By SanJuana Ramirez/ reporter
An outreach specialist from Tarleton State University helped NW students develop a greater awareness about themselves and discover their personal values and personalities Nov. 11.
“Your feelings and your mood are at your control especially when stress triggers your brain and you overdevelop certain aspects of your brain,” Ryan Dickerson said during Defining Who You Are.
Dickerson grew up with a single mom and a brother. In seventh grade, he dropped out to be home-schooled. After he got his GED, he started college. Among his current goals is writing a book one day.
Dickerson had students fill out a personal values chart and answer a few questions about their career stories.
“Do you know what your needs are?” he asked.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a pyramid that explains needs from physiological, safety, social, esteem to self-actualization, Dickerson said. He also shared Erickson’s psychosocial stages, a breakdown of developmental crises at different ages. For example at age 1, children develop trust or mistrust with the existential question of “Can I trust the world?” he said.
Students were also asked if they were visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners. Dickerson identified himself as an auditory learner.
His next question involved students’ natural talents or abilities. Explaining these options to a deeper concept, Dickerson said some students are more interpersonal. They like to work in groups and learn better in a loud environment. He said he knew one student who liked to study in a bar because that was the only way she could concentrate. In contrast, intrapersonal students prefer quiet environments and would rather study alone.
“This one is my favorite personality activities,” he said as he introduced the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Students had to figure out their four-letter types by answering a few questions. Each consisted of two answers, and the first letter of the chosen answer made up the four-letter type.
Dickerson’s final personality explanations included the Enneagram diagram and emotional defenses charts that describe the emotional coping and defense mechanisms people relate to.
“There might be elements about yourself that you deny or that you do not really see,” he said.
He encouraged students to take some of the personality tests online to help them learn more about themselves.
“A lot of people pick a major because they are told to by their parents,” he said. “Some people just do not know.”