ABOUT ME!

Hello! My name is Diana Rivard and I am 27 years old. I am in my final class at Rivier University, graduating in January with my Bachelors in Human Development. My wonderful husband Paul and I were married on August 6, 2010. Together we have a very energetic 4-year-old boy, and I was blessed with two amazing stepsons, 9 and 7 years old. We have a beautiful Shiba Inu dog named Thunder that is 2 and ½ years old.  I was working as an LNA on a Geri-Psych floor at a hospital, but due to an injury in July that resulted with surgery in November, I am currently out on disability. Being out on disability has given me the opportunity to dedicate my time to finishing school, and now I am hoping to find a position working for the Department of Health and Human Services. I enjoy traveling; I fancy  myself a huge movie buff, owning more than 1,000 DVDs! I love spending time with my family, doing outdoor activities, such as swimming, hiking, mini-golfing, going to amusement parks, or just relaxing at the beach. My husband and I are working on creating a great life for our kids, and while we’ve hit a lot of bumps along the way, we are heading in the right direction!

 

PSYCHOANALYTICAL

Theorist: Sigmund Freud

 

Focus: Two models to understanding personality: the Topographic Model and the Structural Model. The Topographic Model divides the human personality into three parts: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. The Structural Model which divides the personality down even further into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego.

 

Strengths: development of our personality through the eternal state of tension between a desire for self-indulgence, a concern for reality, and the enforcement of a strict moral code; growth and maturity from facing repressed internal conflicts.

 

Weaknesses: too much opposition can cause the use of defense mechanisms; to achieve growth and maturity often requires the individual to dig into the negative aspects of life, focusing on situations that we painful and unpleasant.

 

Personal Example: When I was a freshman in college, I was engaged. My fiancé was a police officer, and he was killed on duty. I repressed all my feelings from the event, and I shut everyone out. I started to do poorly in school, and I stopped hanging out with my friends. When my friends finally held an intervention, and forced me to confront my true inner feelings, I was able to accept the fact that Alex had died. I was able to move forward with my life; I started to do better in school, and I put myself back into social situations.

 

PSYCHOSOCIAL

Theorist: Alfred Adler

Focus: the role that parent’s play on personality, as well as the affect that birth order has on the development of personality.

 

Strengths: children from well-rounded, smaller families will have strong, positive personalities in their adult lives.

 

Weaknesses: children coming from large, dysfunctional families will have more negative personalities in their adult lives.

 

Personal Example: Growing up, I was the 3^rd child out of 4. My parents were very loving and, because we grew up with both my parents having very good jobs, we had many opportunities that some children do not get to have. We went to private school, we went on many vacations, and we had a lot of opportunities to do the things that we enjoyed doing. As an adult, I have a very loving and caring personality. I want my children to have the same experiences that I did growing up, and I strive to make their life the best that it can be. I am extremely dedicated, and even though we are going through a tough time financially right now, I am still making sacrifices so they can enjoy their childhood.

 

HUMANISTIC

Theorist: Carl Roger

 

Focus: the fully functioning individual.

 

Strengths: trusts their own feelings and does things because they want to do them.

 

Weaknesses: rebellious; does things regardless of what others, including society, thinks about it.

 

Personal Example: I am currently in my 9^th year of college, and on my 4^th major. While it has taken me a long time to get to the point of completion with my college education, I had to make sure that I was choosing a career that I enjoyed doing. My parents are upset that it has taken me this long to get my degree, but it is my future, not theirs. I had to make sure that I am going to be happy in my career, and that I could say, without a doubt, that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

 

TRAIT PERSONALITY

Theorist: Raymond Cattell

 

Focus: factor analysis; basing personality on five basic dimensions: neuroticisims, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

 

Strengths: a clear-cut, simpler way of classifying personality traits.

 

Weaknesses: there are so many different personality traits, each of which are unique to different people, that it “clumps” together many people who are in fact very different.

 

Personal Example: My three children are all extremely different boys. My older one does not like sports and is a very private and socially awkward child. My middle child is very outgoing; he loves sports and he loves to be around everyone and do things that include others. My youngest is very energetic and loves to be around other children, but given the opportunity he plays very well by himself. I’ve been told, on many occasions, that my youngest is extremely similar to my oldest, but I’ve also been told that he is extremely similar to my middle child. Although he is different than both boys, they have many similarities among the Big Five Model that he could be clumped together with either one.

