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Personality Development
Summary
Personality is defined as the totality of a person’s behavior and emotional traits. It comprises of a person’s moods, ideas, attitudes, motivations and the way of thinking, perceiving and behaving. Personality is what makes one person different from the other. Generally, personality in psychology is the underpinnings of people’s characters. It consists of sets of thoughts, feelings, and actions expressed by a person in various situations. All people, including famous people, have personalities because that is what makes them unique from each other. Indeed, a television star is often referred to as a television personality. Therefore, to further understand the study of personality development, the discussion will focus on the personality development of Lady Gaga, a famous entertainer in the music industry (Cloninger Allen Friedman & Schustack, 2011).
Having been born on 20 March 1986 by Stephanie Germanotta, Lady Gaga attended the Convent of the SacredHeartSchool in New York. Currently, Gaga is noted to still be a spiritual person who believes in God and prays frequently. This thus, demonstrates that the manner in which she was brought up, in this case the school she attended, has effected her moral growth and development. Lady Gaga`s parents were very much involved in the arts. For instance, her mother would often be found in musical theaters and her father was involved in playing in a Springsteen cover band (Lester, 2010). This shows that Gaga inherited her musical and theatrical ability from both her parents, which is very evident from her current work.
However, it requires more than musical talent for a person to grow and develop into an influential artist. Gaga is especially noted for her strong work ethic. For instance, it was noted that by 2010, Gaga had sold millions of her music albums worldwide, seeing her listed as one of the most influential persons in the world. According to research, Gaga worked extremely hard to achieve her goal. She started out as a waiter at the early age of 15. In addition, she engaged in other odd jobs like working as a dancer in order to pay for flyers to enable her promote her shows. Gaga`s strong work ethic that demonstrates her personality came about through environmental influences. She was noted saying that her parents and sisters always instilled a strong work ethic in her as long as she was doing what she wanted to do and comfortable with it.
Gaga`s personality development and adjustment was extremely influenced by her social life and support from the family. She received all the support she needed from her parents who were always there for her in case she required them in any activity. They also contributed in developing her talent as an entertainer particularly in the music industry. On the other hand, her social status made her to grow into a strong and hardworking woman. Her main purpose as a musician is to be a role model for other young girls wishing to join the entertainment industry or take up music as their future career. Gaga’s personality development can be demonstrated through the use of different theories such as Psychoanalytic and Neoanalytic theories, Psychosocial theories, Trait, evolutionary, genetic/biological approaches, Cognitive, behavioral, social learning theories, and Humanistic theories.
Psychoanalytic and Neoanalytic theories
Psychoanalytic theory is known to be the work of Sigmund Freud who worked in a clinical position with patients suffering from mental issues. Freud noted that a person’s childhood experiences and unconscious desires affect his or her behavior. This theory focuses on development in terms of a set of psychosexual stages. Thus, all the conflicts that happen at any of the stages have a long-term effect on a person’s personality and behavior. This theory gives a clear explanation concerning Gaga’s character as a musician. This is because Gaga was raised in a family where both parents were musicians and therefore was highly influenced by her parents to develop into the musician she is today. Furthermore, because she was brought up in a Christian family and has maintained her spiritual status up to date, an element that can be seen in her music.
The Neoanalytic theory is also based on Freud’s opinions that personality comprises of three parts inclusive of the ego, which refers to the reality principle, the superego, referring to the morality principle, and the id, which refers to the pleasure principle. Extroversion and introversion are the major attitudes that influence people’s characters. For instance, extroverts direct their psychic energy outward while an introvert directs their energy inward. Lady Gaga in this regard belongs to the group of the extroverts. This is because she is not afraid to express herself to a large group of people during her performances. Additionally, her music and opinions are conveyed in a very bold way concerning what she believes in.
According to the media, Lady Gaga was often teased while still in high school, thus to overcome the feeling of inferiority, she developed an aggression drive. Today, Gaga has no inferiority complex but rather what some might term a superiority complex, which enables her to become fearless in both her music and fashion choices. It is safe to say that Gaga used a lot of energy in order for her to stand out from the other many artists and had unique character traits that made her special and famous as she is currently.
The advantage of these theories is that it motivates parents to bring up the children in well and conducive environments so that negative influences can be avoided in the early stages. This is because someone’s early life affects his or her present life. However, the theories lack clear information on the way forward since various factors do influence a person’s future life.
