What is personality? How does it relate to Blacks? These are just a few of the questions that might surface when researching human personality. According to Webster's Dictionary, personality is the "totality of qualities and traits, as of character or behavior that are peculiar to a specific person." Personality is characterized by the collective character, behavioral, temperamental, emotional, and mental traits of a person. While personality relates to all persons, when studying Black personality, one must take into consideration the experiences of the African community as a whole.

When discussing personality one must understand the differences between personality and black personality. While it may be difficult to find an all-encompassing definition, personality refers to a person's unique and relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions. According to an excerpt presented in Psychological Principals and the Black Experience, "the personality represents the compromise between inner drives and needs...