Psychodynamic, trait, and behavioral approaches to personality

Personality

Psychological Approaches to Understanding Personality

Personality is one part of psychology where there are many conflicting ideas. It is fair to say that there is not one single approach to personality that is considered as accepted. Instead, there are a range of ways that personality can be considered. This paper will describe three of these ways: the psychodynamic approach, the trait approach, and the behavioral approach. After each approach is described and analyzed, the approaches will be assessed with the most convincing and the least convincing identified.

The Psychodynamic Approach

The psychodynamic perspective is based on the idea that personality is based on a conflict between a person's biological drives and the needs of society. This approach to understanding personality is the one taken by Freud. Freud describes personality by focusing on the internal factors that determine an individual's personality. This is explained via the concepts of the id, the ego, and the superego.

According to Freud, everyone is born with a set of common drives. Namely, these are the drives for self-preservation and the drives for reproduction. Freud refers to these basic drives as the id, and notes that the id is selfish and unaware of anything but the basic needs of the individual. Freud also notes that the id is only able to seek instant gratification. In short, the id is a primal part of people that knows no logic or compromise. The next part of the individual is the ego. While the id operates disconnected from the world, the ego operates in reality. It understands the requirements of the real world and has a realistic view. The ego's role is to find the compromise between the needs of the real world and the needs of the id. At the same time, it has to control and manage the ego. Freud likens this to a person riding a horse saying that the ego "is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse" (Freud 1995, p. 636). The final part of an individual that contributes to personality is the superego. This is described as "an internalized representation of the parents' value system" (Seamon & Kenrick 1994, p. 421). This means that the individual internalizes a value system based on what they perceive as being right and wrong. Freud goes on to note that this is really an outgrowth of the id, where the superego develops as a way for the id to gain the love of the parents, which is part of its self-preservation desire.

Freud then goes on to link these parts of an individual by personality, by arguing that personality forms due to conflicts between these unconscious factors and the environment. This includes that personality develops based on the conflicts that a person encounters. For example, if an individual is yelled at every time they speak, their id would suffer. In an attempt to protect the id, the person might develop shyness. In a similar way, if a person's parents are outgoing and extroverted, a person might internalize this as part of their value system by accepting that being outgoing means being loved by the parents. This would then become part of the individual's personality.

One of the other important points about Freud's approach to studying personality is that it is based on personality as being caused by unconscious factors. This means that an individual is not capable of understanding their own personality, since they are unaware of the unconscious factors affecting them. This means that according to Freud, personality cannot be understood by asking an individual to define themselves. Instead, individual behavior must be noted, with the reasons behind the behavior then extrapolated based on the observed behavior.

The Trait Approach

The trait approach to studying personality has been described as "a systematic effort to describe and classify behavioral characteristics" (Seamon & Kenrick 1994, p. 426). This approach to understanding personality was formed after Freud's approach, with psychologists noting that before trying to explain why things differ, it is first necessary to clarify and define the differences. Based on this, the approach is not one that tries to understand why personalities differ, but one that tries simply to describe personalities. It is also worth noting that the trait approach understands personality based on the behaviors that are observed. For example, a person can be observed to be shy, relaxed, or serious. Importantly, this puts the focus on how people appear to be. As an example, an individual might be observed to be calm and stable. However, this may be an appearance only and may not reflect their true emotional state. Therefore, it is worth noting that the trait approach may not necessarily reflect a person's true personality. Instead, it more accurately measures how a person's personality is perceived by others.

The first major study of personality based on trait theory was performed by Raymond Catell. Catell started with a list of 4,000 terms that can be used to describe personality. By removing terms that have the same meaning and terms that suggest the same behaviors, Catell reduced the list to 16 factors that he considered sufficient to describe personality. These factors were (Catell 1965):

1. assertive vs. not assertive

2. conscientious vs. expedient

3. conservative vs. experimenting

4. emotional vs. stable

5. group oriented vs. self-sufficient

6. intelligent vs. unintelligent

7. practical vs. imaginative

8. relaxed vs. tense

9. self-assured vs. apprehensive

10. serious vs. happy-go-lucky

11. shrewd vs. forthright

12. shy vs. venturesome

13. suspicious vs. trusting

14. tender-minded vs. tough-minded

15. undisciplined vs. disciplined

16. unfriendly vs. friendly

Based on this list, psychologists reduced the number of traits even further to produce the "big five" personality traits. These five traits are: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and culture. It is considered that an individual's place on each of these dimensions can be used to define their overall personality.

