Personality and Social Development

Abstract

THE problems involved in investigating personality development and social development are so closely related that it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate them. An individual's behavior in social situations is a direct measure of his personality development. Jerome S. Bruner (19) in a recent review of social psychology and the group processes referred to the increasing smudging of the boundary between social psychology and the psychology of personality. In spite of the fact that studies of personality development and social development have been treated in separate chapters in previous reviews on this topic, they are presented in a single chapter in this issue. During the past three years research workers showed considerable interest in the field covered by this chapter. This was a continuation of a trend which began some 10 or 15 years ago. Psychologists as a group have shown a growing concern with the problems of personality and social growth and with the factors affecting the individual's total adjustment to his social and physical world. If space permitted, several hundred specific investigations falling in the general area of this review could be cited. Since it is necessary to be highly selective, only a fraction of that number have been included and discussed here. The studies are grouped under the following headings: (a) effect of early infant experience on personality, (b) family relationships and personality development, (c) studies of prejudice, (d) culture and personality, (e) personality change with age, (f) personality development of handicapped individuals, (g) studies of social relationsips, (h) physical and biological determinants of personality, and (i) technics for evaluating personality and social development.