How Nature and Nurture Interact
Module 1Personality?refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. The study of personality focuses on two broad areas: One is understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The other is understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole (American Psychological Association)Personality concerns the most important, most noticeable parts of an individual's psychological life. Personality concerns whether a person is happy or sad, energetic or apathetic, smart or dull. Over the years, many different definitions have been proposed for personality. Most of the definitions refer to a mental system -- a collection of psychological parts including motives, emotions, and thoughts. The definitions vary a bit as to what those parts might be, but they come down to the idea that personality involves a pattern or global operation of mental systems. Here are some definitions:"Personality is the entire mental organization of a human being at any stage of his development. It embraces every phase of human character: intellect, temperament, skill, morality, and every attitude that has been built up in the course of one's life." (Warren & Carmichael, 1930, p. 333)(In an acknowledged overstatement)?"Personality is the essence of a human being." (Hall & Lindzey, 1957, p. 9, characterizing statements by Gordon Allport)"An individual's pattern of psychological processes arising from motives, feelings, thoughts, and other major areas of psychological function. Personality is expressed through its influences on the body, in conscious mental life, and through the individual's social behavior." (Mayer, 2005)Personality is a diverse predictability quotient that describes an individual's behavior in every experiential environment. Individual’s behavior is determined by his personality characteristics and situational factors, which are changeable during time. In order to exchange and predict job satisfaction, knowledge about individual's personality characteristics and his surroundings is required.HISTORICLE INCEDENCEThe study of personality has a long history. For example, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Machiavelli, among numerous other philosophers and writers, explored human personality in their works. Many of their books reveal compelling insights into the human psyche. Modern theorists to a large extent echo the theories set forth by these earlier thinkers.PlatoPlato (427–347 BCE) saw the human soul as the seat of personality. In his well-known dialogue, The Republic (c. 390 BCE), he said that the soul consists of three basic forces guiding human behavior: reason, emotion, and appetite. Reason is given the highest value whereas emotion and especially appetite are regarded as the “lower passions.” Plato believed the most powerful of these forces is reason, which keeps the more primitive forces of appetite and emotion at bay. AristotleAristotle (384–322 BCE), one of Plato’s students and the teacher ofAlexander the Great, referred to the seat of personality as the psyche. His description of the psyche suggests that he was the first biological psychologist. Aristotle proposed that the psyche is the product of biological processes. He also saw the psyche as including a set of faculties that he placed in a hierarchy of importance. The first faculty that Aristotle distinguished is the nutritive—the human organism’s basic drives to meet its bodily needs. This faculty can be found in plants as well as in animals and people. The next and higher faculty is the perceptual, which Aristotle defined as the aspect of mind that interprets sensory data. Animals as well as people have a perceptual faculty. The last and highest faculty is the intellectual, which Aristotle saw as unique to human beings.In Greek medicine around 2,500 years ago it was believed that in order to maintain health, people needed an even balance of the four body fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. These four body fluids were linked (in daft ways by modern standards) to certain organs and illnesses and also represented the Four Temperaments or Four Humours (of personality) as they later became known. Spiritually there are other very old four-part patterns and themes relating to the Four Temperaments within astrology, the planets, and people's understanding of the world, for example: the ancient 'elements' - fire, water, earth and air; the twelve signs of the zodiac arranged in four sets corresponding to the elements and believed by many to define personality and destiny; the ancient 'Four Qualities' of (combinations of) hot or cold, and dry or moist/wet; and the four seasons, Spring, Summer Autumn, Winter. The organs of the body - liver, lungs, gall bladder and spleen - were also strongly connected with the Four Temperaments or Humours and medicinal theory.Four Temperaments - Earliest OriginsHippocrates c.370BC -Galen c.190AD Cheerful- Sanguine Somber- MelancholicEnthusiastic -Choleric Calm- Phlegmatic ?The Four Temperaments or Four Humours continued to feature in the thinking and representations of human personality in the work of many great thinkers through the ages since these earliest beginnings, and although different theorists have used their own interpretations