Psychodynamic Theory: The Four Major Personality Theories

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

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.

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

The personality theory that I have chosen to focus on will be Identity Theory. It was developed by Erik Erikson in the nineteen hundreds. Erik Erikson believed that every individual goes through a certain number of stages to reach his or her full development or potential (Erikson, 1994). He theorized that a human being goes through eight different stages ranging from birth to death (Erikson, 1994). Identity Theory focuses on eight psychosocial stages of development, and an epigenetic principle of maturation (Schultz, 2008). The stages of development are

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.

     When thinking about my personality in regard to different personality theories, I felt that I could most relate to the humanistic theory. Carl Rogers

The psychodynamic perspective focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality. Freud believed that the personality develops in a series of five stages that develop the three divisions of personality. In the oral stage, the fixation is in the mouth, and would be the cause of his introverted nature; likewise, in the anal stage, Roberto would discover his reserved nature, while the phallic stage, he would further refine his reserved nature as a sense of humility in his actions, also defining his mild mannered portion of his personality. In the latency stage, his social skills would refined and he would become introverted. Freud would think that Roberto’s mild-mannered, reserved, and invertedness is caused by intense suppressing of the id by the ego, having Roberto adopt the personality that he does; however, Karen Horney would classify Roberto’s personality in respect to her theory of neurotic personalities- personalities typified by maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships- with moving away from people by withdrawing from personal relationships.

Within psychology there is three theories relating to Personality; humanistic, psychodynamic and trait. These perspectives were developed by different psychological theorists, in which this presentation we’ll attempt to draw further into. In particular, this presentation will focus on humanistic and psychodynamic personality perspectives. (Fletcher and Garton, 2015) Theory 1: Freud’s Psychodynamic View

Allport defines personality as ‘the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment’ (Allport, 1937). An individual’s unique personality traits and attributes are a powerful indicator of how he/she will interact with the work environment. The difference between average and outstanding employees can often be solely personality related. As the employee is the most valuable asset to the company, ‘selecting the right employee during the process is critical’ (Carbery and Cross, 2013, pp. 41-53)

Self-actualization is the drive to develop ourselves to our fullest potential. The humanistic theory is based on Maslow and Rogers. Rogers though that personality consists of three components: organism, self, and conditions of worth. Maslow focused on individuals who were self-actualized and discovered that they tended to be creative, spontaneous, and accepting of themselves and others. The advantage of this theory is that it focuses on people’s potential to grow and reach self-actualization.

The Five Factor Model or Big Five model developed by McCrae and Costa factor together personality traits into 5 major categories. Those factors were Neuroticism (worried insecure, nervous, highly strung), Extraversion (Sociable, talkative, fun-loving, affectionate), Openness (Original, independent, creative, daring), Agreeableness (Good-natured, softhearted, trusting, courteous), and Conscientiousness (Careful, reliable, hardworking, organized). (Schultz & Schultz, 2013). They are able to include most of other lower order traits accounting for specific dimensions of individual differences in personality. (Schultz & Schultz, 2013)

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