Social Determinants

1085 Words3 Pages

In the textbook, it describes the determinants of one’s personality. Personality theorists believe that these determinates develop as a person’s personality develops. There are six personality determinates, which are genetic, environmental, culture, social class, family, and peers. Genetic factors contribute to the development of the brain, which the psychologists use to identify a link from genes to biological systems to temperament. Temperament refers to biologically based emotional and behavioral tendencies that are evident in early childhood. The characteristics that have been studied the most are fear reactions and inhibited behavior. Everybody reacted differently to fear and these individual differences come from the brain systems that …show more content…

Some environmental determinants are culture, social class, family, and peers. With culture, each has its own institutionalized and sanctioned patterns of learned behaviors, rituals and beliefs. This can result in members of a culture sharing personality characteristics. Culture has a big influence on how we live, how we experience different emotions, how we express our feelings, our relationships with others and ourselves, what we think is sad or funny, how we cop with death, and what we think is healthy or not. Social class factors help determine the status of individuals, the roles they perform, the duties they are bound by, and the privileges they enjoy. This influences how people perceive others and how they earn and spend money. The research done indicates that socioeconomic status influences emotional and cognitive development of an individual. Family is another contributor to a person’s personality development and can be seen as the most important. There are parents who can be warm and loving or hostile and rejecting. There can also be parents who are overprotective and possessive or be aware of their children’s need for …show more content…

My mom always says that you can’t teach someone a personality, you are either born with one or you’re not. Which I do believe is true, but I do think that there are factors that shape a person’s personality. When it comes to culture, I would have to say that it is a pretty big factor in my personality. My family is a very religious one, so a lot of the decisions that I make are based off of what they have taught me. My mom is very big on marriage and having a lot of babies, but wants me to wait for the right one. She has always pushed me to strive for more and wants me to be successful and do well in life. I believe that with her influence it has caused me to want the same things for myself. I think that social class has influenced my life because I went from a single mom raising me with little money to two parents and now live comfortably. Because I was raised this way, I am not one to go out and spend a bunch or money. I am very conservative with my money as well. My family is definitely the biggest influence on my personality and how it was developed. I was the first born in the family and I think it has had a huge impact on everything about me. In the book it says that firstborn children are more conscientious than the later-born and I do believe this is true. Being a firstborn has influenced me to be very protective, especially with my younger siblings. My sister and I are two

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