What am I like? What do others think of me? A couple of questions I have never carefully analyzed and evaluated until it became an assignment for psychology class. What does that show about my personality? Perhaps, that I am not number one in my life like I should be. I started this class with the objective of understanding the scientific study of human behavior and mental process. I’ve learned critical thinking skills as well as psychology terms that have help me understand fundamental concepts of human behavior. Most importantly I’ve learned about myself and thru class assignments I’ve learned how I became the person I am today. Growing up in a household of five I had many authority figures. Nonetheless, my mom always has been the final authority at home. Even today, what my mom says “goes” it doesn’t really matter your age or gender. When it comes to my family, my mom is the boss. It is no secret to those who are close to me that I allow my mother to take a lot of control in my decisions and actions. I am submissive only to my mother’s demands. It was not difficult for me to understand why I am this way. I was always told by my father and grandmother that my mother didn’t allow the lack of money to get in her way of giving me the best she could. As a new born she had a feeding schedule for me and was always attentive of my needs. Whether I cried for attention or hunger she was there to feed me or clean me up. She did everything in her power to give me a happy and calm environment and now I want to do that same for her. Although I must admit that allowing her to control me has giving me an obsession for freedom that terrifies me as well as a lack of commitment to anybody else but her. After my father’s death my granddaddy became the male figure in my life. Although he was the only person I saw my mother give in to his demand, he never contradicted her or got in the way of how she raised me. Furthermore I have realize that I cannot change the past but I’ve accepted the responsibility of continuing to create myself, not by changing who I am, but by making adjustments and using the critical thinking skills I learned throughout this course.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Answer the following questions, based on your results from your own Personality Inventory and Group Summary Sheet.…
- 789 Words
- 4 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Most of us know of Johnny Cash as the “Man in Black”. However, do we truly know who he is? Some could say he was a great performer, oblivious of how his music has had a tremendous impact in their lives. Johnny Cash was an exceptionally influential person in American history. His “Man in Black” image helped solidify not only his place as a music writer and performer, but also his ability to overcome the depths of drug addiction.…
- 1943 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Dispositional theory focuses on traits consistently exhibited by a subject. Traits are grouped by their centrality to the personality. Cardinal dispositions make up the vast majority of one’s personality (Feist & Feist, 2009). These are rare. Central dispositions are the five to 10 traits by which one is most easily identified (Feist & Feist, 2009). Secondary dispositions are abdundant and generally make appearances only under certain circumstances.…
- 1041 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Using the textbook, the University Library, the Internet, and/or other resources, answer the following questions. Your responses to each question will vary but overall should be 700- to 1,050-words in length.…
- 1024 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Personality is an individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. Learning about personality helps us to understand how and why people act the way they do. There are four perspectives of personality: psychoanalytic perspective, humanistic perspective, social cognitive perspective and trait perspective. The psychoanalytic emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes and the influence of early childhood experience. The humanistic perspective represents an optimistic look at human nature, emphasizing the self and the fulfillment of the person’s unique potential. The social cognitive perspective…
- 939 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
Coon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. (2013). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning…
- 1107 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
Why are some people shy and others are outgoing? Why are some people kind and gentle, while others are hostile and aggressive? The answer to these questions can be found in three of the theories that describe personality. These theories are; psychoanalytic, humanistic, and social cognitive. Founded by Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis is a theory that “stresses the influence of unconscious mental processes, the importance of sexual and aggressive instincts, and the enduring effects of early childhood experience on personality.” (Hockenbury 2014) This theory states that a person’s behavior and attitude are a result of past experiences, unconscious thoughts, buried memories, as well as a desire for pleasure. The second theory, based upon the potential that all humans have, is called the humanistic perspective. Rather than focusing on negative personality aspects, humanists think of all people as good and completely self-aware. An important concept to be aware of within this area of self-awareness is passed on to children from their parents. This concept is known as conditional positive regard. Hockenbury (2014) describes this as, “the sense that the child is valued and loved only when she behaves in a way that is acceptable to others.” While it is important to feel loved and valued, placing limitations on those feelings can be detrimental to a child, as they may end up in denial and never learn how to express their true feelings. The third theory is the social cognitive perspective. This perspective focuses on how conscious thought affects the beliefs and goals that a person has. Hockenbury (2014) paraphrases a leading theorist, Albert Bandura by saying, “collectively a person’s cognitive skills, abilities and attitudes represent the person’s self-system… it is out self-esteem that guides how we perceive, evaluate, and control our behavior in different situations.” What gives this perspective more credibility is that there is a way to measure its’…
