Personality theories explain personality through different approaches and assumptions. Each theory has strengths and weaknesses that raise questions concerning viability of the theory. Where one theory explains an aspect of personality, others show weakness and vice versa. Each of the theories are used to explain different aspects of personality.
Personality Theory Analysis
The trait theory and the psychoanalytic theory are two theories that attempt to explain personality and behavior, but are two entirely different approaches. The trait theory approaches personality with combinations of personality traits and measurements of individual traits in attempting to explain personality and behavior. On the other hand, the psychoanalytic theory explores the unconscious through behavior, feelings, self-esteem, and social contexts in attempting to explain personality and behavior (Beystehner, 1998). Each of the theories have strengths and limitations in their approaches.
The trait theory assumes people are born with inherited traits and trait combinations combined with a degree of measurement of individual trait characteristics shape personality (Trait Theory, 2013) and are composed of a broad set of dispositions (Henriques, 2011). This theory groups individuals into personality type groups to determine individual behavior. One approach to this theory is the "Big Five," which uses the characteristics of extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness (Henriques, 2011). Extraversion explains the degree of positivity, approach to motivation, and sociability. Neuroticism explains the degree of negativity, avoidance of motivation, and emotional reactivity. Agreeableness explains the extent of getting along, warmness, sympathy, and understanding. Conscientiousness explains the extent of organization, responsibility, and achievement in motivation. Openness explains the degree of being open to new learning and experiences. The different personality groups do not necessarily have all the traits, but do have various combinations of these traits with varying degrees of each trait characteristic.
The trait theory focuses on the consciousness of self-awareness where traits are internal forces that drive behavior by freewill. Individuals gain self-awareness from what they value and believe is important to them. For example, if an individual has the trait of extraversion, it is important to them to be around others. Socialization is highly valued by the extrovert. To illustrate, research has shown that trait patterns predict behavior and explain personality (Buchanan, 1998). Buchanan (1998) found that interactions with team members in open-ended, unstructured tasks are more likely to influence personality traits than team members in structured, assigned tasks. This displays an example of how the freewill plays a part of the personality characteristics. When external deterministic forces are not involved, freewill uses personality characteristics to motivate individual behavior.
Where the trait theory has the strength in explaining how people think and behave, it has the limitations of ignoring uniqueness, culture and social contexts, character adaptations, and dispositional traits. It does not fully explain how individuals adapt feelings, goals, values, and individual strategies. Self-conscious identity of behavior as well as social and cultural contexts that help shape individuality are ignored. People can fake desirable responses and responses can stem from situations.
On the other hand, the psychoanalytic theory assumes personality is shaped by unconscious forces, childhood experiences, and childhood coping mechanisms in sexual urges (What is Personality?, n.d.). The concept is based on unknown causes of emotions and behavior. The psychoanalytic theory argues that personality has three components of personality. The id works under the pleasure principle and is primitive and instinctive. The ego operates under reality and is the decision making part of personality. The superego works under social standards of right and wrong and is the moral aspect of personality. Where ego and superego are in the conscious, the id is in the unconscious. In this respect the theory views both freewill and deterministic aspects of personality.
Under the psychoanalytic theory, self-awareness comes about from unconscious motivations for behavior when defense mechanisms are triggered from external forces. It explains that humans are not aware of self until unconscious defense mechanisms are triggered to produce the behavior. When the behavior is motivated, the individual becomes aware of the unconscious that determines the behavior that brings the unconscious to the conscious awareness. In this aspect, the individual gains self-awareness.
The greatest strength of the psychoanalytic theory is its focus on individualism. Where the trait theory groups individuals in personality groups to interpret personality, the psychoanalytic theory strictly looks at the individual. It focuses on the unconscious mind to understand how the mind functions through growth and development patterns and the relationship between body and mind to understand emotions. This theory argues that behavior comes from internal conflict that arouses defense mechanisms from the unconscious. In this respect the behavior is driven from a deterministic, or external cause, when something from the outside triggers unconscious memories that are painful.
Where the trait theory ignores social and cultural contexts, the psychoanalytic theory considers them as part of interpreting personality. The social and cultural contexts are considered in shaping how an individual is taught with social standards and cultural values that help to shape the individual in how they think and behave. The unconscious becomes embedded with feelings, behavior, and self-esteem from social and cultural aspects in growth and development patterns.
The psychoanalytic theory has been more criticized for the poor testability of the unconscious. Because the unconscious is hard to test, there is no scientific evidence to justify arguments of the theory, which produces inadequate evidence where only a few clinical trials have been used to determine the concepts. It is also criticized for being male oriented, which ignores female issues. Another weakness comes from Freud's argument of sexual perverse behaviors stemming from sexual development errors (Beystehner, 1998). This ignores the fact that behaviors can stem from situations, especially where sexual abuse has occurred. Behavior symptoms of sexually abused children include excessive masturbation, highly sexualized play, and sexual promiscuousness (Legrand, Wakefield, & Underwagner 1989).
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