Cultural Traditions From My Mother example essay topic

Personality is the characteristic of an individual involving attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors. Personality traits determine how we adjust to our environment and how we react in certain situations. All this has to do with the debate against Nature versus Nurture. The debate is mainly if (nature) heredity, or inherited genetic characteristics affect our socialization or if it's (nurture) environment and social learning. Those who believe in the nature viewpoint believe that human behavior is instinctual in origin.

Instinct is an unchangeable, biological animal behavior: Calvin & Hobbs; Hobbs the tiger is a perfect example of Nature the pure wants and needs, and anomalistic behavior. Thomas Hobbes the human philosopher believed that people's most basic motives are selfish. While Calvin the young blonde haired boy is more innocent, and involved with society. Charles Cooley, who is represented as Calvin the young boy in Calvin and Hobbs... He believed in the looking-glass self which is the interactive process by which we develop an image of ourselves based on how we project through their reactions to our behavior. He was a believer in nurture and that he believed this process did not end in childhood, but was carried on into adulthood.

Locke believed it was all nurture. He believed that everyone is born as a tabula rasa, or clean slate. He also claimed that each of us are born without a personality and that we acquire our personality through experiences. Locke believed that you could shape an individual into anything you wished if you started with a newborn. The four factors of personality are birth order, which is whether we have brothers, sisters, their age, whether they were first born or last born. Parental characteristics, which are age of the parents when the children were born, level of education, economic status, cultural heritage, religious orientation and occupational background.

Cultural environment determines the basic types of personalities that will be found in a society. It also affects us from our sex depending on how our culture feels about the different sexes. Heredity is physical characteristics, such as ones body build, hair, eye, and skin color. It also includes certain aptitudes which is the capacity to learn a particular skill or acquire a particular body of knowledge.

I have one brother, two sisters and others I consider as my "brothers". I happen to be the last born child in a family of four children. Though I believe I am very achievement orientated and cooperative, even though according to certain studies the first born child shows these characteristics. Although in the same study I relate to the later born child who has good social relationships, tends to be affectionate, friendly and creative.

These are all factors of how birth order affects my personality. My parental characteristic is that my mother is 54 and my father would be 50. My mother went to college and got a nursing degree, while my father went to technical school. Their religious orientation is my mother is a devoted buddhist while my father was originally a Christian then converted to buddhism. Our economic status was middle class to high middle class. My cultural heritage is that my mother is Japanese and my father is American.

My mother works as a registered nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, while my father used to be a boiler maker. My cultural environment is that we have cultural traditions from my mother as well as American traditions and values. My inherited physical characteristics is that I have my fathers teeth, eyes, eye lashes, ears, hair color, nose, and somewhat of his lip shape. From my mother I get my gums, eye shape, complexion, hair color, height, and lip shape. My aptitudes are singing, writing, drawing, and ambition..