ADOLESCENSE PERSONALITY AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Hazırlayanlar:

Osman ZORBAZ*
Yeliz UYSAL*
Umut Haydar COSKUN*

PERSONALITY

Personality is one of concepts in psychology whose extention is very wide. Personality concept contains the composition of the person is believes, attitudes, merits, drives, temperamental features, behaviours. Because of that,there isn’t only one definition of personality that all the psychologiest agree. Gordon W.Alport determined that there are 48 different definitions about personality.As for Getzel put these different definitions that were made into three categories. These are behavioural definitions related to the personality. Psychoanalytic definitions and social definitions.

The other same theme in the personality definitions is person’s having consistent longlating that is showing determined features.

Moreover,it is ussually emphasized that in the personality definitions,the emotions, thoughts and behaviours that people have effects the person’s adaptation to the events and the situations they’ve faced with in the life.Everybody’s personality development differentiate from are to another during their lives.because,the heredity features that the people have and social environment where they brought up change.(aöf kitabı)

A. FACTORS AFFECT THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

There are some behaviours,emotions,thoughts that differentiate from one peron to other person.How do these differences appear?Have people already been different in born or they’ve became different because of environmental affectts.That is it the heredity or environment that is effective in personal developments and structure? These heredity and environment disputes are also The subject of personality development as being in the other areas.Heredity and environment factors in personality development are explained below.

1. Influence of Heredity

Psychologists once thought about the influence of heredity and environment in terms of persentages what persentage of the characteristic of organism is the result of heredity ,what persentage is the result of environment.İn contrast,heredity and environment are now seen as interacting,influenences.Heredity potential can not develop,can not be actualized,without the opportunity to Express and exercise these potential.This opportunity is a function of the environment.

How can one best conceive of the influence of heredity on personality?Wiggins and his associates(1971)suggests two principles by which differences in heredity may exert influence. One of them is the principle of differential susceptibility This principle suggests that individual differences in heredity exists which make people susceptible to the influence of certain environments.Given certain experiences individuals with varied hereditary potentials would develop in different ways.For example,people who come from a family with a history of tuberculosis are apperantly genetically predisposed to it,anda re more likely to develop tuberculosis than those without such a history but only if they are exposed to contagian that is only in an environment in which contamination is possible .There is evidence of hereditary influencein the development of schizophrenia.According to the above principle people who have a hereditary susceptibility to schizoprenia would be likely to develop the disease if they grow up in certain environments. The frequent experiences of stress is one likely element of such environments.
Another principle that wiggins proposed is that “of differential exposure” to experiences. Physical characteristic of individuals, such asbody build and facial structure(and thus physical attractiveness) are largely due to heredity. People who differ in these characteristics are likely to be objects or recipients of different reactions from other people. Other people’s reactions, in turn,shape their personality. There is evidence for examplethat people perceive and less attractive children. (Dion 1972). The same wrongdoing by a more attractive child judged as less serious than by a less attractive child. The findings that “mesomorphs”(people with a muscular body build) are more freqment among adolescent juvenile deliquents than adolescents with other body builds,may also be explained as the result of differential exposure to experience(lindzey,1965). İn subcultures where juvenile deliquency is relatively frequent,peers may turn to such individuals for leadership in dangerous and/or physically demanding activities, or at least may “select” them and induce them to participate in such activities. Their successin such activities may also be greater, so that they are more frequently reinforced for participation.

Heredity also exerts influence by placing limitations on various capacities. Consider intellectual or athletic performance. Regardless of the opportinities for learning or the amount of effort and diligence invested in these areas,truly outstanding intellectual achievement or athletic performance can not be reached by everyone,because of the upper limit set by heredity. Differences in these capacities must affect the child’s experience in the world and thereby the development of his or her personality ,by affecting the degree of success he achieves and the experiences he has along the way. Differences in capacities would affect the self-concept. The awareness of what one can and can not do and affect motivation, the desire for what one wants to do. However,they might not necessarily affect self-esteem,the child’s evoluation of himself. Their effect on self esteem probablystrongly depends on has parents and other socializers relate to and guide the child.(coper smith,1967)

Many personality psychologists currently believe that there are important hereditary influencess an personality.We don’t as yet know a great deal about the extent and nature of these influences. Their extent certainly varies from variable to variable. We know that individual differncest exist among infonts; in the frequency and intensity of crying ; in their capacity to soothe themselves( by sucking their thumbs while waiting for food rather than crying); in the manner,in which they handle stimulation and excitation (some infonts respond with their whole badies in an active and intense manner,while others watch and observe but respond little with their bodies;(Escalona,1968) and in other dimensions. Many differences are already apparent during the first four days of life.(Korner,1971) There is also reason to believe on the basis of research with twins.(in which identical and fraternal twins were compared with very sophisticated methodology that some of the early individual differences are hereditarily based, rather than the result of prenatal factors.(that is, of the influence of nutritional and hormonal factors in tha uterus). İdentical twins were found more similar to each other in varied ways, such as motor development and sociability, than fraternal twins.(Freedman,1965).

