Social Gathering and Personality

After attending a social gathering this week, it is easy to see that culture does play a key part of a person’s personality. In some situations a person’s reaction may be separate from the social experience, such as the one viewed this week. Attending the funeral of a very dear friend was hard, but the reaction that was there among a lot of her friends and family was very different than what most people would believe is socially acceptable. There was some crying by those members of her family that were closest, but her husband and his family were not as outwardly upset as what was one would expect. The woman was not sick, but had been in a horrible car crash, so it could have been the shock, or it could be because the husband’s family is of Italian decent. They may see death differently than most Americans do. This was definitely something separate from the social experience.
    Traits are behavioral dispositions. They are influenced by many things such as the beliefs that one grows up with, the social experience that he or she has, and the situation that each person is in. People can easily be influenced by those around them; one example is a man who would normally not be so short with a waitress because his steak was cooked incorrectly may shout and make a scene because he is with a couple of loud friends. This same man may be less apt to repeat that behavior if he is out on a first date with a woman he likes.
    Behavioral dispositions and act frequencies are two positions in the nature of traits. Act frequencies sum it up as traits being a way of grouping different acts together. Behavioral dispositions state that these same traits are tendencies to act or react to an outside stimulus. They both agree that traits are more than just something programmed in a person’s head; they are in fact affected by the things that surround a person.