Oppositional Defiant Disorder

It's been awhile since I've posted something. Life hassles has caught the better of me. Oppositional defiant disorder is a condition that is suffered by many children these days but with little or no attention being given by parents. This article aims to give an idea of how parents of today can identify and understand if their kids are going through ODD and what possible ways to overcome it.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder or ODD is a disorder that is commonly found during childhood period. Symptoms of ODD can manifest itself in a child as early as 3 years of age. Unlike an independent seeking behaviour from a child, ODD is more subtle and can be seen when a child has a persistent patterns that comes out as tantrums, constant argumentative behaviour and child is always angry and are constantly showing behaviours of disruptiveness towards authority figures. Despite being tough to recognize at times, there is a range of difference between a child with ODD and an independence seeking behaviour child. A child with ODD often displays behaviours that annoy others, deliberate misbehaviour, spiteful and vengeful and resentful.

The range of difference can be seen between an independence seeking, strong willed or emotional child with one that has ODD is when they exhibit behaviours such as persistency in throwing tantrums, constantly disrupting home and schooling environment. These symptoms may just sound like any ordinary child growing up but if such behaviours continue to be exhibited over the course of more than six months, a child may be having issues of ODD. These symptoms also are normally accompanied with a negative attitude, defiance towards rules and request from parents and hostile attitude towards people. Children with ODD more often than not, also suffer in their academic performance and they have difficulty in maintaining friendship with their peers. If in the span of six months such behaviours continue to persist even with disciplinary actions from parents, it is a clear sign that the child has ODD. It is important that ODD is diagnosed early as possible as it could lead to an array of mental health issues if not addressed. Related mental health issues such as attention deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorders, and depressions.

With such symptoms manifesting, parents could immediately seek advice from their paediatrician, a child psychologist or a behavioural expert on what can be done to resolve the child’s issue. Early detection has better chance in treating, managing and even reversing the effects of ODD on a child. Early treatment will help the child in rebuilding self-esteem and creating positive relationship between the child and parent. It will also indirectly improve relationship and alleviate tensions with people around the child, such as teachers, peers, and relatives. Such are the benefits of an early treatment.

What causes a child to have ODD? It isn’t clear on what causes a child to have oppositional defiant disorder. Despite not having clarity on the cause, several factors are likely to contribute to ODD. It is most likely a combination of heredity and environmental factors. Such are a child’s natural disposition and their lack of control over temperaments, natural disposition are linked to their personality and are likely to be genetically inherited. Imbalance in the production of chemicals in the brain such as serotonin could also be a likely cause. Another likely cause would be limitations and/or developmental delays in child’s cognitive ability to process thoughts and feelings. For example, when a child is faced with a social situation and is not able to immediately react but rather, process the situation later and bottling up their emotions which will manifest itself later on in the form of ODD. Abuse and neglect is also a probable cause of ODD.

Other factors that plays a role in the development of ODD and the variety of influences, circumstances and genetic components are known as risk factors. Risk factors that could drive ODD are for example, parents who suffers from mood disorder or substance abuse, inconsistent and harsh disciplining, lack of parental supervision and/or positive involvement, exposure to violence, or parents who are undergoing severely troubled marriage. Such family instabilities that occur provide an increase in the avenue of a child developing disruptive behaviours. Constant change in environments such as moving houses may cause disrespectful or oppositional behaviour. ODD if not detected early can lead to bigger problems for a child when they reach adolescence and adulthood. Violent behaviours, severe delinquency, and engaging in drug abuse are some of the problems that manifest later in life when ODD is not being treated.
According to the criteria being spelled out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV- TR) that is published by the American Psychiatric Association, a pattern of behaviour lasting over 6 months that is often shown and it includes at least four behaviours of losing tempers, arguing with adults, refusing to comply with adults rules or request, deliberately annoying people, and blames others for their mistakes, touchy or easily annoyed by others, angry and resentful, spiteful or vindictive. These behaviours must be displayed more often than is typical for a child’s peers. In addition, to be diagnosed with ODD, they must cause significant problems at work, school or home, occurs on its own rather than caused by another mental disorder, such as bipolar disorder or depression, must not meet the diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder or, if the person is older than 18 years old, antisocial personality disorder.

Treatments of ODD involves several types of psychotherapy and training for child and parent likewise. Some of the usual treatments for ODD are individual and family therapy, which involves counselling for the child to help them learn to manage anger and how to express their feelings in a healthy way. Family counselling can also help improve collectively the communications and relationship within the family members. Another form of treatment would be Parent-child Interaction therapy (PCIT). This treatment sometimes requires a therapist observing from a two way mirror and guiding parents through strategies that reinforces positive behaviour in a child. This method has shown positive results in decreasing children’s behaviour problems and improves the quality of parent-child relationship. Another highly effective treatment is cognitive problem solving training. This treatment requires parent and child to collaborate and solve problems. Both parties are required to solve problems by identifying it with the child and the child comes up with solutions to overcome their behavioural problems. Other treatments available are social skills training and parent training. This involves therapy to improve the child’s social skills with their peers and parents to learn to deal and cope with the issues that an ODD child faces.