 

BIOLOGICAL

Theorist: Hans Eysenck

 

Focus: there are three arguments when making the case that individual differences in personality are based in biology: consistency of introversion-extraversion overtime, results of cross-cultural research, and research that indicates that genetics play a role in personality.

 

Strengths: helps explain why children born into broken and abusive homes grow up acting the same way as their parents.

 

Weaknesses: does not take into account environmental factors that affect personality.

 

Personal Example: My son, whose two older brothers were born from a different mother, is taking on a lot of their personality traits, most of these traits are none that my husband or I have ever exhibited. However, because he lives with his half-brothers the majority of the time, he sees how they act and he acts just like them. My husband and I are very calm and understanding, and my son is very stubborn and hard-headed.

 

BEHAVIORAL

Theorist: B.F. Skinner

 

Focus: focusing on operant conditioning; the focus of this is a learning process in which reinforcing consequences immediately following a response increases its future likelihood and aversive consequences immediately following a response decreases its future likelihood.

 

Strengths: reward system for positive, acceptable behavior.

 

Weaknesses: negative aspects of punishment, ranging from spanking or other forms of physical punishment to time-outs or response-costs, less physical and more emotional or material.

 

Personal Example: My 7-year-old stepson has severe behavioral issues causing him to act out violently towards others or towards himself. We have implemented the reward/punishment system in our household to try and help him make better choices. When he acts out inappropriately, for example, when he hits his brother during a game, we remove him from the area and make him sit on the couch. We ask him to take deep breaths and calm down, and when he is ready, we ask him why he acted out the way that he did. If he can calm down, explain to us what happened, and sincerely apologize to his brother, he is allowed to go back and play. If he cannot calm himself down, we take away the opportunity for him to play that game for the rest of the day.

 

COGNITIVE

Theorist: George Kelly

 

Focus: the Personal Construct Theory, where people develop interpretations and predictions about others when they meet someone for the first time.

 

Strengths: allows others to get a sense of who the individual is when meeting them for the first time.

 

Weaknesses: causes others to be judgmental towards others that they barely know, sometimes creating false images of who these people are.

 

Personal Example: When I met my husband for the first time at a party put on by our mutual friend, I thought that he was a very self-centered and unfriendly individual. However, we kept running into each other, through our mutual friend, and I realized that my first impression of him was completely wrong. He is a very loving, compassionate person who puts others first in almost everything that he does, and he is so open and honest with others that people enjoy his company.

 

FEMININE PERSPECTIVE

Theorist: Karen Horney

 

Focus: explored cultural and social influences on personality using two approaches: her views on neurosis, and also what she called the “feminine psychology.”

 

Strengths: offers a wide variety of factors that help contribute to the development of personality.

 

Weaknesses: is geared towards women, and is harsher in the description of men’s personalities.

 

 

Personal Example: My sister is a stay-at-home to two beautiful girls. Her husband owns his own business and is always out working at all hours of the day and night. As a result, she is generally left home alone with her daughters all day and night. She very rarely sees any of her friends, and because of this, she has lost a lot of them over the years. The only time that I ever see her is if I make the trip out to her house because she doesn’t want to bring the girls out by herself. While she has a lot of the material possessions that she desires, she doesn’t have the social interactions that she desperately needs to have. She keeps to herself, and because of this she has driven her closest friends away with her behavior.

 

CLOSING

Looking ahead towards the future, my journey points me towards a strong, successful career and life. I have an amazing family that I love with all my heart, and that I would do anything for. I have an amazing support system, between my husband, my parents, my in-laws, and my friends. I have a strong personality that allows me to be patient with my children, despite all their difficulties, and it allows me to help them become successful with their lives. I may have had a very loving and supportive upbringing, but I have gone through so much in my life. I lost my first love in a cruel way, but it gave me the opportunity to meet my now husband, who I feel I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. I lost my best friend to cancer when we were 19 years old, but it taught me to cherish my friendships and show my appreciation for all their support. My husband and I are currently going through financial hardships, with me being out on disability and him having lost his job due to his injuries, but it has strengthened our relationship and made us appreciate the things that we have. I feel that life can only go up from here, and our future looks very promising!