that make him unique. That is, individuality is a person who is able to independently determine his choice in a particular area. |
Man is first and foremost an individual
By calling ourselves people, we only distinguish ourselves from a number of other creatures that live on planet Earth, but at the same time, not every person can proudly call himself an individual, because for this it is necessary to climb the ladder of development. A person who calls himself a person must be active and occupy a position in society with which he must interact successfully and regularly. This is the essence, being an integral part of the social environment, it is unlikely that a person will be able to exist without it. You need to go through stages of development, and the useful skills and knowledge of other people will definitely come in handy and the process of personality formation will take place much faster. Despite this, the actions and thoughts that society inspires are still of a so-called individual nature. This suggests that the individual does not strive to separate from society and his behavior certainly will not depend on other conditions of the social environment in which his immediate development takes place.
Functions, role and forms of manifestation
Individuality is a very controversial concept in psychology. This is due to the fact that all directions and theories are still being considered. Therefore, there is still no detailed, generally accepted definition of this concept.
In order to understand how essential individuality is to human life, the easiest way is to give examples. Let's say a person enters a competition where the skill of readers is assessed. The first participant is mute, the second composes beautiful poems and reads them for many years.
The third contestant knows only the school curriculum and those literary works that he studied many years ago. In this case, it is impossible to evaluate all three participants in the competition equally. In this case, the individuality of each contestant plays a big role.
For example, the first participant, who is mute, has his own biological and physiological individuality, and accordingly, it is difficult for him to take part in such a competition.
The same applies to the third participant, who only attended the school program. Obviously, the winner will be the contestant who has been writing poetry for a long time and knows how to read it perfectly. This is also individuality.
Thus, individuality is extremely important in the formation of personality. This determines who a person will become, who he will work, and what social environment he will be in.
How does an individual differ from a personality?
If we generalize and simply call a person an individual, then this term should be understood as a number of certain traits of people with which he was awarded from birth, that is, we mean genetic information. Personality is a special structure, more complex, and it is largely distinguished by its highly developed nature and unique ability to successfully interact with society. It should be noted that not every individual can become a person in the course of his life. To do this, you need to improve your psychological traits every day and try to acquire new skills and use them in practice. From a psychological point of view, an individual can be called just a living being who can be classified as a member of the human race. But the concept of personality will be directly related to active interaction in society and fulfilling one’s special role in it.
Qualities inherent in personality
Personality is the totality of a person’s qualities. Each personality has its own unique set of qualities, there are a lot of them, sometimes one contradicts the other. So, a good-natured person may have greed in his character. He treats people around him well, but never lends money or gives expensive gifts.
Distinctive personality traits are:
- Worldview. This is a whole system of views on the world, ideas about it, values that can be realistic or illusory.
For example, a seven-year-old boy, Vasya, believes that all doctors are cruel and evil. He formed this opinion after Vasya suffered from a purulent sore throat. The doctor gave him injections for a whole week; a strong painful reaction was left in the boy’s memory for a long time.
But the worldview can change over time, so, having matured, Vasya will understand that he was mistaken about doctors in childhood.
- Character. Each person has a set of personal characteristics and qualities that determine his behavior. Character is closely related to emotionality, so excessive sensitivity can lead to touchiness, hot temper makes a person angry.
- Degree of responsibility . You can tell whether a person is serious or not by his actions. Individuals who are constantly late, fail to fulfill their obligations, promises, or refuse responsibilities are called irresponsible. A responsible person, on the contrary, strives to bring all matters to the end, keeps his word, and is responsible for his own actions. Such people are always respected and valued in society, they are entrusted with responsible tasks, and appointed to higher positions.
- Self-esteem. An individual can distinguish himself from the rest of society and evaluate his own activities, appearance, habits and other characteristics. Self-esteem is developed through the process of comparing yourself to others.
Self-esteem largely determines how society will accept a person and whether others will love him. You can notice how in the school class they tease narcissistic children who do not respect teachers and peers, considering themselves superior and much better than others. But guys with low self-esteem are also shunned; they often have few friends due to shyness and indecisiveness.
- Mental capacity . From birth, everyone has their own intellectual potential, that is, the ability to develop their minds. But a person can surpass his natural abilities thanks to perseverance, determination, and his work.
Example. Petya Ivanov has innate mathematical abilities. But he gets 4s and 3s because of laziness and unwillingness to do his homework. Sasha Sidorov is not good at mathematics, but he devotes a lot of time to extracurricular activities, and has already begun to earn his first A's.
If desired, a person can develop his memory, logical thinking, willpower and even physical abilities.
The qualities of a person’s personality are manifested and developed in the process of communication, interaction and work activity.
