HOME ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENTS
BY
DR. O.O. OYERINDE
UNIVERSITY OFILORIN
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN KINETICS AND
HEALTH EDUCATION
ABSTRACT
The paper ascertained the different patterns and perspectives of
personality, the developmental problems of young peoples and the
role of the home environment in child development. It was revealed
through literature search that the home conditions provide basic
requirements for the complete development of the child Also, that the
personality components of individuals are the biological self, the social
self and the self ideal. And that the home characteristics for acceptable
and conducive personality development by and individual include
removal of factors that can lead to oedipal complexity from the home.
Based on these literature findings it was recommended among others
that family life and sex education in schools and communities should
be geared up.
INTRODUCTION
One of the prerogatives of good governance is the provision of
shelter. Shelter provision is the basic ingredient for the establishment
of a healthy home. A happy home is the bed-rock of sound health for
individuals that compose a society. If the society must survive, the
individuals that make it up must be raised in such a way that will lead
to the development of appropriate personalities.
Individual's personality is made up of his biological self, the
social self and the self ideal. For a child, the home forms the first
contact point for the development of any of the personality
components. As a matter of fact, the learning that takes place in the
classroom or anywhere else is less influential than what the child
learns at home.
The intent of this paper is to highlight the different perspectives of
personality, the developmental problems of young people, and the
roles of the home in child development.
THE BIOLOGICAL SELF
This is rooted in the harmonious and loving relationship of the
parents. Parents generate great influence on the growth of the child
who is a direct product of the union of both the husband and the wife
especially in determining whether a child will be gifted or not,
talented or not. It is appropriate here to reaffirm that a typical nuclear
family emanates from a man and a woman that have come together
in marriage and their socially recognized children (Obertenffer 1953,
Kogan 1970, Oyerinde 1993, Winfrey 2000, Morawska & Sanders
2009..
Studies abound Salber et al. (1962), Hobsons (1975) Perez-Bravo,
Carrasco, Martinez, Gutierrez-Lopez and Lopez (1996) to reveal a
direct relationship between the type of home climate and the child's
biological growth. It is positive when the union of the man and woman
is cordial and it is negative when this is not the case. Burt ' and Brower
(1975) and Perez-Barvo et al (1996) remarked that: for this ingredient
(man-woman relationship) to contribute to the positive biological
personality of the individual,, the biological aspects of human
sexuality requires generally their ability to produce sex cells, bring
about fertilization internally and have prolonged developmental
phase. This clearly out laws any other use of the sex organ other
than for love and affection. According to Elias (1969) and Muggins
(1999) a lot of social and economic problems arise through the
unwholesome participation in sex and its outcomes, "Love" according
to them is the only satisfactory answer tol:'he problem of human
existence. With love, a lot of personality ego is removed so will
selfishness, jealousy and callousness which are types of negative
outcomes of unharmonious and loving relationship between parents
be removed.
The biological self of individuals can sustain discussion for
whole days, this will not do for the time and space available for this
paper. Hence three concrete and prominent vistas of personality
development will be highlight viz:
CHILDREN MOTHERING
Kogan (1968), Stuart-Macadam & Dettwyler (1995) and Huggins
(1999) identified the fact that the relationship between the infant and the
mother is a ballet in which each partner responds to the steps of the
other. The dependence of the newborn child IS complete. To
completely deprive the human newborn of mother care is catastrophic.
At birth, the human infant is beset with respiratory threat; the
respiratory centre of the brain, respiratory muscles (i.e. that of the
diaphragm and ribs) need further development. He also suffers
gastro intestinal threat, this is because the gut lining is incomplete.
Other infant threats that crystalise into realities in adult life of the
individual are those of inadequate relationship between the infant and
his mother or mother-substitute and the threat that the infant might
not be able to satisfy his needs for pleasure for example, the oral
pleasure of sucking (Kogan 1970). \\Tiere there is no harmonious
living among the parents, each of these threats can stifle the life out
of the child, derail it's self ideal or wrap his adult personality.
