Jared Dickerson

PSYC120-1204A-3

The Mind of A champion: Profile on Mike Tyson

November 11, 12

What the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Mike Tyson? The man who once told a reporter he was going to rape him? Or, the man who overcame the odds rose to the top to become champion? I choose to do a psychological sketch on Tyson because he was once the richest and best-known athlete in the world, but still remains one of the hardest people to understand. Mike Tyson was born June 30th 1966 in Brooklyn, New York. By the age of two he was living with his 5 siblings in a single parent household in Brownsville New York, one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city. Having being exposed to domestic violence at an early age, Tyson would build a love for training pigeon as an escape of his reality. At age 9, a 15-year-old gang member decapitated one of Tyson’s beloved pigeons by turning it’s head slowly till it snapped off. Seeing this Tyson attacked the boy like a wild animal and brutally beat him. From that point Tyson reputation began to grow in his neighborhood.
Tyson was quoted in an interview stating, “I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something. She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally." If a child doesn’t get that love and assurance from his parents between the ages of 2 to 5 the result can lead to confusion and doubt going forward. Its clear from his early encounters with the law Tyson never assessed the consequences of his actions. This underdevelopment in the pre convention stage also affected his moral reasoning later in life during the conventional stage.
After being recruited by a local gang at age twelve Tyson would participate in multiple acts that would get him arrested multiple times. According to Erikson theory of development between 5 and 12 you are greatly influenced by your neighbors and school so its no wonder by the time Tyson was 13 he had been involved in 38 petty crimes.
After an arrest Tyson was shipped to Tryon’s School for boys in upstate New York. He then where he begged the former pro boxer turned coach Bobby Stewart to let him enroll in the boxing program. Steward would not let Tyson box until he improved his behavior in school. Tyson went from a fourth grade reading level to a seventh grade reading level in three months without any disturbances in school. Stewart began training Tyson and he would stay up until 3 o’clock in the morning , no lights practicing what Stewart taught him in a closed gym. Mike Tyson began to display the perfectionism side of his personality. According to Wikipedia perfectionism, “ is a personality disposition characterized by an individual striving for flawlessness ant setting excessively high-performance standards ”. Boxing is about defeating your opponent mentally and physically and this requires detailed preparation. In the ring Mike Tyson was perfection, he was an extremely powerful boxer but was also very technical. This technique was mastered through hours of training, watching film, and paying attention to detail. Tyson’s perfectionism personality motivated him to strive for the unattainable and played a key part in him accomplishing the unattainable.

