Personality like many things in life is sort of concrete and
can be difficult to define at times. The basic definition is the relatively
stable characteristics that are enduring and distinctive which means it
separates people from the crowd. Psychologists that study personalities try to analyze why people act
differently to different situations such as why one person acts shy when they
first meet a stranger or while some people are just natural and funny and be
themselves.
Other psychologists believe that it’s the environment has a significant say in
the way people act. The truth is that
personality is a multi dimensional topic and requires pieces from various
theories because everyone is unique. One theory is the psycho-dynamic
perspective which was discovered by Sigmund Freud.
This theory basically states
that personality merely exists on the surface and to find someone true
personality you have to dig deep in mind. Psychologists who favor this approach
believe that personality is an unconscious process, or that the individuals are
not aware that they conceited or confident. He was known for his controversial theory
that young boys have a sexual attraction to their mother, maybe he was
referring to himself with his romantic relationship with his mother who was 20
years younger than his father. A theory about the unconscious mind that makes
somewhat sense is when people are having a conversation and calls someone they
know a different name.
For example, if a woman broke up with her boyfriend and got a new boyfriend and calls her current boyfriend her ex boy friend name it could mean that he is still in her thoughts. Freud also believes that dreams hold important motifs in behavior. He also believed that personality can be constructed into layers like an ice berg. The part that is buried far below the water is the id or the unconscious aspect.
A good example will be children because a lot of time they will act on pleasure without thinking about the end result much. If people would have a strong identity personality than this would be a very scary place to live. People would act on natural impulses rather than conforming to society norms. The ego is nice to have because it helps people realize reality and help conform to society norms.
For example, a lot of people realize that they can’t have their sex and aggression levels high and unattended to, and when they let it go then it usually leads to crimes like rape for one. Last, the super eg also referred to as the conscious aspect is the moral decider. It decided what is right and what is wrong. A lot of psychologist didn’t follow Freud’s unconscious theory and a psychologist that was heavily against it was Alfred Adler. He believed that people were motivated by purposes and goals to achieve something in life. He also believes that people had the ability to be aware of what’s going on in their life and to consciously monitor their day to day events.
He also
believed that people try to compensate for things they don’t have. For example,
a person that tries to be superior may being doing it for their own
insecurities because they will feel better about themselves by bringing other people
down. This theory was known as individual psychology, in which states that
people are motivated by purposes and to attain goals. When people attempt to overcome their
insecurities this is known as compensation. When psychologists ignore the unconscious mind they tend to look at the
environment more when determining personality, and this is known as the
behavior approach.
They believe that you can only determine personality by what
you see on the outside surface. For an
example, if someone is shy, work hard, and are motivated to achieve something,
this is apart of their personality. This
theory was founded by an early psychologist named BF Skinner. He also believed
that a person personality can change due to the stress in the environment, so
he believed that personality was never consistent. So a person that is shy can be shifted to
someone that is aggressive and out going, and a person that is out going can be
shifted into a shy personality all due to their environment. If a person is
giving a positive reinforcement for a particular behavior, than it is more
likely that it will come up again in the future.
A different approach from
Freud and Skinner’s theory is the humanist approach discovered by Carl Roger.This approach is a less pessimistic view, and finds the good in humans and
believes that humans have the freedom to choose their own destiny. The central theme in Roger’s approach is self
concept which is an individual’s view of their own abilities, behavior, traits,
and personality. If a person has a distorted self concept than most likely they
will be awkward to hang around and associate with. When analyzing self concept Rogers talked about distinguishing yourself
between the real self and the ideal self. The ideal self is the type of person that
we would like to be. If a person has a large conflict between their real self
and the type of person that they would like to be than the more awkward or
maladjusted they will act.
To correct this we should try to focus more on our
real self and develop a positive view on it and stop caring about what other
people want or expect of us and try to have more positive experiences in our
everyday lives. Another way we can help
develop a more positive view of our real self is by a concept known as
unconditional positive regard. This term
can be defined by being accepting of different individuals regardless of their
behavior which is kind of hard to do. When a person is being rude, aggressive, or disrespectful, as weird as
this sounds they still need support and to be loved. This doesn’t mean to hug someone after they
punch you, but more like “I don’t like the way you are acting but I still care
about you and respect you as a person.” Have a wonderful day.
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