HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Human growth and Development

Human growth refers to the increase in body size of human beings.
Human development refers to the changes in human learning ability.
Intelligence
Psychologists do look at intelligence as the traits that allow us to adapt to the environment.
Coon (1992) defined intelligence as a global capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to
think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment.
Test, Measurements and Evaluation
Intelligence is usually measured using different kinds of tests.
Basic characteristics of Tests
1. Test reliability; it refers to test consistency i.e. it’s ability to yield the same result under
a variety of different circumstances.
2. Test validity; this is the ability of a test to measure what is intended to measure.
Types of Tests
1. Stanford Binet test
This test was developed by a French psychologist known as Alfred Binet. He developed this test
after he had been approached by French government requesting to develop a test that could be
used to identify children who are in need of special mental care due to low intellectual ability.
In constructing the test, Binet believed that intelligence improves by age. Children of a certain
age were expected to answer questions to a certain level. The results were then computed to get a
mental age.
Later on, Terman from the University of Stanford modified the test, thus he computed the test to
report the IQ, thus the intelligence questioned.
It is calculated as MA * 100 where MA = Mental Age
CA CA = Chronological Age

2. Welscher Scales of Test

These scales were developed by David Welscher in 1958. It has two sub – scales each meant to
measure a certain aspect of intelligence (i.e. the performance and skills scale).
The performance scales has the following subscales;
 i. Picture completion
ii. Picture arrangement
iii. Object assembling
Verbal scale has the following sub scales;
i. Information
ii. Comprehension
iii. Arithmetic
iv. Similarities
v. Vocabulary
These scales enable the test administrator to identify weaknesses and the strength of the person
tested.
Group tests
Welscher and the Stanford Binet tests are costly and time consuming because they are
administered individually; this led to the development of group IQ test.
These tests are convenient and effective and are used extensively in schools, employment
institutions and many other institutions.
Attitudes and motivation
Attitude can be defined as: Boron 1995
“Are mental representations and evaluations of features of the social and physical world.”
Narine 2000 “a positive or negative evaluation of believes held about something which in turn
may affect behaviour.”
Functions of attitudes
1. They serve to guide our behaviour; for example, an employee who holds a negative attitude
towards his supervisor will for example avoid to eye contact with supervisor this regards the
supervisors instructions i.e. attitude sometimes detect the kind of behaviour that shall be engaged
in.
2. They serve as senses through which we perceive and interpret our world; perception of other’s
actions may be negative or positive.
3. They act as defenses that protect our beliefs about ourselves and others; we sometimes hold
our attitudes to protect as from acknowledging our weaknesses and failures.
–Components of Attitudes
There are 3 types of components
(i) Cognitive component
(ii) Effective component (emotional)
(iii) Behavioral component (tendency to act)
Cognitive component
This represents what people know and believe about the object of their attitude.
Effective component
When we hold a positive or a negative about an object, we tend to respond emotionally when we
encounter or think about the object.
Behavioral component
This refers to the tendency to act in certain ways.
Attitude Formation
This reflects some of the strong and important attitude you hold.
How did you acquire them?
Experience is the most important factor in the formation of attitude. Their attitudes are learnt the
same way as we acquire other types of behaviour.
Classical conditioning
Our attitudes are acquired through association of objects, people and others with pleasurable or
unpleasant stimuli e.g. dog salivating out of the sight of food dish.
The employee may develop a positive attitude towards working over time because they are
associated with extra pay
Adverts use popular celebrities to form positive attitudes towards products and services.
Instrumental or operant conditioning
Attitudes are gained/formed through rewards and punishment; we receive when engage in certain
behaviours.
Observational learning
Attitudes are also acquired when we observe the behaviours of others.
We also acquire attitudes when we see others reinforced/punished for engaging in certain
actions.
Changing attitudes
Ways of changing attitudes
1. Advertisement
2. Campaigns
3. Lobby groups
4. Rallies
5. Promotions

