Normal and Abnormal Personality Development

1. Overview & Epidemiology

• Personality = the enduring, characteristic pattern of how a person thinks, feels, relates and behaves — relatively stable across time and situations. It is the integrated end-product of two components:
  • Temperament — the biologically based, heritable, early-appearing emotional/behavioural style (the "how"). Largely genetic/constitutional; visible in infancy; ~40–60% heritable in twin studies.
  • Character — the learned, experience-dependent component (goals, values, self-concept, relation to others); shaped by family, culture and social learning; matures into adulthood.
• Personality development = the lifelong process by which temperament + maturation + environment (especially early caregiving) consolidate into a stable personality. Foundations are laid in infancy/childhood; identity crystallises in adolescence/early adulthood; traits become most stable after ~age 30 but are not fully fixed.
• Why it matters for the exam: the same developmental factors that produce a healthy adult, when disturbed, predispose to personality disorders (bridge to Topic 36). The two questions every examiner cares about: (1) which model explains this stage/behaviour? and (2) is this defence/trait normal-mature or pathological-immature?
• Context (Hungary/Europe): classifications use ICD-11 alongside DSM-5-TR. ICD-11 abandoned categorical personality "types" for a dimensional severity + trait-domain model (negative affectivity, detachment, dissociality, disinhibition, anankastia) — conceptually close to dimensional temperament models below. Theory here (Freud, Erikson, Mahler) is psychodynamic/developmental theory, not laboratory-proven fact; attachment and temperament research is the more empirically grounded part.

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