Download Chapter 5.1 Personality Development

Chapter 5.1 Personality Development

Major factors affect the
development of
personality.
What is personality?
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Common answer

Characteristics of a
person
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Nice
Good looking
Social skills
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Polite
funny
What is personality?

Sociologists say

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Sum total of behaviors, attitude, beliefs, and
values that are characteristic of an individual.
Personality traits
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Determine how we adjust

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To our environment
How we react in specific situations
Personalities over time

Personalities constantly change during the
first half of a person’s life.
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Find new interests
Like new things
Personalities change for all sorts of reasons
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2 largest reasons
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Nature
Nurture
Nature vs. Nurture
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Heredity

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The transmission of
genetic characteristics
from parents to children.
Social environment

Contact with other people
Nature’s Argument
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Most human behavior is instinct in origin.
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Instinct
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an unchanging, biologically inherited behavior pattern.
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Birds = building nests
Birds = migrate in winter
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This leads to humans having 10,000 instincts:
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Laugh
Smile
breath
Nurture’s Argument

A person’s behavior
and personality are the
result of his or her
social environment and
learning

Pavlov’s Dog
experiment

Developed an
unconditional response
1970’s Sociobiology

Systematic study of the biological basis of all
social behavior.
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Sociobiologists argument
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Varied cultural characteristics are rooted in
genetic makeup of humans.
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Competition
Envy
Hate
Faith……religion?
4 major factors that shape individual
personality development
heredity
parents
Personality
Birth order
Cultural
environment
Heredity

Characteristics present at
birth.
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Body build
Hair type
Eye color
Skin pigmentation
Aptitudes
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A capacity to learn a
particular skill or acquire a
particular body of
knowledge.
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Natural talents

Sports

Music
Birth Order
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Personalities are influenced
by whether we have
siblings:
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1st born
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Middle child
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Achievement oriented
More affectionate but
confused
Last child
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Risk takers
Intellectual rebels
Parental Characteristics

A parents personality
directly impacts a
child’s personality
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Hate
Anger
Happiness
politeness
Cultural Environment

Cultural environment
determines

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Basic types of
personalities found in
society.
USA
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Competitiveness
Assertiveness
individualism
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China
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Competitiveness
Family oriented
Group oriented
Isolations of children
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Feral children
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Wild or untamed children
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Can children develop on
their own with no help?
1938 “Anna”
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Born to unmarried woman
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Grandfather locked her in
the attic
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Only fed her once a day
No interaction
Found in 1938 by social
worker
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Could not
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Walk
Talk
Feed herself
No facial expressions
Isabelle
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Born to unmarried woman
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Grandfather locked her and
Mother in the attic
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Only fed her once a day
Interaction with mom only
Found in 1960 by social
worker
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Could not
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Talk
Walk
Ate with her hands