The infant feels hunger, he is hurt, threatened and anxious. If he
cries and it is fed, his tension is relived. But sometimes he cries and
the breast (or bottle) does not come. Hence he cries, the more hurts
more, the stress grows and he suffers more anxiety. Acceptably about
six months of a small amount of frustration will teach him how to deal
with frustration. Too much of frustration however, will teach what his
most important person(s) (i.e. mother and father) can not be depended
upon. He loses his basic trust (Kogan 1970), Stuart-Macadam et al
(1995), Huggins 1999 and Agostoni & Hasctike (2003).
PERSONALITY COMPLEXES
The influence of the home on the development of the child is well
illustrated by the case study presented by Kogan (1970) of a young
man who consulted a psychiatrist on the ground that he felt fear
when he was alone. Whenever he was by himself, he would
become aware of a creeping uneasiness until terror wells up in him
and spreads through him like a stain. He practiced homosexual
behaviours and was unable to relate to women well as outcomes of
this fear.
Months of psychoanalysis revealed that at five, he had worshipped
his mother. Now he described her dispassionately. She had been a
graceful, beautiful woman, she was fond of picking him up and
stroking his hair until he fell asleep. On the other hand, his father
was stern and gruff so much so that sometimes he would grumble
and order him to get off his mother's lap. The mother blushes and
kisses the child and smooths his hair in compensation.
Xot long, the father fell prostratingly ill and died. The mother
reacted badly to the loss of her husband, she was inconsolable and
wept all day. The child who had been deprived of attention crawled into
her bed at night and tried to console the mother by saying mother
should not worry, that the father would die and not come back and that
he would be around to care for her. In response the mother slapped
him so hard again and again and sent him to his room that became
confused. Even in his room, he heard her raging at him.
From this time, a five year old normal emotion became an
abnormal situation. The child's guilt about wanting to rid himself of
his father (a normal desire at the stage) was heightened by both his
mother's immature coquetry and his father's disapproval. He was
later unable to identify with a father he never learned to admire. The
father's illness intensified the boy's anxiety. But it was the mothers
violent renunciation of him that tore him loose from his most urgently
needed affection. She might have told him the simple truth. She
needed him and his father. Instead she lost them both, she sent
the room from which he never emerged WHO (2005) affirms that
with a mutual harmonious loving among the parents, this situation
m96+ight not have arisen at al.
FAMILY PLANNING
The matter of family planning is not only important on the national
level but also on the family level. Here it affects most vitally the
individual members of society which make up the nation. Selmon
(1979) and Kogan (1970) indicate that the majority of the crime and a
large percentage of juvenile delinquents come from families which
are usually large families which are at least too large for the parents
to be able to care for their offspring. This fact should bring very
forcibly, to the attention of every married person, the conviction that it
is necessary for them to use their best judgment and self control to
plan the family in such a way that the child who are brought into the
world will be a blessing rather that a curse to society (Kroeger &
Swith 2004 and Lamaze international 2003).
It is universally recognized that there are two great powers
working among mankind. We may call them the power of good and
evil. These powers are recognized to exist and are diametrically
opposed to each other. It has been realized that when a man and
woman bring more children into tiiis world than they are capable of
properly feeding, clothing, educating and guiding into responsible and
profitable maturity, they are actually swelling the ranks of those who
make up the army of the evil one.
PATTERNS AND PERSPECTIVES OF PERSONALITIES:
PROBLEMS EMANATING FROM HOME CONDITIONS
In all parts of the world, where economic, social and political growth and
changes are assuming rapid turns, children quickly pass through the
stages of fantasy and make believe to the adventurous and idealistic
stage. To a large extent, this is a result of their changing and rapidly
advancing psychology. They want to project forward earlier than one
may think, they should (Makinde 1984, Perez-Bravo et al. 1996,
Huggins 1999, Agostoni et a! 2003). Young people have various
problems that are developmental establishing a personality is not done
in a stroke. It is developmental and it is one of the human nature that
has its roots from cradle. Chenowerth and Selkirk (1953) agree with
others in the field of child psychology that the character or personality
and the style of life of the adult has its beginning in childhood.
Whether this style of life at adulthood will lead to a well adjusted
personality is rooted in the experience of a child as a toddler and the
home environment. (Perez-Bravo et al. 1996).
