Interpersonal and Methodical Theories of Figure - Essay Example

RUNNING HEAD: REFLECTIVE ESSAY Reflective Essay Name Institution Date Introduction Personality theories are basically belief systems designed to enable us understand as well as improve ourselves and the general world. The theories generally seek to investigate assumptions regarding what it implies to be a human being. As such, they often have a significant effect on a person’s early interpersonal environment on personality development. According to Lyddon & Sherry (2001), it is has been argued that early interpersonal development of an individual determines the personality of the person in his/her entire life. This particular paper therefore intends to provide a clear and precise discussion regarding the effects of a person’s early interpersonal environment on personality development by employing the use of knowledge about the different personality theories. The paper will provide a clear definition of personality and a detailed description of the most relevant theories on personality. The most critical issues that are dealt with in this particular paper include the effects of the early interpersonal environment on the factors that include emotional, social and cognitive development of an individual. One of the very important aspects of the research is the impact of the interpersonal environment on the social development of an individual. This impact entails the situations in which the ability of an individual to live and interact with the community is affected. As highlighted by Lyddon & Sherry (2001), it is very clear that the social perspective of an individual development develop gradually from the parenting age or the caregivers’ environment that exposes the child to many diverse social skills (Lyddon &Sherry, 2001).The social environments which include colleges, workplaces, and schools provide individuals with many opportunities that guarantees them a chance of meeting and also interacting with many other people. According to Lyddon & Sherry (2001), it has been found out that, to some individuals, the interaction with others is far much more important as compared to learning and performing the work duties. These particular interactions with other people serve to develop an interpersonal relationship among the groups (Malekpours, 2007). The term interpersonal relationship can be clearly defined as an interaction or association between one or more individuals who range from the informal interactions which include having friends or marrying a partner. As argued by Lyddon & Sherry (2001), interpersonal relationships are known to develop over time and many researchers have developed a cycle in which the relationships are developed. According to Lyddon & Sherry (2001), the cycle starts from the initial stage which is the acquaintance stage, then it develops to the build up stage then continuation and finally the relationship can deteriorate or a mutual commitment is developed. There is no any reasonable doubt that the early experiences of a child will automatically affect latter development (Malekpours, 2007). The influences are expected to account for the differences that individuals show which include the differences in behavior, social skills, emotional response and their personality. Some of the known researchers and develop mentalist have it that the early experiences in individuals can totally guarantee the long term development outcomes against the expected subsequent trauma. According to Lyddon & Sherry (2001), it has been found that the early experiences especially the emotionally or the effectively charged experiences that the come through with many other humans, who basically induce and reorganize the patterns of the structural enlargement that give results in the enlargement of the functional abilities of the developing child (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001).It has been critically pointed out that the early experiences shape and comes up very unique personalities; this comes with the unique adaptive abilities of individuals and also their vulnerabilities to and the resistance towards any particular form of pathologies in the future (Lyddon & Sherry,2001). Over the past thirty years researchers have clearly demonstrated that at the time of birth many infants are far more competent, responsive and social without putting aside the ability to make good sense of his or her social environment more than we can think (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001).A detailed study has been made giving amazing abilities of behavior by the infants called neonate, it shows that the infants usually can see, hear, and move with the rhythm that their mothers voice move in their first a small number of minutes and hours of their lives, this particular situation results in a beautiful linking of the reactions that the two experiences and a synchronized dance between the mother and the child is developed (Malekpour,2007).It is very important that an individual realizes that the infant can only be highly competent with the in the context that the relationship develops. Malekpour (2007) therefore argues that when an infant is brought to the world he/she expects a competent caregiver that will give a good amount of attention and impart the competence into the infant. Among the many relationships that an individual develops throughout their lives is the strong relationship that the child develops with the mother; this relationship is mediation between the mother and the child. According to Freiberg, the personal identity which is the central part of our humanness is greatly achieved through the early bonds developed between the child and the parent (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001). The theories of attachment have made great contributions towards the notion of early understanding of an infant, this particular theory which was developed by a British psychologist who goes by the name Bowly (1980) the experience of the infants with there primary caretakers guides one to the generalized expectations and believes. He goes ahead to describe the illustration as unrelenting and yet very open to the amendment in the light of the understanding. The unrelenting attachment representation gives an allowance to positive and highly safe base experiences, in order to guide the behavior especially when someone stronger and wiser is not really present to help. The initial relationship that