The definition of personality in which this essay will refer to must first be established. According to Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo (2010), personality is a unique combination of feelings, attitudes, thoughts, impulses, behaviour and habits that characterize how the individual will typically react across a range of situations. Personality is currently widely believed to have some innate qualities and other qualities which are developed through the interaction which the environment (Pastorino, & Doyle-Portillo, 2010). An important area to note is that it is how one will typically react, thus personality will guide our behaviour but it is not fixed. There are various other views of what personality is according to different psychologists, yet this is the definition which has been adopted for this paper.
Defining Personality: Personality is made up the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. It arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. How exactly do psychologists define personality? What are the different components of personality? You can learn about the answers to these questions and more in this overview of personality.
Sigmund Freud's theory is the psychoanalytic theory unique to a certain point and which it has developed formal models describing the ways in which individuals process information on different levels (Bornstein, 2010). Freud saw dreams as a way of unlocking unconscious thoughts and untold secrets. Sigmund created his theory through the importance of unconscious. Carl Jung accepted the unconscious idea and developed the analytic psychology. Both Freud and Jung were drawn to the unconscious way of explaining dreams.
Jung and Adler are the most significant theorists to follow Freud in this arena. Other schools of personality theory include: the “behaviourists” - viewing personality as a response tendencies developed through learning, Skinner and Pavlov being the better known theorists in this area; the “humanists” - focusing on the concept of “self” and arguing that incongruence, or the battle between one’s “self-concept” and reality creates anxiety and therefore defensive behaviour; the “biological” or “evolutionary” theorists, such as Eysenck who theorised that inherited differences in physiological functioning can affect an individual's conditioning and thus influence their personality (Weiten, Dunn, Hammer, 2012); and the “Trait” theorists such as Cattell and Allport and the more contemporary McCrae and Costa who have used the statistical procedure of factor analysis to reduce human personality down to five factors of personality known as “The Big Five”. These factors are: “Extroversion vs Introversion”, “Emotional Stabilty vs Neuroticism”, “Open vs Closed (to experience)”, “Agreeable vs Unagreeable”, “Conscientious vs Unconscientious”. Trait theorists argue that all personality traits are derived from these five traits. What follows is an outline of Freud’s theory of psychodynamics, and a description of the biological perspective on personality.
He also linked some childhood desires with the development of ones personality. The psychoanalytic theory is founded on the basis that there are inner forces that influence ones behavior unconsciously. This theory was developed after a thorough observation of people’s behavior where Sigmund conducted case studies. Feud argued that human mind can be divided three parts; the conscious mind, the preconscious mind and the unconscious mind. According to Asch M (2004), the conscious mind includes the things that we are aware of.
The second concept, coming out of C.G. Jung's analytical psychology, describes the process in which the individual Self develops out of an undifferentiated unconscious. It is a developmental, psychical process, the process whereby the innate elements of personality, the different experiences of a person's life and the different aspects and components of the immature psyche become integrated over time into a well-functioning whole. [citation needed] There is a region where the two could be said to blur into each other, but it is important to recognize that they are in fact speaking of two different (though related) things. [citation needed] According to Jungian psychology, individuation is a process of psychological integration, having for its goal the development of the individual personality.
There are several major approaches in psychology and each approach assumes different ideas about the human mind and behaviour. According to Rycroft the term ‘psychodynamic’ means the “study of mental processes from a dynamic point of view” (Rycroft, 1995 p144), in other words the active, conflicting forces within our mind that motivate our behaviour. This essay will look at the key features of Psychodynamic Approach in psychology, which include the unconscious mind, the tripartite personality and psychosexual stages followed by a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses and finally a conclusion of the findings. According to Eysenck (2005) Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the creator of the principles of psychoanalysis which in turn started the psychodynamic approach. From an early age, Freud was a gifted student and originally trained in medicine and physiology of the nervous system.
Second the social unconscious, Freud’s superego, which can broken down into two aspects: conscience and ego ideal. The conscience deals with the internalization of punishments and warnings. The superego can be considered as such things as our culture and native language. These things we have grown up with and have become second nature. Third, personal unconscious, would involve habits that we have obtained, tasks that we no longer think about doing, and defense
What are some psychological perspectives that explain human behavior? Some psychological perspectives that researchers have found are behavioral perspective, humanistic perspective, psychodynamic perspective, cognitive perspective and neuroscience perspective. Behavioral psychology is a perspective that focuses on learned behaviors. Behaviorism differed from many other perspectives because instead of emphasizing internal state, it focused solely on observable behaviors. Humanistic perspective suggests that all individuals naturally strive to grow and develop, and to control their lives and behavior.
Describe the assumptions of the major theoretical orientations in psychology, i.e. Psychodynamic, Behaviourist, Cognitive and Humanistic The purpose of this essay is to describe, explain and analyse the major psychological approaches and highlight their strengths and limitations. But what psychology is about? There are many ways to try answer the question. However, the most straightforward answer is that psychology is about understanding people; how they think, what they say and why they do what they do.