Personality Theories

Personality Theories1

Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality1

Levels of Mental life1

Unconscious1

Preconscious2

Conscious2

Structures of Personality3

The Id3

The Superego3

The Ego3

Defence Mechanisms3

Stages of Development4

Post Freudian: Erikson and Jung5

Jung's Theory5

The Personal Unconscious and its Complexes5

Collective Unconscious6

Erikson's Theory6

Post-Freudian: Adler and Horney7

Adler's Theory7

Horney's Theory8

Biological Theory of Personality9

Behaviourist and social Learning Theory10

Behaviouristic theory of Personality10

Social Learning Theory10

Humanistic and Phenomenological (Needs) Theory11

Humanistic Approach11

Phenomenological Approach11

Allport and Trait Theory of Personality11

References13

Personality Theories

As with various other concepts, theorists differ in their viewpoints regarding the origin of personality. Most of the theorists draw a consensus on the origin of the word personality from the Latin word persona. The word persona refers to a mask worn by the actors in ancient Greek and Roman dramas. However, the term personality has deeper and more profound meaning. Although this paper will discuss numerous theories of personality, a general characterization of personality is; personality is a pattern of reasonably permanent traits and idiosyncratic characteristics of individuals which are consistent over time and define the uniqueness of a person (Feist & Feist, 2009).

Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

Freud and his theory was one of the most influential theories which attempt to explain the human nature. Systematic study of personality started from the concepts of psychoanalytic theory given by Freud (Engler, 2009). Fundamental proposal of the psychoanalytic theory is the unconscious mechanisms in humans. This concept asserts that people are mostly unaware of the most important constructs of their own behaviour and thinking which constitute their personality. Major and most important constructs of Freud's theory are:

Levels of Mental life

Unconscious

According to Freud's theory all of the people possess cognitive levels. Unconscious is one of those levels. According to him, things in our unconscious are beyond our knowledge or awareness. It contains our urges, instincts and drives which govern us and our behaviours. Freud proposed that unconscious explanations of the human behaviour illicit themselves in dreams, repressions or slips of the tongue.

Preconscious

Preconscious, according to him is the middle point from where the information passes from the unconscious to the conscious.

Conscious

Consciousness is the level of mind which plays a comparatively minor role in Freud's theory, and which is readily available to humans. Hypothetically, consciousness is the top most layer of the mind. For instance, our conscious might contain information like our last night meal (Feist & Feist, 2009).

He also outlined the parts of our minds in his theory. They are:

Figure 1: Levels of Mental life

Structures of Personality

The Id

Psychoanalytic theory describes id as the most primitive source of innate drives present in humans since birth. It is primarily unconscious and works on the pleasure principle and pushes the humans to obtain pleasure in every thing they do.

The Superego

Freud defines superego as the representation of the moral values and rules and regulation of the family and society. It works totally opposite to id and induces guilt when something contrary to the introjcted rules or regulations happen.

The Ego

The ego mainly manages and creates a balance between the two extreme sides of the human mind, id and superego. It works on reality principle and makes the ...