With proper understanding and treatments, ODD can be managed and treated. What is important in this entire process is that parental support is always there. Calmness on the parent’s part in dealing with the issue and constant positive reinforcement to tune the child’s thoughts is paramount in dealing and coping with ODD.

Personality : Concepts of Stress

Stress is a commonly used term today in society. Arising out of modernization and the need for people to catch up with the fast paced environment today. In personality and illness, the concepts of stress is the common variable that exist in many models. An important element but often a misunderstood phenomenon.

Stress is a subjective feeling produced by events that are perceived as uncontrollable and particularly threatening. These events overwhelms you and often leave a deep disconcerting feeling inside. These events are known as Stressors. Stressors are events perceived or evoked but ultimately lead to stress situations. Stressors oftens puts us at a place where we produce opposing tendencies, such as wanting and not wanting an object or an activity. E.g. knowing that you need to study as exams are closing in, but you put it off as long as possible. Stressors are outside of our power to control, such as the exam; hence, the exam is the stressor.

Stress response is a when a stressor appears, people typically experiences a pattern of emotional and physiological reactions. Imagine you see a suspicious looking person heading towards you at night in a quiet street,

at that moment, you experience higher heart rates, your palms gets cold and clammy, blood pressure goes up, and your feet and palms beging to sweat. That's is your body preparing itself for a fight-or-flight mode. These are briefly experiences that occurs "in the moment". However, if a person is exposed to a stressor daily, the fight-or-fight mode is just the first step in a chain reaction termed General Adaptation Syndrome(GAS) by Hans Selye(1976), pioneer in stress researching.

Image above depicts the stages a person undergo after being repeatedly exposed to a stressor.

A good example would be a hostage situation, fight-or-flight mode kicks in as the victim ready to challenge the stressor. Thereafter, locked up in a confinement with the uncertainty of what the aggressor might do, the victim is continously stressed even at the slightest sound. Every time the aggressor comes in to check, the victim is exposed to extreme stress, but eventually develops resistance towards the stressor. Note however as, resistance increase the bodily resources starts to deplete and the body heads for a breakdown and reaches the panic zone where physiological resources gone and the body is most suspectible to illness.

picture by National Geographic Locked Up Abroad Philippines

MAJOR LIFE EVENTS AND DAILY HASSLES

Major life events and daily hassles can also be our stressors, what's most important is how we perceive it. Remember, how we perceive and interpret an event do contribute to affecting our health and illness. Coping with stress is essential as it improves our well-being in the long term. How can we cope with stress? Some of the steps are:

a.Identifying the potential stressor/problem and start to systematically deal with it. E.g. Exams is in a months time, plan ahead and organized time with discipline
b.On the emotional plane, creating affirmations and telling positive things to yourself do result in positive outcomes as we have a change in perspective on the stressor

Personality types do have a major role in coping with stress. A conscienctious prone personality person tend to cope with stress better because they are naturally organized and eliminate most daily hassles. A scrupulous person may face accumulated stressors daily due to disorganized personality. With that in mind, we can identify our personality types and adjust our activities to reduce stress and allow us to cope better and lead a stress free life.

Personality : Stress, Coping, Adjustment and Health

In the adjustment domain of personality psychology, focuses here defers from the other domains. The other 5 domains discusses the collection of specific explaination of personality that causes individual personality differences. In this domain, we focus on adjustment because personality help us adjust to the daily demands and challenges of life. Major themes of this domain is physical and mental health. We will look into the the models of personality-illness connection and stress. Stress, the subjective feeling that is experienced by individuals produced by uncontrollable or even threatening events. However, stress is not in the even or situation but rather in how people choose to respond towards a particular situation.

INTERACTIONAL MODEL
Suggest that events that occurs in people's lives relies on personality factor of an individual on the ability to cope and personality effects on how people respond to an event. It is called interactional model because it talks of the relationship on how personalities moderate between stress and illness. Example of such relationship is when a student gets sick when exam approaches and happens particularly during stressful moments. Although we are exposed daily to microbes, it is believed that in the personality that determines how vunerable we are to falling sick. The student falls sick because of staying up too late because of anxiety, refusing to sleep, and does everything that prevents recovery unconsciously.

