What are the differences between personality and individuality?

Rahul Pratap Singh Kaurav

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Individuality is your essence. You come with it. You are born with it. Personality is borrowed. It is given to you by society. It is just like clothes, subtle clothes.

Individuality is exactly what it means. It is individual. Personality is not individual. It is social. Society wants you to have personalities, not individualities, because your individualities will create conflict. The society hides your individuality and gives you a personality.

Personality is a learned thing. The word personality comes from a Latin root that means “mask”—persona. In classical drama the actors used to wear masks to hide their real faces and to show some other face. From persona comes the wordpersonality. It is a face that you wear, not your original face."....

Please, see the link ...

https://outertouch.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/osho-on-individuality-vs-personality/

In my opinion, a person can show more individualities at different places. whereas s/he carries only one personality.

Subhash C. Kundu

Personality is something that is acquired as you grow up. You form it on the basis of your interaction with the world—your perception of the world—and your relationships with other people. In other words, your personality is a response to everything outside of you. It is like a language of expression; it is not the only one there is, but you think that it is you.

Individuality is your essential Self, your essential Being. It is that which was present before you developed a personality. And what seems to escape everyone’s awareness is the fact that this Individuality is absolutely divine. In other words, your Individuality is the Presence of God expressed.

If you believe that your personality is what truly identiﬁes you, and you are never open to an experience of yourself beyond that acquired and self-created personality, you are locked into what is, in the ﬁnal analysis, not really you at all.

http://www.onewhowakes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/WHAT-IS-THE-DIFFERENCE-BETWEEN-INDIVIDUALITY-AND-PERSONALITY.pdf

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25120852?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Mohammad Israr Khan

Ii is the individuality that shapes the personality. In that sense, individuality is the foundation the great edifice of personality is built upon.

Regards

Personality is the sum total of qualities present in a person, positive and negative taken together. Individuality is the physical status of a person which makes him distinct from any other person. It is mysterious that in God's ( or Creator's) scheme of things , no two persons or objects are similar in the strict sense of the term. Personality also varies, but we can deduce certain generalizations by Method of Agreement. The whole of medical science (and psychiatry in this case ) is based on this approach to logical deductions.

Sibaprasad Dutta PhD

Dejenie A. Lakew

Individuality is the person within while personality is from without, the social presence and representation of one self consistently as a behavior. In most cases we live our individuality but utilize our persona to gain or lose from outside of us.

Harith Hasoon Al-Moameri

Interesting question.... i found an nice article that answer it professionally .

https://outertouch.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/osho-on-individuality-vs-personality/

Fatima Mohammed Hussen

agree with Hazim in his opinion that "Individuality is your essence. You come with it. You are born with it. Personality is borrowed. It is given to you by society. It is just like clothes, subtle clothes.

Maria Bettencourt Pires

Probably the difference relies on the fact that you can get Individualistic Personalities, but not personalistic Individualities...

(? I wonder ... )

There are many possible meanings and relations or associations depending on context. To me 'personality' designates a sum - a sum of qualities or any other human sum while 'individuality' is a separate entity or a relation - one vs. or over another, one to many, a distinct feature and not necessarily human (in English 'individually' can be used in the sense of 'separately' but 'personally' always implies a person). Both terms can be used to describe a person in terms of qualities but they can be used together as opposing or relational categories, and if we switch to other languages I guess we will find other nuances.

Hi Hazim,

Your post is what appears below:

========================================================

"Individuality is your essence. You come with it. You are born with it. Personality is borrowed. It is given to you by society. It is just like clothes, subtle clothes.

Individuality is exactly what it means. It is individual. Personality is not individual. It is social. Society wants you to have personalities, not individualities because your individualities will create conflict. The society hides your individuality and gives you a personality.

Personality is a learned thing. The word personality comes from a Latin root that means “mask”—persona. In classical drama, the actors used to wear masks to hide their real faces and to show some other face. From persona comes the word personality. It is a face that you wear, not your original face."

=====================================================

Personality is not borrowed. It is not given to a person just like clothes. Personality is the sum total of the qualities, positive and negative together, and it forms the attitude of a person to his environment. It is ever developing. It is the essential quality of a person.

