Imagine the scene. A newborn baby lies in his mother's arms. The family are gathered. The baby's features are analysed, and within minutes they are ascribed to various family members. As well as comments about the baby's appearance, predictions are also being made as to his personality. Is he going to be a little charmer, or does he take after his more serious grandfather?
Such conjecture may seem ludicrous given that the child is only a few days old, but in some ways it is part of a time-honoured tradition. Differences in people's personalities are, after all, quite intriguing.
So what is personality and, more importantly, is it something that develops, or are we born with it?
Although most people know what is meant by personality, it is actually quite hard to define. From a psychological point of view, personality describes the lasting differences in the way people behave, particularly when they interact with others.
It is not seen as just a single item, but more in terms of a whole host of unchanging personal features such as our sense of independence, generosity, calmness, seriousness and so on. Thus you may be someone who loves a large party or you may be someone who prefers a meal out with close friends.
Maybe you are naturally cautious, or maybe you don't mind taking the odd risk.
One of the key issues for psychologists studying personality is whether we all share common traits which can be compared or whether each one of us is fundamentally unique.
In terms of theories of how our personality develops, it may come as no surprise to find that there are many competing and different approaches.
First of all, the nature versus nurture debate raises its head yet again.
How much of our personality is present at birth, and how much is the result of our experiences and the way in which we are brought up? As usual, there is evidence for both camps, although increasingly more and more psychologists believe that both nature and nurture are interacting together.
It's all biology
In terms of a biological explanation for personality, we see that newborn babies may have quite different temperaments. Some babies are more easily pacified, while others show more excitability.
Theorists who believe that there could be a biological component to personality suggest that children may be born with different arousal responses. The 'shy' child may easily be aroused and thus become stressed, while a child who is extrovert is less easily aroused and looks for and can cope with more excitement.
Other evidence for a genetic explanation of personality includes a study that looked at emotionality, activity and sociability in sets of twins. It found that identical twins scored very similarly, but non-identical or 'fraternal' twins had very different scores.
Down to experience
Alongside a biological explanation for personality, there are also some psychologists who believe that a child's environment and experiences have the upper hand.
Among these is Albert Bandura, whose social learning theory has been very influential. The social learning theory would suggest that aspects of children's personalities are learned.
At its simplest, this theory suggests that children who see others being generous are more likely to model this behaviour themselves, while children who have been exposed to aggression are likely to be aggressive. The nurture account also considers the attention and reactions that children might receive when acting in particular ways. A child who is dubbed 'shy'
by his parents may actually be gaining a significant amount of adult attention for this behaviour. The adult attention works as a reinforcement, and so the child is more likely to continue to show this type of behaviour.
On the other hand, a completely different view of personality development is offered by theorists such as Freud, Erikson and Jung. They considered the role of the unconscious mind and the influence of early relationships with adults to be of paramount importance.
Psychodynamic theories
Freud's work was considered to be shocking when it was first published. Not only was he the first person to talk about the unconscious mind, but his work also looked at our sexual drives. Freud's influential theory suggests that our personality has been shaped at key stages during early childhood such as weaning and potty training, but it is also linked to our relationship with our parents.
Watch out if you are a nail biter or a smoker or are easily taken in by others. Freud might claim that these are all the result of not having coped very well with weaning. Meanwhile, if you are over-generous and very untidy, perhaps your toilet training was a little too relaxed!
Words of caution
Perhaps it is worth ending on a word of caution. Thinking about people's personalities is loaded with value judgements, as quite often some traits are more admired than others. While trying to work out what people are like is almost instinctive, providing us with predictable 'bookmarks' for future reference, we need to be wary.
When working with children, we need to be extremely careful that children do not become labelled. Children are, of course, still learning about relationships and are developing the social skills that they need. It is all too easy to attribute a personality trait to what might be a stage of development. A two-year-old could easily be labelled as 'possessive' or 'jealous', while in reality most children of this age find sharing possessions and people quite difficult. Once children are labelled or perceived in a certain way, adults are likely to expect certain responses from them.
Giving children the sense that we care and value them for who they are, not what they do, is possibly the most valuable thing that we can do towards helping them learn to be themselves.