Cognition and Personality Development - Essay Example

 The relationship between cognition and personality development is that cognition can help to decide the personality of an individual. Cognition is the process of thought, thereby supplying individuals with the information they need to develop their own personality. Cognition allows someone to process information, apply the knowledge that they gain, and change preferences according to what they deem fit for themselves. All of these are similar processes to personality development. Biological and environmental factors can shape our cognitive processes by acting as guidelines as to what information we take in and how we do so. Furthermore, biological and environmental factors play the role of what information and knowledge we are presented with. School, family, and peers are various sources of different information, giving individuals different pieces of information to process and absorb accordingly. Educational environments would provide individuals with certain information, while a familial environment would offer new sources. Biologically, the hereditary function of the brain (as in, any defects of the brain that are hereditary) would play a role in cognitive processes. One’s cognitive processes can shape some aspect of personality by implementing perception and judgment in regard to how one would respond to the information that they were confronted with (Berens & Nardi, 2004). If a person sees someone acting angry or responding to a situation in a negative, destructive manner, that person perceives the response and judges as to whether or not the response is good. If they process the response as negative and uncalled for, they are unlikely to repeat the actions. If they process the response as helpful in the situation, they will store it for later, eventually letting it come out in their personality during a situation that they may feel calls for such a reaction. Question Two Evolutionary factors can result in the development of an aggressive personality as it is natural for human beings to have aggression within them. While not every person is aggressive, or constantly so, they all, at some time or another, display aggressive behavior. It is in our nature to be prepared to respond to a situation or event with aggression. If a person depends too much on their natural aggressive responses, they can eventually adapt aggression into their entire personality. Biological and genetic factors can result in the development of an aggressive personality through hormones, physiological illness, and temperament (Anonymous, 2010). Hormones, such as testosterone levels in males and premenstrual tension syndrome in females, while not providing an indefinite period of aggression, can still bring about aggressive behavior that can lead to violence or aggressive behavior. Physiological illnesses, such as cancer or a destructive sexually transmitted disease, often bring about aggressive behavior in people. Finally, people that are more impulsive are also more prone to have an indefinite state of aggression, clouding their personality. Environmental factors are perhaps the greatest contributors to an aggressive personality. People are often and easily influenced by the behaviors of others, taking examples from family, friends, peers, and coworkers. If a person surrounds themselves with negative, harsh people, or else lives in a location that experiences many criminal and violent situations, then that person is more likely to have an aggressive personality. People and locations play a huge role in the personalities of individuals; if someone is in a positive environment, they are less likely to experience aggressive outbursts. If they live in a dangerous area, surrounded by people of the same caliber, they have a greater chance at adapting aggression into their personality. Question Three Parents influence a child’s personality through evolution by implementing their own behaviors and personalities into the raising of their children. If a child’s parents were raised with cheerful, positive personalities, then it is likely that their children, following their parents’ examples, with develop a similar personality. However, if a child is raised by parents that are negative or harmful, and the child considers the personality types of other people in their lives, the child could end up rejecting the influence of their parents, opting for a less reckless personality. Parents raise their children as they were raised, and this pattern can often be traced back many generations, seldom changing accept to accommodate for the changes of the times. While genetic or biological causes of personality are not influenced by parents in the normal sense of the word, children can still be born with some of the same abnormalities or diseases as their parents that can cause their personalities to be different. At the same time, parents can help to influence these diseases or illnesses, making it so that their children are less effected by the genetic factors. Furthermore, if a parent has a genetic problem that effects their personality, but their child is not susceptible to it, the parent’s behavior can still influence the personality growth of their child. One of the bigger influences that parents have in regard to their children’s personalities is through behavioral means, which often goes hand-in-hand with punishment or reward systems. Parents encourage certain personalities in their children while discouraging others, usually rewarding positive personality characteristics and punishing those that are negative or harmful. Parents often take control over the growth of their children’s personalities, which, indeed, is one of their duties as parents. Question Four Self-efficacy is, in accordance to Albert Bandura’s concept, an individual’s belief in their ability to be successful in any given situation (Bandura, 1997). Self-efficacy can either be considered negative or positive, and tends to change with each situation that arises. It all comes down to how a person views themselves and their skills in regard to a situation that they may find themselves in. Their self-efficacy is what will either get them through their situation or dampen their efforts. On a similar note, the direction of a person’s self-efficacy will decide how much of their effort and skills they put into overcoming that situation or obstacle. Self-efficacy relates to personality in the sense that someone who has a positive direction for their self-efficacy will often have a positive, encouraging personality. If someone’s self-efficacy is negative or lacking, their personality will reflect that. Furthermore, from a reversed perspective, someone’s personality will determine what their self-efficacy is. Someone who is normally cheerful and positive will have a similar self-efficacy, giving them the ability to believe that they can overcome whatever it is that they are going through. Nature factors that contribute to one’s self-efficacy are the natural reactions that people have towards situations or obstacles in life. Instead of being indifferent about what is going on, by nature people have a reaction during which they consider their skills in regard to whether or not they can overcome the situation. The nurture factors that contribute to one’s self-efficacy include the environment of school, home, and work, as well as the people that one surrounds themselves with. These nurture factors can help to determine how someone will respond to a situation, thus deciding what their self-efficacy can be. Works Cited Anonymous. (2010). Aggression: The role of biological factors. Retrieved from http://social. jrank.org/pages/26/Aggression-Role-Biological-Factors.html Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Worth Publishers, Incorporated. Berens, L.V., & Nardi, D. (2004). Cracking the personality type code. Retrieved from http://www.cognitiveprocesses.com/crackingthecode.html Read More