ME
Name
PSY 330: Theories of Personality
Instructor:
Date
, Everyone in the world shares three experiences – birth, life, and death. How we
experience any of them is based on a complicated process of growth and discovery that helps to
create our personalities. What we view as our personality is also a complicated web of genetics,
upbringing, and experiences. When I was growing up there was a huge debate on if ‘Nature’ or
‘Nurture’ was more important in a person’s development. I think this debate gained so much
traction because of the Christian belief that “the sins of the father” are visited upon the child.
That if a child’s parents were evil (or good) then the child would be evil (or good).
We now know that good parents can raise an evil child and the reverse can also be true,
an evil parent can raise a good child. Or in my case, a mentally ill parent can raise a sane, if
slightly odd, child. There is still a tendency for people to think that someone who appears “good”
could not possibly do a bad thing such as violence including murder or sexual assaults including
pedophilia. Which brings to mind the saying that, ‘for evil to flourish all it takes is for good men
to do nothing’, or for good people not to recognize the evil in their fellow man.
What I think of personality is a tricky question; I think that one’s personality is
complicated and how it develops is even more so. When a child is born parents quickly learn
their child’s personality, every parent can easily tell you what their child is like. Everyone has a
base of who they are when they come into this world and then their experiences further form
their personality; basically it is nature and nurture. Experiences happen to everyone, different
people can experience the same thing but react totally different to the same stimuli. Even
children being raised in the same household will react to events different. Some events are more
influential to one person than it is the other; I think that this is due to basic personality we are
born with.
Name
PSY 330: Theories of Personality
Instructor:
Date
, Everyone in the world shares three experiences – birth, life, and death. How we
experience any of them is based on a complicated process of growth and discovery that helps to
create our personalities. What we view as our personality is also a complicated web of genetics,
upbringing, and experiences. When I was growing up there was a huge debate on if ‘Nature’ or
‘Nurture’ was more important in a person’s development. I think this debate gained so much
traction because of the Christian belief that “the sins of the father” are visited upon the child.
That if a child’s parents were evil (or good) then the child would be evil (or good).
We now know that good parents can raise an evil child and the reverse can also be true,
an evil parent can raise a good child. Or in my case, a mentally ill parent can raise a sane, if
slightly odd, child. There is still a tendency for people to think that someone who appears “good”
could not possibly do a bad thing such as violence including murder or sexual assaults including
pedophilia. Which brings to mind the saying that, ‘for evil to flourish all it takes is for good men
to do nothing’, or for good people not to recognize the evil in their fellow man.
What I think of personality is a tricky question; I think that one’s personality is
complicated and how it develops is even more so. When a child is born parents quickly learn
their child’s personality, every parent can easily tell you what their child is like. Everyone has a
base of who they are when they come into this world and then their experiences further form
their personality; basically it is nature and nurture. Experiences happen to everyone, different
people can experience the same thing but react totally different to the same stimuli. Even
children being raised in the same household will react to events different. Some events are more
influential to one person than it is the other; I think that this is due to basic personality we are
born with.