connects the caregiver and the infant, acts as an external system for the child internal regulation (Malekpour, 2007). Another critical issue to be dealt with in this essay is the effects that the interpersonal environment has in the emotional development of an individual. According to Lyddon & Sherry (2001), there are many ways in which interpersonal environment affect the ability of the child to both identify and technically understand their feelings or that of other people. It is clear that although infants at their tender age cannot use the common language to express what they feel, their both psychological and behavioral responses that the child give can be read and the caregiver can clearly understand what the child is feeling. An example of the symptoms that can indicate that the child is under stress is an increase in the cortisol and heart rate, movement and crying. As highlighted by Malekpour (2007), infants that are older show that they are under stress reducing their exploration and increasing their proximity to the caregiver. In other cases when infants are exposed to stress they show signs such as disruptions in the normal habits which include the sleeping and the eating habits of the child (Malekpour, 2007).Infants entirely depend on their caregivers for their emotional stability, the newborns and the young infant have very little or no ability to cope or respond effectively to emotions brought about by stress. Hence, the response of the caregiver to both emotions and stress is very vital in the development of the emotional stability of the child. Bowly (1980) the caregiver is expected to give the child emotional support and ability to cope with the stress; therefore it is clear that the infant rely mainly on the caregiver to help in the reduction of stress and emotional stability (Malekpour, 2007). The caregivers responses to the infants reaction to stress is very important in the physiological and the socio-emotional development of the infant, an example is in a situation where an infant, shows a rising level of cortisol when they are subjected to little stress, such as regular physical exercise. According to Malekpour(2007), during the first years of an infant’s life, the reactivity of cortisol in the infant decreases in a way that the stress does not activate crystal release any more. However, with all the information that we have gathered, it is clear that there exist a hypersensitive time span in the early life of the infant that the environment of care giving can have a significant impact on the on the activation and the development of HPA system and the brain that is developing (Malekpour, 2007). It has been always known that most of the time the caregivers of the infants are mother but it can also be the father it doesn’t matter but a proven theory is that the impact of the mother-child relationship or the caregiver-child relationship is greatly strengthened during the time that the child is under stress or emotional instability. It is clear that the implication of the interaction between the child and the caregiver during the time of stress is very strong and has long lasting; this is due to the development of the socio-emotional feeling in the infant (Harris,1995).The rate of sensitivity and responsiveness of the caregiver to the infants needs is very important in shaping the security attachment of the infant which basically include the internal working models of the caregiver just as creditable of the support and the love and the entire world giving a positive social environment that help the infant develop well (Harris,1995). Very interestingly, it has been found that with the continuous responsiveness of the mother to the cries and signs of stress in the infant, there is a continuous decease in the crying of the child over the first year (Harris, 1995). Just as the infant grows older the tend to be more active in the seeking of support from the caregiver through avenues such as eye contact, gesturing, vocalization and seeking great proximity to the caregiver. It is very important that the caregiver respond well and with great sensitivity to the stress of the infant as this are very important for their socio-emotional development, and mainly for the development of a very secure-attachment between them, this can really in buffering the effects of stress in the child (Lyddon & Sherry,2001).In the early stages of infancy, the caregiver have the task of giving close attention to the infant for any sign of emotional instability or stress and helping them to cope with the situation by doing things such as soothing and caressing of the infant (Malekpour, 2007). A great deal of substantial research has been done concerning the efficiency of the maternal soothing as applied by mothers, while its effectiveness as applied by the fathers haven’t been researched (Harris,1995). Soothing and massaging of the infant by the caregiver helps the child in coping with the stress and therefore and this way the infant will learn with time how to cop up with the stressing times. The caregiver response to the infants stress serve as an immediate sooth and calm for the infant and also it greatly help the infant to build up a repertoire of efficient strategies on how to cop with stress in the future (Harris, 1995).Erickson’s theory also gives detailed information by describing the several stages of the psychosocial development of an individual; the theory describes how children develop a great sense of trust, guilt, and many other emotional reactions as they grow up depending on the environment in which they are subjected (Harris,1995). The theory is very important, highly regarded and has a very meaningful concept. Erikson had a great believe that the psychosocial principle that he had come up with was very important inn shaping the development of the human beings, He named his theory as epigenesist which showed the relevance of the concept to both evolution and genetics (Malekpour, 2007). The theory does not refer to individual make up of genetics and its influence on the development of an individual that was not the idea that Erikson had. He was largely anxious about how personality and behavior is influenced immediately after birth and during childhood. The theory is very simple and elegant but very sophisticated (Harris, 1995).The Erikson eight psychosocial crisis stages include trust and mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, identity versus role confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation, and integrity versus despair (Harris,1995). The theory essentially states that each and every other individual should experience the eight psychosocial crises which greatly help in giving a definition to the success of an individual. Many people have experienced the stages in a predetermined sequence but the time varies depending on individuals and circumstances (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001). Each one of the eight stages of psychosocial crisis is characterized by a conflict that cuts between the two opposing positions and attitudes (Harris, 1995). Erickson by no means settled on a rigid and recognizable description for the components of each of the crises, in the works that he did later, the first disposition is formally referred to as adaptive strength. Erikson also went ahead to use the word syntonic and dystonic for the respectively the first and the second temperament The two strong terms never featured in the interpretation of the terminologies of Erickson, this was due to the fact that their real meanings in English were not really that important in describing the theory (Harris,1995).For a successful development through each of the crisis required that an individual should strike a good balance and ratio between the two dispositions, there should be a situation where there is a total adoption of the obvious positive disposition which if comes to pass then almost as much difficulty as a strong and not watered-down tendency towards the second which is the negative disposition (Lyddon & Sherry,2001). Another issue is the description on mainly how early interpersonal environment influences the cognitive development of an individual’s life. It has been proven that parents do not have any long term effects that influence greatly the development of a child personality (Gold & Bacigalupe, 1998). A new theory of development proposes that the socialization is in the context specific. It can also be argued that outside home socialization takes place among the youth and the peer groups. As highlighted by Harris (1995), many factors which include both intra and intergroup social processes, but not the dyadic relationships, are highly responsible for the broadcast of their way of life and also the environmental modification of the children characteristic of their personalities (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001).Developmentalists have arguably recognized the fact that parents are not the only ones who have influence on the personality of children. The peers, teachers, neighborhoods, and the culture are also factors that have influence on the personality of the child. According to Harris (1995), the peer influence is important but the parental influence is the one that is seen as primary since the influence that the parent impacts on the child will help the child in counteracting his/her influence with the peers. By the time that the infants grow to be adults, the other adoptive siblings who were brought up together in the same home, on an average note, have very little or no similarity to each other in personality. The siblings who are biologically brought up in the same home will be in some way the same, but still not hundred percent the same. As highlighted by Gold & Bacigalupe, (1998), even the monozygotic twins who are totally identical and are brought up in the same home cannot have the same personality traits. The two twins will not be noticeable just as two monozygotic twins that are brought up in two different homes. These are some of the most important findings on the development on the behavioral genetics and there effects on the personalities of individuals (Gold & Bacigalupe, 1998). The context specific socialization theory shows that one of the most critical roles of the parents is assumed as the socialization of the infant. The socialization process is the way in which a child becomes accepted as a member of the society, as one who has appropriate behavior, understand the language that the community uses and holds the prevailing beliefs and attitudes (Gold & Bacigalupe, 1998).It is assumed that the most important way in which children socialize is through the imitation of the parent by the child. Children in all societies imitate the parents, but only the parents but also other older siblings and others too (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001) Group socialization theory proposes that individuals are a product of their groups. According to the group socialization theory, an individual’s development (both personality development and development of behavior in adult hood) is much influenced by the peer group as compared to the parental figures. According to this theory, three or more individuals are a group if they are known to be allied with each other in some way or that they are similar to one another in some socially relevant dimension. However, during group favouritism, members of one group can be known to have preference in their group than that of the others. (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001) Conclusion The paper has highlighted the major determinants of a person’s development and later personality based on various theories of development. Despite their varying positions on what shapes an individual’s development and later personality, they tend to converge on the fact that an individual’s development is subject to various influences. The interpersonal environment at an early age has been depicted to have a significant impact on the development of an individual’s personality. Additionally, the relationships that are built within the early infant ages are indicated as very important, an instance being the interaction relationship that is build up between the child and the caregiver or mother. The way in which the mother or the caregiver responds to the emotional and stressful situation of the child is therefore highlighted as significantly impacting on the later personality of the child especially in his/her adulthood. As has also been highlighted, the interaction within the family additionally has great influences as the children always imitate the characters of the immediate people surrounding them. References Gold, S. N., & Bacigalupe, G. (1998) Interpersonal and systemic theories of personality. In Advanced Personality (pp. 57-79). Harris, J. R. (1995). Where is the child's environment? 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