Retrospective Analysis of Personality

Retrospective Analysis of Personality
Reflection of My Life History
Growing up in Gary, Indiana, I moved to Houston, TX when I was 10 years old when my parents got a divorce. Being in a new city away from all of my childhood friends, I was very shy and reserved. My mom made me go to Sunday school at church each weekend and I believe this was to allow me to meet new friends. I never liked Sunday school or going to church as a kid or even playing any sports. Then around my freshman year of high school I decided to try out for football, mainly because my best friend talked me into it. I was one to follow the crowd by the time I became a teenager and that got me into a lot of trouble. For example, sneaking out of my bedroom window with my mother’s car keys to go for a joyride with my buddies at the age of 14. There was no father figure in my home, so I would either go to my best friend or my coaches to fill that void. I was the exact opposite of a leader. Finally by the time I reached my senior year, my personality started to take a turn for the better. As a senior football player with 3 years of experience, I became a leader on the team. After high school, I joined the Army National Guard and that was another culture shock for me. Going through this experience taught me further leadership skills and proved to myself that I could accomplish anything that I put my mind to. Later in life I met my wife and she was a woman that loved church. By the time I met her, I hadn’t gone to church in many years and still did not enjoy it. I would go to church with her once every couple of months while at the same time, she was a Sunday school teacher. One day while listening to a sermon in church, I can honestly say that I felt moved by a higher power to change my entire frame of thinking. I don’t remember what the sermon was about, I just remember saying to myself that I will never miss another day of church. I was selected to lead a men’s study group on Wednesday and have never experienced more joy in my life. Now reading my bible and fellowshipping is part of my everyday life, but I must admit, that I still get nervous when I speak in front of people, so much that my heart starts beating faster and I usually have to go to the bathroom before each lesson. Finally, I can say that another constant that has remained with me is my faithfulness. I have never cheated on anyone I dated, even back to my first girlfriend. I tend to believe this is due to experiencing the pain that my mother felt when she was cheated on by my father.
Nature vs Nurture
I believe that nature and nurture both play a role in my current personality. For example, alcoholism runs very deep on both sides of my family. I’m blessed that it didn’t affect my mother or father, though it affected my grandparents and many of my cousins and also my brother. I believe that it was genetic when I experience a struggle with alcoholism myself many years ago. My father and aunt are also compulsive gamblers and I myself love to gamble. Last I believe that I was successful as an athlete in high school because my family is full of athletes with great accomplishments before me, including my mother and father. Dad always told me that I got my speed from him and my brains from my mother. Nurture played a role with I learned how to be a man from my high school coaches and my drill sergeants in the Army. Also, when my best friend talked me into playing sports in high school. Also, when my wife was patient enough to stay with me and teach me how to be a great father, husband and servant in my community. My pastor has played a huge role in my growing into a leader at church as a small group teacher.

Sources of Inaccuracy Looking Back
Possible reasons for bias and inaccuracy whenever a person looks back on their past history can be related to the emotions that a person has experienced. Emotions arouse stress hormones that assist memory formation. When we are excited or stressed, these hormones boost activity in the brain's memory-forming areas. So, emotional arousal can store certain events into the brain, while blocking other less important memories that happen around the same time. Last, as we relive these experiences over and over again, we can end up training ourselves with misinformation that seems true to us.
Scientific Studies vs Personal Experience
Scientific studies are more reliable than personal experience, because you can’t always trust a person’s memory. People tend to block out memories that are from bad experiences or bring them a lot of pain. Also, we don’t like to take the blame for our own mistakes and tend to place the blame on others when recalling a memory. It is easier to trust a scientific study, because usually more test subjects are involved in the studies. The more people that are tested, the more a study can be trusted.