Psychological Models for Understanding Personality

Understanding the development of the human personality can best be done by looking at the various psychological models that serve as frameworks for thinking about personality. Various concepts exist within each model. This paper will select one concept from each of the psychological modelspsychodynamic, neurobiological, trait, and cognitivedefine them, identify the theorist associated with the concept, and explain why it is the most applicable concept from that model.

Psychodynamic

Eriksons concept of psychosocial developmentthe epigenetic principleis essentially the notion that nature and nurture work together to develop the human personality (Lecci, 2015). The epigenetic principle was further validated in research by Weaver et al. (2004) and Hurley (2013). The example that Weaver et al. (2004) give of how nature and nurture work together is the rat mother who licks her pups; the DNA of those pups is read differently by the body during its development because the licking has triggered a response in the body. Those pups go on to lick their own pups. Hurley (2013) builds on that by looking at how rats born to attentive mothers have low levels of glucocorticoid receptors in their hippocampus and rats born to inattentive mothers have high levels of glucocorticoid receptors. Eriksons stages of development essentially argue the same concept: at each stage of development, the individual is facing some internal conflict such as identity vs. role confusion and that conflict is impacted by the external environment and the degree to which the individual is appropriately nurtured along the way. The nurturing of a mother to a child at the very first stage of development will help the babys brain and personality to develop in a very specific way, much as the affections of a rat mother shown to her pups triggers a response in the rat pup for it to develop in a specific way. Without that triggering nurturing act, the behavior is not passed on by way of nature (DNA). The nurturing act has to be made in order for the DNA characteristic to be activated and read by the body.

Psychosocial development is the most applicable concept from this model, even though there are many good conceptsfrom Freud to Jung to Adler and so on. Freud introduced the notion of the unconscious mind; Jung introduced the notion of the shadow self; Adler introduced humanism to psychology. But Erikson gives a fuller picture of the nature vs. nurture debate by explaining that the two go together like hand in glove. Nature by itself is insufficient...

Nurturing is necessarybut it must be balancedneither too much nor too little, so that the individual develops sufficient amounts of autonomy and self-esteem, the ability to be independent without developing an attachment disorder. The psychosocial development concept and the epigenetic principle are the most applicable concepts from this model

Neurobiological

In this model can be found the concept of Hans Eysenck, which is that individuals inherit a nervous system from their parents that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment. The concept had three dimensions:...

…organizations to which they belong where there are clear group standards, formal or informal. This concept explains why it is so important that people take stock of their environment, who they are around and what media they are consuming because it will very likely impact their cognitive development.

This concept is most applicable because it highlights the tremendous manner in which people are shaped by external forcesprimarily other people and media. This should not be surprising considering that today, people walk around everyone with cloth masks on as though they were about to enter into surgery. Why do they do this? Two reasons: they are told to do it by mediasocial media, new outlets, Internet; and they are compelled to do it by peers for fear of being shamed; they do not want to be ostracized or mocked or threatened for being different. So everyone walks around wearing a mask afraid of a virus that gives people the cold in much the same way the people of Communist China dofor they, too, have been told by their government and media that wearing a mask is beneficial for their health. They believe or at least act like they do, even though the concept is utterly ridiculous.

Conclusion

The psychological models of personality provide concepts that act as frameworks for understanding the development of human personality. From the epigenetic principle to trait theory to systematic eclecticism to how media impacts ones cognitive development, one can see a number of different ways in which it is possible to think about the development of…