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

The terms growth and development both refers to dynamic processes. They are often used
interchangeably but of different meanings
Growth and development are interdependent; growth takes place during the 1 st year of life but
development continues even after that.
Growth
This is a physical change and increase in size. It can be measured quantitatively; indicators of
growth include height, born size, weight and dentition (number of teeth).
Growth rates vary during different stages of growth and development.
Growth rate is rapid during the prenatal, neonatal, infancy and adolescence stage and slow during
adult.
Physical growth is minimal during adulthood.
Development
This is an increase in the complexity of function and skills progression.
It can be measured qualitatively.
It is an increase in the capacity and skills of a person to adopt in the environment
It is the behavioral aspect of growth.
Key concept in Human Growth and Development
1. Motivation
Definition (Cridar and other 1984) defined motivation as the desires, needs and interest that
arose/activate an organism and direct it towards a certain goal.
This definition implies that motivation is the reason behind our action.
Coon 1992 defined motivation as the dynamics of behaviour, the process on initiating,
sustaining and directing activities of organism.
Others defined it as ideas, needs/emotions that promote people in action.
Dalton and Mc Far Land defined motivation as the way in which desires, aspirations or needs
direct, control/explain behaviour of human beings.
Types of motivation
1. Primary motivation
2. Stimulus motivation
3. Social motivation
Primary motivation
These are biological/physiological motives.
They are inborn and usually involve biological drive.
They are essential to a person’s survival e.g. hunger, thirst, pain, avoidance, sex drive etc.
Stimulus motive
Are needs for manipulation and exploration i.e. need to be curious
Social motive
Are motives that are learnt in social interaction e.g. need for achievement, need for approval etc.
Theories of Motivation
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory
Behaviour is directed towards achievement or satisfaction of needs. He postulated that human
needs are from lower to the higher; this is the starting point of motivation.
These needs are related to survival and maintenance of human being e.g. food, clothing, water,
air, shelter and sex.
Safety and security needs
After satisfying physiological needs, people want assurance of maintenance of security. They
want job security, self security/personal security; provision for old age, provision about sickness.
Social relationship needs
Man is a social being and is therefore interested in conversation exchange of feelings,
companionship.
Steam and status -This includes self confidence, independence, achievements, knowledge,
success etc. They are also known as egoistic needs.
They are concerned with the prestige of the individual.
Self fulfillment/self actualization
This is the need to fulfill what a person considers as a mission in life.
Is the desire for personal achievement; the need as applied by Maslow has a sequence of
domination.
The second need does not dominate until the 1 st is dominated. Once a need has been satisfied, it
ceases to be dominating factor.
Perception
This is the organization of sensory information into meaningful experiences.
It is the process in which the brain receives information from the senses, organizes and interprets
it into meaningful experiences unconsciously.
Maturation
1This is the culmination of full growth and development; it implies the condition of being fully
grown or developed.
Readiness
It is the mental and physical preparedness to change thus to grow and develop.
Problems in Human Development (issues in development)
1. Physiological issues/problems/factors
Physical changes
Physical growth: puberty or sexual maturation is the biological event that marks the end of
childhood.
N/B: Hormones trigger a series of internal and external changes.
Reactions to growth
The rather sudden bodily changes occur during puberty make all adolescents some what self
conscious. Adolescents desperately want to be accepted by their peers and every one around
them. They conform to ideals of how male/female of their age should act, dress and look.
N/B: For both young men and women, there is a strong correction between a negative body
image and feelings of depression.
Research indicates that boys who mature early have an advantage; they become heroes in sports
and leaders in formal and informal social activities, other boys look to them: girls have crash on
them; adults tend to treat them as more mature.
As a result they are generally more self confident and independent than other boys.
Psychology and Human Development
These are factors about our emotion, intelligence, and attitude. All these have an impact of what
we develop into as human beings.
Social factors such as peer pressure, family expectation, neighborhood etc. have a role in human
development.
Economical factors in Human Development
No money no food malnutrition diseases
No money no treatment mental disturbance
Due to lack of or inadequacy of financial support, children brought up in poor families find it
tough/difficult in giving out what they have as compared to those who are brought in a well
maintained manner.

HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

Environment refers to external factors i.e. physical e.g. food, shelter: social factors e.g. peer
pressure: economic factors; political factors.
Heredity refers to inheritance or acquired traits e.g. genes; it can also refer to nature.
What one becomes generally depends both on heredity and environment.
Relationship between heredity and environment
Some hereditary traits are affected by the environments which only appear when the
environmental conditions suit them.
The interaction between nature and natures in shaping the environment
When it is clear that physically hereditary, other characteristics like behaviour, intelligence and
personality are not: we do not know how much is of what we are determined by our genes and
how much by life experience, but we know that both play a part.
What is nature versus nurture?
Nature refers to heredity as nurture is what we become.
The use of the terms ‘nature and nurture’ for the roles of heredity and environment dates back to
19th C: other scientists believe that people think and behave in certain way because they are
taught to do so – this is known as the nurture theory of human behaviour.
Both sides are partially right; nature gives us inborn abilities and traits; nurture takes and moulds
them as we learn and mature.
Nature refers to heredity i.e. the genetic make up and individual carries from the time of
conception to the time of death. It refers to the biological tendency and capability which an
individual possesses and may withhold through out the time of life.
Nurture by contrast refers to the external and environmental factors to which an individual is
exposed from conception to death.
They may include the physical environment e.g. nutrition, social environment e.g. media, peer
pressure, families, friends, neighbours, schools, government policies, politics.
The nature – nurture controversy
The phrase “nature – nurture controversy” suggests a polarization of nature – nurture, however,
the controversy only involves interaction.
It is not about whether either heredity or environment is solely responsible for what we develop
into. It is more about the extent to which this factors influence the way each factor influences
each other.
Most theories agree that both nature and nurture are intertwined and influence most aspects of
human emotion, behaviour and cognition.
Basic theories of development
1. Psycho – analytic theory
This theory originated with work from Sigmund Freud. His theory states that development takes
place in stages and is determined largely by biological based drives shaped by encounters with
the environment and through the interaction of 3 components thus: the ego, Id and super ego.
Through his chemical work with patients suffering from mental problems, he came to conclude
that childhood experiences and unconscious behaviour influences one’s behaviour.
Based on observations, he developed a theory that describes development in terms of psycho –
social stages. According to him, conflicts that occur during each of these stages can help a life
long influence on personality and behaviour.
Freud’s theory inspired and influenced other scholars who developed theories of their own. Of
these was Erick Ericsson who came up with an eight stage theory of psychological development.
Erickson described growth and changes of life focusing on social interaction and conflict that
arise during different stages of development.
Freud’s stages in development
According to him, personality is usually established by the age of time. Early life experiences
play a role in personality development and continue to determine the kind of a person one
develops into.
He believed that personality develops into a series of development during which the pleasures
seeking energy on the Id becomes focus on certain erogenous stages.
This psycho – social energy/libido was described as the driving force behind behaviour. If this
psycho –social stages are solved successfully grown in life.
If certain issues are not solved at certain stages then fixation can occur.
A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psycho – social stage until this conflict is resolved,
the individual will remain stuck in this stage for example, a person who is fixated at the oral
stage for example may be over dependent on others and may seek oral stimulation through
thumb sucking or overeacting.
1. The oral stage
During this stage, the infancy primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth so the
sucking reflects is especially important, the infant derives pleasure through oral stimulation,
through graphical activities as tasting and sucking.
The main conflict at this stage is the weaning process, when the child becomes less dependent on
care takers i.e. the mother, nurse etc.
Fixation occurs at this stage, the individual would have issues of dependency or aggression it
results in problems with eating, thumb sucking, nail biting.
2. The Anal stage
Here the main concern of the libido is on controlling bladder and bowel movement. The major
conflict here is the toilet training.
The child has to learn to control his/her bodily needs; developing this control leads to
accomplishment and independence. Success at this stage is dependent in the way in which
parents approach the toilet training. Parents who reward their children for using the toilet at the
correct time, the child will grow feeling positive encouragement during this stage serves as
people become competent, creative and productive adults.
However, in appropriate parental responses i.e. punishments, ridicule or shaming the child for
accidents can result in positive outcomes. If the parents take an approach that is too lenient, then
anal – expulsive personality could develop into messy wasteful and restrictive personality.
If the parents are too strict or begin toilet training too early and anal retentive personality is
developed. In which the individual is stringent, orderly, rigid and obsessive.
3. The Phallic stage (discovery of gender sensitivity/difference)
During this stage, children discover the difference between female and males. Boys to view their
fathers as rival of their mothers’ affection. These feelings of wanting to possess the mother and
replace the father are known as the Oedipus complex. However, the child also fears that he will
be punished b his father for these feelings, fear Freud determines as castration anxiety.
A similar set of feelings is experienced b young girls and is referred to as the Electra complex.
The anxiety that girls experience from the father Freud called penis anxiety. Eventually, the
child begins to identify with the same sex parent as a means of possessing the other parent.
Foe girls however, Freud believed that the penis envy is never fully resolved and that all women
somewhat remain fixated in this stage.
4. Latent period
During this period, the libido interest is suppressed; the ego and super ego are here developed
contributing to this period. Here individuals are more concerned with peer relationship hobbies
and interests. Energies are her directed in other areas as other social interaction and social
intellectuals.
This change is important for the development of social and communication skills and self
confidence.
5. The Genital stage
During this stage, the individual develops a strong interest in the opposite sex; here interest in the
welfare of others also grows. If the other stages have been successfully developed, the individual
should have well balance and warmth.

