Theories Of Psychodynamic Personality
Personality an individual difference has been studied by several psychologists because it is considered as an effective way of knowing about how personality functions. (Ryckman 2012). Personality explains how people are unique and shows the different characters that individuals have. The psychodynamic viewpoint of personality helps understand what goes in an individual's mind or the unconscious part of the mind. This essay first discusses the psychodynamic personality approach proposed by Freud. Secondly, it shows the importance of the theory and criticisms that have come about because of lack of scientific methods
The psychodynamic personality approach suggests that personality is governed by unconscious forces that cannot be controlled. It also focusses on unconscious mental forces that shape our personalities and states that people are likely to be shaped by the manner in which children cope with sexual surges. Freud ( ) believes that there are conflicts which occur unconsciously in an individual. According to Freud (1925), an individual has a …show more content…
three-part personality; id, ego and superego (Eyesneck 2009). The id can be explained as the part of all our instinctual drives, for example, sex, aggression and hunger, whereas the ego regulates the urges of the id (Comer, Gould & Furnham 2013). However, these components of personality are not observable and cannot be measured. Measurement is important because it assigns scores to individuals so that the scores represent some characteristic of a person or an object which are achieved by measuring variables such as age and sex. Cattell’s Structure Based Systems Theory in contrast to the psychodynamic personality theory is classified as one that has scientific methods. This is because Cattell recognised reliability and validity of his trait concepts (Ryckman 2012). Similarly, Skinner’s operant analysis is considered as a science for reasons that it is empirically valid because his experiments were conducted in a laboratory (Ryckman 2012). This suggests that the psychodynamic personality approach has vague concepts which are not operationally defined. The psychodynamic personality approach believes that the psychosexual stages of development are part of personality development (Comer et al., 2013).
Comer et al., (2013) state that the psychodynamic personality theory proposes that personality development forms in the first years of life. This means that an individual must meet all the psychosexual stages of development in order to develop, for example, if an individual lacks proper nurturing and parenting at any stage, they are likely to be fixated on that stage. This comprehensive framework suggests that it accounts for both sides of nature – nurture debate because influence of the things we are born with nature and the things we develop via experience nurture, e.g.; aggression learnt or inherited (evidence). However, current research suggests that development does not stop at childhood but rather develops throughout life, suggesting that some parts of the brain develop throughout life during puberty.( Giedd et al., 2015) For example, there is a 2% increase in cerebral spinal fluid volume during child and adolescent development as well as grey matter. This contradicts psychodynamic personality stages which propose that development occurs during childhood.
The psychodynamic personality theory has promoted psychology; ideas have been incorporated into theories such as counselling which is used in therapy (Tran & Gregor (2015). Another positive advantage of the psychodynamic theory is that it was considered the most important during Freud’s era because Freud illustrated that unconscious forces contribute to personality and that internal conflict plays a role in psychological distress. This suggests that people are likely to rely on defence mechanisms to reduce unpleasant emotions ( Eyesneck 2009). In addition, psychodynamic therapy is regarded as an effective treatment for individuals with personality disorders and mental health. For example, psychiatrists use some of the psychoanalytic methods to treat Borderline Personality Disorders (Bateman, O’Connell, Lorenzini, Gardner & 2016; Goodman, Edwards & Chung 2014). Goodman et al., (2014) conducted a 6 - month naturalistic psychotherapy study with 5 BPD patients. The participant's sessions were audiotaped using the psychotherapy process Q-set and were required to complete a measure of psychological distress every week. Findings from this research suggest that the psychodynamic personality approach helps individuals understand real life situations and that therapy is effective.
Another key strength of this theory is that it is one of the original theories of personality which psychology has ever developed ever since.
This is because it generated future work in personality and development which highlights that childhood is a critical period in development Fromkin, Krashen, Curtiss, Rigler, & Rigler (1977). It has also helped recognise that mental health problems are likely to be the cause of childhood trauma or unconscious conflicts. Another positive strength of the psychodynamic theory is that it explains that psychological factors used to explain psychical symptoms like paralysis which is currently regarded as conversion disorder. Conversion disorder derived from the work of Freud's. Freud believed that when an individual is emotionally stressed, conflicts and painful feelings are repressed. Freud believed that conflicts are kept from awareness or consciousness (Ryckman
2012).
The psychodynamic approach has several flaws which have been criticised by many researchers. For example, the approach is considered as a theory that has vague concepts and does not fall under the criteria of a science. This is because Freud’s concepts are not operationally defined and they cannot be tested. The theory is considered as reductionist because other explanations are not considered, reducing to single level of explanation like sexual rivalry. The theory places emphasis on sexuality () . Grant & Harari (2005) state that Popper suggests that science should be generalisable. Seeing that most of Freud’s work was on case studies and observation of few patients, the sample is unrepresentative. Freud also places emphasis on psychological factors without taking into consideration of genetic and biological factors that are likely to influence mental health problems ( ).
In conclusion, the psychodynamic personality approach is a human personality approach shows a comprehensive framework of how personality develops. This is through the tripartite personality, the id, ego and superego. According to Freud, an individual develops through psychosexual stages suggesting that development may be interfered if an infant misses any of the stages. However, the psychodynamic approach has been criticised due to lack of scientific findings and scientific methods because theorists such as Karl Popper consider ideas such as psychodynamic theory to be pseudoscience. Nevertheless, it shows that it has brought about several issues which are considered vital such as the nature-nurture debate; the way an individual is born and people develop. Therefore, the psychodynamic personality theory is not the only personality approach.
