Beware of over-simplified personality theories. Besides there being hundreds of personality parts, many of our specific traits change from one situation to another . We may lie and cheat only in certain circumstances, not all the time. You probably know people who are chameleon-like, eagerly changing themselves to meet their needs at the moment. The degree to which we change our personality to please others is probably another stable characteristic.
Human personalities are fascinatingly complex.
Stages of life Personality theories also describe the development of our personal traits. This knowledge should help us understand the significance of our history and the possibilities of growth in the future. I have summarized some developmental theories about life stages in Table 9.1 and several references about personality development are given at the end of this section. Obviously, a thorough understanding of the normal process of growing up will require much more information than I have provided. Moreover, to understand where we went wrong, i.e. how our own personal problems arose, we need general knowledge of normal development as well as serious probing of our specifically unique history.