Personality: Character Study

Background Information

For this task I decided to analyze my roommate/best friend. Her name is Kylee Dodson, and she is a freshman here at Hardin-Simmons University. Kylee is majoring in business, and she hopes to continue her family business. We became friends through our First Year Seminar last semester, and we decided to become roommates this semester. Kylee is a very sweet, emotional, and funny person. She can be crazy at times, and she just loves to have fun. I have known Kylee long enough to be able to tell ya'll some of her personality traits, but we'll let the 16 Personalities Test tell you the rest!

16 Personalities Test

I chose this personality test because it is so thorough and extremely accurate. This test assess the person on energy, mind, tactics, nature, and identity. This test will also list strengths, weaknesses, parenting styles, relationship dynamics, and even famous people with the same personality type as you! 

I watched Kylee take this personality test. Her results were Campaigner or ENFP-T, which stands for extraverted, intuitive, feeling, prospecting, and turbulent. We were not surprised to find out that our predictions were for the most part correct. It was even more awesome to find out that her campaigner personality is the same as Robert Downey Jr., Will Smith, and Robin William's personality! 

Kylee is a very independent person, who is organized and doesn't always like the spotlight on her. She is very ambitious and she is a good people person. Her strengths include curiosity, observant, energetic and enthusiastic, excellent communicator, knows how to relax, and very popular and friendly. Her weaknesses are poor practical skills, finds it difficult to focus, overthinks things, gets stressed easily, highly emotional, and is independent to a fault. 

It was interesting to hear that Kylee learned some new stuff about herself while taking this test. She learned that she has difficulty focusing and that she communicates well with others. It was also interesting to see that some of my predictions were more accurate than hers. It proved that sometimes a person does not always realize the more obvious things about oneself, but others can see it plain as day. 

Sources:

https://www.16personalities.com

Personality Assessment

Personality

Personality is the unique and relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions. Each person's personality is unique to the person themselves. There are many experiences, factors, and reasons that makes someones personality unique. 

Sigmund Freud's Theories

 Personality Structure Theory: 3 Main Points

Id- The unconscious component of personality that operates irrationally and acts on the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle is seeking immediate gratification.

Ego- The rational, decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle. The reality principle seeks to delay the gratification of the id's impulses until appropriate outlets can be found. 

Superego- This represents internalization of society's standards, morals, and values; The conscience or moral personality component that incorporates parental and societal standards.

Psychoanalytic Theory: The mind contains 3 levels of consciousness & awareness.

Conscious- The thoughts or motives that a person is currently aware of or is remembering.

Preconscious- Freud's term for thoughts, motives, or memories that exist just beneath the surface of awareness and can be called to consciousness when necessary. 

Unconscious- Freud's term for part of the psych that stores repressed urges or primitive impulses.

Assessment

Personality tests are methods used to assess a person's individual, unique personality. Most personality tests are in the form of questionnaires. 

I decided to take the Eysenck Personality Test. Hans Eysenck, through research statistical analysis determined that personality is composed of three elements: Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism. Extraverts are usually known for being loud and outgoing. The opposite of this would be an introvert. Neuroticism has to do with emotional instability. Psychoticism has to do with a persons normality. 

My results for the test were:

Extraversion (sociability) 50%- The results were medium which suggests that I am moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable, and interacting.

Neuroticism (emotionality) 49%- The results were medium which suggests I am moderately worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Psychoticism (rebelliousness) 38%- The results were moderately low which suggests I am, at times, overly kind natured, trusting, and helpful at the expense of my own individual development.

Visit this link if you would like to take this personality test!
http://similarminds.com/eysenck.html

My Thoughts 

I would definitely say that my test results are highly accurate. I am shy at times, but I will talk if someone else talks to me first. Also, I am not afraid to interact with other people. At times I can be very insecure, and highly emotional. There are also times when I am too nice and trusting. At the same time I really like to help people when I can. 

Sources

https://www.simplypsychology.org/personality-theories.html

https://study.com/academy/lesson/hans-jurgen-eysenck-personality-theory-lesson-quiz.html

http://similarminds.com/eysenck.html

Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology is the study of the changes of human behaviour in all stages of life. The stages of life are prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle and late childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood.

Stages of Life

Prenatal: Conception-Birth

Infancy: Birth-24 months

Early Childhood: 3-5 years old

Middle/Late Childhood: 6-11 years old

Adolescence: 12-21 years old

Early Adulthood: 20s & 30s

Middle Adulthood: 40s & 50s

Late Adulthood: 60s-Death

Discussion Questions:

"The Developing Parent" by Marissa L. Diehner

1. Reflect on the way you were raised. Consider the parenting behaviors (eg., rules, discipline strategies, warmth, and support) used in your household when you were a child. Why do you think you parents behaved this way? How do these factors fit with the influences on parenting described here? Provide specific examples of multiple influences on parenting. 

Response: My parents raised me to be very independent. When I was little I lived on a ranch, so they couldn't always do everything for me because they were out working. I can't say I got into much trouble as a child, so I cannot remember much punishment. I can definitely say I was way closer to my dad than my mom. I went everywhere and did everything with him, and he has always been my biggest supporter in everything. My mom was more of a stern parent. I never broke her rules because I was afraid to. 

