User:BlakeBraswell/sandbox

Article evaluation
Article used: Personality development

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
Everything in the article seems to be relevant to the article topic. However, the lack of complexity of language used in the article was quite distracting.

Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
The article appears to contain a neutral stance. It addresses various perspectives, although I am sure that more perspectives could be reflected in the article.

Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented or underrepresented?
The viewpoints that are represented appear to be represented equally.

Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
For the citations that I checked, the links worked. The sources appear to support the claims listed in the article.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does this information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
Each fact is referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference. The sources consist of research articles from peer-reviewed journals. The sources used are neutral sources.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
Most of the utilized sources were articles published fairly recently. As such, I do not believe that the information is out-of-date. Information could likely be added to the article, although I cannot be certain without conducting further research.

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
Over ten years ago, several Wikipedians argued that the article was "quite inadequate" and overall terrible. In 2014, a Wikipedian discussed potential suggestions for the article, including discussing more perspectives on personality development.

How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
The article has not been rated on the project's quality or importance scale. The article is within the scope of WikiProject Psychology.

How does the way Wikipedia discuss this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
Wikipedia's discussion of this topic does not vastly differ from the discussion that we have had in class. Some of the specific ages differ from the data referenced in class. However, the material could be drastically expanded upon in order to better represent the complexity of the subject. Currently, the article is a rudimentary explanation of personality development, even though the concepts are represented equally.

Do you have any ideas for improvement?
As previously discussed, I would expand upon the material. The writer who chooses to do so should be careful to not insert bias or unequally represent concepts within the article.

Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
A content gap occurs when a concept is not adequately represented. This can be due to a lack of reputable sources or bias towards a specific viewpoint. A way to identify a content gap is to perform searches for research articles and viewpoints regarding the topic and analyze them in relation to the Wikipedia article.

What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
A content gap may arise due to a lack of reputable sources or underrepresented concept. Content gap remedies include utilizing more reputable sources and adequately representing each concept. A concept should not be overrepresented or underrepresented. Information regarding concepts should be unbiased.

Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
Yes. The average person may not have access to the reputable sources such as research articles from peer-reviewed journals, and these reputable sources are key to preventing viewpoints in an article from being biased.

What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
On Wikipedia, "unbiased" means that a concept is not represented in a skewed manner towards one viewpoint or another. This aligns with my personal definition of "bias."

BlakeBraswell (talk) 20:47, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Finding Sources Assignment
Topic article: Personality development

https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2115
This source addresses model integration in relation to personality development, as well as personality structure and process.

https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000179
This source addresses personality development in relation to the transition to retirement, as measured by the Big Five model.

http://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000210
This source presents an analysis of a longitudinal study of personality development across the span of fifty years.

https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000196
This source analyzes life events in relation to personality development throughout adulthood.

https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000325
This source examines longitudinal associations between primary and secondary psychopathic traits, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder features across the lifespan.

https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000205
This source evaluates personality development in college with a multi-faceted view.

BlakeBraswell (talk) 20:47, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Begin to Draft the Article
Topic article: Personality development

"Gene-environment interactions" sub-section addition
A culmination of research suggests that the development of personality occurs in relation to one's genetics, one's environment, and the interaction between one's genetics and environment.

"Stability of personality" section addition
Over the course of an individual's lifespan, the stability of their personality has been shown to be variable, although this variability levels out in adulthood. Behavioral genetics can account for the variability experienced across the lifespan. This is highly evident in the transitions between childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. From childhood to mid-adolescence, the rate of individual differences in personality increases, primarily due to environmental influences. However, genetic influences play a larger role than environmental influences in adulthood, resulting in fewer individual differences in personality between individuals who share similar genetics. The stability of personality across one's lifespan is further evidenced by a longitudinal study conducted on individuals across the span of fifty years from adolescence through adulthood. The results of this longitudinal study suggested that the personality was malleable, although variations in the level of malleability stabilized in adulthood.

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology examined personality developing in college students based on the Big Five personality trait domains and facets within those domains. The results suggested that the rank-order stabilities of facets were high, with values greater than .50 (indicating a strong correlation); the results for trait domains were similar to individual facets. High rank-order stability is further evidenced by another study that integrated personality structure, process, and development. This study included previous research that indicated high-order rank stability; it also included research that indicated variation in this stability across periods of the lifespan, such as adolescence and adulthood. The stability and variation of personality is explained by a complex interaction between one's genetics and one's environment.

