No trait is so
dependent on heredity that it would not
require certain
minimal environmental conditions for
its development. This
is true even of physical traits
and certainly much
more so of intellectual, social and
emotional ones. At any
given moment an individual is
the product of
countless interactions between his
genetic endowment and
physical and sociocultural
environment. By
physical environment we refer to the
natural world
surrounding the individual: Climate,
terrain, food
supplies, disease germs and so on. By
sociocultural
environment we mean the world of
people, customs,
values and man-made objects.
Physical Environment
People of the earth
live under diverse conditions of
climate, terrain and
natural resources. Some live in
dense jungles and
others on barren deserts, some
live on high mountains
and others on flat prairie
lands. Some live where
it is extremely cold and others
where it is
oppressively hot, some live where it rains
most of the time and
others where there is chronic
drought. In some
places food and other resources are
plentiful, in others
they are so scarce that most of the
individual’s life must
be spent in eking out a bare
subsistence. Some
areas are infested with disease
and other hazards to
physical safety, others are
relatively free to
disease and danger.
Climate and Terrain
People inhabiting areas
where conditions of climate or
terrain are
unfavourable tend to undergo adaptive
physiological changes.
For example, the circulatory
system of the Eskimo
tends to lie deep within a
protective fatty layer
which conserves his body heat.
Scarcity, Disease and
Other Unfavourable Conditions
Even today millions of
people live in areas where
disease is rife and
food supplies are inadequate. Such
conditions take a
tremendous toll in reduced physical
vigor, bodily damage
and loss of life. Because adverse
physical conditions
influence the way a group lives,
we may assume that
they also exert some effect, at
least indirectly, on
the personality development of
individual members.
However, the precise effect is
difficult to assess,
for again we typically find cultural
factors complicating
the total situation.
It becomes very
difficult to evaluate the effect of
physical environment
on individual and group
differences in
development. Except in cases where
unfavourable
conditions lead to actual bodily damage,
as in malnutrition and
disease, the role of the physical
environment seems a
less important than that of the
sociocultural
environment.
Socio-cultural
Environment
In much the same sense
that man receives a genetic
heritage which is the
end product of countless million
years of evolutionary
history, so he receives a
sociocultural heritage
which is the end product of
many thousands of
years of social evolution. This
heritage varies
dramatically from one social group to
another, but the
various cultures of the world have
enough in common to
enable us to speak meaningfully
of “human culture”.
Every group, for example, has its
language, family and
social structure, customs, values,
music and art. These
“institutions” are
characteristically
human and tend to be transmitted
by similar means in
every society. Sometimes the
instruction is
deliberate, but just as often it is not.
Following are the
chief means by which the
sociocultural
environment exerts its influence on
individual
development.
i) Group Membership and Instruction
Both deliberately and
unconsciously, each society
teaches its concepts,
values and accepted behaviours
to its children. This
instruction is largely accomplished
by the social
institutions such as home, school and
temple or their
equivalents. Thus systematic
instruction, together
with the examples set by adults
or other “models” tend
to make for some degree of
uniformity and to
establish what may be called the
basic personality type
of the particular society.
The individual’s basic
personality structure is affected
not only by the larger
social group but also by the
various subgroups to
which one belongs–groups based
upon his family
membership, religion, occupation,
social class, age and
sex. Each subgroup tends to
foster certain values,
beliefs and approved behaviour
patterns which may in
turn be subject to the
restrictions imposed
by society as a whole. The fact
that each individual
belongs to somewhat different
type of subgroup tends
to produce individual
differences, just as
common membership in the larger
cultural group makes
everyone somewhat alike.
The groups with which
an individual identifies, or
with which he would
like to be identified, are called
‘reference groups’–for
it is in reference to the norms
and values of that
group that he sets his goals, models
his behaviour and
evaluates his worth. Sometimes
reference groups from
which the individual is excluded
have greater influence
on the person.
ii) Status and Role
In every social
structure there are a variety of
distinguishable
positions - doctor, teacher, carpenter,
parent, student, child
and so forth - each of which
contributes in some
way to the total group functioning
and is accorded a
certain ‘social status’. Status brings
with it both
privileges and responsibilities. For example,
the medical doctor has
the privilege of practicing
medicine and also is
held in high regard by other
members of society. In
return, he is expected to follow
the ethical code of
profession. If he fails to do so, he
may have his medical
license revoked and be relegated
to an inferior social
standing.
To clarify what is
expected of a person with a given
position and status,
society establishes various roles
for its members to play,
each associated with a certain
pattern of expected
behaviour. Thus the role of an
army officer calls for
loyalty, decisiveness, courage
and resourcefulness.
Each person of the society, young
or old, tends to
develop the skills, behaviour and
values that his role
seems to demand. If he deviates
too far from what is
expected him, he is likely to run
into difficulties in
his social relationships.
The extent to which
role expectations can influence
personality
development is well illustrated by Margaret
Mead’s study (1949) of
the Tchambuli, a New Guinea
tribe in which the sex
roles are practically the reverse
of ours. Women are
supposed to earn the living, handle
business transactions,
take the initiative in courtship,
and in general, act as
head of the family. Men on the
other hand, are
expected to be coquettish, graceful,
prone to gossip, good
homemakers and interested in
dancing and
theatricals. The established roles for
men and women among
the Tchambuli, obviously tend
to channel personality
development along lines very
different from those
in our culture.
iii) Interpersonal Relationships
Man is a social animal
and much of his personality
development reflects
his experiences with other people.
In many societies a
certain pattern of interpersonal
relationships may
predominate over others – for
example, the norm may
be for competition or
cooperation, hostility
or friendliness. In general,
however, interpersonal
relationships contribute to
individuality rather
than similarity of development,
for no two of us have
exactly the same acquaintances
nor do we have an
identical relationship with the
people we do know in
common. Even parents relate to
each of their children
in somewhat different ways.
The experiences of
love and hate, of friendship and
distrust, of shared
experience and misunderstanding
that characterize our
associations with other people
are in each case
unique.
Although we have many
kinds of interpersonal
relationships in the
course of our lives, those that
have the greatest
influence in shaping our development
are those with our
parents and with members of our
peer groups. Apart
from that many other types of
interpersonal
relationships – with brothers and sisters,
grandparents,
teachers, neighbours – may play a
significant part in
shaping personality. Even a chance
meeting with someone
may change the direction of
our lives.
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