PERSONALITY

I. INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY
DEFINITION
Personality psychologists tend to avoid abstract philosophical or religious musings and focus instead on the thoughts, feelings,
and behaviours of real people. Personality is generally not studied in terms of non-psychological concepts such as profits and
losses, souls and spirits, or molecules and electromagnetism. Personality is a subfield of psychology. Personality psychology
can be defined as the scientific study of the psychological forces that make people uniquely themselves.
Personality is a complex hypothetical construct. The quality of consistency across the situation lies at the core of the concept
of personality. Personality, refers to an individual’s unique set of consistent behavioural traits (relatively stable patterns of
behaviour, thoughts, and feelings). APA defines personality to the enduring characteristics and behaviour that comprise a
person’s unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional
patterns. In 1937, Allport defined personality as, the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical
systems that determine his unique adjustments to the environment.
To be comprehensive, it is said that personality has eight key aspects, which together help in understanding the complex
nature of the individual.
(1) The individual is affected by unconscious aspects, forces that are not in moment-to-moment awareness. For
example, we might say or do things to others that our parents used to say or do to us, without recognizing that we
are motivated by a desire to resemble our parents.
(2) The individual is affected by so-called ego forces that provide a sense of identity or “self.” For example, we often
strive to maintain a sense of mastery and consistency in our behaviour.
(3) A person is a biological being, with a unique genetic, physical, physiological, and temperamental nature. The human
species has evolved over millions of years, yet each of us is a unique biological system.
(4) People are conditioned and shaped by the experiences and environments that surround them. That is, our
surroundings sometimes train us to respond in certain ways, and we grow up in varying cultures. Culture is a key
aspect of who we are.
(5) People have a cognitive dimension, thinking about and actively interpreting the world around them. Different people
construe the happenings around them in different ways.
(6) An individual is a collection of specific traits, skills, and predispositions. There is no denying that each of us has
certain specific abilities and inclinations.
(7) Human beings have a spiritual dimension to their lives, which ennobles them and prompts them to ponder the
meaning of their existence. People are much more than robots programmed by computers. They seek happiness and
self-fulfilment.
(8) Finally, the individual’s nature is an ongoing interaction between the person and the particular environment.
HISTORY
The history of personality psychology dates as far back as Ancient Greece. Indeed, philosophers since the 4th century BC
have been trying to define exactly what it is that makes a human. In 370 BC, Hippocrates proposed two pillars of
temperament: hot/cold and moist/dry, resulting in four humours or combinations of these qualities. The hot and dry
combination was referred to as yellow bile, cold and dry as black bile, hot and wet was blood and cold and wet was phlegm.
Though much of the work that arose from this theory of the four humours was medicinal in nature, it was also hypothesized a
patient's personality could be influenced by humoral imbalances. This categorical way of thinking about personality permeated
ancient thinking on the matter.
Plato proposed four groupings (artistic, sensible, intuitive, reasoning) and Aristotle hypothesized four factors (iconic i.e.,
artistic, pistic; i.e., common-sense, noetic; i.e., intuition and dianoetic; i.e., logic) contributed to one’s social order in society.
Aristotle was also one of the first individuals to hypothesize connections between physical aspects of the body and behaviour.
In the mid to late 18th century, Franz Gall, a neuroanatomist, fathered the new ‘pseudoscience’ of phrenology, a doctrine that
hypothesized correlations between specific brain areas and functions. Gall believed measurements of the skull could reveal
something about individuals’ inner thoughts and emotions, an assumption that paved the way for modern neuropsychology.
Gall’s work was some of the first to move away from a philosophical explanation of behaviour and personality into one
rooted in anatomy. Physiological evidence for such a conjecture arrived in the mid-19th Century with the iconic and fascinating
case of Phineas Gage. Gage was a railroad construction worker from New Hampshire when, in 1848, an accident caused a
tamping iron to be driven through the side of his face, behind his left eye and all the way through the top of his skull.
Miraculously, Gage recovered. Though weakened, he was able to walk and speak. However, the brain damage from the
accident resulted in numerous changes in his personality. Though history has distorted the extent of these changes, it is
generally agreed that Phineas Gage’s demean or went from moral and calm to irreverent, impatient and profane. His case is
one of the first to provide physical evidence that personality is linked to specific brain regions.
The study of personality structure arguably got its start in 1884 when Sir Francis Galton first applied the Lexical Hypothesis.
In 1921, Carl Jung, a psychiatrist and student of Freud, developed a type-based theory of personality. In his book,
Psychological Types, Jung claims individuals fall into different dichotomous personality categories - for example,
introversion/extraversion.
In another conceptualization of personality, Sigmund Freud published; the ego and the id in 1923. Freud posited that the
human psyche consists of three main components: the id, the ego and the superego which control all conscious and
unconscious thought and therefore behaviour. The id can be thought of as the innate drivers of behaviour. It encompasses
bodily needs and desires and, according to Freud, drives us to seek out these wants. In other words, it is “the dark,
inaccessible part of our personality [that] contains everything that is inherited, the instincts, which originate from somatic
organization.” The ego can be thought of as the bridge between the id and reality; it is what finds realistic ways to achieve
what the id wants and also finds justifications and rationalizations for these desires. Lastly, the superego is the organized
component of the psyche and is often referred to as the moral check of the ego. It is responsible for conscience and for
regulating the drives of the id and ego by providing a sense of right and wrong.
This approach, which posits that words are inherently “expressive of character,” was furthered in 1936 in the seminal work of
Allport and Odbert. Using Webster’s Dictionary, this duo identified close to 18,000 words in the English language that could
be used to describe personality. They divided this list into four categories and eventually came up with 4,000 trait related
words, a figure that accentuates just how nuanced our daily interactions are.
A few years later, in 1947, Hans Eysenck posited there were really only two pertinent dimensions of personality; extraversion
and neuroticism, and that these could be combined to describe four key personality types (high E/low N, high E/high N, low
E/high N, low E/low N). Another key part of Eysenck’s model was his explanation of the potential causation of these high
and low tendencies. He posited that differences in limbic system arousal led to differences in neuroticism and he believed low
cortical arousal led to extraversion while high cortical arousal led to introversion. This might seem counterintuitive but the
reasoning has to do with individuals with high arousal wanting to lower their arousal levels (hence introversion) and vice versa.
In the 1949, psychologist Raymond Cattell worked with his mentor Charles Spearman on developing factor analysis, a now-
common statistical technique used to investigate variability within a sample in the hopes of uncovering a core set of factors
driving said variability. Cattell believed the method could be applied to the study of personality to uncover the factors that lead
to observed individual differences. His work led to a set of 16 fundamental factors.
The typology theory of personality was further popularized by Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers
who eventually developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1940s). Type theory remains a common conceptualization of
personality to this day.
The trend of investigating the personality puzzle from the angle of “what are our underlying drives?” continued into the 1940s
and 1950s. Many are familiar with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but fail to recognize Maslow proposed that all of
human motivation is driven by the necessity of fulfilling these needs in accordance with the principle of self-actualization,
which states humans are driven to be the best they can be.
In the late 1950s, Carl Rogers built off the ideas of Maslow, arguing that yes, people all strive to achieve their greatest potential
but they do so in different ways according to the personalities. This line of reasoning leads to a chicken and the egg problem:
motivations to do something (like fulfil the human needs) ultimately influence behaviour and thereby influence personality (as
Maslow believed); but that personality is simultaneously influencing the way people act upon motivations (as Rogers
hypothesized). Ultimately, there is no right answer in terms of which way this circle flows. The puzzle untangling the
relationship between personality and behaviour persists in modern psychological conversations and continues to inspire
research and debate across many fields of study.
The 1960’s saw a return to and a refinement of Cattell’s 16 factor model as Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal (1961) and
Warren Norman proposed the idea that there were five recurring factors within Cattell’s sixteen: surency, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, emotional stability, and culture. These five factors would eventually morph into the Big Five people know
today (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness) as Lewis Goldberg initiated his own
investigation of the lexical hypothesis (1981) and found the same five principal dimensions, later coining the term ‘Big Five.’
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, two other giants in the field of personality research,
independently verified the construct of these five factors of personality. Since the late 20th century, researchers have
conducted thousands of studies confirming the structure, universality, replicability, and predictiveness of the Big Five. The Big
Five were derived primarily through an inductive, or itemetric, approach. That is, there was a “boiling down” of a large group
of items that were not theoretically assumed to relate to one another. In contrast, type measures of personality (MBTI), were
developed through an inductive approach. More specifically, they were developed around theories of mind (e.g., Jung, Freud).
While both approaches are valid, the Big Five approach has proven itself to be more reliable and valid throughout years of
research.
 Years Contributors Contributions
370 BC Hippocrates Two pillars
Plato Four groupings
Aristotle Four factors
Franz Gall Phineas Gauge
1884 Galton Applied; Lexical Hypothesis
1921 Carl Jung Personality categories
1923 Sigmund Freud Human psyche components
1936 Allport and Odbert Described in 18,000 words; and divided into four categories
1947 Hans Eysenck Extraversion and Introversion
Four important personality types
1949 Raymond Cattell with 16 PF; factor analysis
Spearman
1940s Katherine Cook Briggs and Myers-Briggs Types Indicator
Isabel Briggs Myers
1940s Abraham Maslow Self-actualization
1950s Carl Rogers Expansion of Maslow
1961 Ernest Tupes, Raymond 5 factors with 16PF; agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness,
Christal, and Warren Norman surrency and culture; which later into emotional stability and
extroversion (OCEAN);
1981 Lewis Goldberg Lexical Hypothesis investigate; coined the term Big-Five-Factor
1980- Paul Costa and Robert Independently verified the construct of these five factors of personality
1990s McCrae
MODERN THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Modern personality theory began to take formal shape in the 1930s. It was heavily influenced by the work of three men -
Gordon Allport, Kurt Lewin, and Henry Murray. Allport, who was broadly trained in philosophy and the classics, devoted his
attention to the uniqueness and dignity of the individual. Allport defined personality as “the dynamic organization within the
individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment”.
Building on the work of psychologist–philosopher William James, he rejected the idea of trying to break down personality into
basic components (such as sensation or innate drives) and instead looked for the underlying organization of each person’s
uniqueness.
Kurt Lewin came out of the Gestalt tradition in Europe. The Gestalt psychologists emphasized the integrative and active
nature of perception and thought, suggesting that the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts.
The Gestalt pioneer Wolfgang Kohler gives the example of trying to memorize a list of pairs of nouns, such as lake–sugar,
boot–plate, and girl–kangaroo. Kohler notes that these words are not normally associated with each other, but the pairings
may be easily learned. The Gestalt explanation is as follows: “When I read those words I can imagine, as a series of strange
pictures, how a lump of sugar dissolves in a lake, how a boot rests on a plate, how a girl feeds a kangaroo. If this happens
during the reading of the series, I experience in imagination a number of well-organized, though quite unusual, wholes”. This
emphasis on the whole picture that a person imagines when encountering a situation had a tremendous influence on Lewin,
and subsequently on personality and social psychology. Lewin’s approach, like Allport’s, was dynamic, as he looked for
systems that underlie observable behaviour. Lewin drew attention to “the momentary condition of the individual and the
structure of the psychological situation”. In other words, Lewin emphasized that the forces affecting a person change from
time to time and from situation to situation. Modern personality theories have adopted these emphases on understanding the
current state of a person in a particular situation.
The third main sculptor of modern personality theory was Henry Murray. Murray attempted to integrate clinical issues
(problems of real patients) with theory and assessment issues. It is important that he believed in a comprehensive orientation,
including longitudinal research, studying the same people over time. Murray took a broad approach to personality, defining it
as the “branch of psychology which principally concerns itself with the study of human lives and the factors which influence
their course, [and] which investigates individual differences”. He emphasized the integrated, dynamic nature of the individual
as a complex organism responding to a specific environment, as well as the importance of needs and motivations.
In short, Allport, Lewin, Murray, and their associates set the stage for modern personality theory by emphasizing that the
whole human being should be the focus of study, not parts of the being and not collections of organisms. Each person at each
moment in each situation is a unique collection of related psychological forces that together determine the individual’s
responses. In other words, a successful approach cannot ignore the integrity of the individual or the various forces, conscious
and unconscious, biological and social, operating at a given moment. This is the modern view of personality.
Lurking in opposition to these developing ideas were the new learning theories of Clark Hull and his associates at Yale, and
the behaviourist theories of B. F. Skinner and his associates at Harvard. This opposition eventually led to a stimulating
tension, which helped refine modern notions of human nature. Also influential in the 1930s, though probably not as
influential on personality psychology as it should have been, was the startling work of anthropologist Margaret Mead. In her
book Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, Mead showed that masculinity was not necessarily associated with
aggressiveness, and femininity was not necessarily associated with cooperativeness. Rather, personality was heavily influenced
by culture. According to Mead (1935/1963), Mead’s work unequivocally demonstrated that personality should not be studied
in only one culture or one context. She also shattered many myths about the nature of man as compared to the nature of
women, as well as ideas of innate and unchangeable sexual aggressiveness. American psychology has often overlooked the
importance of culture in shaping people’s lives, and Mead’s lesson was long ignored by personality researchers.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD PERSONALITY THEORY
A theory that lacks the basic characteristics and some of these formal criteria may contribute a great deal to our understanding
of human nature and of ourself.
(1) Verifiability; a good theory can be tested. Verifiable theories include clearly defined concepts. On the other hand,
psychologists have managed to assess Adler's conception of inferiority through various measurements of self-concept.
Second, one must be able to make operational definitions of the theory's concepts. An operational definition
specifies behaviour or experience associate with a particular concept. The operational definition may not capture the
full richness and complexity of the original theoretical construct, but it represents a method of applying the theory to
the real world. For example, one might operationally define introversion as preference for solitude and avoidance of
situations involving being with groups of people. Another way to describe verifiability is falsifiability, i.e., whether or
not a theory can ever be proven incorrect. Good science is always self-critical and scientific research typically seeks to
test the validity of a hypothesis. A scientific investigation sets up a research hypothesis and then seeks to prove it
false. Research can never prove the truth of a hypothesis, because there can always be alternative explanations for
positive research findings. However, research can prove that a particular research hypothesis is false.
(2) Comprehensiveness; some theories seek to explain a broad range of human behaviours, while others focus on more
specific areas. If theory uses a relatively small number of basic concepts to illuminate a wide range of behaviours, one
might have greater confidence in the power and accuracy, of these concepts. Other theories are based on
observations of a limited range of behaviour, such as a therapist’s experiences with neurotic patients or a
behaviourist’s experiments with mice, monkeys and mazes. When one extends these theories to try and explain
human behaviour, they may become fuzzy and poorly defined. Only recently have psychologists become concerned
with evaluating comprehensiveness in psychological theories related to their applicability to diverse populations.
Virtually all personality theorists are white and come from Europe or America. Almost all are men. An Asian-
American psychologist described modern psychology. In America, the overwhelming subject of research is white
Americans. The U.S. constitutes less than 5 percent of the world's population, yet from that population we develop
theories and principles assumed to be universal.
This criterion refers to the breadth and diversity of phenomena encompassed by a theory. The more comprehensive a
personality theory is, the more behavioural territory it covers, Thus, a comprehensive theory tends to be favoured
over a narrow, more circumscribed theory. A further benefit of a comprehensive theory is that it can be used as a
logical framework for the incorporation and integration of new discrete facts that have been established by
observation or experiment.
Relying on a set of assumptions about human nature helps to ensure internal consistency, but it also tends to restrict
the theorist's attention to a limited range of behavioural events. In varying degrees, the person ologists included in
this text emphasize biological, genetic, emotional, cognitive, social, and cultural factors in accounting for human
behaviour. Each of these approaches to personality inevitably restricts the comprehensive nature of the resulting
theory. At the same time, it must be recognized that no current theory can account for all aspects of human
functioning. Thus, one must decide whether the phenomena accounted for by one theory are as important or central
to human behaviour as the phenomena encompassed by another theory.
(3) Applications; one can evaluate a theory on its practical usefulness. For example, Carl Roger's theory of personality
has been extraordinarily influential in modern counselling and psychotherapy. Theories may also have heuristic value,
i.e., they may provide important insights in understanding ourselves and others. Personality theories have had
influence beyond psychology. Carl Jung's theory has been of great interest to the theologians and students of folklore
and mythology. Alfred Adler’s ideas have affected education and social work, and Abraham Maslow's formations
have been extremely influential in the business world.
(4) Heuristic value; this criterion is of paramount significance to the empirically oriented person ologist. The issue is the
degree to which a theory stimulates investigators to do further research. Personality theories differ immensely in their
capacity to fulfil this goal. Some of the most provocative theoretical formulations of personality (e.g., Fromm's
humanistic theory and Kelly's personal construct theory) have had only minimal impact on the work of investigators
within psychology. This state of affairs usually results from the theorist's failure to define his or her concepts
operationally, i.e., in a manner whereby they are linked (at some level) to some sort of measurement operation or
some observable quality of behaviour. Of course, competent followers of a theorist may enhance the heuristic value
of a theory by translating the core concepts into the form which allows for enlightening research activity.
(5) Internal consistency; this criterion stipulates that a theory should be free of internal contradictions i.e., a good
theory should account for varied phenomena in an internally consistent way. Likewise, a worthwhile theory should
consist of assumptions and propositions that fit together in a coherent way. On the whole, theories of personality fare
 reasonably well in meeting this standard, and whenever inconsistent predictions do occur, they can usually be traced
to a misunderstanding of the theory's concepts by the investigator. Given a set of assumptions about human nature, it
is quite possible to construct a personality theory whose concepts and propositions hang together in a sensible
manner.
(6) Parsimony; a theory may also be judged on the basis of the number of concepts required to describe and explain
events within its domain. The principle of parsimony states that a simpler and more straightforward explanation is
preferred to a more complex one. In other words, the fewer the number of concepts and assumptions required by a
theory to account for the phenomena it seeks to explain, the better it is. In contrast, all other things being equal. a
theory burdened by excess concepts and assumptions is generally viewed as a poor theory. Unfortunately, there are no
hard-and-fast rules by which the parsimoniousness of a theory may be assessed. Parsimony is a subjective criterion
because current knowledge about the various aspects of personality is far from complete. Moreover, a theory that
looks parsimonious today may be unable to account for something that will be discovered tomorrow, whereas a
theory that looks too complex today may be the only one that is capable of explaining tomorrow's discovery.
Nevertheless, a good theory should not contain too much excess theoretical baggage.
(7) Functional significance; a final criterion of a good theory is that it should help people understand everyday human
behaviour. It should also help people overcome their problems. This is hardly surprising, given the fact that virtually
all of humans are fascinated by and interested in knowing more about themselves and other people. Indeed, the
ultimate value of a personality theory for the layperson rests in its ability to illumine both the self and interpersonal
relationships. Knowledge of the personal and social insights provided by personality theorists can greatly enrich the
understanding and appreciation of the nuances of human affairs.
These criteria of verifiability, heuristic value, internal consistency, parsimony, comprehensiveness, and functional significance
provide a useful framework for evaluating theories of personality, as well as deciding why one theory might be preferable to
another. In comparing the overall worth of theories, however, two questions should be kept in mind. Two theories that
address the same kinds of behaviour may each be evaluated in terms of the six criteria noted above. There is also the
possibility that both theories may eventually be integrated into a single more all-encompassing theory. A new and still evolving
theory may be unable to explain many phenomena, whereas an old and established theory may enlighten us about many issues
and problems accompanying the study of personality. Nevertheless, a new theory may lead to significant contributions in areas
formerly left unexplored and show promise of becoming more comprehensive at some later time. In the final analysis,
theories of personality should be evaluated on the basis of how well they explain things that are known while allowing a
person freedom to explore intriguing possibilities that have not yet been examined.
Components of personality theory
(1) Personality structure; a major feature of any personality theory, the structural concepts refer to the relatively
enduring characteristics that people exhibit across various circumstances and over time. They represent the basic
building blocks of psychological life. In this sense they are analogous to concepts such as atoms and cells in the
natural sciences. However, structural concepts are strictly hypothetical in nature. They cannot be microscopically
observed like neurons in the brain.
Person ologists have proposed a patchwork of concepts by which to explain what people are like. One of the
most popular examples of a structural concept is a trait. A personality trait refers to a durable quality or
disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. It resembles the kind of concept laypersons use
when they make judgement about the stable characteristics of other people. Common examples of traits include
impulsivity, honesty, sensitivity, and timidity. Gordon Allport, Raymond Cattell. and Hans Eysenck, three leading
trait ologists, theorized that personality structure is best conceptualized in terms of hypothetical dispositional
qualities that underlie behaviour. On a broader level of analysis, personality structure may also be described in
terms of the concept of type. A personality type refers to a clustering of several different traits into distinct,
discontinuous categories. Compared to trait concepts of structure, typological conceptions imply a greater degree
of overall consistency and generality to behaviour. Whereas people can have one or another degree of many traits,
they are commonly described as being a specific type. For instance, Carl Jung held that people fall into one of two
discrete categories: introverts and extroverts. In this view, a person is either one or the other.
Personality theorists differ in both the kinds and number of concepts they employ in characterizing the structure
of personality. Some theorists propose a highly complex and elaborate structural system, one in which many
component parts are linked to one another in a myriad of ways. Freud's tripartite division of personality into id,
ego, and superego illustrates an extraordinarily complex description of structure and its organization. Other
theorists, by contrast, propose a simple structural system, in which a limited number of component parts are
identified and have few connections to one another. For example, Kelly, a prominent cognitive theorist, used the
singular concept of personal construct to account for the relatively enduring dimensions of personality structure.
In summary, any approach to personality that is to be considered useful must deal in some way with the issue of
what are the stable, unchanging aspects of human behaviour. The issue of structure and, most importantly, the
nature of its organization and influence on the functioning individual, is a key component of all personality
theories.
(2) Motivation; a unified theory of personality must account for why people do the things they do. Motivational
concepts, otherwise known as the process aspects of individual functioning, focus on the dynamic, changing
features of human behaviour. Efforts to understand the momentary, fluid aspects of behaviour have resulted in
numerous theoretical insights. Some theories propose that personality processes-ranging from sexual release to
the enjoyment of humour-derive from the individual's efforts to reduce tension. The so-called tension reduction
model of motivation, originally formulated by Freud, suggests that an individual's physiological (biogenic) needs
create tension that compels the individual to seek reduction by satisfying needs. Many kinds of basic needs, such
as hunger, thirst, sleepiness, and sex, fit this tension reduction view of human motivation. By contrast, other
theories of personality dynamics emphasize the individual's striving toward mastery over the environment and the
yearning for new experiences for their own enjoyment. Proponents of this view maintain that as individuals
mature, more of their behaviour becomes invested in developing skills merely for the sake of competency or for
dealing effectively with the environment, and less of their behaviour is exclusively in the service of alleviating
tension. Maslow, a prominent motivational theorist, suggested that at certain times the individual is governed by
deficit needs and seeks to reduce tension, whereas at other times, the individual is governed by growth needs and
seeks to increase tension as a means of personal fulfilment. Although such an integrated view seems plausible,
most theorists have tended to use one or another model to explain what motivates people to behave as they do.
(3) Personality development; if personality refers to stable, enduring characteristics, it becomes more than a matter
of idle curiosity to understand how such characteristics develop. Developmental concepts focus on the issue of
how the structural and motivational aspects of the person's functioning change from infancy to adulthood and
old age. An account of such change is a key component of what defines a personality theory. Personality
development occurs throughout life. Accordingly, some theorists have proposed a stage model to account for the
patterns of growth and change in a person's life. Freud's theory of how personality is developed in terms of a
series of psychosexual stages is one example of this approach. Erikson's formulation of eight stages in the
development of the ego illustrates another. Still other theorists, by contrast, emphasize the role of parent-child
relationships as a significant factor in understanding the issue of development. Rogers, for instance, placed
importance on how the individual's self-concept is moulded, both cognitively and emotionally, by parental
attitudes and behaviours during the formative years of life.
The growth of personality is influenced by a host of external and internal determinants. On the external or
environmental side, such determinants include the individual's membership in a particular culture, social-
economic class, and unique family setting. Internal determinants, on the other hand, include genetic, biological,
and physiological forces. Further acknowledgment of the many changes that accompany the development are:
physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and moral, to name but a few-reveals just how complicated the issue of
human development truly is.
Genetic factors are the influences on behaviour that are transmitted from parents to children through the
mechanisms of heredity. They, too, with the environment, play a key role in determining personality
development. The lively debate about the relative importance of environmental and genetic factors (i.e., the
nature-nurture controversy) has recently given way to an emphasis on how such factors such interact to produce
resulting behavioural characteristics. Theorists who take such an interactionist position suggest that no one grows
up without being influenced by the environment, nor does anyone develop without being affected by his or her
genetic endowment stated differently, this view suggests that heredity sets limits on the range of development of
characteristics: yet, within the boundaries set by this range, further development of characteristics is determined
by environmental factors.
Personality theories differ in the importance given to questions of growth and change occurring throughout life,
in delineating the factors responsible for day-to-day development, and in assigning relative weight to genetic and
environmental factors through which the person's development is determined. Nonetheless, a complete theory of
personality should explain the development of structures and processes underlying human behaviour.
