My Personal On Development 

Who is Allison Margaret Hauck? When researching psychological development, I learned that there are a lot of different ways someone develops their personality. In the 19th and 20th century, many psychologist shared theories and ideas about different ways one can develop throughout their lifespan and how their personality is formed. Many of the ideas are controversial and have room for debate while others are more accurate. The main types of development include physical, cognitive and psychosocial development. Though I already had and idea of who I am, this course has helped me develop an understanding of what stage of life I am in, how my environment shaped me including ideas on nature vs.

nurture, and different personality traits I possess, all while studying psychologist and their scientific views.

Out of the four main different forms of development I agree with Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory of development (OpenStax, 2014). This is the most reasonable to me because he explains social growth at all ages in life which is very true.

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The stage of my life that I connect with is the identity vrs. confusion for ages 12-18. Not only does my age reflect this stage, but the description it give is where I am at. I am at the point of my life where I am trying to figure out what I could do with my future while also finding out who I am. I agree with Erikson also because his theory keeps going until death which is realistic because humans are always developing in the social spectrum.

Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory of development can be considered, by Erikson is more detailed at every point in life.

Piaget stated that at the age of twelve the moral reasoning id develop but this is the last stage. I disagree with this because I know my cognitive look on life is much different than when I was twelve. Also in 10 years from now I will definitely have a different perspective on thing than i do now. The beginning stages of Piaget’s theories aren't all wrong but he definitely is missing the stages of development past the age of 12. When talking about how the environment has an impact on how we develop as a person, parenting styles can be one of the main factors. Nature vrs. nurture has a big impact on how the child behaves because of the biological and environmental roles affect the behavior. Children could reflect their parents behavior because of the DNA, but at the same time the way the parents raise them can show the expression of the traits in different ways.

This is where Diana Baumrind parenting styles can reflect the environmental impact. Out of the four styles, authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved, I would say my parents raised my sisters and me in a authoritative way. The way they are understanding yet show their boundaries has shaped me into a responsible and confident child rather then either being very sassy, or closed off and shy. In a biological stance, I would say academically I show similar traits to my mom. Some of this could be from the DNA that works with my brain to cognitively remember and store ideas. Not only does my academic work ethic come biologically, but the culture in my household has set the standard to do well, shaping my view on the importances of grades.

In conclusion, I believe nature vrs. nurture works together, rather than one being more dominant than the other. Personality is always developing and changing through one's lifetime based on events and experiences. When looking at theorist involved with personality, I agree with Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory (OpenStax, 2014). This explains how we learn and observe in ways that shaped who we are. I agree with this the most because there is more than one factor believed to shape us in this theory. My personality can reflect very closely to my parents because of the way they have influenced my actions by telling me right from wrong. Like Bandura explains, this isn't the only thing that has shaped who I am. I strongly believe that observational learning has a huge impact along with reciprocal determinism.

Not only have I pick up what my parents think is right and wrong, but I have observed their actions and have developed their behaviors as my own. Not only have my parents shaped my personality, but my school as also had an impact. The OCEAN’s personality quiz showed results that I was an extrovert and nothing close to an introvert. I agree with this because I spend all of my time at school or with people I am comfortable with because I go to a small school. Because I am around people I mostly know, I’m not afraid to put myself out their, developing my extrovert type personality. I slightly disagree with me being totally extroverted because in the rare chance I’m around big groups of people I don't know, I am more shy and let others do the talking.

This can prove that the personality test I took was accurate in some ways, but I believe It can also be faulty because they can’t see the full picture of who I am in all situations. Another theorist I agreed with was Alfred Adler. I agree with his idea about birth order shaping you to be who you are (OpenStax, 2014). When looking at my own sisters, our personalities differ noticeably while also accurately reflecting what Adler purposed. My oldest sister fits the ideas of birth order because she works the hardest to please my parents, and is also controlling towards my two other sisters and me. I am the third child out of the four, but I would say my older sister shows more middle child characteristics given the fact she is considered rebellious definitely in the eyes of my parents. I definitely show traits of a middle child because I would consider myself a go with the flow type of child just like Adler's theory reflects.

I like Adler's ideas on the birth order, because it further explains how our family has a large impact on the different personalities we develop in a way different from genetics. The semester of psychology has taught me many ideas of who I am and how I developed based off different impacts. My future will definitely be based off the type of person I am, but I still am trying to figure out what I will choose for a career and other decisions like so. This project has helped me to reflect and understand how the different personality traits I possess came to be, in a way that’s either biological or culturally or both. I am interested to see what type of person I will be five years from now and so on as my development continues through the rest of my life.