INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY-PSY 100

Reflection- My Social Personality Growth

Time and again, most people have struggled while seeking to be accepted by others and sometimes this makes them take character traits or a path that they do not like simply to feel part of a certain group. I consider myself very social because while I strictly adhere to the values and beliefs I was taught when growing up, I am able to accommodate the beliefs of other people and interact with them genuinely. My social personality has been shaped by a combination of people and experiences. Some of the character traits that have influenced my social personality include being family-oriented, friendly, and open-minded person. With these personality traits, I have become a very social person who is able to create new interactions and maintain positive relationships with other people.

From my childhood, my family has been very nurturing, which is a significant factor in my social personality growth. I realized that being the firstborn in my family was advantageous to me because I received maximum attention from both my extended family and my parents. Interacting with my family helped me to build a sense of self and enabled me to figure out how I could fit in and relate to the bigger world around me. It made me understand how a sense of self is an important concept in social psychology that one attains by interacting with other people (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2014). Therefore, my sense of self-played a significant role in shaping my reaction and perception towards other people. It involved building trust with the members of my family, I was also able to learn how to trust other people too. I got to learn different aspects of life by interacting with both members of the nuclear and extended family. The trust I developed in people during this time has enhanced my socialization with them because my family taught me how to trust and live with other people. The process of socialization includes various aspects such as discipline, principles, rules of life, and values (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2014). While my parents considered my needs and gave me the utmost care, they also taught me proper discipline. Growing up, I was also taught that to be a better person in society I needed to be responsible in every action I took and adhere to a set of rules. I believe learning to obey rules at an early age has helped me to associate with people in harmony without violating laws set by the government or our community.

My parent’s good parenting style prepared me to be responsible for my younger siblings when they were born. Being the eldest child, I made sure that I gave my younger brothers and sisters the same caring attitude and nurturing attitude that was projected to me by my parents when I was young. This made me become kind and generous to other people and further improved my social life by enabling me to show love to everyone without prejudice. It reminded me of the negative impacts of prejudice which accounts for blatant displays of homophobic speech, and sexist or racist behavior, which is socially unacceptable (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2014). Most people find it hard to develop their social personality because they show different forms of prejudice to the people they perceive as threatening. For instance, some people might find it hard to associate with lesbians or gays because they believe that such individuals threaten their cherished in-group values, including a commitment to traditional family structure or sex roles. Building a social personality requires a sense of love, generosity, kindness, and caring toward other people should be present (Fredrickson et al., 2008). Such good virtuous aspects have contributed highly to a flourishing social personality. My actions have always aimed at promoting good behaviour to others in all circumstances, including challenging and difficult situations hence making me a loveable person to all the people I associate with.

Being a friendly person has also shaped my social personality in many ways. I might not be perfect but I have always helped anyone that needs help from family members to friends to strangers. I think other people consider me friendly because I am always flexible in my thoughts and I do not like offending other people. Research shows that friendly people always welcome change, are optimistic in life, and are good listeners (Nelson & Thorne, 2012). Most young people in college think that being physically active and intelligent are the aspects that make a person friendly. On the contrary, I believe a friendly person should always be willing to interact with anyone and be loving and caring to other people in need. Therefore, being friendly has enabled me to develop prosocial behaviour and conform to some of the behaviour other people are comfortable with. According to Hockenbury & Hockenbury (2014prosocial behaviour is described as the act of helping other people regardless of the underlying motive. Growing up, I noticed that sometimes we help other people out of guilt or because we expect something in return such as rewards, recognition, or increased self-esteem. My friendly nature makes it easy for people to approach me hence I am able to learn more about their lives and offer help in needy situations. I believe that great conversations enable people to live a happy life because they make an individual have an evolving and growing personality. In my perspective, learning by interacting is far off from learning by reading and this encourages me to initiate dialogues through which I am able to enhance my skills of interaction.

