Psychology
The personality of Monica can be explored from the point of view of trait theory so as to understand what makes her behave like she does. The trait theory is an approach of studying personality that recognize and measures the extent to which some given personality traits such as thought and behavior patterns that recurs exist from one person to the other. This study involves various personality traits and allocates the extent that a given trait exists which then forms the personality of an individual. Traits refer to the enduring ways in which a one person differs from another person. The personality traits are normally stable over a given time, are consistent over various situations while differences among individuals results from the combination if their traits and strength differences. The study of personality traits encompasses some laws which view traits in terms of science (Keller & Schoenfeld, 2014). The traits have three key dimensions which include emotional stability versus neuroticism, extroversion vs. introversion and even psychoticism. Extroversion personality trait where a person is social and outgoing, who enjoy being with other people, participating with social activities and has a lot of energy. Conscientiousness refers to the personality trait where an individual shows self-discipline and carry put their work dutifully, have a propensity to being dependable and organized (Keller & Schoenfeld, 2014).
Monica’s personality traits include cheerfulness, friendly, assertive, sociable and are easily bored but have a leadership capability. This can describe Monica as being extraverted given that she is an outgoing and very social so that she enjoy the company of other people especially her friends. Her friend forms a very important part of her life and social support network and they even seem more important to her than even her husband. Her friendliness is insinuated by the description her friends give her which comprises of being talkative and supportive. She is also described as having a good heart and willing to help other mothers by watching over their child when the babysitter is sick while they go to work. Since she is fun loving person, who normally spends some time out with her family, she is also easily bored by routine work. Having stayed at home for about 15 years, she is starting to get bored with this kind of life unlike in the past where she worked and enjoyed working in a credit union. Monica can also be said to be conscientious because she liked precision in her work while she was employed, a characteristic which carried over to her housekeeping chores. She keeps her home and her children clean and she is bothered by any messiness in her surroundings. She is ware that she is a perfectionist, something that her friends agree with. Her friends know her as a very dependable and organize person with a high level of intelligence even though she has not attained a college degree.
Monica’s behavior and personality can also where the behavior, thoughts and feelings in an individual are associated with various environmental factors that influence a person. The classical conditioning as part of behavioral approach relates to a particular stimulus which has the ability to induce some given reaction. This is due to the systematic relation between the neutral stimulus with another stimulus that is unconditional and independent which results to the same reaction. This means that various factors in the environment can serve as the stimulus which leads to various thoughts, feelings and even behavior (Cervone & Pervin, 2016). In the case of Monica, the various surrounding factors or aspects may be leading to her reactions or feelings to her situation. The fact that her friends have all attained better education than her services as an external stimulus that induces her thoughts and considerations of her possibility of perusing at least a degree so that she can have better feelings about herself. In addition, her friends’ constant suggestions that she is intelligent acts as an external stimulus that increases her desires and feelings towards attaining higher education just like her friends. Monica’s duties of associated with caring for her children leads to her feelings of frustrations, since the work in absence of her husband seems to act as an external stimulus inducing these feelings. This is also seen when she losses temper due to her fatigue arising from the chores and duties she undertakes at home.
The operant conditioning can also explore the behavior expressed by Monica and her thoughts or feelings. Operant conditioning is founded in the concept that changes in a person’s behavior is due to the response of an individual to some specific stimuli or events in the environment in which they are. Reinforcement is a major element in this theory, where a reinforcer is something that triggers the desired response. These reinforcements can be either negative or positive, and effects of reinforcement schedules establish and maintain a certain behavior (Nelson & Quick, 2011). The desired response in Monica involves checking her reactions towards her children which she jokes about with kids and friends knowing that it stems from fatigue.
References
Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. A. (2016). Personality: Theory and research. 203 205
Keller, F. S., & Schoenfeld, W. N. (2014). Principles of psychology: A systematic text in the science of behavior (Vol. 2). BF Skinner Foundation.
Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. C. (2011). Organizational behavior: Science, the real world, and you. Mason, OH, USA: South-Western Cengage Learning. 81-82
