Personality

For the past couple of weeks I have learned a lot about my personality and learning style. Both my English and Personal Development class have focused on this subject. Along with my classmates I took a few tests that had to do with personality. I always thought I knew myself, but these tests tell me otherwise. After 22 years of my life I’m still learning new things about myself each day. 

I took a personality test this week and the results claim I am extravert 1, sensors 25, a thinker 12, and judgmental 39. Being an extravert means wanting to engage with the outer world and getting energy in that sense. I can work in groups but I don’t have a problem working by myself either. The second option would have been introvert and that is someone who needs time to process information. Sensors prefer to work with facts and figures, in other words they want proof. Second choice was intuitive personality and that is someone who likes to go with their gut feeling. 

It turns out I am more of a thinker than a feeler. Thinkers think about the overall picture and care about being logical. A feeler thinks about how his or her decision affects other people. I though I was somewhere in the middle. I always look at the overall picture and about the consequences before making a decision, but I also care tremendously if and how my decision will affect those who are close to me. 

Someone with judgmental personality likes to set goals and is very orderly. The other option would have been a perceiver. A perceiver is someone who is open-minded, doesn’t mind changing plans suddenly, is easily distracted, enjoys exploring, and likes to his or her options open. I for sure thought I was more of a perceiver. I do like to set goals for myself, make plans, and stay orderly, but I do think of myself as a perceiver as well. I enjoy keeping my options open, I don’t mind changing my plans in the middle of doing something, and I get easily distracted which is why I was surprised I scored 39 in judging personality. 

Learning Style ☺

Each week I learn something new about myself. This week in Personal Development class we took a short test on www.vark-learn.com and this test determines our preference of learning.

I have a strong preference for learning by aural methods. Aural learners learn most effectively by listening to information delivered orally in lectures, speeches, and oral sessions. Aural learners tend to gather their information by listening to a speaker; about 25% of the population does this.

Learners like myself best in take information by:

-attending classes

-attending discussions and tutorials

-discussing topics with others

-discussing topics with teachers

-explaining new ideas to other people

-using a tape recorder

-remembering the interesting examples, stories, jokes...

-describing the overheads; pictures and other visuals to somebody who was not there

-leaving spaces in notes for later recall and filling

Our notes may be poor because we prefer to listen. The website recommends reading summarized notes out loud and explaining notes to other aural learners. To perform well in any test, assignment, or examination, they recommend to listen to our voices and write them down, spend time in quiet places recalling the ideas, speaking our answers out loud or inside our heads, and practice writing answers to old exam questions.

I am glad I had a chance to take this test and learn this new information. I now know what way of learning best works for me. I would also say that this test is accurate because I can relate to it. Reviewing the material we covered in class with other classmates helps me memorize it. It also gives me a chance to hear how others put it in their own words. Reviewing the lecture with my fellow classmates often fills me in on information I missed; same goes for the other person/persons.   

Birth Order

In my PD class we talked about birth order, that is first born, middle child, and last born.  It seems as if our birth order has an impact on our personalities. Mrs. Williams handed out papers that consisted information on what the personality tends to be for first born, middle children, and the last born.

While parents of the first newborn are usually responsible and diligent, they are also tentative, anxious, and inconsistent-this makes them demanding, strict, and overprotective. It has been shown that first borns talk and walk before children who are born later. First borns get higher grades in school and have higher leadership and achievement traits. They are organized, have strong need for approval, they grow up pleasing people and taking care of others, they are high achievers, hard driven, tend to be perfectionists, don’t deal well with criticism, and are devastated by failure.

As each child is born, rules of the family become more relaxed. Middle children are usually the opposite of the first born. If first born is a loner, the next born will have numerous friends. It is common for middle children to feel squeezed out with the oldest or youngest getting more attention. They are very sociable, good mediators, they learn the art of negotiation and compromise, free-spirited, independent, and sometimes rebellious. They place great value on loyalty and are the likeliest to remain monogamous in their relationships.

By the time the last child is born, parents often let the child’s development proceed with more of a hands-off approach. Last born get abundance of attention and is often the target of jokes. They are accused of being spoiled, the ones that get everything the other siblings never had. They have tendencies to want things immediately. The last born child is often described as sociable, charming, loving, open, temperamental, irresponsible, and self-centered.

 Looking at this I must say I agree. I am the first born and I have one younger brother. We are complete opposites. I am happy to say I have always done well in school, but I can’t say the same for my brother. Every teacher he has ever had complained about his unwillingness to learn, disruptiveness, and unfinished schoolwork. He is loud and I am quiet. He has a million friends and I have a couple.  He is spoiled and wants everything his way, but he is very often loving and friendly. It is really amazing how much our birth order has an impact on our personalities.

Theatre

I love my theatre class. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first signed up for it, but now I am glad I did. One of the things I learned is that if you believe in your character and your relationship with other actors on stage, your performance will be believable. I am starting to realize that I would love to play roles that are completely opposite of me. I would love to play the bad guy, someone who is just plain evil. Not only would if be entertaining for me but I find it easier to play a role that is unlike myself than someone who is similar to me.