We do not know as yet,however, in what manner and to what extent early individual differences exert continuing influence and result in later differences in personality. Swome research programs claimed that early differences exist infant’s ease or difficulty in dealing with new stimuli,in the intensity of their reactions to events, in the regularity of their sleeping and eating, and in other characteristics that are sometimes called temperamental (Thomas, Chess,Birch,Hertiz and Korn,1963). Moreover, these differences were found to persist. However, methodological issues, including the start of the research not at birth but after six weeks of age makes it difficult to assume that these differences had a hereditary origin. There is increasing evidence from research studies that parents’ influence on children is not unidirectional; that children, even infonts, also exert influence on parents. The development of a transactional relationship, a system of relating, may in part explain stability in the above characteristics.

Watson, the father of behaviourism,argued that man is like a “tabularasa” an empty sheet on which anything can be written. He believed that the training and experience to which a person is exposed completely determines what he will become. Most contemporary psychologists would probably agree that this is substantially overstated. Nonetheless, the range pf possibilities for most of us is probably wide ;heredity sets rather broad limits, particularly in the domain of personality.

2. Environmental Factors

The environmental factors which is effective in formation of personality, contain all the factors which effect attitudes and which is not genetics. These are: learning lives, family, the characteristic of family and the culture we live in.
The environmental factors affect every person’s character differently, because people can show different attitudes in similar conditions.

Learning Principle

Family: The family which is the first environment the person live in, is the most important factor in the formation of personality.

The Family’s Forms of Child Education

It’s determined that the children of democratic parents have the characteristic of independence, trusting himself, self-control, creative and pushing.

The children of authoritarian parents become shy, displeased and anxious. They become anxious and they try to avoid drum this kind of conditions as they don’t know or which don’t have rules.

The children of the parents who give permission are the children who are anxious, dependent, who haven’t become mature and who have a little self control.

The Absence of Family

The structure of family is very important in the development of personality. The absence of mother is more effective when the child is little as the love of mother is very important for developing the emotions of confidence and independence.

The absence of father differ from girls and boys. The gravity of effect of divorcing from father is depends on the age for boys and for girls it depends on the reason. The girls who experience the absence of father, love emotional problems. They improve more dependent and aggressive personality by gaining their relationship between the boys because of their father absence. The girls whose father died beware being close to boys and sexual activities. Although the girls, experiences the father absence because of divorce are anxious about their relationship between boys, they look for boyfriend and show sexual aggression.

Child’s Birth Order

The order of the child’s birth is effective for their personality development. Especially Alfred Adler puts forward that birth order effects the personality development in his personality theory. According to Adler, the elder children improve as leadership characteristic, but when the second child is born, their leadership ends. Distrustfulness and behaviorist problems can appear in first child.

According to Adler second or middle child shows reactive and rebellious attitudes to the elder child’s authority. However little child doesn’t want to take other children’s position. They can become spoilt and improve insufficient emotions. Single children become dependent, they can’t improve social attitudes.

There are lots of researches about the effects of the child’s birth order in the development of personality. According to the results of these researches, it is determined that the eldest children are tends to be successful, motivated to be sufficient and tends to be a person who loves to rival. And it is seen that the single children have trouble to develop friendship and they the rules of their group

It is usually mentioned that the middle children in the family carry the most difficult responsibility. While the middle children are competing against their elder brothers or sisters they have to cope with the siblings come after him or her. The middle children need to be more dependent than their other siblings.

The youngest children have the advantage of borning later, especially in the point of being social. As they have the opportunity of observing their siblings; they can learn the suitable social attitudes. At the same time, time, they experience the advantages of their parents’ experiences that are increasing. Also, the factors like that how old is the mother when she gave birth and if the other siblings’ ages are closer to each others’ age or not and the difference of the siblings’ age are very important. In the developments of the little children.

Culture

The culture we live in can affect the personality. All cultures have their on merits, believes, customs, moral compression and types of attitudes. Bound to this, it is expected to show certain personality characteristics from the individuals live in this culture. For example; Turkish culture expected individuals to be hospital.

The culture determines all the personality characteristic that the person will love, in the progress of socialization of the person. The first source of socialization is parents. Then equal groups, teacher and the sources like mass media tools included in the progress of socialization. The mass media tools provide models for social attitudes especially with the informations about the attitudes and values that the culture expects.


B. PERSONALITY IN ADOLESCENSE

1. To Be Formed Adolescent Personality

a. Internal Effects

The Extreme Sensitiveness of Adult Towards other’s ideas especially about physical changes:

The physical changes play a great part in adult’s concept of “ego”. In adolescence body become the symbol of ego and a changeable body means a changeable “ego” Ego is not only an inside reality, a forms of conscious and the changes in the concept of ego have echos of social, mental, excitable.

