Identity Development in Person Conduct Hence to the Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic - Assignment Example

Personality Development and its Impact on Human Behaviour according to the Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic theories Name Course number University Date What reasons impact on personality based on Carl Jung’s Analytic Theory and Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, or How can human’s personality impact their lives Introduction Research indicates that Sigmund Freud is one of the most popular psychologists who came up with the theories of personality (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). Carl Jung disagreed with Freud’s theory and came up with his analytic theory. These theories explain how personality is formed in individuals and what influences its development. According to (Kasschau, 2000), personality is defined as the characteristics of behaviour, feelings and thoughts of individuals. Freud’s and Jung agree on the role of the human mind when it comes to influencing personality. They both agree that the mind has conscious and unconscious memories, where the unconscious memories actively affect personality development. Freud believed that the unconscious memories consist of repressed childhood experiences and instinctual drives which actively determine ones course of action. Therefore he came up with the structures of the human mind that are the Id, Ego and Superego, which he believe are responsible for determining and controlling behaviour. The id which he believed is the largest part, is totally unconscious and is responsible for the instinctual urges which conflict with the ego which is conscious and operates in reality. Just like Freud, Jung also classified the mind into the Ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (Bargh & Morsella, 2008) The personal unconscious holds personal experiences and memories, while the collective unconscious hold experiences that are a collection of society, therefore we inherit it form the generations before us, and it influences behaviour indirectly but significantly. In regard to personality development, different people have raised different ideas either by building their foundation from Freud or by coming up with totally different views (Santrock, 2005). We have social theorists like Bandura who believe that behaviour is learnt, and social cultural factors have a great influence on ones personality, Carl Rogers is a humanistic theorist who believes that personality is influenced by subjective experiences which one is able to control or manipulate and individuals are able to achieve their potential give the right environment and conditions. Other theories that have been highlighted include the trait theory which focuses on the elements that make up an individual’s personality and are measurable; then the evolutionary/biological theorists believe that personality development is influenced by genetics (therefore can be inherited), ones physiology and other shared and non-shared influences within ones environment (Santrock, 2005). Over the years people have endeavoured to continuously develop and enhance their personality mainly by banking on their strengths and working to improve on the areas of their weakness (Santrock, 2005). This process known as personality/self development helps in boosting self confidence and self esteem which generally improves an individual’s life. Personality development helps people in exploring qualities such as leadership, empathy, communication, motivation and relationships. This helps in understanding oneself and others, thus allowing for coexistence where people understand and support each other Freud and Jung as seen earlier agreed on the influence of the unconscious on human personality development. Freud argues that humans are also driven by instinctual urges for their survival, and their major goal is to have their needs met to satisfaction (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). They are guided by the pleasure principle (the Id) which requires immediate gratification. However the Id is buried in the unconscious and is driven by a subjective reality. If man was to exist on the influence of the Id alone, then life would be in complete chaos; therefore these instinctual urges are managed by the ego which is also the reality principle. The Ego operates on a logical and realistic perspective which allows it to delay the demands of the Id in accordance to social needs (Coon, 1989). The unconscious according to psychoanalytic theorists contains memories that have been repressed and censored over time. According to Freud, painful childhood memories are locked away in the unconscious and they have a significant level of influence on an individual’s behaviour. Therefore the unconscious can be held responsible for unexplainable behaviour, which is driven by repressed memories stored deep in the unconscious. Discussion Personality theories play several roles such as helping to organize the dynamic characteristics of personal behaviours and other people’s behaviours. The theories also provide explanations to the reasons behind the differences in the personalities of different people. Human beings have used these theories to determine how different people lead their lives, and also help to determine how people’s lives can be improved (Kasschau, 2000). Research has been dedicated to getting a deeper understanding of people’s personality by focusing on traits, learning and thinking styles as well as qualities such as management, leadership and communication (Cramer, 2013). To understand ones personality, different personality tests have been developed to help people understand under which personality they lie, and identify their strengths and weaknesses (Santrock, 2005). Tests like the Myer-Briggs type indicator personality test have been developed based on Jung’s analytical theory. These tests facilitate the understanding of self and others, thus giving way to creation of harmonious relationships. At the conscious level, Jung believed individuals displayed two opposing personality structures which are; extroversion where an individual draws energy from the world around him/her and it is opposed by introversion where an individual draws energy form within his/herself (Kasschau, 2000). Introverts are subjective while extroverts are objective. Jung believed that every individual possesses these two structures but one in dominant and it represses the other. The best example in this case would be an artist, (say a poet) who is introverted and rarely enjoys being in the company of other people. However when he does perform his pieces, he is a totally different person to the crowd who are his fans since he displays a very outspoken and crowd loving personality. Jung had a different view of human nature. While Freud believed that humans were driven by their instinctual urges, Jung introduced a positive aspect of human nature by stating that people put an effort in developing their potential and managing their natural urges (Frager and Fadiman, 2005). Sigmund Freud had come up with the idea of the unconscious, which he said was the part of the personality where experiences, especially the painful experiences of childhood are stored (Ewen, 2003). Freud believed that these experiences, though unconscious, influence our behaviour. In addition to Freud’s personal unconscious, Carl Jung introduced