Individual Assignment: Paper on Understanding Personality



Individual Assignment: Paper on Understanding Personality

Introduction

The dictionary defines personality as, the totality of somebody's attitudes, interests, behavioral patterns, emotional responses, social roles and other individual traits that endure over long periods of time (Encarta, n.d.). There has been considerable research on personality and its description and development; a Google search on the internet elicits over 5 million results when the terms personality dynamics are searched. To understand the model of personality one must look at several approaches to classify personality. This paper will look at some important influences on personality development. The paper will also illustrate several ways of describing personality and examine the definition of personality dynamics. Lastly, the paper will discuss how cognitive processes and culture relate to personality.

Discussion

Personality

Personality is affected by internal and external influences. Internal influences include gender and genetics. Many theorists agree with the psychoanalytic proposition that the personality differences between males and females are fundamentally determined by biology (Cloninger, 2004 p. 143). Biologically, women are different from men. There is the obvious difference of male and female reproductive systems and how hormones affect each gender. Neurologically, women possess more connections in the corpus collosum, the tissue joining the right and left-hand side of the brain, making them better, in general, at tasks involving verbal expression and emotional perceptiveness. Men, on the other hand, possess greater ability to solve problems involving spatial relationships and logical reasoning (Howenstine, 2003). Even without social influences on gender roles, the biological makeup of a person is a fundamental to the foundation of their personality development. Genetics also plays an important role in personality development.

Understanding Personality in Relation to Counseling

According to Freud, everyone is born with id; the raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality that is present at birth (Corey, 2005). From birth onward, infants begin to show unique, stable traits and behaviors that ultimately lead to their development as distinct, special individuals (Feldman, 2006). Infants show temperamental differences in general disposition from the time of birth, largely due initially to genetic factors. Research has also shown that physical appearance affects personality development, because people form opinions by what they see in a person physically, and respond to that person accordingly (Popkins, 1998).

External influences on personality development work with genetic predispositions to help form each unique person. Family, culture and the environment all work together to help form personality. Genetic influences notwithstanding, how a Childs family and environment react to him will ultimately shape his personality. Erickson articulated the stages and conflicts a person goes through that help determine how his personality will form based on conflicts he encounters and resolutions to those conflicts. If the conflicts are not resolved, then a personality of mistrust, doubt and shame result, depending on the stage of unresolved conflicts. A persons successful progress through the stages of trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame-doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation and integrity ...