Psychodynamic Approach To Personality
Personality Theories Paper
Amanda Tomlinson
Psy211
January 21, 2013
Wanda Rush
Personality Theories Paper
We talk about personalities all the time. We talk about which personalities we like and which ones we hate, but do we really know what a personality is or what makes up a personality? According to Psychology and your life by Robert S. Feldman (2010), “A personality is the pattern of enduring characteristics that produce the consistency and individuality in a given person” (335). There are many different approaches to personality. Two of the approaches to personality are the psychodynamic approach and the behavioral approach.
The psychodynamic approach to personality is the “approach that assumes that personality is motivated by inner …show more content…
forces and conflicts about which people have little awareness and over which they have no control” (Feldman 2009). Sigmund Freud was the founder of this theory in the early nineteenth hundreds. He argued that much of our behavior is motivated by our unconscious. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Freud stated that such unconscious processes may affect a person’s behavior even though he cannot report on them. Freud and his followers felt that dreams and slips of the tongue were really concealed examples of unconscious content too threatening to be confronted directly” (1).
He also developed a theory that personality consist of three separate but interacting components.
Those components are id, ego and superego. Id is the raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality. It reduces tension by primitive drives starting from the time of birth. Ego is strives to balance the desires of id and the outside world. Ego begins to develop shortly after birth. Superego represents the rights and wrongs of society that are taught and modeled by any significant person in a person’s life. Superego is develops during childhood. He also provided us with a view of how personality develops through a series of five psychosexual stages. In the article “Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939).” Matthew Hugh Erdelyi states that “Freud is well known, and much criticized, for his theory of infantile sexuality, which holds that children are sexual creatures who, in the first years of life, go through "psychosexual" developmental stages (oral, anal, and phallic) that presage adult sexuality (the genital stage), reached at puberty after a period of sexual latency”(1). His theories have had a significant impact on the field of psychology. There are many that still use and accept his ideas, but there are some who still do not accept or even understand his …show more content…
theories.
The second approach to personality is the behavioral approach.
The behavioral approach is “the approach that suggests that observable, measureable behavior should be the focus of study” (Feldman 17). B.F. Skinner is one of the theorists that influenced this approach. He said that personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns. He was the pioneer of operant conditioning. It is controlled by its consequences through rewards or punishments. Through operant conditioning a person associates a behavior with the consequence for that behavior. He was more interested in the ways of modifying behavior than he was with the consistencies in
behavior.
These two theories and theorists are very different. The psychodynamic approach concentrates on the inner person while the behavioral approach concentrates on the outer person. The behavioral approach ignores the internal events that are going on during a certain behavior such as thoughts, feelings, or motivations, while the psychodynamic approach concentrates heavily on these behaviors in order to analyze one’s personality. While these two approaches are different, the theorists are not much different at all. B.F. Skinner used much of Sigmund Freud’s thoughts to come up with his theories. These two men actually had much similar thoughts when it can to personality.
There are many ways to assess personality. Psychologists use psychological tests to assess a person’s personality. A psychological test is a standard measure to assess behavior objectively, with these results psychologist can help a person better understand and make decisions about his or her life (Feldman 2009). A psychologist also uses self-report measures. “A self-report measure is a method of gathering data about people by them asking questions about a sample of their behavior” (Feldman 2009). A psychologist can also use a behavioral assessment. This assessment directly measures a person’s behavior by describing characteristics indicative of a person’s personality. This assessment is usually done in a person’s natural setting such as school, home or workplace, but sometimes it in used in a controlled environment.
Works Cited Page
1.. "unconscious." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614101/unconscious>.
2. Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939). Matthew Hugh Erdelyi. Learning and Memory. Ed. John H. Byrne. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. p154-157. Word Count: 2282.
3. Feldman, R. (2009). Psychology and your life. (1 ed.). New York: Career Education..
Amanda Tomlinson
Psy211
January 21, 2013
Wanda Rush
Personality Theories Paper
We talk about personalities all the time. We talk about which personalities we like and which ones we hate, but do we really know what a personality is or what makes up a personality? According to Psychology and your life by Robert S. Feldman (2010), “A personality is the pattern of enduring characteristics that produce the consistency and individuality in a given person” (335). There are many different approaches to personality. Two of the approaches to personality are the psychodynamic approach and the behavioral approach.
The psychodynamic approach to personality is the “approach that assumes that personality is motivated by inner …show more content…
forces and conflicts about which people have little awareness and over which they have no control” (Feldman 2009). Sigmund Freud was the founder of this theory in the early nineteenth hundreds. He argued that much of our behavior is motivated by our unconscious. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Freud stated that such unconscious processes may affect a person’s behavior even though he cannot report on them. Freud and his followers felt that dreams and slips of the tongue were really concealed examples of unconscious content too threatening to be confronted directly” (1).
He also developed a theory that personality consist of three separate but interacting components.
Those components are id, ego and superego. Id is the raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality. It reduces tension by primitive drives starting from the time of birth. Ego is strives to balance the desires of id and the outside world. Ego begins to develop shortly after birth. Superego represents the rights and wrongs of society that are taught and modeled by any significant person in a person’s life. Superego is develops during childhood. He also provided us with a view of how personality develops through a series of five psychosexual stages. In the article “Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939).” Matthew Hugh Erdelyi states that “Freud is well known, and much criticized, for his theory of infantile sexuality, which holds that children are sexual creatures who, in the first years of life, go through "psychosexual" developmental stages (oral, anal, and phallic) that presage adult sexuality (the genital stage), reached at puberty after a period of sexual latency”(1). His theories have had a significant impact on the field of psychology. There are many that still use and accept his ideas, but there are some who still do not accept or even understand his …show more content…
theories.
The second approach to personality is the behavioral approach.
The behavioral approach is “the approach that suggests that observable, measureable behavior should be the focus of study” (Feldman 17). B.F. Skinner is one of the theorists that influenced this approach. He said that personality is a collection of learned behavior patterns. He was the pioneer of operant conditioning. It is controlled by its consequences through rewards or punishments. Through operant conditioning a person associates a behavior with the consequence for that behavior. He was more interested in the ways of modifying behavior than he was with the consistencies in
behavior.
These two theories and theorists are very different. The psychodynamic approach concentrates on the inner person while the behavioral approach concentrates on the outer person. The behavioral approach ignores the internal events that are going on during a certain behavior such as thoughts, feelings, or motivations, while the psychodynamic approach concentrates heavily on these behaviors in order to analyze one’s personality. While these two approaches are different, the theorists are not much different at all. B.F. Skinner used much of Sigmund Freud’s thoughts to come up with his theories. These two men actually had much similar thoughts when it can to personality.
There are many ways to assess personality. Psychologists use psychological tests to assess a person’s personality. A psychological test is a standard measure to assess behavior objectively, with these results psychologist can help a person better understand and make decisions about his or her life (Feldman 2009). A psychologist also uses self-report measures. “A self-report measure is a method of gathering data about people by them asking questions about a sample of their behavior” (Feldman 2009). A psychologist can also use a behavioral assessment. This assessment directly measures a person’s behavior by describing characteristics indicative of a person’s personality. This assessment is usually done in a person’s natural setting such as school, home or workplace, but sometimes it in used in a controlled environment.
Works Cited Page
1.. "unconscious." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614101/unconscious>.
2. Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939). Matthew Hugh Erdelyi. Learning and Memory. Ed. John H. Byrne. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. p154-157. Word Count: 2282.
3. Feldman, R. (2009). Psychology and your life. (1 ed.). New York: Career Education..