TRANSACTIONAL MODEL
The transactional model can be termed as the more complex and realistic model developed out of the interactional model. It serves three potential effects:
1. it can influence coping(as in interactional model)
2. it can influence how an individual appraise and interprets an event
3. it can influence the event and situation itself(outcomes of a personality)
In effect, this model views on how a person's interpretation of an event. Remember, earlier I mentioned that a stressful situation or event is not the event itself but rather how it's being interpreted as. For instance, when getting stuck in traffic, some people finds it a major frustration and responds with worry, stress, and anxiety but another person might look at it as an opportunity to relax, self-reflection time, listening to music, etc... .

This is how a personality plays a role in the interpretation of an event and also how personality can impact and event itself. People also creates situation through choice and actions, such as personalities that evokes situation. In other words, events doesn't just influence people, people too, influence events in a reciprocal manner. In contrary to interactional model, personality does not directly influence relationship between stress and illness but rather affects indirectly through promoting health degrading behaviours.

PREDISPOSITION MODEL
A model which stands differently that the previous 2 models. The other models are variations of the same themes but this model talks about the personality and illness are expressions of an underlying predispostion such as genetics. An example would be, enhanced sympathetic nervous system reactivity may be the cause of illness, behaviours, and emotions that makes a person neurotic. However, not much systematic study conducted on this model but there are associations found between illness and personality linked through underlying predisposition. Genetics may also likely be the cause of people developing drug addiction.

On a final note, we look at the illness model behaviour. It's not a model per se, but more of a model of illness behaviour. It's a degree which personality influences a person's perception to bodily sensations and interprets the sensations as illness. Illness behaviours are related to actual illness and sometimes, made believe illness. Due to personality, some people may try to fight illness by force but others, a simple bodily sensation may cause a person to take actions like visiting the physician although there's really nothing wrong with them. In this case, symptoms are normally more towards self-reports in illness behaviours. These however, are determined by a person perceives and labels their bodily sensations.

Looking at the models in this domain, we can now understand better how our personalities are related to our health and the importance of adjusting and coping with illness. It provokes us to ask ourselves questions, such as, "Am I really sick or just overly sensitive?" or "Is my personality affecting my work habits?". With that, we can work to tweak aspects of our lives to a personal well-being improvement. :)

Personality : Finding Depression in Sex Difference

When looking into depression, we often see it hand in hand with personality types, gender differences and the FFM. Let's look into how gender differences play out depression and what possible outcomes could arise.

Studies has shown that there is no differences in depression at childhood. Children is well adjusted and unable to understand depression as their worldviews are simple and abstract. However, after puberty, woman show two to three times depression rate than man (Hoyenga & Hoyenga, 1993). This is probably due to the fact, that women in gender roles expectation in many cultures are expected to behave in an acceptable manner and inability to project emotional dissatisfaction physically causes onsets of depression.
It is also founded that roughly 25% of women have at least on depressive episode in their lifetime compared to only 10% of men in their lifetime.
Largest differences in depression shows between ages 18 – 44. After that both sexes starts to converge and see a lesser depression rate.


Below is a table that shows how different gender cope and act out in a depressive state.

Woman	Man
Excessive eating	Avoid eating
Cry	Aggressive behaviour
Likely, seek treatment	Men simply to miss work
Nervous activity	Inactivity
Hurt Feelings, decline self-esteem	Socially withdrawn, experience aches and pains
Suicide attempts “non-fatal”	Suicide “successfully”

By having an idea on how depression affects different genders, we can see tell tale signs of depression and perhaps help our friends or family to cope with such situation when it arises.

Personality : Sex, Gender and Personality

Finding differences of gender in the 5 factor model
- 3 facets of extraversion was examined for sex difference; gregariousness, assertiveness and activity:

- Gregariousness is defined as fond of companies and sociable. Woman is found to score higher than men. Personality study on 50 difference cultures revealed a small gender differences (McCrae et. Al., 2005b)

- Assertiveness is defined as confidence and forceful personality, shows men scored highly and have a medium difference from women. This is probable due to social status, where men tend to value dominance and power than woman do. This is reflected in a study of 127 samples in 70 countries (Schwartz & Rebel, 2005). This medium-size sex difference in assertiveness may show up in social behaviour in group context. This is reflected in a number of studies that men interrupt others in conversation more than woman in a mixed-sex group (Hoyenga & Hoyenga, 1993)

- Activity shows men scored slightly over women. This is probable due to the high assertiveness and wanting dominance and value of social status and power


Agreeableness

- 2 facts of agreeableness is examined ; Trust and tender-mindedness
- A study on 50 cultures revealed a small to medium gender difference, where woman score higher than men (McCrae et. Al. 2005; Schmitt et. al,2008)
- Women tend to me more trusting than men and have empathy and sympathy for those who are downtrodden
- Men mostly stand on the opposite end which is aggressiveness. This shows in personality test, in aggressive fantasies and in actual measures of behaviour (Hyde, 1986)
- However, after 50, aggressiveness in men and woman starts to decline


