Effects of frustration on personality

How a person reacts to frustrations influences the judgments of others and in turn the way he judges himself. Furthermore a person’s manner of reaching to frustrations tends to be consistent and so he soon acquires the reputation of being an immature or a mature person.

One of the commonest and earliest-to-appear patterns of reaction to frustration is aggression in which the frustrated person strikes out at an offending person or object, either physically or verbally and with varying degrees of intensity. While most aggression is extra punitive, in the sense that it is directed toward other, some is intro-punitive, or directed toward the person himself. Most often, however, aggression is displaced. Instead of attacking the person or obstacle responsible for the frustration or blaming himself, the aggressive person directs his attack toward an innocent person or group.

Even intense frustration may not be expressed directly or displaced because the channels for expression are blocked by fear of punishment or social disapproval. The frustrated person then withdraws into himself and becomes inactive, inattentive, and apathetic. He gives the impression that he either is indifferent to frustration and lacking in emotional responsiveness or is “weak” or “spineless”.

Some people regress by not “acting their ages” when faced with frustration. They long for the good old days when they felt capable of meeting life’s challenges and were not frustrated by feeling of adequacy. The married woman who feels incapable of meeting the responsibilities of home and family runs home to mother for help. The man, feeling that running home to mother is “childish,” goes to his pals where he can get his gripes off his chest as he did during the gang days of childhood.

Frustration form thwarted drives has long been regard as a precipitating factor in personality maladjustment. But there has not been universal agreement about exactly how the personality is affected because frustrations are not expressed in just one way. Freud placed emphasis on regression to infantile modes of response as the usual reaction to frustration. Jung contended that continual thwarting resulted in a turning inward of the libido or life urge, thus causing the person to become self-centered and reflective rather than overtly expressive characteristic behavior of the extrovert. Adler maintained that thwarting leads to compensation in which the person is motivated to overcome barriers either by overt behavior or by symbolic expression in fantasy. More recently, Lewin has claimed that the person who encounters seemingly insurmountable barriers will insulate himself from his environment by withdrawing into himself and showing the characteristic behavior of the introvert.

These and similar observations of the behavior of people in frustration situation have emphasized two things: first that there are marked individual differences in the way people react to frustration, with has found to fit his needs best, and second, that most patterns of behavior learned in frustrating situations result in maladjusted forms of behavior.

It is important to recognize, however, that frustration does not always lead to maladjustment. Some people try to relive the emotional stress caused by continued frustration by making a rational attack on the problem. If they fail, they will probably resort to the use of defense mechanism. Under such conditions, ,maladjusted behavior develops with its unfavorable effects on personality.

Variations in family influence on personality

There is evidence that family relationships affect the personality patterns of the various members differently. A person who is quiet, introverted, and socially withdrawn is more influenced than is one who is extroverted and socially active. The former tends to brood over any unpleasant relationship, such as friction between parents or between siblings, while the extrovert has enough outside interests to turn his attention to other people when he finds relationships in the home unpleasant.

A person who is in poor health, regardless of age, is more influenced by family relationships than one who is healthy. He is less active socially and thus who is in poor health tends to brood more and to exaggerate if he were feeling better. A sick person may interpret a casual remark as a criticism, for example, while a healthy person would let it pass unnoticed.

Because girls and women spend more time in the home and with family than do boys and men, there is a sex difference in the effect family relationships have on personality. This difference is well illustrated in in-law relationships and grandparent-grandchildren relationships. Wives, it has been reported, are more influenced by their relationship with their mothers-in-law than with their father-in-law. Husbands are less influenced by their relationships with in-law of either sex than are wives.

Age differences in the effect of family relationships on personality are closely related to the amount of time people of different ages spend in the home and with family members. The more time spent in the home, the greater the influence of family members and vice versa.

The influence of different family members on the personality pattern of the individual depends on such conditions as the age of the person at the time, the amount of control a particular family member has over the person, the amount of time spent with the family member, and the emotional tie between the person and the family member.

In most homes, mothers spend more time with their children, have more control over them, and express their affection more overtly than fathers. As a result, mothers exert more influence over the child’s developing personality. A comparison of children from monomatric families, or families where the child is under the exclusive care of the mother, with those from polymatric families, where the care of the child is shared with another female, has revealed that, at the age of 6 months, babies form monomatric families are less irritable and easier to handle. At 1 year, they exhibit personality traits that make them better adjusted, both personality and socially, than babies from polymatric families. They are more active, are more emotionally responsive in their interactions with their mothers, and make social contacts with people outside the home more easily. They show the basic personality traits of well-adjusted people.

