Psychology of Personality - Personal Statement Example

I can be quite flexible and adapt to demanding environments, which I feel is necessary to be successful in life. I am also quite open-minded and accommodative of suggestions. However, I strongly depend on my convictions to make decisions. Although I am strongly driven by logic, I can be instinctive at times. I am moderately interested towards intellectual pursuits, but quite inquisitive and fairly creative. I also exhibit empathy whenever necessary, and place emphasis on human values and the simple joys of life.

According to Sigmund Freud's theory of personality, our actions and thoughts are influenced by three components of out mind called the ego, super ego and Id. The ego is responsible for thinking logically and making decisions by analyzing the practical implications of our actions. The Id drives basic urges of pleasure and is far from logic, while the super ego does the exact opposite of curbing desire by considering moral values. When the ego fails to come up a logical explanation, our defense mechanism unconsciously tries to distort reality to escape the situation.

When I have to make a tough decision in my life, I often realize this conflict in my mind between my conscience, basic urges and logic. I try my best to be logical, but tend to be influenced a lot by my conscience and instincts. I have also realized that I use humor as a defense mechanism in a vulnerable conversation. Freud's theory of awareness tells us that the three levels of awareness are conscious, preconscious and subconscious minds. The conscious is something that is always on our mind, while the preconscious includes things that are in the back of our mind.

However, most of actions are triggered by something called the subconscious which is completely out of our control. I often feel guilty when I make bad decisions and blame myself for not making the proper choice. Learning about this theory has ridden me of the guilt of making such decisions which are very much out of my control. I often used get disappointed when people did not meet my expectations. However, I realized after sometime that this was a result of me setting standards and expectations for other people.

Realizing this has been a liberating experience and I have learnt to accept people for what they are and this has freed from disappointments. Freud explains this phenomenon by his theory of transference. According to this theory, we transfer our perceptions of one person to another. We tend to create images of person by relating them to other people's characteristics and this leads to the formation of stereotypes (Changing Minds). People are obviously not the same, and hence transferring expectations often ends in disappointment.

The sooner we learn this, the better. B.F. Skinner's theory of reinforcement implies that human behavior is based on the resulting consequences. Hence, a behavior that results in positive consequences will be repeated and vice-versa. This essentially means that behavior can be trained offering appropriate rewards and punishments. For instance, I do not spend time worrying about past unfortunate events since it only causes depression. Hence, the punishment of depression forces me not to worry about unhappy incidents.

A behavior that brings no significant consequences will fade away with time. However, the theory of reinforcement is a functional one; rewards and punis