Environmental Influences on Personality

1. Environmental Influences on Personality Ch 2 Sec 4 Pages 58-64

2. Situations and social learning • According to environmentalist people don’t have traits instead they show patterns of behavior • Reasons for inconsistency in behavior is that different behaviors are rewarded, punished or ignored depending on situation

3. Objectives Today • Describe why people don’t always behave consistently across situations • Compare Social cognitive learning Theory (Environmental) and other Personality theories • Analyze parents shaping of children’s personality • Discuss how your peers influence your personality

4. Social- Cognitive Theories • Scientific tradition • Research on specific influences of personality and behavior • Personality different when with family-friends • Concert vs. Living Room • Expectations and beliefs, Habits, Observations • Bandura, B.F. Skinner

6. Bandura

7. B.F. skinner

8. Reciprocal (mutual) Determinism • Interdependent relationship with Environment, Cognition, and behavior • For example you like psychology (Cognition) • So you hang out in psychology dept. on college campus ( environment) • Interact with other psy. Students ( social) • Leads to majoring on psy.

9. chapter 2 Reciprocal determinism Two-way interaction between aspects of the environment and aspects of the individual in the shaping of personality traits

10. Explains against Gene theory • Gives reasons for different siblings with similar genes • Environment different, behavior different • Non shared environment- f.e. DIFFERENT CLASSES

11. chapter 2 Non-shared environment Unique aspects of a person’s environment and aspects of the individual in the shaping of personality traits

12. chapter 2 The power of parents The shared environment of the home has little influence on personality. The non-shared environment is a more important influence. Few parents have a single child-rearing style that is consistent over time and that they use with all children. Even when parents try to be consistent, there may be little relation between what they do and how their children turn out.

13. 2 biggest environmental influences: Parents- Friends • Columbine tragedy- Parents blamed • Western thought parents strong or sole influence on children’s personality • 3 lines of evidence AGAINST THIS

14. Against Parent Influence objective3 • Shared environment of home has little influence on personality- F.E. Adopted children weak correlation to parents personality traits • Few parents have a single childrearing style that is consistent over time and that they use with all their children- F.E. More lenient with easy going child OTOH punitive with difficult ones

15. Against Parents influence • 3RD Argument against parent rearing/Personality • Even when parents try to be consistent in the way they treat their children, there may be little relation between what they do and how the children turn out. • F.E. Children of abusive parents do not suffer lasting emotional damage OTOH children of nurturing loving parents succumb to drugs, mental illness or gangs

16. Parents Do influence • Religious, occupational, intellectual, feelings, self-esteem= High correlation • Not a one way street…You influence each other! 

17. Power of Peers/ Objectives 4 • Cornell Study: 275 students most had double “secret” life. Sex, drugs, drinking unbeknownst to their parents • Life at home and at school • Dress, habits, Language • Categorized Interests (Jocks, Nerds, Musicians, Artists), ethnicity, status,

18. Peer Study • 15,000 students, High school • Asian-American, African-American, Latinos and Whites • Asian, Highest G.P.A., student peer support, study groups, cheered on, celebrate successes • OTOH African American students regarding doing well in school as “selling out to the white establishment” High achieving black students said they had few black friends

19. Summarize Environmental factors on PERSONALITY • Environmental factors • People associated with social Cognitive theory • Problems with gene theory • Peers