Conscientiousness

- The 50 culture study revealed negligible sex difference on level of conscientiousness (McCrae et. al, 2005 b)
- Only one facet is examined which is order, where woman score slightly higher than men
- Men and woman are essentially the same on this dimension
- Small difference in keeping home order in a marriage may result in large number of arguments


Emotional Stability

- The 50 culture study revealed the largest sex difference, where woman are moderately lower in emotional stability than men on this dimension (McCrae et. al. 2005b)
- Facets that was measured on was anxiety and impulsiveness
- Woman scored highly on the anxiety label, whereas, men scored slightly higher on impulsiveness


Openness

- Essentially no sex differences in this dimension (McCrae et. al, 2005b)
- Facet of openness examined on a label called ideas, which refers to range of thoughts, or concepts a person entertains

Personality: Extraversion vs Introversion

Looking into the biological domain of personality, some of the most interesting research is one the topic of Extraversion vs Introversion. This is something everyone can relate to in their everday activities, with the people we meet. On both extremities, we normally fall in between both, we will take a closer look on the differences between extroverted and introverted behaviours and what drives and motivates us.

The model of extraversion vs intraversion is measured normally using the Eysenck Personality Questionaire(EPQ). This questionaire will then determine which side of the table we sit on. The differences of these two is shown below;

Eysenck's theory is similar to Jung's theory meant in the same terms. The cause of extrovertedness or introvertedness in the biological domain is due to a neurological activity in a part of the brain called Ascending Reticular Activating Syndrome(ARAS).

It is shown that introverts have a high level of activity in the brain's ARAS, that is why, with such they avoid additional external stimulation. People strive to constantly keep the ARAS at an optimal level, that is why introverts work to decrease and avoid stimulation; extoverts works the opposite.

What motivates an extrovert and introvert? Personality is based on a two hypothesized brain systems, they are know as;

1. Behavioral Activation System(BAS)
- cues are rewards (regulates approach behavior, acts on impulses)
- sensation seeking behaviors = HIGH + Impulsivity

2. Behavioral Inhibition System(BIS)
- cues are punishment (regulates avoidant behavior, constant uncertainty)
- sensation seeking behaviors = LOW + Avoidance

By knowing what motivates us and which inclination arre we at, it will help us regulate behavior and choose our actions wisely with some predictability in the outcomes.

Personality : Defense Mechanism

Defense mechanisms are the protector of our Ego and the avenue to reduce anxiety and distress in a fight or flight situation. The picture below shows us the common 8 defense mechanisms;

Ego defenses are important in protecting our being and it's not necessarily unhealthy or negative. It helps us to get about and deal with threatening events in our daily lives. However, employing defenses at wrong times can create problems in life and overusing them can be very destructive to your social and mental wellbeing. More often than not, we come across over-defensive people who jumps at the slightest remark, taking it as an accusation. It's best that we always assess an event and situation before taking appropriate steps, now that we know the types of defense mechanisms.

Happy reading...

Personality: Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

When looking in to the Intrapsychic domain on psychology, the structure of personality developed by Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalysis theory comes to mind. Freud, a medical doctor born in Moravia, who started out in neurological research developed theories that portions of the human mind works outside the conscious awareness. In this domain, it is believed that we have 2 levels of personality, they are;

1. Unconscious - The major driving forces in which people are unable to control

2. Conscious - Awareness of everyday meanings

Freud termed this as instinct and where we draw our basic psychic energy that motivates all human activity. The unconscious parts of the mind lies unacceptable information, hidden from conscious view; these are memories, feelings, thoughts, or urges that are troubling and distasteful. These feelings dwells in the unconscious mind and is controlled by the conscious plane. Memories that are extremely distressing and painful is being pushed into the subconcious plane.

According to Freud, human basic structure of personality looks something like this;

For the benefit of understanding better, here's a brief description of ID, EGO, and Super Ego;

ID - defined as our inner child and the reservoir of psychich enery. ID oftens demands instant gratification to all our wants. It functions on primal urges and according to pleasure principles.

SUPEREGO - the upholder of societal values and ideals, the superego internalized ideals of society, moral and values that we have been brought up with. This is the part where functions to make us feel guilty, ashamed, and embarrassed when we do something wrong or pride when we do something right. Like ID, SUPEREGO practices instant gratification for high virtues and constantly pounding for the highest values into our subconscious. It's like an angel constantly whispering into your ears.

EGO - the executive of personality, which functions as the regulator that works to redirect pressure produced by IT and SUPEREGO instincts into acceptable or least problematic outcomes. For example, teasing someone is more acceptable than hitting them and it perhaps fulfill some aggressive urges but it's not all that simple as some urges are simply unacceptable in society.