Personality is formed by two factors - nature plus training. The training is given by the parents, by the family, by the friends, by the colleagues, in a word by the society. If the innate nature of a person is good but the influence is bad, a person cannot have a good personality. If one's nature is prone to evil, even good influence fails to work. If both the nature of a person and the influence (training) of the society on him are good, he becomes a good person. This issue is wonderfully explained by the famous parable of Christ - The Parable of the Sower. It is never ever the mask. To call 'personality' a mask is absolutely an incorrect proposition.

Individuality is distinctive. Each and everyone, an animal or an object, is an individual. It is the numerical status of a person.

I have already recorded a post on this count. You may refer to it. This is an important subject of Psychology.

Sibaprasad Dutta

Individuality is opposed to the state of universality which things have in the mind. It designates that concrete state of unity and indivision, required by existence, in virtue of which every actually or possibly existing nature can posit itself in existence as distinct from other beings. The angels are individual essences; the Divine Essence, in Its sovereign unity and simplicity, is supremely individual. Pure forms or pure spirits are, of themselves or by reason of that which constitutes their substantial intelligibility, in the state of individuality.

Personality, therefore, signifies interiority to self. And because it is the spirit in man which takes him, in contrast to the plant and animal, beyond the threshold of independence properly so called, and of interiority to oneself, the subjectivity of the person has nothing in common with the isolated unity, without doors or windows, of the Leibnizian monad. It requires the communications of knowledge and love. By the very fact that each of us is a person and expresses himself to himself, each of us requires communication with other and the others in the order of knowledge and love. Personality, of its essence, requires a dialogue in which souls really communicate. Such communication is rarely possible. For this reason, personality in man seems to be bound to the experience of affliction even more profoundly than to the experience of creative effort. The person is directly related to the absolute.

https://www3.nd.edu/~maritain/jmc/etext/CG03.HTM

Unless you drop your personality you will not be able to find your individuality. Individuality is given by existence; personality is imposed by the society. ~ Osho

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Personality is that which society manages to make you and individuality is that which society is afraid of."

-Osho-

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Unless you drop your personality you will not be able to find your individuality."

-Osho-

Personality has power to uplift, power to depress, power to curse, and power to bless. ~ Paul Harris

Perception is greater than sensation, and realization is greater than perception. Information turns into knowledge through the process of assimilation. Otherwise, the vision will not be clear. Swami Vivekananda said: 'if information were knowledge, then the libraries would be the wisest person.'

' Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted; others to be swallowed; and some FEW to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some FEW to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. ... Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning - to seem to know that he doth not. ' - Francis Bacon : Of Studies

* Written in Elizabethan English

Best wishes for all.

Sibaprasad

Han Ping Fung

Individuality is the invisible part of us that is influenced by heredity i.e. certain quality or characteristic that is passed down to us when we were born e.g. ability, perception, attitude, ethical value etc. When all the individual qualities / characteristics are combined together, they formed our individual's inherited qualities / characteristics within us.

Personality is the visible part of us that is influenced by both heredity & surrounding environment. After we were born into this world, with the inherited qualities & characteristics we will interact with our surrounding environment to form our personality. The surrounding environment includes family, education, culture & other environmental forces that shape our personality. Examples of personality includes the Big 5 Personality Traits i.e. Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability & Openness to Experience.

Shafagat Mahmudova

Dear Sudev Naduvath,

Personality - is the unity of unique personal characteristics of the individual. This is the uniqueness of his psycho-physiological structure (type of temperament, physical and mental features, intellect, outlook, life experience).

Formation of the person is a process of socialization, which consists in the development of their generic, public entity.

The concept of "personality" and "individuality" recorded various aspects, different dimensions of the spiritual nature of man. The point of this distinction is well expressed in the language. The word "person" is generally used such epithets as "strong", "energetic", "independent", thus emphasizing its activity-representation in the eyes of others. On individual say "bright", "unique", "creative", meaning as a separate entity.

