Retrospective Analysis of Personality Essay

Introduction

The paper aims to examine retrospective analysis of personality. Firstly, I will discuss how my behavior has changed throughout the years, from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Secondly, I will discuss roles that nature and nurture play in influencing a person's behavior. Thirdly, I will discuss the accuracy of retrospective analysis in psychology. Finally, I will discuss why the science of psychology places more emphasis on scientific studies than it does on personal anecdotes and experiences.

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Changes in Behavior Throughout Lifespan

Looking back in my life, I can say that my behavior has undergone a lot of transformation from childhood, adolescence to adulthood. Behaviors that exhibited in childhood were different from behaviors that I exhibited during adolescence. Behaviors that I now exhibit as an adult are different from the behaviors that I displayed when I was a teenager.

Childhood Behavior Problems

As a child I was an attention seeker, I used to interrupt my parents when they were in the middle of a conversation. I could even do something that majority of people considered stupid so that people may show me their attention. I used to sometimes engage in playing too rough when I was a child. I displayed aggressive acts, albeit in a subtle manner when I was around eight years of age. I used to act aggressively because my friends kept on cheering me when I displayed aggressive acts and when I played too rough. As a child, I sometimes ignored what my parents were telling me. I could pretend as if I had not heard what I was being told. During my childhood, there were moments where I was very selfish. I sometimes refused to share my toys with other children and preferred to play alone.

Teenage Behavior Problems

As a teenager, I became self-conscious about myself. I was self-conscious about my appearance, my voice, my behavior and what people thought about me. As a result of my self-consciousness, I became shy. I started to develop a sexual attraction to members of the opposite sex. I started speaking less than how I used to speak when I was a child. I started to evaluate my words before speaking them. I started to hate myself, subtly because I felt like a child yet pubic hair had started to grow on me. I hated my voice because it started becoming hoarse.

As a teenager, I started developing rebellious tendencies. I started to disagree with some rules and social norms. I started to question conformist ideals and what the society accepted as right. I started disagreeing with the things that my teachers and parents were telling me. As a teenager, I started being disrespectful to my parents. I started to spend less of my time with my parents because I found them annoying and old-fashioned. I started to develop mood swings when I became a teenager; there were moments when I was very ecstatic and there moments when I was crestfallen. I started to develop an independent mind as a teenager and I no longer relied on my parents and teachers to guide me in every decision I made. I started to develop a desire to be accepted by my peers. As a result, I started to partake in everything that was deemed cool so that I could be accepted by my peers. As a teenager, I started wishing that it would be better if I were an adult. Life as an adult looked cool to me because adults appeared to have a lot of freedom. I started to view my peers as being of more importance when it came to making decisions when compared to my parents. I started to become a huge fan of movies, music and other forms of entertainment provided by mass media.

Change in Adult Behavior

As an adult, I started to appreciate the need for rules, law, and order. I started to conform to societal rules. I started to look for answers that humanity grapples with. I started questioning the essence of life and where human beings go after they die. I started to question where human beings go after they die. I started to question the meaning of life and why human beings have to suffer and go through pain during their time on earth. I started to question why life was so unfair. I started being spiritual. I started to become withdrawn socially. As an adult, there are times when I am incessantly angry about social injustices that are prevalent in our society. There are times when I become irritated by the system socio-economic inequalities, racism and other forms of prejudice that are prevalent in our society. As an adult, my motivation in life is to become successful so that I may earn respect from my peers and society at large.

The Role of Nature in Behavior and Identity

Nature refers to inherent features of something. Nature plays an instrumental role in determining human behavior by programming human beings to behave in a certain manner. Nurture, on the other hand, refers to settings that encourage certain types of behaviors to develop in a person. Genetic factors can be attributed to some of my behavioral changes from childhood, to adolescence and adulthood. Nature instigates instincts in a person to behave in a certain manner. However, my environment, my parents, and my school played an important role in imparting certain values about. Nurture plays a major role in helping individuals to adapt to a new social setting. Proponents of nurturing effects on human behavior suggest that the mind is like a blank slate where any information can be inserted, consequently leading to behavioral change. Based on my retrospective analysis, both nature and nurture have played a major role in shaping my personality.

Personal Bias in Behavior Analysis

There are possible sources of bias and inaccuracy when a person looks at their history. A person is likely to remember more of his or her negative experiences in the past than the negative experiences. Apparently, human beings are hardwired in such a manner that they tend to remember more of their negative experiences than their positive experiences. A person's memory may be limited to remember all the experiences, especially in cases where the person has gone through many experiences. A person may have limited cognitive abilities that are likely to make him or her remember accurately his or her past. There are people with mental disorders and mental health problems that thwart their ability to discern and comprehend their experiences.

The science of psychology places more emphasis on scientific studies results than it does on personal anecdotes and experiences because most of the time, scientists are objective and ensure that their studies are free of personal bias. On the other hand, personal experiences and anecdotes are likely to be full of bias.

Conclusion

In conclusion, human behavior does change from childhood, to adolescence, and to adulthood. Based on my retrospective analysis, both nature and nurture have played a major role in shaping my personality. A person's retrospective analysis of his or her personality is likely to be full of bias due to the selective recalling of events, memory problems and cognitive problems. Psychology is emphatic on scientific studies in the study of personality because scientific studies are objective and free of bias.