and descriptive words for each of the temperaments through the centuries.PERSONALITY THEORIESType TheoryPersonality type theory aims to classify people into distinct CATEGORIES. i.e. this type or that.? Personality types are synonymous with "personality styles".Types, refers to categories that are distinct and discontinuous. e.g. you are one or the other.? This is important to understand, because it helps to distinguish a personality type approach from a personality trait approach, which takes a continuous approach.To clearly understand the difference between types and traits, consider the example of the personality dimension of "introversion".? We can view introversion as:A personality trait approach says you can be anywhere on a continuum ranging from introversion to extraversion, with most people clustering in the middle, and fewer people towards the extremesAllport and Odbert (1936, cited in Funder, 1999) found over 17,000 words in the dictionary which referred to psychological differences between people, e.g., trustworthy, shy, arrogant.? Typically, modern personality taxonomies have emphasized between two, three, four, and five personality types, through to identifying 16 or more subtypes.The Four Humors - Ancient Greeks (~2000 BC - 0 AD)Ancient Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates 400 BC and Galen, 140/150 AD classified 4 types of "humors" in people.? Each type was believed to be due to an excess of one of four bodily fluids, corresponding to their character.? The personalities were termed "humors".Character- Humor Fluid Corresponding- Trait in the Big 5 Irritable -Choleric yellow bile- Agreeableness Depressed- Melancholic black bile- Neuroticism Optimistic -Sanguine Blood -Openness to experience Calm -Phlegmatic Phlegm- Neuroticism Somatotypes - William Sheldon, 1940'sWilliam Sheldon (1940, 1942, cited in?Phares, 1991) classified personality according to body type. He called this a person’s?somatotype.Jungian Types, Myers-Briggs, & the Four TemperamentsJungian psychological types are probably the most widely used and amongst the best-known in everyday life.? Jung's typology emerges from Jung's deep, holistic philosophy and psychology about the person.? Jung's typology is not, unfortunately, always included in mainstream personality courses, because it wasn't empirically-driven. Jung viewed the ultimate psychological task as the process of individuation, based on the strengths and limitations of one's psychological type.Myers-Briggs developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a commercially available questionnaire, which is widely used in business and training, etc. and which provides information and exercises for better understanding one's own personality type and others with who the individual interacts and works.Keirsey has renamed and reconceptualized the Jungian types, but they relate very closely to the Jungian types.? Keirsey refers to "temperaments" rather than personality.Underlying all these typologies are four personality traits (functions):Extroversion(E)---Introversion(I)Do you recharge your energy via external contact & activity (Extroversion) or spending time in your inner space (Introversion)?Intuition(N)---Sensing(S)Do you rely on your inner voice (Intuition) or observation (Sensing)?Thinking(T)---Feeling(F)When making decisions, what do you rely most on?? Your thoughts or your feelings?Judgement(J)---Perception(P)Do you tend to set schedules and organize your life (Judgement), or do you tend to leave the Type A / B PersonalitiesMeyer Friedman, an American cardiologist, noticed in the 1940's that the chairs in his waiting room got worn out from the edges.? They hypothesized that his patients were driven, impatient people, who sat on the edge of their seats when waiting.? They labelled these people "Type A" personalities.? Type A personalities are work-aholics, always busy, driven, somewhat impatient, and so on.? Type B personalities, on the other hand are laid back and easy going.? "Type A personality" has found its way into general parlance.TRAIT THEORYGORDON ALLPORTGordon Allport was born in Montezuma, Indiana, in 1897.He emphasized the importance of studying the individual person and of focusing on that person’s conscious motivation. He focused on understanding the person’s conscious motivation and proposed the idea of Functional Autonomy – in which the mature adult human being operates on the basis of factors in the present and future, not the past, Therefore, conscious thoughts and wishes are more important than unconscious needs and impulses. He believed that personality was always developing and changing but he added that there is within each person some kind of central organization that holds the components of personality together. Also believes that personality is not just hypothetical but made up of both mental and neural elements. Traits play an important part in Allport’s theory. He sees Traits – as predisposing the person to perceive various stimuli as having similar meaning as well as to respond to such stimuli with behaviors that are similar. A trait is a generalized and focalized neuropsychological system (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and expressive behavior. He distinguishes between the: Common Traits – traits to common to most people in a given culture Personal Traits (dispositions) – traits that are unique to each person. Personal dispositions vary in how general they are for each person. The first level of generality: ? Cardinal dispositions – are so general that almost every act of the person reflects it Example: Narcissistic. Cardinal dispositions are actually quite rare. ? Central dispositions – are tendencies that are highly characteristic of the person, while not explaining every aspect of the person. Each person has around 5-10 central dispositions. For example, a person may be nice, shy, lonely, and sad. ? Secondary dispositions – more focalized. These traits are usually tied to a particular situation. Example, someone who is usually nice suddenly acts mean. These dispositions are also rare. Allport also distinguishes a trait from a habit, attitude, or type. ? Habit – like a trait, but has determining tendency ? Trait – more general, as it applies to more situations and provides for a greater variety of responses. Stable, not situational. ? Attitude – is more general than a habit, but is usually more specific than a trait, and tends to be more focused on the environment while a trait is more focused on the self. Guides behavior, learned. ? Type – is a category that is larger than traits, habits and attitudes. In fact, it subsumes them all. A type describes certain combinations of traits, habits and attitudes that a person possesses. Man can be said to have a trait; but he cannot be said to have a type. Rather he fits a type....types exist not in people or in nature, but rather in the eye of the observer. Type includes more than is in the individual.Eysenck's 1950s theory measures personality using?two scales:? introversion-extraversion? stability-instability (unemotional-emotional)The 'Big Five' Factors Personality Model - OCEANThe strengths of the Big Five Factor model lie in its?speed and ease of use?and this makes it a very useful tool for gaining a rapid overview of a person's key drivers.Factor 1: Agreeableness (A)How do you react to others’ opinions? When you agree to them easily, you are considered agreeable. However, your strong reactions qualify you as challenger in the words of Howard and Howard (2001). There are some other correlated traits for agreeableness.A Higher Degree in ‘A’The five factor model of personality considers you as good natured, sympathetic and forgiving. You are considered as tolerant, agreeable and courteous. You prove an excellent team member. You strive to bring harmony amongst your mates. You are friendlier, approachable and appeasing. You can ignore your own needs for others’.However, you are not a good leader. You prefer to work in background. You keep your opinions to yourself to avoid?conflict. You are easily influenced. But you are a born social reformer. You can prove an excellent teacher. The psychology is one of the best fields for you.A Lower Degree in ‘A’Five factor model of personality considers you as critical, analytical and tough. You are expressive in your opinions. You don’t hide your reactions. You want your efforts and achievements to be acknowledged. You can challenge. You are a born leader.However, you may not prove a good team leader. Extreme degrees qualify you as a rude, callous and self-centered person. You are viewed as hostile. You are not considered cooperative. Your love for power can lead you to be an autocrat.You are considered suitable for those careers where you are given freedom to exercise your will. Military leadership, public administration and management are the best career dimensions for you.Factor 2: Openness to Change (O)Five facto model of personality considers you open for change when you accept new thoughts, ideas and changes.However, you are considered close to change when you avoid new experiments and follow rules and?regulations?very strictly. The other correlated personality traits with different degrees are mentioned below.A Higher Degree in ‘O’You qualify to be counted as original, creative and curious. You believe that change is more than essential for social evolution. You love revolutions. You enjoy complexities of things and strive to find out their solutions. You can handle new systems, technologies and tools with great ease. You always build a big picture but tend to ignore vital details.You are considered suitable for the careers where a lot of creativity, novelty and originality is involved.A Lower Degree in ‘O’The five factor model of personality qualifies you as a resistant to change. You are traditional. You love peaceful environment, secure jobs and serene family life. You spend a lot of time on details. You can execute plans very well.However, you are not a good planner. Your focus on details may cause you to ignore big picture. You accept change only when there is no way out. The careers where rules and?regulations?are to be followed very strictly are considered suitable for you. You can prove a good judge, accountant and auditor. No one can be better financial manager than you.Factor 3: Extraversion (E)Five factor model of personality considers your preferred way to handle your environment very important. Different criteria are adopted when you apply for a job of cricket commentator and for a