The monomatric relationship leaves its mark on the mother’s personality as well as the baby’s. The mother who assumes full care of her baby and continues to do so after the helpless months of babyhood are passed is more understanding and tolerant of childish behavior than is the mother who has shared her maternal duties with another female. She provides a healthier home climate for confident of her ability to perform her maternal role successfully, and this adds to her self-confidence and poise.

The effect of sibling relationships on the personality pattern of the sibling involved of varies according to their age, the control exerted by one sibling over another and the affection that exists between them. Younger siblings are as a rule, more influenced by older siblings than the reverse because the younger tends to hero-worship the older and tries to imitate him. Siblings of them same sex tend to have close emotional ties, while those of the opposite sex often have a frictional relationship because the boy develops a feeling of superiority, which his sister resents.

Of all relatives outside the immediate family, grandchildren and grandparents have the greatest influenced on each other’s personality patterns. Grandmothers have more influence on and are more influenced by grandchildren than grandfathers. Grandmothers and grandchildren spend more time together, grandmother exercise greater control over the grandchildren, and the emotional tie between the two is stronger than that between grandfather and grandchildren.

In summary, then, while it is evident that family relationships have a marked influence on the personality patterns of all family members, the influence is far from equal. That is why, in considering the effects of the family, one must remember that they very according to the kind of relationship that exists and the family members who are involved.

In the remaining sections of this chapter, some of the most important family relationships and the ones that have received the greatest research attention will be discussed. It is believed that this resume of the evidence will support the statement at the beginning of the chapter that family relationships play a role second to none in the development of the self-concept. First, a brief discussion of the effects of the home’s emotional climate on the personalities of family members will serve to emphasize the pervading influence of family relationships.

EMOTIONAL CLIMATE OF THE HOME

While emotional climate of the school has a strong influence on personality, as was discussed. It is much less important than that of the home. First, the individual spends a relatively short time in school as compared with the time spent in the home, and second, the school affects only the child or the adolescent, not the parents, the grandparents, or other relatives.

It is true that the effect of the emotional climate of the school can carry over to the home. But this effect can be counteracted or minimized by the emotional climate of the home, or if the two are similar, they may reinforce each other. On the other hand, the home climate is a prime determinant of the child’s adjustments to school. And the emotional climate of the school can do little to change the effect or the home on his pattern of adjustment.

Effects of home climate on personality

The emotional climate of the home directly influences the person’s characteristic pattern of behavior and his characteristic adjustment to life. If the home climate is favorable, the individual will react to personal problems and frustrations in a calm, philosophical manner and to people in a tolerant, happy, and cooperative way. If the home climate is frictional, he will develop the habit of reacting to family members and outsiders as well in a hostile or antagonistic way.

Indirectly, the home climate influences the person by the effect it has on his attitudes towards people. If the child perceives his mother showing favoritism toward a sibling, he develops an attitude of resentment toward people in positions of authority. Many who become radial nonconformists do so because their resentment of parental authority has developed into resentment against all in authority.

Conditions contributing to a favorable home climate

When family members are capable of empathy or of putting themselves in the psychological shoes of other family members and viewing situations from their frame of reference, they behave in such a way as to make family relationships pleasant and harmonious.

If you can learn a simple trick, scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You’ll never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

When everyone in the family realize how an aged parent feels about having to move into the home of a married daughter and tries to make him feel welcome, for example, harmonious relationships will be possible and the home climate will be far pleasanter than if empathy were lacking.

Empathy is greatly aided by communication between family members. The breakdown in communication between parents and adolescent children contributes heavily to home friction. Many parents face a dilemma when they must choose between allowing their teen-age children to communicate freely and imposing the rule that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

A good home climate, fostered by communication between family members, is possible when there is respect for the opinions of others. Even if family members disagree, mutual respect helps to reduce friction. Open communication and respect for the opinions of other usually lead to reasonable expectations among family members. When the mother communicates to the members of her family why she needs their help more when she takes a second job and works outside the home as well as in, they show that their expectations for her contribution to family life are reasonable by assuming some of the duties she previously carried. If a person tries to conform to unreasonable expectations, friction is almost inevitable, and certainly tension and discontent will rise.

Among adults, togetherness meets the needs of some family members more than others. The companionship of spouses, children, and relatives is more important for women than men. Adults who come from families with strong traditional religious values, as is true of those of the Catholic and Jewish faiths, stress togetherness more than those of protestant faiths of those whose interest in religion is weak.

