" For a child these are
his parents. As he matures, the number of "significant others" in
one's experience increases. This permits one to make decisions of
one's own and to develop some individuality.
However, the child has already internalized the estimations and
expectations of his parents, and this tends to shape his
personality for rest of his life. Still, acquiring new
"significant others" as adult can be important in reshaping the
adult personality. Both the American slaves and the camp
prisoners were thrust into situations in which they had a new
single "significant other." This was a situation similar to that
of childhood, and it could have had the same impact in shaping
personality. All previous "significant others" had been made
insignificant, and, in each case, the estimations and
expectations of this new -'significant other" became
internalized into the personality of the victims.
Role psychology holds the most promise for explaining the impact
of a social situation in determining the development of
individual personality. In role psychology the individual and
society can be compared to the actor and the theater.
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