2. Psycho – social theory of Development by Erik Erickson

The psychologist most associated with this is Erik Erickson; his theory sees the child develops in
a series of stages that accomplishes tasks his/her in interaction with the social development.
Like Freud, Erickson believed that personality develops in a series of stages; unlike Freud,
Erickson’s theory describes the impact across the whole lifespan of human being.
One of the elements of Erickson’s psycho –social theory is the development of ego identity. This
is the conscious sense of the self that develop into through social interaction.
According to Erickson, our ego identity is constantly changed due to new information and
experiences we acquire through interactions with others.
In each stage, there is concern with becoming competent in an area of life.
Erickson’s stages in Psycho – social development
1. Trust versus mistrust
Occurs between 0 -1 year
It is the most fundamental stage of life because the child is totally dependent on the development
of trust based on the dependability and quality of the child’s care takers.
If the child successfully develops trust, he/she will feel safe and secure in the world.
Care givers who are not inconsistent emotionally or available contribute to feelings of mistrust in
children; failure to develop fear and belief that the world is consistent and unpredictable.
2. Autonomy versus shame and doubt
This takes place during early childhood; it is focused in children developing a sense of personal
control. Like Freud, Erickson believed that toilet training is an important part of this process.
However, he believed that learning to control ones body function leads to a feeling under sense
of independence.
Here the child also gains more control over food choices, toy preferences and clothing selection.
Children who successfully complete this stage feel secure and confident while those who do not
are left with a sense of inadequacy and a sense of doubt.
3. Initiative versus guilt
This comes during the pre – school fears. Children begin to assert their power and control over
the world through directing play and other social interaction.
Children who are successfully through this stage feel capable and lead others. Those who fail to
acquire these traits are left with a sense of guilt, lack of initiative.

General principles of
The acquisition of classically conditions generally occurs gradually; with each pairing of the
conditioning stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus, the learned response/condition response is
strengthened.
For example, in the Pablo’s experiments, the more frequently the tuning of fork was pairing food
and the more often the tone insisted salivation.
The principle of generalization and discrimination
Generalization occurs when an animal/a person responds to a second stimulus similar to the
original conditions, stimulus without a prior training with the second stimulus; whereas,
discrimination is the ability to respond differently to different stimulus.
Principle of extinction
A classically condition response is a subject to changes like any other behaviour i.e. Parlor
discovered that if he stopped presenting food often then the sound gradually cost its extinct in the
dog.
After he repeatedly struck the tuning fork without giving food, the dog no longer associated
giving sound with the food, thus the sound no longer elicited the salivation. He termed this effect
extinction because the condition response had gradually died out.
Principle of spontaneous recovery
After extinction, it does not mean that the animal/the person is completely unlearned the
condition response. We can introduce a rest period in which the condition stimulus is not tested.
The previously extinguished condition response (salivation) may reappear when the condition
stimuli is presented again but is not followed by the unconditioned stimulus.
Classical conditioning and human behaviour
Using the principle of conditioning, a practical solution of a condition of bed wetting was
discovered by a scholar O. Hobart Mover and his wife Mollie (1938) and they said that one
reason for bed wetting occur is that children do not wake up during the night when they have full
bladder.
Mover developed a device known as ‘bell and pad’ it consisted of two metallic perforated with
small holes and attached by wires to a battery – run alarm. Then the thin metal sheets were
mapped insulated or padded and were placed under the child’s bed sheet. When the sleeping
child moistens bed sheet with the first drops of urine, the pad closes causing the alarm to go on
and wake up the child and the child could wake up and use the bathroom.
In the experiment above, the alarm is the unconditioned stimulus that produces reaction.
The sensation of a full bladder is the conditioned stimulus which before conditioning did not
produce wakefulness. After several pairings of the full bladder (conditioning stimuli) and the
alarm, the child is able to awaken to the sensation of a full bladder even without the help of the
alarm.

