Personality Theories

Funder (2006) defines personality as a person’s pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior, with psychological mechanisms and underpinnings. Studying personality within the field of social psychology makes logical senses. While the study of personality psychology seeks to determine the various ways that people differ from one another, and figure out individuals from the inside out, personality within social psychology seeks to figure out individuals from the inside out in varying contexts. Personality psychologists deal with one main challenge – there are so many facets to one’s personality that it is hard to view one’s personality within one single lens. Therefore, before exploring personality within the context of social realms, it is important to view the many facets and approaches to examining personality and its variations.

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.

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.

Freud proposed the psychological structure of personality to include three systems called the id, the ego, and the superego. At birth, the id is the original system of personality and is ruled by the pleasure principle. It is driven towards satisfying instinctual needs. The ego can be described as a mediator between ones instincts and their surrounding environment. The ego is ruled by the reality principle, using realistic and logical thinking to formulate action plans for satisfying needs. The superego includes a person’s moral code and strives for perfection, not pleasure. Psychic energy is distributed between these three systems creating dynamics of personality. This psychic energy is what determines behavior (Day, 2008).

First, lets look at Freud’s model of the psyche. Now, Sigmund Freud is a pretty famous psychologist from the early 20th century/late 19th century. His idea for the model originally sprouted from a young lady by the name of Anna. Anna just wanted her doctor to listen to her problems and what she had to say; later this becomes known as “chimney sweeping,” which was the main basis for Freud’s idea (). Psychoanalysis, therapy in its early days, was just observing human behavior through the word of mouth of the client. As the study of psychoanalysis moved along, physicians tried to piece together the evidence and see trends in the psychic in order to comprehend it.

Personality is one of the concepts that often be used by social scientists.According to Schultz (2009), “Personality can be defined as the unique, relatively enduring internal and external aspects of a person’s character that influence behaviour in different situations”. In general, personality theories can be classified based on four major approaches which are psychoanalytic theory, trait theory, social learning theory, and humanistic theory (Refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).

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

What is psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is a form of treatment invented by Sigmund Freud that usually focuses on the early years of the patient’s life and his/her relationship with immediate family members. A wise man once said, “There are four questions that every good student of psychology will ask about a personality theory. The first question

A person’s personality says much about who he or she is. People define personality in different ways. Researcher after researcher has tried to come up with the best definition for what personality truly means. Case studies, correlational studies, and experimental designs are some of the most commonly used methods of research. These methods help better define personality. The advantages and disadvantages of each method differ and can be helpful or hurtful to the research of an individual’s personality.

Freud is known for developing the use of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is based on the observation that people are often unaware of many of the things that determine their emotions and behavior. Psychoanalytic

Personality psychology is the way to understand better the innate workings of people and how their personalities determine their behavior. Within the broad subject of this study, there are many sub-categorical studies one of which is called Personality Typology.

Psychoanalysis is a therapy and also a theory which was produced by Sigmund Freud. This therapy stress that human behavior and emotion are unconsciously cause by their past experience and drive in the unconscious part and the client doesn’t know them. The therapist always uses this therapy to help the client understand more emotion and

It is important for psychologists to understand the factors of personality to understand cognitive, emotional and behavioural characteristics required when treating clients. Personality is described as a range of characteristic that controls the way a person thinks, feels and acts that deliver coherence and direction in one’s life. A group of theorists once said, “each of us is in a certain respect like all other people, like some other people and like no other person who has lived in the past or will exist in the future” (Kluchohn & Murray, 1953). It has also been established that a person will behave slightly consistently over time in different situations. Additionally, modest stability is established from childhood personality to adult

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is responsible for developing the Psychoanalytic Theoretical Perspective; Freud argued that our early life experiences are essentially the base to our subconscious mind and in turn heavily influence our current behavior. Freud believed that people could be treated and healed by articulating their dreams and childhood memories allowing an individual to gain insight into these unconscious thoughts and ultimately motivate them to resolve the repressed conflicts within. This technique was developed into a therapy used today known as Psychoanalysis, similar to hypnosis, it was founded in 1896 (“Freud's Psychoanalytic Theories.”). Just like any other psychological theory, there are many interesting concepts to Freud's Psychoanalytic Theoretical Perspective. The theory says that your personality is determined by the manner in which your behaviors have been depicted to the unconscious mind, this theory tells us that our behavior is completely

Sigmund Freud was the discoverer and inventor of psychoanalysis and coined the term in 1896 after publishing studies on Hysteria with Joseph Breuer in 1895. Psychoanalysis still remains unsurpassed in its approach to understanding human motivation, character development, and psychopathology. Freud’s insights and analyses of psychic determinism, early childhood sexual development, and unconscious processes have left an indelible mark on psychology (Korchin, 1983).