Preview

Evaluating Carl Jung's Theory Concerning Personality Types

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2684 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Evaluating Carl Jung's Theory Concerning Personality Types
Describe and evaluate Carl Jung's Theory Concerning Personality Types and Show How they Might Usefully Help a Therapist to Determine Therapeutic Goals
Carl Gustav Jung was born in Kesswil, Switzerland to father Paul Achilles Jung, a pastor, and mother Emilie Preiswerk. He was their fourth, but only surviving child. At the age of 12, Jung was pushed to the ground so hard by another classmate that he lost consciousness. Jung started fainting anytime he was supposed to go to school or do homework. His parents and doctors became convinced that the boy might have epilepsy. After Jung overheard his father confessing his concerns that his son would never be able to work and support himself, Jung developed a renewed focus on academics.
Although his
…show more content…
The Christ child celebrated at Christmas is a manifestation of the child archetype, and represents the future, becoming, rebirth, and salvation. Curiously, Christmas falls during the winter solstice, which in northern primitive cultures also represents the future and rebirth. People used to light bonfires and perform ceremonies to encourage the sun's return to them. The child archetype often blends with other archetypes to form the child-god, or the child-hero.
Introversion and extroversion
Jung developed a personality typology that has become so popular that some people don't realize he did anything else! It begins with the distinction between introversion and extroversion. Introverts are people who prefer their internal world of thoughts, feelings, fantasies, dreams, and so on, while extroverts prefer the external world of things and people and activities.
The words have become confused with ideas like shyness and sociability, partially because introverts tend to be shy and extroverts tend to be sociable. But Jung intended for them to refer more to whether you ("ego") more often faced toward the persona and outer reality, or toward the collective unconscious and its archetypes. In that sense, the introvert is somewhat more mature than the extrovert. Our culture, of course, values the extrovert much more. And Jung warned that we all tend to value our own type

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In this essay I aim to describe and evaluate Carl Jung’s theory concerning personality types and show how they might usefully help a therapist to determine therapeutic goals. I will also look at the origins and characteristics of attitudes and functions and show how these can be related to psychological disturbance.…

    • 2875 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jung was the founder of analytical psychology and developed the concepts of extroversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious. Jung’s work has been extremely influential within many fields including; psychiatry, study of religion, philosophy, archaeology, anthropology, and literature, Jung was also a prolific published writer.…

    • 2537 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Have you ever wondered why you get along with your best friends? Or maybe you are dying to know why some coworkers get under your skin. Perhaps you are frustrated with routinely quarreling with your cousins. Well, once I discovered my personality type and how it relates to other types, I learned that many of our social conflicts are derived from each person's unique perception of the world.…

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Briggs Myers four personality trait dimensions are one way to categorize the personality types of different people. According to Briggs and Myers, there are four categories in which your personality type is determined. Each category has two options: Introversion versus extraversion, sensing versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving. First I will focus on the “introvert versus extrovert” category. An introverted person is typically more focused on their inner world and they prefer focusing in depth on specific interests. Writing tends to be the preferred method of communication for an introvert. They may also be more private and enjoy reflecting on ideas. An extrovert, on the other hand, is more attuned to…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psychology 490/Capstone

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Individuals are motivated by a diverse realm of reasons. Within the motivation theory, the ability to distinguish between introverts and extroverts can be easily determined. Often gregarious outgoing individuals shine in social settings. If we use the Big Five Model, as a guide to distinguish introverts and extroverts, gauging neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness we can more openly identify with which side of our personality best represents us and individuals. It is a tool that is important when diagnosing an patient in therapeutic settings.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    From a psychoanalytic viewpoint, the theories of Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Sigmund Freud will be demonstrated. Carl Jung was the maker of the “introvert/extrovert” theory. Jung described them as follows “Extraversion is the turning of attention outward and focusing on the object. Introversion is the turning of attention inward and focusing on the subject (the person doing the perceiving), on her or his thoughts and feelings” (Dolliver, R. H. 1994). But there is also a catch to Jung’s theory “the fact that within Jungian theory, both introversion and extroversion are present in every person (with one usually being developed in the consciousness and the other relatively undeveloped in the unconscious)” (Dolliver, R. H. 1994).…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Extroversion/Introversion dichotomy deals with where people focus their attention. Extraverts are primarily orientated towards the outer world, whereas introverts towards the inner world.…

    • 2069 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In history, many psychologists have had theories such as Freud, Jung, Rogers, and Maslow. These psychologists have suggested a number of theories based on personality to attempt to explain similarities and offer reasons for differences in personalities. The following approaches such as psychoanalytic, humanistic, social learning, type, and trait theories will be defined through emphasizing both the strengths and weaknesses for the different theories.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Personality Psychology

