Steve-O

=**Steve-O**= **Biography:**  Steve-O (Stephen Gilchrist Glover) was born in London on June 13, 1974. He is well-known for his insane stunt acts on the famous “JACKASS” television series. Although Steve-O is currently extremely famously recognized, the journey he took in obtaining his stardom was a long one. Steve-O spent one year at the University of Miami before dropping out because he felt that school just was not necessary for his career ambitions. He wanted to pursue his career in becoming a professional stuntman. After leaving Miami he joined the Ring Ling Brothers and Barnum and Baily Clown College. From here he started to make his own videos which were ultimately discovered by the director of Jackass, Jeff Tremaine, who at the time was creating a stunt based reality show. Through Jackass, Steve-O was able to jump start his career. With Jackass, he was offered to work with other guys who shared the same desire to entertain people by doing dumb and painful actions. Steve-O also gained a spot on the hit show “WildBoyz” with fellow Jackass co-star Chris Pontius which aired for four successful seasons. Up to now, Steve-O’s life background seems like that of a fairy tale. He showed his hard work to succeed at something he desperately wanted to do and pushed his way into Hollywood. Although Steve-O’s career has been extremely successful, it hasn’t come without several, difficult obstacles which he had to overcome. Steve-O had a short series on MTV called, “Steve-O, Rise and Demise” which brought forth the deep and dark problem he had with drugs. Although he has faced struggles with drugs, contemplated suicide, and demonstrated bizarre hallucinogenic episodes, he managed to clean his act up. With the help of close family and friends, Steve-O has been sober since May, 2008.  **Trait and Skill aspects of personality:**  One aspect used to study the formation of personality is the trait and skill perspective. Using the Big Five approach we can analyze and see how Steve-O fits in the five dimensions. Through Jackass, Wildboyz, and many other interviews with Steve-O, he shows to be way more extroverted than introverted. An extroverted person exhibits traits such as enthusiasm as well as being sociable, dominant, and talkative. One of these extroverted characteristics that Steve-O clearly possesses is enthusiasm. Someone who is watching the show Jackass would clearly view these stunts as idiotic. Steve-O exhibits zealous enthusiasm in any stunt that he does whether he really truly wants to perform it or not. He is an entertainer and does a tremendous job entertaining his audience. When it comes to conscientiousness, Steve-O seems to be quite the opposite. Someone who is conscientious tends to be cautious, responsible and organized. Steve-O is very impulsive meaning, careless and disorderly. He acts spontaneously and acts in ways that others see as uncivilized. Steve-O’s show “The Wildboyz” led him and fellow co-star of Jackass, Chris Pontius, to travel the world in search of adventure. Along their way they stopped at places like India, South Africa, Brazil, and many more. His creative and imaginative mind helped create the stunts and performances to shape the show. When at their location they encountered many different cultures, animals, and insects, etc. The show revealed his openness with other cultures. Whether it was trying the native’s strange delicacies, drinking blood from an animal, or participating in tribal practices, Steve-O never demonstrated the ability to say “no”. To look at another perception of personality we’re able to analyze Henry Murray and Murray’s needs and motives. Motives are internal psychobiological forces that help persuade particular behavior patterns. They are things that make us act a certain way. Murray portrays four needs: the need for achievement, the need for exhibition, the need for power, and the need for affiliation. Going back to before he was famous, Steve-O possessed life goals that he wanted to achieve. Steve-O’s desire to become a professional stunt-man led him to drop out of the University of Miami after one year and join the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College. Steve-O demonstrates the need for exhibition in every stunt that he performs where he enjoys entertaining and exciting his viewers. His need for exhibition can sometimes lead him to act in bizarre ways, such as stapling his genitalia to his legs or acting in other ways that would inflict pain on his own body. In the documentary “The Rise and Demise of Steve-O,” Steve-O enabled his viewers to witness his battle with drugs. During this time in his life, Steve-O allowed drugs to take over his life and his actions. As a viewer, you were able to see the drastic change in Steve-O’s personality. He gained a strong need for control and need for power. In order to quench his need for power, he believed that being successful in the rap industry would fulfill this need. In the end, Steve-O fell weak due to massive depression leading him to write a suicide note stating when and where he was going to commit suicide. Johnny Knoxville received the e-mail and knew it was serious but purposely joked about it in an e-mail back to Steve-O. Steve-O was at a point in his life where he felt he was ready to die, and no one from the Jackass crew really wanted to associate with him when he was on drugs. In Steve-O’s mind, by sending the e-mail, he was trying to make a point but, in reality, was reaching out for assistance. Steve-O has obtained a very strong friendship with all of the Jackass members and has maintained this friendship over the course of many years. The Jackass crew told Steve-O time and time again that they do not like being around him when he is on drugs. However, since Steve-O could not break the habit, this made him slowly drift away from this close group of friends. When he felt like he had nothing to live for he went back in seek of his friends who were also like his family. He showed his need for affiliation by sending Knoxville the e-mail that eventually saved his life. **Interactionist:** We can also use the Interactionist aspect when analyzing Steve-O. This approach suggests that behavior is a function of the person and the environment. According to Harry Stack Sullivan, personality is tied to social situations; we become different people in different social situations. Steve-O spent his time in Hollywood creating a huge party animal persona, and everywhere he went he felt he needed to live up to his reputation. Having this persona led Steve-O into a dark hole that almost cost him his life. This is a good example of the social self, which states, who we are and how we think of ourselves arises from our interactions with others. When Steve-O performed on Jackass, his stunts were fueled and influenced by the people he was around. When he was out in public and interacting with fans, he really emphasized his party boy image that he had obtained during his years of filming Jackass. Steve-O’s behavior was very much reflected by his environment. Murray viewed personality as the study of human lives across time and the situations throughout one’s life. Assuming that Steve-O very much enjoyed having this attention and the persona of a wild child, one might begin to see the environmental pressures that were setting in. Some of these pressures could come from his fans and how he is perceived by them. There is the pressure for him to entertain and excite his viewers by inflicting harm and pain to himself. Steve-O admitted in one interview that the stunts that he performed, he did them when he was not even on drugs ironically enough. When Steve-O used drugs, it brought him down from a high sensation seeking state of arousal. Steve-O spent many years using many different drugs. Once he became famous he was able to afford large quantities of drugs which led to a potential demise. He has been sober for about three years now and you can notice a drastic difference. He uses his past experiences to help keep him clean and away from those things that brought him down. He still has the same crazy mind set with his performances but has managed to stay sober. This theory also states that we seek situations and feedback that reinforce our self-conception. Steve-O’s true passion is entertaining people and based on the success of his career thus far, he has achieved this passion. **Discussion:** Both of these aspects show how they shape Steve-O’s personality. Looking back at Murray’s needs, we see that Steve-O has a strong need for achievement. He dropped out of University of Miami to join a clown college. He knew that he could not pursue what he really wanted in life unless he made changes. Even after his rehabilitation treatment, Steve-O pushed to continue his career and is living very successful as of today. We also see how Steve-O has a strong need for exhibition. His whole life as revolved around being the center of attention and entertaining people. Looking back at some of the concepts discussed form the interactionist aspect we can understand how Steve-O’s environment shapes his behavior. Lastly, it is clear his past experiences with drugs and alcohol make him the man he is today. Steve-O understands that he can still live up to his “Jackass” name without the presence of drugs in his life. **References:** [|**http://www.steveo.com/**]  Friedman, H.S. & Schustack, M.W. (2009). Personality (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson Higher Education 
 * By: Josh Valdez**