Untitled Essay, Research Paper

Theory of Human Development What makes a person what they

are? Why does a person do what they do? Where does personality come from

and how does it grow? These are some frequently asked questions when discussing

the topic of personality. The latter of the questions is actually an answer

in itself. Personality does originate from a specific point, and from then

on it continues to grow and become exponentially more complex. This core

point from which personality begins and the growth of it will be discussed

in the sections to follow, but first we must look at certain assumptions

that are commonly made when developing a personality theory. Assumptions

The first of these assumptions concerns whether one believes that the behaviors,

any type of action, a person exhibits are produced by conscious choices and

decisions, also known as free will, or “determined” by forces beyond

one’s control. I believe in the free will explanation, but not the type

of free will commonly imagined. Humans do ultimately have the power to choose

their actions, however the extreme influence of other factors, such as heredity,

environment, and learned behaviors, may make it seem like a persons actions

were predetermined. For example, if a starving people were put into positions

where they could either eat a Subway turkey round placed in front of them

or just sit there and stare and stare at it, common sense shows that these

people would eat. However, it is possible that one person, like an anorexic,

would just sit and stare at the sandwich. For that reason, it can be assumed

that human beings do have free will, however the choices made are greatly

impacted and seemingly determined by inherited basic needs, environment,

and learned behaviors. This leads us into a second assumption, rationalism

or irrationalism. Do human beings operate primarily on the basis of intellect,

or on the basis of impulses and passions? The answer is the latter theory.

Going back to the Subway example, the most likely decision on whether or

not to eat the turkey round would be based on an irrational impulse in

one’s subconscious. The basic physiological need of food has a profound

influence on the given choice. But note that this is only the most likely

response and not a definite one. There is always the chance that a person

could make a conscious, rational decision not to eat. Because a people ultimately

do have some sort of a conscious decision over their actions, it cannot be

assumed that behavior is solely determined by irrational impulses. The next

assumption to be dealt with is one of the most argued and controversial of

them all. Is human nature basically good or inherently evil? Naturally, most

optimists would argue that people are born with a good nature, while other

people of another persuasion would take on the opinion of an essentially

evil disposition. However, human nature is a term that should neither be

associated with good nor evil. In contrast, human nature is based upon inherited

basic needs, environment, and learned behaviors, not morality, which is itself

a learned behavior. An example of this would be murder. In most societies

today, it is considered wrong, or evil, to commit an act of homicide if you

kill a person because, for the sake of argument, they were walking too close

to your home. However, thousands of years ago it may have been a part of

life to kill someone intruding near one’s dwelling, looked upon as a

display of territorial protection. Morality, the virtues of good and evil,

are completely dependent on the social group from which you have adopted

most of your learned behaviors. Therefore, good and evil are nonexistent

and should be looked upon as terms of social acceptability. The final assumption

to be examined is normally a difficult one to address if one is trying to

make a definite choice. It is the question of environment versus heredity.

B.F. Skinner would argue faithfully that behavior is based solely on

environmental contingencies, while Sigmund Freud would just as strongly maintain

that the role of heredity determines the personality of an individual. I,

on the other hand, believe that both sides of the debate are equally valid;

personality is both the product of nature, in the form of the gratification

of instinctual basic needs, and the product of learning and life experiences.

For example, if a person was being attacked by something or someone, the

basic need of safety would cause that person to seek refuge. However, where

that person goes to find safety would likely be determined by learned behaviors

and past experiences of the need for security. Therefore, personality is

not a question of nature versus nurture, but is instead a combination of

the two. The rest of this paper will deal with the origin of personality

and the way in which it proceeds to grow. In the first part, this

“origin” will be referred to as the core personality and will be

based upon heredity. The second part will look at the growth of personality

as a sort of snowball effect with environmental factors and experiences

continually adding to the core personality, making it more complex. Some

of these factors include social groups, geography, and learned behaviors.

The Core Personality From the moments of conception, your parents’ genes

determine what many of your physical traits will be. Among these are gender,

height, and skin color. These sort of traits will have an effect on how the

child perceives itself and how others perceive the child, consequently having

an effect on the child’s personality. For example, this person could

have some physical characteristic that is looked down on or made fun of by

various people. This, in turn, would affect the individual’s self esteem

and overall personality. Other characteristics that have to do with the mental

capacity of the individual are also passed on through the parents’ genes.