The adolescent is over sensitive towards other’s ideas. They are also over sensitive ideas like moral and cultural as much as to the ideas related to the physical appearance. These opinions and criticism are not necessary to be mentioned clearly; a glance, a gesture and a mutter are enough. The adolescent think that others are talking about him even if they aren’t. Body is presented to others’ opinions completely. Naturally and clearly and it is not possible to change the appearance of body as it can be done when it comes to character. Then the person have to gain emotional balance about physical appearance in order to be successful in being harmonium.

The changes of sexual organs can cause very big problems for both sex of adolescents. The boy who recognize the progress of penis and it’s erection feel himself bad and he is the victim of a vague tension and he feel himself uncomfortable with the size of the penis that’s become obvious under the cloth. Also the girls face with the same problems when their breast become obvious. Their menstrual period and breast always busy the girl’s mind. They are same adolescents who wish to remove these proofs of physical changes. On the other hand some adolescents try to make obvious of their appearances by the soul middle in when these new conditions appear. Rejecting maturations, emotions of guilty are talked about.

The other form of getting suspicious of himself: the anormal developments and very strong esthetic anxiety.

Although the boy fear from the appearance of the bristles of armpit and the space between the thighs, he observes the amount of these bristles’ increase and spread way carefully. In this development if there is slowness, an anormal spread or absence of bristles in some parts, the adolescent feel immediately that he is different from others or he is inharmonious from the point of sexual view. These depressed fears explain the extreme shyness in most adolescents. With the fear of discovering a difference by comparing they don’t want others see them or see others. The girls are also face with the same situations, too. But it is started that esthetics anxiety is much more in girls.

It is necessary to add a point that’s forgotten in most times. There is an evolution of esthetics and sexual maturation between the two sexes. Boys criticize and decide the physical faults of the girls who are at the same age of them. The girls do the same thing, but more cautiously.


The psychological importance of menstrual period and girls.

Menstrual period is a source of anxiety on girls. Psychoanalysts dwell on the psychological trauma which is the cause of first menstrual period. Maybe they’ve exaggerate this subject, but shedding of this blood which can’t foreseen when the mother don’t make ready can be perceived as a secret punishment. When the girl learn that this fact will continue during most of her life and that this is not exist in the opposite sex, she might wont to change her sex and remove her sexuality.

Narcissism is a tool of defence of adolescent towards lack of confidence.

It is known how much an addescent is interested in himself. It is clear that narcissism is the cause of the extreme admiration and boast the parents showed their children in their childhood. On the other hand this narcissism has very deep individual origin. During entire evolution, person is sure very little about the world surround him as much as about himself.

Also the person has a tool which is completely easy and which he can apply immediately for protect himself and reduce his tension. This is to love himself and evaluate extremely with being indifferent to other opinions. That is, narcissism is the person’s provide to depend himself towards lack of confidence of life conditions.

Personality problems when the maturity is late.

In a research (Abernethy) which was applied on a group of girl adolescents, some of whom show late adolescence and the other early, was defined a social late adolescence and the others early, was defined a social disorder behavior on the %25 (twenty-five percent) of these girls; they can’t participate in the group life, they can’t take responsibility, etc. In another research that was done on the persons who show late development, a mental insuffiency, over excitement, an obvious sentimentality was found on them. A researcher (Klotz and Elmaleh) discovered an over excitement, a big shyness, a definite irregularity of psychomotor skills, difficulty in paying attention on the persons who show a late genital development. In a very wide research that Origlla and Geresa made on the same persons, they obtained these results; insufficient level of intelligence, the shyness that become definite with preparing only one friend, the behavior of adopting the group like sheep, showing over interest to the children games, being with the elder or younger children than him particularly to avoid being compared with the normal children of the same age, very strange feeling of inperior related to the insufficiency of anatomic genital, tendency of being alone and daying dream, being indifferent to the things that are happening in the environment, being aggressive to other women to hide the sexuality that doesn’t exist in truth.

Although the evolution of personality depends on the individual’s psychological origin, when the body type is childish, the personality also becomes like this. The attitudes and behaviors that are defined above are really childish.

The sexuality necessitates the brain that attains a sufficient evolution level as much as the genital organs’ functional maturity for being normal.


b. External Effects

The absolute absence of father authority upsets the relations of parents and child.

In our time now, patriarchal family organization was disappeared with the agriculture and rural society’s being industry and city society.

In the same way the absolute father authority doesn’t suit in our modern understanding in every kind of authority that isn’t related to the known and accepted value. Family organization must depend on mutual loves of the members of family as the fear of father disappear with his authority. But it is not always easy in practice when the parents give up their old roles and try to be friends of their children, they lose the possibility of being adult model in the eye of adolescent. On the other hand, the father that feels the danger of freedom can try to gain his power that he lost before. In this way the parent’s behavior change from over severances to over love shows.

