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Understanding Personality Theories Essay

Understanding the Self – how and why one feels and act, is a matter that scholars have attempted to unravel ever since man offers learned to jot down his sights about himself and the community around him. Contradictions such as the presence or absence of totally free will, character versus nurture, optimism versus pessimism, cultural determinism versus cultural transcendence, are issues that are also considered in understanding the Self.

Thus experts in several fields of studies (psychology, philosophy, sociology, etc) include spent hours and hours to figure out the complexities of human nature generally and the Self in particular. To provide them with a collective comprehension of this complex subject, different theories had been formulated to signify diverse schools of thought. Among these hypotheses were the following: 1) characteristic, 2) psychoanalytic, 2) behavioristic, and 3) humanistic or perhaps existentialist. Just how these hypotheses, as presented by their promoters, related to the understanding of individuality will 1st be explored in this paper.

A specific theory will then be explained in detail, such as micro skills and approaches that may enhance the application of the most liked theory Understanding Personality Ideas 3 Understanding Personality Ideas One may be unable to immediately assess another person’s intent, disposition and accompanying behavior by merely looking at him (even if he can a close relative). Resulting communications with that person likewise will not automatically identify his “real” feeling to another, not really the real objective of his consequent reaction. A person’s personality or perhaps everything that talks about a person including those that are not obvious to the perceiver’s eyes just like emotion, objective and emotions may not be totally exposed.

It is just when the person under consideration decides to expose that “hidden” element of his person– since persona is not just motivated by natural processes and needs but it is usually a mental construct that is affected by several factors such as a person’s earlier (including how his significant others nurtured him, his environment, earlier social connections, etc). Towards this end, great thinkers (philosophers and scientists) have formulated theories of personality to provide associated with a “well-substantiated explanation of some facet of the natural world; an organized system of accepted reassurance that applies in a number of circumstances to describe a specific group of phenomena; “theories can integrate facts and laws and tested hypotheses”(American Dictionary).

Ideas in a sense 1) organize regarded facts, 2) provide backlinks or ideas to absent data, and 3) offer a digest of the principles of a specific theory. Theories of Personality 1) Trait theory – sights personality as a direct effect of inner characteristics that are genetically structured, hence a person’s behavior is seen as a response to his Understanding Personality Theories 4 capabilities and past experiences. Recommends of this theory include Bill Sheldon, Gordon Allport and Raymond Cattell. 2) Psychoanalytic theory – is considered the first modern theory of persona and is depending on the rule that there are two central factors on which each of our personality is based, namely: a) psychic strength (libido), and b) the unconscious.

This kind of theory describes the individuality as having three divisions, namely the id, ego and superego. Sigmund Freud, the founder of this theory, suggests that devoid of one’s understanding, the mindful becomes a mark or automobile of unconscious urge. Even though Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has served as a basis to get other theories, such as the cultural learning or perhaps the behaviorist’s theory, a number of considerations concerning this kind of theory were raised because of this.

Wagner (2009), in her article, “The Conscious and the Unconscious Brain: The Framework of the Mind According to Freud, argues: • The idea is focused almost entirely on male development with small mention of female psychosexual creation. • His theories happen to be difficult to test scientifically. Ideas such as the libido are difficult to assess, and therefore cannot be tested. The research that has been done tends to slander Freud’s theory. • Future predictions are very vague. How could we know that a current behavior was caused specifically by a the child years experience? The amount of time between the cause and the result is too extended to imagine there is a marriage between the two variables. • Freud’s theory is based upon case studies and not scientific research.

As well, Freud structured his theory on the recollections of his adult people, not in actual remark and analyze of children. Nonetheless, this theory has provided an insight within the existing “warring” factions in persons. Pleasure, reality and the conscience (representing the id, ego Understanding Personality Hypotheses 5 and superego respectively) are in constant competition.

Once the identification looses control anxiety benefits. To reduce this feeling of getting anxious, a person may resort to among the following defense mechanisms (Boree): 1) denial, 2) repression, 3) asceticism. 4) isolation, 5) displacement, 6) projection, 7) altruistic surrender, 8) response formation, 9) undoing, 10) introjection, 11) identification with the aggressor, 12) regression, 13) rationalization, or14) sublimation. 3) Behaviorist or perhaps Social learning Theory — suggests that persona is a result of discussion between the person and the environment.

Behavioral theorists study observable and considerable behaviors, rejecting theories that take interior thoughts and feelings into account. Supporters of the theory consist of: 1) Dollard and Callier, who reasoned that: a) drive, cue, response, and reinforcement happen to be critical components in building a persona, and 2) personality is a series of discovered habits (Personality Theories); 2) B. Farreneheit. Skinner, who have applied the guidelines of operant conditioning to clarify the development and maintenance of individuality; and 3)Albert Bandura, who also built about earlier works to recommend how the conversation of habit, environment, and our landscapes of personal efficacy can facilitate in the formation of one’s personality (Ibid, 430).

4) Humanist or Existensialist theory– underscores the significance of totally free will and individual knowledge in the advancement personality. Shows human behavior as something that can be recognized only when it comes to the person’s internal perception of the Personal as it interacts or acquired interacted with the world Understanding Personality Theories 6 about him. Advocates of this theory include the pursuing: 1) Abraham Maslow, who created the concepts of the recognized hierarchy of needs; and 2) Carl Rogers, that is more of a specialist rather than a theorist.

Both gave a great emphasis to the wholeness of the person, especifically about human requirements (i. at the, a thorough comprehension of one’s Home for the purpose of self-actualization or the “built-in motivation present in every life-form to develop it is potentials to the fullest extent possible)” (Boree) that drive a person to is going to and to take action accordingly. Rogers has been recommended for his client-centered therapy, which is better known as the Rogerian Therapy, a type of therapy that is certainly “supportive and not-reconstructive. “(Ibid)

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