position of a script writer. You can identify what level of degree you require to go for your dream job.A Higher Degree in ‘E’The five factor model considers you social, friendlier and talkative. You are often assertive and energetic. You can do many tasks successfully at a time. You prefer to lead others. You are charismatic. However, you rely upon others without knowing them very well. You are considered fit for politics, sales and public related careers.A Lower Degree in ‘E’You are considered private, serious and skeptic. You don’t rely on others easily. You keep your secrets to yourself. You are often quiet. You prefer environment where you can work alone. Production management,?natural sciences?and art related careers are considered suitable for you.Factor 4: Conscientiousness (C )A Higher Degree in ‘C’The five factor model of personality considers you an organized, focused and timely achiever of your goals. You plan things and follow that route strictly. You are not easy to be distracted. However, you tend to be workaholic. You are self-disciplined. You are considered confident, dutiful and reliable. You often prove a strong executive in any organization.A Lower Degree in ‘C’The five factor model of personality considers you careless, relaxed and unorganized. You don’t plan things and pursue your goals with a flexible approach. Some day you work a lot and other day you go on vacations. You are spontaneous. However, you are not considered good for projects where deadlines are to be followed.Factor 5: Neuroticism (N)A Higher Degree in ‘N’The five factor model considers you nervous, unstable and vulnerable to negative emotionality. You are never satisfied with your life. You are inflamed easily. You are reactive and often fail to recover from depression shock easily. You always feel a need for stability. In extreme cases, you may be advised clinical treatment. You have optimistic approach to life.A Lower Degree in ‘N’The five factor model of personality considers you emotionally stable, strong nerved and composed person. You are often calm and optimist. You recover from depression periods very easily. You can find out the best out of the worst. You love peace and security. You are often satisfied with your life. You are a valuable candidate for careers in air traffic, controllers and airline pilots, finance management and engineering.Benefits from study of personality. 1) Increasing personal integrity: The greater self-awareness that comes from self-study has led to greater personal integrity by discarding what was false and revealing what is true. This should be the first step of any psychotherapy or spiritual path — to find out who we really are in personal terms. Then we look for who we are in "transpersonal" terms.2) Increasing personal freedom: This is due to conscious control of life resulting from release from subconscious controls and external influences.3) Objectification of self and other: With an overall personality system in mind, we can see that myself and others are all pieces of a pattern. 4) Increasing tolerance and understanding of others: A personality chart on someone, it helps to get to know them quicker and can relate to them easier. It helps understand their motives and perceptions and values. With their traits known, we can begin to see people for who they really are. We can think, feel and act more appropriately and lovingly toward them. Nature Vs NurtureOne of the oldest arguments in the history of psychology is the Nature vs Nurture debate. Each of these sides have good points that it's really hard to decide whether a person's development is predisposed in his DNA, or a majority of it is influenced by this life experiences and his environment. As of now, we know that both nature and nurture play important roles in human development, but we have not known yet whether we are developed majorly because of nature or due to nurture.NatureThe coding of genes in each cell in us humans determine the different traits that we have, more dominantly on the physical attributes like eye color, hair color, ear size, height, and other traits. However, it is still not known whether the more abstract attributes like personality, intelligence, sexual orientation, likes and dislikes are gene-coded in our DNA, too.One of the hottest issues against nature theory is that there may be an existing "gay gene", which explains that gays are actually born that way. Another issue is that the criminal acts, tendency to divorce and aggressive behavior causing abuse can be justified by the "behavioral genes" once the researchers have proven their existence.On the other hand, the behavioral genes are somewhat proven to exist when we take a look at fraternal twins. When fraternal twins are reared apart, they show the same similarities in behavior and response as if they have been reared together.NurtureThe nurture theory holds that genetic influence over abstract traits may exist; however, the environmental factors are the real origins of our behavior. This includes the use of conditioning in order to induce a new behavior to a child, or alter an unlikely behavior being shown by the child. According to John Watson, one of the strongest psychologists who propose environmental learning as a dominating side in the