Personality of an individual starts emerging early in his/her life and continues to change or develop gradually throughout his/her lifespan. According to Paiget’s (A Swiss Psychologist) theory of cognitive development, there are four initial stages of personality development which correspond with the age of the individual. These stages are sensorimoter (up to 2 years), pre-operational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-11 Years) and formal operational (11 years to 15 Years). Therefore up to 15 years of age the personality of an individual is in the process of development and takes a definite shape after 15 years with regards to attributes etc. Lev S. Vygogtsky (A Russian Psychologist), a social constructor focused on socio-cultural aspects of cognitive development and was of the view that social interaction, language and culture play an mportant role in development of the personality of a child. He talked of social, private and silent speech and the concept of zone of proximal; development where help or scaffolding from more knowledgeable person is required for development of the child. Kohlberg (A American Psychologist) presented the ides of moral development of the child i.e. the concept of wrong and right or ethical of unethical in a situation of dilemma and placed emphasis on moral reasoning i.e. argument for taking a particular decision in a dilemmatic situation. He propagated the concept of pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional levels and six stages of moral development consisting of two stages in each of these levels i.e. the stages of obedience & punishment orientation and individualism and exchange/personal award orientation in the pre-conventional level, the stages of inter-personal relationship (good boy bad boy) & maintenance of social order (Law and order) in conventional level and the stages of social contract & individual rights and universal ethical principles in post-conventional level.   We can say these are initial stages of development of mental, emotional, social and spiritual or ethical intelligence. However the personality of an individual continues to develop through ongoing interaction of his/her temperament with environment around him/her and takes form of character. This is called the journey from womb to tomb or from birth to death. Temperament is the set of genetically determined traits that determines child’s approach to the world and how the child learns about the world. There are no genes that specify personality traits but some genes do control the development of the nervous system, which in turn controls behavior.

A second component of personality comes from adaptive patterns related to a child’s specific environment. Most psychologists agree that these two factors i.e. temperament and environment influence the pace of development of person’s personality the most. Sometimes, the temperament which is dependent on genetic factors is also referred as ‘nature’.

As indicated above the development process of a child commences from the stage of conception in mother’s womb and continues till the death. As such irrespective of age, each and every individual looks for development of his or her personality and searches for effective methods for effecting such development. Everyone has his/her own qualities and traits at a given point of time which make him/her an unique individual. But still everyone tries to improve his persona for better results or to face special life situations or challenges. If you think that good personality means looking physically good and attractive then you are absolutely wrong. Personality is a very broad term and takes into account both the physical as well as mental state of an individual. In fact it is the mental state which matters more than the physical state. No matter what you do, be it your study, an interview, your daily working place or an entrepreneurial venture, your overall personality plays a very crucial role in determining your success and also how you handle different situations or even the success itself. Now the question is that how do we develop our personality so that we can create our future according to our likings? Can we become master of our life?

Your response to various life situations or problems depends upon your past experience, perceptions and thinking developed over a period of time. It is therefore important to correct one’s perception created so far for positive changes in his or her behavior. If this happens through the process of self-analysis, evaluation and realization then it is very effective in changing the perception and the behavior which is dependent on it.

Personality development is a planned initiative to improve certain traits and qualities which contribute to your personality or your ability to handle situations and problems well and achieve success without stress. Personality is determined by various factors such as one’s physical appearance, behavior, attitude, education, values and some more varying characteristics. It defines who you are and how you respond to various situations including results of various acts of yours or others.

Your response to various situations depends upon your knowledge about various associated concepts, your past experience and self discovery of your strengths and weaknesses and developing internal drive to remove your misconceptions and weaknesses out of freewill.

Various modules (five at present) of ‘Prayas Foundation Course’ provide the participants a group platform to brainstorm on various fundamental issues of day to day life depending upon their life goals and increase the awareness of participants about various dimensions of these issues and facilitates decision through group consensus about the right approach towards handling such issues. Once the perception of participants is corrected through the process of self discovery out of freewill; the probability of correct and most appropriate response in a given situation brightens.  Once the quality of your efforts improves the results are bound to improve be it in the field of education, interview or jobs or self occupation or entrepreneurial venture.

To repeat, personality development is a lifelong process which involves periodical self assessment of one’s skills, qualities, consider aims of life and set goal to realize and maximize one’s potential. ‘Prayas Foundation Course’ facilitates development of an internally driven, self-motivating and proactive personality which enables the participants to continue to develop their personality as per the challenge of life being encountered by them from time to time.