(4) Psychopathology; still another issue confronting any personality theory is why some people are unable to adjust
to the demands of society and to function effectively. Virtually every person ologist gives some consideration to
why certain people display pathological or maladaptive styles of behaviour in everyday life. Aetiology, the study
and explanation of the causes of abnormal functioning, is the focal issue of this component of personality theory.
Several approaches have been developed to explain the causes of abnormal behaviour. Personality theorists who
endorse the psychodynamic perspective, for example, believe that unresolved conflicts during childhood
eventually bring about abnormal behaviour in adulthood. The existence of these conflicts resulting from
opposing wishes regarding sex and aggression leads to the development of symptoms. Further, because the
conflicts are hidden, the person has no idea what is causing the symptoms, which is all the more distressing. In
contrast, the behavioural perspective looks at the behaviour itself as the problem. According to theorists taking
this approach, it is not necessary to hypothesize elaborate, underlying, unobservable mechanisms to explain
abnormal behaviour. Instead, one must analyse how an abnormal behaviour has been learned through past
experience and how such behaviour is maintained in the present by circumstances that exist in the person's social
environment.
Some theories make the assumption that people's behaviour, both the normal and abnormal, is shaped by the
kind of family group, society, and culture in which they live. All are part of a social network of family, friends,
acquaintances, and even strangers, and the kinds of relationships that evolve with others may promote abnormal
 behaviours and even cause them to occur. Proponents of the sociocultural model of abnormality maintain that
the kinds of stresses and conflicts people experience as part of their daily interactions with those around them can
cause and support pathological forms of behaviour. The issue of how to conceptualize the causes of
psychopathology has led to a diversity of approaches over the relatively brief history of personality theory. The
approaches noted here suggest not only different causes of abnormal behaviour but also different treatment
approaches.
(5) Psychological health; in attempting to account for the varied aspects of human behaviour, a robust theory of
personality must provide criteria by which to define the healthy personality. This is the issue of what constitutes
the good life and the various perspectives offered by personality theorists represent a vitally important
component of their overall conceptual contributions. Most theories of personality have dealt with the issue of
what psychological well-being. For example. Freud proposed that mature personality functioning is earmarked by
the capacity for productive work and satisfying interpersonal relationships. Although at first glance this criterion
for psychological health may seem too global and non-specific, a more careful consideration of it reveals several
important implications. For instance, the capacity for work, according to Freud, involves the ability to establish
and pursue long-term goals; to delay gratification of instinctual drives in the pursuit of these goals; and to cope
with anxiety in such a way that behaviour is not seriously impaired. Likewise, Freud's emphasis on satisfying
social relationships involves the ability to experience and enjoy a wide range of emotions without feeling
threatened, and to gratify unconscious sexual and aggressive drives creatively.
Psychological health may also be defined in terms of a social learning theory perspective. Bandura (1982), for
instance, places particular emphasis on our cognitions about our ability to handle the demands of life. In his
terms, self-efficacy, or the perception that one is capable of executing those behaviours necessary to reach one's
goals, is an essential feature of personal adjustment. Moreover, Bandura claims that people who view themselves
as self-efficacious accept greater challenges, expend more effort, and may be more successful in reaching their
goals as a result.
Some person ologists devote considerable attention to creating a psychological portrait of the good life and what
it entails. This is nowhere more evident than in the case of Maslow's theory of self-actualization based on a
hierarchy of needs. For Maslow (1987) healthy growth requires a shifting of the relative importance of needs
from the most primitive (e.g., physiological and safety) to the most advanced or the most "human" (e.g., truth and
beauty). Maslow also conducted a study of actualizers and formalized his observations in terms of a profile of
personality attributes which includes such qualities as efficient perception of reality, need for privacy and solitude,
and acceptance of self and others. Without question, the criteria used in assessing mental health is of central
importance to any comprehensive theory of personality.
(6) Personality changes via therapeutical intervention; since personality theories give some consideration to
causes of psychopathology. It naturally follows that they also suggest ways of treating the resulting behaviour.
Thus, a sixth and final issue of critical relevance to personality theorizing is how to help people acquire new
competencies, decrease maladaptive forms of behaviour, and achieve positive personality changes.
Many theories of personality have evolved out of a clinical or counselling setting. Therefore, it is hardly surprising
that there are almost as many approaches to therapy as there are personality theories. The differences lie not only
in methods of treatment but also in the assumptions the theorists hold about personality in general. At one
extreme lies psychodynamic theory, which attaches primary importance to unconscious conflicts and early
learning experiences as dominant factors controlling behaviour. The psychodynamic model of therapeutic
intervention is thus focused on helping people gain insight into the unconscious and childhood sources of their
conflicts, recognizing how these conflicts interfere with adult life. At the other extreme lies behavioural theory,
which holds the view that events in the surrounding environment largely determine behaviour. Theorists of this
persuasion further assume that people who display maladaptive behaviour have either failed to learn the skills
needed to cope with the demands of everyday living or they have acquired faulty skills that are being maintained
through some form of reinforcement. Accordingly, the behavioural approach to treatment is aimed at helping
people learn new behaviour to replace the faulty patterns they have developed or unlearn their maladaptive
responses.
Change in personality or behaviour through therapeutic intervention encompasses many possibilities: change in
self-image. interpersonal relationship styles, cognitive processes, emotional reactions, values, life goals, and time
management are but a sample of the far more numerous forms of sought-after change by people who undergo
therapy. In turn. a thorough account of personality must indicate the means by which undesirable forms of
behaviour can be modified so that the individual can be reinstated to more effective ways of functioning.
There are several different theoretical approaches to the understanding of personality. In spite of all the diversity, personality
theories share a common conceptual framework bounded by six issues concerning human behaviour: structure, motivation,
development, psychopathology, psychological health, and personality change via therapeutic intervention. Taken collectively,
the concepts developed by a theory to explain each of these issues defines what a personality theory is all about the ways in
which theorists deal with these issues serve to defines the overall perspectives of each theoretical position.
TESTING THE THEORIES – RESEARCH METHODS
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. A ‘scientific study’ strictly uses data that are
biased and objective. The data collected are unbiased in that they do not support one hypothesis over the other. Similarly, the
data collected are objective; any other who repeats the observation since the manner in which the research is being done is
adhering to research principles can obtain the results obtained by one researcher. Scientific investigation refers to an empirical
investigation that is structured in order to find solutions to certain questions that are practically relevant. Any scientific
investigation typically involves three steps: (i) identifying questions (ii) formulating explanation and (iii) carrying out research
that would support/refute the explanations.
Methods of research can be classified into two types based on the focus of the research. The two basic types of research in
science are basic research and applied research. Basic research primarily focuses on the extension of theoretical understanding
and reflects purely the quest for knowledge. On the other hand, applied research focuses on finding solutions to problems
that are specific and practical. Research in psychology involves both basic and applied types of research. Basic research in
Psychology is carried out in laboratories with human or animal participants. In applied research, the psychologist may try to
design a specific intervention program based on available scientific knowledge. The research in psychology can be classified
into different types, namely descriptive method, and experimental research. The basic goal of descriptive research is to
describe phenomena. They aid in generating hypotheses regarding phenomena of interest that can be tested later using
experimental methods. Naturalistic observation, survey research, and case study are the three popular descriptive methods.
Modern personality psychologists are scientific in the sense that they attempt to use methods of scientific inference (using
systematically gathered evidence) to test theories. Some scientists believe that the rigorous study of personality must become
mathematical and involve numbers, for instance, statistics such as correlations. A correlation coefficient is a mathematical
index of the degree of agreement (or association) between two measures. For example, height and weight are positively
correlated: in most (but not all) cases, the taller a person is, the more the person weighs. Although statistics such as
correlations can indeed be extremely helpful, they are only tools to be used to help uncover the truth. There are various sorts
of systematic analyses in addition to correlational analyses, including case studies (intensive focus on an individual), cross-
cultural comparisons, and research into biological structures. By piecing together insights from these and other sources, a deep
and valid understanding of personality can be gained.
Observation

Observational methods in psychological research entail the observation and description of a subject's behaviour,
which is a careful as well as an accurate measurement. Researchers utilizing the observational method can exert varying
amounts of control over the environment in which the observation takes place. Observational methods, in general, may be
used in a natural setting or in laboratory settings. One of the major disadvantages of the observational method is that a cause-
and-effect relationship between the variables being studied cannot be established using this method. This is because one is
unable to control any of the factors of interest. For instance, one might find a few incidences of naturally occurring helping
behaviour that a concrete conclusion may not be possible merely from such limited data.

(1) Naturalistic observation, observing the behaviour of animals or people behave in their normal environment or
is a systematic study of behaviour to increase reliability. It is one where the researcher systematically observes
and records the behaviours that occur naturally in various situations. Replicate in research means repeating a
study or experiment to see if the same results will be obtained in an effort to demonstrate the reliability of results.
Behaviour in a natural setting is observed and the observation is systematic. The objective of naturalistic observational
is to study the relationship among variables and to generate a hypothesis. The research trying to study particular
phenomena strictly refrains from actively manipulating any of the features in the natural setting. Detailed information
about the nature, frequency and context of such naturally occurring behaviours can be obtained from the field notes
that are maintained by the researcher. The starting point of a number of research in psychology is such careful
observation of animal and human behaviour. The understanding on the range of variation in human institutions that
is revealed by a study of preliterate tribes may go unrecognized if one is restricted to studying his own culture.
Advantages
i. It allows researchers to get a realistic picture of how behaviour occurs because they are actually watching that
behaviour in its natural setting.
ii. Participant observation is a naturalistic observation in which the observer becomes a participant in the group
being observed.
iii. A blind or blinded experiment is a scientific experiment where some of the people involved are prevented
from knowing certain information that might lead to conscious or subconscious bias on their part, thus
invalidating the results.
 Disadvantages
i. Observer effect is the tendency of people or animals to behave differently from normal when they know they
are being observed.
ii. Observer bias is the tendency of observers to see what they expect to see.
iii. Knowledge of previous research may create expectation regarding how a behaviour would occur in a given
instance. This expectancy, termed as Expectation Effect, can create errors in observation.
iv. Observations that are made at one time in one setting may not hold true for another time, even if the setting
is similar because the conditions are not going to be identical time after time, researchers don’t have that kind
of control over the natural world.
(2) Laboratory observation, refers to observing the behaviour of subjects that are in a controlled environment. A
researcher who wishes to study altruistic behaviour may choose a high-crime area of a city and observe the helping
behaviour that people extend to the victims of crime. If, however, one wishes to undertake a study that involves
biological variables then laboratory observation would be the best suited method.
Advantage
i. The degree of control that it gives to the observer.
Disadvantage
i. In a more controlled arranged environment, like a laboratory, they might get behaviour that is contrived or
artificial rather than genuine.
Experiment

An experiment is a method for identifying cause-and-effect relationships by following a set of rules and guidelines that
minimize the possibility of error, bias, and chance occurrences. The only method that will allow researchers to determine
the cause of a behaviour is the experiment. Or, it is the deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes
in behaviour result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships.
Experimental Research is prototypical of the scientific method. They are employed to test hypotheses. They stand as powerful
tools to examine the cause-and-effect relationship between variables. The essential characteristics of an experiment are that
manipulation, experimental controls, and random assignment of subjects to various conditions. Experimental manipulation is
the changes that are deliberately produced in an experiment to detect the relationships between different variables. Instead of
searching for naturally occurring situations, the experimenter creates the conditions necessary for observation.
A cause-and-effect relationship between variables is possible because of experimental manipulation. Experimenter controls
and thus systematically varies conditions to study the same general situation with and without crucial element.
The first phase of the experiment would involve taking a pre-test measure of the variable of interest; the second phase of the
experiment would include implementing the treatment; the final phase of the experiment consists of taking a post-test
measure of the variable of interest.
Advantage
i. It has the greatest potential for identifying cause-and-effect relationships with less error and bias than either
surveys or case studies.
ii. Double-blind study, in which neither the experimenter nor the subjects know if the subjects are in the
experimental or the control group; and the procedure used to control the experimental biases.
Disadvantages
iii. Information obtained in one experimental situation or laboratory setting may not apply to other situations.
iv. Placebo effect, the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their
behaviour.
v. Experimenter effect, the tendency of the experimenter’s expectations for a study to unintentionally influence the
results of the study.
vi. Single-blind study, in which the subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group.
The steps involved in designing an experiment are;
i. Selection, the researchers might start by selecting the children they want to use in the experiment.
ii. Variable, decide on the variable the researchers want to manipulate (which would be the one they think causes
changes in behaviour) and the variable they want to measure to see if there are any changes (this would be the
 effect on the behaviour of the manipulation). Often deciding on the variables in the experiment comes before the
selection of the participants or subjects. The independent variable in an experiment is manipulated by the
experimenter, whereas the dependent variable in an experiment represents the measurable response or behaviour of
the subjects in the experiment.
iii. Groups, the best way to control for confounding variables is to have two groups of participants. The group that
is exposed to the independent variable (the violent cartoon in the example) is called the experimental group because
it is the group that receives the experimental manipulation. The other group that gets either no treatment or some
kind of treatment that should have no effect (like the group that watches the non-violent cartoon in the example)
is called the control group because it is used to control for the possibility that other factors might be causing the
effect that is being examined.
iv. Randomization, the random assignment of participants to one or the other condition is the best way to ensure
control over other interfering, or extraneous, variables. Random assignment means that each participant has an
equal chance of being assigned to each condition.
Co-relational
A correlation is an association or relationship in the occurrence of two or more events . Correlation is actually a statistical
technique, a particular way of organizing numerical information so that it is easier to look for patterns in the information. For
example, if one twin has hyperactivity, a correlation will tell us the likelihood that the other twin also has hyperactivity. The
likelihood or strength of a relationship between two events is called a correlation coefficient. A correlation coefficient is a
number that indicates the strength of a relationship between two or more events: the closer the number is to –1.00 or
+1.00, the greater the strength of the relationship. A variable is anything that can change or vary scores on a test, the
temperature in a room, gender, and so on. Correlational research studies the strength of the association between naturally
occurring variables. For example, co-relational research may be used to assess whether the motivation of children is related to
the motivation of parents. It ideally attempts to understand whether two sets of factors are related or not. The co-relational
researcher typically involves three steps: (a) measuring variable ‘X’ (for example, motivation of children), (b) measuring
variable ‘Y’ (for example, motivation of parents), and (c) systematically determines whether ‘X’ and ‘Y’ are related. Only
naturally occurring variables are studied using co-relational research. The variables are not manipulated to see the effect of one
on the other. The correlation coefficient refers to the statistic that indicates the direction and magnitude of the relationship
between the variables. The correlation coefficient can take values between +1 and -1, where +1 indicates perfect positive
correlation and -1 indicates perfect negative correlation. A positive correlation occurs when high score on one variable is
associated with high score on another variable. A negative correlation occurs when high score on one variable is associated
with low score on another variable.
Advantage
i. A correlation will tell researchers if there is a relationship between the variables, how strong the relationship is,
and in what direction the relationship goes. If researchers know the value of one variable, they can predict the
value of the other.
Disadvantage
i. The biggest error that people make concerning correlation is to assume that it means one variable is the cause of
the other, i.e., correlation does not prove causation.
Case study
Case study method involves in-depth interview to understand an individual better. Another descriptive technique is called the
case study, in which one individual is studied in great detail or an in-depth analysis of the thoughts, feelings, beliefs,
or behaviours of a single person. In a case study, researchers try to learn everything they can about that individual. For
example, Sigmund Freud based his entire theory of psychoanalysis on case studies of his patients in which he gathered
information about their childhoods and relationships with others from the very beginning of their lives to the present.
Psychometric tests may also be used to assess various attributes like personality, and motivation in addition to such in-depth
interviews to understand the individual in greater depth. The case study, in other words, is a detailed examination of an
individual, group or an event. It involves intensive description and analysis of a single individual. This often proves to be a
rich source of descriptive information that may not be accessible while using other research methods. The idiosyncrasy of the
individual being studied can be identified only using case study approach. For this reason, the case study method is also said to
follow an ideographic approach to studying human behaviour. The findings obtained may serve as good pointers to frame a
hypothesis that may be verified later using rigorous experimental methods. Case studies help to frame hypothesis.
Advantages
i. It provides a tremendous amount of detail.
ii. It may also be the only way to get certain kinds of information. For example, one famous case study was the story
of Phineas Gage, who, in an accident, had a large metal rod driven through his head and survived but experienced
major personality and behavioural changes during the time immediately following the accident. Researchers
couldn’t study that with naturalistic observation, and an experiment is out of the question. Case studies are good
ways to study things that are rare.
iii. It helps to understand behaviour and frame hypothesis, though the findings are not conclusive.
iv. It provides opportunity for clinical innovation.
Disadvantages
i. Researchers can’t really apply the results to other similar people. In other words, they can’t assume that if another
person had the same kind of experiences growing up, he or she would turn out just like the person in their case
study.
ii. People are unique and have too many complicating factors in their lives to be that predictable. So, what
researchers find in one case won’t necessarily apply or generalize to others.
iii. Another weakness of this method is that case studies are a form of detailed observation and are vulnerable to bias
on the part of the person conducting the case study, just as observer bias can occur in naturalistic or laboratory
observation.
Survey
Surveys are basic research instrument. Surveys are being popularly employed to understand the political opinions, product
preferences, health care needs, and the like. A survey is a way to obtain information by asking many individuals, either
person to person, by telephone, or by mail, to answer a fixed set of questions about particular subjects. It involves
asking people about their attitudes, beliefs, plans, health, income, life satisfaction, concerns, etc. Anyone can be surveyed. The
method was developed by social scientists of the 20th century. It seeks to describe the current status of the population and
discover the relationship between variables. In Survey Research people are asked directly about their behaviour. The survey is
usually conducted on a sample drawn at random from a large population. They involve the use of questionnaires that contain
statements relating to the phenomena being studied. The success of this method lies in the proper selection of a sample that is
truly representing the population being studied. The sound sampling technique survey research can yield information that
depicts the population accurately. Survey research methods may be of different types depending on how the data is being
collected. There are four different types of survey research methods:
(1) personal interviews (2) mail surveys (3) telephonic surveys and (4) internet surveys.
In personal interviews, respondents are contacted at home or in office and they are interviewed face-to-face. It is time-
consuming and expensive since the respondents are contacted at their places. Since the interviewer collects information using
face-to-face interviews it allows lots of flexibility. The success of the method relies much on interviewer’s expertise.
Mail survey uses self-administered questionnaire that are mailed to a large sample. It is time consuming and helps covers vast
geographical area. Many a times subjects do not respond, and sometimes the questionnaires are filled incompletely. Non-
response remains a major problem of the mail survey method. Further it cannot be used when the sample consists of
illiterates.
Telephone surveys are conducted by telephonically contacting different individuals and collecting the data based on the
telephonic interview. It does not involve much time or cost. Respondents from a vast area can be covered easily with ease.
However, this would restrict the sample to only those who own a telephone that would result in selection bias.
Advantages
i. While guarding against error and bias, surveys can be a useful research tool to quickly and efficiently collect
information on behaviours, beliefs, experiences, and attitudes from a large sample of people and can compare
answers from various ethnic, age, socioeconomic, and cultural groups
ii. It is an efficient way to obtain much information from a large number of people.
Disadvantages
i. Subjects may not be adequately motivated to answer to faceless voice
ii. The surveys may get very different results depending on how questions are worded.
iii. The sex or race of the questioner can also affect how people answer the questions.
 iv. The surveys can be biased by how questions are worded and by interviewing a group of people who do not
represent the general population.
v. Interviewer bias also poses serious threat to the validity of the findings. Non-representative sample may distort
the results.
vi. The information can contain errors or be biased because people may not remember accurately or answer
truthfully.
vii. Social desirability bias where the participants want to behave in manner that is best expected from them may
contaminate the results obtained through surveys since it heavily relies on participant’s self-report.
THE EIGHT PERSPECTIVES
Perspective Key Strength
Psychoanalytic Attention to unconscious influences; the importance of sexual
drives even in nonsexual spheres
Neo-analytic/ego Emphasis on the self as it struggles to cope with emotions and
drives on the inside and the demands
of others on the outside
Biological Focus on tendencies and limits imposed by biological inheritance;
easily combined with most other approaches
Behaviourist Emphasis on a more scientific analysis of the learning experiences
that shape personality
Cognitive Emphasis on active nature of human thought; uses modern
knowledge from cognitive psychology
Trait Focus on good individual assessment techniques
Humanistic/ existential Appreciation of the spiritual nature of a person; emphasizes
struggles for self-fulfilment and dignity
Interactionist Understanding that we are different selves in different situations
The study of the unconscious has once again become a significant area of ongoing research in psychology, as it is now clear
that the brain has a complex, hidden subsystems, as Freud postulated.
Another facet of the psyche is the ego or “self” aspects of personality, which can be traced from Alfred Adler’s work on
inferiority complexes right up to modern theorizing about multiple selves. Theories of how and why we have a sense of “self”
continue to fascinate psychologists.
Just as people come in different sizes, shapes, and colours, so too do people differ somewhat in their biological systems. An
individual’s characteristic emotional and motivational nature, generally known as temperament, is strongly influenced by
multiple biological factors. Such matters have attracted the attention of leading scientists since the time of Charles Darwin.
Today, new developments in evolutionary theory and in understanding human genetics are being applied to personality
psychology.
Behaviourists and learning aspects of personality are other elements of the study of personality. The work of radical
behaviourist B. F. Skinner examines the extent to which personality can be “found” in the external environment.
Cognitive aspects of personality focus on people’s consistencies in perceiving and interpreting the world around them.
Cognitive approaches are increasingly joined with social psychology into social-cognitive approaches to personality, such as
Albert Bandura’s notions of the importance of self-efficacy.
In the mid-twentieth century, traits became the focus. The Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport almost single-handedly
developed intriguing trait approaches that have dominated this area ever since, although there has been a recent resurgence of
scientific interest in trait approaches. Today, notions of five basic trait dimensions provide a common currency for thinking
about personality traits. It is fascinating to observe how well a person can describe and understand each individual in terms of
only five traits, but there are also key limits to that approach.
Humanistic and existential aspects of personality, which focus on freedom and self-fulfilment, are another subject in the study
of personality. Theorists starting with Carl Rogers examined what seems to make humans uniquely human.
The final approach to personality theory is the person–situation interactionist aspects, which form the most modern
personality theories in the field.
 II. PSYCHOANALYTIC AND NEO-ANALYTIC PERSPECTIVES
SIGMUND FREUD & PSYCHOANALYSIS
Perhaps the most influential integrative theory of personality is that of psychoanalysis, which was largely promulgated during
the first four decades of the 20th century by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Although its beginnings were based on
studies of psychopathology, psychoanalysis became a more general perspective on normal personality development and
functioning. The psychoanalytic perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of early childhood experiences and
the unconscious mind. Sigmund Freud believed that things hidden in the unconscious could be revealed in a number of
different ways, including through dreams, free association, and slips of the tongue. He stressed the importance of early
childhood events, the influence of the unconscious, and sexual instincts in the development and formation of personality.
Structure of Mind/Personality
Freud observed in his patients an endless series of psychic conflicts and compromises. He saw impulse pitted against impulse,
social prohibitions blocking biological drives, and ways of coping often conflicting with one another. Only late in his career
did he order, for himself, this seeming chaos by proposing three basic structural components of the psyche: the id, the ego,
and the superego.
The id contains the basic psychic energy and motivations, often termed instincts or impulses. The id is the original core out of
which the rest of the personality emerges. It is biological in nature and contains the reservoir of energy for the whole
personality. The id itself is primitive and unorganized. The logical laws of thought do not apply in the id. Moreover, the id is
not modified as one grows and matures. The id is not changed by experience because it is not in contact with the external
world. Its goals are simple and direct: reduce tension, increase pleasure, and minimize discomfort. The id strives to do this
through reflex actions (automatic reactions such as sneezing or blinking) and by using other portions of the mind. The id may
be likened to a blind king who has absolute power and authority but whose trusted counsellors, primarily the ego, tell him
how and where to use these powers. The contents of the id are almost entirely unconscious. They include primitive thoughts
that have never been conscious and thoughts that have been denied, found unacceptable to consciousness. According to
Freud, experiences denied or repressed can still affect a person’s behaviour with undiminished intensity without being subject
to conscious control. The id operates according to the demands of the pleasure principle. That is, the id strives solely to
satisfy its desires and thereby reduce inner tension. For example, the baby is motivated to suck, obtain pleasure, and relax. The
need for food leads to a drive to suck and obtain relief.
