Personality and Ethics

1.0 Introduction
By 2012, our world population stands at 7 billion and counting (Nasser, 2011). And not a single person is without a personality. Our personality is what makes who we are, what we do, who we interact with and how we live our life. It is a vital aspect that drives most of the decisions and choices an individual makes in his lifespan, and throughout this lifespan, the individual’s personality are tempered by external factors. In spite of all that, the nature of an individual’s personality still commands a degree of stability across time and situations as they grow from childhood to old age. And every individual’s personality begins the moment they are capable of perceiving the world.
The development of one’s personality depends on two factors which are nature and nurture. As cited in Carducci (2009) Plomin, DeFries, McClearn & McGuffin (2001) it’s stated that biological factors do contribute to the physical and personality characteristic such as genetic heritability; however, this does not shows that all individuals’ personality is determined only from the biological process. Every individual contains a unique group of genes that require environments during an individual’s entire life to produce a recognizable individual (Larsen & Buss, 2005).
It is often debated which of the two factors has a stronger impact on the development of personality, as supported by Carducci (2009) stating about the nature versus nurture controversy. Nature refers to biological factors such as hormones and genetics inherited from one’s parents whereas nurture emphasizes on environmental factors such as parenting styles, education opportunities and the circumstances in which one goes through in their life as well as perceptions, reasoning and beliefs.
To understand an individual’s personality, society strives to understand the traits of individuals. Trait is the internal psychological disposition that remains largely unchanged throughout the lifespan and

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