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Theories of Personality, Definition: The Personality refers to the distinct traits, thoughts, feelings, actions and, characteristics of an individual that differentiates him from other individuals. Simply, the, personality is the typical behavior of a person in which he responds to the given situations., Theories of Personality, Since there is no exact definition of the term personality, different theorists from psychology, field as well as from other fields dealing with human behavior have carried on researches to, find out the answers to certain questions Viz. What is Personality? What does it constitute?, How is behavior governed by Personality?, The theories of personality have been grouped as:, , 1. Psychoanalytic Theory, 2. Socio-Psychological Theory, 3. Trait Theory, 4. Self Theory
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Thus, we can say, that personality is the organization of different psychological systems in an, individual, who tries to adjust to the external environment., A. Psychoanalytic Theory, Definition: The Psychoanalytic Theory is the personality theory, which is based on, the notion that an individual gets motivated more by unseen forces that are controlled, by the conscious and the rational thought., Sigmund Freud is closely related to the psychoanalytic theory. According to him, the, human behavior is formed through an interaction between three components of the, mind, i.e. Id, Ego and Super Ego., , 1. Id: Id is the primitive part of the mind that seeks immediate gratification of biological, or instinctual needs. The biological needs are the basic physical needs and while the, instinctual needs are the natural or unlearned needs, such as hunger, thirst, sex, etc. Id, is the unconscious part of the mind; that act instantaneously without giving much, thought to what is right and what is wrong., Example: If your Id passed through a boy playing with a ball, the immediate urge to, get that ball will drive you to snatch it by any means, this is irrational and may lead to, the conflict between the boys. Thus, Id is the source of psychic energy, a force that is, behind all the mental forces., 2. Super-Ego: The Super-Ego is related to the social or the moral values that an, individual inculcates as he matures. It acts as an ethical constraint on behavior and, helps an individual to develop his conscience. As the individual grows in the society,, he learns the cultural values and the norms of the society which help him to, differentiate between right and wrong.
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Example: If the super-ego passed that boy playing with a ball, it would not snatch it,, as it would know that snatching is bad and may lead to a quarrel. Thus, super ego act, as a constraint on your behavior and guides you to follow the right path. But if the Id, is stronger than super-ego, you will definitely snatch the ball by any means., 3. Ego: Ego is the logical and the conscious part of the mind which is associated with, the reality principle. This means it balances the demands of Id and super-ego in the, context of real life situations. Ego is conscious and hence keep a check on Id through, a proper reasoning of an external environment., Example: If you pass through the same boy playing with the ball, your ego will, mediate the conflict between the Id and super-ego and will decide to buy a new ball, for yourself. This may hurt you Id, but the ego would take this decision to reach to a, compromise situation between the Id and super-ego by satisfying the desire of getting, a ball without committing any unpleasant social behavior., Hence, these are the fundamental structures of the mind, and there is always a conflict, between these three. The efforts to attain the balance between these defines the way we, behave in the external environment., B. Socio-Psychological Theory, Definition: The Socio-Psychological Theory asserts that individual and society are, interlinked. This means, an individual strives to meet the needs of the society and the society, helps him to attain his goals. Through this interaction, the personality of an individual is, determined.
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The Socio-Psychological theory is the contribution of Adler, Horney, Forman and Sullivan., This theory is also called as Neo-Freudian Theory because it differs from the Freud’s, psychoanalytic theory in the following respects:, 1. According to this theory, the social variables and not the biological instincts, are the, important determinants in shaping the individual’s personality., 2. Here, the motivation is conscious, i.e. an individual knows what are his needs and, wants and what kind of behavior is required to meet these needs., Thus, the theorists believe that socio-psychological factors, i.e. the combination of both the, social (family, society, wealth, religion) and the psychological factors (feelings, thoughts,, beliefs) play an important role in shaping the personality of an individual., It is the society from where the individual inculcates the cultural values and the social norms,, which helps him in shaping his personality and influences his behavior according to the, external situations., C. Trait Theory, Definition: The Trait Theory asserts that an individual is composed of a set of definite, predisposition attributes called as traits. These traits are distinguishable and often long, lasting quality or a characteristic of a person that makes him different from the others., The two most common trait theories are:
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Allport’s Trait Theory: This theory is given by Gordon Allport. According to him, the, personality of an individual can be studied through a distinction between the common traits, and the personal dispositions., The common traits are used to compare the people on the grounds of six values, such as, religious, social, economic, political, aesthetic and theoretical. Besides the common traits,, there are personal dispositions which are unique and are classified as follows:, , , Cardinal Traits: The cardinal traits are powerful, and few people possess personality, dominated by a single trait. Such as Mother Teressa’s altruism., Central Traits: These traits are the general characteristics possessed by many, individuals in the varying degrees. Such as loyalty, friendliness, agreeableness,, kindness, etc., , , , Secondary Trait: The secondary traits show why at times, a person behaves, differently than his usual behavior. Such as a jolly person may get miserable when, people try to tease him., , , , Cattell’s Trait Theory: This trait theory is given by Raymond Cattell. According to him, the, sample of a large number of variables should be studied to have a proper understanding of the, individual personality., He collected the life data (everyday life behaviors of individuals), experimental data, (standardizing experiments by measuring actions), questionnaire data (responses gathered, from the introspection of an individual’s behavior) and done the factor analysis to identify the, traits that are related to one another., D. Self Theory, Definition: The Self Theory emphasizes on the set of perceptions an individual has for, himself and the perceptions of the relationships he has with others and the other aspects of, life. Carl Rogers has contributed significantly towards the self theory., The self theory comprises of four factors that are explained below:
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1. Self-Image: Self-image means what an individual thinks about himself. Everybody, has certain beliefs about themselves, such as who or what they are, these beliefs form, the self image and identity of a person., According to Erikson, identity is formed through a lifelong development usually, unconscious to the individual and his society, i.e. an individual forms perception, about himself unconsciously, according to the social circumstances., 2. Ideal-Self: The ideal-self means, the way an individual would like to be. It is very, much different from the self-image, as it shows the ideal position perceived by an, individual, whereas the self-image is the reality that an individual perceives.Thus,, there could be a gap between these two., The ideal-self-acts as a stimulus to motivate an individual to undertake those activities, that are in compliance with the characteristics of his ideal self., 3. Looking-Glass-Self: The looking-glass self means, an individual’s perception of how, others are perceiving his qualities or feeling about him. Simply, it is the perception of, other’s perception, i.e. perceiving what others perceive about yourself and not see, what actually you are., 4. Real-Self: The real-self is what others show you with respect to your self-image. An, individual’s self-image is confirmed when others responses to him and shares their, beliefs or perception, about what they actually feel about him., This is taken as feedback from the environment that helps an individual to adjusts his, self-image accordingly and be in line with the cues he had received., Thus, according to Carl Rogers, the self theory is composed of several perceptions of “I” or, “me” and the perception of relationships of “I” and “me” to others.