Too much togetherness can intrude on the independence of family members and can thus be harmful. While most people believe they are capable of handling more independence than others give them credit for, a reasonable amount of independence keeps them form feeling that they being “bossed” or “regimented”. There would be less friction between mothers and teen-age daughters, for example, if the daughters were given more autonomy in choosing their own clothing. The right clothing means so much to teen-age girls that they often regard lack of independence in this area as no independence at all.

Independence can be carried to the pint where it jeopardizes family stability, however. At any age, to feel secure, one needs stability in his pattern of living and in his relationship with significant people. Especially during the early years of life, a frictional home climate, with constant threats, of disruption due to the divorce or separation of parents, can be so damaging to the personality disorders. All family members are affected adversely, but those who are very young are particularly vulnerable. This matter will be discussed later in the section dealing with deviant families.

Damaging as lack of stability in the pattern of living is to the home climate, lack of stability, or inconsistency, in family expectations is even more so. The child who does not know what is expected of him or the adult who is unsure of the role he is expected to play usually vacillates between one possibility and another. This vacillation, through its influence on family relationships, disrupts the pattern of family living.

Some friction is inevitable in family life. How disagreements are expressed, however, will determine whether the home climate will be favorable or not. The most common ways of expressing disagreements are criticism of the opinions and actions of others, attempts to reform another’s behavior or change his attitudes and beliefs, nagging, ridiculing, and a far less common method discussing different points of view in a calm, rational, and objective way to help others understand them.

There are also a number of ways of trying to solve a disagreement and, thus, ending a conflict having one family member give in for the sake of peace and harmony, and compromising, with each family member modifying his pint of view somewhat after he sees and understands the pints of view of the other members.

Only the last method compromise will lead to a favorable home climate. While a truce or a cooling off period will help temporarily, the friction is almost sure to recur. Giving in to another's demands for the sake of harmony is likely to encourage bullying tactics. The person comes to believe that he can dominate by “making a fuss”. This always leads to deterioration in the home climate.

Criticizing and ridiculing are ego deflation for the person attacked, and he bitterly resents them. In his resentment, he retaliates, and this strains the family relationship, how criticism of a family member affects the home climate is illustrated.

Effect of Excessive Love

Too much love leads to excessive mothering, or over, protectiveness, and is as bad psychologically as too little. As early as the turn of the century, Freud asserted that too much “parental tenderness” accelerates the child’s sexual maturity, awakens a “disposition” for neurotic diseases, spoils the child, and makes him unable to be satisfied with smaller amounts of love in later life. This point of view was echoed by John. Watson, who in the warned that too much mother love was damaging to the child’s personality development.

Later studies demonstrated that babies and young children showered with to much parental young affection developed personality patterns that ill-fitted them to face life alone. During World War II, the long- term effects of excessive mothering became the focus of scientific concern when it was found that more young men were being rejected by the armed services for psychological than for physical reasons. Strecker brought to public attention the damage caused by “momism” and “smother love” when he reported that overprotective mothers turn their sons and daughters into immature, dependent adults.

Further research has justified Strecker’s claims about the psychological damage of too much affection, especially during the early, formative years. The person who is smothered with affection by over demonstrative and over solicitous parents is likely to turn inward because he lacks motivation to express affection for others. Such a person focuses his attention on others, becoming spoiled, selfish, and self-centered. In time, he may rebel against such treatment and begin to rebutff demonstrations of affection, not only from his mother but from anyone else who tries to show affection for him. This leads to a generalized rebellion against authority and a negativistic attitude toward others.

The overmotherd child who does not rebel is likely to become submissive, gullible, conservative, and lacking in aggressiveness, self-confidence, and leadership qualities. He depends on others for attention, affection, approval, and encouragement in everything he undertakes, and he is lonely and unhappy when away from those who supply the affection he craves.

The emotionally dependent person rarely achieves up to capacity. In school, the parent dependent child looks to his teachers for special attention, approval, and affection. If he does not receive it, he does poor work and thus becomes even more dependent on his parents for affection. He also tends to become intellectually rigid and to have difficulty adjusting to new situations and people.

Parents who smother their child with love generally have unrealistically high levels of aspiration for him, and so he develops strong feelings of guilt, inadequacy, and resentment when he falls below their expectations. He may wind up biting his nails, stuttering, blinking his eyes, etc. he generally lacks emotional control, has a low level of frustration tolerance, and is afraid to act his age because of lack of self-confidence.

