Biopsychosocial Perspective on Personality: How Did You Become the Person You Are Today?

Biopsychosocial Perspective on Personality: How did you become the person you are today?

Personality traits influence our ability to deal with stressors. Personality is an individual’s characteristic that influences his or her awareness, thoughts, behaviors and motivations uniquely. Temperament is the individual differences that emerge very early in life, likely to have a heritable basis often involved in behaviors linked with emotional reactivity and intensity. An inhibited temperament is associated with the introversion trait. Introverts prefer to spend time alone and are generally distant, shy with a small number of personal friends. Introverts and individuals with inhibited temperaments focus inwardly. An uninhibited temperament is associated with the extraversion trait. Extraverts are more concerned with experiences gained from outside the self. The results for my Introversion- Extraversion test online was 57% towards extraversion, stating an inclination towards being well-balanced, not too concentrated on inner life, but at the same time not depended on the outside world too much. I concur with the results in the Introversion- Extraversion test; it accurately describes my personality traits as having both aspects of being introverted and extraverted.
My biological mother and father were both withdrawn preferring to spend time alone, greatly concentrated on their own inner thoughts. Biologically my genetically determined temperament influence affected my personality with a behavioral tendency ensure alone time in a busy schedule. Unconsciously my autonomic nervous system reactivity influences my personality to be cautious. Walking home at night when dark outside I walk faster if I hear an unexpected noise instead of investigating what it was because of an adrenaline rush from fear. My tendency to be slightly more extraverted than introverted is influenced by my brain activity. The levels of brain arousal are relatively lower in the frontal lobe portion of the brains of extraverts, requiring extraverts to seek additional stimulus externally.
My personality was influenced psychologically through learned responses; I have anxiety in crowded environments. I was trapped numerous times in a crowded elevator of the building I grew up; going to school I was often introverted avoiding classmates in fear of feeling claustrophobic. Unconscious thought processing influenced my personality, I unconsciously want to protect myself, therefor I am soft spoken, friendly and attempts to avoid attracting unwanted attention. My disposition to having optimistic attributional style influenced my temperament to be more trusting of new experiences, more engaged, talkative, sociable, affectionate, and positive in social situations.
My temperament was influenced social- culturally through my childhood experiences, when I paid attention in class I would receive positive reinforcements from the teachers when I would answer the questions correctly and positive reinforcements from my peers. The influence of the situation affected my personality; the attitudes and behavior of others provide examples for acceptable thoughts and behaviors. When my sisters’ dog died I was influenced by her behavior to properly mourn the loss. My temperament has been influenced by the cultural expectations that women are less aggressive and more social than men. In high school during physical education class my teacher would tell the girls to, “sit and look pretty”, allowing us more time to socialize with each other. My personality and temperament was influenced by social support. When I was thirteen in foster care I relied on the social support of my twin sister to help me stay calm and cope with the stress of not having parents anymore and moving from foster family to foster family.
I am very friendly and warm- hearted, always wanting to help others putting their needs in front of mine. I have an approachable, shy demeanor. At times I feel like the center of attention and I love it, other times I find myself letting voicemail answer my calls. I enjoy socializing with friends but I find my time most productively spent alone. I was very introverted growing up focusing most of my attention on my own inner world, stricken with fear to attempt to socialize with peers my age besides my sister. I am self- aware and have made a conscious effort to become more and more extraverted as my twin and I started to separate in our early teens after foster care. I enjoy people and want to continue gaining more aspects of an extraverted personality. Although having both aspects of an Introverted- Extraverted personality indubitably seems ideal.

References

Larsen, A., and Buss, B. (2010). The Cognitive/ Experimental Domain. The McGraw-Hill. Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature 4th Edition (pp.282-382) New York: The McGraw-Hill

Myers D. (2008). Personality. Feyen, K., Brune, C., Flemming, N., Kuehn, T., Exploring Psychology 7th Edition (pp.420-455) New York: Worth Publishers

References: Larsen, A., and Buss, B. (2010). The Cognitive/ Experimental Domain. The McGraw-Hill. Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature 4th Edition (pp.282-382) New York: The McGraw-Hill Myers D. (2008). Personality. Feyen, K., Brune, C., Flemming, N., Kuehn, T., Exploring Psychology 7th Edition (pp.420-455) New York: Worth Publishers