Noticing Tyson work ethic and obvious talents Stewart took Tyson to Cus D’mato legendary trainer who had two world champions train under him. During the audition Tyson had to spar his coach, Stewart. After three rounds of Stewart dominating Tyson, Cus stopped the fight. Cus told Stewart that Tyson was the next world champion. Tyson still had an uphill battle he hadn’t accomplish anything in his life and he was a raw fighter. At age 14 he stayed with Cus and other boxers and for the first time experienced a real family life. For the next four years Tyson spoke little to his house mates, with all the his physical gifts Tyson never developed confidence and was very shy. Coming from a criminal past, and a neglectful mother I’m sure Mike Tyson’s actions were never praise worthy and he never built confidence in himself and his actions. In the nature vs. nurture debate, you could argue Tyson’s violent upbringing heavily contributed in his career choice and decisions later in life.
Mike Tyson personality has a direct correlation with how he was raised as a child. I believed Mike Tyson developed his introvert personality at a young age. It’s critical as a child to develop confidence that they can handle your in society without the child may face problems later in life. Mike Tyson was probably not given enough attention being raised by a single parent who worked long hours. This inattention coupled with his poor behavior in school most likely lead to low confidence and self- esteem. During his biography he recalled that he use to play between buildings instead of on the street with the other children.
This anger brewing in Tyson would be on full display when in the ring. Tyson stunned trainers with the ferociousness he boxed wiht. Sparing partners would throw up there hands and quit after Tyson threw a quick combination; some not even wanting to get paid.
Tyson won 2 gold junior Olympics Championship gold medals and blew threw the amateur ranks. After Rising in the boxing ranks in 1988 Mike Tyson had won most of his fights by TKO in the first round. There was no one left to beat except unbeaten Michal Spinks, the heavyweight champion of the world. Spinks, who was ten times older then Tyson delayed fight for fear of Tyson and did not want to leave his dressing room. His trainer accused Mike’s trainer of tampering with the tape that’s used to tape a boxer’s hands pre fight. Hearing this accusation Mike Tyson was so furious he punched threw the wall. This is an example of Tyson’s abnormal behavior every since he attacked the bully on the street Tyson has never had full control over his emotions. Tyson defeated Spink’s in the first 91 seconds. Mike Tyson was officially the youngest heavyweight champion in history. Some say all that success at a young age was not the best for Tyson. In 1990 at age 21, he was 35-0 and on top of the world. When you have a person who hasn’t developed fully morally you cant expect that person to adapt fully into society without some growing pains. He had cars, woman, and all the money imaginable and no one was there to tell him no. When Cus D’mato died in 1985 so did the only father figure Tyson ever had. Promoter Don King saw this as an opportunity to fill that void. Under Don King Tyson, stopped training as hard, all the discipline that got him to this point was out of the window. Don King took control of Tyson’s finances and would repeatedly run up thousands of dollars on hotels and restaurant and charge it to Mike Tyson. The is an example of Nature vs. Nurture, if Mike Tyson would have grown up where his parents stressed financial discipline he could have managed his money better.
Tyson was very insecure and people he trusted would often try to take control of him and his money. He showed up in Tokyo to fight little known fighter Buster Douglas. In an interview before the fight he stated that he didn’t need to watch a Buster Douglas fight to prepare. Douglas defeated overweight and underprepared Tyson in three rounds. Three years after accomplishing one of the most amazing feats of all time Mike was life was spiraling .His wife divorced him after going publicly on Barbara Walters embarrassing Tyson and saying the marriage was horrible, and that Tyson had mental problems. Givens would later admit that she was on the receiving end of some of Tyson’s deadly blows after the interview. The relationship ended with the police being called as Tyson was throwing a fireplace instruments around. After taking half of his money Tyson was single again and was arrested on many assault cases in the years after. Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington a fashion model while judging a contest and sentenced to six years in prison.
According to Kohlberg’s theory it could be argued that Tyson never truly advanced through all the stages in his conventional stage of development. Because of the conviction it could be said that Tyson didn’t under the purpose of laws and their functions in society and was having trouble developing that crucial part in conventional reasoning that most people stay on the rest of their lives. This underdevelopment contributed to his conviction and it was clear that Tyson had trouble adapting to society. Tyson had trouble moving from stage three of his conventional stage. In this stage you judge morality, “of an action by evaluating its consequences in terms of a person's relationships, which now begin to include things like respect, gratitude”.(Wikipedia). \. To a person who has developed morally this type of behavior is unacceptable it’s clear Tyson was still having trouble adapting to the rules of society.
Prison changed Tyson. Not only did he change mentally but also spiritually. He had a lot of build up anger toward the American justice system and how he was persecuted. Don King made millions of Tyson’s comeback after prison. After fighting multiple comeback fights with laughable opponents he eventually was able to regain his title in 1996. He lost his title that same year to Evander Holyfield who he would later bite and be disqualified in a rematch in 1997. Tyson would be fined 3 million dollars and suspended from boxing. Tyson had turned into a pariah and was shunned by society. In 2002, after making 300 million in his career Mike Tyson filled for bankruptcy and was suing his former mentor/ promoter Don King for stealing 100 million dollars. Today, Mike Tyson has to fight to pay off bills and his court fees. He is no longer has the passion of the upcoming boxer who stayed up until three in the morning training. On the other hand he also isn’t the same man who was convicted of rape. I believe in his 50s Mike Tyson has fully begun to adapt fully into society, and society is more willing to accept the new Mike Tyson. He has appeared in recent movies and also has a television series were he races pigeons. Mike Tyson has been apart of some of the most exciting and most embarrassing moment in sports history. His life was constantly filled with violence and confusion. His mental health has always been in question but his physical ability was never in question. He will go down in history as one of the most polarizing athletes of all time.
Mike Tyson personality has a direct correlation with how he was raised as a child. I believed Mike Tyson developed his introvert personality at a young age. It’s critical as a child to develop confidence that they can handle your in society without the child may face problems later in life. Mike Tyson was probably not given enough attention being raised by a single parent who worked long hours. This inattention coupled with his poor behavior in school most likely lead to low confidence and self-esteem. Without role models or a support system affected Tyson his whole life. I believe that Tyson began looking inward to solve his problems, a true trait of an introvert. Being an introvert myself I can certainly relate. Being an only child in a single parent household, I often had to solve a lot of my own problems and still to this day prefer internalizing issues before discussing them with anyone.
Mike Tyson was the youngest lineal champion in boxing history. It takes extremely motivate to accomplish a feat that has never been done. Mike Tyson came from a low-income family and his positive influences were minimal. Coming from poor circumstances Mike Tyson used this as a source of motivation and that is a trait I would love to acquire..
I always admire people who fight and beat the odds. No kid coming from a single parent low-income household is supposed to grow up to be a champion. Mike Tyson was focused on training and honing his skills to the point of perfection. Boxers train months for a fight, some training sessions last all day long. A boxer has to have a strong attention to detail and has to know their opponent inside and out. I know if I applied that same attention to detail and develop a love for preparation I would be successful in all of my career goals. Mike Tyson always had a need for acceptance from his parents but never got the attention. His need for acceptance from his parents were never met and people in his life would use this to exploit Tyson. Mike Tyson’s behavior would be considered abnormal to the rest of society. He has an abusive past and He has also bitten an opponents ear on live television. He now has a tattoo that covers half of his face. Overall, when dissecting Mike Tyson’s background you begin to understand some of his behavior and personality. I’ve learned than it takes a strong man mentally to overcome the many personal issues he carried around and to finally become a champion. Studying Psychology has greatly changed the way I view individuals such as Tyson. The Nature vs. Nurture debate showed me that environment could have a direct affect on intelligence and development. Without Psychology many public programs that help improve the schools in low income communities would not be in place. Psychology also helps in the workplace as well. I can see the benefits of studying psychology in the human resources field, which I am pursuing. Having a basic understand of why people do the things is essential in parenting as well. Learning how a child develops has made me question some parenting tactics I use. I want my child to be able to function in society; in order to do that he has to develop morally as a person. The Nature vs. Nurture debate makes me want to work hard to put my child in an environment were he is challenged mentally and he’s praised for his accomplishments. I will use the knowledge I’ve acquired and apply it too various aspects of my life and my perspective on human behavior.