Barack Hussein Obama’s Personality Development

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Introduction

Barack Obama, known as Barack Hussein Obama II in full, was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii in the United States of America. Barack Obama was the forty-fourth president of the United States from the year 2009 to the year 2017. He was also the first African American in the United States to take over the office. Before winning the presidential elections, Barack Obama represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 2005 to 2008. In 2009, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize due to his remarkable efforts to build up international cooperation, diplomacy, and cooperation between the American people.

The Nobel Peace Prize award was significant since it internationally recognized the various contributions Obama made. These contributions included his role as a spokesman for the public members with regard to human rights. Obama described receiving this award as an “honor with deep gratitude and great humility” (Farmer, 2019). As a result of receiving the highly regarded award after a short span of time as the president, Obama stressed his commitment and determination to change, depicting his vast contributions which led to this impact.

One tragedy that Obama encountered was lacking a father in his childhood years as a result of the divorce between his parents. His father, Barack Obama Senior, was initially a teenage goat keeper in the rural areas of Kenya. Afterward, Barack Obama Senior won a scholarship to further his studies in the United States and ultimately became a highly- ranked economist in the government of Kenya. The main reason for choosing to study Barack Obama is because he is a pragmatist who puts a lot of thoughts into his words. In addition, Barack Obama has the necessary idealism to be inspiring.

Psychoanalytic Approach by Freud: Id-Ego-Superego Ratio

The personality theory of Freud involved the psyche divided into three main major parts; the id, ego as well as super-ego. Freud also added that these tripartite developed at distinct stages in the lives of human beings. Moreover, these parts are systems that merely qualify as parts of the brain or physical in any way. According to the psychoanalytic theory developed by Freud, the id can be referred to as the instinctual and primitive part of the brain containing aggressive and sexual drives. Additionally, due to the inclusion of hidden memories in the brain, the super-ego functions as a moral conscience, and the ego is the most realistic part that helps in mediating between the desires of the id as well as the super-ego.

Psychosexual Stage

According to Freud, there were five psychosexual stages which included; the phallic, the oral, the genital and the latent. In his psychology, Freud defined psychosexual development as the major element in the theory of psychoanalytic sexual drive. He ascertained that personality development was prompted by a series of various stages in childhood whereby the child focused on particular erogenous areas. As a result, being unsatisfied at a certain stage can bring about fixation, while being satisfied can help develop a healthy personality. Lastly, Freud suggested that if a child went through frustration at any point in the psychosexual development stages, anxiety would persist into adulthood as a mental disorder.

Defense Mechanisms

Sigmund Freud introduces a defense mechanism in the psychoanalytic theory that he defines the unconscious psychological operation whose function is to protect an individual from anxiety-causing thoughts. These anxiety causing feelings and thoughts are often related to outer stresses and internal conflicts in human beings. As a result, defense mechanisms potentially cause unhealthy or healthy consequences depending on the frequency and situation with which the mechanism is used. Lastly, a defense mechanism is only rendered pathological when using it causes maladaptive conduct such that the mental or physical health of an individual is negatively impacted.

Adler: Drive for Superiority

Adler developed a theory of superiority and inferiority complexes known as personality theory. In addition, he focused on the various ways in which maturity is affected by a childhood. According to him, people were constantly working towards making up for perceived or real aspects of their personality. Personality theory aims at discussing how the childhood of individuals prompted their behavior. Adler believed that all human beings are born with an innate sense of inferiority to expectations and others. In addition, this theory stated that an inferiority complex was a natural-born psychological state experienced by all individuals. An inferiority complex is also the innermost inspiration to bend an individual’s feelings, actions and thoughts.

Lifestyle

Adler proceeded to claim that the lifestyles of human beings are linked to their personalities as well as their families. In addition, Adler suggested that how individuals were raised and their past relationships partly shape how they feel, process, and relate to reality. He also discovered that some people led healthy lifestyles while those who led unhealthy lifestyles had a problematic code of conduct. However, this Australian psychotherapist and founder of personal psychology stated that people were not always influenced by their past as they thought. In fact, he claimed that human beings were instead more affected by the way they interpreted their realities.

Sex Differences in Personality

In this theory, Adler proposes that personal development is merely based on sexuality but on the movement of an individual from the feelings of inadequacy or inferiority and working towards a superior or better outcome. In addition, the most powerful expression used in this theory protests against masculinity privilege. This masculinity privilege is not limited to one gender as it is experienced by both men and women in the society. Moreover, the gender of an individual is a part of an interpretation in their position with regard to masculinity privilege.

Temperament in Children

Despite sharing environments and genes, siblings are often different from one another than people think. Adler suggested that firstborns are neurotic since the time they share with their parents is limited especially when another sibling comes along. He also attributed the oldest children as dutiful and partly conservative. The youngest children are often ambitious, while the middle ones often have stable emotions. In addition, each child occupies a particular niche in the family, and each uses his or her strategy to master life

Five-Factor Model

In personality, the five-factor model refers to a set of five characteristic domains or dimensions, usually known as the big ‘five.’ These big five include; agreeableness, Neuroticism, openness and extraversion. Firstly, individuals who are highly extroverted are friendly and assertive instead of reserved and quiet. Secondly, people with a pleasant personality are polite and cooperative rather than rude and antagonistic. Thirdly, Conscientious people are known to be task orderly and focused rather than disorganized and distractible. Fourthly, neurotic people mostly deal with negative emotions such as irritation, depression, and anxiety which are the opposite of being emotionally resilient. Lastly, open individuals tend to have a broad number of interests, have beauty and art sensitivity, and prefer following protocol.

