PSY305 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 1

PSY305 – Theories of Personality

Name

Institution

Instructor

Course

Date
PSY305 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 2

Thomas Case Study

As derived from the Greek word ‘persona,’ the term personality was staged to refer to the

dynamic organization with the individual of psychological systems that determine the person’s

unique adjustments to the environment. Professionals of personality psychology developed the

mechanisms of understanding personality to explain how development affects the way people

behave and think. This was in a bid to treat, assess and diagnose personality disorders. In this

case, what makes Thomas’s personality is his unique patterns of feelings, thoughts, and

behaviors that he developed since childhood. It can be described as something that arises from

within the individual and develops fairly consistently throughout the person’s life. Understanding

psychology helps personality of Thomas will be important in predict how we expect him to

certain circumstances and things termed of value and of preference. Let’s start by describing

Thomas’s personality.

1. How might you describe Thomas’s personality? Why does he act the way he does?

a. Support your description of his personality based on specific examples provided in the

case study. In addition, consider how Thomas is doing in terms of personality functioning

(is he having problems? Is he doing OK?).

In describing Thomas’s personality, I would characterize enduring characteristics that

influence his behaviors in terms of traits. The broad traits provide a distinguishing quality of a

person, displaying an outward observation when interacting with a person. Thomas’s traits are

developed from the inside but manifest his outside. They are deeply cultivated and seated such

that the way Thomas says his word manifests how he was raised. In a nutshell, traits align with

the observation of core values that someone possesses. Taking a close look at it, The Five-Factor
PSY305 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 3

Model can be used to describe Thomas’s personality based on the five character traits; openness,

conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Openness trait separates more practical people from those who are imaginative. Thomas

possesses openness. He is open to new ideas and curious adventurous perspectives. This is a

criterion standard to meet openness demands according to Smith et al., (2019). It evident that

Thomas's excellence in the law industry is a product of enthusiasm, gut, and curiosity. While he

was younger, he excelled at his studies despite being brought up with a humble background. It is

amazing that apart from having almost a perfect SAT score, he shaped in law excellence by

watching popular lawyers in the movies or on TV. He learned how to be a lawyer by applying

their tactics from evening’s LA law into trial. Again, Thomas has proved to be highly

conscientious academically and professionally. He is well organized, prepared, and aware of his

responsibilities. This is the reason why he earns millions of dollars by defending huge companies

accused of criminal activities. At his early age, his academic organization was factored with high

Conscientiousness to produce a high academic score. As described in the case study, Thomas’s

mother developed anger and resentment towards the children after she realized that she had given

birth to a less privileged situation than the one she was brought up with. This shaped Thomas’s

Conscientiousness. He worked so hard to excel just to show her mother that she was worth love.

Thomas is a big extrovert. He tends to have energy in seeking attention and competition

through self-confidence and stimulation. Evidently, Thomas’s extroversion has been the source

of his professional excellence and social damage at the same time. From his early age, Thomas

learned that ‘nobody actually cares’ and thus, he developed aggression to exert power over

everybody. That is how he takes it too hot for the judges and witnesses in the chamber. At the

same time, his siblings don’t actually like him because he is too bossy and aggressive. Moreover,
PSY305 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 4

an altruistic view of Thomas’s personality does not expose him to possess agreeableness of any

sort. Thomas does not possess the personality of compassion or cooperation or empathy for

others. He does not possess the general human nature of being honest and cooperative. And this

is why Thomas sounds blunt and rude. The case exposes Thomas as a tough guy, who is never

nice while working. He is money-oriented and this is why he leaves witnesses sobbing in grief

and embarrassment. He developed aggression after learning that nobody cares and thus, he

learned to do everything by himself with little cooperation. Lastly, Thomas scores too high on

the neuroticism scale. He is rich but not content with his situation. He is prone to anxiety,

depression, and anger. He is usually disturbed by common situations thus expressing negative

emotions that threaten normal interactions with others.