Generation disagreements

There are always conflicts between generations without doubt as it is usual; because it is in people’s nature as it is usual; because it is in people’s nature to try to do better and more different than the people who are elder. Adolescents’ negative opinions against adults cause them to refuse father authority. The youngs are not especially against authority as a principle; they are only against the authority which rely on a simple tradition, not on a real superiority. Superiority’s criterions must be intellectual and cultural abilities. Today, the adolescent can not find a superiority like this and because of this he can’t accept to submit.

2. Bases Of Adolescent’s Personality

The adolescent doesn’t try to involve the others in his command like a child in searching himself from now on; he tries to understand them to discover who is he

The action of discovering the identity on child continues with the feeling of gaining power on exterior world. The is well-known “mystical thought” period. The child believes that thinking a subject believes that thinking a subject means revealing it. The child has really learned thanks to experience that a lot of things love existed generally in relation with the wishes. This is the thins that Piaget called “participating”.

In adolescent ego consciousness develops in two areas. These are: relations with others and profound inner life.

There is a big difference between exterior behaviors that the person’s relations with society and human beings and the behaviors that are inside him. Ego consciousness provides the ad descent to search an insulation special to him and protects. Third insulation wish goes an continuously and interestingly whit the necessity of realizing the experience of a new person, but everything is formed by the tendency the person has for protecting a deep part of his personality.



The adolescent creates idols, as he needs an external support while he is searching himself.

The adolescent who feels the internal difficulty of his personality’s formation, can look for a support from other people. But parents, siblings or friends seem to him insufficiency from the point of any help view, because the adolescence hate the emotional element’s interfering physical element. At the same time, he feels suspicious the others’ using this element. Also the adolescent is under the effect of the bewitched attitude coming from the children while he is searching for this support-person.

Lots of research show that boys choose sports champion and girls choose the cinema stars. Later this election may change, champions and stars turn to writers and statesman and artist.

The adolaescents ideal portrait and otoportre show their memory work.

When the adolescents are asked to line up the quality of a girl or a boy they want to be, most of answers is concerned with the quality of esthetics; physics, power, ability of sports, politeness and magnificent appearance. Then come volition, emotion of duty, intelligence, etc. For some people there is not ideal type, ideal is to become himself.

The inside tension of adolescent is too much that it needs a bigger control of himself.
The adolescent usually doesn’t have excitement balance. But the person try to control his excitement so a tension is transformed a bad temperament and an emotional coldness which extinguish all the interest of the person towards the external world. If the control enterprise is powerful, it can be a depression pushing pushing the adolescent suicide.

There are lots of things the adolescents needs. The real reason of these suicide are these internal tension. Bad marks, parent’s scolding or love disappointments are only the reason in appearance.

As the lots of research show, this tension is always borned in the adolescent’s environment he live in.

The excitement reaction of adolescent, fear and anger.

Hick and Hayes find out that %50 (fifty percent) of boys in the primary school fear some things. These fears divide into three categories. The fears that the material elements cause : dogs, wild animals, big storms with lightening and thunder and etc. Fears come from the society relations: knowing new peoples, stating lonely at home, taking a role in a school play, telling something in the class, joining a festival, etc. Fears dependent an abstract reasons: poverty, dying a person who is very popular, fear of illness, fear of being blind deaf or paralytic, ethnical and religious depressions.

The adolescent finds that the reason of childhood and adulthood’s anger gather in himself. Child usually get angry because of concrete reason (for example when someone prevent the work he does or take the joy he loves) and the adult get angry because of abstract reasons and especially because of social and professional injustice. The adolescent who stays between child and adult and has not leave childish behaviors yet but gain a big maturity gets angry because of both abstract and concrete reasons. Showing the anger can be both in a childish manner (shouting, knocking his feet to the floor, crying)and in an adult manner (rough words, etc.)

C. FREUD’S THEORY ABOUT PERSONALITY

• Topographic Theory
• Structure Theory
• Psychosexual developing periods

Topographic Theory

Freud’s topographic theory divides the psychological structure into three categories: consciousness, preconscious ness, unconsciousness. These levels of consciousness aren’t the anatomical structure involved in the brain: they are the structure which expresses how much individuals are aware of mental activity they do.

The conscious: The conscious is a level that includes the lives that the individual is aware of.
For example: The memories, emotions, thoughts you’re aware or row experience with a conscious and can be shared with other people

The preconscious: The preconscious is a level that contains mental events and lives that are not in conscious now but when they are thought attentively that can come to the level of conscious

The unconscious: The unconscious is a level that contains the person’s desires, wishes, impulses, thoughts, emotions and lives that he person is not aware of.

For example: Some past event are forgot and throw out of the conscious in time. Some lives are not in the conscious because of the social, religions and moral reasons or thrown of the conscious. Also the desires, wishes, impulses that the society doesn’t like are not given permission to come in the conscious and they are stayed out of conscious with a press.
The conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious are always influence each other.

