There are many psychological factors that can influence you throughout your life. Your genetics, environment, parents, peers, and society have influenced you every day since you were born. Each person is made an individual due to the different experiences in life. Your daily life constantly bombards you with stimulus that shapes you and your personality. In this paper, I will be discussing what psychological influences have affected me. This will include my childhood and how it made effects me today, the psychological personalities I currently have, and what changes I’d like to make for the future. My parents were the main influence on my life as a child. Their parenting style and choices made me who I am today. There are four different generals …show more content…
In the past it was thought that either your environment or your genetics determined what kind of person you would grow to be. Now it’s now know that the theory isn’t so black and white, but has lots of grey area. Both my genes and my environment influence me equally. My genetics, or nature, have given me my athletic ability, quirky sense of humor, blue eyes, pale skin, my ability to easily memorize things, and many other traits. My cynical outlook, taste in music, extreme dislike of strong cinnamon flavors, and mostly quiet personality type are just a few characteristics that are an outcome of my environment, or nurture. I received my heredity from my parents, but my environment has helped determine what I do with those traits. Society and its roles have also impacted my personality. A gender stereotype is an extreme and often untrue belief of how a certain gender is expected to act (Rathus, 2010). There are many stereotypes that society places on women. They are expected to be more emotional, want to share feelings, and either stay home to clean, cook, and care for the children or have similar jobs out in the work forces (Rathus, 2010). Although I do fall under the category of being more emotional, it is not to an extreme. I strongly dislike the stereotype of women being stay at home moms. Growing up, my mother would tell me stories of how she had to work diligently to get the things she wanted …show more content…
I’m impacted by anxiety, as most people are, from one time to another. I feel intense anxiety when speaking in front of people or when large crowds surround me. I also feel lesser anxiety before soccer/volleyball games or before tests. These anxieties are most likely caused by subconscious stressful thoughts. I have phobias as well. A phobia is “a persistent excessive or irrational fear of a particular object or situation” (Rathus, 2010). I’m plagued by acrophobia, which is a fear of heights. I feel for certain that I’m going to fall off high places unless I’m securely fastened to a rollercoaster seat with a giant harness. I also have taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive, and social phobia, a fear that I will be humiliated and embarrassed in front of many people (Rathus, 2010). These fears are very unlikely to harm me, but my paranoia still plagues me with images from television and movies. There are many characteristics that can be used to define a personality. Usually the characteristics come in pairs of opposites. One example is introversion and extroversion. Introverts are people who tend to look inward for thoughts and creativity. Generally they are quieter and more self-oriented. Extroverts are active, self-expressive, and enjoy being socially and the presence of other people (Rathus, 2010). These two categories don’t have to black and white, and they aren’t in my case. I’m dominantly an
The debate of nature vs. nurture continues today in the world of psychology. The effects of an individual’s genetics and the effects of their environment on their personality and actions is an age old debate that is still inconclusive. However, it is evident that both sides of the argument carry some form of the truth. It can be contended that the major characteristics of an individual are formed by their environment, more specifically, their past experiences. An individual’s past moulds and shapes their identity, if they do not make an effort to move on from it.
The origins of Industrial/Organizational Psychology (I/O) can be traced back to 1921 with the formation of the Association of Consulting Psychologist (ACP), a branch off from the American Psychological Association (APA). In 1945 I/O psychology was formally recognized as Division 14 underneath the APA. (Koppes, 1996). Although, founded a little over a half century ago the discipline is still relatively new compared to other disciplines within the APA. The articles to be discussed cover the origination issues of licensure as well as appropriation of licensure for I/O psychologists. The lack of consistency as well as appropriate and adequate requirements for obtaining a professional license as an I/O psychologist has resulted in many ramifications that ultimately threaten the profession.
Social psychology is a scientific study that studies how people think, feel, and how they behave under the influence of other people (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2013, p. 2). Thinking about what social influence really means, we tend to think of a person who tries to persuade another person to acting a certain way. It can be a form of peer pressure, like taking that first puff of a cigarette, or it can be conforming to popular societal views, such as obeying the law of the land. Fiction is a great way to learn about social psychological perspectives. Watching popular theatrical films is the perfect way to learn because it illustrates the application of many perceptions within the subject of social psychology.
In the world of cinema, there’s almost always a discussion regarding what scenes would be suitable for the grasping imagination of any audience, young or old. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film, Psycho, sparked a plug for the movie industry as it was the first movie of its kind to display such graphic scenes of sex and violence to a worldwide audience.
Personality is patterns of thinking, behavior and emotional responses that make up individuality over time. Psychologist attempt to understand how personality develops and its impact on how we behave. Several theories attempt to explain personality, using different approaches. The social-cognitive and humanistic approaches are two of many theories that attempt to explain personality. This essay will identify the main concepts of social-cognitive and humanistic approach, identify perspective differences and discuss approach limitations.