nature vs nurture debate, once said that he can be able to train a baby randomly chosen in a group of 12 infants, to become any type of specialist Watson wants. He stated that he could train him to be such regardless of the child's potentialities, talents and race.Although it is true that fraternal twins raised apart have remarkable similarities in most respects, still the intervention of the environment have caused several differences in the way they behave.In the end, we are still left with the confusing question: Are we born this way, or do we behave according to our life experiences? The nature vs nurture debate goes on and on, but still, it is a fact that we have traits that are predetermined by our genes, but we can still choose who we want to be as we travel through our lifetime.Nature?refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are – from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics.?Nurture?refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture.Even today, different branches of psychology often take a one versus the other approach. For example, biological psychology tends to stress the importance of genetics and biological influences. Behaviorism, on the other hand, focuses on the impact that the environment has on behavior.Do inherited traits or life experiences play a greater role in shaping your personality? The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest issues in psychology. The debate centers on the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and environmental factors?to human development.Some philosophers such as Plato and Descartes suggested that certain things are inborn, or that they occur naturally regardless of environmental influences.?Nativists?take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics are the result of inheritance.Advocates of this point of view believe that all of our characteristics and behaviors are the result of evolution. Genetic traits handed down from parents influence the individual differences that make each person unique.Other well-known thinkers such as John Locke believed in what is known as?tabula rasa, which suggests that the mind begins as a blank slate. According to this notion, everything that we are and all of our knowledge is determined by our experience.Empiricists?take the position that all or most behaviors and characteristics result from learning.Behaviorism?is a good example of a theory rooted in empiricism. The behaviorists believe that all actions and behaviors are the results of conditioning. Theorists such as John B Watson?believed that people could be trained to do and become anything, regardless of their genetic background.For example, when a person achieves tremendous academic success, did they do so because they are genetically predisposed to be successful or is it a result of an enriched environment? If a man abuses his wife and kids, is it because he was born with violent tendencies or is it something he learned by observing his parents behavior?A few examples of biologically determined characteristics (nature) include certain genetic diseases, eye color, hair color, and skin color. Other things like life expectancy and height have a strong biological component, but they are also influenced by environmental factors and lifestyle.An example of a nativist theory within psychology is Chomsky's concept of a language acquisition device (or LAD). According to this theory, all children are born with an instinctive mental capacity that allows them to both learn and produce language.Some characteristics are tied to environmental influences. How a person behaves can be linked to influences such as?parenting styles and learned experiences. For example, a child might learn through observation and reinforcement to say 'please' and 'thank you.' Another child might learn to behave aggressively by observing older children engage in violent behavior on the playground.One example of an empiricist theory within psychology is Albert Bandura's?social learning theory. According to the theory, people learn by observing the behavior of others. In his famous?Bobo doll experiment, Bandura demonstrated that children could learn aggressive behaviors simply by observing another person acting aggressively.How Nature and Nurture InteractWhat researchers do know is that the interaction between heredity and environment is often the most important factor of all. Kevin Davies of PBS's?Nova?described one fascinating example of this phenomenon.Perfect pitch is the ability to detect the pitch of a musical tone without any reference. Researchers have found that this ability tends to run in families and believe that it might be tied to a single gene. However, they've also discovered that possessing the gene alone is not enough to develop this ability. Instead, musical training during early childhood is necessary to allow this inherited ability to manifest itself.Height is another example of a trait that is influenced the interaction of nature and nurture. A child might come from a family where everyone is tall, and he may have inherited these genes for height. However, if he grows up in a deprived environment where he does not receive proper nourishment, he might never attain the height he might have he had grown up in