The ego is the part of the psyche in contact with external reality, i.e., the personality structure that develops to deal with the
real-world Freud termed the ego. The ego operates according to the reality principle; it must solve real problems. The ego
originally develops out of the id, as the infant becomes aware of its own identity, to serve and placate the id’s repeated
demands. In order to accomplish this, the ego, like the bark of a tree, protects the id but also draws energy from it. It has the
task of ensuring the health, safety, and sanity of the personality. Freud postulated that the ego has several functions in relation
both to the outside world and to the inner world, whose urges it strives to satisfy. Its principal characteristics include control
of voluntary movement and those activities that tend toward self-preservation. It becomes aware of external events, relates
them to past events, then through activity either avoid the condition, adapts to it, or modifies the external world to make it
safer or more comfortable. To deal with “internal events,” it attempts to keep control over the demands of the impulses, by
deciding whether they shall be allowed to obtain satisfaction, by postponing that satisfaction to times and circumstances
favourable in the external world or by suppressing their excitations completely. The ego’s activities are to regulate the level of
tension produced by internal or external stimuli. A rise in tension is felt as discomfort, while a lowering of tension is felt as
pleasure. Therefore, the ego pursues pleasure and seeks to avoid or minimize pain. Thus, the ego is originally created by the id
in an attempt to cope with stress. However, to do this, the ego must in turn control or modulate the id’s impulses so that the
individual can pursue realistic approaches to life. The act of dating provides an example of how the ego controls sexual
impulses. The id feels tension arising from unfulfilled sexual arousal and, without the ego’s influence, would reduce this
tension through immediate and direct sexual activity. Within the confines of a date, however, the ego can determine how
much sexual expression is possible and how to establish situations in which sexual contact is most fulfilling. The id is
responsive to needs, whereas the ego is responsive to opportunities. Wishing for a breast or a cuddle does not bring it about.
One must plan and act, constrained by the real world. Infants soon learn to exaggerate their crying in order to bring their
mothers. Throughout life, the pleasure-seeking id constantly struggles with the reality-checking ego. Individuals never outgrow
the id, but most adults keep it under control. In some people, though, pleasure-seeking dominates inappropriately or too
often; gratification becomes a core aspect of their adult personality.
This last part of the personality’s structure develops from the ego. The personality structure that emerges to internalize these
societal rules is termed the superego. The superego is similar to the conscience but goes further. The superego serves as a
judge or censor over the activities and thoughts of the ego. It is the repository of moral codes, standards of conduct, and
those constructs that form the inhibitions for the personality. Freud describes three functions of the superego: conscience,
self-observation, and the formation of ideals. As conscience, the superego acts to restrict, prohibit, or judge conscious activity,
but it also acts unconsciously. The unconscious restrictions are indirect, appearing as compulsions or prohibitions. The
superego develops, elaborates, and maintains the moral code of an individual.
The overarching goal of the psyche is to maintain and when it is lost, to regain an acceptable level of dynamic equilibrium that
maximizes the pleasure of tension reduction. The energy used originates in the primitive, impulsive id. The ego exists to deal
realistically with the basic drives of the id. It also mediates between the demands of the id, the restrictions of the superego,
and external reality. The superego, arising from the ego, acts as a moral brake or counterforce to the practical concerns of the
ego. It sets guidelines that define and limit the ego’s flexibility. The id is entirely unconscious, whereas the ego and the
superego are only partly so. Certainly, large portions of the ego and superego can remain unconscious, and are, in fact,
normally unconscious. That means to say that the individual knows nothing of their contents and that it requires an
expenditure of effort to make him conscious of them. Psychoanalysis, the therapeutic method that Freud developed, has a
primary goal to strengthen the ego, to make it independent of the overly strict concerns of the superego, and to increase its
capacity to become aware of and control material formerly repressed or hidden in the id.
Although Freud believed that the basic processes within his theory were the same across cultures, it was also the case that the
superego was thought to represent the applicable society’s demands and expectations. In this way, Freud anticipated the
modern emphasis on the importance of culture.
When the ego and especially the superego do not do their job properly, elements of the id may slip out and be seen.
psychological errors in speaking or writing have come to be called Freudian slips. Technically, mistakes that reveal the
unconscious are termed parapraxes, Greek for alongside the action.
Levels of mind
Freud described the mind as if it were divided into three parts:
Consciousness is self-evident, and for that reason science, most concerned itself with this part of the mind until Freud.
However, the conscious is only a small portion of the mind; it includes only what we are aware of at any given moment.
Although Freud was interested in the mechanisms of consciousness, he was far more interested in the less-exposed and less-
explored areas of consciousness, which he labelled the preconscious and the unconscious.
Strictly speaking, the preconscious is a part of the unconscious, but a part that can easily be made conscious. Accessible
portions of memory are part of the preconscious. This might include memories, for example, of everything a person did
yesterday, a middle name, street addresses, the date of the Norman Conquest, favourite foods, or the smell of fall leaves
burning. The preconscious is like a holding area for the memories of a functioning consciousness.
When a conscious thought or feeling seems unrelated to the thoughts and feelings that preceded it, Freud suggested, the
connections are present but unconscious. Once the unconscious links are found, the apparent discontinuity is resolved.
Within the unconscious are instinctual elements that have never been conscious and are never accessible to consciousness. In
addition, certain material has been barred, censored and repressed, from consciousness. This material is neither forgotten nor
lost, but neither is it remembered; it still affects consciousness, but indirectly.
Défense mechanisms
Challenges from the outer environment and from our inner urges threaten us with anxiety. These might be conflicts with
those close to us or threats to our self-esteem (embarrassment, guilt, self-disappointment, etc.). The ego, governed by the
reality principle, tries to deal realistically with the environment. However, sometimes people must distort reality to protect
themselves against the painful or threatening impulses arising from the id. The processes that the ego uses to distort reality to
protect itself are called defence mechanisms. Some of the most interesting and influential insights from Freud’s psychoanalytic
approach concern defence mechanisms.
(1) Repression; according to Freud, repression is the ego defence mechanism that pushes threatening thoughts back
into the unconscious. PTSD after the Vietnam war seemed as Freud postulated, that the conscious mind could
not face overwhelmingly stressful and grisly memories, in this case of burned, maimed bodies and butchered
children. In line with Freud’s concern with repressed sexuality, another area in which repression is often
discussed in today’s practice of psychology is incest. The Freudian theory maintains that sexual assault by one’s
father or mother would be so psychologically distressing that it might very well be repressed.
(2) Reaction formation; according to psychoanalytic theory, the base, inner drives of such people (the id forces) are
pushing them to engage in behaviours; various sexual acts, greed, deception, etc. that are incompatible with their
religious beliefs. Their sense of self is thus severely threatened, and the self (the ego) distorts these unconscious
urges and turns them into their opposites. So, instead of acting out their sexual desires, such people may instead
preach vehemently against sexual “sins.” Reaction formation is the process of pushing away threatening impulses
by overemphasizing the opposite in one’s thoughts and actions. It is a controversial notion because it suggests
that many apparently “moral” people are really struggling desperately with their own immortality. It is a
fascinating idea that has rarely been systematically evaluated by modern personality research, although there are
always many individuals whose stories provide vivid anecdotal evidence.
(3) Denial; which is simply refusing to acknowledge anxiety-provoking stimuli, is a common defence mechanism.
Although it is usually seen in adults in conditions of severe stress or pain, people will also sometimes distort some
aspects of a situation, say, telling their friends that a terrible fight with their spouse was really just a lover’s
 quarrel. In such instances, they lie to themselves. Like repression, denial is a mechanism that has been subject to
some active attention by researchers studying stress, coping, and health.
(4) Projection; is a defence mechanism in which anxiety-arousing impulses are externalized by placing them, or
projecting them, onto others. A person’s inner threats are attributed to those around him or her.
(5) Displacement; is the shifting of the target of one’s unconscious fears or desires. A classic example of
displacement is the case of a man who, when he is humiliated by his boss, goes home and beats his children, and
kicks the dog. Displacing the anger on the dog implies that the unacceptable feelings of wanting to kill one’s boss
are released, more acceptably, on the poor canine. This is a hydraulic displacement model that is typical of
Freudian explanations. Pressure builds up like steam in a boiler and must be released. Other, non-Freudian
explanations would focus more on the situation that releases the aggressive action, on previous learning history,
on the man’s aggressiveness, or on his sense of self and sense of purpose. The explanation is important because
there are different implications for preventing aggression. According to the hydraulic displacement explanation,
some release valves must be found for the bottled-up aggressive impulses triggered by frustration and
humiliation.
(6) Sublimation; is the transforming of dangerous urges into positive, socially acceptable motivations. For example,
anal retentive impulses based on the holding back of faeces might lead to a desire to control and order the lives of
everyone at home and at work. Through sublimation, these drives might be transformed to a desire to organize
children’s activities or to clean up the local riverfront.
(7) Regression; this defence mechanism is most easily seen in children. A recently weaned child may try to return to
the bottle or breast. A child who was already toilet trained may begin having “accidents” when a new baby
arrives. A threatened child beginning school may begin acting like a toddler. In particular, there may be regression
to the stage at which there was previously a fixation. In adults, regression is more difficult to document. Classic
examples include an anxious adult who begins whimpering like a child, looking for maternal care. Or a stressed
woman may climb into her husband’s lap. An adult under stress may seek out the comfort foods of childhood.
The regression defence reminds us that psychoanalytic theory is a stage theory: psychosexual development
proceeds along fixed, well-delineated steps.
(8) Rationalization; is a mechanism involving post hoc (after the fact) logical explanations for behaviours that were
actually driven by internal unconscious motives. Psychoanalysis well recognizes that the explanations that they
give for their behaviour are not necessarily even remotely related to the true causes. Rather than admit that a
person moved across the country to be near a lover, they may explain (not only to others but to themselves) that
they were looking for better job opportunities or new challenges. The dangers of rationalization (leading to
illogical behaviour) have also been emphasized by many other approaches to personality; however, if the defence
is not seen as a protection against threatening urges from the unconscious, then it is not a psychoanalytic defence
mechanism.
Instinct/Impulses
Impulses or drives are pressures to act without conscious thought toward particular ends. Such impulses are “the ultimate
cause of all activity”. Freud labelled the physical aspects of impulses “needs” and the mental aspects of impulses “wishes.”
Needs and wishes propel people to take action. All impulses have four components: a source, an aim, an impetus, and an
object. The source, where the need arises, maybe a part or all of the body. The aim is to reduce the need until no more action
is necessary, that is, to give the organism the satisfaction it now desires. The impetus is the amount of energy, force, or
pressure used to satisfy or gratify the impulse. This is determined by the urgency of the underlying need. The object of an
impulse is whatever thing or action allows the satisfaction of the original desire.
Freud developed two descriptions of basic impulses. The early model described two opposing forces: the sexual or life-
maintaining eros (more generally, the erotic or physically gratifying) and the aggressive or destructive Thanatos. Later, he
described these forces more globally as either life-supporting or death (and destruction) encouraging. Both formulations
presupposed a biological, ongoing, and unresolvable pair of conflicts.
Each of the generalized impulses has a separate source of energy. Libido (from the Latin word for wish or desire) is the energy
available to life impulses. One characteristic of libido is its “mobility”, the ease with which it can pass from one area of
attention to another. Freud pictured the volatile nature of emotional responsiveness as a flow of energy, flowing in and out of
areas of immediate concern. Aggressive energy, or the death impulse, has no special name. It has been assumed to have the
same general properties as libido.
Psychosexual stages
As an infant becomes a child, a child an adolescent, and an adolescent an adult, marked changes occur in what is desired and
how desires are satisfied. The shifting modes of gratification and the physical areas of gratification are the basic elements in
Freud’s description of the developmental stages. Freud uses the term fixation to describe what occurs when a person fails to
progress normally from stage to stage and remains overly involved with a particular stage. A person fixated on a particular
stage will tend to seek gratification in simpler or more childlike ways.
(1) Oral stage (0-1.5Y); the oral stage begins at birth, when both needs and gratification primarily involve the lips,
tongue, and somewhat later, the teeth. The basic drive of the infant is not social or interpersonal; it is simply to take in
nourishment and to relieve the tensions of hunger, thirst, and fatigue. During feeding and when going to sleep, the
child is soothed, cuddled, and rocked. The child associates both pleasure and the reduction of tension with these
events. At some point, the baby must stop sucking and be weaned. This creates a conflict between the desire to
remain in a state of dependent security and the biological and psychological necessity of being weaned (“growing
up”). It is one instance of the conflict between the id and the ego. Some babies easily resolve this conflict and redirect
their psychosexual energy (libido) toward other challenges. But some children have difficulty with this transition,
perhaps being moved to solid food before they are ready. According to psychoanalytic theory, such children remain
concerned with being mothered and taken care of and keeping their mouths full of desired substances. In technical
terms, they are said to be fixated on the oral stage.
As their personality develops, individuals fixated on the oral stage remain preoccupied with issues of dependency,
attachment, and “intake” of interesting substances and perhaps even interesting ideas. The fixation is the framework
for their development. As adults, they may derive pleasure from biting, chewing, sucking hard candy, eating, or
smoking cigarettes. They analogously derive psychological pleasure from talking, being close (perhaps too close) to
others, and constantly seeking knowledge. Modern research confirms the importance of this early sense of security.
The mother’s responsiveness is one of the best predictors of infants’ patterns of attachment and later social
adjustment.
(2) Anal stage (1.5-3Y); as the child grows, new areas of tension and gratification come into awareness. Between the
ages of 2 and 4, children generally learn to control their anal sphincter and bladder. Toilet training prompts a natural
interest in self-discovery. The child pays special attention to urination and defecation. The rise in physiological control
is coupled with the realization that such control is a new source of pleasure. i.e., the 2-year-old, following the urges of
the id, takes pleasure in the relief, the tension reduction of defecating. The parents, however, want to control when
and where the child urinates and defecates. In other words, the parents want society’s proscription against unbridled
defecation represented in the child’s superego.
Some children readily learn self-control, and this becomes a healthy aspect of their personality. Others overlearn it;
they take pleasure in holding in their faeces in order to maintain some control over their parents. They deliver their
faeces only when they are good and ready. Still, other children fight the attempts to regulate their urination and
defecation, trying to maintain total freedom of action. The psychoanalytic theory sees these patterns as carrying on
throughout life. As adults, such people who remain fixated at the anal stage may take great satisfaction in a large
bowel movement. Psychologically, people fixated on the anal stage may like bathroom humour or making messes,
including messes of other people’s lives. Or they may be overly concerned with neatness, parsimony, order, and
organization. i.e., severe toilet training may lead to great pleasure in control over faeces that (theoretically) manifests
itself in adulthood in obstinacy and stinginess. The earlier harsh toilet training can lead to the child becoming an anal-
retentive personality, who hates mess, and is obsessively tidy, punctual, respectful of authority, etc. as retentive in
childhood derive pleasure from holding onto their faeces. The anal-repulsive personality undergoes a liberal toilet-
raining regime in their childhood and adulthood, they become those people who want to share with someone and are
messy, disorganized, rebellious, etc.
(3) Phallic stage (3-6Y); starting as early as age 3, the child moves into the phallic stage, which focuses on the genitals.
Freud maintained that this stage is best characterized as phallic because it is the period when a child becomes aware
either of having a penis or of lacking one. This is the first stage in which children become conscious of sexual
differences. Freud tried to understand the tensions a child experiences during sexual excitement, i.e., pleasure from
the stimulation of the genital areas. This excitement is linked in the child’s mind with the close physical presence of
the parents. The craving for this contact becomes increasingly more difficult for the child to satisfy; the child is
struggling for the intimacy that the parents share with each other. This stage is characterized by the child’s wanting to
get into bed with the parents and becoming jealous of the attention the parents give to each other. Freud concluded
from his observations that during this period both males and females develop fears about sexual issues. Freud saw
children in the phallic stage reacting to their parents as potential threats to the fulfilment of their needs. Thus, for the
boy who wishes to be close to his mother, the father takes on some of the attributes of a rival. At the same time, the
boy wants his father’s love and affection, for which his mother is seen as a rival. The child is in the untenable position
of wanting and fearing both parents.
Freud believed that every male child wishes to possess his mother and kill his father to achieve this goal. Freud
termed this complex as Oedipus complex, a crisis of psychosexual development in which the children must give up
their sexual attraction to their opposite-sex parent, i.e., it describes the feelings of wanting to possess the mother and
the desire to replace the father. He also fears his father and is afraid that he, a child, will be castrated by him. The
anxiety around castration, the fear, and love for the father as well as the love and sexual desire for the mother can
never be fully resolved. The fear, Freud termed, castration anxiety. In childhood, the entire complex is repressed.
Among the first tasks of the developing superego are to keep this disturbing conflict out of consciousness and to
protect the child from acting it out.
The Electra complex is a psychoanalytic term used to describe a girl’s sexual feelings toward her father and anger
toward her mother. It is comparable to the Oedipus complex. Freud believed a young girl is initially attached to her
mother. After she discovers that she does not have a penis, she begins to resent her mother whom she blames for her
“castration,” and becomes attached to her father. The girl then begins to identify with her mother out of fear of
 losing her love. Freud believed that girls also experienced penis envy, but his ideas concerning this stage is
controversial-postulate that the only existing genital is the phallus, in the other words, everyone is supposedly a male
at this stage.
(4) Latency stage (6-onset of puberty); whatever form the resolution of the struggle actually takes, most children seem
to modify their attachment to their parents sometime after 5 years of age and turn to relationships with peers and to
school activities, sports, and other skills. This phase, from age 5 or 6 until the onset of puberty, is called the latency
period. It is a time when the unresolvable sexual desires of the phallic stage are successfully repressed by the
superego. During this period, because it is usually not possible for sexual urges to be directly expressed, sexual
energies are channelled into such activities as going to school and making friends. For both parents and children, this
is a relatively calm and psychologically uneventful time.
(5) Genital stage (puberty-adult); the final period of biological and psychological development, the genital stage,
occurs with the onset of puberty and the consequent return of libidinal energy to the sexual organs. Now boys and
girls are made aware of their separate sexual identities and begin to look for ways to fulfil their erotic and
interpersonal needs. Freud believed that homosexuality, at this stage, resulted from a lack of adequate development, a
position still voiced by some, in spite of contemporary understanding of the varieties of healthy sexual development.
The erogenous zone is maturing sexual interest. At this stage, Freud believed that ego and superego are fully formed
and functioning.
Identification and Treatments
(1) Dream analysis; the psychoanalytic theory holds that many thoughts, memories, drives, and emotions that remain
outside of conscious awareness show up in dreams and fantasies. Psychoanalytic therapists often analyse recurring
symbols and imagery from their patients’ dreams to discover key themes and patterns that may emerge.
(2) Free-flowing conversations
(3) Transference analysis; transference refers to the idea that the patient’s feelings and behaviours toward their therapist
can provide insight into their childhood experiences with caregivers and authority figures. In turn,
countertransference refers to the therapist’s unconscious feelings and thoughts about the patient.
(4) Interpretation; refers to the process through which a psychoanalytic therapist pieces various observations about their
patient’s conscious and unconscious behaviour into a cohesive narrative. This may include interpretations of body
language, emotional expressions, and other forms of verbal and nonverbal communication.
(5) Free association; while other forms of psychotherapy often involve controlled, targeted discussions with clear goals in
mind, psychoanalytic therapy is deliberately more free-flowing. Developed by Freud, free association is a
psychoanalytic technique that involves encouraging the patient to talk openly about whatever is on their mind in a
stream-of-consciousness fashion. This open-ended approach is believed to help unconscious thoughts, fears, shame,
and motivations come to light.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Sigmund Freud
 Freud thus stressed the importance of early childhood experiences on adult personality. This assumption has been
almost completely accepted in scientific circles as well as popular culture.
 Because people are not generally aware of their inner drives and conflicts, Freud was led to explore and develop
another influential contribution, i.e., the idea of the unconscious.
 The reality of Freudian slips and the potential of dream analysis is widely accepted. This in turn led to the exploration
of different structures of the mind.
 Freud also showed that mental illness was on a continuum with physical illness and could be approached in a
scientific manner.
 Modern brain research and cognitive psychology confirm many of Freud’s observations but disconfirm his postulated
structures, which were based on a primitive understanding of the brain.
 Because it views behaviour as a function of inner conflicts, the psychoanalytic approach is a pessimistic and
deterministic view of personality.
 It is also oriented toward understanding pathology.
 To counteract these emphases, many theorists originally trained in psychoanalysis have moved to existential and
humanistic approaches.
 Freud’s reliance on a hydraulic model of psychic energy was also exaggerated.
Limitations of Sigmund Freud
 Psychoanalytic approaches to personality are generally difficult to evaluate as scientific theories.
 Some modern psychoanalysts revere Freud almost as the author of a bible; psychoanalysis has some faddish,
unscientific aspects, and many “adherents.”
 But in some cases, the psychoanalytic theory was interpreted as a theory of the physical structure of the brain, with
disastrous results.
  Because little girls do not pass through the Oedipus complex, Freud asserted that they do not develop a strong moral
character; this radical idea has of course been thoroughly discredited.
 A key criticism of psychoanalysis is that Freud was relatively unconcerned with interpersonal relations or with the
individual’s identity and adaptation throughout life. These issues were taken up later by the neo-analysts and the ego
psycho-analysts.
CARL GUSTAV JUNG & ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Jung believed that the goals and motivations of individuals were just as important in determining their life courses as were
their sexual urges. He had come to believe in the existence of universal archetypes (emotional symbols), which he recognized
over and over in his conversations with patients. While Freud believed that personality was largely fixed by middle childhood,
Jung preferred to look at personality in terms of its goals and future orientation. Eventually, the rift between these two pillars
of psychological thought grew to the extent that a parting of ways seemed the only answer. When his period of focused self-
examination ended, Jung was firmer than ever in his belief that the basic tenets of his theory were universally valid. To
distinguish his theory from that of Freudian psychoanalytic theory, he called it analytic psychology.
Structure of Personality
According to Jungian theory, the mind or psyche is divided into three parts: the conscious ego, the personal unconscious, and
the collective unconscious.
Conscious ego; Jung’s ego is quite similar in scope and meaning to Freud’s. It is the aspect of personality that is conscious,
and it embodies the sense of self. Jung believed that this personal identity, or ego, developed around the age of 4.
Personal unconscious; Jung’s second component of the mind, the personal unconscious, contains thoughts and feelings that
are not currently part of conscious awareness. Thoughts from the personal unconscious can be accessed, however. The
personal unconscious contains thoughts and urges that are simply unimportant at present as well as those that have been
actively repressed because of their ego-threatening nature. For example, when a person is in a psychology class, and he is not
thinking about last night’s date. That information has not been repressed; it’s just not relevant at the moment. Both of these
thoughts and urges are considered to be part of the personal unconscious by Jung. Jung also saw the personal unconscious as
containing both past (retrospective) and future (prospective) material. This grew from the observation that many of his
patients experienced dreams that were related to future issues and events. It is not that they “see” the future, but rather they
sense things that are likely to happen. Further, the personal unconscious serves to compensate (balance) conscious attitudes
and ideas. That is, if a person’s conscious views are very one-sided, the personal unconscious may accentuate the opposing
viewpoint through dreams or other means, in an attempt to restore some sort of equilibrium.
The material in the personal unconscious comes from the individual’s past. This formulation corresponds to Freud’s concept
of the unconscious. The personal unconscious is composed of memories that are painful and have been repressed, as well as
memories that are unimportant and have simply been dropped from conscious awareness. The personal unconscious also
holds parts of the personality that have never come to consciousness.
Collective unconscious; the third component of the psyche was termed the collective unconscious by Jung. Perhaps the most
controversial, it comprises a deeper level of unconsciousness and is made up of powerful emotional symbols called archetypes.
These images are common to all people and have been formed from the beginnings of human time (that is, they are
“transpersonal” rather than personal or individual). These archetypes are derived from the emotional reactions of our
ancestors to continually repeating events, such as the rising and setting of the sun, the changing of the seasons, and repeating
interpersonal relationships such as mother–child. The presence of such archetypes or emotional patterns predisposes us to
react in predictable ways to common, recurring stimuli. Jung described many different archetypes, including the hero, the wise
old man, the trickster, and the shadow, etc.
The collective unconscious is Jung’s boldest and most controversial concept. Jung identifies the collective, or transpersonal,
unconscious as the centre of all psychic material not derived from personal experience. Its contents and images appear to be
shared with people of all time periods and all cultures, and it reflects humanity’s collective evolutionary history. Some
psychologists, such as Skinner, implicitly assume that each individual is born as a blank slate, a tabula rasa; consequently,
psychological development can come only from personal experience. Jung postulates that the infant mind already possesses a
structure that moulds and channels all further development and interaction with the environment. This basic structure is
essentially the same in all infants. Although people develop differently and become unique individuals, the collective
unconscious is common to all people and therefore exhibits the same basic pattern in everyone. The collective unconscious,
which results from experiences that are common to all people, also includes material from the pre-human and animal ancestry.
It is the source of the most powerful ideas and experiences.
Archetype
The archetype is probably Jung’s most difficult concept. Archetypes are inherited predispositions to respond to the world in
certain ways. They are primordial image representations of the instinctual energies of the collective unconscious, which are
based on universal human themes and concerns. According to Jung, the archetypes are structure-forming elements within the
unconscious. These elements give rise to the archetypal images that dominate both individual fantasy life and the mythologies
of an entire culture. The archetypes exhibit “a kind of readiness to produce over and over again the same or similar mythical
ideas”. They tend to appear as certain patterns as recurring situations and figures. The major structure of archetypes is;
(1) Persona; the persona archetype (Latin for “mask”) represents the socially acceptable front that present to others
(the outward appearance). Although each persona, when viewed outwardly, is idiosyncratic, the archetype itself is
an idealized picture of what people should be; it is modified by each individual’s unique efforts to achieve this
goal. The persona has both negative and positive aspects. A dominant persona can smother the individual, and
those who identify with their persona tend to see themselves only in terms of their superficial social roles and
facades. In fact, Jung called the persona the “conformity archetype.” As part of its positive function, it protects
the ego and the psyche from the varied social forces and attitudes that impinge on them. his process is not always
positive, however. As the ego identifies with the persona, people start to believe that they are what they pretend
to be. According to Jung, we eventually have to withdraw this identification and learn who we are in the process
of individuation. Minority group members and other social outsiders in particular are likely to have problems with
their identities because of cultural prejudice and social rejection of their personas.