Mental health is just as important as physical health in a person’s life. Mental health is critical to a person’s well-being, their ability to live a productive life and to keep a healthy family and interpersonal relationships. Mental health does not just affect the mind it also affects people’s physical health. Some physical health diseases can cause a mental health disorder and vice versa. Mental health disorders are associated with the occurrence, development, and outcome of some of the today’s most chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. When people go untreated from a mental health disorder are at a higher risk for many unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, violent behavior, and suicide.
In all historical aspects, psychology can show us the diverse ranges of how it is evolving throughout our world today. Ancient Greeks and philosophers in the 4th century, show us the early development of personality psychology. They wanted to figure out what actually makes us who we are. Aristotle was one of the first individuals to hypothesize connections between physical aspects of the body and behavior. Today there are many different theoretical vi...
The social environment has a massive influence on the physical and mental health of individuals. Legal dictionary defines social influence as “social influence occurs when one 's emotions, opinions, or behaviors are affected by others. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing”, (2016). Environmental factors such as triggers also play major roles that affect and effect on how society approaches its environment and the challenges that are faced on a daily basis. Triggers included, but not limited to, are racism, bias, gender, suggestion, religion, poverty, education, economics, technology, music, products purchased and consumed. Schroder states social sciences are “ill-equipped to tackle environmental challenges confronting society”, because theoretical approaches provide little in coherent understanding centralized focus missed the bigger
Health psychology is a relatively new concept rapidly growing and could be defined as the biological and psychological influences affect ones behaviour also bringing in social influences of health and illness (MacDonald, 2013). Biological determinants consider genetic and biological factors of an illness whereas psychological determinants focus on the psychological factors such as why people behave the way they do when dealing with issues such as anxiety and stress. Models such as the Health Belief Model and Locus of Control were developed in attempt to try and explain psychological issues around a chronic illness such as breast cancer (Ogden, 2012). Sociological factors can cause an enormous amount of pressure for one to behave in a certain way for example gender roles in society and religious considerations when dealing with health beliefs. Health Beliefs can be defined as one’s own perception to their own personal health and illness and health behaviours (Ogden, 2012). There are also theories and models used to explain pain and coping with diagnosis such as Moos and Schaefer (1984) Crisis theory and Shontz (1975) cycle of grief people go through when being diagnosed with a serious illness.
An example of both these is my mother who is a single parent. She was stereotyped from the beginning, being a single parent back than meant her children would be raised in an unfair and disadvantaged environment and wouldn’t have the support we needed to grow which turns out was completely untrue. With our physical attributes I was given the short genes my brother the tall genes, both of us have blue eyes and brown hairs. With regards to our environment thought we grew up in a normal surrounding nothing different from a two parent family. The only difference was I believe we were closer as a family, more open to each other’s views, yes mum worked two jobs but at the same time we spent a lot of time together as much as any family would. Now at the age of 25 and 23 my brother is applying for the police force and I am here studying what I’ve always wanted to do.
Personality is the study of an individual’s unique and relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time and across situations and it is what distinguishes one individual from another. In the past changes in personality were thought to have only occurred in the developmental stages of childhood and solidifies in adolescence. After the teenage years it was thought to be set like plaster or the change seen to be inconsequential or absent( Srivastava, John, Gosling, and Potter, 2003). However, recent studies have suggested that changes in personality traits continue to occur throughout an individual’s lifespan due to multiple reasons.
In the beginning of the semester, we as a class learned about the 8 Habits of Mind. We learned about curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, and metacognition. They were all good habits but many of them, I lacked in all honesty. I already came equipped with some of them but they needed a refresher, which this course did give. How I choose to use them while growing as a student is up to me now.
Mental health refers to the state of individuals psychologically, emotionally and socially. Mental health affects a person’s emotions, feelings, thoughts, and sections when exposed to different situations. Furthermore, mental health is responsible for a person’s reaction to stress and other social conditions. Generally, mental health affects how a person relates to others and their ability to understand and interact with them. Therefore, problems that affect a person’s mental health affect the abilities to socialize, their feelings, moods, reaction to situations. The person experiencing mental health problem may portray different behaviors when confronted with different issues. Mental health issues have several
Personality is the expression of a person’s traits according to ones feelings, mentality and behavior. It involves understanding individuals’ traits such as withdrawal and willpower and how various parts of an individual link together to form personality. Personality expresses itself from within an individual and is comparatively regular throughout in an individual’s life. Different people have different personalities dependent on factors such as environment and genetic composition. Our personality is dependent on the success or failure of our development in the eight stages of life. This is proposed by Erik Erikson. Success in the development stages lead to virtues while the failure leads to malignancies.
...ed and accepted. This is because not only does it aid those who are have mental illnesses but it is also designed for the betterment of society as a whole. Additionally, there are also medical treatments such as drugs for these kinds of mental diseases and although both have had successes both also have limitations. As drugs come with side effects, have high relapse possibilities and there are also dosage problems whereas, in positive psychology the debate over how happiness is measured in the first place is controversial. As a result, using past experiences like in ww2 psychologists have designed positive psychology so that it is helpful of all people in society and not only those in need of help. All in all, it can be said that although there are limitations to both of these fields under psychology both also have numerous success and benefit society as a whole.