Structural Theory

Freud improved the structural personality theory with the thought of that some energies that is out of conscious and the internal state or conflict have a great role to determine the personality he started that the structure of personality is formed with id, ego and superego.

Id is the primitive composition of the personality which come from birth and form the source of psychological energy and which come with genetic heritage.

Ego is a piece of personality which is realist, appropriate for logic, acting wisely, controlling the conscious.

Superego forms the ethnical, judgmental side of the personality as it represents. The rules of family and the society.

According to the Freud’s structural theory, ego should take the administration duty for a healthy development of personality; and also it should find some satisfaction ways for the person’s needs with providing an agreement between the desires of superego. So there will be harmonious personality that balance id, ego and superego elements can be superior and an unhealthy development of personality will be occurring.
For example: the person whose superego is the more superior than the others takes the ethic rules into consideration, shows shyness, always hinder his sexual desires. On a contrary state, the person whose personality’s id is more superior, doesn’t take the ethic rules into consideration, acts egoistly, and have relation problems with the others. The person whose personality ego is more superior, always act logically, realistically.

According to the structural theory, ego should find a balance between id and superego. But in some conditions ego can’t find a balance and as results of this, there’ll be a dispute between the structures of personality.

For example: The internal structure of personality wants to find satisfaction for his internal compulsions. If the ego and if prevent this is occur. Also, sometimes the desires that the ego gives permission to it to find a satisfaction, a dispute is occur again.

The depence mechanism is the forms of thought, attitude and behavior that it use for coping with this disputes.

Pshycasexuals Developing Periods

Freud mentioned that the first five years if the life forms the characteristics of personality in the adult time. He also said that personality develops in five psychosexual periods that are Oral, Anal, Fallik, Latent and Genital.

Oral Period: This period is the first period of pshycasexuals development and begins with to birth and continue 1st month. In this period the pleasure section is month section. (Mouth, lips, tongue, gum)

For Example: If the mother suckle her baby too much or too short baby begin to be greatly gratified by his mouth. Consequently, when the baby grows up, he begins to slow some fixed ideas with his mouth like smoking, drinking, eating too much, or chewing gum.

Latent Period: This period is between 5 and 12-13 ages. During this period the child’s sexual interest and desires are out of his conscious but it continues to be there like a secret children develop relations with people near him and they become much closer with the people at the same sexes. Than the others. But if the children don’t pass a healthy latent period, they can develop some negative attitudes.

Genital Period: This period contains the bachelorhood. In this period the children’s sexual emotions become clear again.

D. ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY

Freud explained the personality of human with the psychosexual periods and taking the sex as a basic subject in the development of personality, he always emphasized the sex. But Ericson explained the development of human personality with the psychosocial periods and he took the psychosocial development as a basic subject.

He examined the personality development in a period. Although he emphasized the importance of childhood in personality development, he said the personality develops during all the life. Also Ericson emphasized that develops during all the life. Also Ericson emphasized that social and cultural environment have a significant role in the development of personality.

His explanations about the periods of psychosocial development:

Lack of Confidence Towards the Basic Confidence:

This first period that begin with the birth and continue to 1.5 ages of child, contains the complexity of baby’s gaining lack of confidence towards the basic confidence. That is, the first duty of babies in the life is to solve this complexity. According to Ericson the babies who gain the basic confidence, can develop the emotion of that the world is a safe place.

According to Erickson the children who can’t gain the basic identity emotion or experience inconfidence can improve an attitude like being shy, even antisocial and being vandal.

Shyness and Anxiety to Autonomy

When children come to two years old, they become to second period which is characterizes with shyness to autonomy and anxiety confusion. This term continues to the third age and it includes the ages that the children gain the abilities of walking, running, controlling their actions and starting the toilet education children start to behave autonomously by gaining these abilities.

If the children’s autonomous behaviors are prevented or punished, children starts to be anxious about themselves and because of this they experience shyness which is a anger to themselves.

If the parents prevent the children’s interactive children begins to have emotions of guiltiness. In contrast to this, if the parents provides their children to interrogate in a lovely manner I children are complex to be successful.

Inferiority complex

It is very important that parents in their home and teachers in school should motivate children to be successful, determine the children’s successful paints and give them a chance to try and prepare a suitable environment.

In contrast to this, if children’s parents and teachers expect them to be more and less successful then they are children progress an inferiority complex.

Identity Faltering to Identity

When adolescents become successful to find their role and recognize themselves, they develop a strong identity. But in contrast to this, they experience identity faltering.

The adolescent, who experience the identity faltering, can denying their identity. However, some adolescents tends to behave opposite to their society’s expect ions by developing opposite identity. For example; a teenage, whose family expect him/her to be a model at every time, shows unexpected attitudes like smoking or narcotic.

Being Isolated to Closness

After gaining the sexual, social and career identity emotions in bachelorhood, adolescents faced with a confusion that includes eighteenth and twenty fifth ages at early adulthood. This confusion is a gaining of being isolated to closeness.

