Personality Scrapbook
Liam Sheridan
BIRTH ORDER - Middle Child: 1997
Life Event - 1
As a child in a family of four children, I had to learn to share and be patient with the fact that I wasn't always first. For instance, every morning my mother would be tasked with job of getting all four of us kids ready for the day and every morning I would have to wait for her to get around to helping me . But it also occurred that sometimes I had trouble keeping my patience, so I decided to take initiative and solve my problem. Like every other day I sat in the upstairs hallway waiting for my mom to come tie my shoes for me, but this morning I couldn't wait any long and decided to teach myself to tie my own shoes at a youthful age of just under three years. Although two years of age is extremely unusual for a child to have the ability to tie one's shoes, I clearly had a reason and a strong desire to have my independence and control of learning that physical skill. My completion of the task exactly relates to Erik Erikson's theory of Psychosocial development because it demonstrates my development of a sense for personal control over my physical skills and self-determination.
Life Event - 2
For many years it was a routine that every week after Sunday morning mass my grandparents would come over our house to have coffee and donuts with the rest of my family and I. And after receiving a bicycle for my fifth birthday, my grandfather took it upon himself to teach my how to ride it without the training wheels. Week after week, we would spend a chunk of our Sunday morning practicing up and down the street in front of the house. I remember that there were many instances that I just wanted to call it quits, after accidentally steering off into the gully on the side of the or making a hard fall onto the pavement, but chose to stick with it because I wanted to grow my skill base just like every other kid my age. From learning how to ride a bike, I was developing my personality using the ideas of the Humanist theory that the strength of my personality is based on my hunger for personal improvement and growth.
Life Event - 3
It was the same grandparents that my family had spent countless Sundays mornings making memories and simply enjoying each others company, that on a brisk January afternoon in 2007, we were standing on opposite sides of the court room fighting our cases against each other. It's true, the two people that were there for me basically everyday throughout my childhood, cheering me on every step of the way, were suddenly the mortal enemy. I'm not going to get into the details because it's really personal to my family, but I will mention that fact that I haven't seen or said a word to them since that day over eight years ago. It was tragic for me to have something like that happen to me within a matter of a few months and to be filled with such hatred towards someone that I used to care for. Emotionally, I was destroyed by the event. But after rebuilding, I have grown to have great emotional stability. My strengthened emotional stability shows evidence of the Neuroticism part of the Trait theory because I learned how to deal with my emotions without making them public.
Life Event - 4
At the end of my eighth grade year my parents made the decision to put our house in Atkinson on the market for a few different reasons. The main reason for their choice was because they didn't want the four of us kids going to the district high school. My parents had sent my oldest sister to a private high school but decided they'd rather move than pay private high school tuition for all four kids. The one thing my parents didn't plan on was our house selling after only three days of being on the market so we were lucky to find the house we're living in today in Chester. Not only the new home environment, but the new school was something that I had to get used to also. With the new school came the opportunity to reinvent myself into who i really wanted to be and was able to develop my identity based on my personality. Finding the right social for me seemed to be an ever-changing process and it was in this that I recognized Erik Erikson's theory of psychsocial development occurring in the sense that I was getting a sense of self and forming my personal identity.
Life Event - 5
This life event is extremely new because I just made my decision about a week and a half ago but that doesn't make it any less important. My decision was to enroll in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for a degree in Systems Engineering and Engineering Management. I found it really cool how the Strengths vs. Weaknesses sheet for middle children like me was almost 100% accurate for me. It even mentions that a career in management would well suit me, which is part of the degree that I'm gong for. The process of making my choice was tough but ultimately I chose the school that I know was right for me. Now the rest of my family doesn't totally agree with me about going far away, but as much as I love them all, I don't really care what they have to say as long as i know I'm going to be happy because I know that they ultimately want for me too. My thought process for making my decision is a great example of the the Individuality part of the Socio-Cultural theory. I am able to make this connection because although it may sound stuck up, in this situation it is the individual that is more important.