Professional Development & Applied Ethics

Module 1

Personality Development Overview

Objectives:
At the end of this chapter, the student shall be able to:
 Define and explain Personality Development
 Identify the components of personality development
 Identify the stages of personality development
 Identify the common problems encountered in personality development

Personality Development - is the development of the organized pattern of behavior and attitudes that
makes a person distinctive. Personality development occurs by the ongoing interaction of temperament,
character, and environment. Personality development is a systematic and continuous attempt to create and
promote key work-related personality traits within you so that you become an effective and efficient
university administrative officer.

Personality - is what makes person unique person. And it is recognizable soon after birth. A child’s
personality has several components: temperament, environment, and character.

Temperament- is the set of genetically determined traits that determine the child’s approach to the
world and how the child learns about the world. There are no genes that specify personality traits, but some
genes do control the development of the nervous system, which in turn controls behaviour.

A second component of personality comes from adaptive patterns related to a child’s specific
environment. Most psychologist agree that these two factors, temperament and environment, influence the
development of a person’s personality the most. Temperament, with its dependence on genetic factors, is
sometimes referred to as “nature” while the environmental factors are called “nurture.”

While there is still controversy as to which factor ranks higher in affecting personality development, all
experts agree that high-quality parenting plays a critical role in the development of a child’s personality.
When parents understand how their child responds to certain situations, they can anticipate issues that might
be problematic for their child. They can prepare the child for the situation or in some cases they may avoid a
potentially difficult situation altogether. Parents who know how to adapt their parenting approach to the
particular temperament of their child can best provide guidance and ensure the successful development of
their child’s personality.

The third component of the personality is character, the set of emotional, cognitive and behavioral
patterns learned from experience that determines how a person thinks, feels and behaves. A person’s
character continues to evolve throughout life, although much depends on inborn traits and early experiences.
Character is also dependent on a person’s moral development.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT:

INFANCY - during the first two years of life, an infant goes through the first stage: Learning Basic Trust or
Mistrust(Hope). Well-nurtured and loved, the infants develops trust and security and a basic optimism. Badly
handled, the infant becomes insecure and learns “basic mistrust.”

TODDLERHOOD - the second stage occurs during early childhood, between about 18 months to two years and
three to four years of age. It deals with Learning Autonomy or Shame (Will). Well-parented,the child emerges
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from this stage with self-confidence, elated with his of her newly found control. The early part of this stage
can also include stormy tantrums, stubbornness, and negativism, depending on the child’s temperament.

PRESCHOOL - the third stage occurs during the “play age,” or the later preschool years from about three to
entry into formal school. The developing child goes through Learning Initiative or Guilt (Purpose). The child
learns to:
 Use imagination
 Broaden skills through active play and fantasy
 Cooperate with others
 Lead as well as to follow
If unsuccessful, the child becomes fearful, is unable to join groups, and harbors guilt feelings. The
child depends excessively on adults and is restricted both in the development of play skills and imagination.

SCHOOL AGE - The fourth stage, Learning Industry or Inferiority (Competence), occurs during school age, up to
and possibly including junior high school. The child learns to master more formal skills:

 Relating with peers according to rule

 Progressing from free play to play that is structured by rules and requires teamwork (team sports)
 Learning basic intellectual skills (reading, arithmetic)

At this stage, the need for self-discipline increases every year. The child who, because of his or her
successful passage through earlier stages, is trusting,autonomous,and full of initiative,will quickly learn to be
industrious. However, the mistrusting child will doubt the future and will feel inferior.

ADOLESCENCE - The fifth stage,Learning Identity of Identity Diffusion (Fidelity), occurs during adolescence
from age 13 or 14. maturity starts developing during this time; the young person acquires self certainty as
opposed to self doubt and experiments with different constructive roles rather than adopting a negative
identity, such as delinquency. The well adjusted adolescent actually looks forward to achievement, and in
later adolescence, clear sexual identity is established. The adolescent seeks leadership (someone to inspire
him or her) and gradually develops a set of ideals to live by.

Another environmental factor of importance is culture. Researchers comparing cultural groups for
specific personality types have found some important differences. For example, Northern European countries
and the United State have individualistic cultures that put more emphasis on individualistic cultures that put
more emphasis on individual needs and accomplishments. In contrast, Asian, African,Central American and
South American countries are characterized more by community-centered cultures that focus on belonging to
a larger group, such as a family, or nation. In these cultures, cooperation is considered a more important
value than competitiveness, which will necessarily affect personality development.

