Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches to Personality Essay
In contrast, Gordon Allports Trait theory attempts to explain personality under the assumption that personality traits can be measured and remain stable in various situations over time. These two personality theories differ first in their definition and second in their approach to the understanding of human personality. Although the psychoanalytic theory was first introduced by Sigmund Freud other psychoanalytic theorists built their theories based on his work. Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches to Personality Essay. He conceived a topographic model that breaks down personality into three elements; Conscious, preconscious and unconscious.
Our conscious mind being that which we are aware, preconscious consisting of those bits of information that you can readily recall and the unconscious which is made up of the information that was not readily available for recollection.
He later came up with a structural model which breaks down into the Id, Ego, and Superego. According to Freud, the Id component is present at birth and consists of primal and instinctive impulses in order to satisfy basic wishes and needs.
The ego is the element which develops from the id and it restrain the impulses of the Id. According to Freud, the Ego component functions in both the three parts of personality; the conscious, preconscious, and the unconscious mind. The third element of the psychoanalytic theory is the Superego, which helps in decision making based on what is morally acceptable in the society. This component holds all of our internalized principles and moral ideals and standards that we acquire from both the society and our parents. Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches to Personality Essay.
Generally, Freud’s opinion was that these manifestations would be experienced if as a child did not resolve a conflict in the developmental stages before moving on to the next stage of growth. He believed that the unresolved conflicts did not go away but were just suppressed and would inevitably resurface in a different way at adulthood.The oral component of Freud’s theory establishes that a persistent childhood behavior like putting objects into the mouth or sucking the thumb may lead to that individual being likely to start smoking in order to satisfy this inclination. This situation is associated with a mouth fixation. On the other hand, Freud noted that one would develop a fixation on anything to do with the anal region at adulthood if one had problems or difficulty in potty training as a child. This happens if the individual failed to successfully meet the goal (pleasure) and some conflict was left unsolved.
This is what explains, according to Freud, some of the weird personalities that people exhibit either as individuals or as a group. Defense mechanism is the term given to our minds way of dealing with unwanted or painful emotions and thoughts.
These defense mechanisms can either be implemented consciously or unconsciously. Denial is one of the defense mechanism which an individual uses when faced with anxiety by denying that a certain threatening event actually took place. Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches to Personality Essay.
For instance if a mother hears that her son in the military was shot dead in Iraq, she refuses to believe and goes on to talk about how well he is doing and keeps all his belongings intact in anticipation of his return. Repression is another defense mechanism and would be used by the ego to bury a traumatic event into the subconscious.
A person who suffered from a traumatic experience such as abuse would likely use repression to bury the memories of the event deep in the subconscious and then go on as if the event had never taken place at all. Another of Freud’s defense mechanism is displacement which involves the transfer of intended goals. In other words, the Id wants something that the Superego will not allow and so the Ego finds a way to satisfy that want.
A man who is reprimanded by his female supervisor at the place of work will be guided by the ego not react directly to the boss because of paychecks.
When he gets home, he may instead take out his frustrations on his wife. Gordon Allport was one of the pioneers in the study of personality traits; he studied thousands of traits and the difference between temperament and common personality traits. Trait theory proposes that individual human beings can be characterized in terms of stable patterns of thoughts, actions, and feelings, known as traits; which can be assessed quantitatively. The trait theorists are mainly concerned in the measurement of traits which can be defined as consistent patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior.
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Individual traits are usually considered to be stable over a long period of time and differ among the individuals.
For instance, some individuals are shy while others are outgoing, and these greatly influence one’s behavior. Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches to Personality Essay. According to Allport, central traits are inherent in individual’s personality, common traits are the ones that are recognized in a culture and vary from one culture to another, while secondary traits are more marginal. Cardinal traits, on the other hand, are those that strongly identify an individual. The Five Factor Model uses the factor analysis method to describe and organize personality traits.
The factors include Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness and Extraversion.
Conscientiousness refers to the tendency to act dutifully, aim for achievement, and be disciplined. The trait emphasizes preference for planned rather than random behavior. Agreeableness is the tendency to be honorable, kindhearted and compassionate rather than being antagonistic towards other people. Neuroticism refers to an individual’s tendency to be uneasy and temperamental versus composed and unexcited. Openness refers to the appreciation for unusual ideas, imagination, and emotion.
Open people are imaginative, intellectually curious, and unconventional. Lastly, is Extraversion, a trait which is characterized by the tendency to seek the company and stimulation of other people and are usually energetic and assertive. In doing this comparison it is easier to be more accepting of both theories and their perspectives on personality. Freud’s psychoanalytic views on personality are considerably more complex and harder to grasp, however, his treatments in patients with hysteria make his theory of the unconscious and how defense mechanisms work hard to refute.
However, the psychosexual stages of development as defined by Freud are not as convincing and are widely controversial. Additionally, there are equally good points made by Allport and other trait theorists. Trait theorists are more concerned with what type of characteristics a person exhibits repetitively over time in comparison with others. There experiential foundation and the practical applications give this theory a well-built base.
However the usefulness of this type of an approach in dealing with problematic behavior is limited and traits are often poor predictors of behavior.
Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches Personality Assessment PSY/250 Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches Personality Assessment I have always attributed personality as being a culmination of environment first, biology second, and traits, or what my understanding of them was. I was not aware of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic approach, or the correct definition of the trait theory prior to beginning this class. The psychoanalytic approach to personality defines the origins of personality as being divided in to three parts; the id (unconscious), the superego (preconscious) and the ego (conscious). Each part plays a distinct role in memory, response, desire, decision making, and conscience. With all three parts interacting, conflicting,
Here, children have to learn control over bodily functions and depending on whether the experience is positive or negative, like behavioral patterns emerge. Freud believed that a negative experience could result in an adult personality that is obsessive, and stubborn. Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches to Personality Essay. According to Freud, defense mechanisms exist as a way for the ego to deal with things it cannot filter from the anxiety created within the superego and the id. Displacement is a classic example of a defense mechanism. Have you ever had a bad day at work where nothing you did would satisfy your boss? Wanting to tell your boss off or acting on the frustrations or feelings would be detrimental to your job status. Instead of acting on that frustration it stays pent up, and by the time you get home from work you explode at your child, or spouse for some insignificant little infraction. Your taking your aggression out on a person who did not pose a threat to you is displacement. A second defense mechanism is reaction formation. Freud believed that using reaction formation allows us to hide how we feel by acting the exact opposite. A good example would be a person who is extremely outspoken about gay rights. Freud would have no doubt believed that because this person’s beliefs were so extreme that this person must be fighting an internal demon; maybe this person was fighting their own secret feelings of attraction for. Psychoanalytic and Trait Approaches to Personality Essay.