More often, we tend to have a conflict within ourselves in everyday events. For instance, dissatisfaction with our bosses or colleagues. This creates a conflict between our ID and SUPEREGO and this causes us to develop anxiety. From anxiety and stressful events, we come up with what is known as defense mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms help us to cope with these anxiety situations and defends us from severe conflicts that evokes anxiety. This is where the EGO function comes to play, to balance out the id and superego and ultimately reduces anxiety in a situation that is threatening and poses danger to us. We can say that defense mechanisms serves 2 functions, which is to protect the ego and to minimize distress and anxiety.

Personality: Field Dependence & Field Independence

Some of the most interesting areas when looking into the cognitive/experiential domain of personality is perception, interpretation, and conscious goals. All this in the cognitive domain contributes to the way a person making sense or explaining various events that occurs to them, mostly by associating past experience or something of similar sorts. People mostly have different views towards events, for example, when you get involved in an accident. Some people may view it as a result of poor road conditions but some may view it as poor driving skill.

People often assumes that the reality out there is exact duplicate of what their perception of facts. In this case, it is untrue because a person can only create perception based on their mental representation but bearing in mind, that another person perceives the same reality differently. In this topic, we will further explore the processes and outcomes of field dependence and field independence of personality in the cognitive domain.

Some of the traits of field independence and field dependence types personality can be explained and compared in the table below;

Because of the differences in personalities, there is a blaring contrast on how people perceive and react to an event. Take for example the image below,

Some people on first glance will see an old looking lady but other people would see the back of a young woman.

Professor Herman Witkin devoted 30 years studying differences in perceptual styles. His research have founded certain traits within personality that determines whether a person is field independent or otherwise. Witkin devised a test called the Embedded Figures Test(EFT), this test shows that field dependent people have difficulty in discovering embedded images in comparison to field independent people who can quickly spot these images. This is because field independent people are able to see objects independently from the background. Scores and measures on field independence/dependence is stable over time and have consequences on educational and interpersonal relations (Witkin, 1977).

What type of personality are you? Take a test and see how long does it take to find all embedded images:

Solution:

Another research on field independence/dependence which correlates with the interpersonal relations, Witkin and Goodenough(1977) finds that field dependent people as might be predicted, relies on social information and frequently ask others opinion. They show strong interest in other people, attracted to social situations, likes getting physically close and get along well with others. In contrary, field independent people displays a more impersonal and detached orientation towards other. They keep distance from social situations, keep their distance from people and are not interested in others opinion.

Finally, lets look at the motivations that drives these two types of people;

By having an understanding between these two fields, we can reflect on which types of field do we belong to and by knowing, we can decide on issues such as career paths and understanding other people in our daily interactions.

Personality & Social Interactions

When talking about personality psychology, one of the important areas to look into are social interactions. Social interactions plays an important role in the shaping of one's personality. Zooming in, we'll find 3 mechanisms that governs social interaction. They are;

1. Selection

We select people and environment we want to interact and social interactions which we expose ourselves to. A good example would be mate selecting, people worldwide look for mates that are dependable, emotionally stable and have a pleasing disposition. We also tend to select mates who are similar in personality with us, a process known as selective mating. These are favorable characteristics desired in a marriage that is found in a study carried out by Buss, 1990. The study was carried out on 10,000 participants from 37 samples, 33 countries, 6 continents, and 5 islands. The idea of complementary where people popularly believe that opposites attract, does not have empirical support. According to a research by Botwin, 1997; people are usually married to people who are similar in personality to their own. But, do people get the mate that they want? Unfortunately, we don't always get the mate that we want. Those who fail to get what they want and ends up with mates who are emotionally unstable or disagreeable tend to be unhappy and ends up in a break up or in a divorce than those who succeed in getting what they want. Personality, plays to key role in the selection process which is, determining mates whom we desire and whom we are attracted. Secondly, affecting satisfaction with one's mate which will result in either successful selection or determine the selective break up of couples. In the selection process, we also look further than just mate selection. The personality can also affect our selection process in terms of selecting risky situations. For example, a shy personality person may always try to avoid events that will lead them to social interactions because to them, it's a risky situation. Research have been done on personality and the selection of risky situations. Shyness also affects a person is willing to select risky situations in the form of gambles (Addison & Schmidt, 1999). An experiment done by Cheek (1983) on participants who were given choices to pick a gamble. One with high odds of winning with low payouts and other with low odds but high payouts, there was a big contrast in the result between shy and non-shy women. Non-shy women chose the riskier bets and vice-versa with the shy women. During the experiment, shy participants shows larger increase in heart rates, suggesting that fear might have led them to avoid risky gambles.