Psychological theories and schools
The study of individuality was carried out by ancient Greek and Roman doctors and philosophers. For example, the Hippocratic school viewed life as a process that is subject to change. Accordingly, this influenced the formation of personality.
Hippocrates and Theophrastus held similar theories. They studied how the psyche is interconnected with the anatomical and biological characteristics of a person. Modern experts adhere to the same theories.
Until the middle of the 19th century. It was generally accepted that a person’s dissimilarity depended on his reasoning and conclusions. Thinking was based on the so-called worldly wisdom. However, later experiments and methodological studies appeared in psychology.
Thanks to this, it was possible to prove that there are a lot of individual differences. Gradually, the so-called differentiated psychology began to develop, which was aimed at studying the individual characteristics of human development.
Francis Galton, an English researcher, created special measurement procedures and a static apparatus with which he could evaluate the differences between subjects. Through his work, he collected a wealth of material that allowed him to form levels of individuality. He was interested in how individual characteristics are formed.
William Stern also made a major contribution. A German specialist created a work entitled “On the Psychology of Individual Differences.” He was the first to use the term emancipated psychology.
That is, in fact, this was the first mention of differential psychology. In 1994, A. Anastasi noted that this work of Stern is of epochal significance, since it was he who distinguished psychology into different directions.
The essence of human individuality and factors of its development
Note 1
The exceptional properties of each person are formed in the area of three components. Individuality manifests itself in various spheres: mental, emotional, volitional, or simultaneously in all areas of human activity.
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A person’s unique mental abilities are manifested in his ability to pay attention to what is inaccessible to other people, to assimilate information data in a certain way, at a more accelerated pace.
Unique emotional qualities are manifested in the characteristics of a person’s mood, its manifestations and changes, and the manifestation of feelings in specific situations.
Individuality of volitional qualities presupposes differences in the characters of people, the manifestation of willpower, courage, bravery, and endurance.
Individuality develops under the influence not only of the internal development of the individual, but also through external influence factors. Thus, the media have a great influence on the formation of individuality. Various television programs lead to a one-sided perception of reality due to the suppression of thought processes by vivid screen images. A person experiences dysfunction in conducting analysis and self-analysis.
Note 2
The development of a person's individuality and the degree of its manifestation are determined by the complex interaction of these three elements of uniqueness and the amount of participation of each of them.
Finished works on a similar topic
Course work Characteristics of a person’s individuality 460 ₽ Abstract Characteristics of a person’s individuality 280 ₽ Test paper Characteristics of a person’s individuality 210 ₽
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The formation of individual qualities is greatly influenced by a person’s environment, his location in nature and society. Individuality is not a stable phenomenon. It can change during human life.
Factors in the development of individuality comprise three main groups:
- Heredity and physiological characteristics. It is assumed that human characteristics are genetically determined in external physical qualities and character traits.
- External environment. This includes where a person lives, the society in which he lives and the family in which he grew up. Their cultural tendencies and social stereotypes influence the formation of behavioral characteristics, the development of development directions, etc.
- Person's character. His further development and the formation of exceptional properties depend on the genetically inherent character traits of a person.
Figure 1. Three components of personality. Author24 - online exchange of student work
Human individuality is a fairly comprehensive concept. It is characterized by the following features:
- love and faith. Through love, a person’s attachment to other people, society, and nature is formed. Faith helps to maintain strength in difficult situations, so to speak, “keep afloat”;
- sensitivity. This trait reflects a person’s ability to show empathy, mercy, and compassion towards other people. If a person has such a property, then he will be well accepted in society;
- constancy. This trait is good when building a communication system in society. It makes a person a desirable partner, since he is distinguished by the stability of his behavior and predictability;
- dogmatism. The perception of the surrounding world is quite limited for such a person. He chooses for himself an authority and a dogma that he will follow, comparing all people with them and evaluating them from this point of view;
- self-esteem. An adequate and reliable assessment of oneself and one’s capabilities helps a person achieve success in life;
- self-control. A person must be able to coordinate his behavior, actions and deeds, be aware of their motives and correctly set priorities;
- synthesis of information. If a person has this trait, then he will be able to perceive data and process it, decomposing it into parts and integrating information resources. It is the skills of data synthesis that indicate a person’s ability to analyze various situations, processes and phenomena and make clearer and more informed decisions in various areas of life.
In psychology, there is a wide variety of tests to determine personality types and personality. Science conducts research in this area and develops a variety of tests that allow us to determine the individual qualities of a person and his personality type. This may be relevant in the professional sphere. For example, when applying for a job, through testing, you can identify the individual traits of candidates and make a choice in favor of a particular one, based on the properties that are necessary to occupy a given position.