    • 568 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Carls Jung develops his own theory to define personality. His belief of having balance between our inner needs and meeting the demands of society categorized the changes of personality. Carl Jung describes personality in two different dimensions, introvert and extrovert. (Page 240) Introverts are those who are occupied with their inner world meaning they are in their own thoughts and feelings. Extroverts are those that are more associated with the external worlds. From personal experience, when I was younger, my English was very limited and I was always embarrassed to speak to others and my parents never encouraged me to do so, as they always wanted me to be home right away after school. I was stuck in my own world living up to what my parents expect a young woman should be. Although, as I became older my personality changed as I was more exposed to the external world, I was working and became more independent when I realized I didn’t need to meet with my parents expectations but rather my own. As Jung’s described, as age progressed there is less pressure to meet culturally sex roles. (Page 240)…

    • 568 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jung Typology Test

    • 2553 Words
    • 11 Pages

    In the beginning of my senior year of high school, I took the Jung Typology Test. The purpose of this test is used to determine the personality of an individual through four domain pairs, a temperament, and an overall personality profile. The first domain pair for this personality test is meant to describe how we understand ourselves and others by defining us as either an introvert or extravert. According to my test results, I am 38% extravert. The second domain pair for this personality test is meant to describe the manner in which we process our thoughts by defining us as either sensible or intuitive. According to my personality test, I am 19% intuitive. The third domain pair for this personality test is used to describe how we understand the world and make our decisions by defining us as either thinking or feeling. According to my test results, I am 41% feeling. The fourth domain pair for this personality test is used to describe how we organize by defining us as either judging or perceiving. According to my test results, I am 19% perceiving. These domain pair results…

    • 2553 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Your personality is a combination of characteristics that make up who you are. I believe that no two people have the same personality; however, two people can have similar characteristics in their personalities. For example, I can be a very humble person and my grandmother displays those same characteristics in her personality. Although we are both humble I am very outgoing and she is not, this is what makes our personalities different. The leader’s self-insight assessment points out some of the behaviors that make up my personality such as, extroversion, sensing, thinking, and judging. Those behaviors are the ones that I display based on how I solve problems and determine the things…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Introverts and Happiness

    • 1808 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The fact that different people will exhibit different traits and behaviors depending on their experiences is absolute. But what brings about this difference, one would ask? The difference in behavior is almost entirely due to the difference in the personality traits. Personality refers to “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s unique character” (Buettner 1). Each individual always displays different personality trait. Over the years psychologists have tried to group individuals into different personality groups and today everyone have been grouped into the so called big 5 personality traits. The most conspicuous of these groups are however the extreme personality traits of introversion on the one hand and extroversion on the other hand. Nonetheless it is common knowledge that no one can be an absolute introvert or an absolute extrovert. Even introverts do have some elements of extroversion and so do extrovert posses some elements of introversion. More often than not extrovert have been viewed as the ones who ideally have the most normal lifestyles while the introverts have been considered by many as having some abnormality. Needless to say, extroverts form the majority. Nevertheless, current examination of the introverts lives have started to reveal contrary opinions as the stereotypes that were initially leveled against the introverts begin to be laced out one by. One such stereotype has been the debate about whether or not introverts are equally happy. This paper undertakes to look into the issue of the plight of the introverts with a view to proving that, contrary to the popular beliefs, introverts are actually leading a normal lifestyle and are truly happy.…

    • 1808 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe that the Jungian Psychological Type which best describes me is the one known as “Extraverted Intuition,” which the book describes as someone who is “concerned with possibilities for change in the external world, rather than with the familiar, an adventurer.” I find that my focus is primarily on the external world and that I perceive and take things in based on my natural intuition. I have no doubt my fundamental attitude, as Jung described it, is one of extraversion as I have been quite social and outgoing since as long as I can remember. My intuition drives me towards decisions and I have always been an emotional person in general, relying on emotions to dictate behavior (for better or worse).…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though personality types are usually referred to by their dominant traits, it is important to bear in mind that these categories simply reflect a personal preference or the condition of being predisposed, not a categorical absolute. People may be referred to as “Extroverts” or “Introverts”, but in truth, we are all a little bit of both, and have the potential to take on different types of personalities at different times. Our personalities are, in real life, infinitely variable. In my personality test I got 60% of extroverted and 40% of introverted which I would believe because extroverted do sound more like me, the word describe extroverted are mostly the words are used to describe me which are talkative social butterfly (no one have ever called me that),fun, assertive, outgoing, confident, expressive, and gregarious .…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The terms 'introvert ' and 'extrovert ' were first proposed by Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist in the early 20th century and are now very popular in personality profiles. Keep in mind that most people are not a 'true ' introvert or extrovert but somewhere in between, reacting differently in various situations. The most important factor is how people obtain their energy. Introverts gain their energy from their internal thoughts, whereas extroverts gain their energy from their external environment. (O 'Sullivan, 2014). In general, introverts are subdued and to most people it may appear like they often forget the world around them. During that time they do not stop thinking though, instead they are “analysing and thinking of creative ideas to one day share with you”. (Pinto, 2013). These ideas might become an important asset later on in solving problems. Introverts may have a greater appreciation of subtlety and understatement — talents that, when harnessed, can become great strengths. (Collingwood, 2007).…

    • 852 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Better Essays