What a fun set of assessments this week! I scored 39 out of 50 on the
grit scale, which seems fair. Although my Big Five Personality Test
results made sense to me, having it all compiled and assessed shed an
overall light on myself and allowed me to see how my patterns and
feelings translate into my personality was amazing. I scored highest in
Agreeableness (45 of 50) and Openness (43 of 50). This did not
particularly surprise me, as I prefer to make others feel more
comfortable with me in attempts for me to feel more comfortable
with them. I am a people pleaser to an extent, which causes me to
sometimes to need my downtime to recharge. Knowing and
understanding our grit level and personality traits is so valuable in the
sense that it enhances our self-awareness as well as social awareness.
Our self-awareness benefits from knowing these scores because not
only do we, once again, are better able to identify our weaknesses,
but we are also able to learn where we have room for growth (great
for the "growth-mindset"). Social awareness can also benefit because
we can understand how we interact with others and can learn how to
look for other people's telling traits in order to better understand,
communicate, and connect with them on a higher level.
I do personally agree with Rita Pierson's view about emotional
connections being motivators regardless of those connections being
positive or negative in terms of achieving long-term goals. This is an
example of nurture and how our environment impacts us and our
goals. However, I do think negative emotional connections may be
less likely to motivate those who consider themselves to not have
much grit or perhaps don't share many social skills as they might act
as setbacks or add to learned helplessness.
Personally, my champion is my older brother. Where most may have
grown up with some sort of sibling rivalry, I grew up with a best friend
and best motivator. I can truly and gladly admit that he is responsible
for at least half of the grit I have today. I feel it may be easy at times
to blame the "hand we've been given", but my brother was given a
similar hand (if not a bit worse) and he has always persevered and
rose far above any challenge given to him. He carries his positive
traits in everything he does whether it be school, his career, or his
family and seems to give 100% in each aspect of his life. Watching
him my whole life has given me a never-ending sense of optimism,
hope, and drive to always do my best and keep my loved ones close
no matter what I've been dealt. To me, that's what grit is ALL about.
The concepts of grit and personality apply to many of our
programmatic themes such as self-care and ethics by discussing who
we are, how we persevere, and how we can use it to interact with
those around us. I found the bulleted list on the 5.4 Self-
Determination Theory page of our textbook to be extremely helpful
in highlighting this in respect to our goals (which I am using as the
result of both our grit and personalities).
Self-care: When we feel capable, connected, and in control of our
lives, we experience greater well-being. We’re more likely to achieve
our goals and to do so in emotionally intelligent ways. (Myers &
DeWall, 2020) Understanding our grit score and personality traits, we
can claim more of that control over ourselves and how we live.
Ethics: Myers and Dewall also share, "Ask yourself how your goals
align with your values. Explore how achieving your goals will help
other people. If you believe your goals have a greater purpose, you’re
more likely to persist through challenging times. Seek support from
people who can help you develop your skills, who will hold you
accountable, and who will help you feel proud of your achievements."
(2020). Ethics are enhanced by studying this concept because we can
use our new knowledge of ourselves to conduct ourselves in ethically
appropriate ways, even if it may not be our strong suit initially. It is
the idea of personality and mindset growth combined with the grit to
want
to do and be better that is important.
Sources:
Myers, D., & DeWall, C. N. (2020). Psychology (6th ed.). Soomo
Learning. https://www.webtexts.com