The firstborn child is more likely to be the victim of excessive mothering than the later-born. And a boy is more likely to be overmothered than a girl. The firstborn child experiences a high-pitched emotional relationship with his mother at first. Normally the intensity of the relationship steadily diminishes as the family grows and as the child him-self begins to assert his natural desire for independence. Excessive mothering is more common in the upper socioeconomic groups and among mothers who have experienced marital adjustment problems or who were deprived of affection in their own childhood.

Cogent and effect of Suicide

It is rare adolescent, who does not, at sometime or other, think of killing himself because he is a “failure” or because he believes world is “unfair” to him. Relatively few adolescents go beyond talking, though some do try to commit suicide, if for no other reason than frighten their parents or teachers in to treating them better in the future.

When threats or suicide attempts occur frequently, they are one of the most serious danger signals of maladjustment. They not only show how self-reject ant the person is but also how hopeless about his life situation. Sometimes suicide attempts are impulsive and sometimes premeditate. Sometimes the person hopes that, by showing other, how great his self rejection is he will get them to help with his problems and will, certainly, get them to treat him more sympathetically.

Suicide is in most cases, a sudden precipitous reaction to stressful situation resulting from frustration, depression, overt or masked or rebellious act against a restraining figure, a loved one. It is intended to frighten and to cause the restraining person to change an attitude or behavior towards the victim. It is often intended as a warning to parents or loved ones as an expression or dissatisfaction or displeasure which existing unpleasant situation and as a plea for improved relationship.

Personality patterns of suicide victims
Clinical studies of people of different ages who commit suicide, who attempt to do so, or who meet their daily problems by talking about suicide reveal that they are strongly self-reject ant. Sometimes this self-reject ant attitude comes from accumulated failures, often failures which they have convinced themselves are due to no fault of their own, and sometimes it comes from the loneliness which results not from environmental isolation but from social isolation.

Regardless of the cause of the self-reject ant attitude, the personality pattern associated with it is characterized by depression and anxiety: by feelings of extreme inadequacy and inferiority; by a belief that the situation is so hopeless that the person is completely helpless to cope with it and is, therefore, a martyr by the belief that he is the victim of prejudice: by the belief that members of the social group consider him “useless” and by marked feelings of guilt and shame which have led to self-contempt. Most people who are suicide-prone have long histories of gloominess, withdrawal, anxiety, and other problems. They have suffered from personality sicknesses which in greater and greater self-rejection.

Danger periods in suicide
There are certain predictable times when suicide and suicide attempts are more likely to occur. These danger periods coincide with those times in the life span when adjustments are especially difficult and when emotional stress is most common. A person who is poorly adjusted finds if particularly difficult to adjust to the problems that are normal for person of his age. When he sees his problems mounting, he becomes increasingly self-reject ant, feeling that he is more of a failure than he was earlier.

Adolescence, with its myriad adjustment problems, is one of the peak danger periods. While the suicidal impulse may have developed earlier, often in later childhood, it is strongest between the ages of 14 and 18 years. This is the most difficult time in the adolescent span for the young person to adjust to his new status and to new social expectations. If he adjusts with reasonable success, suicide-proneness decreases.

For women, another critical period comes at middle age, usually between 45 and 54 years. This is a time when women have many difficult adjustments to make, owing to their role-status change as their children grow up and as they find satisfying employment difficult to obtain. The feeling of uselessness and futility which these adjustment problems give rise to intensify any already-existing maladjustment they may experience.

Men, by contrast, do not reach a critical period until they face the problems that retirement gives rise to, at the age of 65 or later. If, in addition, they suffer from poor health and feel that their days of usefulness are over, they too experience a feeling of futility. This, combined with any existing maladjustment, predisposes them to think of suicide as the best solution to their problems shows the critical periods for suicide and suicide attempts.

Deprivation of love

Deprivation of any emotion is harmful to the personality, but deprivation of love is especially damaging. As Jersild says, “there is something emotionally satisfying about being, loved, and there also is something very practical about it”. Harlow speaks of love as “a wondrous state, deep, tender and rewarding”. Love includes not only the condition of being loved but also the act of loving. If it is to contribute positively and maximally to personality development, it must be developmentally appropriate in terms of quality, quantity, and method of expression.

In the early years of life, the child tries to behave in such a way as to gain parental warmth and acceptance. Later, he learns behavior patterns which bring him parental approval and, at the same time, provide him with effective ways of gratifying his own needs. This frees him from some of the vulnerability that emotional dependence brings. Emotional warmth from love likewise serves to stimulate intellectual development.

