Esynck's Biological Basis for Personality

 1. Consistancy of extraversion-intoversion over time
2. Cross-cultural research
3. Genetics play a role in determining a persons role in the 3 personality demensions (extraversion-introversion, neuroticism, psychoticism)
Temperaments- general patterns of bahavior and mood that can develop into personality traits.
Temperaments combined with environments shapes adult personality.

Monika grew up in a house with both parents and three siblings for most of her lifetime. Monika's father, Finn, works as an industrial engineer and would best be described as an extrovert. He would score high in terms of being neurotic considering he often goes from extreme moods of happy and playful to angry. Monika's mother, Kris, is very much an introvert and has walls upon walls filled with books. She was a stay at home mother for much of all of the children's lives and also had mood swings, though less extreme than Finn's. The personalities of the combined parents lead to the temperament which Monika was born with. In the twenty years since then these temperaments have molded themselves into her personality traits based upon what she inherited from her parents and what she learned from them along with others around her.

The Big Five

In a recent study among young women we asked what they would rate themselves on the "Big 5" scale. These women were high school and college students who volunteered to rate themselves, and then rate the friend that they were with. This shows not only the difference between similar subjects but what the subjects think of themselves compared to what others think of them. The "Big 5 Factors" are as follows:


Neuroticism- emotional stability, mood swings etc. worried, insecure
Extraversion- social, energetic, optomistic, assertive, affectionate
Openness- intellectually curios, open to new ideas, independant
Agreeableness- helpful, trusting, sympathetic
Conscientiousness- self-discipline, organized, determined, careful

The subjects were asked to judge on a scale of one to five for each of the five areas. Following are the results of two subjects, Monika and her sister Jenn, 20 and 14 years of age from New Hampshire.

Monika for herself:
Neuroticism: 3
Extraversion: 5
Openness: 4
Agreeableness: 3
Concientiousness: 3

Monika for Jenn:

Neuroticism: 3

Extraversion: 5

Openness: 3

Agreeableness: 3

Concientiousness: 5

Jenn for Jenn:

Neuroticism: 4

Extraversion: 2

Openness: 4

Agreeableness: 3

Concientiousness: 2

Jenn for Monika:

Neuroticism: 3

Extraversion: 5

Openness: 4

Agreeableness: 3

Concientiousness: 5

Eight Stages of Development

 Erikson claimed that people continue to delevop throughout their lifetime, in the Eight Stages of Development.
1. Trust vs. Mistrust as an infant.
Basic trust is developed when a childs basic needs are met
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt as a toddler
Children begin to feel independant and powerful, trying to manipulate and control what happens around them

(2)


3. Initiative vs. Guilt in early childhood
Learning to set goals and challanges (take initiative) and begin to feel guilt when they cannot do these things, lacking sense of purpose.
4. Industry vs. Inferiority at Elementry age
Industry- belief in ones strengths and abilities. Inferiority- lack of appreciation for our skills.

(4)

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion during adolescense
Begin to define personal values and beliefs, those who do not face role confusion.
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation during young adulthood
Emotional and intimate growth
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation as an adult
Generativity- influencing the next generation (through children or volunteer work, etc) or stagnation when one questions purpose or may feel empty

8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair in old age
Feeling satisfied and proud of ones life, or realizing that it is too late to change things

Family and Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler studied 'individual psychology' and the relation of parental influence and birth order on development of an individual. Adler claimed that people are motivated by their strive for superiority. This is brought from an individual who feels dependant and very aware of their weaknesses, and focuses primaraly on overcoming this.
Parental influence can come from two angles of the spectrum, "pampering" which is often times also called spoiling the child; and "neglect". Children whose parents are too far on either extreme can have intamacy issues as adults as a result. Birth order also comes into play here where first-born children are found to more often be papered where the later born children are closer to being neglected.
Monika is the first born child with three younger siblings. As the first child she was pampered and has a very comfortable and safe life. Once her siblings were born each sibling was less and less "pampered" due to multiple children's needs being shared between the same two parents. The younger siblings led less and less sheltered lives and were in turn less spoiled. This lead the younger children to strive for attention from the parents as well as Monika's new found need to strive for attention now that there were siblings to share her parents with. As the oldest child she is expected to set a good example and this means striving for superiority over her siblings to show them what is right as well as making the parents proud.

Dreams

A recent dream I had was that I was surfing in California with my sister and a few girls that I did not know. We spend the whole day on the beach doing nothing but surfing and laying in the sand. The dream was not a very in depth or detailed dream, many of the other girls in the dream did not even have faces. However even though the dream was short and without much detail, it had a calm and happy vibe to it that made me know it was a positive dream. In trying to figure out where this dream came from and what it means, I came to the conclusion that perhaps I need to give myself some time to relax, try something new, or meet new people.
Freud says that the things that people say and do in their dreams are one's unconcious mind expressing itself in a way unknown to the dreamer. The 'id' is ones selfish desires, what one wants with no consideration for others or consequences. In a dream one can express what their id wants, in a way that is not as distructive as physically following through on some of these activities that are kept in check by the ego and superego. Dreams are referred to by Freud as the "royal road to the unconcious," (page 53) because dreams can show us what a person desires or feels when they may not conciously realize it themselves.
Freud explains that people dream because they cannot keep their desires hidden forever and this is an outlet for them. By talking about and studying ones dreams a person or their therapist may find an underlying problem that had been pushed away by the patient or an explination that the patient did not realize.

Below is a link with more information on dream interpretation:
http://www.dreaminterpretationguide.com/