- 813 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The life styles inventory is a survey of questions that help us to gain an insight into our own personality and what type of behaviors we exert to others as individuals. It helps us to look at the positive and negative qualities of our personalities and ways to improve upon them. A look at my LSI styles complex radiates that my primary thinking style is linked to the avoidance category. The avoidance scale states that I tend to use the strategy of withdrawal by hiding my feelings and being shy to express myself. It also states that as things become more threatening to me the more I tend to avoid those situations. These thinking styles are linked to feelings of denying responsibility for my own behavior, feelings of guilt whether they are realistic or not. I also have a fear of general failure in almost everything I do. I am also mainly concerned about myself and my feelings and thoughts. These characteristics are manifested in my life because of my thinking pattern and although I know they are not good characteristics to have, somehow I have become entangled in them. My main problem is my withdrawal from almost everything I do and the inability to express my feelings and be comfortable around others. I somehow find myself threatened by others and tend to keep my feelings to myself. I also seem to have a lot of guilt for my behavior whenever something goes wrong in my personal life. There is also a general fear in almost everything I do and a lack of disclosure about myself which eventually leads to emotional isolation from my peers.…
- 1752 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The big five personality test consisted of five different categories, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and natural reactions. First off I think each category is extremely important when dealing with nursing, they play essential roles regarding their everyday work environment. With that being said I think the way a nurse scores is more or less equivalent to the type of they are with their patients. The first category is openness, which can mean to “think outside the box”, or to just be upfront and open, I think all nurses should score Farley high. An example could be when a patient is in pain and the medications they have is not helping it is a good idea to brainstorm on what to do to get your patient feeling up to par again, in other words to “think outside the box”, to get something more efficient for the patient. Being open is important as well, another example could be if they happen to mess up on a dosage of medication for their patient, it’s extremely important to be open with the doctor to let them know the mistake you made. Conscientiousness is the next category; it means to be thorough and well organized. Nurses should score high in this area; being organized is of great importance simply because a nurse that lacks in organization skills could accidently give a patient the wrong treatment because they got their notes mixed up or something of the sort. Organization also seems to keep you on point, to be on top of things, getting the job done without mistakes. The next category is extraversion, meaning if you are outgoing/socially active or if you prefer working/being alone. A nurse should be more socially active and outgoing because it can help them and their fellow coworkers to work as a team, it’s nice to be able to say “could you help me out with this”, and work together, rather than possibly struggling to do it alone. Agreeableness is the next category, meaning if you show compassion or…
- 586 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
How accurate are the profiles? This will obviously depend on the expertise of the persons involved in such an assessment. Kocsis, Orwin, & Hayes (2000) reported that profilers appear to have higher skills when compared to other groups. They claim the most accurate groups are, in order of accuracy: professional profilers, psychologists, students, police officers, and self-declared psychics. That psychologists ranked second in the study suggests that psychologists are better at this endeavor than police officers, perhaps because of their understanding of human behavior. The researchers also reported that psychics are the least reliable of the groups. They apparently depend more on the stereotypes of murderers than of a true understanding of the mind and mentality of a killer. The research also suggests that police probably would do better at profiling if they were educated in the principles of the process (Peterson, 1997). Thus profiling, or criminal investigation assessment, is an educated attempt to provide investigative agencies with specific information as to the type of individual who committed a certain crime (Geberth, 1981). Of course, profiles are not suitable in all cases, even in some murder cases (Holmes & Holmes, 1992, 2000). They are usually more efficacious in cases where the unknown perpetrator has displayed indications of…
- 5352 Words
- 22 Pages
Powerful Essays -
As a child growing up, my parents said that I was a very strong-willed child. My mother said, “You were as stubborn as they come, and you still are!” Therefore, they did all they could to encourage my independence while teaching me boundaries at the same time. “It was difficult, but we managed to make it work, one way or another,” my mother said. Being that I was the type of child that always wanted to do things for myself, my parents said that they just had to work with my independence and guide me along the way. I may have been the “baby” and a little spoiled, but I was still given boundaries.…