Deprivation of an affectionate relationship is most damaging in early childhood. Deprivation at this time may come from institutionalization of the baby or child, owing to the economic or marital status of the parents, the health of the baby or mother, the death of one or both parents, or some other cause. A child may be rejected or neglected by his parents because they favor a sibling or have other things to do. Some parents believe that showing affection for the child will “spoil” him and make him feel too important. “under-the –roof alienation”-¬¬¬as this kind of deprivation is called is more common in the American culture than deprivation due to institutionalization show some common causes of deprivation of love.

Many adults experience deprivation of love, especially in old age and after the death or divorce of a spouse. Deprivation can be almost as damaging to the self-concept in adulthood as in childhood.

Just as a child can suffer under-the-roof alienation, an adult may continue to live with a spouse but be “emotionally separated” from him. In many such cases, the individuals try to compensate for their own deprivation of love by focusing their affection on a child or by having extramarital love affairs.

Unmarried adults, too, experience deprivation of love, whether their failure to marry is due to choice or inability to attract a member of the opposite sex. Devotion to aging parents or to the children of relatives and friends rarely compensates for lack of an enduring affectionate relationship with a member of the opposite sex.

In old age, as in childhood, the major source of affection is normally the family. Even elderly people who are happily married and have interests of their own are rarely able to achieve emotional independence from their children. But in many cultures, the elderly are psychologically, if not economically, rejected by their children and grandchildren. This deprivation of affection is especially damaging when failing health, loss of a spouse or former friends, or the necessity of moving into an institution or into the home of a family member brings about social isolation from non family members who might otherwise supply the elderly person with some of the affection he needs and craves.

Patterns of show behavior

One of the most common forms of showing of is boasting about one’s achievements, possessions, and social contacts. Whether it id the child who boasts of his larger and better toys, the adolescent who boasts of his romantic conquests, or the adult who boasts of his important friends, often subtly by name dropping, the fundamental source of satisfaction is the ego inflation he hops to achieve from the admiration of others. It is more likely to lead to social disapproval than to admiration.

Clowning, in any situation and at any age, can be counted on to get a laugh. However, the laugh often turns to disapproval scorn, or contempt. Even children soon become annoyed at the class clown’s disruption of what they wanted to do and are contemptuous of his silliness and showing off. The life of the panty discovers that the temporary social attention he wins does not effectively increase his social acceptance.

Making derogatory comments and name calling and show-off techniques that are often substituted for clowning. By adolescence, these techniques of ego inflation are both common and situation his peers likewise criticize, such as teachers and the school, he wins far less social disapproval than if he directs then toward a member of the peer group of a popular adult.

The daredevil who takes unreasonable chances and defies authority has a marked feeling of personal inadequacy which he is trying to compensate for. By accepting dares and doing things that most of his peers and afraid do, he hops to win both admiration and acceptance. While both boys and girls engage in daredevil acts, they are far more common among boys. They are more common among children than among adolescents, who have discovered that dare deviltry, like clowning, wins only temporary admiration and may lead to injuries.

Accident proneness may be regarded as a danger signal of personality sickness. If a person has more than his share of accidents because of his tendency to show off and try to steal the lime relight, it is an indication that he feels neglected, a feeling that encourages self-rejection. In speaking of accident prone children who feel hopeless about making themselves understood tend to do something to get attention, smash things or hurt themselves, until. If no one comes to the rescue, they get the habit.

Dyeing authority, in the forms of rules and laws laid down by parents, teachers and law- enforcement authorities, is a common show- off technique. Some of the ways self reject ant young people try to inflate their ego are by smoking, drinking –glue-sniffing, driving faster than the legal speed limit and using narcotics. Since smoking not forbidden by law, many adolescents substitute if for t he more dangerous forms of showing off that they may lead to conflict with the law.

Which form of defiance young people will use to inflate their egos will depend largely of what meets their personal needs best and which forms will have the greatest defiance value. As adolescent smoking is far more common and more widely accepted than formerly, it has lost much of its show-off value in favor of drinking, which is still disapproved by parents and teaching and governed by rules in many schools and colleges and by laws in the states. Here is one explanation of the present popularity of marijuana smoking as form of show-off behavior.

Part of pot’s attraction is “doing something illegal together”. To most psychiatrists, the increase in marijuana smoking represents not so much a search for now thrills as the traditional, exhibitionist rebellion of youngsters against adult authority. Parents who are agreeable to students, drinking almost always boggle at drugs. There is not much that students can do that is defiant. They think with some degree of glee about what their parents would think if the know they were smoking marijuana.

