Each person is, first of all, a living organism, however, like other living things on this planet. But there is one “but” that distinguishes people from animals: a person is a carrier of consciousness, that is, a person. And this aspect of human existence is immaterial; it cannot be examined under a microscope or touched by hands. But this does not mean that the concept of personality cannot be studied. And psychology has been doing this for many years. But psychologists are people too and in each of them the structure of a person’s personality has its own interpretation.
Both Western and Russian psychologists worked a lot on this issue. And the latter managed to create a coherent scientific system, according to which the personality structure is divided into four substructures.
The first of them is called the orientation of the personality. This concept includes desires, drives, inclinations, interests, worldviews, ideals and beliefs. All these personality elements are not innate. They are socially determined and are formed during education. And the most stable and active personality traits are beliefs. And their combination - this is the worldview of man. In a passive state, it is present in all people. But in strong-willed people, their beliefs are active, and they actively bring them to life. And sometimes they even impose their beliefs on others.
Also, the structure of personality includes such a thing as experience. These are the skills, knowledge, habits and skills that a person acquires in society through training. The experience is already influenced by the biological and genetic properties of people. But not each of these properties suddenly becomes a personality trait. One-time actions or skills that are just beginning to take shape are not yet experiences. But if a particular person has fixed knowledge and some skill, or he has an established habit or skill, then they will undoubtedly become the properties of his personality. Experience can be passive. In this option, all knowledge and skills simply lie “dead weight”. But also all this knowledge and skills can be actively used.
The third substructure of personality includes individual characteristics of various mental functions. These are memory, sensations, emotions, feelings, perception, thinking and the will of man. After all, all these psychological processes for each person work differently, that is, they are individual. And over time, they become fixed and become inalienable personality traits. For example, one person has a phenomenal memory, another subtly feels art, and the third can “boil” because of a trifle. Also, all these components can be trained and modified. But sensations and emotions are peculiar not only to people, but also to animals. Therefore, the basis of this substructure is more of a biological rather than a social component.
The personality structure also includes such a substructure as the properties of temperament. These properties mainly depend on such physiological characteristics of the brain as the speed with which nervous processes occur in it, the balance of processes of inhibition and excitation, and the like. The age and gender of a person also affect these properties. And even a disease can affect an individual’s temperament. All these features have a biological basis, and it is very difficult to change them. But through training, some of these traits can be redone. Here you can also replace one function if desired. For example, some people after watching the "horror" can not fall asleep. This is due to the highly excited nervous system. But this system can also be "tricked" if you "count elephants" or use other similar tricks.
But such a division into substructures is not the only one. For example, Jung’s personality structure looks somewhat different. This scientist identified three main components of a person’s personality. The first component is the consciousness of the individual or his ego. The second component is the individual unconscious, and the third is the collective unconscious. And if the individual unconscious of each person has his own, then the collective - is identical for all people. This component of personality is a legacy of the emotional past of all mankind, and it is reborn in the structure of the brain of each individual individual.
And on the basis of all these substructures, the motivational structure of the person’s personality is formed. That is, if we take into account various objective factors: needs, goals of an individual, ideals, conditions of activity, level of claims. And here also include subjective factors (skills, knowledge, character, abilities), as well as the orientation of the person, her beliefs and worldview, you can determine which person will decide in a particular situation.