Dynamics of personality and the menace of cultism in higher education in Nigeria: A psycho-social synopsis

Abstract

The higher education environment has assumed to be a social and intellectual 'magnetic field' because it seems to emit an unseen force that influences the personality of people living and working within it. Personality is a dynamic psychological construct. The understanding of its dynamism results to effective human relations, most especially among higher education administrators as well as students. This paper proposes the thesis that the major cause of prostitution, cultism, sexual abuse, drug addiction, gangsterism and the likes is as a result of personality mal-adjustment as well as misrepresentation of personality among undergraduates. Therefore, the paper frowns at the level of devaluation of life in our campuses which has resulted to violence, distrust, fear, compromise and abuses of all kinds. In addition, the paper proposes that the knowledge of personality variations by lecturers and higher education administration will arm them with strategies that will enable them to contain and manage the effects of students' behavioural mal-adjustments in Nigerian Higher education Campuses.