Difference Between Personality And Personality Theories

In order to have a personal theory regarding human behavior one must understand the different behaviors through the principals of psychology. Similar to a fingerprint, people are unique and their behaviors/personalities are all different. A person’s personality can have emotional impact in reference to the way they act, speak, react to different situations and the lives of people that they are involved with. Relationships can also be influenced by the way a person behaves and the personality they portray.

Guilford (1959) defines personality traits as being ‘any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another’. Subsequently, trait theory can be identified as an approach to the study of human personality. The aim of psychologists, specifically trait theorists, is to explain similarities and differences between individuals based on traits. Although numerous psychologists differ on the amount of traits that are significant, each theorist categorizes personality traits along several broad type spectrums. This assignment will focus on comparing and contrasting Eysenck’s Hierarchical Theory of Personality and Costa and McRae’s Five Factor Model (FFM), two different trait theories of personality.

Burger (2008), says that there are many theories of personality and psychologists try to explain it with their own approaches. Discussed here will be the psychoanalytic approach, the trait approach, the biological approach the humanistic approach, the behavioural/social learning approach and the cognitive approach. They were devised to search for specific patterns in behaviour and ways of thinking about these

Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from

Jung agrees with Freud that personal conscious is a repository of content previously conscious, even though they may have been forgotten. For example; collective unconscious can be hereditary and transferred to another, which is why Jung agreed with Freud’s argument that Anna transferred her affect to Breuer. Both Jung and Freud agree that a human’s unconsciousness is buried deep and few are able to reach it on a psychoanalysis level. However, Jung disagreed with Freud’s claims that sexuality is the basis of unconscious

In psychology, there are four major theories of personality: psychodynamic, trait or five-factor model, humanistic, and social-cognitive. The psychodynamic theory primarily focuses on the role of the unconscious mind. The social cognitive theory focuses on the effect of the environment on behavior and is based on theories of learning. Whereas, the humanistic theory emphasizes conscious life experiences and choices. The trait or five-factor model focuses on characteristics themselves and not the roots of personality.

It is generally accepted that the human existence is not merely encompassed in terms of isolated instincts or purposive mechanisms such as hunger, power, sex, survival, perpetuation of the species and so on (M.-L. von Franz 202). Men have always seeked a state of self-awareness -- a more spiritual type fulfillment that is attained by coming to terms with one’s role and purpose in the world. While this psychological phenomenon has been known intuitively by civilisations across time, it has been the aim of modern psychology dissect and explain it. Psychoanalyst Carl C. Jung in particular has made it a cornerstone of his career to study this human endeavour which he eventually coined individuation - “the process by which the conscious and unconscious within an individual learn to know, respect and accommodate one another.” (Freeman 14) His research proposes that individuation follows a universal pattern whereby one must encounter and assimilate a series of

Freud believed our behavior is already determined by our experiences we had from childhood through the unconscious mind and that the occurrences we had in our childhood can have such an impact on our behavior as we grow into adulthood. Psychodynamic theory is often referred to as psychoanalytical therapy which describes the terms of personality through psychological process which includes our dreams, fears and wishes we are not fully aware of through psychotherapy explores the clients unconscious thoughts and emotions. He suggested that our personalities are formed by three reasons: the ego, id, and superego the Intrapsychic elements. A supporter of Sigmund Freud early on was Carl Jung, a member of Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. They shared interest of the unconscious. Jung anticipated that the unconscious mind consisted of two layers which emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality. Personal unconscious is the first layer and this layer is basically the same version of the unconscious as Freud’s. This part of the unconscious contains information that is temporarily forgotten and becomes a part of your repressed memories. The Collective Unconscious known as the second layer is considered the most important and significant difference between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. This is said to be Jung’s most original workings and that it is very controversial to the personality theory. (McLeod, S. A. (2014). Carl Jung.

Analytical Psychology (Carl Jung; combines history, anthropology, mythology, religion…midlife crisis)…influenced by past & future events moving us towards individuation (integration of conscious and unconscious)…constructive and destructive (shadow) forces which must accept; collective conscious—past and history of species; persona—mask we wear to protect ourselves, animus/anima—biological & psychological parts of M and F, shadow—dark side; unconscious discovery prepares for the near future & bring balance between opposites of individual

Funder discusses on how personality psychology formulates around numerous basic approaches. One approach Funder talks about is the biological approach, which addresses the mental process on our behavior including anatomy, physiology, genetics, and evolution. This approach analyses our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors through our mind. Another approach that Funder discusses is the trait approach, which is basically the study of human personality; the trait approach concentrates on the way an individual differs in emotion, thought, and behavior and how those differences are measured. These two approaches complement each other because the trait approach focuses on routine patterns of an individual that are behaviors, feelings, and thoughts which those

Freud, the organiser of therapy, clarified the human personality as like an icy mass, with just a little measure of it being noticeable, that is human’s perceptible behaviour; however it is the oblivious, submerged personality that has the most, fundamental impact on human behaviour. Still, it is important to understand the role of unconsciousness in regards of psychological approach (Blatt & Luyten, 2009). Some of the fact related to psychodynamic approach includes,

Characteristic theorists consider personality to be a steady and persevering example of conduct. They depict our disparities as opposed to attempting to clarify them. Utilizing component examination, they distinguish bunches of conduct propensities that happen together. Hereditary inclinations impact numerous attributes.

The purpose of this paper is to look into the life and accomplishments of a well-known psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung. Jung’s work brought forth several new concepts in psychology. While alive, his work influenced colleagues and continued to influence the future of psychology after his death.

The psychoanalytic perspective, is the outlook that behavior and personality are effected by the conflict between one’s inner dreams n and expectation of society. Most of this conflict occurs in unconscious, which is outside the knowledge of an individual. Renowned psychologist, Freud established the psychoanalytic theory as an explanation for perplexed phenomena such as the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and behavioral reflex reactions to stressful situations. The unconscious is a primary focus in psychoanalytic theory due to its typical development in childhood and the ways in which it influences nearly every detail of an individual’s life. The unconscious mind also holds unvented memories and unexpressed urges that make their process into the conscious mind through a variety of different means. However, topographical theory of the mind states that conscious, preconscious, and unconscious serve as motivating forces in human behavior. Corsin & Wedding (2011) define the conscious as mental activity which individuals are fully aware of, preconscious as thoughts and feelings that could be easily brought to mind and unconscious as thoughts, feelings, and desires of which one is unaware of.

The study of personality traits is beneficial in identifying the many variables that exist from human to human; the combinations of these variables provide us with a true level of individuality and uniqueness. In the field of psychology, trait theory is considered to be a key approach to the study of human personality (Crowne, 2007; Burton, Westen & Kowalski, 2009). This paper aims to identify a number of significant contributors who have played crucial roles in both the development and application of trait theory. This paper then moves focus to these theorists, outlining their theory and analysing both the strengths and weaknesses of those theories. An illustration of the methods used in trait measurement is given and includes the