The Epigenetic Principle and Bandura s Social Psychology

Psychological Models for Understanding Personality

Understanding the development of the human personality can best be done by looking at the various psychological models that serve as frameworks for thinking about personality. Various concepts exist within each model. This paper will select one concept from each of the psychological models—psychodynamic, neurobiological, trait, and cognitive—define them, identify the theorist associated with the concept, and explain why it is the most applicable concept from that model.

Psychodynamic

Erikson’s concept of psychosocial development—the epigenetic principle—is essentially the notion that nature and nurture work together to develop the human personality (Lecci, 2015). The epigenetic principle was further validated in research by Weaver et al. (2004) and Hurley (2013). The example that Weaver et al. (2004) give of how nature and nurture work together is the rat mother who licks her pups; the DNA of those pups is read differently by the body during its development because the licking has triggered a response in the body. Those pups go on to lick their own pups. Hurley (2013) builds on that by looking at how rats born to attentive mothers have low levels of glucocorticoid receptors in their hippocampus and rats born to inattentive mothers have high levels of glucocorticoid receptors. Erikson’s stages of development essentially argue the same concept: at each stage of development, the individual is facing some internal conflict such as identity vs. role confusion and that conflict is impacted by the external environment and the degree to which the individual is appropriately nurtured along the way. The nurturing of a mother to a child at the very first stage of development will help the baby’s brain and personality to develop in a very specific way, much as the affections of a rat mother shown to her pups triggers a response in the rat pup for it to develop in a specific way. Without that triggering nurturing act, the behavior is not passed on by way of nature (DNA). The nurturing act has to be made in order for the DNA characteristic to be activated and read by the body.

Psychosocial development is the most applicable concept from this model, even though there are many good concepts—from Freud to Jung to Adler and so on. Freud introduced the notion of the unconscious mind; Jung introduced the notion of the shadow self; Adler introduced humanism to psychology. But Erikson gives a fuller picture of the nature vs. nurture debate by explaining that the two go together like hand in glove. Nature by itself is insufficient to provide everything needed for a proper development. Nurturing is necessary—but it must be balanced—neither too much nor too little, so that the individual develops sufficient amounts of autonomy and self-esteem, the ability to be independent without developing an attachment disorder. The psychosocial development concept and the epigenetic principle are the most applicable concepts from this model

Neurobiological

In this model can be found the concept of Hans Eysenck, which is that individuals inherit a nervous system from their parents that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment. The concept had three dimensions: introversion vs. extroversion, neuroticism vs. stability, and psychoticism vs. socialization. The outcome of each dimension for the individual personality was based on the type of nervous system that the individual inherited, as it impacted the way the brain processed inputs (Lecci, 2015).

Eysenck’s concept of brain functions was born of his belief that “that the ascending reticular activating system was the brain structure responsible for the manifestation extraverted or introverted behavior” (Lecci, 2015, p. 8). Brain structure and neurochemical makeup can affect whether one is introverted or extroverted, neurotic or stable, psychotic and socialized, according to this concept. Although the concept may not be totally satisfactory in terms of explaining the development of the human personality, it does serve as the most applicable concept from the neurobiological model because biological predispositions to certain types of behavior, such as violence and aggression, could potentially be passed down from one’s ancestors. Indeed, research has shown that “significant advances in this perspective have been achieved with the advent of high resolution imaging techniques” (Lecci, 2015, p. 8). Depue and Collins (1999) conducted a study of the neurobiology of the structure of personality, looking at how dopamine, the facilitation of incentive motivation, and extroversion are related in the neurobiological structures of the body. The concept is useful for explaining the nature part of personality development. It is important to remember that information is passed down from one generation to another in the human body, and the neurobiological features show as much. It does not mean nurture has no part in the process of personality development, but it does indicate that nature should not be ruled out of the discussion because it does exist and information about how the brain functions with respect to signals, which impact personality can be found therein.

Trait

The concept in this model of systemic eclecticism was put forward by Gordon Allport in 1968 (Lecci, 2015). It refers to the systematic attempt to bring together, i.e., to integrate, all the various ideas about personality and traits to develop a more cohesive explanation of things. The various systems of psychology all indicate some aspect of how to understand the traits of personality, and this is what the concept of systematic eclecticism essentially gets at. Allport argued that it was impossible to integrate all the systems, but many of them could be integrated into a cohesive albeit eclectic whole. The main objective is to have a holistic view of personality (Decarvalho, 1990).

This concept is most applicable in the trait model, which focuses among other things on whether personality traits can predict mental illnesses, or whether more adaptive outlets can be found for these traits. By adopting an eclectic view according to Allport’s concept, one is more likely to have a fuller sense of what personality traits mean, how they may have been developed, and what they could foretell about the individual. For example, it is very useful for a psychologist to have a firm grasp of various systems so that the viewpoint is not so narrow. That way a psychologist is not limited in interpreting a client’s personality traits from one perspective only but can view them from multiple perspectives so as to obtain a fuller sense of what one may be working with.

Cognitive

The concept of how people are impacted by their environment and how their perceptions of their environment alter their cognition and behavioral development was advanced by Bandura (2018), who explained that three main drivers of cognitive development are peers, groups and media. For Bandura (2018) there is a clear social aspect to cognitive development: people learn how to act based on what they perceive, experience, and how they interact with others. They learn from media—TV, movies, Internet, books, music, etc.; and they learn from peers—friends, family, colleagues, and so on; and they learn from groups—people at church, at school, at work, organizations to which they belong where there are clear group standards, formal or informal. This concept explains why it is so important that people take stock of their environment, who they are around and what media they are consuming because it will very likely impact their cognitive development.