BASIC THEORIES OF LEARNING

Definition
Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change that results from experience; we have
two main theories of learning:
1. Behavioral theory (conditioning approach)
2. Cognitive theory of learning
Behavioral/Behaviorism (conditioning approach)
Not all behaviours that we learn are acquired in the same way, but there are 3 basic types of
learning that psychologists have studied
i. Classical conditioning
ii. Operant
iii. Modeling
Classical conditioning
This theory is precisely explained by the (Pavlov’s experiment); Ivan Pavlov, a German scientist
studied the process of digestion in order to understand how the dog’s stomach is prepared to
digest food if something is placed into its mouth.
He began his experiment by ringing a tuning folk and then immediately placing some meat
powder on the dog’s tongue. He chose the tuning folk because it was a neutral stimulus thus, one
that had nothing to do with a response to meat (salivation) prior to conditioning.
After a few times, the dog started salivating as soon as it heard the tune even if food was not
placed in its mouth.Pavlov then demonstrated that a neutral stimulus will cause a formerly
unrelated response if it is presented regularly before the stimulus (food) that normally induces
that response (salivation).
Pavlov used the term ‘unconditioned’ to refer to stimuli and to the automatic involuntary
responses that it caused.
In the experiment above, food was the unconditioned stimulus, an event that leads to a certain
predictable response that without previous training.
Food normally causes salivation and a dog does not have to be taught to salivate when it smells
food and thus salivation in this case is unconditioned response. These are reactions that occur
naturally and automatically when the unconditioned stimulus is presented.
Under normal conditions, the sound of a tuning folk would not cause salivation of the dog. The
dog has to be taught or conditioned to associate the sound with food.
An ordinarily neutral event that after training leads to a response such as salivation is termed a
conditioned stimulus. The salivation it causes is a condition response of the event thus,
controlling an animal or a person’s responses or behaviours in this way so that an old response
becomes attached to a new stimulus called classical condition.
Illustrations of Pavlov experiment
Stimulus response
Before conditioning: tone (neutral stimulus) does not produce response of salivation.
Food produce salivation

During conditioning: Tone (paired with food) salivation

After conditioning: Tone salivation
Operant conditioning
By B. F Skinner (1974)
We acquire behaviour by learning from other behaviour.
Operant conditioning is learning from the consequences of our behaviour; depending on the
operant behaviour, the learner will repeat or eliminate these behaviours thus to get rewards or to
avoid punishments.
Thus, the operant condition is the study of how behaviour is influenced ones history of rewards
and punishments. Reinforcement can be defined as a stimulus or event that affects the likelihood
that immediately proceeding behaviour will be repeated.
Examples of reinforces that people respond to are social approvals, monetary gifts, extra
privileges etc.

Schedules of reinforcement
Scheduling of reinforcement refers to the timing and the frequency of reinforcement.
Behaviour that is reinforced every time it occurs is said to be on a continuous schedule of
reinforcement. However, when reinforcement occurs only on alternatively, then it is said to be
partial.

