Psychology and Personality

When people speak of someone having a personality they usually think of out an outgoing person or an abrasive person who can command attention. It is also usually stated in society that a quiet introverted person lacks a personality In psychology personality is defined as being made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique. SO with that being said it can be concluded that everyone person has a personality from the most loud and boisterous person to the most quite and meek person. In this paper I will describe the personality perspectives, how personality develops, and finally how personality can be assessed. There are 4 perspectives that can be used to describe how a personality is shaped. Those four perspectives of personality are the psychoanalytic perspective, humanistic perspective, social cognitive perspective, and the trait perspective.

The psychoanalytic perspective speaks too how childhood and early development as well as unconscious thinking shape a person's personality. Sigmund Freud was that founder of psychoanalysis. Freud felt that humans behaved a certain way based on the preconscious, the conscious and the unconscious mind. He felt not only were the things we were aware of shaping our behavior but that their were inner forces that we weren’t aware of (unconscious mind) that controlled our behaviors even though we didn’t know they were there.

The humanistic perspective is based on the thoughts of human potential that people have freewill, the ability for psychological growth and self-awareness and that is what shapes their personality. (Cain, 2002). Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers were some of the most important people when it cam to the humanistic approach. Maslow’s and Rogers emphasized the need humans have to fulfill the goals to the best of their abilities. The humanistic perspective focuses on the theory that people behaved a certain way based on how they perceive their self. This