The justification for this assumption is that everyone has a different

intelligence level, whether it be because of the size of the brain or for

some other reason. I do not believe that there is anyone that would honestly

be able to say that they think that all babies are just as smart as each

other when they are born. The idea is ridiculous. Just as everyone is born

physically different, they are also born mentally different. Therefore, the

only factor that could initially affect the intelligence level of an individual

before birth is the inherited genes of that individual’s parents. What

is also included in this inheritance is the passing on of basic needs. These

basic needs include physiological needs, which are all of the body’s

requirements (food, water, etc.), safety needs, curiosity, the need for

relationships, which is first encountered in the relationship between the

mother and her child, and the need to reproduce. These basic needs are commonly

thought of as instincts, however, instincts are actually the drive to gratify

these needs. The subconscious mind is created during these early stages of

life and, because the brain has not yet developed fully and there have been

no other factors to interfere in the decision making process, makes all the

decisions for the person while still inside of the mother. There have been

no profound experiences or learned behaviors at this point, so the only influence

on the actions of the fetus are its basic needs. This means that the behavior

is seemingly determined before birth. There are, of course, certain circumstances

which may have a later effect on personality and its development. Any sort

of trauma to the development of the infant at this point could have mild

to drastic effects that could cause damage to the body and/or brain. This

would include the use of various drugs by the mother, such as alcohol, tobacco,

and crack, or some sort of physical abuse to the mother during the pregnancy.

Each one is capable of causing some sort of mental or physical handicap to

the infant. Common sense tells you that this would affect the learning capability

or the physical capability of the child, thus having a definite change on

the outcome of that child’s personality. Physical attributes, mental

attributes, and basic needs are all passed down from parent to child. The

core personality is therefore made up of all of these factors that are determined

by heredity. After birth, everything that is experienced by the individual

has an effect on that person’s personality and is added onto the core

personality and makes it much more complex as it continues to grow and mature.

The Growth of Personality The core personality makes up the basis of an

individual’s personality for the rest of that person’s life.

Personality growth, therefore, takes place as new experiences are added to

that core personality. These new experiences come directly from a person’s

environment. The first environmental factors that affect personality have

to so with social groups. All people have the basic need to form relationships,

so it is not surprising that the joining of social groups has a profound

impact on learning and the development of the core personality. The first

social group that contributes to personality and behavior is one’s family,

if you have one. A person’s parents are the first people that one learns

from. Learning is accomplished through reinforcement and ideologies. To explain

this way of learning we will look at a stereotypical family setting. An infant

learns quite a bit from his family and uses that as the basis of most of

it’s personality growth. From the time of birth, the individual is absorbing

quite a bit of information from its surroundings. Parents act as examples

for the infant and through reinforcement and by watching them the infant

learns things like how to talk, how to walk, the proper way to eat, the proper

way to go to the bathroom, and many other things that the person will use

for the rest of his or her life. Also created through repetition is the

individual’s sense of right and wrong, or conscience. The parents of

the child are constantly saying “no” when the infant does something

wrong and, usually, praising the child for what they consider to be right.

This creates a system of ethics that the person will use in making decisions

for the rest of his or her life. Children also look at their parents as role

models. They adopt many behaviors of the parents and learn how to perform

many tasks through mimicry. The financial class of the family can also play

a major role in the development of the individual’s personality. It

will determine where that person will live in early years and which luxuries

the person will become accustomed to. Other people, besides the

individual’s family, play a large role in that person’s personality

growth. These people include friends, teachers, or anyone the person interacts

with. These people affect what decisions that person will make and they also

provide new experiences the individual can learn from. Interactions with

these people can affect self esteem and also provide different opportunities

to explore the person’s identity. Religion also affects personality.

Over the years, people who go to church have had the teachings of their religions

reinforced over and over again, causing the individual to adopt the beliefs

of that religion. By accepting these beliefs, the way a person thinks and

behaves is changed and, therefore, adds to that individual’s personality.