The psychodynamic personality approach suggests that personality is governed by unconscious forces that cannot be controlled. It also focusses on unconscious mental forces that shape our personalities and states that people are likely to be shaped by the manner in which children cope with sexual surges. Freud ( ) believes that there are conflicts which occur unconsciously in an individual. According to Freud (1925), an individual has a …show more content…
three-part personality; id, ego and superego (Eyesneck 2009). The id can be explained as the part of all our instinctual drives, for example, sex, aggression and hunger, whereas the ego regulates the urges of the id (Comer, Gould & Furnham 2013). However, these components of personality are not observable and cannot be measured. Measurement is important because it assigns scores to individuals so that the scores represent some characteristic of a person or an object which are achieved by measuring variables such as age and sex. Cattell’s Structure Based Systems Theory in contrast to the psychodynamic personality theory is classified as one that has scientific methods. This is because Cattell recognised reliability and validity of his trait concepts (Ryckman 2012). Similarly, Skinner’s operant analysis is considered as a science for reasons that it is empirically valid because his experiments were conducted in a laboratory (Ryckman 2012). This suggests that the psychodynamic personality approach has vague concepts which are not operationally defined. The psychodynamic personality approach believes that the psychosexual stages of development are part of personality development (Comer et al., 2013).
Comer et al., (2013) state that the psychodynamic personality theory proposes that personality development forms in the first years of life. This means that an individual must meet all the psychosexual stages of development in order to develop, for example, if an individual lacks proper nurturing and parenting at any stage, they are likely to be fixated on that stage. This comprehensive framework suggests that it accounts for both sides of nature – nurture debate because influence of the things we are born with nature and the things we develop via experience nurture, e.g.; aggression learnt or inherited (evidence). However, current research suggests that development does not stop at childhood but rather develops throughout life, suggesting that some parts of the brain develop throughout life during puberty.( Giedd et al., 2015) For example, there is a 2% increase in cerebral spinal fluid volume during child and adolescent development as well as grey matter. This contradicts psychodynamic personality stages which propose that development occurs during childhood.
The psychodynamic personality theory has promoted psychology; ideas have been incorporated into theories such as counselling which is used in therapy (Tran & Gregor (2015). Another positive advantage of the psychodynamic theory is that it was considered the most important during Freud’s era because Freud illustrated that unconscious forces contribute to personality and that internal conflict plays a role in psychological distress. This suggests that people are likely to rely on defence mechanisms to reduce unpleasant emotions ( Eyesneck 2009). In addition, psychodynamic therapy is regarded as an effective treatment for individuals with personality disorders and mental health. For example, psychiatrists use some of the psychoanalytic methods to treat Borderline Personality Disorders (Bateman, O’Connell, Lorenzini, Gardner & 2016; Goodman, Edwards & Chung 2014). Goodman et al., (2014) conducted a 6 - month naturalistic psychotherapy study with 5 BPD patients. The participant's sessions were audiotaped using the psychotherapy process Q-set and were required to complete a measure of psychological distress every week. Findings from this research suggest that the psychodynamic personality approach helps individuals understand real life situations and that therapy is effective.
Another key strength of this theory is that it is one of the original theories of personality which psychology has ever developed ever since.
This is because it generated future work in personality and development which highlights that childhood is a critical period in development Fromkin, Krashen, Curtiss, Rigler, & Rigler (1977). It has also helped recognise that mental health problems are likely to be the cause of childhood trauma or unconscious conflicts. Another positive strength of the psychodynamic theory is that it explains that psychological factors used to explain psychical symptoms like paralysis which is currently regarded as conversion disorder. Conversion disorder derived from the work of Freud's. Freud believed that when an individual is emotionally stressed, conflicts and painful feelings are repressed. Freud believed that conflicts are kept from awareness or consciousness (Ryckman
2012).
The psychodynamic approach has several flaws which have been criticised by many researchers. For example, the approach is considered as a theory that has vague concepts and does not fall under the criteria of a science. This is because Freud’s concepts are not operationally defined and they cannot be tested. The theory is considered as reductionist because other explanations are not considered, reducing to single level of explanation like sexual rivalry. The theory places emphasis on sexuality () . Grant & Harari (2005) state that Popper suggests that science should be generalisable. Seeing that most of Freud’s work was on case studies and observation of few patients, the sample is unrepresentative. Freud also places emphasis on psychological factors without taking into consideration of genetic and biological factors that are likely to influence mental health problems ( ).
In conclusion, the psychodynamic personality approach is a human personality approach shows a comprehensive framework of how personality develops. This is through the tripartite personality, the id, ego and superego. According to Freud, an individual develops through psychosexual stages suggesting that development may be interfered if an infant misses any of the stages. However, the psychodynamic approach has been criticised due to lack of scientific findings and scientific methods because theorists such as Karl Popper consider ideas such as psychodynamic theory to be pseudoscience. Nevertheless, it shows that it has brought about several issues which are considered vital such as the nature-nurture debate; the way an individual is born and people develop. Therefore, the psychodynamic personality theory is not the only personality approach.