Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, and Cognitive Theories of Personality

Introduction to Personality in Psychology

Psychology, as the study of human behavior and mental processes, encompasses various fields of study that focus on aspects of people's everyday lives, including learning, memory, thinking and language, intelligence, human development, and social and health psychology. Among these fields, personality psychology is perhaps the one that most captivates general interest, because it helps people identify what kind of person they are — their feelings, sentiments, attitudes, and beliefs — and potentially predict behavior through these factors.

Defined as the "enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world," personality as a field of study is characterized according to three dominant perspectives: the psychoanalytic, humanistic, and cognitive perspectives (Santrock, 2001:412). These perspectives offer different explanations for how personality occurs and develops in an individual. It is, however, important to keep in mind that despite their differences and competing explanatory claims, these perspectives offer complementary views of personality rather than mutually exclusive ones.

The Psychoanalytic Perspective: Freud's Theory

The first perspective, the psychoanalytic perspective, understands the development of personality as a product of an individual's unconscious mind. In this domain, Sigmund Freud's theories of personality are central, as he is the primary proponent who formulated the psychoanalytic theory of psychology.

Freud's theories of personality underwent considerable change from their inception. His theories on personality are categorized under three versions: the first version, the second version (also known as the seduction theory), and the third version of the psychoanalytic theory of psychopathology.

The first version of his personality theory examines the psychological and pathological reactions of an individual when a "distressing affect" occurs — in Freud's study, this took the form of hysteria, which was prevalent among women of his era. He argued that when a distressing affect occurs, the individual involuntarily or voluntarily erases it from memory. This erasure is caused, among other factors, by the "intolerance" of the individual's ego toward the affect. When this happens, the affect becomes "inaccessible to consciousness" and is later "converted to pathological somatic symptoms" — that is, the occurrence of hysteria or fainting prevalent among women (Freedheim & Weiner, 2003:322).

In the first version, Freud establishes a direct link between the power of the mind and pathological reactions of the human body. This means that the unconscious mind inevitably affects the behavior of the individual; thus, in order to understand human behavior, one must examine closely the attitudes, emotions, and thoughts of the individual. The second version goes further in explaining how personality develops among humans.

Also called the "seduction theory," Freud's second version of the psychoanalytic theory of psychopathology assigns a crucial role to parents in influencing the personality development of an individual. Under this version, Freud includes "infantile sexual experience" as the precursor that shapes the unconscious mind and eventually affects behavior. He explains the occurrence of this event through the methods of free association and interpretation. This sexual experience may take the form of, according to Freud, "isolated instances of abuse by strangers... seduction by a caretaker, near relation, or siblings who initiated the child into sexual intercourse..." (323).

Completing Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality is the third version, in which sexual experiences an individual has undergone become attached to memory, thereby leading to unpleasant consequences that affect future behavior. "Repression" occurs when the individual's sexual experiences are not "gratified" due to fear of "parental wrath and punishment." When repression occurs, abnormal behavior develops, resulting in psychoses, defined as the "massive failure of repression of unconscious material" (324).

The psychoanalytic perspective thus shows that personality develops in stages, with each stage involving the active role of the unconscious mind. Freud's theory illustrates how personality is initially a product of the mind's reaction to a distressing affect — specifically, sexual experience that is real or imagined — which gradually shapes the individual's personality. Ultimately, the repression of these real or imagined experiences leads to a failure that results in abnormal behavior.

The Humanistic Perspective: Maslow and Rogers

In the psychoanalytic perspective, abnormal behavior is explained through repression. The second perspective — the humanistic perspective — approaches personality differently, identifying it in accordance with the individual's own beliefs, attitudes, and feelings. There is no rigid categorization of how individuals should be classified by personality type. In the humanistic perspective, pragmatism dominates: individual expression is given more focus than social environment or personal history.

One of the primary proponents of the humanist tradition in psychology is Abraham Maslow, who introduced the concept of "self-actualization," defined as the "motivation to develop one's full potential as a human being" (Santrock, 2001:427). In explaining this concept, Maslow introduced his hierarchy of motives, enumerating from the base to the apex of a "needs pyramid" the needs that must first be satisfied before an individual can reach the highest level — self-actualization.

Maslow's concept of self-actualization includes various characteristics that serve as indicators of whether an individual has reached this level. The characteristics of self-actualized individuals are: (1) a realistic orientation and spontaneity; (2) being problem-centered rather than self-centered; (3) a fresh rather than stereotyped appreciation of people and things; (4) a tendency to maintain strong, intimate relationships with a few special people rather than superficial relationships with many; and (5) a high degree of creativity and democratic values and attitudes (428).

Similarly, Carl Rogers' concept of the "fully functioning" individual illustrates the importance of holistic personality development. Rogers' fully functioning individual must have the motivation to fully realize his or her need for personal growth and must acknowledge the existence of positive or constructive feelings, thoughts, and behavior toward people, events, or things (Buber & Rogers, 1997:77–8).

Rogers elaborates further on the cultivation of positive feelings and thoughts as the pathway to personal growth. In discussing the fully functioning person, he describes the process as "...an acceptance of and regard for his attitudes of the moment, no matter how negative or positive, no matter how much they may contradict other attitudes he has held in the past... [t]his acceptance of each fluctuating aspect of this other person makes it for him a relationship of warmth and safety" (87–8). The occurrence of personal growth within the individual has strong implications for future behavior and actions, shaping the kind of relationships the individual cultivates in society.

The humanistic perspective is thus primarily an assertion of individual autonomy — a person's right to become what he or she wants to be. The concepts of self-actualization and the fully functioning person are formulated to provide a holistic account of what it means to achieve genuine satisfaction in life, encompassing the fulfillment of one's needs across one's personal history.

Bibliography

Buber, M. and C. Rogers. (1997). The Martin Buber–Carl Rogers Dialogue: A New Transcript with Commentary. Albany: University of New York Press.

Freedheim, D. and I. Weiner. (2003). Handbook of Psychology, Volume 1: History of Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Santrock, J. (2001). Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.