- 550 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The movie that I decided to watch was mean girls. This movie is about a teenage girl who lived in Africa because her parents were doing research and then they had all moved to America. The girl’s name in the movie was Cady and she had never been home schooled before she moved to the United States of America. Her first couple of days was rocky but she eventually made friends with two art students by the name of Janis Ian and Damien, her new friends told her to be careful around the popular girls in school known as the plastics. One day while Cady was looking for her friends, a girl by the name of Regina George the main leader of the plastics wanted her to join their group because she thought she was really pretty. Cady becomes a part of the group, but Janis convinces her to get revenge on Regina George because of Janis’s personal experience with Regina. Cady declines on getting revenge until Regina George gets back with her ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels who Cady liked and Regina claimed she would put in a good word for Cady. Cady then decided that she would get revenge on Regina, so the movie is basically showing how Cady evolved from a sweet girl into a typical teenage girl. The three theories that I decided to pick for this movie were Social Learning theory and Behaviorism. I chose social learning theory because the theory stated that an individual’s behavior will be influenced by the environment around them, and since Cady was around the plastics that always spread mean and vicious rumors she became one of them. I chose behaviorism because Skinner stated behavior is a response to the environment which would explain why Cady decided to get even with Regina because that is what Regina George would do. Another theory that I thought that was displayed in the movie would be Dollard and Miller’s learning process which consisted of five steps, those four steps would be drive, cue, response, reinforcement effect. Drive is defined as a promotion of a specific action.…
- 1297 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Tonya is a girl who demonstrates personality traits at parties with her friends that are very different from those she exhibits when she participates in class activities. One who does not know much about personality and the person-situation controversy may wonder why Tonya’s personality traits are different. Using my knowledge of both the person-situation controversy and reciprocal determinism, I will attempt to explain why Tonya’s behavior in these different situations is not surprising at all.…
- 480 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
As revealed by my personal Life Styles Inventory (Figure 1), my primary thinking style and back-up thinking style were Conventional (4 o’clock position) and Affiliative (2 o’clock position) respectively. There are many ways in which both the Conventional thinking style and Affiliative thinking style manifest in my life and work, none of which were all that evident until I explored my personal Life Styles Inventory. As stated in the Life Styles Inventory, my primary thinking style, the Conventional Style “measures our tendency to act in a conforming way…representing a preoccupation with adhering to rules and established procedures, maintaining a low profile, and blending in with our particular environment to avoid calling attention to ourselves.” (LSI, Conventional Style) Even though I do not see myself as a complete conformist, I do tend to fall in line in the workplace so that I can learn as much as I can from the proven and effective system that I am working within. In the past, if I found myself working in an environment that has not been proven or effective I would not stick around too long because I felt that I had nothing to gain from the job or experience. So, in that situation I would have to agree that the Conventional Style would be one of my primary thinking styles. My back up thinking style of Affiliative is said to “measure our degree of commitment to forming and sustaining satisfying relationships…affiliative people seek out, establish, value, and maintain close associations with others, and appreciate people and enjoy being in the company of others.” (LSI, Affiliative Style) Even though I do see myself as a people person, I was surprised to see the Affiliative Style as my backup personal thinking style. I do understand and appreciate the importance of what healthy relationships bring in the workforce, but I am not sure that it is as important to me as the Life Styles…
- 1704 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
“Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.” the person who has had the most significant influence on me is my mother. This influence goes way beyond the usual “I have great admiration towards my mom because she is the best.” My mom has been the sole guardian of me for as long as I can remember and her actions have turned me into the person I am today. My mother is one who leads by example. She has always given the prime example for me to follow; she has made me look at life like no other person could. My mother has turned me into someone who is responsible for myself and my own actions. Raising two children as a single parent would be, to say the most difficult. But as my brother and I were growing up under the care of my mom, I never saw my life as a struggle even though we were going through so many obstacles at the time . She helped us grow stronger as the problem got worse. I am not saying that my mom took everything with grace and ease; unlike most other children, I have seen my mom both laugh and cry through the experiences of a terrible divorce and sometimes being stuck at the end inbetween my parents was the worst . But this made our home more open to feel and nothing to be hidden. As my mother went through this horrible stage of divorce with my father she never spoke bad things about my father like many mothers’ do Instead she said to love him because we had nothing to do with adult issues. This unpremeditated approach to guidance over my brother and me did not lead to a treacherous pushing of boundaries. In fact, it brought my brother and me closer to my mom; it made us less likely to act out because we knew she trusted us. Many parents create disadvantages to oblige their children before they even have broken the rules.. My mom never utilized this mindset. This has led me to make good decisions because, if I didn’t, I would mostly…
- 551 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays