Today there are several different theoretical approaches to personality analysis. This paper presents comparison between two of them – humanistic and psychodynamic. This analysis will present the main differences and similarities between the theories and will choose the one of them that is the most effective one.
Humanistic approach has two main directions. The first – a clinical one (focused mainly on clinic) is presented in the views of American psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987). The founder of the second – motivational trend is American researcher Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). The founder of the psychodynamic approach was Austrian scientist Z. Freud (1856-1939).
The main source of personality development is considered to be innate tendency to self-actualization by the representatives of humanistic psychology. Personality development is a deployment of these innate tendencies. According to Rogers, in the human psyche, there are two innate tendencies. The first, which he called self-actualizing trend, contains the originally folded future properties of the individual (Barry, 2002). The second – organismic monitoring process – is a mechanism for monitoring development of the individual. Based on these trends in human development there is a particular personality self concept, which includes the ideal self and the real self. These substructures of self concept are in a complicated relationship – from complete harmony (congruency) to complete disharmony. The purpose of life, according to Rogers, is to realize one’s full innate potential, to become fully functioning person, i.e., the one who uses all his abilities and talents, realizes his potential and moves to the full knowledge of himself, his experiences, following his true nature.
Maslow identified two types of needs that underlie the development of the individual, "deficit needs", which stop after meeting them and "growth needs", which, to the contrary, only intensify after their implementation. There are also intermediate needs in terms of their content – "need to belong" associated with the need for other people. Maslow formulated a law of progressive development of motivation, according to which the person's motivation is developing progressively: the movement to a higher level occurs if lower-level needs are satisfied (mostly). In other words, if a person is hungry (the first level of needs) and he does not have a roof over his head (the second level of needs), then that person will hardly start a family (the third level of needs) or experience the self-respect (fourth level) or will be creative (the fifth step). The most important for human are the needs of the fifth level - the need for self-actualization. Self-actualization is not an end state of human perfection. No man is so self-actualized to drop all motives (Barry, 2002). Everyone always has talents for further development. A person, who has reached the fifth level, is called the psychologically healthy individual.
As for the psychodynamic theory, the main source of personal development, according to Freud, are innate biological factors, instincts, or rather – the total biological energy – libido. Libido means desire. What do people want? First, extend generation (sex drive), and second, to destroy the life of oneself and others – aggressive drive.
According to the humanists, the personality forms and develops over a lifetime. The trend toward self-actualization is the process of the implementation of person’s capacity for lifelong learning. The early stages of life (childhood and adolescence), however, play a special role for humanists. At birth, the two substructures of self concept are fully congruent (equal), and therefore the person is initially kind and happy. Subsequently, the self concept becomes more complicated due to the interaction with the environment. The discrepancies between the real self and the ideal self in a child can lead to a distorted perception of reality. According to Freud and psychodynamic approach, personality is formed during the first six years of life.
The main conceptual elements of personality according to humanists are real self – a collection of thoughts, feelings and experiences here and now. Ideal self – a collection of thoughts, feelings, experiences that a person would want to have to realize his personal potential. The need for self-actualization – innate needs that determine the growth and development of the individual.
Although the real self and ideal self can be rather complicated concepts, however, there is a way to measure their conjugation, or congruency. The high rate of congruence indicates a relatively high level of harmony between real self and ideal self. At low values of congruence, there is a high level of anxiety, symptoms of depression. Students with high self-esteem in case of failure are trying to establish contact with the teacher and retake the subject again (Demanchick & Kirschenbaum, 2008). Students with a low level of self-esteem abandon further attempts to pass exam, exaggerate their difficulties, avoid situations where they could express themselves, often suffer from loneliness.
As the individual units in this theory there also act levels of human needs. In the famous five-tiered pyramid of Maslow motivation needs are arranged as follows: level 1 – physiological (needs for food, sleep); level 2 – security needs (the need for flat, job); level 3 – intermediate (need to belong), which reflect the needs of one person in the other person, for example, in creating a family; level 4 – the level of self-esteem (the need for self-esteem, competence , dignity ); level 5 – the need for self-actualization (needs in art, beauty, integrity, etc.).
The main element psychological personality traits are often referred to as character traits, according to Freud. These properties are formed in humans in early childhood. For example, within the first so-called oral phase of development (from 0 to 1.5 years), the abrupt and rude refusal of the mother to breastfeed the child forms the psychological characteristics such as distrust, over-independency and hyperactivity. Conversely, prolonged breastfeeding (over 1.5 years) can lead to the formation of naive, passive and dependent personality. Within the second (1.5 to 3 years) anal phase, rough punishment of a child in learning toilet skills generates "anal" character traits – "greed", "cleanliness", "punctuality". Connivance on the part of parents to toilet problems of the child may lead to the formation of unpunctuality, generosity and even creativity. The third, phallic, phase is the most important stage of development of the child (3 to 6 years), when formation of "Oedipus complex" for boys and "Electra complex" for girls takes place (Ahles, 2004). Oedipus complex is reflected in the fact that the boy hates his father for what he interrupts his first erotic attraction to the opposite sex (the mother). Hence - the aggressive properties, illegitimacy, the behavior associated with the rejection of family and social norms, which symbolizes the father.
Freud identifies three main conceptual blocks of the individual. 1) The "it" - the main structure of the personality, consisting of a set of unconscious (sexual and aggressive) impulses. It operates in accordance with the pleasure principle. 2) "Ego" - a set of predominantly perceived human cognitive and executive functions of the psyche, representing a broad sense, all our knowledge of the real world. Ego is a structure designed to serve It. It operates in accordance with the principle of reality. This structure regulates the interaction between It and the Superego and acts as an arena of ongoing struggle between them. 3) "Superego" - a structure that contains the social norms, attitudes, moral values of the society in which person lives.
The humanistic and psychodynamic approaches to personality analysis are completely different, but I think that both of them can be considered when the personality is analyzed, as they give different views to the problem and allow us to see the complete picture. Still, I consider the humanistic approach and the works of Rogers and Maslow in particular to be more effective for analysis, as they take into account not only childhood, but also the whole life-time and have more potential for development and study.
References
Ahles, Scott, R. (2004). Our Inner World: A Guide to Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Barry, P. (2002). Mental Health and Mental Illness (7th ed.). New York: Lippincott.
Demanchick, S., & Kirschenbaum, H. (2008). Carl Rogers and the CIA. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 48(1), 6-31.
