Understanding Personality

1. Understanding Personality

2. What does personality mean to you?!

3. Everyone has a personality! Personality consists of all the traits that everyone would like to possess to have a winning, charming or dynamic personality

4. You have been expressing yourself through your actions since you were born! In order to understand yourself and those around you, you need to understand what shapes your personality Personality is defined as the group of behavioral and emotional traits that distinguishes an individual Personality can also be defined as the sum of all the traits you have inherited or acquired

5. What helps shape personality? Heredity: the sum of all the traits that are passed from your ancestors to you What are some traits that you have inherited? Your attitude, intelligence and behavior are also affected by your heredity

6. Environment: all the conditions, objects, and circumstances that surround an individual What are some examples of different environments? Do you behave the same way in all environments?

7. A third factor that helps shape your personality is your response to your environment Let’s see if we have the same response to this clip we will watch together, in the same environment Did this movie appeal to everyone? Would everyone want to go see this movie? Why do you think some people liked it more than others?

8. You are all in a shared environment yet all of you responded differently to the movie clip. You, as an individual have inborn qualities determined by heredity. Together, these three factors shape your personality Your personality helps to determine how you deal with the challenges, successes, and frustrations you come across from day to day

9. Your environment affects your thoughts, feelings and actions which help to shape your personality Acquired traits are those developed as a result of environmental factors What are some acquired traits your think you have developed due to your environment?

10. How do you think your home could affect Personality? • Parents • Grandparents • Brother and sisters • Birth order • Neighbors and neighborhood • Geographical location Your personality begins to develop in the first few years of life, the home is a very important factor

11. Personality Development

12. An individual’s personality is the complex of mental characteristics that makes them unique from other people It includes all of the patterns of thought and emotions that cause us to do and say things in particular ways Personality also colors our values, beliefs and expectations

13. What other factors have we learned about that affect personality? So…what is personality development?

14. Personality development is the development of the organized pattern of behaviors and attitudes that makes a person who they are; it occurs by the constant interaction with others and with the surrounding environment Research by psychologists over the last several decades has increasingly pointed to hereditary factors being more important

15. Some hereditary factors that contribute to personality development do so as a result of interactions with the particular social environment in which people live Despite significant differences in the way children are raised all around the world, some similarities do exist

16. For example, boys and girls are socialized differently to some extent in all cultures Boys receive different messages as to what is expected of them from their parents and vice-versa Boys are allowed more freedom to experiment and participate in physically risky activities

17. Girls on the other hand, are often steered to learn how to do more domestic tasks Parents do not always follow these stereotypes with their sons and daughters

18. Girls who participate in physical activities are often called “tomboys” where boys who take up less masculine activities may be teased for doing something ‘girly’ Different societies will raise different personalities

19. Heredity & Environment: Nature & Nurture

20. Are we who we are because of the traits we were born with or because of the environment we were brought up in? Studies of identical twins separated at birth reveal that heredity plays a very big role in who we are Other studies have shown that you are born with certain traits and potential, but the environment determines which potentials are developed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yTCShemS_0

21. The debate between heredity and environment is termed, “Nature vs. Nurture.” You are born with certain traits, but the traits that you develop will be determined by your environmental upbringing Both heredity and environment will affect who you are

22. HeredityEnvironment (Nature) (Nurture) Community & School Involvement Physical Appearance Intelligence How you use your intelligence (grades, curiosity, etc.) Physical Traits (coordination, rhythm, balance, athletic abilities) Religious Beliefs Talents & Innate Abilities (a beautiful singing voice, artistic talent, etc.) Interests & Hobbies

23. Journal Entry: Do you think one has more influence over the other? Do you think heredity or environment has affected your personality development the most?