Personality Change Due to Environment
Personality and Masks
1
Running head: PERSONALITY CHANGE DUE TO ENVIRONMENT
Personality and Masks
Use in a Changing Environment
Justin Ribeiro
Seattle University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for PSYC120
Dr. Erica Lilleleht
November 4, 2002
Personality and Masks
2
Screams. Widening eyes. Stares. Locked doors. Then suddenly silence. Dreary silence that causes a bit of panic in you. Your eyes dart left and right, looking at the people that were at one point screaming, but only stare in silence now. Some are looking at other people. Some are looking at you. Their stares are deafening; you only want to leave this place. You’re paralyzed with fear. Then you leave this locked place, a solitude of what looks like insanity. Your disposition changes, your fear is relieved, and suddenly you’re into another section of the building. You have just left the Sheltered Freedom unit, a place for aging people with dementia, at Bessie Burton Sullivan Skilled Nursing Residence. It’s unlike most nursing home environments; the doors are locked, people are wandering around talking to no one, and the residents at times burst into agitated screams. Yet one floor higher, you have what looks to be your normal nursing home. People in wheel chairs, some hard of hearing, others talking or watching television with their roommate. Each person, with a different personality, may be that way because of the surrounding environment they live in. Would one burst into agitated screams if placed into a room of seemly non-dementia residents? But the grander question is, is the personality of nurses and visitors greatly affected by the people and the environment they spend time around? Or is it simply a mask, used only in the situation of the nursing home? The environment causes one to use a mask that would otherwise go unused in outside social situations; it is not a change in personality, but a change in disposition that lasts not only
1
Running head: PERSONALITY CHANGE DUE TO ENVIRONMENT
Personality and Masks
Use in a Changing Environment
Justin Ribeiro
Seattle University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for PSYC120
Dr. Erica Lilleleht
November 4, 2002
Personality and Masks
2
Screams. Widening eyes. Stares. Locked doors. Then suddenly silence. Dreary silence that causes a bit of panic in you. Your eyes dart left and right, looking at the people that were at one point screaming, but only stare in silence now. Some are looking at other people. Some are looking at you. Their stares are deafening; you only want to leave this place. You’re paralyzed with fear. Then you leave this locked place, a solitude of what looks like insanity. Your disposition changes, your fear is relieved, and suddenly you’re into another section of the building. You have just left the Sheltered Freedom unit, a place for aging people with dementia, at Bessie Burton Sullivan Skilled Nursing Residence. It’s unlike most nursing home environments; the doors are locked, people are wandering around talking to no one, and the residents at times burst into agitated screams. Yet one floor higher, you have what looks to be your normal nursing home. People in wheel chairs, some hard of hearing, others talking or watching television with their roommate. Each person, with a different personality, may be that way because of the surrounding environment they live in. Would one burst into agitated screams if placed into a room of seemly non-dementia residents? But the grander question is, is the personality of nurses and visitors greatly affected by the people and the environment they spend time around? Or is it simply a mask, used only in the situation of the nursing home? The environment causes one to use a mask that would otherwise go unused in outside social situations; it is not a change in personality, but a change in disposition that lasts not only
References: Strawson, Galen (1997). The Self. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 4, No. 5/6, 405-428. Retrieved May 6, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.zynet.co.uk/i1mprint/strawson.htm Hume, David (1739). A Treatise of Human Nature Book 1. SECT IV. Retrieved May 6, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.utm.edu/research/hume/wri/treatise/treatise.htm Gergen, Kenneth (1991). The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. United States: HarperCollins. Gergen, Kenneth. The Decline and Fall of Personality. The New Psychology Today Reader, Part 14, Article 45, 335-339