Seamon and Kenrick (1994) also note that an individual's place on each dimension relates to how other people experience the individual on interacting with them. Extraversion refers to whether an individual seems dominant or submissive. Agreeable refers to whether an individual seems pleasant or distant. Conscientiousness refers to whether a person seems responsible or irresponsible. Emotional stability refers to whether or not a person seems sane. Culture refers to whether a person seems intelligent and informed or ignorant. This shows that the trait theory is largely based on how individuals are perceived.

The Most Convincing Approach

In considering which approach is the most convincing, the behavioral approach has been selected. There are several reasons for this decision. These include that it explains how personality can be considered as something universal, that it explains how personality changes, and that it creates a valid link between observed behavior and internal personality.

The first point is that the approach explains how personality is something universal. This refers to the way that personality is not just observed, but is also judged. For example, it is generally considered a positive thing to be warm, agreeable, and conscientious. In contrast, it is generally considered a negative thing to be cold, unfriendly, and irresponsible. This shows that there are social expectations placed on personality, where some qualities are considered positive and others considered negative. The fact that these expectations and judgments exist suggest that personality is socially constructed. Both Skinner's and Bandura's approach explain how the judgments impact the development of personality. For example, if an individual is unfriendly, they may receive a poor response from others. This acts as a punishment and prevents a person from continuing to act this way. Considering Bandura's approach as well, this can occur by someone simply observing someone else receiving a poor response.

Another important aspect of the behavioral approach is that it explains how personalities change. This includes how people's personalities change over time, as well as how people's personalities change based on the social situation and the people they are interacting with. For example, an individual might be conscientious in a working environment, but unreliable in a home environment. This apparent change in personality can be explained by recognizing that personality is socially constructed, which means that a person's behavior may change based on their environment. People's personalities can also change as they develop. For example, a person might not be agreeable when they are young, but might become more agreeable as they get older. This is explained by the way that all of a person's experiences are internalized and understood cognitively. At a young age, a person may only be perceiving their experiences based on the initial rewards. At an older age, an individual may perceive things differently by seeing the long-term rewards they achieve for being more agreeable. For example, they might have stronger and more satisfying personal relationships. This cognitive awareness allows the individual to adapt their behavior and their personality. This shows how the behavioral approach allows for people to change over time.

The final point is that the behavioral approach creates a valid link between observed behavior and internal personality. This was partly present in Freud's psychodynamic approach. However, since Freud considered that personality is defined by unconscious factors, the approach had no cognitive factor. This means that people are considered as having a personality, but having no control over it. This link was also not present in the trait approach because it was based on how people are observed to behave without any consideration of why they behave that way. The behavioral approach creates the link by showing how what is observed and experienced becomes internalizes, with this then contributing to personality development.

The Least Convincing Approach

In considering which approach is the most convincing, the trait approach has been selected. There are several reasons for this decision. These include that it only explains perceived behavior, that it does not consider internal factors, and that it separates the individual rather than considering them as a whole.

The major problem with the trait approach is that it can only be used to explain perceived behavior. If the trait approach is used by observing how a person acts and determining where they fall based on each trait, a person's personality becomes defined by how the person is perceived by others. This is limiting because it may or may not be a reflection of the person's true personality. The perceived personality may also be a reflection of the situation or the circumstances, rather than the individual's true personality. For example, consider a person who is observed in a work situation where they are stressed vs. The same person observed on a date. The situation would most likely cause the individual to be perceived very differently. An individual's personality may also be judged based on their own self-perception. This could involve asking an individual to define where they fall based on each trait or could involve asking a series of questions that are meant to provide this information. The problem is that this process is more likely to show how the person wants to be perceived. This process then becomes a measure of how a person judges personality, rather than how their personality really is.

The next problem is that the trait approach does not consider internal factors. A person may be perceived to be outgoing and unconcerned with what others think of them, but this may not reflect their true personality. Instead, the person may be introverted, with a high level of intelligence and a low self-esteem. These true personality factors may result in the individual using their intellect to recognize their flaws, while their low self-esteem causes them to want to protect themselves from criticism. The end result is that the outward signs of an outgoing and easygoing nature really reflect the opposite. Because the behavioral approach is based only on outward appearances, it does not take into account these internal factors. The end result is that it focuses on observable behavior rather than internal psychology.

The final problem is that the approach does not consider an individual as a whole. Carlson (1984) argues that the trait approach loses the individual person. In saying this, it must be noted that personality is a combination of factors, where each one impacts on all the others. The trait approach neglects this reality, instead separating factors. This means that even if the trait approach is effective in identifying personality factors, it does not succeed in identifying a person's overall personality.