2. Evocation
Evocation is a second class process that sets in motion once we select others to occupy in our social environment. Evocation may be defined as features of personality elicit reactions from others or in layman terms getting a certain emotional feeling or reaction from other people, parallel to our own personality type. A good example would be, have you come across someone you know who is an aggressive person and that person tends to make you personally feel hostile and somewhat on the hot side? Well, that means that person has successfully evoked you to fit his/her social environment. Another good example of evocation would be, when somebody bumps into you in a mall. An aggressive personality person would interpret the incident as intentional and hostile, an agreeable person would interpret the incident as an accident. There are two ways a personality plays a role in evoking conflict, especially in a close relationship. A personality of one partner which, for example, dominant and forceful may evoke upset in the partner or a low conscientious partner with poor tidiness, messing up the house causing his wife to get upset. Second, would be a person elicit actions from their partner and in turn upsetting the original elicitor. For example, an aggressive husband might elicit silent treatment from his spouse and then getting upset because she wouldn't speak to him. Another interesting phenomenon in evocation is Expectancy Confirmation. This is where a person's belief of the personality of others causes them to evoke others, consistent with their initial beliefs. It is sort of a self fulfilling prophecy, for example, when you are told the person that is joining your group is an aggressive person and when introduced, there will be a tendency that you will evoke hostility in order to confirm what you believed that person to be. Through this process, people who knows you might unknowingly evoke in you behaviors that confirms their beliefs from time to time making it difficult if you are looking to make a change.

3. Manipulation
Not necessarily a negative thing, we tend to naturally manipulate to obtain what we want by intentionally influencing and exploiting others. Depending on personality, there are several manipulation tactics used in influencing others such as, charm, silent treatments, regression, coercion, reasoning and self-abasement. The usage of manipulation tactics is pretty much equal between men and women, except the regression tactic such as prolonged crying and whining which is used more often by women. Personality predictors in manipulation process is hinged on The Machiavellian Personality which is from the opinions of Niccolo Machiavelli separates two categories; "Low Mach" and "High Mach". Low Mach's have a worldview of empathy, trusting, clear moral values and views human nature are basically good. On the other hand, High Mach's worldviews are of cynical world, doesn't trust people, morality is a gray line, lack empathy, and views human nature as evil at any given opportunity. Generally, High Mach individuals will employ any tactics to get ahead and blatantly lie to escape consequences. Not only do high Machs lie and betray others trust more than low Machs, but there is also evidence that they make more believable liars (Exline et al., 1970; Geis & Moon, 1981). Manipulative tactics used by high Machs also extends to romantic and sexual domains, they are likely to feign love for sex. Nevertheless, high Machs runs into certain risks such as revenge and retaliation by those who were exploited.

5 Factor Model In the Dispositional Domain

The 5 Factor Model also known as The Big Five or even humorously labelled The High Five(Costa & McCrae,1995; Goldberg, 1981; McCrae and John, 1992; Saucier & Goldberg, 1996) has been the taxonomy of personal traits. It has received the most support and attention from personality researchers. So, what is the 5 Factor Model(FFM) all about? Let's take a look briefly on how this model came to be.

Originally based on combinations of lexical and statistical approach by researchers. The lexical approach was started in the 1930's with Allport and Odbert(1936) who identified from the dictionary some 17,953 trait terms in the English language. They then divided the terms into 4 lists under the original set of trait terms. The 5 traits that are commonly used today are;

1. Extraversion or Surgency : e.g. talkative - silent, sociable - reclusive, adventurous - cautious, open - secretive.
2. Agreeableness : e.g. good natured - irritable, cooperative - negativistic, mild/gentle - headstrong.
3. Conscientiousness : e.g. responsible - undependable, scrupulous - unscrupulous, persevering - quitting
4. Emotional Stability : e.g. calm - anxious, composed - excitable, poised - nervous/tense.
5.Openness : e.g : intellectual - unreflective/narrow, artistic - nonartistic, polished/refined - crude/boorish

Today, this 5 FFM is one of the measurement tools that is used when carrying out a personality research. FFM has been used by many researchers using different research and samples and has been replicated in a variety of languages and formats for decades in the past half a century. Popular personality inventory questionnaire such as Eynseck's Personality Inventory Test, The Hogan's Personality Inventory which is popularly used in banks to determine a characters eligibility for financing based on spending behaviors. Each question have been carefully designed to reflect an individual's personality based on the FFM.

FFM can help a person predict many life outcomes such as career prospects; deciding what types of job suits a person better and more importantly, understanding oneself better. This will put us in a better position in social context when dealing with other individuals by giving us an idea on their personality and allowing us to handle situations better. However, one should not take the results of this tests as the ultimatum because personality do change over a course of time and due to social and environmental factors.

