Ronald Reagan Life Span

Introduction On Feb. 6, 1911 a child named Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in a small town, Tampico, Illinois. His parents are the late Nelle Wilson and John (“Jack”) Reagan. Ronald grew up with one brother by the name of Neil (“Moon”) Reagan. The Reagans moved quite a few times throughout Ronald’s childhood before settling down in Dixon Illinois. Although Reagan Majored in Sociology and Economics, his love was in entertainment. In 1936 he accepted a position with the radio station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa as a sports caster. Only a year later, Reagan went on to Hollywood in Los Angeles, California to establish his acting career.

His acting career lasted 25 years. Reagan became known for his political abilities in 1964 when he preformed a television speech that supported Senator Barry Goldwater’s campaign for presidency. Although Goldwater lost, the speech was moving none the less. After the speech was delivered, a group of Republicans in California approached Reagan and convinced him to run in the 1966 election for the seat of governor of California. Reagan beat out Democrat Edmund G. Brown, his opponent, by nearly a million votes. In the Race for presidency in 1980 Regan’s opponent was Jimmy Carter.

Carter’s nervous mannerisms were no match for Regan’s charm and public appeal. Carter’s 41% of votes was dwarfed by Reagan’s 51%. Reagan became known as “the great communicator. ” Reagan became the 40th President of the United States of America. Reagan spoke out publicly against federal regulatory agencies, expensive social programs, and government bureaucracy. He was a public speaker and advocate of the middle class. However, he also thought the government had too much control and influence over businesses. Psychological Influences His father was an Irish-American.

His father was a shoe salesman by trade. Reagan’s mother was Scotts-Irish. Reagan didn’t care much for his name Ronald so he went by “Dutch”, a nickname that very well could have come from his father saying he looked like a fat Dutch boy. Reagan’s mother was a huge advocate for the needy. She also supported efforts for prohibition. She thought that alcohol was a moral decay of the family fabric. This was more than likely because Reagan’s father was an alcoholic. Be that as it may, Nelle always supported Jack and never chastised him for what she classified as his “sickness”.

Reagan seemed to have such an empathetic mother. She seems to be so supportive of his father as well as the rest of the family. Even though she had personal ideological disagreements with the way that Jack was living his life, Nelle had compassion and stood by Jack with emotion; showing a good moral environment for her children. Support Structure Systems Reagan was antisocial as a child and didn’t have many friends. The Reagan’s were a tightly knit unit. However, Reagan did write in his memoirs an entry along the lines of Dixon being a small town in which everyone had a sense of community for one another.

It was a place where people helped others in need. This is very important because this could allude to an opinion of Reagan’s genuine concern for others. Reagan, at the age of 11, became very devout in religion. He aspired to become a Disciple of Christ and became baptized by a Disciple of Christ. Throughout his life, Reagan constantly remained vigilant in his religious endeavors. He believed in God and he believed in brotherhood. Through these two powerful belief structures, Reagan received support from within that he needed to pursue endeavors throughout his life.

Neither of Reagan’s parents possessed a formal education. For this reason they were very concerned that their children did well in school. Despite Nelle and Jack’s efforts, Reagan’s interest wasn’t as much on education, as it was on sports. However, this gave him a substantial structure through his teammates on his football team. Although his educational goals gave him an early start for college and eventually for his major in economics and sociology, he also gained an important support foundation from making friends and becoming social in sports.

Nelle and Jack were advocates of equal opportunity and encouraged cultural growth. On many occasions they invited Ronald’s multicultural friends into their home for social gatherings. Personality Theories Some people argue that Reagan was an Introvert merely because he was an actor previous to his career as a politician. An introvert is someone who is concerned primarily with one’s own thoughts and feelings rather than with the external environment (dictionary. com). Most people become actors because they are shy and sensitive people. They are often insecure people who find difficulties expressing themselves.

Some people would argue that Reagan had script writers that aided his abilities to be so charismatic. Some Introverted People resort to acting because being onstage is an out for them and a way for them to be extroverted when they can find no other means to do so. On the contrary, many people claim that Reagan was an extrovert due to his jocularity and ability to communicate very well. Extroversion is the tendency to be sociable, active, and willing to take risks (Kowalski & Western, 2005). Reagan displayed the ability to charm a crowd seemingly with no effort.

Reagan was forthcoming, energetic, and open like most extroverted individuals. Extroverts tend to want to be continuously moving. Extroverts thrive on different activities, be it either physical or mental. Extroverts likewise gain their energy from their surroundings. An extrovert’s environment stimulates them greatly such as Reagan seemed to be from his. Best Match/Conclusion In 1921 a Swiss Psychoanalyst, Dr. Jung, coined the terms introvert and extrovert. He believed that people are born with these two innate attitudes. He believed that everyone possesses these two attitudes but favors one more so than the other. According to Dr.

Jung’s research an introvert focuses on their feelings, emotions, and Ideas as an extrovert focuses on heavy doses of social stimulation. A research study was conducted at Berkeley and the results found online at berkeley. edu revealed that Reagan could be ranked as a disparate conservative. Other disparate conservatives that were ranked in the study with Reagan were Hitler and Mussolini. The Study believes that theses three individuals express the same traits. The traits that were observed were fear, aggression, dogmatism, intolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty, avoidance, need for cognitive closure and terror management.

Many psychoanalysts associate a close relativity between extroversion with conservatives. According to Dr. Salvatore Didato, Ph. D. , Reagan is an extrovert (St. Petersburg Evening Independent 1985). By looking at Reagan’s jocular approach to his speeches and his constant drive for attention as well as combining this with the research findings of the Berkeley study, I agree. I believe that Reagan thrived on the support and attention of the public to satisfy his feelings of self fulfillment. References Introvert. Retrieved from http://dictionary. reference. om/browse/introversion on November 2, 2009. Extrovert. Retrieved from EBOOK COLLECTION: Kowalski, R. & Western, D. (2005). Psychology (4th ed. ). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. On November 2, 2009. Berkely. edu research study. Retreieved online November 2, 2009. http://berkeley. edu/news/media/releases/2003/07/22_politics. shtml Dr. Salvatore Didato, Ph. D. ,”Most of us are a mix of introvert and extrovert” St. Petersburg Evening Independent Saturday March 9, 1985 retrieved from http://news. google. com/newspapers? nid=950&dat=19850311&id=Ou4LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=X1kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7075,2599676 on Nov 02, 2009.