Dr. Randolph Schutz (Hamza Syed) (Tchoumta Tchouffa Yann Herve) (Bravo Ana L)
Psychology 9/28/16
In Psychology, personality consists of the psychological qualities that bring continuity to an individual in different situations and at different times. According to the psycho-dynamic, humanistic and cognitive theories, personality is a continuously changing process that is shaped by our conscious and unconscious motives as well as our social interaction. According to the psycho-dynamic theories of personality, both conscious and unconscious motivations and the influence of our past experiences are what change our personalities. It is believed that the humanistic theories emphasize that it is our present ideologies and what we believe that is significant are what influences our personalities. Rather than clinical practice, research experimentation in psychology has developed the social-cognitive theories which is based on the idea that personality is influenced by learning and social interaction. A member from this group (Ana Bravo) observed the social-cognitive theory of personality first hand when she had a very shy friend in school and that friend couldn’t make friends due to her shyness. For this reason her (Ana Bravo) friend was thought of as shy and queer by other kids at school. Eventually this friend socially interacted with other kids at school and she became outgoing and sociable in almost any group of kids. Social Interaction influenced her personality positively.
In theory the traits of an individual are more specific characteristics in the personality for example shyness which is inherited and some is learned through experience guides the individuals thoughts and actions under various conditions. Psychologists have developed the five factor theory which uses five traits Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neurotic-ism, and Openness to describe personalities of different individuals. The state of a person is a momentary emotional reaction in a certain situation which persists according to the level of the trigger (Frustration, Arousal, Anger). The character of a person is the overall sense of quality of that person (Honesty, Integrity, Generosity) which is taught or learned through observational learning and can be absorbed anytime throughout an individual’s lifetime. Although character can be taught, the inherited traits of an individual can permanently influence certain aspects of character because that is the individual’s inevitable nature.
Individuals in society make judgments about other peoples personalities in everyday life whether if its to determine friend and foe or to determine honesty and dishonesty. These judgments are part of the Implicit Personality Theory which states that people make assumptions about personality to simplify the task of understanding others. These Judgments are made very often in human interaction due to the fact the the human mind must create a profile through the implicit personality theory and combines traits together naively in creativity to develop an understanding of an individual. A member of this group (Yann Herve) gave an example of how he observed this theory when his friend told him about a girl at work who was rude and selfish based on the attitude she was emitting that specific day. The other day his (Yann Herve) same friend told him a contradicting report about the girl on how she was kind and pleasant because he got to know her better, a judgment made with more information rather that little the initial information he had the first time he met her. These judgments are more likely to be made when an individual generalizes ignorantly for example if you had your heart broken by someone who was attractive but unwilling to make a commitment, you may quickly judge other attractive persons to be “insincere” or “untrustworthy”. It is often the case that when individuals make mistakes regarding other individuals, their judgments are revealed to them as errors. People are most likely to make such mistakes when they make judgments solely based on an individuals state or character at the time since these change frequently. General ideas about personality work to a certain extant in everyday life but personalities cannot truly be interpreted by the regular person.
The Psychoanalytic Theory developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) revealed how hidden in the unconscious part of the mind is the source of powerful impulse, instincts, motives, and conflicts that energize the personality. The memories hidden in the unconscious can only be obtained through special techniques used by trained psychologists which reveal the reason for the subjects behavior or personality. For example I observed this theory first hand in a matter when my older cousin fell into a depression which was being treated by a trained psychologist. He told of no apparent reason for his depression but the psychologist revealed to him that hidden in his unconscious was the memory of his dysfunctional parents that were always fighting as he grew up. It took time for him to finally make peace with that which was in his unconscious and he now lives peacefully independently. The use of this theory could tell us how an individual would act in emergencies because it would give us the individuals hidden secrets of the mind which would reveal his/her true personality and how it would apply in emergencies. How an individual would act in emergency situations is not assumable since it requires one to know the secrets of the unconscious and true personality rather than a certain state or character of the individual.
When things go wrong explanations based on the character or personality of the people involved typically dominate and this is the effect of the Fundamental Attribution Error. These explanations are almost never accurate at first since information regarding an incident is not equal as different people involved attribute false information or ideas due to ignorance regarding the incident. This does not inform us on what happened accurately because we have contradicting sides and this cannot guide us to do the right thing in unification since what was attributed was indirect and contradicting. In conclusion, Personality can take many forms of character or states but is always truly hidden within the unconscious and it takes the extreme for it to reveal itself.
Hamza Syed (Ideas and Contributions)
Compiled several ideas and theories that support the idea of personality being something that is hidden in the unconscious and how people make judgments on individuals in everyday Life. The Psychoanalytic Theory developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) revealed how hidden in the unconscious part of the mind is the source of powerful impulse, instincts, motives, and conflicts that energize the personality. This theory that I researched was most interesting because it brought a sophisticated conclusion that personalities are hidden and can only be revealed through special techniques. For example I observed this theory first hand in a matter when my older cousin fell into a depression which was being treated by a trained psychologist. He told of no apparent reason for his depression but the psychologist revealed to him that hidden in his unconscious was the memory his dysfunctional parents that were always fighting as he grew up. It took time for him to finally make peace with that which was in his unconscious and he now lives peacefully independently. People make judgments on other peoples personalities in everyday life according to what character they are greeting with or what in what state of behavior they met a person. (These are easily mistakes since true traits may only be revealed in certain extreme situations or circumstances).
Tchoumta Tchouffa Yann Herve (Ideas and Contributions)
Compiled theories and ideas regarding why and how people make judgement on other individuals in everyday life. The Implicit Personality Theory states that people make assumptions about personality to simplify the task of understanding others. These Judgments are made very often in human interaction due to the fact the the human mind must create a profile through the implicit personality theory and combines traits together naively in creativity to develop an understanding of an individual. A member from this group (Yann Herve) gave an example of how he observed this theory when his friend told him about a girl at work who was rude and selfish based on the attitude she was emitting that specific day. The other day his (Yann Herve) same friend told him a contradicting report about the girl on how she was kind and pleasant because he got to know her better, a judgment made with more information rather that little the initial information he had the first time he met her. The five factor theory used by psychologists contains Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neurotic-ism, and Openness as the traits to describe personalities of different individuals.
Ana Bravo (Ideas and Contributions)
Compiled three theories which are used by psychologists to define and explain at a scholarly level what influences and causes our personalities to change and form. According to the psycho-dynamic, humanistic and cognitive theories, personality is a continuously changing process that is shaped by our conscious and unconscious motives as well as our social interaction. According to the psycho-dynamic theories of personality, both conscious and unconscious motivations and the influence of our past experiences are what change our personalities. It is believed that the humanistic theories emphasize that it is our present ideologies and what we believe that is significant are what influences our personalities. Rather than clinical practice, research experimentation in psychology has developed the social-cognitive theories which is based on the idea that personality is influenced by learning and social interaction. A member from this group (Ana Bravo) observed the social-cognitive theory of personality first hand when she had a very shy friend in school and that friend couldn’t make friends due to her shyness. For this reason her (Ana Bravo) friend was thought of as shy and queer by other kids at school. Eventually this friend socially interacted with other kids at school and she became outgoing and sociable in almost any group of kids. Social Interaction influenced her personality positively.
(Professor, please note that these ideas and theories were combined using all our works to create one unified research project) Thank You
