Kaitlin Barrera
Psychology 1010 (Online Course)
April 12, 2011
Compare the Theories of Personality
Personality is defined as “the sum total of all the behavioral and mental
characteristics by means of which an individual is recognized as being unique.” The way
in which we obtain our personality has been highly debated and criticized depending on
the stance that we take. The four main theories of personality are psychoanalytical
which was developed by Sigmund Freud, the trait perspective which focuses on the
traits that we possess, the social cognitive perspective that was deeply studied by Albert
Bandura and the humanistic perspective that was thought to be a continuation of human
growth throughout life.
The psychoanalytical theory “holds that personality and behavior are shaped by
unconscious forces and conflicts.” Sigmund Freud developed three levels of conscious.
Comparing it to an iceberg, the textbook Psychology: Concepts and Applications states
it “has much of its mass hidden below the surface of the water, [much like] most of the
mind lies below the surface of conscious awareness.” These three levels were labeled
conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The conscious was “part of the mind
corresponding to the state of present awareness.” The preconscious was part of the
mind that could bring present content into awareness with concentrated attention. The
unconscious, his most widely debated topic, consisted of “the part of the mind that lies
outside the range of ordinary awareness that contains primitive drives or instincts and
unacceptable urges, wishes and ideas.”
He also developed a theory of the structure of personality containing three levels
as well. The id, the ego, and the superego were the main concepts of this theory. The id
contains our basic animal drives and instinct impulses. This is the underlying thought
provoking ideas that we are always thinking on daily basis. The ego however, attempts
to balance out the id and the superego so that our instinctual drives are seen in a more
positive light that is accepted by society. The superego is the “structure that
corresponds to an internal moral guardian or conscience.” Sigmund Freud was highly
controversial and contributed to many parts of psychology. Not only did he contribute to
our underlying wants and desires, he also contributed to the knowledge of the way we
react in certain situations. Defense mechanisms prevent “the anxiety that would result if
unacceptable sexual or aggressive wishes were fully realized in conscious awareness.”
While he was busying himself with the diverse areas of psychology he was
studying, many other psychologists were discovering new ways of explaining our
personality. The trait perspective was also a perspective that contributed to the structure
of personality within an individual to explain the behavior. Traits are defined as
“relatively enduring personal characteristics.” Three major psychologists are mentioned
concerning this dynamic perspective. Gordon Allport, Raymond Cattell, and Hans
Eysenck each developed different mechanisms that contributed to this theory.
Gordon Allport believed that “personality traits are physical entities embedded in
the brain that come to influence our behavior.” He believed that our traits are developed
in a hierarchy depending on the degree to which they influenced our behavior. Cardinal
traits, central traits, and second traits were the major concepts he developed in his time.
Cardinal traits are defining traits, central traits are the basic building blocks of
personality and secondary traits are “specific traits that influence behavior in relatively
few situations.” Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck were major contributors to the “fivefactor model of personality.” This is “the dominant contemporary trait model of
personality consisting of five broad personality factors: neuroticism, extraversion,
openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.”
With these two perspectives in mind, other individuals were starting to discover
the social-cognitive perspective. This theory “emphasized the roles played by both
cognitive factors and environmental factors in determining behavior.” This theory was
developed by behaviorist but has transformed into a theory that consists of both
cognitive and social aspects that determine behavior. Albert Bandura contributed to this
theory bring up concepts such as reciprocal determinism ad the role of expectancies.
Reciprocal determinism “holds that cognition, behaviors and environmental factors
influence each other.” His main focus is on what we do and what we think. His
expectancy theory pertains to two main concepts: outcome expectations and efficacy
expectations. Outcome expectations are the prediction of the outcomes of behavior
while efficacy expectations are predictions we hold about our ability to perform tasks or
behaviors we set out to accomplish.
One major concept that was proven to work is called modeling. Modeling is
learning or observing others behaviors and following those same examples. In one
country, teaching your children about the concept of safer sex on television helped to
promote a better life style for those that were watching these programs. This socialcognitive modeling technique has proven that by learning from behaviors through
cognition, they can explain our personality and how we operate.
The last perspective is called the humanistic perspective. This perspective
focuses on the idea that conscious choices and person freedom are central features for
what it means to be a human being. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the main
psychologists to contribute their ideas to this perspective. While many base their
theories within the core personality, the humanistic perspective bases their theories on
personal choices that we make. Carl Rogers main focus was on the importance of self.
