Personality Theory Essay

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1) Critically discuss how two personality theories can explain a particular behaviour or a set of behaviours you have observed in yourself or others. Describe the behaviour first, then critically evaluate how it relates to your two personality theories. When Jane found out she had Leukaemia at the age of 19, she was devastated. She thought this was impossible because she was very fit, she also has a black belt in Karate and attended training every 2 days. Her behaviours demonstrated during her period of dealing with finding out she had cancer were completely uncharacteristic and circumstantially inappropriate. Perhaps this was due to the fact that she had thought she was very healthy at the time. In this essay, we will attempt to evaluate and explain these behaviours via personality theories by Freud and Rogers. These theories will include Rogers’ theory of self-experience discrepancy, leading to Freud’s and Rogers’ approach to defence mechanisms to deal with anxiety. Jane considered herself very healthy at the time, she exercise regularly and sleeps early. This was part of the reason Jane was very anxious when she found out the result of her diagnosis. She did not believe or did not want to believe she had cancer; therefore this fact was altered in her mind causing her to behave irrationally. Her behaviours may be explained by Rogers’ theory of self-experience discrepancy. Rogers’ theory discussed that a normal person should have congruency between self and experience. When a person does not have congruency between self and experience (a discrepancy), this induces defence mechanisms to deal with this anxiety. In this case, her self-image was very healthy; however the experience suggested she may die very soon from cancer. For a person who was usually unhealthy, perhaps a smoker, being diagnosed with lung cancer may not be as much of a shock and thus not cause

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