By the age of 4 or 5- and from then on, experiences are
assimilated and utilized accordingly. World renewed psychologists like
Adler
(1930),
Freud (1938) and lung (1959) specified in their theories on personality
development that attitudes feelings, perceptions become fixed and
mechanized at an early age and that it is practically impossible for the
style
of life to change thereafter. The major assumptions of these three
psychologists is that human behavior is motivated by inborn instincts
and are biological. In this way, they are also developmental.
Anderson (1975) devoted some time to the question of child
development in his works. A review of such works revealed that
he discussed child handling at the developmental stages of his life is a
very important factor in child care. It is his opinion that too much
expression of the self ideal at the childhood stage of development
result in a selfish, ruthless, domineering and extroverted type of
personality in later years. On the other hand, too much repression
may lead to excessive timidity. reticence, introversion belligerent
asocial conduct in later years when youthfulness as attained. It is of
value to add at this point if more maladjustment occurred later in life
than at any previous time, it is usually because unresolved home
problems of childhood that have newly displayed self assertion.
In the case of a democratic parent is a good example of an
instincts of childhood may not have been thoroughly satisfied
because the parents repress these activities and thus developing a
poor social self. They are often suppressed and introverted. If this
repression of childhood interests is carried to adolescence, Lovell
(1971) says that the youth will make up for this by performance in other
directions.
Along with the submission of Freud (1938) lung (1959), Adler
(1930), and Thomas (1960) on the role of excessive repression on
childhood development and the repercussion at adolescence is that of
unsatisfied unconscious wish. Perhaps, according to these authors, the
strongest of these is :he desire for group recognition, drug abuse and
delinquencies. Salber et a;, (1962) and Anderson (1975) suggested
that it may be that children who do not achieve desirable state (good
standing) with family and peer find in taking up unacceptable social
behaviours a way of demonstrating their maturity and achieving in a
peer group whose values are somewhat different from those in good
standing.
Perez-Bravo et al. (1996) maintains that whether a child's instinctive
and unconscious desires will be satisfied is greatly influenced by the
home and school environment. If the environment is conducive, the
child may develop into a man of satisfactory personality with a well
balanced mental and emotional health. He will be1 well equipped for
making the right types of adjustment. If it is the reverse, i.e. poor home
environment, the opposite occurs. Chenowerth and Selkirk (1953) and
Hobson (1975) stated in clear words that the home and environment
in which a child is raised is an important factor in his mental health.
For instance, parents of children who come from homes' that appear to
be ideal will not recognize that idealism of their homes can give rise to a
problem child as claimed by Chenowerth & Selkirk (1953) and
Friendenberg (1963). Rather, they emphasize their having satisfied their
children's need.
However, more cases of disorder of conduct among children
usually come from homes and environment where there are obvious
defects like overcrowding, too much association with adults, moral
looseness, widowed parents, step parents and those from low and
working socio-economic level, Children from the homes where the
situation is not good usually exhibit symptoms of mental strain and are
apt to compensate for these home defects by exhibiting behaviours
related to self assertion and air of "we have arrived".
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the outcome of this work, the following conclusion are
made:
i. That the home situation provides certain basic human requirements
for the complete development of the child more directly than is
possible of any other areas of man's life the school, church and
voluntary
organization,
These
provisions
determine
largely
whether a child will develop into a well adjusted individual or not.
ii. That the personality components of individuals are the biologicalself rooted in the harmonious and living relationship that exist
between parents: the social-self rooted in and initiated by members
of the family and so depending on the child's birth order, he is
first socially influenced by the other siblings in the home and both
parents. While the self ideal is an outcome of the child's
relationship patterns with the others in the home.
ii. That the home characteristics for acceptable and conducive
personality development by an individual include:
A good biological set up.
b. Removal of factors that can lead to Oedipal complexity from the
home.
c. Good family planning techniques that removes, obvious home
defects like overcrowding, too much association with adults and the
like
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the conclusions of the study, it was recommended as
follows:
1.
There is need for bold and careful plan for instruction in family
life and sex education in schools and communities. This
should be accompanied by a public willingness to accept the
governments effort and willingness to give necessary
encouragement.
2.
Family life education should be made compulsory at the tertiary
level of the child's education when final preparations are being
put into attaining parenthood.
3.
Health counseling units should be opened in schools (secondary
and higher institutions) to meet with the psychosocial needs and
problems of students relating to
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