(2) Shadow; the shadow archetype is the dark and unacceptable side of personality (the inner selves) the shameful
desires and motives that one would rather not admit. These negative impulses lead to socially unacceptable
thoughts and actions, much as the unchecked desires of Freud’s id might instigate outrageous behaviour.
The shadow is an archetypal form that serves as the focus for material that has been repressed from
consciousness; its contents include tendencies, desires, and memories rejected by the individual as incompatible
with the persona and contrary to social standards and ideals. The shadow contains all the negative tendencies the
individual wishes to deny, including our animal instincts, as well as undeveloped positive and negative qualities.
The shadow represents what we consider inferior in our personality and also that which we have neglected and
never developed in ourselves. In dreams, a shadow figure may appear as an animal, a dwarf, a vagrant, or any
other low-status figure. In his work on repression and neurosis, Freud focused primarily on aspects of the
shadow. Jung found that repressed material is organized and structured around the shadow, which becomes, in a
sense, a negative self or the shadow of the ego. The shadow is often experienced in dreams as a primitive, hostile,
or repellent figure because the contents of the shadow have been forcibly pushed out of consciousness and
appear antagonistic to the conscious outlook. If the material from the shadow is allowed back into consciousness,
it loses much of its primitive and frightening quality. The shadow is most dangerous when unrecognized. Then
the individual tends to project his or her unwanted qualities onto others or to become dominated by the shadow
without realizing it. Images of evil, the devil, and the concept of original sin are all aspects of the shadow
archetype. The more the shadow material is made conscious, the less it can dominate. But the shadow is an
integral part of our nature, and it can never be simply eliminated. A person who claims to be without a shadow is
not a complete individual but a two-dimensional caricature, denying the mixture of good and evil that is
necessarily present in all of us.
(3) Anima; an important archetype is an anima (the female element of a man); the anima archetype implies that a
feminine side and therefore a knowledge of what it means to be female resides in every man.
(4) Animus; the animus (the male element of a woman). The animus archetype implies that each woman has a
masculine side and a corresponding innate knowledge of what it means to be male.
(5) Self; the self is the most important personality archetype and also the most difficult to understand. Jung has
called the self the central archetype, the archetype of psychological order and the totality of the personality. The
self is the archetype of centeredness. It is the union of the conscious and the unconscious that embodies the
harmony and balance of the various opposing elements of the psyche. The self directs the functioning of the
whole psyche in an integrated way.
Other different archetypes are;
i. Mother; the mother archetype generally embodies generativity and fertility. It may be evoked by an actual
mother-figure (for instance, one’s own mother or grandmother) or a figurative one (for example, the church).
Additionally, the mother archetype may be either good or evil, or perhaps both, much as real mothers have the
potential to be. mother archetype embraces not only each individual’s real mother but also all mother figures and
nurturant figures. This archetype group includes women in general, mythical images of women, such as Venus,
the Virgin Mary, and Mother Nature, and supportive and nurturant symbols, such as the church and paradise.
The mother archetype encompasses positive features and also negative ones, such as the threatening,
domineering, or smothering mother. In the Middle Ages, for instance, negative aspects of the archetype became
crystallized into the image of the witch.
ii. Hero and Demon; the hero archetype describes a strong and good force that does battle with the enemy in
order to rescue another from harm. The opposite of the hero is the demon archetype, which embodies cruelty
and evil. In our example of David and Absalom, King David would represent the hero, whereas his ungrateful
son would be the demon.
iii. Extraversion and Introversion; in addition to these four functions, Jung described two major attitudes:
extroversion and introversion. These terms are in wide use today but are generally understood as being opposite
 poles of the same dimension, rather than two separate and opposing constructs as Jung thought of them. And,
analogously to functions, extroversion and introversion both exist in every individual, but one is usually
dominant. Extroverts direct their libido (psychic energy) toward things in the external world, whereas introverts
are more inwardly focused. The combination of these two attitudes with the four functions yields eight possible
personality types. Take, for example, a person whose dominant function is feeling and whose dominant attitude is
extroversion; the “feeling” tendencies of the person would be directed outward. That is, in general, the person
would make friends readily, would tend to be loud, and would be easily swayed by the emotional feelings of
others. If, however, the predominant attitude was introversion, the feeling tendencies of the person would be
channelled into introspection and a pre-occupation with inner experiences that might be interpreted as cold
indifference and, ironically, a lack of feeling by observers. Any dominant function may take on a very different
flavour when paired with one or the other of the two attitudes, yielding eight very different categories or types of
personalities. This typology forms the basis for one well-known personality inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator.
iv. Wise-old man; the wise old man archetype, also sometimes known as the Sage, is one of an elderly man of
philosophical bearing notable for his possession of great wisdom, knowledge, and judgment. Traditionally
depicted in literature and art as a father figure, the wise old man is a kindly and gentlemanly figure, often with an
aura of mysticism about him. He is a vivid and compelling storyteller, often using his storytelling as a means of
passing on his wisdom and guidance to those whom he mentors.
Development of Personality
According to Jung, every individual naturally seeks individuation or self-development. Jung believed that the psyche has an
innate urge toward wholeness. This idea is similar to Maslow’s concept of self-actualization, but it is based on a more complex
theory of the psyche than Maslow’s. “Individuation means becoming a single, homogeneous being, and, insofar as
‘individuality’ embraces the innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. Therefore,
individuation is ‘coming to selfhood’ or ‘self-realization’. Individuation is a natural, organic process. It is the unfolding of the
basic nature and is a fundamental drive in each of the people. Like any natural process, it can be blocked or interfered with,
just as a tree may become stunted in an unfavourable environment. Individuation is a process of achieving wholeness and thus
moving toward greater freedom. The process includes the development of a dynamic relationship between the ego and the
self, along with the integration of the various parts of the psyche: the ego, persona, shadow, anima or animus, and other
archetypes. As people become more individuated, these archetypes may be seen as expressing themselves in more subtle and
complex ways. The more people become conscious of themselves through self-knowledge, and act accordingly, the more the
layer of the personal unconscious that is superimposed on the collective unconscious will be diminished. In this way, there
arises a consciousness that is no longer imprisoned in the petty, oversensitive, personal world of objective interests. This
widened consciousness is no longer that touchy, egotistical bundle of personal wishes, fears, hopes, and ambitions, instead, it
is a function of relationship to the world of objects, bringing the individual into the absolute, binding, and indissoluble
communion with the world at large.
As an analyst, Jung found that those who came to him in the first half of life were concerned primarily with external
achievement and the attainment of the goals of the ego. Older patients who had fulfilled such goals reasonably well tended to
seek individuation to strive for inner integration rather than outer achievement and to seek harmony with the totality of the
psyche. From the ego’s point of view, growth and development consist of integrating new material into one’s consciousness;
this process includes acquiring knowledge of the world and of oneself. Growth, for the ego, is essentially expanding conscious
awareness. Individuation, by contrast, is the development of the self, and self’s goal is to unite consciousness and the
unconscious.
Unveiling the persona (dethroning the mask); early in the individuation process, a person must begin unveiling the
persona he/she has developed and learning to view it as a useful tool rather than as an essential part of themselves. Although
the persona has important protective functions, it is also a mask that hides the self and the unconscious. When one analyses
the persona, he strips off the mask, and discovers that what seemed to be individual is at the bottom collective; in other
words, the persona was only a mask for the collective psyche. Fundamentally the persona is nothing real: it is a compromise
between the individual and society as to what a man should appear to be. He takes a name, earns a title, represents an office,
he is this or that. In a certain sense, all this is real, yet in relation to the essential individuality of the person concerned, it is
only secondary reality, a product of compromise, in making which others often have a greater share than he. In becoming
aware of the limitations and distortions of the persona, he becomes more independent of his culture and society.
Confronting the shadow; one can become free of the shadow’s influence to the extent that he accepts the reality of the dark
side in each human being and simultaneously realize that they are more than the shadow.
Confronting the anima or animus; a further step is to confront the anima or animus. One must deal with this archetype as a
real person or persons whom one can communicate with and learn from. For example, Jung would ask the anima figures that
appeared to him about the interpretation of dream symbols, like a patient consulting an analyst. One also becomes aware that
anima or animus figures have considerable autonomy and that they are likely to influence or even dominate a person if he
either ignores them or blindly accepts their images and projections as his own.
Developing the self; the goal and culmination of the individuation process is the development of the self. “The self is life’s
goal, for it is the completest expression of that fateful combination people call individuality”. The self, replaces the ego as the
midpoint of the psyche. Awareness of the self brings unity to the psyche and helps to integrate conscious and unconscious
material. The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand,
and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other. The ego is still the centre of consciousness, but it is no longer
seen as the nucleus of the entire personality.
Jung wrote: One must be what one is; one must discover one’s own individuality, that centre of personality, which is
equidistant between the conscious and the unconscious; one must aim for that ideal point towards which nature appears to be
directing him. Only from that point can one satisfy one’s needs. Although it is possible to describe individuation in terms of
stages, the process is considerably more complex than the simple progression outlined here. All of the steps listed overlap and
each of us continually returns to old problems and issues. While Jung did not delineate sequential stages of growth as did
Freud, Jung (1933) took a longer view of personality and described development as occurring within specific periods,
including childhood, young adulthood, middle age, and old age. Thus, as a person continue to develop, his individuation might
be represented as a spiral in which he keeps confronting the same basic questions, each time in a more refined form.
Each stage in the individuation process has its difficulties.
(1) The persona (dethroning the mask); first is the danger of identification with the persona. Those who identify with
the persona may try to become “perfect,” unable to accept their mistakes or weaknesses, or any deviations from their
idealized self-concepts. Individuals who fully identify with the persona tend to repress any tendencies that do not fit
their self-image and attribute such behaviours to others; the job of acting out aspects of the repressed, negative
identity is assigned to other people.
(2) The shadow; shadow can also become a major obstacle to individuation. People who are unaware of their shadows
can easily act out harmful impulses without ever recognizing them as wrong or without any awareness of their own
negative feelings. In such people, an initial impulse to harm or do wrong is instantly rationalized as they fail to
acknowledge the presence of such an impulse in themselves. Ignorance of the shadow may also result in an attitude of
moral superiority and projection of the shadow onto others.
(3) The anima/animus; confronting the anima or animus brings with it the problem of relating to the collective
unconscious. In the man, the anima may produce sudden emotional changes or moodiness. In the woman, the
animus may manifest itself as irrational, rigidly held opinions. Jung’s discussion of anima and animus is not a
description of masculinity and femininity in general. The content of the anima or animus is the complement of the
conscious conception of ourselves as masculine or feminine which, in most people, is strongly determined by cultural
values and socially defined sex roles. An individual exposed to collective material faces the danger of becoming
engulfed by it. According to Jung, this outcome can take one of two forms. First is the possibility of ego inflation, in
which the individual claims all the virtues and knowledge of the collective psyche. The opposite reaction is that of ego
impotence; the person feels that he or she has no control over the collective psyche and becomes acutely aware of
unacceptable aspects of the unconscious irrationality, negative impulses, and so forth.
Assessment
(1) Dream analysis
(2) Word association
(3) Symptom analysis
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Carl Jung
 His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields.
 Jung deliberately developed a loose, open system, one that could admit new information without distorting it to fit a
closed theoretical framework.
Limitations of Carl Jung
 His theorizing lacks a tight, logical structure that categorizes all life in terms of a few theoretical constructs.
ALFRED ADLER & INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
Alfred Adler is the founder of a holistic system that seeks to understand each person as an integrated totality within a social
system. He called his approach Individual Psychology because it stresses the uniqueness of the individual rather than the
universalities of behaviour described by Freud. As a result, Adler was one of the first to leave Freud’s psychoanalytic inner
circle.
The four major principles of Adler’s system are holism, the unity of the individual’s style of life, social interest or community
feeling, and the importance of goal-directed behaviour. Adler’s argument that goals and expectations have a greater influence
on behaviour than do past experiences was a major cause of his break with Freud. Adler also believed that individuals are
motivated primarily by the goal of superiority, or conquest of their environment. He stressed both the effect of social
influences on individuals and the importance of social interest: a sense of community, cooperation, and concern for others.
For Adler, life is essentially a movement toward more successful adaptation to the environment, greater cooperation, and
altruism. Adler’s Individual Psychology is similar to behaviourism in its stress on overt behaviours and their consequences as
well as in its assertion that concepts must be concrete and related to actual behaviour. Adler developed a context psychology
in which behaviour is understood in terms of the physical and social environment, a context of which the individual generally
is not aware. Adler was the first to practice family therapy, which he introduced in 1920. Adlerian have made important
contributions to group therapy, to brief therapy, and to applications of psychology in education, parenting, and social work.
One of Adler’s greatest contributions to psychology was his postulation of the inferiority complex and of our need to
compensate for our feelings of inferiority. In the Adlerian system, the process of striving for superiority was a significant
reformulation of Nietzsche’s concept of will to power. The concepts of life goals, lifestyle, and the creative power of the
individual are important holistic contributions to psychology. Adler’s emphasis on social interest, cooperation, and the effects
of society on gender differences keeps his theory rooted in a social context.
Adler called his theory Individual Psychology (1959) because he firmly believed in the unique motivations of individuals and
the importance of each person’s perceived niche in society. Like Jung, he firmly proclaimed the importance of the teleological
aspects, or goal-directedness, of human nature. Another major, and related, the difference in their philosophies was that Adler,
much more concerned than Freud with social conditions, saw the need to take preventive measures to avoid disturbances in
personality.
Striving for Superiority
For Adler (1930), a central core of personality is the striving for superiority. When people have an overwhelming sense of
helplessness or experience some event that leaves them powerless, they are likely to feel inferior. If these feelings become
pervasive, an inferiority complex may develop. An inferiority complex takes normal feelings of incompetence and exaggerates
them, making the individual feel as if it is impossible to achieve goals and therefore hopeless to try.
An individual struggling to overcome such a complex might fabricate a superiority complex as a way of maintaining a sense of
self-worth, i.e., develop a superiority complex as a way of counteracting the inferiority feels.
The Evolution of Adler’s Theory
Adler’s theory underwent a series of changes as his thoughts about human motivations changed. The first concept he
described was that of organ inferiority, the idea that everyone is born with some physical weakness. It is at this “weak link,” says
Adler, that incapacity or disease is most likely to take root, and so the body attempts to make up for the deficiency in another
area. He contended that these infirmities were important motivators of people’s life choices. A short time later, Adler added
the concept of the aggression drive to his model. He believed that drives could be either directly effective or reversed into an
opposite drive. Aggression was particularly important to Adler because he believed it was a reaction to perceived helplessness
or inferiority, a lashing out against the inability to achieve or master something. Adler’s next step was what he termed the
masculine protest. He did not mean, however, that only boys experienced this phenomenon. During that period in history, it was
culturally and socially acceptable to use the words femininity and masculinity as metaphors for inferiority and superiority.
Adler believed that all children, by virtue of their relatively powerless and dependent position in the social order, were
markedly feminine and that both boys and girls experience this masculine protest, in an effort to become independent from
and eventually equal to the adults and people of power in their little worlds. Masculine protest is an individual’s attempt to be
competent and independent, autonomous, rather than merely an outgrowth of one’s parents.
Sometimes, striving for superiority can be healthy, if it involves positive assertiveness. This search for autonomy and for a
sense of control and efficacy was later incorporated into the theories of many other personality psychologists (White, 1959). A
key concept for Adler was perfection striving. He believed that people, unless neurotically bound to an inferiority complex, often
spend their lives trying to meet their fictional goals-imagined future achievements (this is sometimes termed fictional finalism).
These goals vary from person to person, reflecting what each person sees as perfection and requiring the elimination of their
perceived flaws.
Perhaps Adler’s greatest gift to personality psychology was his insistence on the positive and goal-oriented nature of humanity.
He leaves us with a picture of people striving to overcome their weaknesses and to function productively, i.e., in other words,
people contributing to society.
Style of Life/Adler’s Personality Typology
Adler cast his ideas into the classic Greek notion of temperamental humours underlying personality. According to these
ancient ideas, a predominance of yellow bile was indicative of an irritable (choleric) temperament; a predominance of blood
was believed to result in a cheerful (sanguine) temperament; black bile resulted in a brooding (melancholic) temperament; and
phlegm resulted in a lethargic (phlegmatic) temperament. To this basic pattern, Adler added his ideas about varying levels of
social interest, which termed Gemeinschaftsgefuhl in German, or “community feeling”, as well as a consideration of activity
level.
Adler renamed the four components of his typology:
(1) Ruling-Dominant (aggressive and domineering); he re-named yellow bile humour (Greek type; choleric) as ruling-
dominant typology, which has low social interest and high activity.
(2) Getting-Leaning (takes from others; somewhat passive); he re-named phlegm humour (Greek type; phlegmatic) as
getting-leaning typology, which has low social interest as well as low activity.
(3) Avoiding (conquers problems by running away); he re-named black bile humour (Greek type; melancholic) as
avoiding typology, which has very low social interest and low activity, and
(4) Socially Useful (meets problems realistically; is cooperative and caring); he re-named blood humour (Greek type;
sanguine) as a socially-useful typology, which has a high social interest as well as high activity.
This orientation was thought to grow out of early experiences. Adler wrote that a body that is ill-suited to its environment will
be felt by the mind as a burden. Children who have suffered from such “imperfect organs” are challenged to try to overcome
their limits, either in an active way that is not social (becoming domineering), in an active way that is social (cooperation), in a
passive way that is not social (taking what others dish out), or in a passive way that is depressed (running away from
problems). For many children with physical or intellectual disabilities, the mind becomes overburdened and they become self-
centred (egoistic). The road to physical and mental health involves overcoming this self-centeredness. As with most grand
theories, it has proved very difficult to establish a simple, empirical validation of this typology.
Birth Order
By focusing on social structure and making astute observations (both of others and of his own childhood), Adler came to
believe in the importance of birth order in determining personality characteristics.
(1) First-born children live for a time as the favoured child because they are “only children.” They later must learn to
deal with the fact that they are not the sole focus and that parental attention must be shared with the other sibling(s),
i.e., dethroning suddenly. This rather rude awakening may create the tendency for independence and striving to regain
status, or the first-born may become a socially oriented pseudo-parent, helping to nurture siblings and others.
First born children are in a unique and enviable situation, at least for a while. The parents are usually very happy at the
birth of their first child and devote a great deal of time and attention to the new baby. First-borns typically receive
their parents’ instant and undivided attention. As a result, first-borns have a very happy and secure existence, until the
second-born child appears.
Dethronement: Suddenly, no longer receiving constant love and care, first-borns are, in a sense, dethroned. The
affection and attention first-borns received during their reign will now have to be shared with the new baby. They
must often submit to the outrage of waiting until after the new-born’s needs have been met, and they are admonished
to be quiet so as not to disturb the new baby. No one could expect first-borns to suffer this kind of drastic
displacement without putting up a fight. They’re their former position of power and privilege. The first-born’s battle
to regain supremacy in the family is lost from the beginning, however. Things will never be the same, no matter how
hard the first born tries. For a time, first-borns may become stubborn, ill behaved, and destructive and may refuse to
eat or go to bed. They are striking out in anger, but the parents will probably strike back, and their weapons are far
more powerful. When first born are punished for their troublesome behaviour, they see that as more proof of their
fall and may come to hate the second child, who is, after all, the cause of the problem. Adler believed all first-borns
feel the shock of their changed status in the family, but those who have been excessively pampered feel a greater loss.
Also, the extent of the loss depends on the first-born’s age at the time the rival appears. In general, the older a first-
born child is when the second child arrives, the less dethronement the first-born will experience. Adler found that
first born are often oriented to the past, caught up in nostalgia and pessimistic about the future. Having once learned
the advantages of power, they remain concerned with it throughout life. They can exercise power over younger
siblings, but at the same time they are more subject to the power of their parents because more is expected of them.
(2) Second-born children are born into a situation of rivalry and competition. Adler himself felt a great sense of rivalry
with his older brother, and his inability to compete on a physical level because of his ill health led to subsequent
feelings of inferiority. Although this may be useful in that it pushes the second child toward greater achievements,
repeated failures have the potential to be quite damaging to the self-esteem, i.e., striving for superiority.
Second-born children, the ones who caused so much upheaval in the lives of first-borns are also in a unique situation.
They never experience the powerful position once occupied by the first born. Even if another child is brought into
the family, second-born do not suffer the sense of dethronement felt by the first-borns. Also, by this time the parents
have usually changed their child-rearing attitudes and practices. A second baby is not the novelty the first was parents
may be less concerned and anxious about their own behaviour and may take a more relaxed approach to the sec one
child. From the beginning, second-born have a pacesetter in the older sibling. The second child always has the
example of the older child’s behaviour as a model, a threat, or a source of competition. Competition with the first-
born may serve to motivate the second-born, who may try to catch up with it. They are more optimistic about the
future and are likely to be competitive to catch up to and surpass the older sibling a goal that spurs language and
motor development in the second born. Other less beneficial outcomes may also arise from the relationship between
first-borns second-born may feel that they can never surpass the first-borns and may give up trying in this case,
competitiveness would not become part of the second-born lifestyles, and they may become underachievers,
performing below their abilities in many facets of life and second born.
 (3) Last-born children are usually more pampered than any of the others. They will remain forever the “baby of the
family.” Adler believed that the overabundance of sibling role models might lead this child to feel overly pressured to
succeed in all areas, and the likely inability to do so might result in a lazy and defeatist attitude.
Youngest or last-born children never face the shock of dethronement by another child and often become the pet of
the family, particularly if the siblings are more than a few years older. Driven by the need to surpass older siblings,
youngest children often develop at a remarkably fast rate. Last-born are often high achievers in whatever work they
undertake as adults. The opposite can occur, however, if the youngest children are excessively pampered and come to
believe they needn’t learn to do anything for themselves. As they grow older such children may retain the helplessness
and dependency of childhood. Unaccustomed to striving and struggling, used to being cared for these people find it
difficult to adjust to adulthood.
(4) The only-child never lose the position of primacy and power they hold in the family. They remain the focus and
centre of attention. Spending more time in the company of adults than a child with siblings, only children often
mature early and manifest adult behaviours and attitudes. Only children may experience problems when they find that
in areas of life outside the home, such as school, they are not the centre of attention. Only children have learned
neither to share nor to compete. If their abilities do not bring them sufficient recognition and attention, they are likely
to feel keenly disappointed.
With his ideas about order of birth, Adler was not proposing firm rules of childhood development. A child will not
automatically acquire a particular kind of character based solely on his or her position in the family. What Adler was
suggesting was the likelihood that certain styles of life will develop as a function of the order of birth combined with one’s
early social interactions. The creative self in constructing the style of life uses both influences.
Characteristics of childhood experience
(1) Spoiled children; is characterized by “excessive, self-centred, and immature behaviour”. It includes the lack of
consideration for other people, recurrent temper tantrums, an inability to handle the delay of gratification, demands
for having one’s own way, obstructiveness, and manipulation to get their way.
(2) Neglected children; is characterized by unresponsiveness, unavailability and limited emotional interactions between
parents and others, as the children’s emotional needs for affection, support, attention or competence are ignored.
(3) Inferiority children; is characterized by insecurity and low self-esteem, inability to reach their goals or feeling stuck,
wanting to give up easily, feeling the need to withdraw in social situations, often feeling down on oneself,
experiencing anxiety and depression, etc.
Lifestyle analysis
What Adler meant by 'lifestyle' was the unique process by which every individual in a competitive situation endeavoured to
move from a subservient to a commanding role. In Adler's original formulation, a person's 'lifestyle' was a behaviour pattern
adopted in childhood as a technique for overcoming the essential powerlessness of infancy. Thus, much as a small child
devises methods and approaches to get his or her own way against the inclination of larger and more powerful adults, so does
the grown-up child use an evolved version of this technique in later life. Refined by life experience, the adult 'lifestyle'
becomes a technique for moving from inferiority to command in any situation, but also a means of coping with feelings of
inferiority induced by failure so to do.
Properly understood, 'lifestyle' is not only recognisable in the individual courses of action and responses of private life, but can
also be seen in relation to the challenges and opportunities of professional careers from their very outset.
Techniques
(1) Life-style assessment; one of the main tools Adlerian counsellors use to examine how a client is functioning is a
lifestyle assessment. Lifestyle refers to an individual’s subjective view of oneself, others, and the world that
develops based on childhood experiences and perceptions of those experiences; and not equate to contemporary
uses of the word lifestyle. The goal of any lifestyle assessment is to explore the client’s perceptions of his or her
childhood experiences to discover the influence those perceptions have on the client’s current functioning.