Regards, Shafagat

Mr. Hang Ping,

The big five personality traits that you have mentioned are positive qualities. One's personality cannot be assessed by quantification of the positive values. Personality which is ever evolving is invisible but is manifested in behavioural disposition. Individuality is absolutely the physical entity of a person. Its growth is organic, not spiritual like that of personality.

Sibaprasad

We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die. ~ Albert Camus (1913-1960)

Hi Fateh,

The first sentence of Camus is all right. The second is not. This is because if we know our self vis-a-vis Self, we can have a better life free from the fear of death.

Sibaprasad

Dear Downvoter,

Good Day,

I would like to say to the individual who from time to time starts to downvotes the ones who are much more better than him\ her in every things. I want to tell him to be civilized\ mature\ well-mannered, gentleman and scholar when he starts to down votes!! If he wants us to up-votes for him just ask us, I will be the first one to do so!!!

Mr. Hazim,

A researcher should be prepared to accept all views. He should be courageous enough to tolerate criticism. This would help him improve his research. The way he has characterized the downvoter is not expected of a good scholar.

Regards.

Sibaprasad

Mr. Hazim,

Regards.

Sibaprasad

Dear Sibaprasad Dutta.

Good Day,

I am very open-minded person and well prepared to accept any opinion right \ wrong. But the downvoter should be brave enough to say where I was wrong so I can learn from him\ her!! In the next Answer pane, NOT just down-vote for the sake of down-voting!!!!

Well, it seems we have come to a point where we should conclude the discussion and search for a new topic.

Sibaprasad

Hi Hazim,

We are here to post serious thoughts on issues raised. This is not the forum to discuss where somebody is wrong. Everyone's opinion is valuable, provided it is seriously thought of.

Best,

Sibaprasad

Hi Sibaprasad,

Good Day,

We are all SERIOUS here otherwise we would not waste time on issued raised!!! If I do not benefit from my time, I will leave completely for ever. I have ALL the right to know my mistakes if I was mistaken!!!! My opinion is valuable, I think, otherwise I would not get up vote for it!!!

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. ~ Albert Einstein

N. Venkatathri

Individuality is one's positive view about himself in comparison with others and Personality is others positive view about one.

Subhash C. Kundu

Individuality -----

“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

José Eduardo Jorge

As I see it, personality is a psychological characteristic .While it has important social and cultural components--what we "internalize" or learn from our culture-- every personality is unique, because the experiences of each individual are also unique. I would talk about "individuality" in reference to the self-assertion by the person of her/his unique character and value, which include but exceed his/her own personality. It would be the assertion of the identity of the person --in the way it is conceived by the individual-- and of the right to self-realization of her/his potential.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"I believe in individuality, that everybody is special, and it's up to them to find that quality and let it live."

----- Grace Jones

Dear Friends,

I believe you have probably read my two posts. If not, here they are:

Post (1)

Personality is the sum total of qualities present in a person, positive and negative taken together. Individuality is the physical status of a person which makes him distinct from any other person. It is mysterious that in God's ( or Creator's) scheme of things, no two persons or objects are similar in the strict sense of the term. Personality also varies, but we can deduce certain generalizations by Method of Agreement. The whole of medical science (and psychiatry in this case ) is based on this approach to logical deductions.

Sibaprasad Dutta

Post (2)

Individuality is distinctive. Each and everyone, an animal or an object, is an individual. It is the numerical status of a person.

I have already recorded a post on this count. You may refer to it. This an important subject of Psychology.

Sibaprasad Dutta

Mohammad Israr Khan

An up-vote is an individual number. But it is an outcome of a personality perception both of the writers and the written texts.

Regards

@José Eduardo Jorge: thank you for a very interesting and insightful interpretation, I especially like the "include but exceed" part.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

“Create your own style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.”

― Anna Wintour

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"What you have, what you are - your looks, your personality, your way of thinking - is unique. No one in the world is like you. So capitalize on it."

---- Jack Lord

@Sibaprasad Dutta: I am not sure what you mean. I shared my views on the matter, if there is something unclear, let me know.

Hristina,

Please repeat your post or let me know your views via email.

Sibaprasad

Email: [email protected]