Common Problems:

Infants who are just a few weeks old display differences between each other in how active they are, how
responsive they are to change, and how irritable they are. Some infants cry constantly while others seem
happy and stay fairly quiet. Child development research conducted by the CDI has identified nine
temperamental traits that may contribute to a child’s personality development being challenging or difficult:

 Activity level (how active the child is generally)

 Distractibility (degree of concentration and paying attention when the child is not
particularly interested)
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 Intensity (how loud the child is)

 Regularity (the predictability of biological functions like appetite and sleep)
 Sensory threshold (how sensitive the child is to physical stimuli: touch, taste, smell,
sound, light)
 Approach/withdrawal (characteristic response of a child to a new situation or to
stranger)
 Adaptability (how easily the child adapts to transitions and changes such as switching to
a new activity)
 Persistence (stubbornness, inability to give up)
 Mood (tendency to react to the world primarily in a positive or negative way)

Parental Concerns:

Most children experience healthy personality development.However,some parents worry as to whether

their infant, child, or teenager has a personality disorder. Parents are usually the first to recognize that their
child has a problem with emotions or behaviors that may point to a personality disorder. Children with
personality disorders have great difficulty dealing with other people. They tend to be inflexible, rigid, and
unable t respond to the changes and normal stresses of life and find it very difficult to participate in social
activities.

Chapter 2

Different Influences on Personality

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At the end of this chapter,the student shall be able to:

 Identify the different influences of Personality
 Know the history of behaviourism
 Identify and differentiate the different theories of personality

Type theory of personality

Perhaps the earliest known theory of personality is that of the Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 400
B.C.),who characterized human behavior in terms of four temperaments, each associated with a different
bodily fluid, or "humor." The sanguine, or optimistic, type was associated with blood; the phlegmatic type
(slow and lethargic) with phlegm; the melancholic type (sad, depressed) with black bile; and the choleric
(angry) type with yellow bile. Individual personality was determined by the amount of each of the four
humors. Hippocrates' system remained influential in Westerm Europe throughout the medieval and
Renaissance periods.

Trait theory of personality

A major weakness of Sheldon's morphological classification system and other type theories in general is
the element of oversimplification inherent in placing individuals into a single category, which ignores the fact
that every personality represents a unique combination of qualities. Systems that address personality as a
combination of qualities or dimensions are called trait theories. Well-known trait theorist Gordon Allport
(1897-1967) extensively investigated the ways in which traits combine to form normal personalities,
cataloguing over 18,000 separate traits over a period of 30 years.He proposed that each person has about
seven central traits that dominate his or her behavior.

Psychodynamic theory of personality

Twentieth-century views on personality have been heavily influenced by the psychodynamic approach of
Sigmund Freud. Freud proposed a three-part personality structure consisting of the id (concerned with the
gratification of basic instincts), the ego (which mediates between the demands of the id and the constraints of
society), and the superego(through which parental and social values are internalized). In contrast to type or
trait theories of personality, the dynamic model proposed by Freud involved an ongoing element of conflict,
and it was these conflicts that Freud saw as the primary determinant of personality.

Phenomenological theory of personality

Another major view of personality developed during the twentieth century is the phenomenological
approach, which emphasizes people's self-perceptions and their drive for self-actualization as determinants of
personality. This optimistic orientation holds that people are innately inclined toward goodness, love, and
creativity and that the primary natural motivation is the drive to fulfill one's potential. Carl Rogers, the figure
whose name is most closely associated with phenomenological theories of personality, viewed authentic
experience of one's self as the basic component of growth and wellbeing

The History of Behaviorism

 Pavlov(1897)published the results of an experiment on conditioning after originally studying digestion in

dogs.
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 Watson (1913) launches the behavioral school of psychology, publishing an article, Psychology as the
behaviorist views it.
 Watson and Rayner(1920) conditioned an orphan called Albert B (aka Little Albert) to fear a white rat.
 Thorndike(1905) formalized the Law ofEffect. ·
 Skinner(1936) wrote The Behavior of Organisms and introduced the concepts of operant conditioning and
shaping.
 Clark Hull's(1943) Principles of Behavior was published.
 F.Skinner(1948) published Walden Two, in which he described a utopian society founded upon behaviorist
principles.
 Joumal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior begun in 1958.
 Chomsky (1959) published his criticism of Skinner's behaviorism, "Review of Verbal Behavior."
 Bandura (1963) publishes a book called the Social Leaning Theory and Personality development which
combines both cognitive and behavioral frameworks.

Types of Behaviorism

Historically,the most significant distinction between versions of behaviorism is that between Watson's
original 'methodological behaviorism,' and forms of behaviorism later inspired by his work,known collectively
as neobehaviorism (e.g., radical behaviorism).