In short, any social group or social institution will have a profound affect

on one’s personality due to the basic need to form relationships with

others. By joining certain social groups and accepting their way of thinking,

a sense of belongingness is reached. So, because of these social groups a

person joins, news experiences are encountered, new things are learned, and

the personality grows. Geography also plays a major role in the development

and growth of personality. Depending on where you are born, there are different

customs and different ways of doing things. Social standards are different

throughout the world, so depending on where you were born, your personality

could be drastically different. For example, in one country it could be quite

normal to show public displays of affection or some other sort of sexual

behavior. You might be walking down the street and see a couple making out

on a park bench. But in another country it may be against the law to even

kiss another person in a public place. Also, if you were born into some tribe

in Africa, it could be completely normal to see men and women walking around

nude. Certain socially acceptable or unacceptable behaviors would have a

serious effect on how open you are towards others. Any behavior that is heavily

reinforced will have a great chance at becoming a learned behavior in a person,

affect that individual’s personality, and have a substantial influence

of the future choices made by that individual. Natural environment itself

can also play a role in one’s personality. Everything that is taken

in by a person’s senses affects that way the person perceives new

experiences and, therefore, adds to that individual’s personality. For

example, in some studies, it has been shown that the color or temperature

of a room can affect a person’s emotions. Also, if someone were placed

into a dark room for a long period of time, there is a good possibility that

he or she could become depressed, whereas, in most cases, that person, if

put in an outdoor environment on a nice day, would be in a better mood. In

conclusion, the physical environment one is in can affect that way that person

reacts to new experiences, and can contribute to the development of the

individual’s personality. Perhaps the most important factor in personality

development is the aging process. Depending on one’s age and maturity

level, new experiences are perceived differently, adding in different ways

to the core personality. An infant learns differently from a teenager, and

a teenager learns differently from an adult. At an early age, children learn

mainly through mimicry and reinforcement, primarily from social groups, and

view the world depending on how their basic needs are met. If the child’s

basic needs are met, that child will learn to trust the world as a dependable

provider of support, and to trust their own urges and instincts as reliable

guides to behavior. If basic needs are not met a sense of mistrust is born,

giving the person a tendency to withdraw socially. An example of this would

be a child who is provided with a loving, nurturing environment, as opposed

to one who is physically abused. For the child who is loved, basic needs

are being met, and that child will have a tendency to be more loving and

probably more socially outgoing. In contrast, the child who is being abused

is obviously not being shown the love it needs and, in addition, its basic

need of safety is not being met. This child will have a tendency to not be

very trusting of people and, therefore, be more socially withdrawn. The learned

behavior depends on which basic needs are being met. As the body matures

people become aware of new experiences, either because they are given the

opportunity by society, probably because they are at the “right age,”

or because the body is going through certain physiological changes that cause

individuals to become more interested in different areas. For example, once

a person goes through puberty, the sexual drive and need to reproduce is

intensified. A young boy who before had not been interested in having a

relationship with a member of the opposite sex now has this urge. A physical

change in that persons body had a direct effect on his personality. New changes

in needs as people get older also contribute to the core personality. When

people’s bodies become mature, certain needs are sometimes eliminated.

An example of this is the high calorie diet of a growing person. At younger

ages, the body burns more calories and, therefore, creates a higher level

of energy in youths when their caloric needs are met. On the other hand,

adults are fully grown and require less calories in their diet. That is why

adults are not as energetic, which contributes to fewer new experiences,

slowing the growth of the core personality. Another need that is changed,

or, specifically, intensified with age is the need to reproduce. This usually

appears in conjunction with the need to form a lasting bond and relationship

with a member of the opposite sex. In most of today’s societies these

needs are gratified through some sort of marriage ceremony and the making

of a family. As people get older, their personalities change less. The

snowballing effect that at one time showed rapid growth in an individual’s

personality, steadily slows down. This is because most previous behaviors

that have been reinforced over time become more and more a part of their

behaviors. Most people end up in a certain routine that is repeated sometimes

every day. New experiences are less frequently contributors of new learned

behaviors. A fundamental example of this is the ability to learn a second

language. As most people are aware of, it is quite a bit easier for younger

people, especially children to learn a different language. This is because

rules of grammar have not been reinforced as much at an early age and because

the language has not been spoken for as long of a period of time. Adults

require a longer period to learn the new language because it contradicts

what has been reinforced to them for years. In old age, new experiences have

little to no effect on a person’s fully developed, complex core personality.

There is usually a period of review of one’s overall life. According

to Erikson, it can be looked at in one of two ways, either with integrity

or with despair. The question is asked, “If I had another chance, would

I live my life the same way?” If you look back and declare your life

satisfactory or better, you have achieved integrity. If you fail to achieve

this, and cannot emotionally “own” your life when it is too late

to change it, you will fall into despair. With the sense of integrity comes

wisdom; despair brings only disdain. Summary In review, the assumptions made

in this personal theory of human development were that human beings do have

free will, however, the choices made are highly influenced by inherited basic

needs, environment, and learned behaviors; irrational impulses are the primary

bases for choices; human nature is neither good nor evil, but instead based

on basic needs, environment, and learned behaviors, not morality; and personality

is the product of both heredity and environment. The individual has a core

personality that is made up of the physical attributes one inherits from

his or her parents and inherited basic needs. These needs include physiological

needs, safety needs, the need for relationships, and curiosity. Throughout

life, different experiences and learned behaviors contribute to make the

core personality grow and become more complex. These experiences come from

the environment the individual is surrounded by, including different social

groups (families, friends, financial classes, and religions) and geographical

location (nationality, customs, and physical environment), and from changes

in the basic needs of the individual as a result of aging and physiological

changes in one’s body. As people get older, the snowballing effect of

the growth of personality, which is quite rapid in early years, slows down,

resulting in less change of one’s personality. A final period of review

of one’s life is experienced in old age by asking if you are satisfied

with the way you have chosen to live your life. Personality is, therefore,

an always changing entity that is unique to each person because of that persons

unique heredity and unique life experiences.

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