Combined Personality Theory - Assignment Example

Combined Theory of Personality Combined theory of personality gives us a comprehensive account of the human personality and behavior development. This theory states that person’s genetics and environment in which a person is grown up, especially the childhood experiences and his current environmental situations and internal frame of references are responsible for the actions and behaviors of a person. This theory says that humans are not evil in nature and can be molded into well beings if given proper environment and guidance. In defining the development of individual this theory focuses on Consciousness and Unconsciousness, Driving forces of personality, Components of personality, Stages of personality development, types of personality and Internal frame of references of a person. This theory defines The Conscious memory as all those sensations and experiences to which we are aware of at any given time. Some part of our memory is called preconscious memory which is the "available memory," it contains all the experiences that are not conscious at any given time but which can easily be summoned into awareness with a little effort. While Unconsciousness is that part of our psyche of which we are not aware at any given moment. This is the deepest and biggest part of human mind. Unconscious memories are the ones that are completely inadmissible to awareness, but yet they largely determine the actions of people. Unconscious is of two types: Personal unconscious and collective unconscious. The personal un-conscious consists of those repressed or forgotten or not vary clear memories. It consists of chunks of emotionally loaded thoughts which are also called complexes. The Collective Unconscious refers to our ancestral experience; these are the memories from untold thousands of years, so it is the fragments of all of the human history which we inherit from our ancestors. Combined theory of personality insists that there are certain Driving forces of personality which are responsible to provide us with energy for all of our behavior and actions. One of those driving forces is Libido. Libido is the general biological life energy it is used in solving different problems. Libido is also the creative driving force of human personality which helps in continuous psychological growth of the individual, when we have to perform activities such as sleeping, studying, eating, walking, and talking, all these activities require energy and Libido is the store house which provides us with that energy for all our psychological and physical needs. At an organic level this tendency which is inborn involves the maintenance of the person by fulfilling deficiency needs like air, water and food but also the enhancement of the organism by providing energy for the development of the body’s organs and functions, its growth and continual regeneration and maintenance. Actualizing Tendency is another driving force which according to combined theory of personality is also the Master motive which is responsible for energizing all of our behavior which is in accordance with that final achievement in life that a person wants to attain, Actualizing tendency is the motivating force which provides us energy for increased autonomy and self-reliance, for enlarging one’s field of experience, and for being creative. Actualizing tendency or the Master motive continuously provides us with the energy which we used to attain our goal of life. Combined theory of personality defines the Components of personality which are Id, Ego, and the Self. The word "id" comes from the Latin word for "it" and refers the biological component of personality. The id is the mental part of our psyche which contains everything inherited, present at birth, and fixed in the individuals constitution. It is the raw, animalistic, and unorganized part which knows no law but this part of our psyche could be mold into more humanistic and civilized form if a person is given the proper environment. So Id is not something which is not changeable. but it is that first part of psyche which is active when we born .Ego is our mental part of psyche which is developed from Id but it is more sophisticated , more logical part of psyche which helps us to choose what is socially acceptable and what is not. The ego acquires its structure and functions from the id, as it evolved from id so it proceeds to borrow some of the ids energy for its own use in response to the demands of the environment. Ego thus assures the safety and preservation of the individual. It battles for survival against both the external world and the instinctual demands of the id. Ego is responsible for all the normal behaviors of a person which are not in conflict with societal norms. The Self is the part of our psyche which gives the person the concept of what kind of person he or she is. This actually gives us the image of our self. The Self gives us the awareness of being that who I am and awareness of our function that what we can do. The self part of our psyche not only gives us perceptions and feeling of what one is like but also what one thinks and what one ought to be and would like to be. So the self part of our psyche also gives us the perception of our ideal self. Combined theory of personality gives us six stages of personality development which starts from birth and ends till the death. These stages are Birth to childhood, Childhood to adolescence, Adolescence to puberty, Young adult hood, Middle age and Old age. The first stage ranges from birth to childhood during this period the psychic energy is used in learning to walk, to talk and other skills of survival. Infants are totally reliant upon others for survival; dependence is their only way of obtaining instinctual gratification. At this stage the center of pleasure for individual is mouth. As the baby grows up the center of pleasure shifts from mouth to anus and Pre childhood babies till the age of approximately 5 years derives pleasure from both the retention and expulsion of feces and gradually learn to enhance this pleasure by delaying their bowl movements. In this stage children are not fully aware of what it means to be a male or female child and they dont consider maleness or femaleness as a constant and fixed thing. In the second stage which is from Childhood to Adolescence children engage in playing activities they make friends and spend most of their time in playing with them, children at this age starts to understand themselves as males and females and they understand at this age that their gender is a constant thing which is not going to change and should be same throughout rest of their lives. In the third stage which is from adolescence to puberty the children focus is diverted to their sex organs and they spend a lot of time in playing with their sex organs. With the advent of puberty sexual and aggressive impulses takes control and coupled with an increased awareness of an interest in the opposite sex. The fourth stage is Young adulthood during this stage, one selects one’s profession, gets married, raise children, and relate to the society. At this level, the person is usually energetic, outgoing, passionate and loving. The fifth stage is Middle Age this is the most important stage, because almost all physiological needs are satisfied and now individual strives to find meaning in life. So after material development, spiritual development begins to take shape. It is at this stage that urge to attain self actualization begin to rise. The sixth and the last age is Old age after active work throughout his life, one finds refuge in the need to help others, so the task of finding a new meaning provides energy to continue living further. In the late old age starting from 70s to onward the psychic energies like libido and actualizing tendency starts to deplete and individuals become less rigid and starts to surrender to the will of others. This stage ends with the death of the person. Combined theory of personality gives us two basic types of personalities which are Introverts and extroverts. The introverts are shy, quite, imaginative and more interested in staying at home and enjoy their own company. The introverts are usually self-centered and they prefer indoor activities. Introverts dont like the gathering situations like parties and functions and they tend to avoid such situations, while Extroverts tend to be out going, social, interested in parties, picnics, functions and group activities. They are the ones who loved to be socialized and visit other’s rather than staying alone. Combined theory of personality emphasizes that in order to better understand the actions and behaviors of a person it is necessary that we give more emphasis to the internal frame of reference of a person. It states that an individual’s perceptions and experiences not only constitute the person’s reality but also form the basis for his or her actions; people responds to events in accordance with how they perceives and interprets those events. Read More