Theories of personality - Essay Example

Analytical Psychological Theory & Object Relations Theory Analytical Psychological Theory & Object Relations Theory Object relations theory and analytical psychological theory are two major personality theories in psychology. Carl Gustav Jung was formulated the ideas of analytical psychological theory whereas object relations theory was invented by Karl Abraham (1927), and developed by Melanie Klein. Both the theories undergone several modifications later as different psychologists and scholars added their own contributions to it.

This paper briefly compares these two theories in relation to basic assumptions, Deterministic versus free will and Awareness of self. Basic assumptions of Analytical Psychological Theory & Object Relations Theory Object relations theory explains the interpersonal relations within the family, especially between the mother and child. Here object refers to a person and relation refers to the interpersonal relations. This theory says that the relationship building process starts at the time of breast feeding itself.

When the child gets enough milk, he will be satisfied and will try to establish a positive relation with his mother. On the other hand, when the child fails to get enough milk, he will become frustrated and may develop negative relationships with mother. This theory says that deposits of past relationships can influence the present relationship of a person. Analytical psychological theory is much more complex than object relations theory. It emphasizes more on the abnormal side of human nature.

It explains personality based on the concepts of psychological types, collective unconscious, and unconscious self. Terms such as introvert, extrovert thinking types, intuitives, ego, consciousness etc were attached to this theory in order to analyse human personality more comprehensively. Jung argued that self is the located at the centre of the psyche and therefore self can play a vital role in determining the personality of a person. Deterministic versus free will  Free will is a concept which argues that human has the ability to take independent decisions whereas the concept of determinism says that the universe as a whole is deterministic in nature and therefore all human activities are natural or it follows certain natural laws.

Object relation theory supports the concept of deterministic. It say that “We repeat patterns in relationships because our unconscious expectations about what roles people play and how people act gets interpreted in terms of our internal representations of the external others (from the past) that shaped them in the first place” (Chestnut, 2008, p.26). On the other hand, Analytical Psychological Theory supports freewill. “For Jung, myth and mythical images were self-expressions of the soul.

The soul would tell humanity, in each different culture and in varying moments of time, something like “this is what life is really about; this is what we are all here for; this is what we are made of etc”” (Gambini & Rosen, 2003, p.3). Awareness of self Self-awareness or awareness of self is the capacity of introspection. In other words, it is the ability of a person to know his own characteristics as well as that of the environment. This ability will help a person to respond positively to all situations he may face internally or externally.

“Object relations theory assumes that familiar conflicts from early childhood help create a blueprint of how the self-system will develop and maintain relationships later in life”(Klee, 2007). In other words, all human relationships have some kind of influences from the early childhood relationships. As mentioned earlier, object relation theory give more emphasize to the relationships within the family. Relationships within the family may affect the social relationship of a person. For example, a person behaving well in family may behave well in the society also.

According to Jung, awareness of self is obtained through a process called individuation or the process of becoming an individual. He argued that an individual will always try to create his own identity based on his self- awareness. For example, an individual who has self-awareness about his abilities in singing may try to establish his identity as a singer. Same way an individual who is aware of his abilities in acting may try to become an actor. In short, Jung argued that self- awareness controls the personality development of an individual.

Conclusions While object relations theory explains personality in terms of interpersonal relationships, Analytical psychological theory explains personality based on the abnormal side of human nature. Object relations theory says that the relationships established during childhood within the family may affect the relationships of a person in future also. On the other hand, Analytical psychological theory says that self-awareness helps a person to establish his individuality in the society. References Chestnut,B. (2008). Understanding the development of personality Type: integrating object relation s theory and the enneagram system.

The Enneagram Journal – Summer 2008 Gambini R. & Rosen D.H. (2003). Soul and Culture (Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology). Publisher: TAMU Press; 1 edition (February 18, 2003) Dr. Klee T. (2007) Object Relations Theory. Retrieved from http://www.objectrelations.org/theory.htm