Trait, Evolutionary, Genetic/Biological approaches
Evolutionary theory focuses on the process of trial and error in terms of variations and natural selection. Biological evolution helps in differentiating the natural selection and artificial selection where particular characters are maintained or eliminated as per the purpose of intention. The major theories of this approach include the Big Five, Eysenck`s Big Three, and Murray’s needs. According to the Big Five, the personality of a person is seriously assessed by the five traits of all human beings. Examples of these traits include extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Lady Gaga would be graded high on the extroversion trait. This is because her statements on fashion are extremely bold which is seen in her mode of dressing, such as dressing in meat. She is also very free and hides nothing of her personal beliefs from the public. Lady Gaga is kind and appreciative especially to her fans thus demonstrating the trait of agreeableness.
These theories are important because they enable a person bring out what is inside them so that they may achieve the set goals and objectives. However, the theories have a disadvantage in that their explanation of feelings and the way people think and act leaves out personal innovativeness and the idea of people’s opinion on their own lives, behavior and personality.
Psychosocial theories
The psychosocial theory demonstrates the concept that personality is significantly social. Moreover, the major issues of this theory focus on how people interact with each other. It also focuses on the early life of a person (Todd, 2006). This theory focuses more on people’s relationships because it is assumed that many problems result from relationships. Therefore, a child’s conflict requires that it be solved early enough in order to encourage the child to move on to the next challenge in life with confidence. In reference to Lady Gaga, the Psychosocial theory tries to demonstrate her personality development from her childhood. She was brought up in family where she received all the support she needed from her parents thus making her develop a superior character that enabled her become the famous individual she is toady.
The psychosocial theory helps us understand the series of life and how to deal with the challenges that are ahead as required. The theory should be spread to all people of all ages and in particular school going children, tutors, and parents. This is because it helps people understand the relations between life experiences and human behavior. In addition, it helps parents know how to help their children grow and develop maturely in emotional and cognitive situations instead of hindering them. However, the theory is disadvantaged in that in case a child lacks proper training at an early stage, he or she is likely to miss out and thereby lead a miserable life.
Cognitive, behavioral, and social learning theories
Social cognitive theories of personality development show a combination of behaviorist, social learning theory and cognitive theory, leading them to be referred to as cognitive-behavioral in nature. According to the behavioral theory, the focus is mainly on how people’s behavior occurs from the stimuli within the environment and within the individuals themselves. The social learning theory demonstrates how the society contributes to the way people think about themselves and the world and the way in which they interact or act in the larger context of the society. Lady Gaga was highly influenced in relation to the social learning theory as most of her personality traits were largely influenced by the society.
Humanistic theories
This theory focuses on the self, which means the way a person perceives his or her own experiences. The theory argues that every person is free to make a choice on the way to behave instead of reacting to the environmental influences and reinforces. Lady Gaga refused to be intimidated by her schoolmates who often teased her for not fitting in and having an eccentric style. The theory is important because it allows people choose the type of lifestyle they want to lead without really focusing on environmental influences such as peer pressure. However, a person is likely to mess up if good choices are not made. This is because the theory bases on self-discipline thus may not be helpful to young children who need support and guidance from their environment.
Methods of Personality Assessment
Personality measures are known to be innovative assessments of the normal range of a personality. The measures can be applied in different set ups such as clinical settings, marital settings, leadership, career, and employment places (Schultz, 2008). For instance, there is a five-factor nonverbal personality questionnaire. This assessment tool is used in the Big Five normal personality characteristics. It helps in situations where understanding the language is a problem.
Personality research form is another assessment tool used in personality development. The tool is highly rated as the best in assessing the available normal range of personalities. Multidimensional emotional intelligences assessment is also another tool employed in assessing the personality of a person. This tool helps in testing a person’s ability to perceive, use, understand and change emotions. Therefore, these methods are the best in testing Lady Gaga`s personality because it helps in assessing her ability to act as a music entertainer and how she carries on her talent to inspire other people who feel rejected in various fields. For instance, Lady Gaga used to be teased while in high school, but she chose not to be intimidated by anyone and that is why she was able to rise up and be a successful woman in life. This shows that she perceived life in a positive manner.
Information from the methods of personality assessment tools
Multidimensional emotional intelligence assessment tool helps a lot in bringing out the characters in Lady Gaga. By using these assessment tools, which include personality research forms and multidimensional emotional intelligence assessment, a person is able to know how others understand, perceive things, and feel in different situations of life. Through these assessment tools, the information concerning Lady Gaga`s personality was clearly assessed and determined. For instance, her boldness and openness to perform to a large crowd of people was revealed through personality research forms, where she was able to tell what makes her to be free and open to the public like that.
Reference
Cloninger, S. C., Allen, B. P., Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2011). Past and present views on personality. (Kaplan University ed.).Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Lester, P. (2010). Lady Gaga: Looking for Fame: The Life of a Pop Princess. New York, NY: Omnibus Press.
Schultz, E. (2008). Theories of Personality.Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
Todd, D. (2006). Handbook of personality development.New York, NY: Routledge.
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