Psychology
Question 1
Personality can be defined as the individual differences that exhibit themselves in the feelings, thinking patterns and the behavior of individuals. The issue of psychology can be looked at from eight basic perspectives. These are biological, psychoanalytical, behaviorist, neo-analytic, cognitive, humanistic, interactionist and trait models.
The biological perspective tries to explain behavioral differences through biological processes that occur internally in our bodies such as genetics, nervous system and the brain. These factors affect our individual behaviors.
Psychoanalytical aspect concentrates on the role or impact of early on the sexual drives of an individual and the factors that affect those drives together with their effect on various non-sexual elements of a person.
Neo-analytical focuses mainly on one’s ego or self as the main aspect or determinant of a person’s unique personality.
Behaviorist model main focus is on behavior that is observable and personality elements that are visible in the external environment.
The cognitive aspect or model focuses on perception, thinking and decision making that people use to make an interpretation of the surrounding world.
The interactionist model explores an individual’s traits that are inherited and looks at how the traits adapt through time as the individual interacts with the environment.
The trait model explores the basic traits that each individual is believed to posses naturally.
Question2
The study of all the above theories is very beneficial because it encourages and supports creative thinking. The theories make us ponder more and come up with additional ideas about this particular aspect of personality. Studying all the perspectives also helps us to see the evolution of society’s thinking about personality through time. However, the study of all these perspectives can also cause a lot of confusion. It may become impossible to correctly pinpoint why a certain individual behaves in a way. It may also lead to misconceptions in the society, for example, when one behaves in a particular bad way, his behavior is attributed to that of his parents and the parents thus receive the entire blame.
Rogers would argue that the self actualization is known for being at the top of Maslow’s Hierachy of Need. He would further state this is very helpful in understanding personality as it can help to explains what really makes an individual feel self-fulfilled and thus how this influences his individuality.
Question 3
Jung would use his collective unconscious theory to explain how the human self is able to cope with the drive that emanate internally from the body and also the demands placed by external environment on the body. He would then go ahead and show how the ego of a person plays a significant role in determining the individual personality. He would then go ahead and mention the various archetypes mentioned by his theory.
Question 4
Horney would argue that the big five theory is significantly through because the five major categories of human personality are indeed very evident in individuals. He would however state that there is a missing part in the theory because it does not comprehensively explains human personality in its entirety. This is because it is not really theory driven but is rather data driven and only concentrates on specific descriptors that would otherwise cluster together if taken through a factor analysis.
Question 5
I have really learnt a lot about my own personality from the above theories. The most significant thing that I have learnt is that my personality is not just a consequence of one factor but is rather of a multiple of factors. I have also been able to pinpoint some of behaviors that are a result of natural forces and that I have absolutely no control over from the interactionist model. I am usually a short-tempered person but from the study of these theories, I have been able to change my behavior by altering some of the internal factors and feeling that makes me have this behavior.
In conclusion, I hope to apply what I have learnt from these theories in everyday life and hopefully become a better human being.
References
Friedman, H and Schustack, M. (2009) Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research 4th Edition. Allyn & Bacon: Heights, MA