BlakeBraswell (talk) 20:06, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Peer Review
First, I really like the additions you have made in gene-environment interactions and personality stability. They are helpful, add substantial content, and are well written. Second, your references are good. They are recent, so their information should be up to date, and they are all respectable and trustworthy academic sources. My suggestions are to target the introduction paragraph and the perspectives section. I think the introduction area is very vague, it would be good to clean it up and make it more direct in giving a really good overview of personality development and what the article is covering. The perspectives section would be pretty easy to vastly improve. There are only two perspectives listed, but on the first day of class we discussed multiple different perspectives. Adding some information on 2 or 3 more perspectives would go a long way to add really informative, useful content to the article. Overall, you are doing a great job! Your work is well organized, and you have made a very good start on your additions. Keep up the good work! Mrgalbraith (talk) 16:45, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

Response
Thank you for complimenting the additions and references.

Regarding the introduction, I agree that it is quite vague and needs drastic expansion. I would like to edit it to provide an overall scope of the article.

Regarding the perspectives section, I agree that it needs expansion. In fact, I noted that on the article's Talk page. I plan to address various perspectives.

Unfortunately, this article was very underdeveloped when I started. However, I hope that will not be the case when I complete this project.

BlakeBraswell (talk) 23:55, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Peer Review 2
I do like the addition in gene-environment interactions, which adds a nice summary to an otherwise long and convoluted section. There are parts of this section, though, that reference the people who came up with these ideas and go into a lot of depth on them. I recommend finding a more concise way to summarize this information and only include peer-reviewed articles. Also, as mentioned before, the original writing of this section is quite hard to follow due to the language used (which I see above in your sandbox that you have already noted). I also recommend catering the writing to your audience, such as the average person (like myself). Overall, I think you have made a step in the right direction here.

In the second section of additions, stability of personality, I am struggling to see how this addition differs from the original, but I do have a few thoughts on the section. When the section references the "values greater than .50", those who are not in the field of psychology may not have any clue as to what those values mean. I recommend clarifying what "values" they are referring to. Sorry, this part isn't so uplifting, I'm just struggling to see the difference.

Overall, I think you have included well-justified references that are reliable, which is great. As you continue editing, feel free to make changes to the language of the article. Wikipedia doesn't seem much like the platform for experts to discuss, but rather for the average individual to educate themselves on topics. You have done a great job at organizing your thoughts and your process through the project. It was interesting to read how you worked through the different assignments and see how you have organized the information. Keep it up! NStoinski (talk) 20:25, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Response
Thank you. Moving forward, the plan has been to increase the reading accessibility of the previous contributions by other Wikipedians. I plan to condense the information in order to better convey and summarize the information.

In regards to the second section of additions, I wrote that entire section of the article. Therefore, it will not differ from the article's page. However, I welcome your suggestion on the "values greater than .50" segment, and I will clarify that as I work through editing the article.

BlakeBraswell (talk) 23:55, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Response
Thank you for your peer review! I definitely agree that the language of the article should be easier to read while still educational. Also, thank you for the compliment on the organization, we hope to keep that in our complete project. Blake has also done a great job with additions and providing references, so thank you for your recognition in that. 64.15.81.92 (talk) 01:41, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Introduction
Personality development is the relatively enduring pattern of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that distinguish individuals from one another. The dominant viewpoint in personality psychology indicates that personality emerges early and continues to develop across one's lifespan. Adult personality traits are believed to have a basis in infant temperament, meaning that individual differences in disposition and behavior appear early in life, potentially before language of conscious self-representation develop. The Five Factor Model of personality maps onto the dimensions of childhood temperament, suggesting that individual differences in levels of the corresponding personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) are present from young ages.

Influencing factors
Personality traits demonstrate moderate levels of continuity, smaller but still significant normative or mean-level changes, and individual differences in change throughout the lifespan. This pattern is influenced by genetic, environmental, transactional, and stochastic factors.

