Environmental Influences on Personality

Question 1

Define: Trait

Answer 1

Behavior consistent across situations

Question 2

Which view believes people don’t have traits, but show behavior patterns in certain situations?

Answer 2

Behaviorism

Question 3

What does the Social-Cognitive Learning Theory enforce?

Answer 3

• personality traits result from learning history and your resulting expectations and beliefs
• the way you act and are received in the world will reinforce your own beliefs about yourself

Question 4

Explain: Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 4

It is a 2-way street in which *aspects of situation influence *aspects of individual by rewarding and extinguishing certain behaviors.

Question 5

What are unique and chance experiences that are not shared with other family members?

Answer 5

nonshared environment

Question 6

What are some reasons why parents are NOT the strongest influence on their child’s personality?

Answer 6

• shared home environment has little if any influence on personality
• few parents are consistent in the way they treat their children, and there is little relation to what they do and how their child will turn out

Question 7

Why does a parent have limited influence once a child first leaves home?

Answer 7

Because the child’s nonshared environment begins to take over influence.

Question 8

What are the 2 environments children live in?

Answer 8

• home

- outside their home

Question 9

What do children do to “fit in”?

Answer 9

Most children will do what is takes to avoid embarrassment and rejection by conforming to their peer group’s norms and rules.

Question 10

When a child’s peer group values clash with their parent’s values, whose values will the child likely choose?

Answer 10

child will likely choose to stick with the values of their peer group