Personality

Personality

Keyira Greene

PSY/211

April 17, 2013

Valerie Reese

Personality

Personality is the way one behaves, feels, and thinks. Personality theory is a theory that describes, how everyone is alike, different, and what makes every individual unique in their own way. All personality theories have their advantages and disadvantages. There are four main perspectives of personality and they are psychoanalytic, humanistic, social cognitive, and trait perspective.

Four Perspectives of Personality

The psychoanalytic perspective was first found by Sigmund Freud. According to Freud, an individual’s childhood experiences affect his or her personality development. Freud also believes that psychological forces operates at three levels; conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscious level is the level in which an individual is fully aware of their actions, feelings, and thoughts. The preconscious is the level in which an individual is unaware of at that moment, but can be easily resurfaced to the conscious level. The unconscious level is when one is totally unaware of certain thoughts and feelings, but has a big impact on the conscious behavior. Freud believes that one’s unconscious is the foundation of his or her psychological state. The humanistic perspective on personality focuses on one’s personal awareness, free will, and psychological growth. The humanistic perspective focuses on the positive things about human nature, and the full potential of a human being. The social cognitive perspective on personality focuses on learning through observation, and environmental influences. The trait perspective of personality is based on identifying, describing, and measuring certain traits that develops one’s personality. The psychoanalytic, humanistic, and social cognitive theories are alike, because they focus on how people are alike, their motivation and development.

Testing Personality

Personality is assessed with...