(2) Early recollections; they’re a great accompaniment to lifestyle assessment. In fact, many Adlerian would say that a
lifestyle assessment is incomplete without them. In his 1937 article “Significance of Early Recollections,” Adler
discussed early recollections as a means for uncovering “valuable hints and clues in finding the direction of a
person’s striving. They help reveal values to be aimed for and dangers to be avoided. They help to see the kind of
world a particular person feels he lives in, and the early ways he found of dealing with that world”.
(3) Dream analysis
(4) Birth order analysis
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Alfred Adler
 He was one of the first practitioners to provide family and group counselling and to use public education as a way to
address community health.
  He was among the first to write about the social determinants of health and of mental health.
 In therapy, Adlerian theory benefits individuals by helping them understand the root of their behaviours, how they
can change their view of themselves, and how they can change their view of their childhoods.
Limitations of Alfred Adler
 One major limitation of Adlerian therapy is that contemporary Adlerian have simply failed to update Adler's concepts
into present-day terms and relationships, and this failure may be a major contributing factor to this theory's decline.
KAREN HORNEY & FEMINISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
Because her thought went through three distinct phases, Karen Horney has come to mean different things to different people.
Some think of her primarily in terms of her essays on feminine psychology, written in the 1920s and early 1930s, in which she
tried to modify Freud’s ideas about penis envy, female masochism, and feminine development while remaining within the
framework of orthodox theory.
In the 1940s, Horney developed her mature theory, which many consider her most distinctive contribution. In Our Inner
Conflicts (1945) and Neurosis and Human Growth (1950), she argued that individuals cope with the anxiety produced by
feeling unsafe, unloved, and unvalued by disowning their real feelings and developing elaborate strategies of defence. In Our
Inner Conflicts, she concentrated on the interpersonal defences of moving toward, against, and away from other people and
the neurotic solutions of compliance, aggression, and detachment to which they give rise. In Neurosis and Human Growth,
she emphasized intrapsychic defences, showing how self-idealization generates a search for glory and what she called the pride
system, which consists of neurotic pride, neurotic claims, tyrannical should, and self-hate. The range and power of Horney’s
mature theory have been shown by both the theory’s clinical applications and also its use in such fields as literary criticism,
biography, and the study of culture and gender. The object of therapy for Horney is to help people relinquish their defences,
which alienate them from their true likes and dislikes, hopes, fears, and desires so that they can get in touch with what she
called the real self. Her emphasis on self-realization as the source of healthy values and the goal of life established Horney as
one of the founders of humanistic psychology.
Rejection of penis
Freud’s analysis of women was built around the concept of penis envy. Horney rejected the notion that women felt their
genitals were inferior, yet her careful observation revealed that women often did feel inferior to men. Freud, making the same
observation, explained it in terms of an anatomy-based cause the lack of a penis. Horney, however, argued that women’s
feelings of inferiority stemmed from the ways they are raised in society and from an overemphasis on securing the love of a
man. She believed that when women were raised in environments in which “masculinity” was defined as strong, brave,
competent, and free, and “femininity” as inferior, delicate, weak, and submissive, then women would of course come to see
themselves as subordinate and to therefore desire “masculine” things as a way to gain power. But she did not agree with Freud
that it was a penis that women wanted; rather, they wanted the autonomy and control that they associated with maleness. She
also postulated that men are unconsciously envious of some feminine qualities, such as the ability to bear children.
Basic anxiety
Because children are powerless, simply unable to go out into the world and claim their rightful place, they must repress any
feelings of hostility and anger toward the powerful adults in their worlds and instead strive to please these adults as a means of
getting their needs met. Horney thus replaced Freud’s biological emphasis with the idea of basic anxiety. Basic anxiety is a
child’s fear of being alone, helpless, and insecure. It arises from problems in the child’s relations with his or her parents, such
as lack of warmth, stability, respect, or involvement. Eventually, Horney believed, the basic anxiety could be directed at
virtually everyone, in which case the internal turmoil would be focused outward, on the world in general. Thus, although
Horney accepted Freud’s basic psychoanalytic notion that people are driven by unconscious, irrational motives that develop in
childhood, she saw these motives as arising from social conflicts within the family and larger conflicts within the society. In
reaction to basic anxiety, individuals were hypothesized to settle into one primary mode of adapting to the world. Those who
believe that they can get along best by being compliant adopt the passive style; those who believe in fighting to get by adopt
the aggressive style; and those who feel that it’s best not to engage emotionally at all adopt the withdrawn style. These ideas
are of much more than simple historical interest; they form a widely accepted framework for understanding good child-
rearing. Much of the modern-day concern with providing warm, respectful family environments for children derives from
such neo-analytic theorizing about the role of society in taming biological instincts.
The self
Neo-analysts focus on identity and sense of self. In analysing neurotics, Horney described different aspects of self.
(1) There is the real self, the inner core of personality that a person perceives about himself, including our potential for
self-realization; this core is damaged by parental neglect and indifference. This parental neglect can produce the
despised self;
(2) The despised self, consisting of perceptions of inferiority and shortcomings, often based on others’ negative
evaluations of us and our resulting feelings of helplessness.
 (3) Perhaps most important, Horney identified the ideal self, what one views as perfection and hopes to achieve, as
moulded by perceived inadequacies. In describing the ideal self, Horney referred to what she called the “tyranny of
the should,” which is the litany of things one should have done differently, and with which he torments himself. The
ideal self is a composite of all of these “should.”
For Horney, the goal of psychoanalysis was not to help someone achieve his or her ideal self, but rather to enable the person
to accept his or her real self. Someone who is alienated from his or her real self becomes neurotic and develops an
interpersonal coping strategy to “solve” the conflict. These ideas led to modern ideas of “possible selves.”
Neurotic coping strategies
Horney proposed a series of strategies used by neurotics to cope with other people.
(1) The first of these approaches is “moving toward” people, i.e., always attempting to make others happy, to gain love,
and to secure the approval and affection of others. Horney believed that individuals employing this coping strategy
are overidentifying with a despised self and are therefore seeing themselves as unworthy of love. Their actions to gain
love are attempts, on the one hand, to disguise what they believe to be true of themselves and, on the other, to make
others believe that they are worthy of affection. For example, women raised by alcoholic parents may have learned to
obtain self-esteem by conforming to exploitive demands; as adults, these women may seek out exploitive men and
devote themselves to attempting to make the men happy and thereby win their approval. In popular jargon, this
disturbed pattern of relationships is sometimes referred to as co-dependency.
(2) Horney called the second approach “moving against” people, i.e., striving for power, recognition, and the
admiration of others. Horney believed that these individuals, instead of over identifying with the despised self, are
overidentifying with the ideal self. They have come to believe that all the things that they wished they were true, and
their strivings for recognition and power are an effort to reaffirm for themselves the truth of this illusion.
(3) A third approach was called “moving away” from people, i.e., the withdrawal of any emotional investment from
interpersonal relationships, in an effort to avoid being hurt in those relationships. Horney believed that these
individuals want to overcome the despised self, and yet they feel incapable of ever becoming the ideal self. They see
themselves, in their present state, as unworthy of the love and attention of others, and yet they feel unable to achieve
anything greater. Thus, to avoid the unpleasant contrast, the gap between these two aspects of self, they hide behind
independence and solitude.
Horney believed that psychologically healthy people use a mixture of all three of these self-protective approaches to resolve
conflicts. For a neurotic, though, a single strategy will be pervasive, dominating the personality. Horney refers to this
unhealthy focus on a single coping strategy as a neurotic trend. She enumerated 10 specific defences against anxiety, which
have become known as the 10 neurotic needs. They are grouped by the neurotic coping strategy (neurotic trend) with which
they are associated.
Neurotic Need Primary modes of Neurotic Solutions
Relating to Others
For affection and approval TO (moving towards; A blanket desire to please others and live up to their
compliance) expectations
For a “partner” to take over TO (moving towards; Overdependence, parasitical behaviour, terror of being
one’s life compliance) deserted by one’s partner
For personal achievement AG (moving against; Compulsion to excel, driven from a sense of basic
hostility) insecurity
For power AG (moving against; Craving power for its own sake, lack of respect for others,
hostility) glorifying strength and superiority
To exploit others AG (moving against; Belief that success is possible only through taking
hostility) advantage of others
For prestige AG (moving against; Basing one’s self-esteem solely on recognition and others’
hostility) opinions
For personal admiration AG (moving against; Holding an inflated self-image and needing to be admired
hostility) for one’s façade rather than for who one really is
To restrict one’s life within AW (moving away; Behaving in undemanding and inconspicuous ways that
narrow borders detachment) lack ambition
For self-sufficiency and AW (moving away; Disappointment in attempts to find satisfying
independence detachment) relationships, followed by remaining apart from others
and refusing any form of commitment
For perfection and AW (moving away; Fear of criticism, attempting to seem infallible and to
unassailability detachment) cover up any flaws before others might notice
In sum, Karen Horney helped move psychoanalytic thinking about personality away from purely biological, anatomical, and
individualistic emphases. While she accepted the significance of unconscious motives developed in childhood, Horney
emphasized the importance of a warm, stable family, as well as the impact of the larger society and culture. Furthermore, just
as Horney struggled with society’s obstacles to women’s achievement in her own life, she rejected the idea that women’s
nature makes them inherently weak and submissive. She saw the influences of the family and the culture on each person, and
she insisted that people could strive to overcome their unconscious demons. She emphasized the distress of the “tyranny of
the should”, the neurotic internal demands for perfection.
In each interpersonal defence, one element involved in basic anxiety is overemphasized: helplessness in the compliant
solution, hostility in the aggressive solution, and isolation in the detached solution. Under pathogenic conditions, all these
feelings are likely to occur, leading individuals to make all three of the defensive moves and giving rise to what Horney calls
the basic conflict.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Karen Horney
 Horney is widely regarded as the founder of feminine psychiatry, which focuses on the psychiatric treatment of
women, and feminist psychology, which studies the ways in which gender power imbalances affect both mental health
and the development of psychological theories.
 Horney's theories on neurosis also helped to inspire the interpersonal school of psychology and the diagnosis of
neurotic disorders in psychiatry.
 Horney influenced not only psychoanalytic theory but also cultural psychology, interpersonal psychotherapy, and
humanistic psychology.
Limitations of Karen Horney
 She believed that people by then very nature will strive toward self-realization, but she suggested no clear picture of
what self-realization would be.
 Horney's theory falls short on its power both to generate research and to submit to the criterion of falsifiability.
 III. TYPE AND TRAIT PERSPECTIVES
Trait theory and type theory are two theories between which a key difference can be identified. In the fields of psychology,
comprehending the human personalities intrigued many psychologists. This is why in different branches of psychology,
different theories emerged to analyze and explain the nature of the human personality. As it is known very well, people are
very different from one another. A personality of one person can be wholly different to that of another. If so, how do people
come to an understanding of human personality. Trait theory and type theory are two theories that attempt to answer this
question in their approaches. They key difference between trait theory and type theory is that while type theory puts people
under different categories based on their characteristics, trait theory rejects this idea.
Type theory emphasizes the significance of a distinct type of personality. Type theorists highlight on individual physique and
temperaments. There are many classifications that come under type theory. The specialty is that all type theories point out that
individual personality falls under a specific category. The earliest idea of type theory stems from the work of Hippocrates, who
spoke of the four humors known as sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic. Later on, another type theory known as
the Type A and Type B-theory emerged. This categorized people into two. Type A referred to those who are very much goal
oriented while Type B referred to those who are easy going. Other than these, Carl Jung, William Sheldon, and Ernest
Kretschmer also introduced different type theories.
Trait approach assumes behavior is determined by relatively stable traits which are the fundamental units of one’s personality.
Traits predispose one to act in a certain way, regardless of the situation. This means that traits should remain consistent across
situations and over time, but may vary between individuals. It is presumed that individuals differ in their traits due to genetic
differences. These theories are sometimes referred to a psychometric-theories, because of their emphasis on measuring
personality by using psychometric tests. Trait scores are continuous (quantitative) variables. A person is given a numeric score
to indicate how much of a trait they possess. Trait theorists highlight that since the individual personality is created with a
combination of traits the categorization approach to personality is an oversimplification. Basic characteristics of traits include;
 Traits are relatively stable over time
 Traits are generally consistent across situations
 The strengths and combinations of traits vary across individuals leading to individual differences in personality
ALPORT’S TRAIT THEORY
In the late 1930s, and continuing through the ‘40s and ‘50s, Cattell’s quantitative approaches, as well as the then popular
behaviorist and psychoanalytic approaches, exerted a significant influence on Gordon Allport. Allport saw serious problems
with all three approaches! Yet it was Allport who had a tremendous influence (probably the greatest influence) on trait
psychology.
Anyone who has observed people knows that the same person may behave differently in different situations. The same person
may also behave differently at different times, with different people, and at different ages. Thus, a simplistic notion of stable
traits is obviously inadequate; even the most cheerful and friendly person will at times be angry and aggressive. This variability
was well recognized by Gordon Allport, who argued that although behavior is variable, there is also a constant, core portion
for each person. It is this constant portion that is captured by the modern conception of traits. The notion of traits assumes
that personality is rooted very much within the person. Recall that Allport (1961) defined personality as the “dynamic
organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought”.
According to this view, each person has unique, key qualities. In recent years, some influential approaches to personality have
expanded the focus on the individual to incorporate aspects of the situation as well. These so-called interactionist approaches
simultaneously study the person-by-situation interactions.
Allport also thought that factor analysis could not possibly depict in full the life of an individual. Thus, he was no fan of
Cattell. Because a factor is no more than a statistical composite, it could not possibly do justice to an individual. Taking bits of
information from studying many people could not disclose what is revealed by intensive study of a single individual.
Furthermore, Allport pointed out that factor analysis produces a cluster (a factor) but does not name the factor; naming the
factor falls to the factor analyst, and there is often reason to doubt whether the name truly captures the essence of the factor.
In this way, the factor analyst may be misled by his or her own statistics.
Because people have a common biological heritage, and because people within a culture have a common cultural heritage, it
makes sense to assume that people have in common many organizing structures (traits). Allport termed these common traits.
Common traits are traits that people in a population share; they are basic dimensions. For example, in American society, some
people constantly push to get ahead of others and to dominate their environment. Other people develop a comfortable style
of going along with the flow of things (including yielding to or ignoring the pushy people). Allport thought people could
usefully be compared on such dimensions, but he did not believe that such an analysis provides a full understanding of
personality.
Allport accepts the Freudian idea that such motivation could have its origins in the childhood socialization of instinctual
tendencies. However, in adulthood these motives or strivings take on a life of their own. Allport said that this means that
many motives are functionally autonomous, they have become independent of their origins in childhood. Thus, it would not
make sense to try to trace them back to early childhood (except perhaps in cases of serious psychopathology). The childhood
experiences may be the root or origin of the adult tendencies, but they do not continue to influence these tendencies. It would
be useful to understand that a desire for neatness and order dominates a person’s approach to life, but it is not necessary to
unearth where these tendencies originated. Allport sometimes used the term proprium to refer to the core of personality.
(Proprium simply means “one’s own” or “one’s self”). By this he meant that there are layers within the human psyche,
including an irreducible core that defines who the humans are. In this narrow sense, Allport’s view was close to Freud’s. Both
theorists felt that there are central forces underlying our everyday diverse behaviors.
No two people look exactly alike (except for some cases of identical twins), so it should not be surprising that no two
personalities are exactly alike. To fully understand individuals, we need to use methods that take into account each person’s
uniqueness. Such methods are termed “idiographic.” Useful idiographic methods include document analyses (such as of
diaries), interviews, behavioral observations, and flexible self-reports such as Q-sorts. Using these methods, different people
can be described differently, rather than in terms of the same few dimensions. Allport conceived personal dispositions in
terms of a person’s goals, motives, or styles; he called it a nuclear quality. Thus, for Allport (1961), a personal disposition is a trait, a
generalized neuropsychic structure, i.e., peculiar to the individual.
Allport argued that the words people use to describe themselves and others provide a basis for understanding human
personality. He analysed the words of English language to look for traits which describe a person. Allport, based on this,
categorised traits into cardinal, central, and secondary.
 Cardinal traits are highly generalised dispositions. They indicate the goal around which a person's entire life seems to
revolve. Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence and Hitler's Nazism are examples of cardinal traits. Such traits often get
associated with the name of the person so strongly that they derive such identities as the 'Gandhian' or 'Hitlerian' trait.
 Less pervasive in effect, but still quite generalised dispositions, are called Central traits. These traits (e.g., warm, sincere,
diligent, etc.) are often used in witing a testimonial or job recommendation for a person.
 The least generalised characteristics of a person are called Secondary traits. Traits such as 'likes mangoes or 'prefers
ethnic clothes' are examples of secondary traits.
While Allport acknowledged the influence of situations on behaviour, he held that the way a person reacts to given situations
depends on her/his traits, although people sharing the same traits might express them in different ways. Allport considered
traits more like intervening variables that occur between the stimulus situation and response of the person. This meant that
any variation in traits would elicit a different response to the same situation.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Allport’s Trait Theory
 Rather than focusing on the psychoanalytic and behavioral approaches that were popular during his time, Allport
instead chose to utilize an eclectic approach.
 His approach favoured emphasis on the problems of the adult personality rather than on those of infantile emotions
and experiences.
 He stressed the importance of self and the uniqueness of adult personality.
 He emphasized the uniqueness of each individual, and the importance of the present context, as opposed to history,
for understanding the personality.
Limitations of Allport’s Trait Theory
 Poor predictor of the future.
 Does not address development of the traits.
 This trait theory is stuck explaining about present events rather than looking towards the past or future.
 Does not provide a way to change bad traits.
CATTELL’S STRUCTURE BASED SYSTEMS THEORY
As the psychoanalytically based theorists like Jung were proposing theories of the basic tendencies motivating personality,
more quantitatively oriented psychologists began using statistical approaches to try to simplify and objectify the structure of
personality. Some of the major steps along this path were taken by R. B. Cattell (1905–1998), starting in the 1940s.
Allport had found thousands of personality adjectives in the English language, but he concluded that his list must be reduced
by eliminating terms that were clearly synonymous. Cattell went much further with this lexical (language-based) approach. The
traits listed by Allport were further grouped, rated, and then “factor-analyzed” by Cattell. Factor analysis is a statistical
technique. It is a way of summarizing correlation coefficients. Factor analysis can help to reduce or even eliminate the
redundant information in a list of personality descriptors.
Cattell, like Allport, assumed that language has evolved to capture the important aspects of personality. So, he started with a
list, derived from Allport’s, that seemed to contain all the non-synonymous adjectives that refer to personality. People were
then rated on these characteristics, and the ratings were combined through factor analysis. Cattell repeated this basic process
in many ways and on various data sets throughout the years. He was amazingly productive in distilling basic factors or
dimensions. Cattell did his graduate work with Charles Spearman, the English psychologist and statistician who is famous for
his pioneering work on assessing intelligence, including the development of the idea of a general factor of intelligence termed
g. Q-data is the name that Cattell gave to data that are gathered from self-reports and questionnaires (questionnaire data). But
recognizing that people often do not have a good understanding of their own personalities, Cattell argued that two other kinds
of information should also be collected. T-data are data collected by placing a person into some controlled test situation and
noting or rating responses; these data are observational (test data). L-data consist of information gathered about a person’s
life, such as from school records (life data). Obviously, a valid personality trait should show up in the course of life. Cattell
endeavored to see if the same trait could be captured in different ways. This approach to construct validation has been used
frequently since then in assessing the validity of personality traits.
Based on his factor analytic findings, Cattell (1966) proposed that there are 16 basic personality traits. Cattell labeled the
factors that emerged with letters of the alphabet rather than trait names to emphasize that they were an objective result of the
statistical method, not biased by preconceived notions. These factors are typically assessed in an individual using the Sixteen
Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF).
Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factors (16PF) {each represented by the labels of the opposite ends of the continuum for that factor}

Contributions and Limitations

Contributions of Cattell’s Structure Based System Theory
 Raymond Cattell's principal contribution to trait theory was the construction of a structure confirmed by sixteen
specific primary scales, which are able to explain the individual differences existing between people's personalities.
 Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Model aims to construct a common taxonomy of traits using a lexical approach to
narrow natural language to standard applicable personality adjectives.
 Since psychology, like most other sciences, requires a descriptive model to be effective, the construction of a
common taxonomy is necessary to successful in explaining personality simplistically.
 He became a pioneer because of the use of factorial analysis to relate every word with each other and determine those
who could best describe personality.
Limitations of Cattell’s Structure Based System Theory
 Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Model has been greatly criticized by many researchers, mainly because of the
inability of replication.
 More than likely, during Cattell's factor analysis errors in computation occurred resulting in skewed data, thus the
inability to replicate.
 Cattell, himself, published the results of his own factor analysis of the 16 Personality Factor Model, which also failed
to verify the hypothesized primary factors.
EYSENCK’S BIOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY
Eysenck (1952, 1967, 1982) proposed a theory of personality based on biological factors, arguing that individuals inherit a type
of nervous system that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment. Eysenck (1947) found two dimensions:
Introversion/Extroversion (E); Neuroticism/Stability (N). Eysenck called these second-order personality traits.
 Extraversion/Introversion; extraverts are sociable and crave excitement and change, and thus can become bored easily.
They tend to be carefree, optimistic and impulsive. They are more likely to take risks and be thrill seekers. Eysenck
argues that this is because they inherit an under aroused nervous system and so seek stimulation to restore the level of
optimum stimulation. Introverts on the other hand lie at the other end of this scale, being quiet and reserved. They
are already over-aroused and shun sensation and stimulation. Introverts are reserved, plan their actions and control
their emotions. They tend to be serious, reliable and pessimistic.
 Neuroticism/Stability; a person’s level of neuroticism is determined by the reactivity of their sympathetic nervous
system. A stable person’s nervous system will generally be less reactive to stressful situations, remaining calm and
level headed. Someone high in neuroticism on the other hand will be much more unstable, and prone to overreacting
 to stimuli and may be quick to worry, anger or fear. They are overly emotional and find it difficult to calm down once
upset. Neurotic individuals have an ANS that responds quickly to stress.
 Psychoticism/Normality; Eysenck (1966) later added a third trait/dimension, psychoticism, e.g., lacking in empathy,
cruel, a loner, aggressive and troublesome. This has been related to high levels of testosterone. The higher the
testosterone, the higher the level of psychoticism, with low levels related to more normal balanced behavior.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Eysenck’s Biological Typology
 One of the major advantages of Eysenck's personality theory is that it takes a combined approach to explaining
personality and crime, considering both psychological and biological factors.
 Eysenck’s theory argues strongly that biological predispositions towards certain personality traits combined with
conditioning and socialization during childhood in order to create our personality.
 This interactionist approach may, therefore, be much more valid than either a biological or environmental theory
alone.
 One good element of Eysenck’s theory is that it takes into account both nature and nurture. Eysenck’s theory argues
strongly that biological predispositions towards certain personality traits combined with conditioning and socialization
during childhood in order to create our personality. This interactionist approach may, therefore, be much more valid
than either a biological or environmental theory alone.
Limitations of Eysenck’s Biological Typology
 Eysenck's theory has also been criticised for lacking explanatory power.
 Research on personality relies heavily on self-report measures of personality devised by Eysenck. Naturally, this could
suggest that the scales are subject to response bias.
 It is a reductionist explanation.
 IV. BEHAVIORIST AND LEARNING PERSPECTIVES
Behaviorist approaches strike at the very heart of most other personality approaches, which rely on ideas of internal traits,
tendencies, defenses, and motivations. Behaviorists reject such concepts; they see people as controlled absolutely by their
environments.
ORIGIN OF BEHAVIOURISTS APPROACHES
Around the beginning of the twentieth century, not only Freud but also many experimental philosopher–psychologists, such
as Wilhelm Wundt, were studying psychology using subjective analyses of the human mind, asking people to introspect about
their thoughts or to free associate to reveal unconscious processes. This approach was fraught with methodological
difficulties. There was no way of validating or verifying the data and conclusions. In response to the perceived limitations of
introspectionism, behaviorism, the key learning approach in psychology, was founded by John B. Watson. Watson wanted to
develop a rigorous science and thus completely rejected introspection. According to Watson, thoughts and feelings elicited
through introspection are unobservable and unscientific.
Recently, the technology that enables people to experience virtual reality (VR) has improved substantially both in terms of the
quality of the experience created and the cost (in time and money) of creating the simulated environments. Current research is
focusing on the use of VR therapy for phobias by applying the techniques of systematic desensitization using electronically
simulated anxiety-provoking situations rather than imagined ones or actual ones. The application of behaviorist conditioning
techniques to therapy developed into a field sometimes referred to as behavior modification or applied behavior analysis.
THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING OF PERSONALITY
The philosophical basis for the learning approach to personality was laid down by the English philosopher John Locke (1632-
1704). Locke viewed an infant as a blank slate, tabula rasa, on whom the experiences of life would write their tale. This
assumption does not preclude certain other approaches to personality, but it definitely elevates the great influence of the
situation. However, as all psychology students know, it was the brilliant Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov (1849-
1936) who laid the foundation for modern learning approaches.
