Describe the way in which personality and identity develop and explain the role of Nature and nurture in the process.

There are some traits that we all possess to some extent, suck as caring, kindness, helpfulness or leadership. However different they may be in other respects, most personality theories share the basic assumption that personality is something that 'belongs' to the individual:' the appropriate unit of analysis for personality is the person' (Hampson, 1995) (1) To the extent that each of us 'has' a personality that's stable and relatively permanent, our behaviour will be consistent from …

…which we do things, and the conflicts that we face - are no more than classically conditioned responses, just as salivation was classically conditioned response in Pavlov's dogs. Skinner belived that those terms which we use to describe personality- such as kind, caring, thoughtful, helpful, generous, etc. - are really only alternative ways of describing aspects of behaviour. References (1) Hampson, S. (1995) The construction of personality. In.S.E. (3) Bibliography Introducing GCSE psychology G C Davenport