a healthier environment.Contemporary Views of Nature Vs NurtureThroughout the history of psychology, however, this debate has continued to stir up controversy. Eugenics, for example, was a movement heavily influenced by the nativist approach. Psychologist Francis Galton, a cousin of the naturalist?Charles Darwin, coined both the terms?nature versus nurture?and?eugenics, and believed that intelligence was the result of genetics. Galton believed that intelligent individuals should be encouraged to marry and have many children, while less intelligent individuals should be discouraged from reproducing. ?Today, the majority of experts believe that both nature and nurture influence behavior and development. However, the issue still rages on in many areas such as in the debate on the origins of homosexuality and influences on?intelligence. While few people take the extreme nativist or radical empiricist approach, researchers and experts still debate the degree to which biology and environment influence behavior.Increasingly, people are beginning to realize that asking how much heredity or environment influence a particular trait is not the right approach. The reality is that there is not simple way to disentangle the multitude of forces that exist. These influences include genetic factors that interact with one another, environmental factors that interact such as social experiences and overall culture, as well as how both hereditary and environmental influences intermingle. Instead, many researchers today are interested?in seeing how genes modulate environmental influences and vice versa.Today, many researchers believe that they are five core personality traits. Evidence of this theory has been growing over the past 50 years, beginning with the research of D. W. Fiske (1949) and later expanded upon by other researchers including Norman (1967), Smith (1967), Goldberg (1981), and McCrae & Costa (1987).The "big five" are broad categories of personality traits. While there is a significant body of literature supporting this five-factor model of personality, researchers don't always agree on the exact labels for each dimension.However, these five categories are usually described as follows:1. Extroversion:Extroversion is characterized by excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness. People who are high in extroversion are outgoing and tend to gain energy in social situations.People who are low in extroversion (or?introverted) tend to be more reserved and have to expend energy in social settings.2. Agreeableness:This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust,?altruism, kindness, affection and other?prosocial behaviors. People who are high in agreeableness tend to be more cooperative while those low in this trait tend to be more competitive and even manipulative.3. Conscientiousness:Standard features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high on conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details.4. Neuroticism:Neuroticism is a trait characterized by sadness, moodiness and emotional instability. Individuals who are high in this trait tend to experience mood swings, anxiety, moodiness, irritability and sadness. Those low in this trait tend to be more stable and emotionally resilient.5. Openness:This trait features characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests. People who are high in this trait tend to be more adventurous and creative. People low in this trait are often much more traditional and may struggle with abstract thinking.It is important to note that each of the five personality factors represents a range between two extremes. For example, extraversion represents a continuum between extreme extraversion and extreme?introversion. In the real world, most people lie somewhere in between the two polar ends of each dimension.Big 5 Personality ResearchMcCrae and his colleagues have also found that the big five traits are also remarkably universal. One study that looked at people from more than 50 different cultures found that the five dimensions could be accurately used to describe personality.Based on this research, many psychologists now believe that the five personality dimensions are not only universal; they also have biological origins. Psychology David Buss has proposed that an evolutionary explanation for these five core personality traits, suggesting that these personality traits represent the most important qualities that shape our social landscape.Final ThoughtsAlways remember that behavior involves an interaction between a person's underlying personality and situational variables. The situation that a person finds himself or herself in plays a major role in how the person reacts. However, in most cases, people offer responses that are consistent with their underlying personality traits.These dimensions represent broad areas of personality. Research has demonstrated that these groupings of characteristics tend to occur together in many people. For example, individuals who are sociable tend to be talkative. However, these traits do not always occur together.?Personality?is a complex and varied and each person may display behaviors across several of these dimensions. ................
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