Effects of names on personality

While most people think of names as a way of identifying others, there is evidence that names also a psychological aspect- names play a role of some importance in our mental life, and may even influence our conduct is subtle ways which we fail to recognize. Scientific evidence of the psychological effects of names of the bearer’s self-concept is a relatively recent, but there is historical evidence that as early as 2000 B.C. people thought proper names had the power to determine the bearer’s destiny.

The effect of names on personality begins at birth and extends throughout life.

A child’s name, like his somatstype, is generally a settled affair when his first breath is drawn and his future personality must then grow with in its show. A powerful meromorphic boy must experience a different world from his puny counterpart: and similarly a boy who answers to a unique, peculiar or feminine name may well have experiences and feelings in growing up that are quite unknown. One would expect these different childhood experiences to be reflected in the subsequent personality. It is plausible and confirmed by clinic experience to assume also that some individuals are seriously affected as a result of a peculiar name.

Names and Nicknames

Names have always been used as symbols to identity people and to indicate status in the group, family, connection, religious affiliation occupation and other personal details. This is true of primitive as well as civilized people.

It was Freud, however, who first emphasized that names are symbols self in that they are representations of the personality pattern of the bearer and as such, are used by others in making their judgment of him. Following this beginning, many studies have shown that names are not only a symbol but are also a determinant of his personality.

The symbolic role of names was stressed further by Freud in his explanation of the forgetting of names. Freud stated that the motivation for forgetting is to repress unpleasant association with the person who bear a for getter name. When the name touches off or is connected with some unpleasant association, the person may forget, distort, or repress the unpleasant association.

While Freud’s interpretation of forgetting is questioned by many psychologists today, it is a useful reminder of the symbolic value of names. If a person is known to others only by his name, they will judge him by it and endow him the pleasant and unpleasant qualities which they associate with his name, whether the qualities fit him or not. Thus, his name may be either an asset or a barrier to his socialization.

All port has referred to names as an “anchorage point or self hood” names are identity symbols. Murphy is justified in saying that on of the most important parts of a person is his name/p.

Body control

Good body control is a personal and social asset which contributes heavily to the person’s self-concept. The effect of body control on personality may be direct or indirect. The direct effect comes from determining what the person can do and how well he can do it. The direct effect is also evident in motivation. When a person is self-conscious about his poor body control, he may be so concerned about unfavorable social reactions that he will lack the motivation to do what he is capable of doing.

Indirectly, body control influences personality through the effect the person’s body control has on the attitudes of significant people in the social group. Because of the high social value placed on good body control, as shown in motor skills, strength, and speed, the person’s self-concept is damaged by poor control.

Awareness of social value of body control

Even before the young child discovers the social value of good body control, he derives satisfaction from being his own master and from being able to do what he sets out to do without help. In his early peer contacts, the child discovers that social acceptance depends largely on his ability to do what his age mates do and that leadership depends largely on superior play skills.

The schoolchild discovers that academic success is greatly influenced by the ability to do things which require skilled movements and that the confidence these build up encourages him to tackle new tasks. By adolescence, he is well aware that great prestige is attached to physical competence. Boys who excel in sports and girls who excel in social dancing are in the limelight of peer attention. Good body control is the key to social success.

In adult life, gracefulness and poise add to social success, while motor skills add to vocational success. At the basis of much of the feeling of inadequacy and self-consciousness noted among older people is the loss of body control which results from changes in the neuromuscular system and in the bones and joints-changes which are a natural accompaniment of the aging process.

Effects of body control on personality

At all ages, good body control enhances the self-concept in two ways. First, it fosters the development of self-confidence, which is expressed in a calm assurance, poise, and a willingness to try new things in the belief that they can be mastered. In time, self-confidence become generalized and spreads to situations where motor control is not involved. Second and more important, good body control encourage a feeling of security in social situations. This frees the person to turn his attention away from self and toward other, thus enabling him to make good social adjustments. He does not have to worry about how his body will function in social situations, whether he will be clumsy and do embarrassing things. The role of motor not control in the development of the self-concept has been stressed.

The psychological damage of awkwardness comes from different experiences at different ages. A young child must depend on others to do things for him he would like to do for himself. This dependency is a source of constant irritation and frustration.

The older child who is unable to keep up with his age-mates is embarrassed and ashamed. As such upsetting experiences accumulate, he develops a generalized feeling of inadequacy and inferiority, and his self-concept is damaged by feelings of shame. In time, he is likely to develop an inferiority complex.

Children who fall below their age-mates in play skills experience social rejection or voluntarily withdraw from the play group to avoid the embarrassment that comes from being considered awkward and clumsy. They are thus not only deprived of opportunities to improve their body control but also confirmed in their belief that they are inferior.

