Psychology 101

We all come in different shapes and sizes. We all have strengths and weaknesses. What is right for one person may not be right for another. How we feel, think, behave and react in different situations are shaped from when we are born throughout the rest of our lives. Our environment influences our personality, our experiences from when we first walk to the last day we breathe. There are a number of psychologists who support that individuals environment is the key aspect to influencing personality. Sigmund Freud believed that our childhood experiences are what influence our personality as an adult. The nurture theory proposes that environment is what influences each individual and determines their personality. B. F. Skinner and John Watson both suggest that personality is a result of interaction between the individual and the environment. The case study of “Genie, the wild child” comes to show how much we require all of the environmental factors in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs to live a healthy and standard life.
Sigmund Freud (1856- 1939) believed that the psychosexual stages affect your personality and your experiences as you grow up influence your personality as an adult. Each of Freud’s five stages determines certain characteristics in our personality as we become adults (see appendix 2 for details on stages). It was developed from patients ' recollections, dreams and free associations. He “asserted that sexual instinct was the most important influence on personality.” (WiseGEEK, 2011). The oral stage develops a sense of trust and comfort. The next period, the anal stage, increases accomplishment and independence. The differences between males and females are developed throughout the phallic stage, as the individual wants to possess the opposite sex parent and has the desire to replace the same gender parent. The latent period is important in the improvement of social and communication skills and self confidence. The individual will develop a strong sexual

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