Genetics
Twin and adoption studies have demonstrated that the heritability of personality traits ranges from .3-.6, with a mean of .5, indicating that 50% of variation in observable personality traits is attributable to genetic influences. In contrast, family and adoption studies have demonstrated a low heritability factor of .22. A study conducted on German women using an IAT (implicit association test), shows a connection between the function of specific neurotransmitters and the predisposition to have certain personality traits like anxiety or extraversion. With the effects of genetic similarity removed, children from the same family often appear no more alike than randomly selected strangers; yet, identical twins raised apart are nearly as similar in personality as identical twins raised together. These findings suggest is that shared family environment has virtually no effect on personality development, and that similarity between relatives is almost entirely due to shared genetics.

Environmental
The weakness of shared environmental effects in shaping personality surprised many psychologists, spurring research into non-shared environmental effects, the environmental influences that distinguish siblings from one another. The non-shared environment may include differential treatment by parents, individually-distinct reactions to the shared family environment, peer influences, experiences outside the family, and test error in measurement. In adults, the non-shared environment may also include the unique roles and environments experienced after leaving the family of origin. Further effects of environment in adulthood are demonstrated by research suggesting that different work, marital, and family experiences are associated with personality change; these effects are supported by research involving the impact of major positive and negative life events on personality.

Gene-environment interactions
A culmination of research suggests that the development of personality occurs in relation to one's genetics, one's environment, and the interaction between one's genetics and environment. Van Gestel and Van Broeckhoven (2003) write, “Almost by definition, complex traits originate from interplay between (multiple) genetic factors and environment.” The corresponsive principle of personality development states that “life experiences may accentuate and reinforce the personality characteristics that were partially responsible for the particular environmental elicitations in the first place”. This principle illustrates how gene-environment interactions maintain and reinforce personality throughout the lifespan. Three main types of gene-environment interactions are active (the process by which individuals with certain genotypes select and create environments that facilitate the expression of those genotypes), passive (the process by which genetic parents provide both the genes and the early environmental influences that contribute to the development of a characteristic in their children), and reactive (the process by which non-family individuals respond to the behavior produced by a genotype in characteristic ways).

An example of the way environment can moderate the expression of a gene is the finding by Heath, Eaves, and Martin (1998) that marriage was a protective factor against depression in genetically-identical twins, such that the heritability of depression was as low as 29% in a married twin and as high as 51% in an unmarried twin.

BlakeBraswell (talk) 05:43, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Theories
The development of personality is supported and attempted to be explained by theories of personality.

Psychoanalytic Theory
The Psychoanalytic Theory of personality was developed by Sigmund Freud. This theory consists of three main ideas that make up personality, the id, the ego, and the superego. The three traits control their own sections of the psyche. Personality is developed by the three traits that make up the Psychoanalytic theory conflicting.

Trait Theory
The Trait Theory of personality is one of the main theories in the study of personality. According to this theory, traits make up personality. Traits can be described as patterns of behavior, thought, or emotion.

Social Cognitive Theory
The Social Cognitive Theory focuses on cognitive processes in relation to the development of personality. This theory takes into account how individual's gather information and how they use that information moving forward. The social aspect of this theory is explained by how this theory also views the environment that the individual is in, this includes past experiences.

Evolutionary Theory
The evolutionary theory of personality development is primarily based on the evolutionary process of natural selection. From the evolutionary perspective, evolution resulted in variations of the human mind. Natural selection refined these variations based on their beneficence to humans. Due to human complexity, many opposing personality traits proved to be beneficial in a variety of ways. Primitive humans were collectivists due to tribe culture. The personalities of individuals within a tribe were very similar. The division of labor resulted in differentiation in personality traits in order to achieve a higher efficiency. Differentiation in personality traits increased functionality, therefore becoming adaptive through natural selection. Humans continued to develop personality and individuality through evolution.

Lifespan Theory
Classic theories of personality include Freud's tripartite theory and post-Freudian theory (developmental stage theories and type theories) and indicate that most personality development occurs in childhood, stabilizing by the end of adolescence. Current lifespan perspectives that integrate theory and empirical findings dominate the research literature. The lifespan perspectives of personality are based on the plasticity principle, the principle that personality traits are open systems that can be influenced by the environment at any age. Large-scale longitudinal studies have demonstrated that the most active period of personality development appears to be between the ages of 20-40. Although personality grows increasingly consistent with age and typically plateaus near age 50, personality never reachers a period of total stability.

- Sam