Not realizing that rapid physical growth can disrupt patterns of coordination established when the body was smaller, the young adolescent will wonder if something is wrong with him when he spills or breaks things, trips over rugs, and stumbles over his own feet. Ridicule and criticism from others add to his embarrassment and increase his feelings of inadequacy.

Temporary loss of body control during periods of rapid growth has a far less damaging effect on personality than permanent loss of control. However, if temporary awkwardness goes on too long, as in the slow mature at puberty, if can lead to a habitual concept of oneself as an awkward person even after the awkwardness has passed.

Decline in body control is one of the chief causes of the unfavorable self-concept that characterizes many elderly people. Feelings of inadequacy and inferiority arise when they compare themselves with younger people of with their own younger selves, and so they tend to shun motor activities and become dependent on others. As in young children, dependency in old age leads to frustration and unhappiness.

Since loss of motor control increases with advancing age, the damaging effect of awkwardness on the self-concept intensifies. Most elderly people are ashamed of their awkwardness, especially in situations where they must be with younger people who are likely to be critical of them or overprotective.

Left-handedness is often detrimental to good personal and social adjustment. Since manual dexterity affects the person’s educational and vocational success, it influences his self-concept. When the cultural group tends to favor the use of the right and to regard the left-handed person as “different,” the left-handed person’s mirror image, or social self-concept, is certain to be unfavorable.

Psychological pain-killers

The attention value of using such techniques as drinking smoking, and taking drugs to defy authority and their value as a means of inflating the ego lead some people to reply upon them to ease the psychological pain that comes from self-dissatisfaction and self-rejection. People discover, often by trial and error, that psychological pain can be eased by any technique that helps them to forget their troubles temporarily. This they may discover very early, even before they recognize the attention value of defying authority.

As psychological pains increase, may people follow the same path that they use easing physical pain; they increase the frequency of use and the intensity of the pain-killer. Just as some people become addicted to the use of aspirin or codeine, so some become addicted to the use of psychological pain-killers.

Today it is recognized that a person who has become addicted to any technique to deaden the psychological pain of self-rejection is suffering from personality sickness. Instead of condemning him for weakness of will power, as was formerly done, most people approve the new trend, which involves finding out what is responsible for the personality sickness so that its cause can be eliminated and the use of pain-killers made unnecessary.

In many cases, the infrequent and moderate use of psychological pain-killers cannot correctly be regarded as a danger signal of personality sickness. The motivation for their use may be social doing what everyone dose or merely the desire to attract attention.

On the other hand, their user may be regarded as a danger signal under three conditions: first, if they are used more often in solitude than in social settings; second, if they are used so frequently and with such intensity that they attract negative attention only pity or contempt; and third, if they are used much more often by those who are not well liked or who are socially inadequate than by those who are popular and who make good social adjustments. “Addictions,” write Stewart and Liv-son, “are not isolated habits but expressions of pervasive personality tendencies”.

Studies of people of different ages who are addicted to psychological pain-killers reveal that certain personality traits are characteristic among them. They are usually less popular and more rebellious, withdrawn, irresponsible, and easily dominated by parents or spouses than non-addicts. In describing the personality characteristics of the young male narcotic addict, Gilbert and Lombardi write.

He appears to be the kind of irresponsible, undependable, egocentric individual who has a disregard for social mores, acts on impulse, and demands immediate gratification of his wants. He is impatient and will act out aggressively against authority or others who thwart his desires. This acting out may then be followed by feelings of guilt and depression which can only be alleviated by more drugs..... Thus, the use of drugs may seem to him to be the only realistic solution to his problems at least it offers him a temporary relief from the pain of living.

Morality

Every cultural group has its own mores or standards of approved behavior. Certain acts are “right” because they further the welfare of the members of the group, they further are “wrong” because they are detrimental to the welfare of the group. The most important mores are incorporate into laws with specific penalties for breaking them. Other persists as customs, which are as binding as laws, but without specific penalties.

The individual’s intellectual capacities affect his response to the group’s moral standards. The moral behavior of the individual, in turn, is closely related to his adjustment to life, to the judgments others make of him, and to his judgments of himself. In general, the more closely his behavior conforms to the moral standards of the group with which he is identified, the more favorable will be the effects on his personal and social adjustments.

If a child violates the mores of the group, he is excused on the ground the he is too young to understand or to know the mores. However, by the tine he reaches adolescence, he is considered capable of understanding and abiding by the mores, and if he fails to do so he will earn an unfavorable reputation among the group members, make himself vulnerable to punishment or threats of punishment, and develop feelings of guilt. Conformity to the group’s mores, on the other hand, will lead to group approval and personal satisfaction.

