Personality Theory – Freud’s theory
K.Arockia Maraichelvi
1. INTRODUCTION We human beings are the same in certain ways by having human bodies, human minds, human thoughts and human feelings. But in many other ways every one of us are different from others and possesses certain unique qualities. This is where the term personality sets in. The term gains significance somewhere in between the common qualities and the unique features of the human community as a whole and as an individual.
Personality does not have one final definition, but can be thought of as the combination of behaviour, emotion, motivation and thought patterns that define an individual. The field of personality psychology attempts to study similarities and differences among these
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Type theories- this theory is limited to the personality type of an individual with only biological connotation and the types of limited.
b. Trait theories – Various theories based on viewed personality as an end product of different internal characteristic with the biological foundation
c. Psychodynamic theories – This theory has got major significance in the overall development of an individual and is the most accepted one. Two major contributes for their type of theory are Sigmand Freud and Erile Erikson.
d. Behavioural theories – are the theories thet talk about the in fluence of environment on an individual with least consideration to the internal thought and feelings of that individual.
e. Humanist theories – focus just on the role of free will and the exposure of an individual in developing his/her parents Looking into the pros and cons of all these theories, it was considered to dwell into the psychological aspect of personality, because this type of theory has got major implications on the personality development theory of young children. Let us look into Sigmand freud’s personality theory in this module and Erik Erikson’s theory in the forthcoming module.
5. FREUD’S PSYCHO ANALYTIC
Personality is who an individual is, how one does things, manages events and situations, and how one describes other individuals. One 's personality can help guide an individual throughout one 's life, in addition to having power over the situation or task. Many, if not all of these factors of personality, traits, and genetics, make up who an individual is. One 's may believe an individual 's personality, differences, and individualities is the core of who an individual truly is.
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
Burton, western & Kowaslki (2015) describes Personality as the enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances. In other words it can be defined as differences in characteristics in a person, including their way of thinking, likes, dislikes, sociability, openness, feelings and behaviour, which make them the person they are and differentiates them from others. All these traits when brought together is known to be the personality of that particular person.
Trait theories assume people have many traits that are continuing qualities that individuals have in different amounts. Allport’s theory suggests that there are 3 main traits: central, secondary, and cardinal. A central trait is a characteristic that controls and organizes behavior in various situations. A secondary trait can be described as a preference and is specific to certain situations. A cardinal trait is very general and pervasive. It is so pervasive that an individual is governed by it and it dictates everything a person does.
Research also shows indicates that the Big Five has distinct biological substrates thereby linking trait perspective with the biological perspective (DeYoung, Quilty & Peterson, 2007). However this convergence of perspectives is actually productive in that all perspectives by themselves have their disadvantages as well as their advantages. If all perspectives can coincide with one another, explanations of personality will become so much easier.
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
Chapter 10 is over personality. Personality is described as a pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world. The book goes over psychodynamic perspectives, trait perspectives, personological and life story perspectives, social cognitive perspectives, and biological perspectives.
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.
Personality is looked at everyday purposely and accidently. Whether you are judging how your new professor for the semester will be, or if you are studying your best friend for a project, personality is studied abundantly. While there are many ways to define personality, there is not a worldwide definition around. Personality is the unique combination of patterns that influence behavior, thought, motivation, and emotion in a human being (boundless.com). That is one of many ways of defining personality. When examining personality, there are four main approachable theories including: The Psychodynamic Approach, The Trait Approach, The Social-Cognitive Approach, and The Humanistic Approach.
Compare the Behaviourist and Psychodynamic approaches to Psychology in terms of theoretical assumptions and methodology.
The psychoanalytic theory by Sigmund Freud has always been argued to be one of the most controversial theories in the school of psychology. Critics have questioned how relevant the perspective of Freud is due to the fact that it holds no scientific basis. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego. This theory, known as Freud's structural theory of personality, places great emphasis on the role of unconscious psychological
Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that gives both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior (Feist & Feist, 2008).
To understand the many different theories of personality you must understand that personalities are unique. Everyone has different experiences, parents, and lives. These differences cause all people to view the world differently than the person next to them. There are various thoughts of how and when personalities develop and grow. Carl Rogers and George Kelly are two theorists who have influenced the understanding of the nature and development of personality (Pervin, 1989).
Personality denotes a person’s distinguishing psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and enduring responses to various stimuli.