Comparative Analysis of Basic Approaches to Understanding Human Personality: Psychodynamic Theories, Behavioral and Cognitive Models, and Phenomenologcial Perspective

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Course: Psychology of Personality Draft paper on: "Comparative analysis of basic approaches to understanding human personality: Psychodynamic theories, Behavioral and Cognitive models, and Phenomenologcial perspective" Personality development has been a major topic of interest for some of the most prominent thinkers in psychology. Our personalities make us unique, but how does personality develop? How exactly do we become who we are today? In order to answer this question, many prominent theorists developed theories to describe various steps and stages that occur on the road of personality development. The following theories focus on various aspects of personality development, including cognitive, social and moral development. What is it to be human through the lens of psychodynamics? Psychodynamic theories basically studied human behavior that includes internal processes, personality, motivation, drives, and the importance of childhood developments. Most psychodynamic approaches came in the idea from the development of an early life of childhood, which is in some part of the unconscious. This approach views personality as being primarily unconscious and as developing in stages. Psychodynamic theorists believe that behavior is merely a surface characteristic and that to truly understand someone’s personality we have to explore the symbolic meanings of behavior and the deep inner workings of the mind. These ideas were presented by the architect of psychoanalytic theory-Sigmund Freud. Most psychodynamic perspectives emphasize that early experiences with parents play an important role in sculpting the individual’s personality. Freud believed the personality had three structures - the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id consists of instincts and is the reservoir of psychic energy. It is unconscious and has no contact with reality. The id always

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