Ratio schedules
Refers to number of correct responses that an individual or organism makes between
reinforcements.
1.Fixed ratio shedule
Under this, reinforcement depends on a specified quantities of responses such as rewarding every
4th responses.
Examples
A student who receives a good grade after completing a specified amount of work.
A typist who is paid by the number of pages he/she can type.
2.Variable ratio shedule
Here reinforcement does not require that a fixed or set number of responses be made for each
reinforcement thus the number of reinforcement changes.
3.The interval shedule
This is the amount of time that elapses before reinforcement ia made available. It may be fixed or
variable.
4.Fixed interval shedule
This refers to the 1st response after a predetermine time as a last since the last reinforcement was
reinforced/made thus the time interval is constant.
Variable interval schedule
Here the time at which the reinforcement becomes available changes through out the
coinditioning procedure.
STIMULUS CONTROL
B. F. Skinner proposed the law of effect to explain the relationship between behaviour and
reinforcements (i.e. rewards or punishments). He observed that, responses that are followed by
pleasant consequences are strengthened while those that are followed by unpleasant
consequences are weakened.
B. F. Skinner therefore used the terms discriminative stimulus to refer to the stimulus situations
in which operant responses are rewarded.
Cognitive theory
(The Gestalt School of Thought)
The cognitive theory is based on the Gestalt School of Thought/Gestalt’s theories.
The scholars involved here were Wertheimer, Kohler, Koffta, Wolfgang etc.
These were originally theorioes of perceptin, interested in the way the brain imposes patterns in
the perceived world.
Broadly, cognitive theory is interested in how people understand materials and things in them.
What Gestalt is
These are groups of theories that focused in the minds perceptive ability.
The word Gestalt has no direct translation in English but it refers to “a way something has been
Gestalt i.e. placed or put together thus common translations include; to form or to shape.”
The Gestalt theorists followed the basic principle thatb the ‘whole’ is greater than some of its
parts. In other words, the whole ( a picture of a car) carried a different in altogether a greater
meaning than its individual components.

Max Wertheimer (1880 – 1943)

Max Wertheimer and others developed the fundamental concepts of Gestalt theory. His ideas
featured the view that thinking proceeds from the whole to the parts tre4ating the problem as a
whole and permitting the whole to command or dominate the parts.
The Gestalt had a central idea of grouping or aspects of visual and other stimuli which cause the
subject to interprete a problem or perceive an event in a certain way.
The grouping factors here included:-
(a)Proximity i.e. elements that a re close in space tend to be grouped together and perceived as
one or a few objects.
(b)Similarity; elemnts that appear to have the same characteristics tend to be grouped together.
(c)Simplicity; this is the tendency to organize objects into simpler figures to make one whole.
These factors were termed to as the laws of organization.
In Wertheimer’s model, genuine thinkng starts with a certain problem.
The structuire features and requirements will then cause tension which produces vectors that
prompt the individual to modify the situation in an improved direction. These forces enable an
individual to acquire new abilities in interpretating and solving a problem thus learning occurs.
Learning
Is general acquiring new ideas, skills and knowledge.

PERSONALITY DVELOPMENT

Personality
This is the individual thinking, feeling and acting.
Personbality refers to anything inside an individual that makes the individual thinks, feels and
acts differently from others.
Thus personality can be defined generally as charactristics consistently displayed and uniquely
combined In each of us.
It accounts for both the differences among people and the consistencies in an individuals’s
behaviour over time and in different situations.
Personality development
This is a process by which a personality is developed in an individual thus the construction of an
individual thoughts, feelings an dactions towards an event/phenomenon.
Theories of personality development
Sigmund Freud was a medical doctor in Thiena.
He first took an interst in psychotherapy after noticing that some of his patients improved after
they had the chance to talk and vent out emotions regarding their painful childhood experiences.
His basic ideas; he believed that human beings are controlled by instincts and drives. According
to this theory, human beings do have three levels of awareness:-
1.The conscious level; this is the material that one is aware of at aparticular moment.
2.Preconscious level; this contains thoughts and feelings which although are not part of our
conciousness but one can easily recall.
3.Unconscious level; it contains thoughts or feelings that an individual is totally unable to access
to conscious. The material in this level does manifest itself indreams, slip of tongues.
Structures of Personality (Structural concept of the mind)
In addition to these levels of awreness, Freud also identified these structural divisions of
personality and these are the ID.
This is the part inherited at birth. It is an organized, irrational, pleasure oriented and totally self
centred. It is also the source of libido (sexual urge). Since its primary aim is pleasure, the ID has
no sense of morality.
The Ego
This is the aspect of our personality that develops from the ID through a person’s interaction
with the environment.
A new botrn baby possesses the ID and imagines that everything she/he wants he/she will get.
However, as she/he grows up, she gets to realize that it is not the ‘centre of the world.’
Reality teaches her/him that sometimes, he/she will not get what he/she wants; as a result, she/he
learns to postpone the need until it is convinient to satisfy the need.
The Super Ego
This is the third component of an individual personality structure. Freud perceived the super ego
as the co – parental moral attitudes and social behaviour learnt in childhood stage.
Thoughts parented with super ego lead to an evaluation of some behaviours as good or bad.
The super ego thus has 2 parts
i.Conscience; it judges our behaviour as either good or bad.
ii.The ego/ideal; this is the image of perfection i.e. our ideal selves.
The super ego is governed by the morality principle.
ID – governed by pleasure principle.
Ego – governed by immorality principle
Super ego – governed by morality.

