Mike and Marty Scanlon Essay

People often have difficulty believing that Mike and Marty Scanlon are brothers, let alone twins. The two men bear a resemblance, but the similarity ends there. Marty Scanlon was always a quiet, well-behaved child. He excelled in all his academic subjects throughout his school years, although he was shy and had few friends. Marty would always be polite to people, but he generally preferred to keep to himself. After college, Marty became a successful network administrator for a large financial company and married his longtime girlfriend. A dedicated family man, Marty spends most of his free time doing home improvement projects and looking after his two children. Mike Scanlon, on the other hand, could never be described as shy. He was the student that teachers dreaded having in their classroom: boisterous, unruly, and indifferent to authority. Mike had many brushes with the law throughout his high school years, for crimes ranging from vandalism to public drunkenness. Mike dropped out o f high school to take a job as an oil-change technician at a local garage; he spends most of free time and money at local bars- at least the ones that haven’t banned him for starting fights. Mike’s current legal trouble surrounds two of his ex-girlfriends, who are independently taking him to court for child support. Mike is unfazed, however; he laughs with his friends that they’ll never get a dime from him. 1. How would Freud explain the personality differences between Mike and Marty? 2. How would you rate Mike and Marty on the Big Five personality traits? 3. Given that Mike and Marty are twins and share some of their genetic makeup, how would you explain the pronounced differences in their personalities? What role, if any, does temperament seem to be playing? 4. Which of the two brothers seems more likely to be achieving self-actualization, and why do you think so? 5. Do Mike and Marty appear to have different levels of intelligence, or do they show intelligence in different ways? Why do you think so?