1 Malaysia, A Cultural View

1 Malaysia, a concept lauded by the 6th Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Razak since the days when he was still the Deputy Prime Minister. The concept was officiated when he took on the position as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia. So, what is the 1 Malaysia concepts? 1 Malaysia is a concept to foster unity among Malaysians of all races, based on several
important values that should be the practice of every citizen Malaysia. My ccurrent article will look into the chances of success of the 1 Malaysia Concepts based on cross-cultural theories. The fundamental approaches are for strengthening unity, ensuring stability, to progress and ensuring a higher development of the citizens and Malaysia. In other words, 1 Malaysia founded as a formula that will help ensure the aspirations of the country. This concept also emphasizes on the acceptance and understanding between races to enable co-existence within our multi-cultural society, which ultimately lead to a developed nation status. The 1 Malaysia concepts revolves around 8 Core values which are;

1. Acceptance
2. Perseverance
3. Culture of Excellence
4. Loyalty
5. Humility
6. Meritocracy
7. Integrity
8. Education

This 8 core values is complemented with 6 National Key Results Areas (NKRA) which is to ensure competency within the government delivery system and serves as a benchmark for improving itself. The 6 NKRAs are as follows;
1. Reducing crimes.
2. War against corruption
3. Widening the access to affordable and quality of education
4. Raising living standard of the low income earners
5. Upgrading infrastructure in the rural areas and the interior region
6. Improving public transportation in a moderate period of time

Under this 6 NKRAs several initiatives from the government is seen such as in the implementation of 1 Malaysia clinic in rural areas, improvement in the urban public transport sector, increase in police patrolling, protection of whistle blowers in battling corruption, and the introduction of grants in the education sector for private pre-schools catering to the affordability of general public.

However, despite the government efforts in implementing the 1 Malaysia concepts, there are still issues and problems that hang in the balance in the success of 1 Malaysia concepts. According to Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions study, Malaysian society is measured at a high rate in the Power Distance Index (PDI) which shows that we are a society that accepts and expect that power is distributed unequally. This endorsement not only comes from that top level but is also endorsed by the followers in this society. Our society is also combined with a high Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) which puts us as a society that are highly rule-oriented with laws, rules and regulations, and controls in order to reduce the amount of uncertainty. Some of the problems that have arise over the past decade was dissatisfaction and dissident between political parties, namely the Barisan Nasional Component Parties and the Opposition coalition which was formed after the last general election which saw several state majorities were voted in their favour and now known as Pakatan Rakyat. In a society where PDI is high, the citizens will tend to just look by as political struggle exist between both parties. Also, racial issues have been drastically raised in the past 10 years, with the formation of HINDRAF and the latest controversial book named Interlok. Despite such controversies, there is no significant movement from the general citizens but rather a small minority voice and a political battle between two coalition parties. More often than not, we often hear “coffee shop” talks of disapproval but such talks stays there. This proves though that in a society that scores highly on the UAI allows the leaders in the opposition or the ruling parties have the ultimate power and authority. In order for the success of 1 Malaysia concept, a nation which has over 10 ethnicity should dissipate racial tension by writing off racial segregation and acknowledge every citizen as a Malaysian. Moreover, under the 8 core values, Acceptance is crucial in the success of 1 Malaysia concept. Understanding between each cultural group’s customs and beliefs, will create harmony and mutual respect. Without the willpower resolve this racial differences, it will slowly tear in to the very fabric of our independence and 1 Malaysia will just be a rhetorical slogan and idealistic views.

Another area which requires a lot attention is integrity, as this is the cornerstone of success in1 Malaysia. If the government performs honourably and undertakes all task and projects with integrity as its core, we will see trust and confidence within the people. As our collectivistic culture slowly shifting to individualistic, the future generations will slowly reduce the PDI. In order to preserve the Constitutions set by our forefathers, the government must abide by the subtlety of the slogan “People First, Performance Now”. High scores in UAI shows that people do not like to face conflicts and ambiguities but as the nation progresses and more people with higher education, a paradigm shift will eventually take place. As the border of information thins, we see an enculturation process takes place which is influence by socialization with different cultures all over the world. With the reduction in UAI, PDI will have to eventually drop in tandem. Opportunities should be equally given to all and not according to race but meritocracy. In addition, integrity is crucial for foreign investors. No investors would invest in country that government has low integrity for it is a recipe for political disaster in the long run. In Schwartz’s Values, Embeddedness is a value which cultures emphasizes the maintenance of status quo, propriety and restraint that might disrupt the solidarity of the group or traditional order (Juang & Matsumoto, 2007) . This is the depiction of protectionism that under the 1 Malaysia concepts should no longer exist. This does not mean we ignore the social contract set forth in the Constitution but rather a look into how competency can be achieved. This requires Integrity and Meritocracy, such as awards of tenders to companies that are Bumiputra Status rather than 100% Bumiputra owned and how the wealth of a nation can be shared among every citizen of Malaysia.