The young people who have the anxiety of losing his identity in his relations may not want to be close to other people and can go away from other people. In this state, it can cause the person being lonely.

Stagnation Against Productivity

The productivity in this period means people’s ability of being useful for themselves, families and society.

Being not productive make the person’s life stagnant and unproductive.

Hopelessness Towards Entirety of Ego

If the individuals are pleased his past, and accept his life with it’s all side, they reach the entire age.

On the other hard when they look their past, or felt that they made a wrong decision or that they didn’t do all the decision they wanted, they being to have the emotion of hopeless.

Karen Harney

According to the Harney a healthy person is a person who can use the each attitudes of being against persons, according to the conditions they are in the person who is neurotic usually use one of these three attitudes and take it as a way of life.

Learning Theories

Learning Theories emphasized the role of lives and learning in the personality development with observing the attitudes that can be observe and measured with scientific methods.



Behavioral Theories

Behavioral theories that explain the personality appear by John Watson’s and BF. Skinner’s works.

Social Learning Theories

It is development by Walter Mischel and Albert Bandura. According to the social learning theory, personality is the result of composition of acquaintance process.

Humanistic Theory

Humanistic Theories depends how people behave what kind of personality they have, that is, they have the freedom of choosing their own personality. They see the people as an individuals who can take the responsibilities of their own personality.

E. THE OTHER THEORIES THAT EXPLAIN
THE PERSONALITY

Modern Psychodynamic Theories

The theorists who think different from Freud, said that the functions of ego and the individual’s social reaction play a great role in the personality.

Carl Jung:

Jung claims that there is a common unconscious that is used by all the people and that is a piece of heritage.
Jung also claims that the individuals borned with a personality that have extrovert and introverted inclinations. These inclinations contain the individual’s interest with himself and the outworld. The people Jung defined as a introverted is the people who is shy and suspicious and these people can’t make friends easily and they prefer to watch the world instead of being in the world. The people whom he named as an extrovert people, are clear people and they have confidence, they can get friends easily and they do lots of activities in the world.

Alfred Adler:

According to the Adler people try to compensate their missing emotions with the superiority efforts. If he become successful, healthy personality development is occurred. But the individual hides the missing emotions with the exaggerated superiority efforts, so a personality image is occurred which is spoilt.

Roger’s Personality Theory

Rogers explain the development of personality with the development of ego.
Ego which is an important concept in the personality theory, includes the perception, though and values that a person have about himself.



Maslow’s Personality Theory

According to the Moslow motivational factors form the basis of personality. The desire of being successful in realizing himself or the desire of revealing potential of himself is a propulsive power in the development of personality.

Treyt Theories

According to the Treyt Theory, personality is a synthesis of permanent and consistent characteristic.


MORAL

Each person has some ethical judgments related with the attitudes on which whether good or evil, whether it could be confirmed or nevertheless could be accepted in any way. These judgments that determine the self-behaviors and the self-motions of the individual, and what he or she should do and not do derive from the belief and the value system which is peculiar to the individual. However, morals are the whole rules, rights, and the missions that are shared in the environment and by the society in which the individual lives.

A. THE PROGRESSION OF THE MORAL PRACTICES

There are some rules that are expected to be obeyed by the individual in the society where the person lives. These kinds of rules indicate the status of the individual and what kind of person he or she is. The individual spend a well adjusted with the society and peaceful life by internally adopting these rules. Here is; the improvement of the moral practices is known as the process in which the individual improves, and adopts the rules that he or she has esteemed. The progression of the moral practices in terms of the individual is described beyond carelessly and blindly conforming the society’s wishes as forming a process of the system of values in order to actively conform to the society’s wishes.

The values have never been more important than in the youth period of time of the any period of time. For many people, a certain progression of the moral sensation whose boundaries have been determined is identified in the youth period of time.

Getting mature of the young in terms of intellectuality, the social expectations, and demands accelerate the progression of the morel practices. The young person takes and chooses some of the various values, which are presented to him/her self whereas she/he refuses some of them. There is a system of values that guide each young person’s life whether it is good or bad. There is an internal and close relationship between having a strong feeling of identity and having values.

During the youth period of time, first of all, the traditional ideas are overwhelming. According to this, the true attitude is doing what he or she should do, respecting to the authority and maintaining the social order.

Intellectually, to gain the moral principles does not mean obeying them. The humanbeings’ doing the things that are important for them depends upon the measure of the importance of the morality in their own personality and identity.

Although almost everybody has accepted that the young people care the moral and values of the society there is not a certain and precise agreement on the progression of the moral values. In order to comprehend the moral progression, different theories have been suggested. Among them the advocators of the intellectual approach have reported that the moral values could be generated through the ability of the thinking fitting a moral case. On the other hand, for some, morality is related with what the people have done rather than what they have thought. At this point, the studies of Jean Piaget related with the mental progression is important.