This was known as the self-theory. Unconditional positive regard is another concept that
he brought to the table. This is “valuing another person as having intrinsic worth,
regardless of the person’s behavior at the particular time.” While many view people as
having only conditional positive regard, giving that unconditional positive regard to their
children or loved ones, develops an intrinsic worth in the person. Abraham Maslow
focused on achieving self-actualization. This dealt with the humanistic perspective in a
way that helped people develop their potential human worth.
While there are quite a few different perspectives focusing on the way we
develop personality, each one has its major benefits and drawbacks. The
psychoanalytical perspective was helpful in devoting its studies to the unconscious
mind. However, many critics were quick to judge because he focused too much
attention on “aggressive drives and too little emphasis on the role of social
relationships.” Sigmund Freud was also criticized because there was not much
evidence to support many of the principles in which he based his theories on.
The trait perspectives strengths concerning personality were that they had
intuitive appeal. When describing ourselves, many people use traits that correlate with
how they perceive themselves. However, the drawbacks to this perspective are that
while most of us use traits to describe ourselves, the behavior may not be as stable
across times and situations as trait theorist suppose. The strengths of the socialcognitive theory is that “they have presented us with a view of people as active seekers
and interpreters of information, not just responders of environmental influences.”
However, some critics say that it shows a limited view of personality and fails to account
for the unconscious and heredity.
The humanistic perspective gives a great point of view on the observations that
are interpreted through not only our self but giving those around us the same
unconditional regard for their actions. This in turn gives a greater appreciation for our
unique feelings, desires and needs. The humanistic perspective greatest strength can
be its greatest weakness at times. This would be that “it’s focus on conscious
experience.” This can only be relied on one person—you. Critics also focus on one
other area of weakness with this perspective, the idea that it may lead to self-indulgent
and may cause endeavors with you only focusing on yourself without the lack of
concern for others.
Looking at the major strengths and drawbacks of each perspective, the way I feel
when it comes to these major concepts of how we perceive everybody and how they
perceive us through our personality can be influenced by each perspective. However,
through adolescence I started to define who I was as a person. Coming in with
attributes to explain how I reacted to situations and interactions with people I did not
know, I developed an unconditional positive regard for people around me. The fact of
the matter was that I didn’t want people judging me so I wasn’t going to judge them
either. Although they may have done some unwise stuff, liking them for who they were
was all that mattered. Evaluation this then, I would say that the humanistic perspective
is the theory that I relate to the most with this.
The theory I find least useful is the ability to understand the psychoanalytical
perspective. While Sigmund Freud did contribute major concepts to the way in which we
view personality, the lack of evidence of both sexual and aggressive drives discourages
me from fully believing this perspective. While he did garner major attention for the id,
ego and superego, which are actually quite dynamic and influence, the theories he
developed does not give enough evidence to say it is more useful than any other
perspective.
Having said all this, each perspective is unique in its own way. Many of them
share qualities with one another such as the traits that are perceived through each
perspective, they each share a difference in the way they view the concept of
personality. Personality is quite a controversial subject as we never really can pinpoint
where exactly it accumulated from. The many perspectives give us a brief overview that
we can each digest and understand the many ways in which it happened. While each
has its own perspective on the matter, they all seem to a contributing factor to how we
become ourselves.
Reflection and Objectives
After completing this assignment, I have gained a greater insight on the many
concepts that come with how we get our personality. I did not know many of this
information before. Knowing these theories now, I can evaluate myself on the way I
behave compared to how they have researched and done their studies to prove how we
get our personality. Given this information, I think it is fair to say that while there are
many theories out there that prove where we have gotten our personalities, it is a
combination of each of those theories that we become who we are as individuals.
The assignment relates to learning objective #1. “Demonstrate substantive
knowledge of major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical
trends in the discipline of psychology sufficient for further study. “
I feel I have
demonstrated this objective by showcasing the major personality perspectives and
given broad detail on the way in which they operate as well as who the major
contributors to each perspective were.
Work Cited
1. Nevid, Jeffrey S. Psychology: Concepts and Applications. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2009. Print.
2. "Personality | Define Personality at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Free Online
Dictionary for English Definitions. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/personality>.