An
anthropomorphic personification is the process of giving an
idea or an
inanimate object a
human personality, and all the things that go along with it, such as
thoughts,
emotions, and
desires.
It is commmonly used today more as a figure of speech than actually believing that the idea/object in question really has the aforementioned qualities. You'll hear the comments such as "the computer hates me", "that game is cheating", or "fate is being good to me today".
There was a time, however, that it appears the tendency to do this was not symbolic, but real, with characters being created out of ideas, and often thought of as in charge of things that were not understood at the time. In many ways, the Greek and Roman gods could be thought of as due to this, as they had many, many gods, seeminly a god for just about everything.
Some people may think that the human concept of God is also just an anthropomorphic personification of the universe.