PSY 405 Week 4 Discussion Questions

PSY 405 Week 4 Discussion Questions

Please answer with at least 100 words and cite with a reference.

Please answer each discussion questions located on attachment.

One of my favorite concepts from chapter 13 it the Five-Factor Model of Personality created by McCreae and Costa. Extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are the big five personality traits that they decided were adequate for assessing individual's personalities. They would devise questions to decipher which end of the spectrum an individual would fall and as a result, their high, low or somewhere in between  scores would help to identify the personality types. At this point in our psychology schooling, we have more than likely each taken a quiz/assessment using this type of personality model.

1.  Do you think this type of assessment can accurately gage your personality??

2.  Does having access to soooo much information like we do on the internet make a difference? 

3. Do agree or disagree with Allport's belief that individuals are motivated by present drives rather than by past events? Why?

4. What things can you do to achieve that balance between learning from the past, living the present and working toward future goals?

5. Can personality factors predict mortality? Explain your answer.

Research shows that certain personality traits are common among the people with risky behaviors (Cyders et. al., 2009).

6. If that is so, what traits do you all think might someone who is drawn to risky behavior have? 

I was intrigued by your statement, "We may be born with a specific stain of DNA, however it may or may not get "switched on" depending upon the environmental, nutritional, etc. influences." Week 1, I talked about personality as a container with the container being our core personality.  I think about someone who has schizophrenia or and anti social personality disorder. They may share the same DNA as a sibling and that sibling might not show any symptoms of a mental illness.  I do believe those factors you listed might have something to do with it.  Could their "container" get damaged somehow? I think their "container" is weak.  When too much stress is added to the "container," it may cause the weak spot in the "container" to give way.  They are born with an intact "container," but with wear the "container" reveals it's weaknesses.  

7. Do any of you think someone with a personality disorder is born with a defective core personality?

When I was taking my Career Assessment class in grad school, we were assigned to give several people different assessments.  One of the people who I gave the MBTI to had just gotten out of an abusive relationship with her husband.  He trashed her self-esteem and she felt she was pretty much worthless.  As I was giving her the results of her assessment, she broke into tears.  She explained that this was the first time in years anyone had told her she had any value.  Because I presented the results in the terms of her strengths, she was able to understand that she was a valuable human

8. Besides building self-esteem, what other benefits might these types of assessments have?