Gender Stereotypes

Barack Obama left behind a mixed but also great legacy concerning the issues of women. He did little to defend the reproductive rights of women during his time as president. Afterward, other republicans took over the legislatures of the state and introduced thousands of laws that restricted abortion. He also improved equal pay protections and actively promoted various issues concerning women. One thing was for sure; Obama was the first publicly self-established feminist in America (Barker, 2018). This self-identification was a representative landmark that really mattered to all American women.

In addition, Obama published an intuitive and alluring essay that explained in depth his reasons for becoming a feminist and why feminism was as important for the male gender as it was for women. In this essay, Obama wrote, “It is absolutely the responsibility of men to fight sexism too’’ (Bloch et al., 2019). In the essay, Obama shared closely with international discussions that constituted both gender and race Overall, often, feminism is stereotyped as anti-male or blind to the specific challenges men encounter. However, Obama pointed out that if people really understood feminism, they would see it differently as it entailed something totally different. He explained that feminism gave people the necessary tools to comprehend the various ways through which gender bias and stereotypes affected women. However, feminism also used tools that helped in showing how these biases affected everyone as well as how feminism would be unfruitful unless individuals from both genders worked towards understanding the real meaning of feminism.

Socialization and Social Roles

Barack Obama was an inspirational leader and an esteemed role model since he possessed the necessary leadership qualities. These leadership qualities incorporated the team leadership theory. As a leader, Obama was very attentive to change, commitment and equality. After Mr. Obama was elected president in 2008, he committed himself to giving hope to the people and advancing the change he brought to America. He demonstrated his commitment through his famous words; “change is never easy, but always possible” (Reny et al., 2020). During his leadership, Obama faced numerous challenges with regard to horrible events that transpired in the United States. These challenges came from other countries, public members, and politicians. However, Obama formed resilience by saying that the future always rewarded those who pressed on. Therefore, he was also going to press on since he did not have the time to complain or feel sorry for himself.

Obama also encouraged people to keep dreaming and exploring and to seize believing in the power of their imagination and ideas in order to change the world. Through these encouraging words, it was evident that Obama was a great role model who gave hope to people. Moreover, with calmness, focus, and positivity, he believed everyone could reach their goal. Another attainment Mr. Obama made using these skills was his attempt to terminate the combat with Iraq. Despite his technique being long, it successfully exhibited calmness, persistence, and extraordinary negotiation skills. In addition, Obama always used his abilities and qualities in different situations. He demonstrated how people had the ability to be successful by using these qualities as well as utilizing their abilities. As a result, it became evident through these listed and various achievements that Obama made an outstanding contribution to the United States and the world as a whole. Therefore, Obama became an inspirational leader who was respected by the expansive majority. Until today, many children aspire to lead their lives like Barack Obama from the positive influence he made.

Conclusion

One thing I learnt from the life of Obama is that some inspiring traits develop due to how one was brought up. Additionally, his exposure to numerous cultures helped his acceptance and understanding of nature, thus the cross-cultural leadership theory. Obama also spent most of his childhood with his grandparents, who educated him on various life morals and values. In addition, Obama highlighted the significance of family during his present-elect speech in the year 2008. In his speech, he illustrated his gratitude to his family that made him who he was. However, throughout his service as the president, his passion and zeal for human rights got even bigger.

Overall, according to me, I find the team leadership theory utilized by Obama more sophisticated. It is apparent that Barack Obama was an important and influential leader who made significant contributions to the entire globe with the help of his aspirational qualities and traits. From these outstanding qualities, such as his positive and determined mindset, Obama proved to be an exceptional leader and role model for the young generation. Obama acquired these qualities and traits at a very young age by learning the right code of conduct. However, his worldwide commitment and widespread work allowed him to cultivate and strengthen these traits over time.

In addition, when public and famous figures such as President Barack Obama speak out on issues concerning gender stereotypes and portray admirable leadership qualities, it makes a strong statement. This powerful statement is the kind that should be made on a daily basis in order to move the toxic gender politics in America to the twenty-first century. Finally, I find the psychosexual development theory outstanding as it as it explains in depth the reason for certain behaviors among adults. As a result, understanding people with unaccepted code of conduct is made easier as this theory explains that such behavior mostly originates from chiildhood trauma.

References

Barker, L. A. (2018). The Michelle Obama effect on the self-concept of African American girls. PsycEXTRA Dataset. Web.

Bloch, K. R., Taylor, T., & Martinez, K. (2019). Playing the race card: White injury, white victimhood and the paradox of colour-blind ideology in anti-immigrant discourse. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(7), 1130-1148. Web.

Farmer, A. D. (2019). Jeanne Theoharis, A more beautiful and terrible history: The uses and misuses of civil rights History. New York: Beacon Press, 2018. Pp. 244. $27.95 (cloth). The Journal of African American History, 104(4), 697-699. Web.

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