Alfred Adler (1870 – 1937)

This was an Australian; he criticised Freud for over emphasizing on sexuality but he emphasized
on conscious as a means of developing personality.
His concept of personlaity development is basd on several guiding principles and this includes:-
(a)Social Nature
According to Adler, people are primarily social beings; he argued that major personality
attributes are acquired through interactions and he views people as being essentially good.
He believed that as infants, people enter the world with the need to belong. Thus, a person can
only fulfil himself/herself and become significant in a group context.
He also argued that, all human problems are manifestation of difficulties in social
interactions.Human behaviour is purposeful and goal oriented. Goals according to Alder are
individuals’ attempts to find a place in the world and therefore, to understand a person, one needs
to understand her/his goals.
According to Alder, all human beings begin life with feelings of inferiority. Such feelings result
from children early recognition of their subordinate position to others.
He observed thatas people try to overcome the feelings, they develop complete consistence and
unique behaviour that determines their personality.
He also asserted that an individual birth order may increase the probabaility that the individual
may dvelop certain unique behaviour, for instance, last borns are more likely to be egocentric
(self centred) and would not want to be babied al their lives.

TRAIT THEORIES (Laird and Thompson 1991)

They defined a trait as a consistent way of behaving, thinking and feeling that distinguishes an
individual from other peole.
The traits are usually inferred from behaviour.
1.Sheldon’s Theory
He proposed the unique idea that our personality traits are related to oyur body types. He
identified 3 body types.
1.Endomoph; these are people who are fat; they are considered to be sociable, warm and even
tempered.
2.Ectomorph; these are people who are slender in body he considered them aggressive,
enthusiastic (jovial/happy and competitive).
3.These are people who have weak bodies; he considered them restraints, non competitive,
humble/non aggressive.
2.Gordon Allports theory
He felt a person cannot just be described for the basis of just a few traits. He therfore, catalogued
about 18000 human traits and proposed that a person can be described in terms of three sets of
traits.
1.The Curvinal trait
He argued that this is usually the most guiding trait/principle in a person’s life.
2.The Central traits
These are traits in an indvidual which are important but do not have broad effects in an
individuals’ behaviour like the cardinal traits.
3.The Secondary traits
These are traits that only affect a small domain/human behaviour. Gordon therefore, concluded
that an individual’s personality is determined by the 3 sets of traits.
LEARNING THEORIES
This approach is based on the principles of learning. according to this approach, personality is
a research of learning.
Classical condition
Through piercing a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus, a person can learn to react in certain
manner. This conditioning process develops an individual’s specific behaviour that constitute
her/his personality.
Operant conditioning; this is based on the work of Thorndike (1915) and Skiner (1953)
The most basic principle of this approach is i.e. the behaviour that results from rewards or
punishment. In general term the law states that, ‘an organism will be encouraged to elicite certain
behaviour if the consequences were positive.” On the other hand, if the consequences were
negative, the behaviour will be suppressed/discouraged.
Social learning theory (Albert Bandira)
Albert argued that personality is acquired not only by direct reinforcement/reward/punishment of
behaviour but also by observational learning or imitation.
Observational learning, a person acquires new behaviour by watching the actions of another
person. The observant person is referred to as a model and the observed behaviour is then
imitated.
In Bandira’s view, people are capable of directing their own behaviour by their choice of models.
The most effective models are those who are the most similar to and the most admired by the
observer.
He also cited another learning approach which he termed vicarious learning and he said that, this
is where behaviour is carried by observing someone else receiving reward e.g. one may desist
from certain behaviour after observing another being punished for such behaviour.