3. What type of parent do you envision yourself becoming? If you are a parent, how do you parent your child/children? How do you think this is similar to or different than the way you were raised? What influences exist in your life that will make you parent differently from your own parents?

Response: I think the type of parent I would be would be very similar to my mom. I would be kind of stern, and I would make sure they know right from wrong, and of course the consequences for doing wrong. However, I would be closer with my child/children, and I would let them know they can talk to me about anything. My mother had a hard time being close to me. Since I lived on a ranch the first 5 years of my life, I did not get to interact much with other children. I know this is not my parents fault, and I am not mad at them for it. However, I would make sure to have my child around other children. I am kind of an introvert and not much of a people person. I want my children to develop people skills early on. 

"Attachment Through the Life Course" by R. Chris Fraley

1. What kind of relationship did you have with your parents or primary caregivers when you were young? Do you think that had any bearing on the way you related to others (e.g., friends, relationship partners) as you grew older?

Response: As a child I was way more closer to my dad than my mom. This wasn't a bad thing it was just my mother and I did not have much in common. I was very energetic and active just like my dad was. My mother was more on the calm and subtle side. I cannot say that this impacted me negatively at all. I have had good friendships and even relationships.

4. Some people, despite reporting insecure relationships with their parents, report secure, well-functioning relationships with their spouses. What kinds of experiences do you think might enable someone to develop a secure relationship with their partners despite having an insecure relationship with other central figures in their lives?

Response: I believe that people who did not have secure relationships with their parents use their experiences and try to avoid being like them as much as possible. They work extra hard to have secure relationships with other people. They take their insecure experiences and make it a positive impact instead of negative. 

Sources: 

http://nobaproject.com/modules/attachment-through-the-life-course

http://nobaproject.com/modules/the-developing-parent

Sensation & Perception

What is Sensation?

Sensation is the physical process of stimuli through sensory organs. We as people have 5 senses, touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. When most people think of sensation they mainly think of the texture of something. However, sensations also include the other senses as well. 

What is Perception?

Perception is the psychological processing of and interpreting and using the information from the sensory organs. For example, what color is this dress?

Do you see white and gold? Or blue and black? I see that the dress is white and gold, but after reading the article, "The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress," by Adam Rogers, I know that the dress is in fact blue and orange. Everyone's brain perceives this picture differently, due to the way your brain sees the light in the background of the picture.

Rubber Hand Illusion

In the video The Rubber Hand Illusion, it explores the idea of seeing is believing. The man conducting the experiment covers the persons arm with a sheet and placing a rubbing hand underneath the sheet so that person can see the hand. The person puts their real hand on the other side of a barrier so they cannot see it. The conductor starts to rub both the rubber hand and the real hand with a brush simultaneously, while the person can only see him rubbing the rubber hand. After awhile the persons brain starts to perceive that the rubber hand is actually their own. Then the conductor grabs a hammer and hits the rubber hand and it startles the person. Then they realize that wasn't their real hand. The brain interprets the sight of the conductor rubbing the rubber hand and the feeling of the conductor rubbing the actual hand, and starts the perceive the two as one.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxwn1w7MJvk

https://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/

Brain & Behavior: The Lobes of the Brain

The human brain consists of 4 parts scientist call lobes. There is the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe. All lobes work together when it comes to certain functions, and damage to any of the lobes can cause drastic changes in behavior, interpretation, and other everyday things we don't even think about. Visit this website with the link down below for a general overview of the lobes of the brain!

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/lobe.html

Frontal Lobe

The frontal lobe is the front most lobe of the brain. It is where all the "higher" thinking occurs. 

Some of the main functions are motor control, emotions, judgement, and problem solving. However, there are many more functions! Damage to the frontal lobe can affect the way you socialize with people, attentiveness, and even sexual habits. Damage can also result in increase risk taking due to the fact that the frontal lobe is associated with reasoning. 

Temporal Lobe

The temporal lobe is located on the side of the head around the ear. The primary auditory cortex is located in the temporal lobe. It is because of this that one of the main functions is hearing. Other functions include the formation memory, language, and learning.

Damage to the temporal lobe can affect a person's memory, understanding of speech, and language skills.  

Parietal Lobe

The parietal lobe is located directly behind the frontal lobe. This part of the brain is vital to the processing of the body's senses. The main function of the parietal lobe is to interpret sensory information. It is also responsible for cognition, touch and sensation, movement and coordination, visual perception, reading and writing, and even mathematical skills. The somatosensory cortex is in this portion of the brain.

Occipital Lobe

The occipital lobe is located directly at the back of the brain. The primary visual cortex is located in this lobe. Its' exclusive responsibility is vision. Another important thing to know about the occipital lobe is that it directly works with the other lobes of the brain. Damages to the occipital lobe can cause damage to your vision, the ability to identify colors, and even some trouble recognizing certain words. 

Sources: 

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-anatomy-of-the-brain-2794895

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/lobe.html