The person learns, from his personal experiences, that it is to his advantage to conform standards of behavior set by the group, even though he may not at all times agree with the standards.

Intelligent individuals know that right conduct is simply intelligent conduct- the conduct that gets the best results... They tend to choose the right conduct simply because they see it as the course of action that produces the best consequences. An intelligent child or adult discovers he can get what he wants in life more easily and surely by honesty than by deception.

Development of moral codes No one is born knowing what the cultural group considers right or wrong. This he must learn. Even more important, if he wishes to win group approval, he must be motivated to choose, from different potentials for action, that which will satisfy his own need and at the same time conform to group standards.

Learning what the group approves of is a long and difficult process-a process that depends on the maturation of intellectual capacities, especially the capacities for remembering, associating what one learns with previously learned facts, and weighing the merits against the demerits of the different choices.

Moral development is the process in which the child acquires the values esteemed by his community....acquires a sense of right and wrong in terms of these values, and ... learns to regulate his personal desires and compulsions so that, when a situational conflict arises, he does what he ought to do rather than what he wants to do.... Moral development is the process by which a community seeks to transfer the egocentricity of the baby into the social behavior of the mature adult.

A moral code is based on moral concepts which have been learned gradually over a long period. The fundamental concepts are broadened and reinforced by learning from teachers, from adults in authority, and from peers.

Because of his intellectual immaturity, the young child cannot understand why certain things are right and others wrong. He learns to act as he is expected to without knowing why. Gradually, with increasing mental ability, he can see common features in apparently dissimilar situations. Then he can apply what he has learned in one situation to another situation. Specific moral concepts gradually become more general, more abstract, and more extensive.

As the individual grows older and as his social contacts broaden, he learns new moral concepts and generalizes old moral concepts to apply to new situations. By adulthood, he can apply moral concepts to an increasing range of conflicting life situations. In addition, he can ascribe different degrees of rightness or wrongness to acts, judging some as less wrong and some as more wrong. By this time, the person’s moral code, based on concepts learned in childhood and adolescence, is well formed. Any change in it is likely to be merely a shift in emphasis rather than the development of new concepts. When a shift occurs, it is largely in the direction of more conventional morality. This is especially true in the areas of areas of morality that relate to sex behavior.

INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL CODES The person’s ability to develop a moral code to guide his behavior is greatly influenced by his intellectual capacities, though other factors may aid or the development. The brighter factors may son, the more able he is t understand the moral concepts he learns, to perceive the situations in which they apply, and to profit from experience. The short attention span which is characteristic of people of low intelligence is related to impulsive behavior. Poor reasoning power results in lack of foresight and planning which, if combined with impulsiveness, often leads to behavior that violates the moral standards of the group. At every age, those of high IQ tend to be more mature in their moral judgments and behavior than those of the lower intellectual levels.

Immoral behavior is by no means found only in persons of low intelligence. On the other hand, socially unapproved methods of meeting life’s problems are more common in them. Deceit, for example, offers a means of solving difficulties which a person of limited intellectual capacity is more likely to use than a person of higher intelligence. The latter can adjust to his difficulties without being deceitful, although there is no guarantee that he will have the motivation to do so. He may find if easier to cheat than to be honest. And since he is clever, he will be able to cheat without detection more than those who are less clever.

Effects of age of achievement on personality

One of the most damaging aspects of failure is not achieving success and social recognition when the person hoped and expected to do so. The dissatisfaction the person experiences intensified by the realization that others with whom he has competed many have achieved success and social recognition earlier than he.

Many people have unrealistic aspirations about when they will reach goals which they are perfectly capable of reaching—but at somewhat later time. The athlete who hopes to win an Olympics gold medal when he is 16 might more realistically set his goal for the age of 19. So long as the person realizes that reaching the goal he has set will take time and effort and that social recognition of his achievement is usually later than the achievement itself, he will not think of himself as a failure. Many people however are unrealistic about the time, effort and planning needed to win success and recognition and that is why even successful achievement coming later than the person hoped can be damaging to the self concept.

By contrast, one of the greatest sources of satisfaction is achieving success and social recognition earlier than anticipated and earlier than one’s competitors. Under such conditions the effect on the self-concept is favorable. It may be so favorable as to lead to delusions of grandeur and a superiority complex--- a situation that will, in time, counteract favorable social judgments, prove damaging to the self- concept and put the person in a position where he will try to justify his delusions.