| What is the purpose of personality development within students? | 1. To learn how to manage their emotions.
2. To interact effectively with others.
3. Develop a sense of honesty and fair play. |
| What is personality development? | The changes in our attitudinal, emotional, and behavioural responses over time. |
| What does the development of identity and self-concept refer to? | The growth in the sense of who we are and an assessment of competence in different areas. |
| What is social development? | The improvements we make in our ability to interact and get along with others. |
| What is moral development? | The advances in our conceptions of right and wrong and prosocial traits such as honest and respect for others. |
| What is personality and the "Big Five"? | Personality is a comprehensive term that describes our attitudinal, emotional, and behavioural response to experiences in our environment.
Researchers generally describe personality as being composed of 5 relatively independent traits, often described as the "Big Five" (Barrick, Mount, & Li, 2013; Gottschling, & Spinath, 2012; Mottus, Johnson, & Deary, 2012; Woods, Lievens, Fruyt, & Wille, 2013). |
| Name and descibe the traits that are in the "Big Five'. | 1. Extraversion: The extent to which individuals are socially outgoing and inclined to engage in social interaction, as opposed to being shy and withdrawn.
2. Agreeableness: The tendency of people to empathise and get along with others, such as being warm and compassionate compared to being distant and agressive.
3. Openness: The extent to which people are curious and seek new experiences, such as embracing new ideas and having a wide range of interests versus being narrow and close-minded.
4. Conscientiousness: The tendency of individuals to follow through on their commitments and to be organised and responsible, such as reliable and thorough as compared to being shortsighted, scattered, and disorganised.
5. Neuroticism: The tendency of people to be vulnerable to negative emotions and to view the world as threatening, such as anxious, tense, and worrisome versus emotionally stable, positive, and balanced. |
| What is temperament? | Temperament is generally described as our relatively consistent INCLINATIONS to respond to events in the environment in particular ways (Shiner et al., 2012).
For example, if we tend to have strong emotional reactions to happenings in the daily news, whereas a friend has little reaction, our different temperament could be the cause. |
| What determines an individual's temperament? | Temperament is determined in large part by our genes, and patterns appear early in life (Rutter, 2010). Identical twins reared in different homes often have similar temperaments (Casalin, Luyten, Vliegen, & Meurs, 2012).
For example, some infants tend to react positively to new experiences in life (Rutter, 2011), such as the willingness to try new foods and adjust to change, whereas others are more irritable and "difficult" and react negatively to new situations.
Another example, is Abang Dan and Kak Nel going to tadika. Abang Dan tak nangis, while Kak Nel nangis nak mak. |
| Does temperament influence our overall personality development? | Yes it does (Casalin et al., 2012; Thompson, Winer, & Goodvin, 2011; Walters, 2011).
For example, children with irritable and anger-prone temperaments are often low in openness and agreeableness, which can cause negative reactions from others and result in them having a hard time making friends (Bridgett et al., 2009; van den Akker, Dekovic, Prinzie, & Asscher, 2010).
Also, difficult temperaments are associated with behavioural problems at school and adjustment problems later in life (Christensen, Mitrou, Lawrence, Sanson, & Zubrick, 2011).
Our temperament provides us with the raw materials that shape our personalities, but our environments/life experiences 'layer' personality traits onto the early biological temperament (Shiner et al., 2012, p. 440). |