B. PIAGET AND MORAL UNDERSTANDING OF HIM

In Piaget’s opinion, the moral progression has parallelism with the intellectual progression. It carries different characteristics from the latter and emerges out of the different periods of time following a certain sequence and each other. It cannot be expected the fact that the individual reach the last step of the intellectual improvement. Within the intellectual progression, the ages of maturing and learning become determinant. The same case is also accepted in the moral progression. Piaget who examined the children with each aspect indicated that the true and misbehaviors of the children change according to the age. The child imitates what he/she has seen in the outer world up to the age of seven. He realizes the opposite sex; the girls between the ages of seven and ten and begin to understand what this means. However, the child at the age of ten thinks that the rules are put according to the situation. Also the children can comprehend whether his/her behavior is right or wrong; good or bad around the age of twelve. However beforehand while deciding whether his or her behavior is good or bad the child used to take decision according to the results that he or she could create.

During the adolescence term the young person behave cooperatively according to the moral concept. At this point the rules based upon the environment and the conditions are determined in the context of the unity of the ideas. From now on these young people have understood the fact that there are no absolute truths and wrongs.

The moral judgment scheme determines the decision level about how the people, who have different points of views could solve the social contradictions. Evaluating the incidents according to the points of views of other people provides the child to go away from being self-centered, and to socialize himself/herself more quickly.

The results of the analysis’ that are gained from the evaluations on the children pointed out the fact that there are two terms on moral progression.

The Term Depended upon the Outer World:
It is the term taking place from the birth to the age of ten. The child believes the unchangeability of the rules. He/she thinks that the ones who do not obey the rules will be punished.

Autonomous Term:
At the age of eleven and above this age, what the children have done begin to gain relativity, and the value judgments of the children who take care the conditions in which they stand gain flexibility. The children who have come to this term evaluate what they themselves have done rather than what the others have done, and then begin to behave accordingly.

Finally Piaget has settled parallelity between the moral progression and the intellectual progression, and reported that going forward to the term of abstract process the children move toward the autonomous term from the term depended upon the outer world.

On the other hand, Lawrence Kohlberg extending Piaget’s conception has revealed that the moral progression is constituted of three terms.

C. LAWRENCE KOHLBERG AND THE MORALITY CONCEPT

Kohlberg who extended further the dimensions of Piaget’s theory upon the moral progression has generated her own theory. According to Kohlberg, in order to identify the level in which the person stands he is interested in the process while the person approaches a solution or while the person heads towards a certain attitude or behavior instead of being interested in the solution that the person has found or the attitude that he/she has showed when he or she has faced some kinds of problem. For instance; rateher than focusing on the telling a lie attitude of a student, it can be concentrated upon the reason that the student has pointed out.

Kohlberg read to his subjects the stories that are more complex and include deeper moral contradictions. In other words; passing beyond the two termed levels of Piaget, he found out six leveled progression process going toward the adolescence and the maturity.

The three and two terms determine the levels of moral progression of Kohlberg, which ascend more and more while progressing.

The Terms Of The Moral Proression
I. The level before the tradition:
it is Piaget’s period of intellectual progression before his process term. In this term, the self-centeredness is preeminent in the child’s moral judgments. During this term the person is open to the cultural rules and values such as the good and bad, and true and wrong. However, the child evaluates these according to their physical results like the punishment and the reward, or according to the physical power of the person that puts such kinds of rules. This level covers two terms.

1. Term: submission and punishment inclination:
Within this term, the results of the attitude (behavior) determine whether that attitude is good or bad. If an attitude is punished it is bad and if not punished it is good. To prevent from the punishment and total submission toward the authority are valuable. To obey the elders’ rules is important for the child because they are older and powerful people. Not to cause a trouble or be in the trouble is important.

2. Term: pure pragmatist attitude:
The true attitude is the satisfying one of the individual’s needs. Love, loyality, and the justice concepts take the place of the pragmatic giving-receiving concept (if you help me I will help you). The child does the attitude that is rewarded, and avoid from doing the attitude that is punished.

II. Traditional level:
In this level, the child gives importance to the expectations of the family in which he/she is a member, his/her friend group, and the environment. The truths of the accepted reference group are also the truths of the person. At this point the attitude is not only obeying the social rules according to the social order but also is the loyalty towards these people. The establishing the present social order and identifying with the institutes and groups are important. This level is composed of two terms.

3. Term; good child tendency:
During this term good attitude is the behavior that makes the other people content, help them, or is appreciated by them. To obey widespread norms takes in the first place. Confidence, loyalty, respect, the maintenance of the mutual relationships, and the gratitude are important.

4. Term: tendency towards the law and the order:
In this term, the important thing is to behave in order not to make content the other people but to protect the set rules and social order. The right behavior is doing one’s own mission, showing respect towards the authority, and obeying the rules and the laws. The settled social order is accepted without criticizing.

