The First Major Theory Of Personality

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.

Avoidant attachment of a male present in a romantic relationship (Male super ego and madonna-whore complex)

However with advantages come disadvantages. For example, with correlational studies there is no background information obtained. Therefore, the reliability of the correlational studies is questioned.

Freud developed the psychoanalytic theory of personality development, which argued that personality is formed through internal conflicts among three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated trends; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego (Wikipedia, 2017).

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)

Leigh Anne Touhy is the fictional representation of the real life Leigh Anne, famed adoptive mother of Michael Oher from the 2009 film The Blind Side. Leigh Anne is a white interior designer, living in the south with her husband and two children. The family is considered to be part of the upper class, and made their money from owning a string of fast food chains. Leigh Anne and her family take in a black homeless boy, Michael, and throughout the film experience a growing love and bond. They eventually adopt Michael and the Leigh Anne becomes a fiercely protective mother. Very little is revealed about her upbringing

The purpose of this paper is to explore personality theories and the impact and effect they have on people throughout their life. People have many different personalities and come from many different cultures, but fundamentally we have some of the same basic needs. So, what are people influenced by? Is it social experiences, developmental problems, or needs and anxiety that that spiral into neurosis? Personality theories vary and the complexity of the information can be difficult to understand such as genetic dispositions, environmental forces, unconscious thoughts, and motivations. Personality shapes who and what we are to some extent and theories on personality help us to understand one another. Whether it is problem solving,

The theories of personality have been developed over hundreds of years. Some of the first theories of personality were very vague and centered on the basic idea that the personality was developed by the age of 5 as a direct result of physical and emotional encounters with parents. Numerous theories from an array of individuals built on this and challenged previous theories, some elaborating on the fundamental principles, while others completely dismissed the premise, comprising their own new renditions. More contemporary theories focus on breaking away from the psychological norm of the male centered assessment, also known as feminine psychology, while others focus their theory on locus of control, sensation seeking and learned helplessness. To date, there are still many varying opinions of what exactly defines a person’s personality, with just as much research, if not more. Over the last few decades, technology has surpassed what most have ever believed to be possible, creating not only a new world for people to interact, learn and relate in, but also created an unnatural dependence on various social media outlets.

To demonstrate my understanding of personality theory, I choose to create a personality profile for a close friend. She is a very driven individual with some unique interests. I wanted to evaluate her personality because she is a very close friend of mine and I know her vary well. I chose Allport’s trait theory because he uses 3 types of traits to describe people. I liked the way he organized traits in to types of traits. I think its easier to understand his theory because of the organization. I organized my friend’s traits in to 3 categories: central, secondary, and cardinal. Allport’s theory focuses on individual differences. His theory suggest that “ individuals differ in the traits that predominate in there personalities. some traits are common; others are unique”(Cloninger 2013 page 128). He goes on to explain that some traits are individual or unique while others are common.

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

Campbell, J. D., Trapnell, P. D., Heine, S. J., Katz, I. M., Lavallee, L. F., & Lehman, D. R.

Sigmund Freud, known as the father of psychology, developed some of the first theories of modern psychology. One of his well-known theories is the structural model of the psyche. According to Freud, most of what drives individuals is buried in the unconscious mind. There are three main forces that drive humans, which include the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id is the summation of basic personal needs and desires. It is completely self-centered, and has no care for sensibility or reality. It strives for what it wants, when it wants it with no other considerations. The second part of the personality is the ego. The ego is the realization of reality. It is the ego’s job to, in a sense, counteract the selfishness and impractically if the id. The third part, the super-ego, is morals and acquired beliefs of right and wrong. According to Freud, in order to have a healthy personality, one’s

Avoidant attachment style of a male present in a romantic relationship (Male super ego and madonna-whore complex

The human Personality is an individual’s distinctive behaviour, thoughts and emotions which work in tandem to create a unique personality. This essay will analyse the operation of personality by examining the three main psychological theories of; Carl Rogers, Sigmund Freud and Hans Eysenck. These theories were initiated to gain an understanding of the ‘mind’ and how particular personality traits come about. Each of these theories are distinguished by three theoretical approaches, which are: Nomothetic; nomothetic approaches argue that personality is the outcome of permanent characteristics displayed consistently, this is measured using experiments or testing. For example, Eysenck is a ‘type’ theorists because he conducts research using a personality questionnaire. Idiographic; Idiographic approaches argue that each individual has a complex/unique personality. Therefore concerning themselves with the whole person rather than individual characteristics. They believe investigating Individuals in personal, in-depth detail will achieve a unique understanding of them, for example, phenomenological theorists like Rogers use clinical case studies. Last is psychodynamic theories; which tends to be an amalgamation of both nomothetic and idiographic approaches. Example being Freud’s psychic apparatus shared amongst all individuals (id, ego and superego), conversely each individual is unique in regards to the life experiences which sequentially shapes their personality. This also ties

“A personality is a unique collection of attitudes, emotions, thoughts, habits, impulses and behaviors that define how a person typically behaves across situations.”