Personality and Ethics
1.0 Introduction
By 2012, our world population stands at 7 billion and counting (Nasser, 2011). And not a single person is without a personality. Our personality is what makes who we are, what we do, who we interact with and how we live our life. It is a vital aspect that drives most of the decisions and choices an individual makes in his lifespan, and throughout this lifespan, the individual’s personality are tempered by external factors. In spite of all that, the nature of an individual’s personality still commands a degree of stability across time and situations as they grow from childhood to old age. And every individual’s personality begins the moment they are capable of perceiving the world.
The development of one’s personality depends on two factors which are nature and nurture. As cited in Carducci (2009) Plomin, DeFries, McClearn & McGuffin (2001) it’s stated that biological factors do contribute to the physical and personality characteristic such as genetic heritability; however, this does not shows that all individuals’ personality is determined only from the biological process. Every individual contains a unique group of genes that require environments during an individual’s entire life to produce a recognizable individual (Larsen & Buss, 2005).
It is often debated which of the two factors has a stronger impact on the development of personality, as supported by Carducci (2009) stating about the nature versus nurture controversy. Nature refers to biological factors such as hormones and genetics inherited from one’s parents whereas nurture emphasizes on environmental factors such as parenting styles, education opportunities and the circumstances in which one goes through in their life as well as perceptions, reasoning and beliefs.
To understand an individual’s personality, society strives to understand the traits of individuals. Trait is the internal psychological disposition that remains largely unchanged throughout the lifespan and
By 2012, our world population stands at 7 billion and counting (Nasser, 2011). And not a single person is without a personality. Our personality is what makes who we are, what we do, who we interact with and how we live our life. It is a vital aspect that drives most of the decisions and choices an individual makes in his lifespan, and throughout this lifespan, the individual’s personality are tempered by external factors. In spite of all that, the nature of an individual’s personality still commands a degree of stability across time and situations as they grow from childhood to old age. And every individual’s personality begins the moment they are capable of perceiving the world.
The development of one’s personality depends on two factors which are nature and nurture. As cited in Carducci (2009) Plomin, DeFries, McClearn & McGuffin (2001) it’s stated that biological factors do contribute to the physical and personality characteristic such as genetic heritability; however, this does not shows that all individuals’ personality is determined only from the biological process. Every individual contains a unique group of genes that require environments during an individual’s entire life to produce a recognizable individual (Larsen & Buss, 2005).
It is often debated which of the two factors has a stronger impact on the development of personality, as supported by Carducci (2009) stating about the nature versus nurture controversy. Nature refers to biological factors such as hormones and genetics inherited from one’s parents whereas nurture emphasizes on environmental factors such as parenting styles, education opportunities and the circumstances in which one goes through in their life as well as perceptions, reasoning and beliefs.
To understand an individual’s personality, society strives to understand the traits of individuals. Trait is the internal psychological disposition that remains largely unchanged throughout the lifespan and
References: Ajzen, I. (2005). Attitudes, personality and behavior (2nd ed.), New York: Licensing Agency Ltd. Allik, J. R., Laidra, K., & Pullmann, H. (2004). Personality development from 12 to 18 years of age: Changes in mean levels and structure of traits. Eur. J. Pers, 18, 445-462. Ardelt, M. (2000). Still stable after all these years? Personality stability theory revisited. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(4), 392-405. Arthur, M. B., Hall, D. T., & Lawrence, B. S. (1996). Handbook of career theory. Press Syndicate of the University Cambridge. Boeree, C. G. (2009). Trait theories of personality. General Psychology, 1-4. Burger, J. M. (2004). Personality (6th ed.), United State of America: Thomson learning, Inc. Carducci, B.J. (2009). The psychology of personality (2nd ed.), United Kingdom: Wiley Blackwell. Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2008). Perspectives of personality (6th ed.). United States of America, CA: Pearson Education. Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2007). Personality and individual differences. United Kingdom: British Psychological Society and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Corr, P Crain, W. (2011). Theories of development: Concepts and applications (6th ed.). United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc. Cremer, D. D., Mayer, D., & Schminke. M, (2010). Guest Editors’ introduction on understanding ethical behavior and decision making: A behavioral ethics approach. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20(1), 1-6. Felder, R. M. (2002). Learning and teachings styles in engineering education. English Education, 78(7), 674–681. Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrel, L. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases (asia ed.). New York, CA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Friedman, H.S., & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research, (5thed.). United States of America, CA: Pearson Education. Gable, S. L., & Haidt, J. (2005). What and why is positive psychology? Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 103-110. Harris, J.R. (1995). Where is the child’s environment? A group socialization theory of development. Psychological Review, 102(3), 1-62. Higgs, H. (2001). Is there a relationship between the Myers-Briggs type indicator and emotional intelligence? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16(7), 509-533. Larsen, R. J., & Buss D. M. (2005), Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature (2nd ed.), New York, CA: McGraw-Hill. Lucas, R. E., Diener, E., Grob, A., Suh, E. M., & Shao L. (2000). Cross-cultural evidence for the fundamental features of extraversion. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol, 79:452 68. Maiden, R. J., Peterson, S. A., & Caya, M. (1999). Personality changes in the very old, Boston, CA: American Psychological Association. Mayer, J.D (2007). Personality: A systems approach, United States of America: Pearson Education. Mustamil, N. & Quaddus, M. (2009). Antecedent factors of ethical ideologies in moral judgement: Evidence from the mixed method study. Journal of Social and Human Sciences, 723- 731. Nairne, J. S. (2009). Psychology (5th ed.), United States of America: International Student Edition. Nasser, H. E. (2011, October 31). World population hits 7 billion. USA Today. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http:// http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011 10- Peabody, D., & De Raad, B. (2002). The substantive nature of psycholexical personality factors: a comparison across languages. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol, 83:983–97. Roberts, B. W., & Robins, R. W. (2004). A longitudinal study of person-environment fit and personality development. J. Personal, 72:89–110. Russell, A. L. (2002). MBTI: Personality preferences and diverse online learning experiences. 8(1), 25-40. Ryckman, R. M. (2004). Theories of personality (8th ed.). United States of America: Thomson Wadsworth. Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2009). Theories of personality (9th ed.). United States of America, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Smith, T. W. (2006). Personality as risk and resilience in physical health. Association for Psychological Science, 15(5), 227-231. Stewart, N. (2009). An introduction to moral philosophy, UK: Polity Press. Strack, S. (2006). Differentiating normal and abnormal personality (2nd ed.). United States of America: Springer Publishing Company, Inc. Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Birch, H. G. (1970). The Origin of Personality. Scientific American, 14(5), 102-109. Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (1990). On the University of human nature and the uniqueness of the individual: The role of genetics and adaptation. Journal of Personality, 58(1), 17-67. Velasquez, M. G. (2001). Business ethics concepts and cases. 1-18.