III. Level: the level beyond the tradition (autonomous or principled)
Within this term, the struggle of identification of the moral values and principles that have the validity and application independently from the authorities of the people or the groups who put these values and principles and the person’s getting autonomous with these groups is seen. In the first level, the person is out of the influence of the authority. However in the second level, the person makes the authority autonomous, but the authority is not inquired. In this third level, the personal authority is formed. There are two terms in this level.

5. Term: the tendency towards the contract and convenience to the laws:
Within this term, the right attitude, considering the human rights, and the social benefits is examined and accepted by the society.

6. Term: the tendency towards the universal moral principles:
In this highest term, the right and the wrong is described with the conscience and the moral principles that the person himself/herself has constituted not with the rules and laws of the social order.

According to Kohlberg; the progression of the morality emerges within this term because it is making a synthesis of the moral progression in the each term that has been gained in the previous term and reaching beyond this synthesis. However, each individual might not come to the sixth term. What’s more, most of the adult individuals stay in the fourth level according to the researches of Kohlberg.

KOHLBERG’S TERMS OF MORAL PROGRESSION

Level and Its Terms
I. TERM
Before tradition Self-centered moral concept that continues to the age of ten when the rules set by others could not be comprehend exactly
I..Level: (submitting in order to prevent from the punishment) Taking a decision according to the result of an incident without caring the others’ feelings and thoughts while making a moral judgment related with the truth and wrongdoing
II. Level: (individual benefit, the mutual relationship) Determining the quality of the moral judgment according to the benefits that might turn to him/her self.
II. TERM
Traditional A kind of moral concept based upon the behaviors fitting into the expectations of others and social traditions.
III. Level: (the expectations of the other people towards social conformism) The moral judgments are taken parallel to the points of views of the other individuals
IV. Level: (the laws and rules related with the social order) A kind of moral understanding where the behaviors are suitable for the laws, rules, and the social order.
III. TERM
Beyond Tradition A primitive moral understanding related with the ability of demonstrating suitable behaviors for universal humanist values beyond the rules and the laws related with the social order.
V. Level: (universal principles) Considering the laws and the rules as the social contract that gives importance to social benefits among the humanbeings. Accepting the necessity of the change of the rules that do not respond the social benefits.
VI. Level: (universal principles) A kind of moral understanding based on the universal moral values and could be seen in a few people.

D. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Social learning theory is to accept that the mechanism of the moral progression is identical with the other mechanisms of gaining attitudes. Learning, learning via model, taking a model, and imitating are the fundamental concepts of the learning mechanism. We have the source demonstrating what is right (true) and what is wrong. The child’s having a good model depends upon the constitution of a good moral structure.

Psychoanalytic theory is explained with the concepts of id, ego, and the super ego during the moral progression. However in the social learning theory, the data based upon the observation are responsible for the autonomous.

According to the social learning theory, conscious and moral progression, the parents and the other models are important. In the respect of this theory, the most outstanding models are the mothers and the fathers for the children in the little ages. At the same time, the permanent quality of the attitudes that are gained in the early ages is much more.

E. INTELLECTUAL PROGRESSION THEORY
This approach is different from the moral understanding evaluation of the social learning theory. Whereas the social learning theory investigates the moral understanding in the level of the behavior the intellectual progression theory explains the moral understanding with the mental processes of the individual and the judgmental understanding.
The pioneer researchers of the intellectual progression theory are Piaget and Kohlberg.

F. DEWEY’S POINT OF VIEW ON THE MORAL PROGRESSION

According to Dewey, the moral progression is closely related with the education of the individual. Education is provision of the conditions and the environments that give opportunity to mature completely the psychological functions (mental, emotional, and psychosocial) in the individual. In addition to be beneficial for the improvement of these psychological dimensions, education also helps to progress the system of the values in the individual. At this point, Dewey presented three different moral progression terms.

1- The level before the tradition: it is the term that includes the moral behaviors motivated with the biological and the social drives (impulses).
2- The level after the tradition: it is known as the term that adopts the values in which the individual lives.
3- The autonomous level: it is identified as the term in which the individual composes his or her attitudes with his or her own taking decision and reasoning, the individual adopts the standards of the group where he/she stands among by inquiring these standards. The points of views of Dewey could not be followed by the mass since the aspects of him are in the theoretical frame.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

C, I, Sandström. Çev. Prof. Dr. Refia Uğurel (1982). Çocuk Ve Gençlik Psikolojisi (2. Baskı) İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Matbaası

Erden, M. Akman, Y. (2001). Gelişim Ve Öğrenme Ankara: Arkadaş Yayınevi

Kağıtçıbaşı, Ç. İnsan ve İnsanlar (10. Baskı) Istanbul: Evrim Yayınevi

Sprinthall, N. (1990). Educational Psychology: A Developmental Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill. P:141

Yörükoğlu, A. (1987). Gençlik Çağı İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Yayınları

*Ege Üniversitesi PDR Bölümü 2. Sınıf Öğrencileri, Aralık, 2005

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