Methodological Behaviorism.

'Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its
theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods,
nor is the scientific value

Radical Behaviorism

Radical behaviorism was founded by B.F Skinner and agreed with the assumption of methodological
behaviorism that the goal of psychology should be to predict and control behavior. Another important
distinction between methodological and radical behaviorism concerns the extent to which environmental
factors influence behavior.

Theories of Personality

"Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that
determine his characteristics behaviour and thought" (Allport, 1961, p. 28). “The characteristics or blend of
characteristics that make a person unique"(Weinberg & Gould, 1999). Both definitions emphasize the
uniqueness of the individual and consequently adopt an idiographic view.
The idiographic view assumes that each person has a unique psychological structure and that some traits
are possessed by only one person; and that there are times when it is impossible to compare one person with
others.It tends to use case studies for information gathering.
The nomothetic view,on the other hand, emphasizes comparability among individuals. This viewpoint sees
traits as having the same psychological meaning in everyone. This approach tends to use self-report
personality questions, factor analysis, etc. People differ in their positions along a continuum in the same set of
traits.

Theories of Personality:

1. Freud's Theory
Personality involves several factors:
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-Instinctual drives, food, sex, aggression, Unconscious processes, Early childhood influences(re:psychosexual
stages) -especially the parents
Personality development depends on the interplay of instinct and environment during the first five years of
life.Parental behaviour is crucial to normal and abnormal development. Personality and mental health
problems in adulthood can usually be traced back to the first five years.

Psychosexual Development

People-including children-are basically hedonistic-they are driven to seek pleasure by gratifying the Id's
desires (Freud,1920).Sources of pleasure are determined by the location of the libido (life-force).

2. Tripartite Theory of Personality

Freud(1923) saw the personality structured into three parts (i.c.,tripartite), the id,ego,and superego (also
known as the psyche), all developing at different stages in our lives. These are systems, not parts of the brain,
or in any way physical. The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the
inherited (i.e., biological) components of personality, including the sex (life) instinct- Eros (which contains the
libido), and aggressive (death) instinct - Thanatos.
The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world(like a
referee). It is the decision-making component of personality. The ego operates according to the reality
principle, working our realistic ways of satisfying the id's demands, often compromising or postponing
satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society. The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette
and rules in deciding how to behave.
The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and
others. It is similar to a conscience,which can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt.

3. Trait Approach to Personality

This approach assumes behavior is determined by relatively stable traits which are the fundamental units
of one's personality.Traits predispose one to act in a certain way, regardless of the situation. This means that
traits should remain consistent across situations and over time, but may vary between individuals.

4. Eysenck's Personality Theory

Eysenck(1952,1967,1982) proposed a theory of personality based on biological factors,arguing that

individuals inherit a type of nervous system that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment.
Extraverts are sociable and crave excitement and change, and thus can become bored easily. They tend to
be carefree, optimistic and impulsive. They are more likely to take risks and be thrill seekers. Eysenck argues
that this is because they inherit an under aroused nervous system and so seek stimulation to restore the level
of optimum stimulation.
Introverts on the other hand lie at the other end of this scale, being quiet and reserved. They are already over-
aroused and shun sensation and stimulation. Introverts are reserved, plan their actions and control their
emotions.They tend to be serious, reliable and pessimistic.

Neuroticism/stability

A person's level of neuroticism is determined by the reactivity of their sympathetic nervous system. A
stable person's nervous system will generally be less reactive to stressful situations, remaining calm and level
headed. Psychoticism/normality
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Eysenck(1966) later added a third trait/dimension - Psychoticism - e.g., lacking in empathy, cruel, a loner,
aggressive and troublesome.This has been related to high levels of testosterone.

5. Cattell's 16PF Trait Theory

Cattell(1965) disagreed with Eysenck's view that personality can be understood by looking at only two or three
dimensions of behaviour.

6. Allport's Trait Theory

Allport's theory of personality emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and the internal cognitive and
motivational processes that influence behaviour. For example, intelligence, temperament, habits, skills,
attitudes, and traits.

7. Authoritarian Personality

Adomo et al. (1950) proposed that prejudice is the results of an individual's personality type.They piloted and
developed a questionnaire,which they called the F-scale (F for fascism).

Critical Evaluation

There are many weaknesses in Adorno's explanation of prejudice:

 Harsh parenting style does not always produce prejudice children / individuals
 Some prejudice people do not conform to the authoritarian personality type.
 Doesn't explain why people are prejudiced against certain groups and not others.