Reflective Essay: What Makes An Individual?

What makes an individual an individual? What defines individuality? Would it be the way we walk or the books we enjoy? What about our vocabulary or our sense of purpose? What drives us? Every move we make, every word we choose to say and have ever said or the facial expression we sometimes unknowing plaster on our faces all contribute to the overall question as to who we are as individuals. When we think about our life stories , the struggles we 've endured and memories we hold dear, we are classifying ourselves as individuals, because no one else has these memories, at least not to the same level of recognition. Furthermore, when we describe our like , dislikes, good habits and bad we are describing a set of characteristics that vary amongst every single person. When we ask our friends to describe us, they may all have similar answers. She 's talkative or he 's laid back, she smiles a lot or he 's more serious. Most of the time, they are describing a significant part of our personality However, not all aspects of our personality remain the same overtime. We may know someone who was once sweet and kind natured who has become bitter and resentful or someone who was once talkative and adventurous who has become an agoraphobic introvert. It is within these situations where psychology expresses reasoning behind why we remember things or people the way we do and why our accounts of situations may not always be accurate as well as why certain aspects of our personality changes overtime and the role nature and nurture has in these transformations. When thinking about my personality throughout the years, there are several changes in which I 've noticed as well as some traits that have remained the same. As a child, I was introverted and excluded myself from normal childhood activities. I was also very timid and even tempered. I loved reading books, drawing pictures and making "mud pies" from dirt and water. This easygoing temperament had completely transformed by the time I got to high school and within my first year in college. While I was normally a pretty even tempered person I had become someone who was internally angry and avoidance of emotional commitment. So while every other female was delving into the "boyfriend" phase, I was already plotting a way to move out of my home at the age of sixteen. One of the primary reasons behind this sudden transformation was the change in the relationship with my mother. As a child I was extremely dependent on my mother, she was the typical nurturing, kind-hearted mother every child loved. There 's a photo of my friends and I at the age of four during a school field trip to the pumpkin patch. In the front, you see all of my friends strategically stationed in front of their parents and at the end you see me desperately trying to climb into my mother 's arms. I also remember moments in kindergarten where I would cry for hours after realizing my mother could not stay with me. However, at the age of five this relationship to …show more content…
On the surface, it 's apparent that at the age of four and five, my memory and ability to process information would be entirely different from my mother 's and not just because we were two different people viewing a situation from two different viewpoints. I of course believed I was the victim in the situation and due to lack of communication and basic understanding, my mother could not grasp my point of view or why I was so angered. My emotional exclusion is due to my feeling of being "ostracised" Studies suggest that "being shunned --given the cold shoulder or the silent , with the others eyes avoiding yours---threatens one 's need to belong. (Williams & Zadro, …show more content…
This form of ostracism, elicits increased activity in the brain areas, such as the anterior cingulate cortex which also responds to physical pain. (Kross et al., 2011; Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2009) Another point to take into consideration in regards to psychology is the concept of how we process and remember information. There will be instances where one person remembers an event or situation differently than someone else. This is the primary reason the science of psychology put more emphasis on results based on scientific studies than it does on personal experience and