Conditioning a response to a stimulus
Studying digestion in dogs, Pavlov discovered the important principle called classical conditioning. He presented food (the
unconditioned stimulus), which causes salivation in dogs (the unconditioned or automatic response), to a hungry dog, at the
same time pairing it with something that normally did not cause salivation, such as a bell (a neutral stimulus). Pavlov found
that if he paired the food presentation and bell a number of times, eventually merely the sound of the bell elicited salivation;
that is, the conditioned stimulus (the bell) came to elicit a conditioned response (salivation). Similarly, people can be
conditioned to salivate in response to the sound of a food chime on a ranch. Normally, of course, bells have nothing to do
with salivation. But dogs and people can learn (i.e., be conditioned to) an automatic association. Pavlov also noted that the
conditioned response would occur in response to stimuli that were similar to the conditioned stimulus, indicating that there
was generalization of the conditioning. However, the conditioned response would not occur for all possible similar stimuli,
indicating that the animal also could learn to tell the difference between different stimuli; this is called discrimination. Thus, if
the food followed a bell of only one tone and did not follow the ringing of a bell of other tones, the dog would discriminate
this one tone, and the conditioned response would occur only in response to that particular relevant tone.
Many behavioral reaction patterns are explainable by classical conditioning. Neutral stimuli associated with positive, enjoyable
occurrences become “likes,” but events or consequences associated with negative responses become “dislikes” (or worse).
Pavlov’s constructs thus often provide a basis for explaining emotional aspects of personality. If the pairing of the conditioned
and unconditioned stimulus stops, then extinction may occur; that is, the conditioned response becomes less frequent, the
association weakens over time until it disappears. In other words, “personality” (pattern of response) changes.
Conditioning of a neurotic behavior
Pavlov, in fact, was able to condition a response similar to neurotic behavior in a dog. First, he associated food presentation
with a circle but not with an ellipse, and the dog developed a conditioned response to the circle, discriminating it from the
ellipse. Then Pavlov gradually increased the roundness of the ellipse so it approximated the circle. When the dog could no
longer discriminate the circle from the ellipse, it began to exhibit neurotic behaviors. This hints that neuroticism may be a
conditioned response, fostered by an environment that requires the individual to discriminate between events under
conditions in which that judgment is almost impossible.
Complexities in application of conditioning principles
Modern research suggests that classical conditioning is not as simple as Pavlov had hoped. For example, he assumed that
conditioning principles were general rules that applied uniformly to all animals, but it is now known that different organisms
are more easily conditioned to respond in certain ways to certain stimuli. Hungry dogs can be conditioned to salivate with a
bell that is paired with the sight and smell of meat, but each species and even each individual has certain tendencies that
facilitate or impair certain learning. For example, humans rely more on visual cues than smells, and different people have
different perceptual and aesthetic inclinations. Yet classical conditioning remains a powerful explanation of response patterns,
especially when there is a strong natural pairing of stimulus and automatic response. However, much more of our learned
patterns of responses comes by experiencing or anticipating the consequences (effects) of actions. This is the focus of
behaviorist approaches to personality.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Classical Conditioning
 Classical conditioning emphasizes the importance of learning from the environment, and supports nurture over
nature.
 A strength of classical conditioning theory is that it is scientific. This is because it's based on empirical evidence
carried out by controlled experiments.
Limitations of Classical Conditioning
 Applying classical conditioning to the understanding of complex human behavior such as memory, thinking,
reasoning or problem-solving has proved more problematic.
 Another criticism of classical conditioning theory is that it is deterministic. This means that it does not allow for any
degree of free will in the individual.
WATSON’S BEHAVIOURISM
Watson demonstrated the manner in which emotional responses are conditioned when he applied Pavlov’s theory, developed
through the study of animals, to the conditioning of little Albert, an 11-month-old boy. They conditioned Albert to fear a rat,
an animal that did not initially provoke a fear reaction in the baby. They repeatedly made a sudden loud noise (hitting a
hammer against a steel bar, a noise that had severely frightened little Albert during pretesting) to startle the infant when the rat
was presented, or when he reached for the rat with interest. Soon, the mere sight of the rat made him cry. Generalization was
also demonstrated as little Albert’s conditioned fear generalized to other furry objects, including a rabbit, a dog, and a fur coat.
Poor Albert even feared a Santa Claus mask. This study thus suggested that an emotional response that was conditioned to
one stimulus could result in later emotional reaction to a variety of events/stimuli. It also demonstrated that any neutral
stimulus might end up eliciting an emotion. Watson believed that this was how most of personality was formed.
Watson and Rayner’s approach was also used to counter-condition the fear of rats, rabbit fur, feathers, and the like, in a little
boy called Peter. Peter played with three other children while a fear-inducing rabbit was present; the fear was gradually
extinguished by slowly bringing the rabbit closer and closer to the child while keeping him happy. This was one of the first
documented cases of the use of what has come to be called systematic desensitization. Peter became desensitized to the rabbit;
thus, this aspect of his personality changed. This deconditioning of phobias by treatment using systematic desensitization
techniques is now a common and successful form of therapy. This suggests that even highly emotional aspects of personality
can disappear (be extinguished) over time.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Watson’s Behaviorism
 Behaviorism is based upon observable behaviors, so it is easier to quantify and collect data and information when
conducting research.
 The behaviourist approach has been used in the treatment of phobias, systematic desensitisation. The process of
classical conditioning can probably account for aspects of certain other mental disorders, such as PTSD.
 Effective therapeutic techniques such as intensive behavioral intervention, behavior analysis, token economies and
discrete trial training are all rooted in behaviorism
Limitations of Watson’s Behaviorism
 The primary drawback of behaviorism is that it does not take into account cognition and social thinking.
 Many critics argue that behaviorism is a one-dimensional approach to understanding human behavior and that
behavioral theories do not account for free will and internal influences such as moods, thoughts and feelings.
THE RADICAL BEHAVIOURISM OF B.F. SKINNER
Burrhus Frederick Skinner (1904–1990) was also influenced by the pioneering experimental psychologist Edward Thorndike,
whose Law of Effect argued that the consequences of a behavior (i.e., the effect) will either strengthen or weaken that
behavior. Learning initially comes about through trial and error. Humans learn to do those actions that bring rewards or help
to avoid pain. Later, he developed principles called operant conditioning. In operant conditioning, behavior is changed by its
consequences; that is, Skinner manipulated the environment in such a way that he was able to train animals (rats, pigeons) to
do things that were far from their native behaviors. He did this by gradually shaping successive approximations to the desired
behavior.
Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning emphasized the study of overt, observable behavior, environmental conditions, and
the process by which environmental events and circumstances determine behavior. Thus, the theory places its emphasis on
the function of behavior (what it does) rather than the structure of personality. It is also a deterministic theory, in which there
is no free will. According to Skinner, the term “personality” is meaningless. There is no place for internal components of
personality, psychical structures (id, ego, superego) traits, self-actualization, needs, or instincts. This strong rejection of
“mentalism” in favor of directly observable behaviors has been an ongoing conflict between behaviorism and most other
psychological theorizing.
To Pavlov’s ideas, Skinner added and developed the important notion that responses produced by the organism have
environmental consequences; if the responses are rewarded, then they are more likely to appear again. Skinner argued that
most behavior of a person or other organism is of this type and that it is these operant behaviors, taken together, that people
call personality. Skinner cleverly analyzed the behavior of a superstitious individual, without relying on any internal aspects of
personality. Because Skinner, like Watson, believed that a child (like a pigeon) was a function of the environment, he set out to
design the best ways to raise children and even to structure whole communities. His inquiries led to the invention of what is
sometimes called the Skinner box (although Skinner himself did not call it this and did not like others to use this designation).
In this enclosure, termed the experimental chamber or operant chamber, the animal (or child) was segregated from all
irrelevant environmental influences, except those under the control of the experimenter. For animals, the box contained either
a lever (to be pressed by the rat) or a key (to be pecked by a pigeon). This lever or key, when pecked or pressed, triggered
release of a food pellet (providing positive reinforcement) or stopped the administration of an aversive stimulus like a shock
(providing negative reinforcement). The reinforcement rate could be carefully calibrated and controlled, and the rate of
pressing/pecking was registered by the device. Even the earliest of the boxes allowed accurate measurement of the response
rate while the reinforcement rate and schedule were controlled. Partial reinforcement schedules, in which the reward was
delivered intermittently, were generally found to be most effective at shaping behavior patterns.
Skinner would explain that if a person has experiences in which a behavior (like wearing one’s shiny black shoes) coincides
with getting an A on exams, especially on a few random occasions, the person continues that behavior because the
reinforcement strengthens the performance of the behavior even though there is no causal connection. There is no need to
propose a “superstitious personality.” Skinner found that any one animal’s learning and behavior did not look like the average
animal’s behavior, emphasizing the individuality of environmental conditions and responses. He therefore stressed that people
must apply the principles of learning to each organism individually. Thus, his was an idiographic (rather than nomothetic)
approach. He did, however, look for general laws of learning that would apply equally to all organisms, human and non-
human, underscoring a common process.
Explanatory fictions are Skinner’s terms the non-behaviorists employ to describe behavior. Skinner believed that people use
these concepts when they do not understand the behavior involved or are unaware of the pattern of reinforcements that
preceded or followed the behavior. Examples of explanatory fictions for Skinner include freedom, autonomous man, dignity,
and creativity. According to behaviorism, using such terms as explanations for behavior is simply incorrect. Skinner believed
that this type of explanation is actually harmful: it gives a misleading appearance of being satisfactory and thus might preclude
the search for more objective variables.
 Freedom is the label that people attach to behavior when they’re unaware of the causes of the behavior. Skinner
suggests that the feeling of freedom is not really freedom; furthermore, he believes that the most repressive forms of
control are those that reinforce the feeling of freedom, such as the voters’ “freedom” to choose between candidates
whose positions are extremely similar. These repressive tactics restrict and control action in subtle ways not easily
discernible by the people being controlled.
 Autonomous man is an explanatory fiction Skinner described as an indwelling agent, an inner person who is moved by
vague inner forces independent of the behavioral contingencies. To be autonomous is to initiate “uncaused”
behavior, behavior that does not arise from prior behaviors and is not attributable to external events. Skinner found
no evidence that such an autonomous being exists, and he was distressed that so many people believed in the idea.
 Dignity (or credit or praise) is another explanatory fiction. The amount of credit a person receives is related in a
curious way to the visibility of the causes of his behavior.
 Skinner derides the opinions of creative artists who maintain that their works are spontaneous or arise from sources
beyond the artist’s life experience.
 Skinner considers the notion of will confusing and unrealistic. For him, will, free will, and willpower are nothing more
than explanatory fictions. Skinner assumes that no action is free.
 Skinner considers the term self an explanatory fiction.
Operant conditioning
Operant behaviors are behaviors that occur spontaneously. Operant behavior is strengthened or weakened by the events that
follow the response, whereas respondent behavior is controlled by its antecedents, operant behavior is controlled by its
consequences. The conditioning that takes place depends on what occurs after the behavior has been completed. Skinner
became fascinated by operant behaviors, because he could see that they can be linked to far more complex behaviors than is
true of respondent behaviors. Skinner concluded that almost any naturally occurring behavior in an animal or in a human can
be trained to occur more often, more strongly, or in any chosen direction. Operant conditioning is the process of shaping and
maintaining a particular behavior by its consequences. Therefore, it takes into account not only what is presented before the
response but what happens after the response. Extensive research on the variables that affect operant conditioning has led to
the following conclusions:
(1) Conditioning can and does take place without awareness
(2) Conditioning is maintained in spite of awareness
(3) Conditioning is less effective when the subject is aware but uncooperative
A reinforcer is any stimulus that follows the occurrence of a response and increases or maintains the probability of that
response. Reinforcers may be either positive or negative. A positive reinforcer strengthens any behavior that produces it. A
negative reinforcer strengthens any behavior that reduces or terminates it. Negative reinforcers are aversive: they are stimuli a
person or an animal turns away from or tries to avoid. Positive and negative consequences regulate or control behaviors. This
is the core of Skinner’s position; he proposes that all behavior is shaped by a combination of positive and negative reinforcers.
Moreover, he asserts, it is possible to explain the occurrence of any behavior if one has sufficient knowledge of the prior
reinforcers. Skinner conducted his original research on animals; the reinforcers he used included food, water, and electric
shocks. The connection between the reinforcers and the animals’ needs was straightforward. For example, a hungry animal
learned to do a task, such as open a hatch or push a lever, and was rewarded with food. The reinforcements are more difficult
to perceive when one investigates more complex or abstract situations. Primary reinforcers are events or stimuli that are
innately reinforcing. They are unlearned, present at birth, and related to physical needs and survival. Examples are air, water,
food, and shelter. Secondary reinforcers are neutral stimuli that become associated with primary reinforcers so that they
eventually function as reinforcers. Money is one example of a secondary reinforcer; it has no intrinsic value, but money or the
promise of money is one of the most widely used and effective reinforcers. How often or how regularly a new behavior is
reinforced affects how quickly the behavior is learned and how long or how often it will be repeated. Continuous
reinforcement will increase the speed at which a new behavior is learned. Intermittent or partial reinforcement will produce
more stable behavior, that is, behavior that will continue to be produced even after the reinforcement stops or appears rarely.
Thus, researchers have found that to change or maintain behaviors, the scheduling is as important as the reinforcement itself.
Reinforcing a correct response improves learning. It is more effective than punishment (aversive control), because
reinforcement selectively directs behavior toward a predetermined goal. The use of reinforcement is a highly focused and
effective strategy for shaping and controlling desired behaviors.
Punishment provides no information about how to do something correctly. It neither meets the demands of the person
inflicting the punishment nor benefits the person receiving it. Thus, it inhibits personal growth. People who make mistakes
want to learn how to correct their error or how to come to the correct solution next time. Skinner concluded that although
punishment may be used briefly to suppress a behavior that is highly undesirable or could cause injury or death, a far more
useful approach is to establish a situation in which a new, competing, and more beneficial behavior can be learned and
reinforced.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Radical Behaviorism of Skinner
 He argued that a person's behavior and the environmental factors that influence it are much more crucial to the
fundamental understanding of a person's psychological state.
Limitations of Radical Behaviorism of Skinner
 The key weakness of this theory is its attempt to explain the behaviors of an individual solely through visible
phenomena.
 Some critics have argued that Skinner’s work concentrates too much on the environment and too little on the person.
OTHER LEARNING APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY
In the 1930s and 1940s, a number of experimental psychologists became dissatisfied with the notion that behavior is totally a
function of the events in the environment. They believed it was also important to take into account internal characteristics of
the organism, such as how hungry or tired it was. But they still wanted to maintain a totally objective (often rat-based)
approach. One of the most influential of these theorists was Clark Hull.
Roles of internal drives
Hull’s emphasis was on experimentation, an organized theory of learning, and the nature of habits, which were, according to
Hull, simply associations between a stimulus and a response. For Hull, the organism (usually a white rat) makes responses that
lead to a goal that alleviates a drive. These responses in themselves become stimuli for further responses and intervene
between the stimulus (e.g., hunger) and response (e.g., eating). So, for example, the rat must learn to make a variety of moves
to get through the maze before it can reach the food and reduce its hunger drive. As applied to humans, this explains how a
goal such as becoming rich can be learned, even though it is quite distant from an innate drive such as hunger. People learn
that money and success can lead to drive reduction (such as allowing us access to good food). But it all comes back to basic
innate or primary drives; hunger, thirst, sex, and the avoidance of pain. What is important for understanding Hullian learning
approaches to personality is that Hull turned attention to the internal state of the organism during learning, although he still
emphasized the reinforcements provided by the environment. This allowed later development of more complex learning-
based approaches than would result from a strict focus on stimulus and response.
Extending Hull’s concepts of drives, learning, and secondary drives, Dollard and Miller attempted to explain the development
of internal conflicts that result in behaviors (symptoms) of neurosis and disorders such as obsessive-compulsive behavior. For
example, children have (primary) sexual drives but sometimes may be punished for acting on them. If the punishment results
in the conditioning of a fear response to this drive, the primary and secondary drives may conflict in an approach–avoidance
conflict. The individual is both drawn to and away from the sexual object, resulting in anxious, neurotic behavior. There can
likewise be an approach–approach conflict, in which a person (or rat) is drawn to two equally attractive choices, and an avoidance–
avoidance conflict, in which the individual is repulsed by two equally undesirable choices.
Social learning theory: Dollard and Miller
A very productive and influential group of investigators from various backgrounds coalesced at Yale in the 1930s and were
heavily influenced by Hull. One of these was Neal Miller. He worked in a research paradigm of environmental reinforcements
in laboratory rats, like a good experimental behaviorist; however, he continued Hull’s focus on internal drives, both in terms
of physiology (such as brain mechanisms) and motivation. Furthermore, he tried to understand the deeper issues of the psyche
that Freud and others had raised. When John Dollard and Neal Miller met and started collaborating, they together represented
almost all the important traditions relevant to the study of personality; the psychoanalytic and ego aspects, the social and
anthropological aspects, and the biological and cognitive aspects, all in the overall context of a learning and behaviorist
framework. It is fascinating to see what emerged from this blend of fundamental ideas, an approach to personality called social
learning theory. Simply put, social learning theory proposes that the likelihood of responding in certain ways, termed “habits”
are built up in terms of a hierarchy of secondary, or acquired, drives.
In other words, for Miller and Dollard (1941) there is a learned hierarchy of likelihoods that a person will produce particular
responses in particular situations. They call this a habit hierarchy. In essence, the individual’s experiences result in learning
what the likelihood is that a specific response in a particular situation results in reward. The behavior a person is most likely to
do is at the top of the hierarchy. Through this implicit learning process, the responses most likely to result in reward become
the responses most likely to occur. Social learning theories see this personal ranking as responsible for individual differences
that people often term personal style or personality. Importantly, many of the important reinforcers that determine a person’s
habit hierarchy are social in nature, coming from people in the social environment. The concept of secondary drives attempts
to describe how the (adult) human personality, in all of its complexity, can be conditioned from the infant stage, when the
child is just a bundle of undifferentiated primary physiological drives (hunger, thirst, sex, comfort, and the avoidance of pain).
That is, the concept of secondary drive is used to explain the development of complex motivations like love and power, and
then traditional personality constructs, like the trait of extroversion.
An aspect of this notion of secondary drives as derived from the primary drive of feeding was applied to the concept of
attachment to the mother and examined by Harry Harlow’s famous studies of rhesus monkeys. Infant monkeys were
separated from their mothers, and some of the infants were fed by feeding bottles attached to a bare wire cylinder. Harlow
demonstrated that infant monkeys did not develop a secondary drive of attachment to these wire surrogate mothers; they
preferred soft, terry cloth-covered surrogate mothers (even non-feeding ones). In other words, attachment did not derive
from its association with nourishment. Although this finding did not totally negate the concept of attachment as a secondary
drive, it did suggest that contact comfort itself has a primary drive status in these primate infants. Not only did such studies
suggest that the developing child needs more than to have primary needs like hunger satisfied, but they also showed the
difficulty of simply accounting for the social needs and tendencies using only concepts like primary drives.
 V. COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES
People think about and try to understand the world around them. This fact is so important that all personality theories
attempt to take it into account. But cognitive approaches to personality view perception and cognition as the core of what it
means to be a person. The way that people interpret their environments, especially their social milieu, is seen as central to their
humanness, and the ways in which people differ from one another in how they do this is seen as central to their individuality.
ROOTS OF COGNITIVE APPROACHES
Although philosophers have long been concerned with the nature of the human mind, it was not until Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution expanded thinking about human nature that cognitive psychology could begin in earnest; that is, after the
human mind came to be seen in biological terms, scientists could begin to explore how thinking changed as a child developed,
was influenced by different circumstances, and was shaped by culture.
Roots in Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology was an intellectual movement that became very influential in Germany in the 1920s, and it was brought to
America in the 1930s as many of its foremost thinkers fled fascism. The central tenets of Gestalt theory are: (1) human beings
seek meaning in their environments, (2) people organize the sensations we receive from the world around into meaningful
perceptions, and (3) complex stimuli are not reducible to the sum of their parts. The German word gestalt means pattern or
configuration. The view from Gestalt theory is that the configuration of a complex stimulus is its essence. From this
perspective, component elements of a stimulus or experience cannot be added up to re-create the original. The essence of the
original resides in its overall configuration, which is lost when subparts are analyzed separately.
Kurt Lewin’s field theory
Kurt Lewin came directly out of the Gestalt tradition, but unlike most Gestalt theorists, he focused his efforts in the areas of
personality and social psychology rather than perception and problem solving. Lewin published his field theory in 1935. His
notion of “field” can be seen either as a field in the mathematical sense of vector forces or as a playing field (a field of life). It
focuses on the life space, all the internal and external forces that act on an individual, and the structural relationships between
the person and the environment. For example, a person’s family life might be one region of the life space and religion another.
For some people, the spaces are cleanly and clearly divided, with boundaries that keep issues and emotions from each region
fully independent. Other people have more openness in the boundaries, so the different regions of life exert more influence
on one another. Lewin’s definition of personality focused on the momentary condition of the individual, the idea of
contemporaneous causation. Although he allowed for deep psychoanalytic forces, and evolved biological influences, and the
press of the situation, Lewin argued that how we behave is caused at the moment of its occurrence by all the influences that
are present in the individual at that moment. Because he attended so closely to what was going on in a person’s mind at any
moment, his orientation can be considered a cognitive position, although its simultaneous attention to the situation also makes
it an interactionist position. The various approaches to personality can sometimes overlap more than one of the basic aspects.
Cognitive style variables
All individuals have distinctive, enduring, cognitive styles of dealing with their everyday tasks of perception, problem solving,
and decision making. People differ on many dimensions, such as whether they’re color reactors or form reactors (i.e., when
objects vary in both color and form, which dimension is seen as most important); generally attentive or inattentive; analyzers
(who concentrate on separate parts of things) or synthesizers (who concentrate on patterns and the whole picture); evaluative
or non-evaluative; effortless intuition versus deliberate reasoning; people who see the world in complex, sophisticated terms
or those who see it in simpler terms; and so on. These differences explain why a person shows up at a garden party wearing a
Hawaiian sport shirt with polyester pants and white buck shoes, while another comes dressed all in black cotton with a touch
of white trim. One such cognitive style variable is field dependence. People who are highly field dependent are very influenced
in their problem-solving by aspects of the context (field) in which the problem occurs that are salient (highly noticeable) but
not directly relevant to solution; other people are field independent and aren’t as influenced by contextual factors.
Another cognitive style variable relevant to personality is cognitive complexity, the extent to which a person comprehends,
utilizes, and is comfortable with a greater number of distinctions or separate elements among which an entity or event is
analyzed, and the extent to which the person can integrate these elements by drawing connections or relationships among
them. People low in cognitive complexity see the world in more absolute and simpler terms, preferring unambiguous
problems and straightforward solutions. An important component of cognitive complexity is comfort in dealing with
uncertainty. People high in cognitive complexity tend to be relatively more comfortable in dealing with uncertainty, and those
lower in cognitive complexity are more oriented toward certainty. Individuals tend to move toward higher levels of cognitive
complexity as they get older and accumulate more life experience. Individual differences in cognitive style also show up in
what is termed learning style, the characteristic way in which an individual approaches a task or skill to be learned. That is,
people vary in their preferred approaches to a learning task, in multidimensional ways, and these individual preferences are
stable tendencies. For example, an individual student might approach his or her first course in an unfamiliar field with a
holistic style, trying to build his or her own understanding of the topic and trying to see relationships between the new topic
and things the student has learned in other courses. Another student might have a more analytic approach, preferring to take
in information in the order presented by the course, and building his or her understanding of the topic as a separate module
isolated from other knowledge.
COGNITIVE AND PERCEPTUAL MECHANISMS
Like Freud, Piaget was first interested in biology and then studied for a while with Carl Jung. However, he soon turned to a
focus on intellectual development (including the development of his own children) and went on to have a major impact on
cognitive conceptions of the development of personality. Piaget proposed a cognitive-structure explanation of how children
develop concepts about the world around them.
Schema theory
According to Piaget (1952), children progress through a series of cognitive stages as they mature. At each stage, the content of
their knowledge and the nature of their reasoning become more sophisticated. New cognitive structures, called schemas, build
on the structures (schemas) acquired earlier. For example, we now know that human newborns have an innate preference to
listen to human speech (more than to other sounds) and to focus their eyes on human faces (more than on other visual
stimuli). As babies encounter human speech and human faces, they build on this groundwork to develop complex cognitive
structures, and patterns of understanding the world. A 9-year-old child viewing a sexual scene on a TV soap opera actually
“sees” or understands something different than does either a 2-year-old or a mature adult. The schema that is activated in a
given situation is a major determinant of a person’s expectations, inferences, and actions in that situation. Such schemas exist
at many levels, and schemas at different levels can simultaneously be active in influencing our behavior. Suppose, for example,
a person (Pat) is going out on a first date with a new acquaintance (Chris), planning to have dinner and then see a movie. As
Pat sits down at their table in the restaurant, many schemas are simultaneously relevant in guiding Pat’s behavior. One of these
might be a schema for the event of eating in a restaurant. (Sometimes a schema for a familiar event is called a script because,
like the script of a play, it specifies the roles and actions of all the participants along with the props and the setting.) Pat
knows, among other things, what the server is likely to say and how to respond appropriately. People usually do not think
about these schemas or scripts unless they break down, as might be the case when they travel to a different country. Another
relevant schema for Pat might be the script for a first date, which influences Pat’s expectations of what to do, as well as what
to expect Chris will do. Pat will be using the specific conversational and linguistic schemas that govern the ways of talking to
people who are in particular social categories (such as friend), or who have particular roles to play in an interaction (such as
date). If Chris responds with a “business associate script,” that may very well be the end of that relationship. In other words,
personality can be viewed as a series of cognitive scripts.