the idea of the collective unconscious. He said it contained the instincts and memories of the entire human species and he thus developed the concept of archetypes (Kasschau, 2000). Unlike Freud, Jung believed that individuals have inherited universal ideas which reflect common experiences of humanity. According to Neukrug (2010), Jung believed that these archetypes are the basis of personality and they influence people’s thoughts and feelings even though they are stored in the unconscious. These archetypes include the self, which reflects individuals’ identity and the feelings of wholeness and unity. Freud believed that humans were driven by their instinctual urges which when directed towards survival are translated into the need for things like food, security, water, sexual drive and love (Frager & Fadiman, 2005). These needs powerfully direct the behaviour of man in the sense that once they are not fulfilled, human beings experience tension and internal conflict, thus in a bid to get rid of the tension and conflict a certain behaviour is developed and adopted. However this instinctual drive is driven by the Id or pleasure principle, in a bid to satisfy the instinctual urges and avoid pain by all means (Pearce & Simanowitz, 2003). The psychodynamic theory by Freud argues that childhood experiences stored in the unconscious have a significant impact on personality. He advanced the psychosexual stages of development (Wortman, Loftus & Weaver, 1999) where each stage is responsible for influencing personality later in life. This is because every stage presents a crisis that when not resolved results into a fixation. Fixation at the oral stage may lead an individual to develop self destructive behaviour centred on the mouth such as smoking and overeating. After the oral stage one progresses to the anal stage, where the focus is on toilet training and anal fixation is likely to occur resulting into personality based on anal retention, which revolves around neatness. The phallic stage follows giving rise to the Oedipus complex in boys and Electra complex in girls. The child then progresses to the latent stage where the feelings of guilt and shame develop and they very much define an individual’s view of sexual relationships later in life. The persona is the public self that is fictitious and which is used to show conformity to society’s demands. The anima is the feminine side of men and the animus is the masculine side of women. Lastly, the shadow is the cruel side of humans that consists of animal urges. Interestingly, Jung believed that it was the source of people’s creativity. An example of this is a leader or a public figure that has to maintain a particular image(persona) in terms of speech, interests and dressing to match his/her public profile. In contrast to such an individual’s persona, there is the shadow that holds the immature, infant like personality, which represents a side that he/she would not like to expose to the public. For instance he/she would rather sit at home rather than make public appearances, or he/she would never expose an underlying and unexplainable fear that he harbours since that would destroy his public image (the persona). On the other hand, many individuals conform to cultural and societal beliefs and values even when they do not agree with them for the fear of being labelled weird and being rejected. Sigmund Freud’s theory was centred on personality development, in which he said that children go through stages of physical development that are characterized by crises. Carl Jung, on the other hand, identified two main personality types that include extra version and introversion. Extra version is the attitude towards the external world and introversion is attitude towards the inner self. However, Jung said that many people fall in between the two and these are known as ambiverts (Schultz & Schultz, 2012). According to Freud’s theory of personality, individuals go through five stages of psychosexual development and as highlighted earlier on, they have a significant influence on personality development. This is determined by how well a child manages to resolve the crisis involved in every stage, since failure to resolve results into a fixation to a certain type of behaviour (Ewen, 2003). This means that an individual develops a neurosis that is in line with the events of each stage that were not properly manoeuvred. This neurosis results from a conflict between the ego and Id since the experiences are buried in the unconscious, they are experienced as instinctual drives (such as sexual drive) yet the ego being the reality principle surprises them in conformity to societal standards (Pearce & Simanowitz, 2005). Conclusion: Freud and Jung collectively agreed on the role of unconscious in influencing personality. However Freud believed that personality is heavily influenced by childhood experiences which are stored away in the unconscious. As well he believed that the first five years of existence play the most important role in defining ones personality. He advanced the psychosexual stages of development through which individuals have to go through crisis that have to be resolved and failure to resolve them results into neurosis later in adulthood. Jung on the other hand views personality as a process during a human beings entire life, and in this process they strive to balance opposing urges. Unlike Freud who believed the Ego to be conscious, Jung believed the ego is the unconscious mind. Jung argued that the unconscious had two components the personal and collective. The collective unconscious represents experiences shared by human beings across the years and they are mainly influence by cultures. This has a relative influence on human behaviour even though humans do not perceive so. Finally Freud’s argument about instinctual urges and drives controlled by the id can explain the desire by humans to progress and excel in life given ones values. Therefore it is only fair to say that mans desire to achieve is driven by the need to resolve internal conflicts of the id, ego and superego. References Bargh, J.A. & Morsella, E. (2008). The unconscious mind. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3 (1):74-79. Coon D. (1989). Introduction to Psychology, Exploration and Application. St Paul: West publishing Co Cramer, K.M. (2013). Six criteria of a viable theory: Putting reversal theory to the test. Journal of Motivation, Emotion, and Personality, 1 (2013):9-16. Ewen, R.B.(2003). An introduction to theories of personality. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Frager, R., & Fadiman, J. (2005). Personality and Personal Growth (6th ed.) New York: Pearson Prentice Hall Kasschau, R.A. (2000). Glencoe Understanding Psychology. New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company. Neukrug, E. (2010). Counselling theory and practice. New York, NY: Cengage Learning. Pearce, P. & Simanowitz, V. (2003). Personality Development. Berkshire, England: Open University Press Santrock, J.W. (2005). Human Adjustment. New York: McGraw Hill Schultz, D. P. & Schultz, S. E.  (2004). A History of Modern Psychology.  (8th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning Inc. Schultz, D.P & Schultz, S.E. (2012) Theories of Personality (10th Ed) Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth/Cengage Learning Wortman, C.B., Loftus, E.F. & Weaver, C.A. (1999). Psychology. (5th Ed). New York: McGraw Hill Read More