Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Personality Theories:

Personality Theories:

  • What is personality?
  • What does personality constitute?
  • How behavior is govern by personality?
  • Psychoanalytic , Socio-psychology, trait theory, self-theory

Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud

  • Notion that man is motivated more by unseen forces than he is controlled by conscious and rational thoughts.
  • Behavior could not be always be consciously explained.
  • Major motivation forces in man was unconscious framework
  • This framework contains three aspects: (though interrelated but often conflicting)
  • These are id, ego and super ego.

The ID:
  • Source of psychic energy
  • Seeks immediate gratification (satisfaction, fulfillment, delight, pleasure) for biological needs or instinctual needs.
  • Instincts: Hunger, thirst, sex
  • The energy involved in their activity is libido ( psycho drive associated with sexual desire)
  • As an individual matures, he learn to control the id.
  • Instincts are driving forces, important source of behavior and thinking.

 The Ego:
  • The conscious and logical part of the human personality and it is associated with reality principle
  • Id represents the unconscious part, ego is conscious part
  • Ego keeps the id in check through the realities of external environment through intellect and reasons
  • Id wants immediate pleasure, while ego dictates denial or postponement to a more appropriate time or place (conflicting situation)
  • To resolve the conflict, the ego gets support from the super ego.

The Super ego:
  • Represents the social and personal norms and serves as an ethical constraint on behavior
  • Super ego= conscience= sense of right and wrong
  • Super ego is developed by cultural, social and religious values
  • Theoretical concept, not behavioral science
  • Idea about unconscious motivation

Socio- psychological theory:

  • Recognizes the interdependence of the individual and society
  • The individual strive to meet the needs of society
  • Society helps the individual to attain(reach, achieve) his goals
  • Adler, Horney, Fromm, Sullivan
  • Socio-psychological theory differs from psychoanalytic in two respects:
    • Social variables, not the biological instincts
    • Second: behavior motivation is conscious; man knows his needs and wants and his behavior is directed to meet these needs
  • Horney’s Model: suggests that human behavior results from three predominant interpersonal orientations: Compliant, Aggressive, and detached.
    • Compliant: people are dependent on other people and move towards others.
    • Aggressive: people are motivated by the need for power and move against others.
    • Detached : people are self- sufficient and move away from others.

Trait theory: (Allport and Cattel)

  • Quantitative approach to the study of personality
  • Personality in composed of definite pre-dispositional (natural tendency, temperament) attributes called traits
  • Traits can be considered as individual variable. Trait differ from one another.
  • Traits: wise-foolish, affectionate, cold, sociable, seclude( isolated)
  • Three basic assumptions of this theory:
    • Traits are common to many individuals and vary in absolute amounts between individuals
    • Traits are relatively stable, and exert fairly universal effects on behavior regardless of environment situation
    • Traits can be inferred (conclude) from the measurement of behavioral indicators.

Self-theory:

  • Also termed as Field theory
  • Carl Rogers, Maslow, Herzberg
  • Emphasis the totaling and inter-relatedness of all behaviors
  • There are four factors in self-concept:
    • Self-image: the way one see one self.
      • Certain beliefs about who he is?
      • What he is? (Reality)
    • Ideal Self: the way one would like to be
      • Ideal position as perceived by him
      • Stimulus
    • Looking glass self:
      • Perception of a person about how others are perceiving his qualities and characteristics
      • Perception of other’s perception
    • Real self: what one real is?
      • The first three are individual’s perception about himself
      • It may be same as real
      • In individual’s self-image is confirmed when other persons responses to him indicate their beliefs about who and what he corresponds with.


 (Ref:Organization Behavior by LMPrashaad)

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