Chapter 3 Psychological Theories on Personality

There are three variations of psychological models and theories. Psychological theories are based on assumptions that try to explain structure, function, and change on the personality through the empirical method.The three different theories are; Psychoanalytic theory(homo volens) which believes the irrational person reduces inner tensions and conflicts by using their past, which is unconscious. The second theory is the Behavioral (homo mechanicus) which believes the rational person will behave according to the consequence of their response in the immediate environment. The last theory is Phenomenological (homo creator)  theory which believes the creative thinking person  has free will to choose alternatives to create meaning in life based on their own potentials.

The Psychoanalytic theory

• was created by Sigmund Freud around the turn of the century.

1. He was born in Monrovia (Czechoslovakia) but spent most of his life in Vienna. He specialized in neuropathology, which lead him to become a practicing neurologist and psychotherapist.
2. With his clinical experience and personal life he developed an original and introspective depth psychology of personality. He was very much influenced by Charles Darwin, and Joseph Breuer.
3. Freud believed that the model of human beings is mainly pessimistic, and that we are at a constant struggle to reduce tension between our two basic drives Eros which is the urge to live and Thanatos the urge to die.
4. He believed from the time of our birth we are searching for pleasure and life supporting sex energy, and that we are driven by the life destroying force of death instinct.
5. He believed that our stivings to deal with these innate forces are largely unconscious. The unconscious mind is not accessible to our conscious mind. However a part of our unconscious mind can become conscious which is known as preconscious.
6. Freud then went on to create a structural model of personality, which was devised into three components. The three components are known as the Id, Ego, and Superego. The Id is made up by the unconscious mind, the ego follows instinctual demands of the id and moral pressure from the super-ego and mixes them with the danger of the external environment.
7. The Superego is partly conscious and unconscious. The ego is the executive mind, when it does not satisfy the three components, it suffers from anxiety such as, neurotic, moral, and external. In order to reduce anxiety the ego unconsciously puts out defense mechanisms, such as repression, denial, projection, displacement, rationalization, regression, sublimation, and reaction formation.
8. All of these besides sublimation are considered pathogenic. The model of personality development is determined during the first 4 to 5 years of life dealing with instinctual drives. The growing child then passes through a series of of psychosexual stages which is characterized by a particular erogenous zone: Oral, Anal, Phallic, and Genital stage. The Oedipal conflict which is the conflict of sons being more attracted to their mothers, and daughters to their fathers.
9. This conflict along with the superego emerge at the Phallic stage. The Genital stage is puberty, where mature adult sexuality is developed. Freud believed the causes of neurosis are deeply rooted in the process of psycosexual developement. In a healthy person the ego is both strong and flexible enough to maintain harmony by blocking dangerous impulses from the Id. It must also be rational enough to maintain harsh moral pressure from the Superego. When the ego is impaired it may lead to psychopathy, psychosis, and neurosis.
10. The main goal is to help the patient uncover repressed memories so that they can deal with it consciously. For this purpose Freud developed free association and dream analysis. Freud’s theories have been modified by his students in which they addressed the issues of empirical testability, reduction of human libido, the origins of the unconscious material, personality development after puberty, cross- cultural validity on the Oedipus complex, and the influence of culture and social institutions on personality.  

Behavioral Theory

• Was created by John Watson

1. 1. Focuses on empirical observation of the individuals external behavior under specific conditions. Believe human behavior is acquired, and maintained through the principle of learning.
   2. B.F. Skinner proposed a functional analysis of behavior which was cause and effect relationships between the environmental conditions and the behavior of the person.
   3. Operant Behavior which is where the behavior operates upon the environment to produce consequences. The individual will either get rewarded or punished based on their actions to eliminate the occurrence of the act.
   4. Behaviors can be modified with: positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcers, and negative punishment.  

• Extinction is when the reinforcement does not follow the operant behavior which causes the frequency of the response to diminish or eliminated altogether.

1. Shaping behavior is a procedure in which the behavior is fine tuned by  rewarding successive approximations to the desired result.
2. Believed that our behavior was largely shaped by the contingencies of reinforcement, and further maintenance or change of the shaped behavior will depend on the schedule of reinforcement.
3. Unlike psychoanalysis which seeks to uncover the underlying causes of mental disorders, Skinners therapy is to remove or modify maladjusted behavior by providing new effective contingencies of reinforcement.
4. Critics of Skinner’s theory include: lack of personality, environmental determinism, neglect of the learning process, and the application of animal behavior into human behavior.
5. Social learning theorists, share two major perspectives. An adherence to traditional behaviorism that human behavior acquired through the principle of learning and a significant departure from radical behaviorism in that the human responses to reinforcement are not automatic nut depend on the individual’s subjective interpretation, expectation, and evaluation.

Phenomenological Theory

• Was heavily influenced by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

1. Encompasses various humanistic and existential theories in personality. Although all the theories have have their own focus, they all share a phenomenological perspective that human personality is not a passive product of instinctual or environmental forces but an active process of experiencing and creating one’s subjective reality.
2. Three basic principles: That a person has free choice in perception and cognition, Subjective experience and meaning as ones reality, and a holistic view of personality in the process of becoming or self actualization
3. Carl Rogers developed the person centered theory which consists of three core constructs: the organism, the phenomenal field, and the self. These constructs are interdependent and create the Gestalt of the person. Meaning the organism will experience the phenomenal field and the self emerges from the phenomenal field.  
4. According to Carl Rogers everyone is born with the internal force for growth and for actualizing our potential. However the realization of this depends on our socialization process.
5. The development of self concept depends on our evaluation of interaction with other s and the symbolization of our own experiences.
6. The adequacy of symbolization depends on the consistency between what we actually experience and what we perceive as that experience. When these two are not balanced we feel anxiety to relieve anxiety we tend to use defenses which usually not only fail to protect the self structure but also hinder self actualization.
7. The primary task of this therapy is centered to help the client give up the defenses so that he/ she can change and reorganize the self concept to be consistent with true organisms experiences. For a personality change toward the fully functional person the client must perceive the therapist as having three qualities: Genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathy.
8. Maslow had an optimistic view of human nature which included: innate goodness, innate force for growth innate potentials for self actualization.
9. For explaining self actualization Maslow created a Hierarchical model which started with physiological needs, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and then self actualization could be complete.
10. Maslow believed that even though all of these basic needs are innate less than one percent of the adult population can attain the stage of self actualization.
11. As the third theory it opened up new horizons on studying personality. In recent years it has been rising trend in new lines of empirical research and theory in the area of cognitive psychology.

Summary

Most current personality theories in psychology derive from these three major theories which have been based on different assumptions about basic human nature. They are the framework that psychologist use and manipulate everyday to explain human  personality. Empirical research is expanding but the framework remains the same