ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the term for all behaviour and self-reports of thoughts and feelings that have some permanence, recognizing that a great deal of behaviour is universal to the human race, and only a portion is unique. Biological determinants have been identified even in the field, in relation to the development of that part of affective behaviour which is common to all human beings, the child's attachment to his mother, the teenager's search for a sexual partner and the nurturing activities of parents. Biological determinants are important both for understanding of personality development in general and of how individual differences and pathology can come about. It has been helpful both in the study of personality and in the clinical understanding of people with personal troubles to think about three interdependent components of personality: motivation and emotions; temperament; and intelligence. Biological evolution implies a changing environment calling for new adaptive patterns with consequent modification of the species over the eons.
