While family, friends, teachers or celebrities may have great impact on the development of people’s personalities and attitudes, they are not the only factors. Some other factors such as individual experience, reading and the environment they lives in, also affect the shaping of people. So I agree that it is the whole society that defines us and our attitudes, not only a few people. During one’s growing period, he might meet some specific people that become his role models.
These role models as a stimulator really assist people’s development on their characters and views. For instance, the former GE CEO, Jack Welch wrote in his biography that he as a child much respected his mother, esp. her way of doing things, and admitted that many of his personalities such as toughness, persistence and passion were very similar to those of his mother. In addition, Developmental Psychology tells us people form their characters before 6 years old. As we know, what average babies can contact are those from family or kindergarten.
Hence, it is not strange that people are inclined to believe that family, teachers and some other individuals help form them and their characters. However, we in reality also see almost all people are deeply affected by their living environment, social events and experiences. The influence of living environment to people cannot be avoidable. People who are borne and living in big cities are generally more open-minded than those from small towns (at least in China) since they have more chances to meet all kinds of things and human beings.
On the contrary, people in small towns are more likely preferring living with their elders than those in big cities. In addition, political environment has a certain effect on how people behave and think. People living in despotism are usually kept introverted and restrained. They speak less and very selectively. But people living in more free countries are more open-minded and easily communicated. As for the influence of culture, we usually talk about the differences between eastern and western.
Westerners, in my view, are more open and aggressive on their pursuits; yet easterners are more conserved and tend to return their inner existence. Hence, we can conclude that the environment, whether it is geographical, political or cultural, contributes to define people and their views. On the other hand, experiences take much effect on shaping the way of people! |s thinking and behaving. People experiencing wars are more likely to cherish the peace or go to the extreme of cruelty. Studies showed that most of those who lived through the wars firmly insisted trying all the means to avoid war. Unfortunately, the cruelty of wars also brought about mental displacement to some people who subsequently tend to behave extremely.
Momentous social events more or less imprint themselves on people! |s thinking and behavior. And every social reformation definitely changes most people! |s notions. For example, Women! |s Liberation Movement had completely changed the view that women could only stay at home and be dependent on their husbands. In this movement, women can not only work in factories but also pursue their education in college and enter intellectual professions. Those who firmly insist women should serve for their families gradually disappear or accept this new notion. In sum, the forming of people! |s thought and behavior is very complex and difficult to explain by one specific aspect.
When examining someone’s personalities and attitudes, we need to observe the living environment, his experience and some large social events besides the group of people around him, such doing would help us to clearly understand people, just as the way scholars examine those giants in the past.