In conclusion, I believe that the 1 Malaysia concepts is achievable but it requisites leaders with the passion and commitment to see the materialization of this concept. In the past, our racial unity was the backbone of our independence; we are 1 Malaysia that shaped the country’s socio-economic, cultural appreciation and harmony. To ensure our polycultural society continue to flourish, every Malaysian must play their role in uplifting the core values of 1 Malaysia. The government serious in the success of the 1 Malaysia concepts, will also play an active role in creating racial harmony and respect the importance each customs and beliefs that every ethnic group in Malaysia. Realising that customs and beliefs is irrelevant to the responsibility, well being and success of each citizen of Malaysia. There is no time more crucial as now for the government to ascribe and subscribe to 1 Malaysia as failing will cause the people’s confidence to drop and will further causes distrust and will only sow seed of dissidence which is not beneficial.


Reference:
Hofstede, G. (1967-2009). Cultural Dimension. Retrieved from www.geert-hofstede.com
Joshua Foong, M. F. (2010). Many believe NKRA is a positive step forward. The Star.
Juang, L., & Matsumoto, D. (2007). Culture & Psychology(4th Ed). Belmont,CA: Wadsworth.
Razak, D. S. (2009). 1 Malaysia Booklet. Retrieved from 1 Malaysia: http://www.1malaysia.com.my
Salleh, I. D. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.jba.gov.my/files/

Personality: Domains of Knowledge

There are various of studies in personality psychology, these varieties exist not because one perspective is right and the others are wrong, but it is because the differences in domains of knowledge. We can term domains of knowledge as areas of specialty in personality research and studies. Personality psychology is classified in to 6 domains shown below.

Dispositional Domain
Deals with ways how individuals differ from one another. The focus within this domain is number and nature of fundamental dispositions and measures the most important ways how people differ from one another. Therefore, it cuts across all domains.

Biological Domain
This domain's core assumptions are of biological approach to personality which are genetics, psychophysiology and evolution. These are the three main areas in this domain which looks into the human genetics, the brain and cardiac activity, circadian rhythms, hormones, and how human evolution have shaped the human psychological functioning.

Intrapsychic Domain
This domain deals with mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operates outside conscious awareness. Theories are very closely linked to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory. This domains includes defense mechanisms, repression, denial, projection, achievements, motives of power and affiliation.

Cognitive-Experiential Domain
This domain focuses on cognition and subjective experiences, such as conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs and desires about oneself and others. It talks a lot about self concept and self esteem.

Social & Cultural Domain
How does culture affects our personality? This domain assumes that personality affects and is affected by, cultural and social context. A lot of study in this domain is made between culture differences and how personality is affected such as a culture that shuns aggression can diminish aggressive tendencies within an individual. At human nature level of analysis, all humans have common set of concerns as they struggle in the social sphere.

Adjustment Domains
Looks in to how personality plays key role in how we cope, adapt and adjust to events in daily life. Personality in this domain is linked to important health outcomes, such as smoking, drinking and risk taking behaviors.

By having an idea of the domains of knowledge in personality, we can now have a clear direction on what to look at when studying a personality. In a huge topic of personality, which is sum of various parts and connections it is crucial we understand fundamentals of each domain. On the surface, each domains don't seem to be compatible. Questions of how can we be rational and irrational? How can we be driven by desire and yet be in control? Examining deeper, we will find that these contradictions may be more apparent than real. It is possible that humans can have both and each mechanisms is sometimes activated in order for us to adapt and survive. By understanding these domains, it allows us to organize research and findings. I personally find that placing my own studies to these domains prevents overly abstract views when observing personalities. In my next post, we'll look into the 5 Factor Model and the traits associated with it. Till then,

Good day and happy reading.

Personality

Defined as a set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is organized and relatively enduring and that influences his or her interactions with, and adaptations to the environment. On the surface, personality is divided into 7 parts. Lets take a closer look:

1.Traits => units of behavior. E.g, honest, hardworking, lazy
2.Mechanisms => tangible behavior that is measurable. E.g, temperaments
3.Within => behaviors exists within us
4.Organized => a series of behaviors occurring in order for our personality to be shaped
5.Interaction => influences relationship and our personality. E.g, perceptions, evocations, selections
6.Influence => how traits and mechanisms effects the personality of a person
7.Environment => personality shaped through motivations in the environment. 3 main environments are the intrapsychic, social and physical

Personality analysis can be summarized at three levels according to Kluckhohn and Murray(1948, Culture and Personality) which states;
a. Human Nature Level (like all others, universal)
b. Individual and Group Differences (like some others, variation in needs)
c. Individual Uniqueness (like no others)

With these basic introduction and definition of personality psychology, it will help us understand a little bit on how similar and different everyone is wired. Next up we are going to look into some of the domains of knowledge in Personality.