Peoples Behavior: Trait Theory andPsychodynamic Theory - Essay Example

Introduction People in the world have various personalities. Many studies have been carried out by scholars concerning this issue. Very many theorieswere invented as an explanation of people's behaviour. These theories include the Trait, Psychodynamic, Phenomenological, Behavioural and Social cognition among others. This paper is dealing with Trait and the psychodynamic theories. There is a clear explanation of the two theories. It also further explains the similarities and the differences between the two theories. There is explanation of the model that best accounts for depression. 1 Trait theory This is one approach of personality theory. Personality is normally referred to as the thoughts, emotions and behaviour pattern that every person has. Personality trait can have immense variations between individuals. Many research hypotheses concur that personality has aspects that are prominent. They are very stable across situations that are referred to as shamone traits. Eysenck 1967 says that personality can be reduced to three traits that are quite major. Other scholars however, say that personality can be reduced to five traits. According to the 3F model, there are traits like psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion. Other scholars say that personality can be reduced to the following five traits, that is, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness and openness. All these are based on factor analysis which is a statistical technique. In fact these traits are the highest level factors in the hierarchical taxonomy of this technique. This method is well known to produce bipolar and continuous factors. All these actually describe one's individual differences. The following chart shows the relationship between lower order factors, that is, agreeableness versus psychoticism. Source; Basch, M. (1989): Understanding Trait Theory; New York; Melbourne Press; pg 29 The trait theory is based on various assumptions. One of them is that people are normally born with traits that are inherited. The trait theory asserts that these traits are quite different fro one person to another though some people may have similar traits that they inherited from parents or even grandparents etc. Some of these traits that are inherited can be suited for carrying out leadership responsibilities. In this case a person finds that he or she can easily handle leadership tasks without having any prior knowledge in the field. According to the trait theory, people who naturally make good leaders just have sufficient or the right combination of these traits. Inherent traits can be diverse such that one person may have many different traits. There are people who may have minimal traits that are inherited while others may have so many. Early researches that were done concerning the trait theory used successful leaders as the audience. So the attention was majorly based on discovering the inherent traits that made them to be successful. There was the assumption that if other people were found with the same traits then it meant that they had the potential of becoming great leaders too. One of the scholars called Stogdill (1974) noted that the following skills and traits were very critical to leaders; Traits Skills Adaptable to situations Alert to social environment Ambitious and achievement-orientated Assertive Cooperative Decisive Dependable Dominant (desire to influence others) Energetic (high activity level) Clever (intelligent) Conceptually skilled Creative Diplomatic and tactful Fluent in speaking Knowledgeable about group task Organized (administrative ability) Persuasive Source; Stogdill, R. (1974): Handbook of leadership; a survey of the literature; New York; Free Press Eysenck (1997) asserts that majority of extroverts have got low levels of cortical arousal as compared to introverts who have higher levels. According to the 3F model, individual differences in neuroticism and extraversion have physiological and genetic antecedents.2 Psychodynamics theory This is actually a psychodynamics correlation of transitory functions of the mind. They are simply drawn from the principles of thermodynamics and neurology practice. Research reveals that psychodynamics is the study of human behaviour in relation to drives and motivation. This also largely depends on emotion that is based on an individual's personality. This theory concurs that a person's reaction at a specific time are due to the existing interaction between his or her genetic constitution, unconscious or conscious mind and the environment that are around. Psychodynamics in medical practice is referred to as a study that is systematized and a theory that shows how psychological affect human behaviour. In this there is a great emphasis on the interaction of the conscious and the unconscious motivation and the emotions as a functional significance. This theory was actually developed by Sigmund Freud. He suggests that psychological flows are actually part of the complex brain. This are based on psychological energy that he terms as libido. Psychodynamics is also referred to as psychology that is dynamic. It is actually the study of the interrelationship of the diverse parts of personality, mind or the psyche and how they recount to the emotional, mental and motivational forces. This mostly occurs at the unconscious level. These mental forces in most cases are divided into two parts. One of them is the emotional force interaction while the other one deals with inner forces that affect various behaviours. 