Style and Your Personality

Now-a-days, more attention is being given to nonverbal behavior, to individual styles, as they are called. One person may smile a great deal and another rarely. Some gesture with a nod of the head.

Studies show that people who characteristically smile and use many arm, hand, and finger movements are concerned with gaining approval and may tend to use such gestures more than other s as part of their style of behavior. And there are styles, where a person tends to overlook or 'level' perceptual differences among objects. Here, the person sees things in terms of their sameness. In contrast, some people look at things in terms of their differences, a style called "sharpening." Hence, we can say that one person's way of thinking and perceiving stems, to an extent, from properties of his personality which distinguish one person from the other.

We can say that personality as an area in which the biological, social and applied aspects of psychology come together, giving us a picture of the individual's general pattern of behavior. The concept of personality also holds to the central theme of consistency in the individual's behavior over a long period of time and within a wide range of situations. The scholarly oriented students succeed in academic pursuits and winds up as scientist or literary critic.The boy or girl with artistic talent may not become a professional musician but music will play an important part in his or her life. The 'upward-mobile' and aggressive student goes on to become a leader and for some with lack of self-confidence may bring on the agony of failure. Some people, who in youth plan too much, may find that this trait shows up the direction of future behavior.

But, an individual's personality is not totally fixed. Both drives and habits change and personality also changes with time and experience. The shy child may become a self-assertive adult. The calm young man my find himself in his middle age, frustrated and unable to extricate himself from confusion. The man with youthful pressure to instant success may become the patient teacher. But mainly, our behaviors do seem to have a way of following us like a credit rating.

Though analysts do not want to place people rigidly in pigeon holes of personality, they are interested in seeing which way behavior is directed. And up to a point, they have means of measuring personality, aided by modern methods and gadgets.