Besides great conversations, being friendly has made me always enjoy helping other people. Growing up, I also developed a habit of supporting other people both physically and emotionally. Harris and Vazire (2016) argue that friendly people should be more givers rather than takers. It means that as a friendly person, I can shape my social personality by showing care and love to other people without expecting the same in return. This has always encouraged me to practice goodwill toward strangers and friends by showing concern when they have problems and always being willing to offer solutions. I believe that being friendly has enabled me to develop helping behaviour and display altruism. An altruistic person tends to be often social and he is always selfless and motivated by the act of helping those in need or close to him (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2014). My days are always filled with the desire to show altruistic kindness to other people such as the homeless. However, this has not stopped me from always being willing to learn from others. My flexibility allows me to welcome and accept innovations and new ideas, which has further enabled me to easily associate with other people by being able to adapt to changes. Even if I do not like a certain idea introduced by someone, I never do actions or say words that might hurt their feelings or offend them. These aspects have made my family members and friends always consider me a friendly person, which has made them value my advice and share their life challenges with me.

Apart from being friendly, my personality trait of being open-minded has made it easier for me to make connections and learn from others. As compared to other traits, openness to knowledge and understanding the experiences of other people represents a continuum. For instance, being open-minded has always encouraged me to pursue creative endeavours, new experiences, and adventures, which further give me the opportunity to interact with other people and make connections. Findings from research conducted by Price et al., (2015) reveal that open-minded people find it easier to associate with people from different cultures and backgrounds. In this case, being open-minded has influenced my social personality because I am able to avoid cognitive dissonance that tends to control my attitudes and thus helps me to avoid conflicts with other people as much as possible. Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual’s perceptions or thoughts are inconsistent (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2014). Being open-minded has also enabled me to avoid having two conflicting cognitions hence I am able to be aware of my attitude and respect other people’s opinions, boundaries, and cultures. As a result, such aspects have made it easier for me to develop good relationships with other people and grow my personal network with individuals who respect and value my personality trait of having an open mind.

Being open-minded has also enabled me to develop a strong social personality because I am able to reduce conflicts with other people. While conflicts hinder a positive interaction with people, having an open mind makes me more willing to make compromises and empathize with others. I must say, comparing the kind of discrimination some of the students show towards students of colour, being open-minded has made it easier for me to accommodate students with different social norms and tolerate diversity. Growing up, I have seen people who socially categorize others based on their race, age, and gender. I learned that social categorization is a mental process that involves people classifying others into groups depending on their common characteristics (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2014). Prior beliefs and experiences about social categories have always prevented me from developing implicit social reactions. Moreover, being open-minded makes it impossible for me to be swayed by certain characteristics such as religious beliefs, sexual orientation, weight, and ethnicity. Price et al., (2015) characterize open-minded people as those who are disposed and willing to give novel ideas and challenges serious consideration. Although some of my friends find it hard to have social interactions with students from other cultural backgrounds, being open-minded makes it easier for me to accommodate such people because I am able to revise or review my beliefs accordingly, and by challenging myself, I realize that we are equal people with just different cultures and skin colour.

Altogether, my social personality growth has been influenced by various character traits such as being family-oriented, friendly, and open-minded. Growing up, I was influenced by caring and nurturing parents, which further made me extend my caring character to other people. As mentioned earlier, I witnessed how my family took care of my needs and I felt the urge to care about other people as well. Moreover, being friendly has made me a flexible person that is outgoing and willing to have conversations with both strangers and friends. My flexibility also allows me to welcome different viewpoints and have an open mind hence avoiding conflicts, which in most cases ruin interactions among people.

References

Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of personality and social psychology, 95(5), 1045.

Harris, K., & Vazire, S. (2016). On friendship development and the Big Five personality traits. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(11), 647-667.

Hockenbury, D., & Hockenbury, S. (2014). Discovering Psychology Sixth Edition.Macmillan

Nelson, P. A., & Thorne, A. (2012). Personality and metaphor use: How extraverted and introverted young adults experience becoming friends. European Journal of Personality, 26(6), 600-612.

Price, E., Ottati, V., Wilson, C., & Kim, S. (2015). Open-minded cognition. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(11), 1488-1504.