Beh Final Project

Interview profile Interview profile Description of Interviewee Name: Irina Dinova Age: 26 Race: Asian Marital Status: Married with two children Irina is a 26 years Old Russian female; she is my sister- in-law, who I knew nine years ago after she married my brother. She has two children, and she works in retail as an overnight stocker. I had interviewed Irina on 11/30/2012 at 3:00 PM, by asking her multiple questions. The interview was as follows: 1. Do you remember information accurately by observing how a behavior is performed or read about how the behavior is performed?

Irina rather to learn from observing the behavior, she said that her behavior turned from good to bad, when she started socializing with a group of Indian girls at college. She observed them smoking, drinking, and even cheating on their men. As a result, Irina started smoking, drinking, and having multiple boyfriends. Now, Irina is addicted to smoking, and drinking caused by vicarious reinforcement and those were her Indian friends at college, who she does not socialize with now. Irina likewise shared another story which she learned from punishment.

After she had gotten married at a young age (18 years old), she had conflict with the husband that resulted on their separation. She rented her own house along with her child, and had a strong friendship with an African American guy. Time pass and her relationship with her husband started establishing, but one day she was observed by her husband in the house with her friend. The husband automatically misunderstood and misjudged Irina, as he even wanted to suicide afterwards. After the incident, the husband had been admitted into the mental hospital for attempting to suicide.

After a month, she got back with the husband, and as a result of her husband negative behavior and attitude toward the friendship with a man, she learned to avoid the possibility of a punishing consequence (avoidance training), by not making a friendship with a man. In the other hand, Irina did not like the way she learned through the above experience as it will be an unforgotten implicit memory because it had caused anxiety, embarrassment, and stress, instead she prefers to learn through operant conditioning (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). 2.

Do you prefer studying at the library, or at home with noisy background and distraction? Irina said that she prefers learning in the library instead home with a noisy backgrounds and distraction. She mentioned that her attention is fully active while studying in a the library, which is a quiet place, but where there is a distraction, her attention drops to a lower level, as she does not remembers the material studied. Irina remembers information more accurately without any distraction that unable the information to be stored in the long term memory after rehearsed and stored by the short term memory (University of Phoenix, 2010).

One thing she mentioned that she does forget some information because of proactive interference. Definitely, information related to her culture, tradition, and religion will be remembered for life (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). 3. Are you willing to take the Myers Briggs test and report the results? If so, do you think the results are accurate? Why or why not? Irina had taken the Myers Briggs test, and her results were ESTJ (Extroverted, Sensing.

Thinking, Judging), and it stated that she is very responsible and pillar of strength (University of Phoenix, 2010). Irina agreed to the results of the test and she said that she had used logic, or compensatory model to make a decision on the answer that best describe her personality. Furthermore, she found the test reliable, stable and valid, and these are her second time taking it, as she took the test before in 2010 with the same results. Besides, she is always been described that way by her family and friends (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). . What are the experiences do you think had contributed most in the growth of your personality? Irina thinks that personal unconscious of negative and positive life experiences, collective unconscious from diversity, and unconditional positive regard (University of Phoenix, 2010), by the husband had contributed the most in the growth of her personality. She also believe that her own believe of principles, and been a natural leader had contributed to the development of her personality as well.

Additionally, Irina personality grew through socializing with group of people, harsh life experiences, involvement on her husband’s culture, and life responsibilities, like her two children and husband (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). 5. Do you feel that you are self-monitoring in regards of your attitude? Irina mentioned that she has low-self-monitors in regard (University of Phoenix, 2010) of her attitude. She said that she display sensitive controls congruent with her own internal states such as attitudes, beliefs, and dispositions.

She fails to control her negative attitude, and she has to respond in that particular moment or it will be very disturbance for a while (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). 6. What do you feel was the strongest influence on your attitude? The strongest influence on Irina’s’ attitude will be her parents. Irina blames her parents for her negative attitude because she was mentally and physically abused while she was a child, but she refuses to abuse her children.

I have to agree with Irina, when she said that punishment is a better way to rise up your children, not abuse. Another strongest influence of her positive attitude will be her husband. She mentioned that her husband kindness, caress, and forgiveness had motivated her to change her life for better, by focusing more on her family, and peruse an education, by obtaining a career on arts (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). 7. What role do you think of a person’s race, gender, or ethnicity play when performing that person’s personality and attitudes?

Irina believes that a person’s race, gender, or ethnicity play a role in forming someone’s’ personality and attitude. She said that she had never experienced prejudice and discrimination until she had immigrated to the Unites States. She said that she was prejudiced and discriminated (University of Phoenix, 2010). at school, by a group of African Americans, and they called her names like “ Russian girl” and say unpleasant words to her e. g “ we are not in Russia”, “ go back to Russia”, or “ speak English”.

Additionally, she was stereotype by her husband, as he said to her that her duties, as a married woman is to clean, cook, and raise the children, but she did not respect that opinion because in the U. S. culture a woman can work and be involved in business. Thus, she believes that a person’s personality and attitude solely depend on the culture, norms. Irina’s’ culture differs from her husband, as they are both from different countries. Irina’s husband is Algerian and has its own culture norm, values, and believe, which differ from Irina.

For instance in Irina’s husband culture: a woman is prohibited to drink alcohol, or smoke, while in Irina’s’ culture is verse versa. As a result, many negative attitudes formed, in both Irina and her husband, caused by culture conflicts. Another culture conflict between Irina and her husband was circumcising her baby boy. In Irina’s culture, they do not circumcise, while in her husband’s culture, they circumcise the child after he turns four years old, which will be a big party celebration.

Irina had refused to make her husbands’’ wish come true, which had formed a negative attitude from the situation in both Irina and her husband. She said that her husband still insisting and he will not let it go because it was something he was looking forward too, but Irina does not believe in circumcising, as she said that she will never allow it (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). 8. Do you find yourself better at tasks when intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated? Irina said that she is definitely motivated extrinsically (University of Phoenix, 2010) better in most cases.

However, she can also work on proprieties tasks without been extrinsically motivated. Conversely, in Irina’s words: “new things get old fast, I’m always searching for new motivations and thinking of new ways to accomplish my tasks. ” (Personal communication, 11/30/2012). She also said that she hates her job, but she extrinsically motivated because of the money that will be earned. Irina referred to when she was six years old, her parents used rewards, when she obtains an A at school, but she gets punished when she obtains a lower grade.

She said that the rewards and punishment had motivated her to always seek an A grade at school, and nothing less (Irina Dinova, personal communication, November 30, 2012). In conclusion, I have to say that the interview with Irina has been such a wonderful experience. It had helped me to study and learn others behavior causes like personality and attitude, by implementing information learned throughout the course materials. Irina was very patient, comfortable, open, and honest during the interview process. Therefore, I am convinced that all her answers were accurate.

References University of Phoenix. (2010). Cognition and Mental Abilities. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, BEH/225 website University of Phoenix. (2010). Memory. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, BEH/225 website University of Phoenix. (2010). Motivation and Emotion. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, BEH/225 website University of Phoenix. (2010). Personality. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, BEH/225 website University of Phoenix. (2010). Social Psychology. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, BEH/225 website