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Oprah Winfrey: A Personality Analysis Using The Cognitive-Experiential Domain

Oprah Winfrey: Personality Analysis Using the Cognitive-Experiential Domain
Oprah Winfrey was born January 29, 1954, and is the richest African American of the 20th century (Wikipedia, Oprah Winfrey, 2007). Oprah’s talk show is the highest rated talk show in television history with an astonishing 8.4 million viewers daily (Doyle, 2007). Numerous assessments rank Winfrey as the most influential and powerful woman in the world, with a net worth over half a billion dollars (Henley, 2007). In my research paper, I will be discussing the personality of Winfrey using the cognitive-experiential domain. Specifically, I will explore how Oprah’s personality in terms of her emotions, self-concept, and cognition influences her decisions and help create the woman she is today.
Vernita Lee gave birth to an illegitimate child, Oprah Winfrey, in Kosciusko, Mississippi (Lowe, 1998). Oprah’s father, Vernon Winfrey did not know of Oprah’s existence until after she was born through a note he received in his barracks asking for baby clothes (Lowe, 1998). To this day, Oprah questions whether Vernon is her biological father (Lowe, 1998). Oprah was named after a bible character named Orpah but there was a mistake on the birth certificate so she remains Oprah (Lowe, 1998).
Oprah initially resided on a small farm with her fraternal grandparents in Mississippi until age six (Lowe, 1998). The farm was hardly large enough to call a farm, a mere couple of acres where they raised pigs and chickens and grew vegetables (Lowe, 1998). Oprah credits her grandmother, Hattie Mae Bullock, for challenging her to excel academically (Lowe, 1998). By the age of three, Oprah was able to read and write (Lowe, 1998). Winfrey has fond memories of her grandmother cooking, fixing her hair, and comforting her (Lowe, 1998). Although Oprah received much nurturance from her grandmother, she feels her grandmother’s methods of
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discipline were unnecessarily harsh (Lowe, 1998). Oprah...