Dr. Keva Bethel Character Analysis

Introduction

This psycho-biographical paper will investigate a Bahamian legend by the name of Dr. Keva Bethel and her contributions to the Bahamian society while comparing her personality and achievements to theories describe in the class text “Personality Theories” by Allen (2006). Dr. Keva Bethel was a pioneer in education who challenged the status quo of the educational system of the Bahamas and emphasized the importance of a higher tertiary education, especially for women. As a woman living in a patriarchal society, Dr. Keva Bethel contributed in regard to challenging the limitations and obstacles that would’ve been hindering women during her time. As a result, she paved the way for other women and shaken stereotypes that women weren’t

Allen, Social interest can be defined as the individual’s efforts to develop social feeling. According to Adler, there are three ways that social feeling can be detected within an individual’s personality. Firstly, this can be displayed through the individual’s ability to develop and maintain friendships, cooperate in school and make a choice of a partner. As this relates to Dr. Bethels life, as she was a well-rounded individual, this means that she was an individual who maintain friendships and cooperated in school and with the people around her. As individuals spoke positively about her, it is evident that she had the ability to maintain friendships and to cooperate with others. Moreover, she chose a partner by the name of E. Clement Bethel who she was married to for 25 years. Secondly, to detect social interest, the individual must show interest in working. It is quite evident that Dr. Bethel constantly worked hard throughout her life consistently. Apparent by her achievements, Dr. Bethel was willing to work and continued to participate and serve as the head for professional boards and youth organizations after she retired. Lastly, to have social feeling, one must have the ability to be more concerned with their partner, more than themselves. There isn’t enough information to conclude that Dr. Bethel was more concerned about her partner more than herself. However, the first two criteria match Dr. Bethels

Superiority complex can be defined as an exaggeration or an abnormal striving for superiority which is used to compensate a personal weakness according to Adler’s definition. As mentioned earlier in this paper, Dr. Bethel grew up in a society where women were not equal to men and didn’t share the same rights. Additionally, during that time, there was still some form of segregation between both White and Black people. By being a Black woman in this society, she lacked certain privileges in comparison to the men during that time. Consequently, being both black and a woman was an implicit handicap (especially on a social level) which made it harder to achieve a certain status in society. Moreover, this cannot be seen as a personal weakness but rather a societal handicap that motivated Dr. Bethel to strive for superiority in a society that classified her as inferior. This can explain her drive and motivation to achieve her goals and aspirations in life paving the way for other women in the Bahamian society to thrive, go against the grain and change the society’s views and perspective on women. Her drive to seek perfection through her many achievements, and progressing into her career moving from being a teacher for Government High School to becoming the president of the College of the Bahamas