To me, Thomas is having problems. A person’s development groom must be completed

by well-defined social wellbeing (Suher & Hoyer, 2020). Individual characteristics, attitudes,

mindset, and behaviors with others help a person’s complete development. The fact that Thomas

does not interact well with others makes his life problematic. He does not interact well with

workmates, his siblings nor his friends. He has developed the character of being a loner and

aggressive since childhood and this is why he feels ‘empty. Something is missing in his lifestyle,

and that can be shaped by improving his social wellbeing. He does not volunteer for NGOs

neither does he participate in community activities. He is still single and does not seem to have

an interest. Generally, Thomas can only fill that void by improving his social aggression.

b. Discuss how your chosen theorists/theories would explain Thomas’s personality.

Elaborate in detail about the theoretical concepts and how they relate to Thomas’s

personality.
PSY305 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 5

New Freudian theories of Adler /Horney drive the tenet principles emphasizing that

personality is largely shaped by the role of the unconscious and early experience. Adler stressed

that sex primarily motivated human behavior with greater emphasis that people have driven the

desire to compensate for their own inferiority (Hogan & Smither, 2001). This is true in Thomas's

case. Thomas was raised in the poor section of Philadelphia. He worked so hard to move out of

there as quickly as possible and that is he achieved the money-oriented attitude he has today.

Thomas faces difficulties working as a volunteer for NGOs because he believes ‘time is money

and should never be wasted. Again, Thomas developed aggression from his childhood life. He

was raised from a loud family where he learned that children are there to be seen not to be

listened to. He exposed that not once or twice he was punished for being loud and from then,

learned to be quiet. From then, he learned to keep everything for himself. This derails in

cooperativeness today. He also learned that the only way to avoid people from being aggressive

to you is to exert power over them. This way, he has become too bossy for both his siblings and

workmates.

In humanistic psychologist’s terms such as Maslow's and Rogers’s terms, the growth

potential of healthy individuals is the key driver of individual behaviors. Self-actualization takes

the course of influencing people’s behaviors. In explaining Thomas's behaviors, free will and

self-determination come in as he strives to become the best person he can. Whether he develops

a good or bad personality, his motive is to improve his situation for the better. Starting with his

personality of time consciousness, Thomas has become business-oriented and socially

irresponsible at the same time. He believes no time should be wasted working for free. He is also

aggressive at his work. This is because his motive while at school was to improve his situation
PSY305 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 6

and move out of the poor section of Philadelphia as quickly as possible. This is why he owns a

fleet of expensive cars, houses, and mansions much equitable to the life of a Hollywood elite.

2. You may notice that there are many ways to explain Thomas’s personality. Give your

thoughts on what that means for personality theory in general?

Traits and learning theories are some of the ways psychologists can explain personality.

This means that what motivates and stimulates people's actions can change based on factors such

as genetics, social variables, and environmental and parenting characteristics (Hogan &

Sherman, 2020). Perhaps, these factors continue shaping one's interaction over time. In

Thomas’s case, a collective combination of nature, environment, parenting, and social variables

shapes his behaviors. Thomas grew up in an aggressive family background. This made him a

loner taught him that exercising control over fellows is the only way to avoid aggression. From a

poor parenting background, Thomas never loved. He learned to focus on his life and to satisfy

himself stringently. This has played a great role in limiting his cooperativeness with peers and

siblings. Therefore, personality theory occurs in steps and stages throughout the person’s cycle

of development.
PSY305 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY 7

References

Ashcraft, D. (2015). Personality theories workbook (6th ed.). Boston. MA: Cengage Learning.

Hogan, R., & Smither, R. (2001). Personality: Theories and applications. Westview Press.

Suher, J., & Hoyer, W. D. (2020). The moderating effect of buying impulsivity on the dynamics

of unplanned purchasing motivations. Journal of Marketing Research, 57(3), 548-564.

Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022243720912284

Hogan, R., & Sherman, R. A. (2020). Personality theory and the nature of human nature.

Personality and Individual Differences, 152, 109561. Retrieved from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886919304933

Smith, M. M., Sherry, S. B., Vidovic, V., Saklofske, D. H., Stoeber, J., & Benoit, A. (2019).

Perfectionism and the five-factor model of personality: A meta-analytic review.

Personality and Social Psychology Review, 23(4), 367-390. Retrieved from

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868318814973