Tiffany Bell

Mrs. Thomas
UWRIT 1102-07
10 Feb. 2016
Reflection

My Clever Title

Every year since my junior year of high school, someone always seems to
ask me, What do you plan to major in? Even now, as a freshmen in college
I am still debating on what I should major in. I know what interest me, but I
cant seem to choose between biology and psychology. After organizing my
thoughts I came to the conclusion, my inquiry question should relate to one
of those topics. I choose a question based off something that intrigues me at
least once a week. In life, we interact with people and by human nature, we
automatically judge them. We judge based off their personality and then,
ultimately their actions. That led me to the question: How does the
development of an individuals personality affect their behavior? This
question is, a big sea, filled with opinions, debates, and research; that will
allow me to explore as much as I can.
Although I have taken General Psychology, I only have a basic understanding
of personality development. In General Psych we discussed the debate on
nature vs nurture and little things such as, child development, and type A
and B personalities (based off anxiety and stress). However, I dont believe a
personality can be categorized in two different types. There are so many

Tiffany Bell
Mrs. Thomas
UWRIT 1102-07
10 Feb. 2016
different definitions of what a personality is, but mine is the traits,
characteristics, and thoughts that make a person unique. With my research, I
want to not only understand the development of a personality; I want to
learn how an individuals personality affects their behavior. Along with
personality, I have simple knowledge on behaviors. I hope to look at the
aspects of behavior involving: social, motivation, coping, passive and
aggressive behavior.
One of the clear reason why this question is relevant involves the scientific
approach. Simply gaining more knowledge. But, in order to see the
importance of my question other than the scientific view, we must step
outside of the psychological view of my inquiry. A well respected philosopher
said Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom Aristotle.
Understanding your own personality can aid in everyday life situations. By
some people, college is referred to as the place teens and young adults
begin to find themselves. Understanding your personality type or foundation
can be key in how you are success throughout life.

Tiffany Bell
Mrs. Thomas
UWRIT 1102-07
10 Feb. 2016
Many people understand the basics, such as what is a personality and
behaviors. A peer may ask How does Ashley act? and we respond Oh,
shes funny, cool, nice and is a confident person. Youll really like her. In this
short conversion I described someones personality not their actions. I dont
know about everyone else, but in addition to school, I learn from television
and the media. Although media and television dont always portray topics
that are associated with personality and behavior correctly, most of us have
seen or heard more than just the basic knowledge regarding personality and
behavior. Shows such as Criminal Minds or Law in Order, evaluate criminals
using inductive reasoning. In Criminals Minds a squad of FBI profilers analyze
criminals behaviors based off the crime scene and victims then concludes
the criminals personality. On television we often see a lot of personality
disorders used, such as: bipolar disorders, ADHD, schizophrenia, OCD, and
multi-personality disorders. All of which I tend to hear in conversions with my
friends or involving my parents. I have heard and even said Mom your so
OCD. or to my friends I swear my mom is bipolar! Here we use the basic
knowledge of what we know about personality disorders to describe
someone actions. In reality this person probably doesnt have this disorder
but their actions replicate tendencies of the disorder.

Tiffany Bell
Mrs. Thomas
UWRIT 1102-07
10 Feb. 2016
With all this in mind, my topic has a lot of material associated with it.
Therefore there is a lot of history relating to my topic. Psychologist have
been very interested with the debate of nature vs nurture and there has
been an increase in research of child development over the years. Within
school systems, colleges included, I have noticed a lot of effort towards
students understanding themselves (learning type and culture) in order to
achieve high levels of success. There are so many small questions that
inspired my inquiry. Is a childs behavior directly correlated with parenting
style? How is motivation affected by an individuals personality? How
powerful our genetics in a persons behavior? How does personality
differences effect relationships?
I intend to be very open-minded, with all the information I gather in my
research. As I began my research, I realized the selection of evidence to
support my question was vast. There are many scientist interested in how
personality affects behavior. From what I found, there are studies focused on
just personality development and there are also studies on how different
situations affect behavior but the results show personality is a factor in
behavior. For example, Ryne Sherman, Christopher Nave, and David Funder
in the August, 2010 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
studied if ones personality matches ones behavior in a particular situation.

Tiffany Bell
Mrs. Thomas
UWRIT 1102-07
10 Feb. 2016
This paper along with many others will help me establish a psychological
view point. I hope to use other source such as Psychology Today and blogs
within my paper to capture all viewpoints.
In conclusion, my inquiry is How does the development of an individuals
personality affect their behavior? I feel my inquiry is a very researchable
topic. In regards to my overall research I hope to take the psychological
approach but also consider all viewpoints available. My objectives is not only
to access what contributes to an individual personality but how does our
personality affect different aspects of behavior, such as: motivation, coping,
passive and aggressive behavior. The ultimate goal is to provide valuable
knowledge for my classmates and me.
"Although no single definition is acceptable to all personality theorists, we
can say that personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and
unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a
person's behavior."
(Feist and Feist, 2009)