Categorization
Categorization is omnipresent and occurs automatically (i.e., without the effort or conscious intention). Automatic
categorization of very complex scenes occurs even when the simple characteristics of the stimulus are too brief or too weak to
reach the conscious awareness. One striking example involves the ability to detect information about the emotional states of
other people from briefly displayed facial expressions. Without necessarily being aware that people detected a particular facial
muscle twitch or a flared nostril or dilated pupil, sometimes even without having conscious or reportable knowledge of what
such a signal might mean, people recognize the emotions associated with those brief stimuli. People perceive anger or interest
or disgust without consciously analyzing the signals that conveyed that information.
Control of attention
Paying attention to all things at once is difficult, and also interferes with ability to concentrate on what the person is doing.
What is interesting about this exercise, though, is that all the sensory information that allowed to hear, smell, feel, taste, and
see the previously unattended aspects of the internal and external environment is always present, always impinging on the
sensory systems. Fortunately for the sanity, people aren’t constantly noticing and attending to it all. On the other hand, people
are constantly doing some monitoring of the environments in all modalities; for example, if there were even a faint smell of
smoke, a person would probably notice it. People pick up on a few key features of their current environments and filter these
in light of their current goals. But people differ in their attention to things and this is a source of stable individual difference.
Cognitive influences on interpersonal relationship
How a person interacts with others is, of course, also influenced by how the individual perceives himself or herself, how the
individual perceives the partner, how the individual categorizes the relationship, and the goals the individual has for the
relationship. These essentially cognitive factors influence how the relationship will proceed. One influential factor is termed
rejection sensitivity. This personality variable captures the extent to which an individual is overly sensitive to cues that he or
she is being rejected by another. When a child experience a repeated and severe rejection by a parent (or other significant
person), the child develops anxious expectations of rejection that are carried into other relationships. This hypersensitivity to
cues of rejection in interpreting the behaviors of other people causes the person to behave in ways that lead, in an unfortunate
spiral, to a greater likelihood of actual rejection.
GEORGE KELLY’S PERSONAL CONSTRUCT THEORY
The thrust of George Kelly’s influential perspective on personality is that each human tries to understand the world and that
they do so in different ways. Because its focus is on people’s active endeavors to construe (understand) the world and
construct their own versions of reality, this approach is (sensibly) called constructivism, or personal construct theory. Kelly’s
(1955) fundamental postulate is that “a person’s processes are psychologically channeled by the ways in which he anticipates
events”. According to this approach, people change as they reorganize their construct systems. Kelly’s theorizing was
especially focused on the domain of interpersonal relationships.
Kelly explicitly used the model of the scientific method to describe general human behavior. Kelly (1955) claimed that “every
man is, in his own particular way, a scientist”. Like the scientist who specifies a hypothesis and then conducts an experiment
to see if the hypothesis accurately predicts the outcome, individuals make up their own “theories” and then use their personal
experiences as the “data” that support (or invalidate) the theory. One key feature of Kelly’s theory clearly differentiates it from
many other approaches to personality. Trait approaches to personality posit a specific set of traits as being central to
explaining human personality, but Kelly (1963) had a radically different idea: humans, each have their own system of
constructs that they use to understand and predict behavior (both own and others). Kelly argues that each person is more or
less a personality theorist, with a personal system of explanations of human behavior.
Role construct; Repertory test
Kelly devised a unique assessment instrument that was designed to evoke one’s personal construct system. Rather than asking
people to rate or rank a set of traits or dimensions of personality that the test creator thinks are important, the goal of this
instrument is to allow the person’s own understanding of personality to emerge through the process of making comparisons.
This well-known instrument is called the Role Construct Repertory Test, or Rep test.
The examiner first elicits the names of 20 to 30 people who fit specific roles in the person’s life (such as father, previous
boyfriend/girlfriend, or disliked teacher). Then, the examiner puts together triads (groups of three) of these figures and the
examinee is asked to identify how two of them differ from the third. The dimension that differentiates among the group is the
construct generated by the subject. For example, suppose a person is given the triad of her sister Annette, her boss Geraldine,
and a disliked teacher Mr. Sorensen, and is asked to say how one of them differs from the other two. If the subject says that
her sister and her boss are both nervous but her disliked teacher is calm, a construct of nervousness–calm is generated. That is
a dimension she uses to think about people. This procedure is repeated a few dozen times with different triads, resulting in a
set of constructs that are taken to be a reflection of the hierarchy of constructs (dimensions) that the examinee believes are
important in understanding and predicting behavior. Each person’s constructs are a unique expression of that individual’s own
view of which characteristics of people are important. Humans, each rely on their own set of key dimensions, and that is what
makes them unique as individuals.
Kelly’s major work was published in 1955 and helped pave the way for more modern social cognition approaches such as
attribution approaches and social learning theories. These theories, like Kelly’s, try to explain the ways in which the individual
perceives the social world and anticipates events, and view these processes as central to understanding human behavior. But it
is important to remember that each person’s explanations function in an interpersonal, cultural, and historical context; that is,
the explanations can change depending on the particular persons, histories, and situations involved.
Attribution theory
Attribution theory, proposed by Fritz Heider (1958), is a social psychology theory that deals with how individuals relate and
make sense of the social world. More specifically, it is concerned with how people translate events around them and how their
translations affect their thinking and behavior. The Attribution Theory is concerned with how individuals perceive the
information they receive, interpret events, and how these form causal judgments. No individual would take an action or
decision without attributing it to a cause or factor. According to Heider, this is aimed at assessing the explanation that people
give to certain behaviors, it considers how individuals interpret their behaviors. The theory of attribution posits that
attribution, whether done internally or externally, has a great influence on how people feel and relate to others. Heider says
that all behavior is considered to be determined by either internal or by external factors:
 External attribution (situational attribution): the ascription of one's own or another's behavior, an event, or an
outcome to causes outside the person concerned, such as luck, pressure from other people, or external circumstances.
Also called environmental attribution.
 Internal attribution (dispositional attribution): a phrase in personality psychology that refers to the tendency to
assign responsibility for others' behaviors due to their inherent characteristics, such as their motives, beliefs or
personality, rather than the external influences, such as the individual's environment or culture.
This is also dependent on individual personality and cognitive behaviors. As a complex psychological process, there have been
diverse attempts to explain this concept using many theories. From an attribution theory perspective, individuals exhibit
creativity when dealing with others people and external factors. There is a three-stage process underlying attribution:
(1) Perception; observe, the person must perceive or observe the behavior.
 (2) Judgment; determine deliberateness, the person must believe that the behavior was intentionally performed.
(3) Attribute; the person must determine if he believes the other person was forced to perform the behavior (in which
case the cause is attributed to the situation) or not (in which case the cause is attributed to the other person).
Kelley advanced Heider's theory by adding hypotheses about factors that affect the formation of attributions:
(1) Consistency information; the degree to which the actor performs that same behavior toward an object on different
occasions.
(2) Distinctiveness information; the degree to which the actor performs different behaviors with different objects.
(3) Consensus information; the degree to which other actors perform the same behavior with the same object.
Fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors
observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of George Kelly’s personal construct theory
 The theory is considered by some psychologists as forerunner to theories of cognitive therapy
 The repertory of a person's constructs and relationships between them provides a basis for predicting his/her
behaviors and judgments
 The main advantage of this theory is the fact that it uncovers tacit knowledge, which is used by individuals in
everyday life, but it is very hard to verbalize
Limitations of George Kelly’s personal construct theory
 They do not use classification methods like the trait theories do and therefore they cannot help an individual to get
extra help
JULIAN ROTTER’S LOCUS OF CONTROL APPROACH
The cognitive approach to personality can be combined with social learning theories to produce a quite sophisticated view of
personality. For example, it seems as if a personality theory should be able to take into account that people work to attain their
goals both because of the consequences (rewards) and because of their thoughts and perceptions about the outcome and its
likelihood. People plan and make choices before they act. Julian Rotter, a social learning theorist, was an important bridge
between traditional social learning theories and the most modern ideas that have come to be called a social-cognitive theory.
According to Rotter, the behaviour depends both on how strongly people expect that the performance will have a positive
result (outcome expectancy) and how much people value the expected reinforcement (reinforcement value). Rotter’s theory
focuses on why an individual performs a behaviour and which behaviour he or she actually performs in a specific situation.
Generalized vs Specific expectancies
In any environment, people have a variety of possibly relevant behaviours in their repertoire. Some of these are more likely to
occur in a particular situation than others. Rotter calls this likelihood that a particular behaviour will occur in a specific
situation its behaviour potential. A particular behaviour, like laughing loudly, may have a high behaviour potential in some
situations (during a hilarious movie) and a low behaviour potential in other situations (during a final exam). There are specific
expectancies that a particular reward will follow behaviour in a particular situation and generalized expectancies that are
related to a group of situations. For example, a person might have the generalized expectation of enjoying parties, but the
additional specific expectancy of not enjoying his father’s office holiday party. Using these constructs, people might think of
the more stable, situationally consistent personality characteristics that they ascribe to others as being the result of their
generalized expectancies (which result in similar behaviours in a variety of similar situations). Those behaviours that people
engage in that are often labelled as being contrary to their personality may arise from their specific expectancies about a
particular situation (resulting in a different behaviour than is usual for them). Because, as outside observers, people rarely have
access to the internal information that directs the actor in specific situations (which contributes to his specific expectancies
and thereby affects his behaviour in that situation), his behaviour, in this case, avoiding the holiday party, appears to others to
be inconsistent with his personality. Rotter says that people tend to weigh generalized expectancies more heavily in new
situations and use specific expectancies when the situation becomes more familiar (and people better know what to expect).
Role of reinforcement and psychological situation
Rotter also proposes that an individual will prefer some reinforcements more than others. The greater the subjective value of
the reinforcement, the more likely a person is to perform a behaviour associated with that valued reinforcement. The value of
any reinforcement is considered in relation to the values of other available reinforcers. According to Rotter, the reinforcer that
will have the highest value is the reinforcement that people expect will lead to other things people value (such as money,
prestige, and so on). These secondary reinforcers are of value because of their association with the satisfaction of important
psychological needs. Rotter describes six psychological needs that develop out of biological needs:
 (1) Recognition (status); the need to achieve, be seen as competent, have positive social standing
(2) Dominance; the need to control others, have power and influence
(3) Independence; the need to make decisions for oneself)
(4) Protection (dependency); the need to have others give one security and help one achieve goals
(5) Love and affection; the need to be liked and cared for by others, and
(6) Physical comfort; the need to avoid pain, seek pleasure, enjoy physical security and a sense of well-being
Behaviour potential, outcome expectancy, and reinforcement potential all come together to form what Rotter terms the
psychological situation. Rotter (1982) notes that the power of the situation in behaviour is frequently downplayed; what is really
important, he contends, is not necessarily the objective situation (as behaviourists might suggest) but the psychological
situation. The psychological situation represents the individual’s unique combination of potential behaviours and their value to
him or her. It is in the psychological situation that a person’s expectations and values interact with the situational constraints
to exert a powerful influence on behaviour.
Locus of Control
The best-known feature of Rotter’s theory is the concept of external versus internal control of reinforcement, or locus of
control. There is either the generalized expectancy that the individual’s own actions lead to desired outcomes, an internal
locus of control; or, there is the belief that things outside of the individual, such as chance or powerful others, determine
whether desired outcomes occur, an external locus of control. Rotter developed a scale of internal-external locus of control
which measures an individual’s beliefs about the determinants of his or her behaviour. Unlike strict behaviourists such as John
Watson or B. F. Skinner, Rotter does believe that individuals have enduring dispositions, despite the important role of the
situation in determining behaviour. In his original conception, Rotter saw locus of control as a stable individual difference
variable with two dimensions (internal and external) influencing a variety of behaviours in a number of different contexts.
In later studies, locus of control (LOC) was found to have three somewhat orthogonal (independent) dimensions; internality,
luck or chance, and powerful others. i.e., external people not only believe that events are beyond their control, but they do so
either in terms of chance or powerful others. Internal locus of control individuals is more likely to be achievement-oriented
because they see that their own behaviour can result in positive effects, and they are more likely to be high achievers as well.
External locus of control people tends to be less independent and also are more likely to be depressed and stressed, just as
Rotter predicted. Over the past half-century, young Americans’ locus of control has become increasingly external. They
believe their lives are more controlled by external forces than their parents believed at the same age. Unfortunately, such
feelings are consistent with increasing cynicism and depression. These people increasingly blame others for their problems.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Julian Rotter’s locus of control approach

 Quantifiable
 A high level of application
 Talks about the genetic influence
 Emphasizes the role of expectancies in determining behavior
 A main idea is that the personality represents an interaction of the individual with his or her environment
Limitations of Julian Rotter’s locus of control approach
 Avoids internal source, i.e., internal sources such as the concept of motivation is not explained
 Gives much more importance to the social learning factors other than that factor
ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY
The fundamental aspect of human behaviour is the focus of Albert Bandura, a social-cognitive theorist whose major work
addresses the nature of observational learning as well as the manner in which the inner person and the demands of a situation
combine to determine a person’s actions. Unlike classical behaviourists, who insist that learning mechanisms be restricted to
explaining the relationships between observable variables, Bandura adopted the view of Clark Hull, that there is a place in
learning theory for unobservable variables (intervening or internal variables) that mediate the relationship between stimulus
and response; and the view of cognitive behaviourist Edward Tolman, that even rats running a maze could develop a
“cognitive map” that would help them learn better than simple stimulus-response behaviourist approaches might suggest.
Self-system
Bandura gives an important role in personality to what he calls the self-system, the set of cognitive processes by which a
person perceives, evaluates, and regulates his or her own behaviour so that it is appropriate to the environment and effective
in achieving the individual’s goals. Thus, the individual is affected not only by external processes of reinforcement provided by
the environment, but also by expectations, anticipated reinforcement, thoughts, plans, and goals, i.e., by the internal processes
of the “self.” The active, cognitive nature of the individual during learning is critical: rather than just responding to direct
reinforcement after the fact by altering behaviour in the future, the person can think about and anticipate the effects of the
environment. The individual can anticipate the possible consequences of his or her own actions and thereby choose an action
based on the anticipated response of the environment and others in it. While classical behaviourist learning theory assumes
that a person’s behaviour changes over time in reaction to the direct effects of reinforcement (and punishment) on the
stimulus–response link, Bandura’s theory claims that the effects of prior reinforcement are internalized and that behaviour
actually changes because of changes in the person’s knowledge and expectations. His approach gives a central role to what he
calls “human agency”, the capacity of a person to exercise control not only over her actions but also over internal thought
processes and motivations. Knowing that a particular behaviour (by the self or another) in a particular situation was reinforced
in the past allows the individual to anticipate that she will be reinforced for that behaviour in the same (or similar) situations in
the future. This approach thus draws on the strengths of both the learning and cognitive approaches to personality.
Observation learning
One of Bandura’s (1973) key contributions was his explanation of how new behaviours can be acquired in the absence of
reinforcement. Bandura noted that people learn so many complex responses that it is impossible for each learned response to
result simply from the operation of reinforcement. So, he expanded the scope of learning theory beyond what was included in
the traditional behaviourist approach. He theorized mechanisms by which people can learn simply by watching others perform
a behaviour, learning without performing the behaviour themselves and without being directly rewarded or punished for the
behaviour. This is called observational learning or vicarious learning (vicarious because it is gained second-hand by watching
the experience of another). It is also referred to as modelling, meaning that a person forms himself or herself in the image of
another. In Bandura’s view, people do not mindlessly copy the behaviour of others, but rather they decide consciously
whether or not to perform a behaviour that was learned by observation. Thus, there is a clear distinction between the
acquisition of a behaviour (adding it to the individual’s repertoire of behaviours) and the later overt performance of that
behaviour. The individual can learn, or acquire, a vast number of behaviours through observational learning, but whether the
individual actually ever performs any particular behaviour depends on a variety of factors.
Learning of aggressive behaviour; Bandura and his colleagues conducted a series of studies, now quite well known, on the
observational learning of aggressive behaviour by children. In these studies, children watched a film that showed an adult
behaving aggressively toward an inflated plastic Bobo clown, punching, hitting, kicking, and hammering it. Children who saw
the aggressive behavior were more likely to behave aggressively when they were later allowed to play with the clown
themselves. Further, when the children saw the adult rewarded for the aggression, the children were even more likely to
behave aggressively themselves than were children in the control condition, in which the adult was neither rewarded nor
punished. Conversely, the children who saw the adult punished were less likely to behave aggressively than the control
children. But seeing the aggressive behavior rewarded was not necessary to induce increased aggression. Children who saw
unrewarded aggression were later more aggressive than children who saw the same adult model display neutral behavior (also
unrewarded). Observational learning did not require observation of the reward; just seeing the aggressive behavior itself was
enough to “teach” it to the children.
A comprehensive review of research on the effects of media violence on children provided “unequivocal evidence that media
violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts”. Observational
learning is a very powerful force, and the level of media violence children experience (in TV, films, video games, computer
games, and popular music) is staggering, given both the proportion of violence in their media sources and the vast number of
hours per week that are spent experiencing those media sources. In addition to outcome expectancy, other factors also
influence the likelihood that another person’s behavior will be modeled. These include characteristics of the model: age,
gender, similarity to the observer, status, competence, and power. Characteristics of the behavior are also important in
determining modeling; for instance, simple behavior is more likely to be modeled than complex behavior. Further, some
categories of behaviors are more salient, and this salience may result in that behavior being observed and reproduced more
often. In addition, a behavior that is admired or desired is more likely to be modeled. The likelihood of modeling is also
influenced by some attributes of the observer (the potential imitator). People with low self-esteem, people who are more
dependent, and people who have had their imitative behavior reinforced more in the past are more likely to imitate. And, by
necessity, observers’ ability to imitate a model is limited by their cognitive and physical development; that is, successful
modeling requires the ability to correctly perceive, encode, and reproduce the behavior. Of course, children’s skills in these
tasks improve with age, allowing the older child to model behavior that is beyond the modeling capability of the younger
child. According to Bandura, observational learning allows the child not only to acquire specific behavioral sequences from
the parent but also to internalize broader patterns of behavior and emotional response, resulting in a child who seems to
resemble the parent in personality. This explanation in terms of observational learning is quite different from other
mechanisms that lead to parent–child similarity.
Comparison with reinforcement-oriented learning theory, in contrast to Skinner’s and other conditioning theories that
are completely dependent on the construct of reinforcement, Bandura’s cognitive social learning theory (1977) accounts for
the learning of novel behaviors in the absence of any observable reinforcement. It allows for the learning of behavior for
which neither model nor observer is rewarded, a common occurrence that behaviorist theory cannot easily explain.
Observational learning also explains how a person learns to inhibit socially unacceptable behaviors without first having to
produce them inappropriately. In addition, observational learning offers reasons why an individual will disinhibit a normally
inhibited or suppressed behavior, and subsequently produce an unacceptable behavior, as a result of exposure to a model that
performs the behavior. This explains group violence and mob behavior (like looting), behavior in which people engage when
they see others performing the behavior, but that they would never think of performing alone.
Unlike behaviorist theorists, whose research relies primarily on animals, Bandura uses the model of cognitive theorists and
performs a rigorous empirical study of his constructs with human subjects. In fact, observational learning can explain the
acquisition of personality characteristics and behaviors that are uniquely human and not well accounted for by traditional
learning theories: moral behavior, delay of gratification, self-critical behavior, and achievement orientation.
Processes underlying in Albert Bandura’s observational learning, according to Bandura, the observation of models and
the repetition of the models’ behavior are not just matters of simple imitation; observational learning also involves active
cognitive processes with four components: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation.
(1) Attention is mainly influenced by the characteristics of the model and the situation
(2) Retention is influenced by the cognitive ability of the observer and his or her capacity to encode the behavior (by the
use of images or verbal representation)
(3) Motor reproduction is influenced by the characteristics of the observer, such as the ability to turn the mental
representation into physical action and the ability to mentally rehearse the behavior
(4) Motivation most influences the actual performance of the behavior that has been observed
In other words, even when a person has observed and acquired a behavior, it will be performed when it leads to valued
outcomes and not performed if it is expected to lead to negative outcomes. For example, TV programs model many illegal
activities that people are not likely to imitate because to do so would put us at risk of punishment by law enforcement. Thus,
the motivational component is highly influenced by both the expected (imagined) and the observed consequences of the
behavior. Although social-cognitive learning theory has been criticized for oversimplifying the cognitive processes involved in
learning, the basic structure proposed is consistent with widely accepted cognitive principles of attention and memory.
Acknowledgment of the concept of self-reinforcement, that people think about the potential consequences of their actions,
leads to the construct of self-regulation; that is, Bandura recognizes that the individual’s internal processes of goals, planning,
and self-reinforcement result in the self-regulation of behavior. Self-punishment can range from feelings of self-disgust or
shame to actually withholding a desired object from oneself (say, not watching a favorite sitcom). In addition, the concept of
self-regulation suggests the operation of internal standards of behavior against which people measure their own success or
failure. Bandura believes that these internal standards may be internalized originally through observational learning (especially
from parents, teachers, and other important models) but eventually may reflect past behavior acting as a standard against
which future behavior is judged.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Albert Bandura’s social cognitive learning theory
 Applicable
 Quantifiable
 While behaviorists focused on how the environment and reinforcement affect behavior, Bandura recognized that
people learn by observing how others behave, including the rewards and punishment they receive
Limitations of Albert Bandura’s social cognitive learning theory
 The theory assumes that changes in the environment will automatically lead to changes in the person, when this may
not always be true
 Disregards the influence of biological factors open-in-new, such as hormones and genetics, on behavior. This limits a
person's behavior to either nature or nurture, rather than recognizing that behavior is the interaction of both one's
biology and environment
 VI. HUMANISTIC AND EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVES
Humanism is a philosophical movement that emphasizes the personal worth of the individual and the centrality of human
values. A humanistic approach to personality like-wise attends to matters of ethics and personal worth. Many approaches to
personality, being deterministic, emphasize the degree to which our behavior is controlled by unconscious forces or prior
experiences. Humanistic approaches, however, resting on the more complex philosophical foundation of existentialism, are
freer to give credit to the human spirit. Abraham Maslow thus called humanistic psychology the “third force” (the first two
forces being behaviorism and psychoanalysis). The term “humanistic” was coined by Abraham Maslow to describe a position
that focuses on the creative potentialities inherent in human beings, and that seeks ways to help them realize their highest and
most important goals. Virtually all of the humanistic theories postulate the existence of an innate growth mechanism within
individuals that will move them toward the realization of their potentialities if environmental conditions are right.
Humanistic approaches emphasize the creative, spontaneous, and active nature of human beings. These approaches are
usually optimistic, as when they focus on the noble human capacity to overcome hardship and despair. Sometimes, however,
these approaches turn pessimistic, as when they contemplate the futility of one person’s actions. Nevertheless, these
approaches are willing to take on the spiritual and philosophic aspects of human nature. This growth process has been
variously labeled by its numerous proponents as the drive toward self-actualization, self-realization, or selfhood.
CARL ROGERS AND PERSON-CENTRED PERSPECTIVE
A key postulate of existential–humanistic approaches is that each person is responsible for his or her own life and maturity.
This idea is best exemplified in the work of the influential humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers. Rogers believed that people
have an inherent tendency toward growth and maturation. But this maturation is not inevitable. Although people are
potentially free to exercise control over their own selves, they must strive to take on this responsibility for themselves, with a
supportive psychosocial environment. Responsibility, like love, is a term often heard in humanistic analyses of personality but
rarely heard elsewhere. Notably, Carl Rogers takes a phenomenological approach to personality: Important issues must be
defined by the individual. The focus of humanistic psychology is on what he called the experiencing person. Of special
concern are discrepancies between what a person thinks of herself and the total range of things she experiences. Inabilities to
accept aspects of oneself are stumbling blocks on the path to personal growth. Rogers had a tremendous influence on the
practice of psychotherapy, which in turn influenced modern ideas about the development of a flourishing, healthy personality.
In Rogerian therapy, the therapist is empathic, supportive, and nondirective.
Fully functioning person
Rogers is, in fact, more concerned with perception, awareness, and experience than with the hypothetical construct, the “self”.
The fully functioning person; a person who’s completely aware of his or her ongoing self. The fully functioning person has
several distinct characteristics;

 The first of which is an openness to experience. There is little or no use of the early warning signals that restrict
awareness. The person is continually moving away from defensiveness and toward direct experience.
 A second characteristic is living in the present, fully realizing each moment. This ongoing, direct engagement with
reality allows “the self and personality [to] emerge from experience, rather than experience being translated or twisted
to fit a preconceived self-structure”. An individual is capable of restructuring his or her responses as experience
allows or suggests new possibilities.