3 The emotional force interaction constitutes of the interaction of both the motivational and emotional forces that affect a person's behaviour. These factors also affect an individual's mental states and in most case those that exist in the subconscious level of the brain. The inner forces include both the motivational and emotional forces that make a person to behave in a certain way. All these factors are based on the principles of closed systems and thermodynamics. According to Freud, the energy in the psychological component of a person's brain is normally constant. He says that the emotional changes just exist in the form of displacements. All these he says, tend to rest during discharge. Psychodynamics is also sometimes defined as a study of energy, motives and forces that are created by human needs that are quite deep in nature. In general terms psychodynamics deals with the exchanges and transformations of the psychic energy that exists in an individual's personality. The main focus is the connection that exists between the emotional states and the energetic. The emotional states include the superego, ego and the id and their relation to the developments in a child during the early or the first days. Freud says that the ego fights with various forces. These include the outside world, super-ego and the id. Therefore the focus of the psychodynamic model is on the interactions that are quite dynamic consisting of the superego, ego and the id. In fact the theory of psychodynamics interprets an individual's behaviour as that emanating from the emotional processes of forces. Unconscious- this is the id. This is the part of the brain that develops first in life. It is responsible for controlling parts of the brain throughout an individual's lifetime. The similarities and difference between the two theories An analysis of both the trait theory and the psychodynamic theory shows both differences and similarities. One of the similarities of both theories is that they deal with behaviour and the personality of an individual. The two theories in fact acknowledge that there are there are various factors that affect the way people behave and their overall personality too. In these two theories there is the acknowledging that in born factors affect the way a person behaves or an individual's personality. 4 In the trait theory, there is the acknowledging that people are born with traits that are inherent and they affect the skills that people have. Example of the in born traits include dependable, persistent, energetic, dominant and decisive. This influences a person to have skills like being socially skilled, knowledgeable, organized and persuasive among others. Comparing to the psychodynamic theory, that asserts that, the people's character throughout their lifetime are affected by the id which is the unconscious part of the brain. This is the major similarity between these two theories. The psychodynamic and the trait theory also have differences. These differences are evident because the trait theory basically acknowledges that a person's inherent traits are the ones that affect behaviour, personality and skills. This theory does not acknowledge that other factors can also affect an individual's personality. The psychodynamic theory on the other hand greatly differs with the trait theory. This is because it assumes that individuals can actually learn leadership capability. It asserts that so long as the environment has leadership developmental factors, then an individual can just learn this skill. This theory also opens the gates of leadership development in organizations. The psychodynamic theory recognizes that the environment plays a major role in someone's personality. This is termed by Freud as the ego or the conscious part of the brain. Conscious- it is the ego. It is normally grounded in reality. It normally acts as a moderator of the superego and the id. It develops as the baby interacts with the environment. Subconscious- it is the superego. It actually represents mores and societal principles. This is responsible for inhibiting the id from having impulses that are not appropriate in the society. Conscious- it is the ego. It is normally grounded in reality. It normally acts as a moderator of the superego and the id. It develops as the baby interacts with the environment. 5 The model that best accounts for depression The psychodynamic theory best accounts for depression. Freud greatly emphasizes various factors greatly affect depression and mental illness. These factors he says are the psychological processes that exist within the unconscious part of an individual. According to Freud, a person's psychosexual instincts and primary beliefs form the basis of depression. The psychodynamic theory also asserts that an individual's behaviour is affected by the behaviour. This means that, if the environment is stressing it can make a person to be depressed. In this theory there is the explanation that a person's psychosexual instincts are actually the basis of instincts. This affects the way individuals solve conflicts. This means that an individual who is not in a position to solve conflicts will automatically end up getting depressed. 6 Conclusion According to the trait theory, personality can be reduced to three forces or models. In the 3F model, there are traits like psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion. Other scholars say that personality can be reduced to the following five traits, that is, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness and openness. All these are based on factor analysis which is a statistical technique. The Trait theory says that individual traits are inherent and they automatically affect the skills that a person has. The Psychodynamic theory asserts that psychodynamics is the study of human behaviour in relation to drives and motivation. This also largely depends on emotion that is based on an individual's personality. This theory concurs that a person's reaction at a specific time are due to the existing interaction between his or her genetic constitution, unconscious or conscious mind and the environment that is around an individual. The similarity between these two theories is that both deal with an individual's personality. Both acknowledge that various factors affect a person's personality. The major difference between the two theories is that the Trait theory bases on inherent factors while the Psychodynamic theory acknowledges that the environment affects an individual's behaviour. The model that best explains depression is the Psychodynamic theory. Reference: Basch, M. (1981): Self object Disorders and Psychoanalytic Theory; A Historical Perspective, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association; 29:337-351 Basch, M. (1983): Affect and the analyst; Psychoanalytic Inquiry; 3: 691-703 Basch, M. 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