 A final characteristic is trusting in one’s inner urgings and intuitive judgments, an ever-increasing trust in one’s
capacity to make decisions. A person who takes in and utilizes data is more likely to value his or her capacity to
summarize those data and respond. This activity involves not only the intellect but the whole person.
Rogers suggests that the fully functioning person will make mistakes through incorrect information, not incorrect processing
or misperceptions. This self-trust is similar to the behavior of a cat held upside down and dropped to the ground from a
significant height. The cat does not reflect on who dropped it from such a height, what the motives might have been, or what
is likely to occur in the future. The cat does not consider wind velocity, angular momentum, or the rate of descent, yet on
some level takes these factors into account, as can be assumed from the cat’s success in responding. The animal responds to
the immediate situation, the most pressing problem by turning in mid-air and landing upright, instantly adjusting its posture to
cope with the next event. Thus, fully functioning persons are free to respond and free to experience their response to
situations. They represent the essence of what Rogers calls “living the good life.” Such individuals continually further their
self-actualization.
If people are able to utilize their organismic valuing processes fully, they will inevitably begin to experience personal growth
and movement toward realization of their potentials. In Rogers’s terminology, they will be moving toward becoming fully
functioning persons. Such individuals have the following characteristics, according to Rogers;
(1) They are open to experience; fully functioning people are non-defensive individuals who are open to all their feelings;
fear, discouragement, pain, tenderness, courage, and awe. They are fully aware of their experiences and accept them,
rather than shutting them out.
 (2) They are characterized by existential living; fully functioning people live their experiences as they occur in the present,
without trying to superimpose preconceived meaning on them. They are open and flexible, deal with the experience
as it is, and discover its meaning for themselves.
(3) They trust their organisms; fully functioning people do what feels right. This does not mean they are inevitably right
in their choices, but rather that they make their own choices, experience the consequences, and correct them if they
are less than satisfying.
(4) They are creative; creative products and creative living emerge when individuals are open to new experiences, able to
trust their own judgments, and willing to take risks if they feel good about a new venture.
(5) They live richer lives than do other people; fully functioning people live the good life, not in the sense of happiness,
contentment, security, and bliss, although they experience each of these feelings at appropriate times, but a life that is
exciting, challenging, meaningful, and rewarding. Not a life for the fainthearted, it involves taking risks, experiencing
pain occasionally, and facing challenges courageously.
Core conditions
The social self is the organized set of characteristics that the individual perceives as being peculiar to himself or herself. The
social self is primarily acquired through contact with others. Rogers believed that when people interact with significant people
in the environment; parents, brothers, sisters, friends, and teachers, they begin to develop a concept of self that is largely
based on the evaluations of others; that is, they come to evaluate themselves in terms of what others think and not in terms of
what they actually feel. The reason people rely so heavily on the evaluation of others, according to Rogers, is that we have a
strong need for positive regard. Rogers was uncertain whether this need is innate or learned, but maintained that its origins are
less important than its impact on the individual. When people satisfy another’s needs, they experience the satisfaction of their
own need for positive regard. As a consequence, the desire for positive regard from others may become more compelling than
own organismic valuing process. If, for example, people feel that aggression against others is wrong, but significant others
place a positive value on it, they may ignore the validity of the feelings of true self and act in terms of their expectations as a
means of gaining their approval. This need to seek approval and avoid disapproval leads to a social self-concept that is
conditional on the performance of certain kinds of behavior. Such a self-concept carries with it conditions of worth. People
perceive experiences and behaviors as acceptable only if they meet with approval from others; experiences and behaviors that
meet with disapproval they perceive as unacceptable. The ideal condition for the development of a healthy self-concept and
movement toward becoming fully functioning, in Rogers’s view, is unconditional positive regard, a deep and genuine caring by
others, uncontaminated by judgments or evaluations of the thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. With unconditional positive
regard, the self-concept carries no conditions of worth, there is a congruence between the true self and experience, and the
person is psychologically healthy.
 Empathy; the ability to accurately sense the feelings of others. A necessary element in the self-correcting and self-
enhancing cycle to help people overcome obstacles and facilitate psychological growth. In Rogerian psychotherapy,
the practice of empathic understanding is an important aspect. The goal is to comprehend the other’s experience as
the other experiences it, rather than to be objectively correct.
 Unconditional positive regard; caring that demands no personal gratification and is not possessive. It invites the
person to be what he or she actually is, regardless of what that may be. It is not a positive evaluation that can restrict
behaviors by punishing some and rewarding others. Unconditional positive regard is an attitude of total acceptance
towards another person.
 Congruence and genuineness; incongruence is the unwillingness or inability to communicate accurately, or the
inability to perceive accurately, or both. It occurs when differences emerge between experience, communication, and
awareness. The congruence is the degree of accuracy between communication, experience, and awareness. If what
one is expressing (communication), what is occurring (experience), and what one is noticing (awareness) are all nearly
equal, there is a high degree of congruence. Being genuine is being open with one's own feelings, dropping one's
facades, and being transparent and self-disclosing.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Carl Rogers
 Rogers believed that all people possess an inherent need to grow and achieve their potential. This need to achieve
self-actualization, he believed, was one of the primary motives driving behavior. One of Carl Rogers most important
contributions to psychology, and for a person to reach their potential a number of factors must be satisfied.
Limitations of Carl Rogers
 The theory has been criticized for lacking empirical evidence and scientific study.
 Roger's theories of personality and development have been criticized for what is perceived as their overly-optimistic
understanding of human behaviour.
 Rogers also failed to elaborate and explain how self-actualization was an innate potential.
ABRAHAM MASLOW AND TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Humanism and Self-actualization
Maslow laid the groundwork for his theory of self-actualization by making the assumption that each of the human has an
intrinsic nature that is good or, at the very least, neutral. Because this inner nature is good or neutral, he argued, it is best to
encourage its development. If the environment is restrictive and minimizes personal choice, the individual is likely to develop
in neurotic ways, because this inner nature is weak and subject to control by environmental forces. Maslow believed that this
inner tendency, though weak, remains and continuously presses toward actualization. The objective of Maslow’s humanistic
biology was to establish a “scientific ethics, a natural value system, a court of ultimate appeal for the determination of good
and bad, of right and wrong”. Such an ethic would overcome the relativism inherent in traditional appeals to moral authority,
and provide a set of ideals to serve as guides for human conduct. If the inner natures, for example, told that aggression against
others is wrong, then no amount of preaching or exhortation by authorities that it is justified under certain circumstances
would dissuade from the inner conviction. Presumably, humans would be able to cast out this evil in selves. Because the
evidence for a natural ethic is unconvincing, however, people are left with only the word of a moral authority, Maslow, that
such a set of values indeed exists.
The hierarchy of human needs
According to Maslow, human beings have two basic sets of needs that are rooted in their biology: deficiency (or basic) needs,
and growth (or meta) needs. The basic needs are more urgent than the growth needs and are arranged in a hierarchical order.
Maslow acknowledged that there may be exceptions to this hierarchical arrangement. For example, he maintained that there
are creative people whose drive to create is more important than any other need. There are also people whose values and
ideals are so strong that they will die rather than renounce them. The meta needs, in contrast, are not arranged hierarchically.
In general, they are equally powerful and can be easily substituted one for another. When any of these needs is not fulfilled,
the person becomes sick. Just as humans need adequate amounts of vitamin C to remain healthy, so they need love from
others in sufficient quantities to function properly. In order to move toward self-actualization, people must have sufficiently
gratified their basic needs, so that they are free to pursue fulfillment of the higher, transcending, meta needs.
Basic needs
In his theory of the hierarchy of needs, Maslow accomplished an intellectual force. He managed to integrate in a single model
the approaches of the major schools of psychology; behaviorism, psychoanalysis and its offshoots, and humanistic and
transpersonal psychology. He illustrated that no one approach is better or more valid than another. Each has its own place
and its own relevance. Maslow defined neurosis and psychological maladjustment as deficiency diseases; that is, they are
caused by deprivation of certain basic needs, just as the absence of certain vitamins causes illness. The best examples of basic
needs are the physiological ones, such as hunger, thirst, and sleep. Deprivation clearly leads to illness, sooner or later, and the
satisfaction of these needs is the only treatment. Basic needs are found in all individuals. The amount and kind of satisfaction
varies among societies, but basic needs (such as hunger) can never be ignored.
From most to least powerful, the basic needs are the physiological drives, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, and
esteem needs. Certain psychological needs must also be satisfied in order to maintain health. Maslow includes the following as
basic psychological needs: the need for safety, security, and stability; the need for love and a sense of belonging; and the need
for self-respect and esteem. In addition, every individual has growth needs: a need to develop one’s potentials and capabilities
and a need for self-actualization.
One of Maslow’s main points is that people are always desiring something and rarely reach a state of complete satisfaction,
one without any goals or desires. His need hierarchy is an attempt to predict what kinds of desires will arise once the old ones
are sufficiently satisfied and no longer dominate behavior. Many individual exceptions occur, especially in some culture, in
which most basic needs are partially satisfied and still serve to motivate without becoming overwhelming. Maslow developed
his hierarchy as part of a general theory of motivation, not as a precise predictor of individual behavior.
The physiological needs include, among others, hunger, thirst, and sex. People deprived of food for long periods of time,
for example, would begin to focus more and more of their attention on that deficiency. They would start to think and dream
about food in an obsessive way. They would become less and less concerned with other activities, such as fixing the roof,
buying a car, or taking the children on camping and fishing trips. They would also become less interested in what other people
thought of them and in trying to help others. In short, when hunger is not satisfied, people are less concerned with safety
needs, love and belongingness, esteem needs, and movement toward self-actualization. Thus, one implication of Maslow’s
scheme is that few poor people are involved in the quest for self-actualization. The poor use all their energies in finding
enough work to feed themselves and their families. Once people’s physiological needs are relatively well satisfied, however, a
set of safety needs is presumed to emerge. This set includes needs for security, protection, structure, law, order, limits, and
freedom from fear, anxiety, and chaos.
Many people in the culture can satisfy these needs without difficulty. However, if biological needs are not adequately met, the
individual becomes almost completely devoted to fulfilling them. Maslow argues that a person who is literally dying of thirst
has no great interest in satisfying any other needs. But once this particular overwhelming need is met, it becomes less
important, allowing other drives to surface.
In Maslow’s view, the need for security manifests itself in infants and children when their environment is disturbed. For
example, they may feel threatened by loud noises, flashing lights, rough handling, and inadequate support. Needs for safety
may also be reflected in their preference for an environment in which reinforcers are dispensed by caregivers in a systematic
and consistent manner; erratic behavior on the part of parents can be debilitating. Children also need limits on their behavior,
according to Maslow. Without such limits, they function poorly. Maslow maintained that the typical child will often react with
panic in unfamiliar and unmanageable situations. For example, a mother may be surprised to find her young son crying and
clinging to the handrail of a stairway that leads to his classroom a few minutes after he had given her repeated assurances that
he knew how to get there. Like children, adults also have definite needs for safety, but they are more subtle and difficult to
detect. A stable society frees adults from worry about adequate food supplies and housing, about being assaulted on the streets
or in their homes, about military coups or civilian takeovers of the government, and the like. In a more moderate way, people
act to secure tenure in their jobs and to receive old-age pensions and medical coverage in case of illness or accidents.
By safety needs, Maslow means the individual’s need to live in a relatively stable, safe, predictable environment. We have a
basic need for structure, order, and limits. People need freedom from fear, anxiety, and chaos. As with physiological needs,
most people take a smoothly running, stable, protective society for granted.
The needs for belongingness and love tend to emerge once the physiological and safety needs are routinely met. Maslow
argued that all of people need to feel wanted and accepted by others. There is some research that supports Maslow’s belief
that people, all need to feel wanted and accepted by others. Like Maslow, modern personality psychologists maintain that the
needs to belong and feel loved are very powerful and are highly adaptive from an evolutionary perspective. That is, both
survival and reproduction benefit immensely by a person’s being part of a group as opposed to being alone in the world.
Thus, Maslow believed that some of the people gratify these powerful needs through friends, others through family life, and
still others through membership in groups and organizations. Without such ties, people would feel rootless and lonely. The
basic, or deficiency, need for love is a selfish concern with seeking love from others; Maslow termed it D-love (deficiency-
love). Once this need is relatively gratified, however, people become capable of loving others. Maslow called this B-love
(being-love), to distinguish it from the lower need to be loved. B-love, or mature love, becomes possible in Maslow’s system
only when the basic needs have been sufficiently gratified and the person is moving toward self-actualization.
All people have belonging and love needs. People are motivated to seek close relationships with others and to feel part of
various groups, such as family and groups of peers.
Esteem needs are the last of the basic urges to emerge. Maslow maintained that individuals become sick when these needs
are thwarted. He divided them into two sets: esteem based on respect for own competence, independence, and
accomplishments, and esteem based on others’ evaluations. Esteem needs of the second type are best seen in the striving for
recognition from others and in attempts to secure status, fame, dominance, importance, and appreciation. He also believed
that people should base their self-esteem on actual competence and adequacy at the task rather than on praise or criticism
from others. Surely there is little question that acceptance of undeserved praise from others may eventually have harmful
consequences for personal development.
Maslow (1987) described two kinds of esteem needs. First is a desire for competence and individual achievement. Second,
people need respect from others; status, fame, appreciation, and recognition. When these needs are unmet, the individual
tends to feel inferior, weak, or helpless. In Maslow’s view, the esteem needs were stressed by Adler and relatively neglected by
Freud, but awareness of their importance has been growing. Healthy self-esteem comes from personal effort, resulting in
achievement and deserved respect from others.
Maslow loosely defined self-actualization as “the full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities, etc”. Self-
actualization is not a static state. It is an ongoing process in which one’s capacities are fully, creatively, and joyfully utilized.
Maslow found that all self-actualizing people are dedicated to a vocation or a cause. Two requirements for growth are
commitment to something greater than oneself and success at one’s chosen tasks. Major characteristics of self-actualizing
people include creativity, spontaneity, courage, and hard work. Maslow deliberately studied only those who were relatively free
of neurosis and emotional disturbance. He found that his psychologically healthy subjects were independent and self-
accepting; they had few self-conflicts and were able to enjoy both play and work. Although only one of Maslow’s subjects
belonged to an orthodox religious faith, virtually all believed in a life that could be called spiritual. The self-actualizing
subjects, Maslow found, took pleasure in life, despite pain, sorrow, and disappointment. They had more interests and less fear,
anxiety, boredom, or sense of purposelessness. Whereas most other people had only occasional moments of joy, triumph, or
peak experience, self-actualizing individuals seemed to love life in general.
Even if all these needs are satisfied, Maslow points out, individuals still feel frustrated or incomplete unless they experience
self-actualization full use of their talents and capacities. The form that this need takes varies widely from person to person.
Each of the human has different motivations and capacities. To one person, becoming an excellent parent may be a source of
self-actualization; another may feel impelled to achieve as an athlete, painter, or inventor. According to Maslow, more basic
needs must be fulfilled before less critical needs are met.
Transcending self-actualization
Maslow found that some self-actualizing individuals tend to have many peak experiences, whereas other people have them
rarely, if ever. He came to distinguish between self-actualizers who are psychologically healthy, productive human beings, with
little or no experience of transcendence, and those for whom transcendence is important or even central. Transcending self-
actualizers are more often aware of the sacredness of all things, the transcendent dimension of life, in the midst of daily
activities. Their peak or mystical experiences are often valued as the most important aspects of their lives. They tend to think
more holistically than “merely healthy” self-actualizers; they are better able to transcend the categories of past, present, and
future, and good and evil, and to perceive a unity behind the apparent complexity and contradictions of life. They are more
likely to be innovators and original thinkers than systematizers of the ideas of others. As their knowledge develops, so does
their sense of humility and ignorance, and they may come to regard the universe with increasing awe. Because transcenders
generally regard themselves as the carriers of their talents and abilities, they are less ego-involved in their work. Not everyone
who has had a mystical experience is a transcending self-actualizer. Many who have had such experiences have not developed
the psychological health and the productiveness Maslow considered to be essential aspects of self-actualization. Maslow also
found as many transcenders among business executives, managers, teachers, and politicians as among poets, musicians,
ministers, and the like, for whom transcendence is almost assumed.
Meta needs
Once the basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy have been sufficiently gratified, the needs for self-actualization and cognitive
understanding become salient. People seek to gratify their innate curiosity about themselves and the workings of the
environment, to know and understand phenomena that go beyond the gratification of basic needs, to move toward realization
of their own unique potentialities. But movement in this positive direction is not automatic. Discovery of the abilities brings
happiness, but it also brings fear of new responsibilities and duties, fear of the unknown. Maslow called this fear the Jonah
complex. For women, Maslow argued, this fear takes the form of reluctance to make full use of their intellectual abilities,
because achievement is considered unfeminine and they fear social rejection.
The Jonah complex refers to the refusal to realize one’s full capabilities. Just as old, Testament Jonah attempted to avoid the
responsibilities of becoming a prophet, many people avoid responsibility because they actually fear using their capacities to the
fullest. They prefer the security of undemanding goals over ambitious ones that require them to fully extend themselves. This
attitude is not uncommon among students who “get by,” utilizing only a fraction of their talents and abilities. This “fear of
greatness” may be the largest barrier to self-actualization. Living fully is more than many of us feel we can bear. At times of
deepest joy and ecstasy, people often say, “it’s too much,” or, “I can’t stand it”. The root of the Jonah complex lies in the fear
of letting go of a limited but manageable existence, the fear of losing control, being torn apart, or disintegrating.
However, while Maslow’s argument may apply to some women, such fear of success is not present in all women: Piedmont
(1988) found differences among women in terms of their fear of success. For men, the motives underlying fear of success are
different, because success is considered gender-appropriate behavior for males, and does not bring with it a loss in masculinity
or social rejection. Instead, fear of success in men may reflect a wish to avoid the responsibilities that continued success
brings, a feeling that material success somehow will not bring emotional well-being or spiritual fulfillment, or a belief that
success will not bring them enough social recognition.
Meta-motivation
Meta-motivation refers to behavior inspired by growth needs and values. According to Maslow, this kind of motivation is
most common among self-actualizing people, who are by definition already gratified in their lower needs. It often takes the
form of devotion to ideals or goals, to something “outside oneself”. Frustration of meta-needs brings about meta-pathologies;
a lack of values, meaningfulness, or fulfillment in life. Maslow argues that a sense of identity, success in a career, and
commitment to a value system are as essential to one’s psychological well-being as are security, love, and self-esteem.
Grumbles and meta-grumbles
Maslow’s system includes different levels of complaints that correspond to the levels of frustrated needs. In a factory
situation, for example, low-level grumbles might be responses to unsafe working conditions, authoritarian supervisors, or a
lack of job security. These complaints address deprivations of basic needs for physical safety and security. Complaints of a
higher level might be inadequate recognition of accomplishments, loss of prestige, or lack of group solidarity, that is,
complaints based on threats to belonging needs or esteem needs. Meta-grumbles speak to the frustration of meta-needs, such
as perfection, justice, beauty, and truth. This level of grumbling is a good indication that everything else is going fairly
smoothly. When people complain about the unaesthetic nature of their surroundings, for example, it probably means that
their more basic needs have been relatively well satisfied. Maslow assumes that people should never expect an end to
complaints; they should only hope to move to higher levels of complaint. When grumblers are frustrated over the
imperfection of the world, the lack of justice, and so on, it is a positive sign: despite a high degree of basic satisfaction, people
are striving for still greater improvement and growth. In fact, Maslow suggests, a good measure of the enlightenment of a
community is the percentage of meta-grumblers among its members.
Peak experiences
Peak experiences are especially joyous and exciting moments in the life of every individual. Maslow notes that peak
experiences are often inspired by intense feelings of love, exposure to great art or music, or the overwhelming beauty of
nature. Virtually everyone has peak experiences, although people often take them for granted. One’s reactions while watching
a vivid sunset or listening to a moving piece of music are examples of peak experiences. According to Maslow, peak
experiences tend to be triggered by intense, inspiring occurrences. These experiences may also be triggered by tragic events.
Recovering from depression or a serious illness, or confronting death, can initiate extreme moments of love and joy. The lives
of most people are filled with long periods of relative inattentiveness, lack of involvement, or even boredom. By contrast,
peak experiences, understood in the broadest sense, are those moments when people become deeply involved, excited by, and
absorbed in the world. The most powerful peak experiences are relatively rare. For Maslow, the highest peaks include feelings
of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being simultaneously more powerful and also more helpless than
one ever was before, the feeling of great ecstasy and wonder and awe, the loss of placing in time and space. They have been
portrayed by poets as moments of ecstasy; by the religious, as deep mystical experiences. A wide range of people were asked
to describe their peak experiences, including college students, artists, and realtors, and they all used similar terms. Children
report peak experiences as do the developmentally disabled.
Plateau experience
A peak experience is a “high” that may last a few minutes or several hours, but rarely longer. Maslow also discusses a more
stable and long-lasting kind of experience that he refers to as a plateau experience. The plateau experience represents a new
and more profound way of viewing and experiencing the world. It involves a fundamental change in attitude, a change that
affects one’s entire point of view and creates a new appreciation and intensified awareness of the world. Maslow experienced
this himself late in life, after his first heart attack. His intensified consciousness of life and sense of death’s imminence caused
him to see the world in a wholly new way.
Synergy
The term synergy was originally used by Maslow’s teacher Ruth Benedict (1970) to refer to the degree of interpersonal
cooperation and harmony within a society. Synergy means cooperation (from the Greek word for “work together”). Synergy
also refers to a combined action of elements resulting in a total effect that is greater than all the elements taken independently.
As an anthropologist, Benedict observed that people in some societies are clearly happier, healthier, and more efficient than in
others. Some groups have beliefs and customs that are basically harmonious and satisfying to their members, whereas other
groups have traditions that promote suspicion, fear, and anxiety. Under conditions of low social synergy, the success of one
member brings about loss or failure for another. For example, if each hunter shares the daily catch with only the immediate
family, hunting is likely to become strongly competitive. Hunters who improve their techniques or discover a new source of
game may try to hide their achievements from others. High social synergy maximizes cooperation. The cultural belief system
reinforces cooperation and positive feelings between individuals, and helps minimize conflict and discord. An example would
be a hunting society similar to the one just described, but with a single important difference, communal sharing of the catch.
Under these conditions, each hunter benefits from the success of the others. Maslow also writes of synergy in individuals.
Identification with others tends to promote high individual synergy. If the success of another is a source of genuine
satisfaction to the individual, then help is freely and generously offered. In a sense, both selfish and altruistic motives are
merged. In aiding another, the individual is also seeking his or her own satisfaction. Synergy can also be found within the
individual as unity between thought and action. To force oneself to act indicates some conflict of motives. Ideally, individuals
do what they should do because they want to do so. The best medicine is taken not only because it is effective but also
because it tastes good.
Desacralization
Desacralization refers to the act of impoverishing one’s life by the refusal to treat anything with deep seriousness and concern.
Today, few cultural or religious symbols receive the care and respect they once enjoyed; consequently, they have lost their
power to thrill, inspire, or even motivate people. Maslow often refers to modern values concerning sex as an example of
desacralization. Although a more casual attitude toward sex may lessen frustration and trauma, Maslow believed that sexual
experience has lost the power it once had to inspire artists, writers, and lovers.
Eupsychia
Maslow coined the term eupsychia to refer to ideal, human-oriented societies and communities. He preferred it to utopia,
which Maslow considered overused and whose definition suggests impracticality and ungrounded idealism. Eupsychia refers
to the ideal, human-oriented communities and societies, composed of psychologically healthy, self-actualizing individuals. The
development of an ideal society by psychologically healthy, self-actualizing individuals was quite possible, he believed. All
members of the community would be engaged in seeking personal development and fulfillment in their work and in their
personal lives. But even an ideal society will not necessarily produce self-actualizing individuals.
Maslow preferred eupsychian, or enlightened, management practices to authoritarian business management. Authoritarian
managers assume that workers and management have basically different, mutually incompatible goals; that workers want to
earn as much as possible with minimal effort and therefore must be closely watched. Enlightened managers, however, assume
that employees want to be creative and productive and that they should be supported and encouraged rather than restricted
and controlled. The enlightened approach works best with stable, psychologically healthy employees. Some hostile, suspicious
people might function more effectively in an authoritarian structure and might take unfair advantage of greater freedom.
Because eupsychian management works only with people who both enjoy and can handle responsibility and self-direction,
Maslow suggested that eupsychian communities be composed of self-actualizing people.
Problem-centered and means-centered
Maslow (1970) has written that creative people are problem-centered rather than means-centered. Problem-centered people
focus primarily on the demands and requirements of the desired goals. Means-centered individuals, on the other hand, often
become so concerned with technique or methodology that they may do intensely detailed work in trivial areas. Problem-
centering stands in contrast to ego-centering, in which individuals see what they wish rather than what actually is.
Contributions and Limitations
Contributions of Abraham Maslow
 He talks about the uniqueness of individuals
 Implies the self-enhancement/self-development
 Individuals are understood as a whole
 Encourages creativity
Limitations of Abraham Maslow
 Ambiguous because of the philosophical nature
 Quantification is not possible