Personality Theories paper for school

Personality Theories

"When looking at different theories and theorists, especially when it comes to human behavior you see different groups and studies that they are separated in by their study. The theorists that we are talking about is Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Freud and Jung are both psychoanalytic while Rogers and Maslow are both Humanistic.

Humanistic is a study that more concentrates on the value of human beings, both individually and collectively. Usually humanistic studies focus on critical thinking, evidence, established doctrine and faith. Psychoanalysis is when the psychiatrists helps a patient discover and confront the causes of their illness. This method of treating illnesses started with Sigmund Freud, well at least it was the most heard of and dominate from early in the twentieth century.

Sigmund Freud considered that the primary source of motivation, especially for males, is sexual impulses. These impulses are usually seen as being unconscious, and help direct an individual's thinking and behavior. Freud's view of sexual motivation became a hot topic since there are so many ways for a person to be sexually motivated. Either by intimacy or straight out physically. A man is more likely to clean the kitchen if his woman is willing to do something in return. Freud's theory was based of off instinct, emphasized off of interpersonal relations and self assertiveness.

Carl Jung disagrees on the emphasis that Freud puts on the role and importance of sex on a person's personality development. Jung thought that attention importance for motivation should be more focused on religious, aesthetic - their appearance - and other basic needs. Jung also started to include the different concepts and differences of people who are introverts, extroverts and archetypes. With this, Jung was the start of the modern day existentialism. Jung was more of the opinion that the cosmic order and history of the human race is the most important part of the human mind. He used dreams as his example. Jung's study contained archetypes, which are manifested symbols that appear in dreams, disturbed states of mind and are different products of different cultures.

Carl Rogers, said to be the father of client centered therapy. This means that Rogers likes to have nondirect sessions and reflect on the responses rather than making it vague. Making his sessions more focused on the individual client made him feel like there was a more atmosphere of acceptance for his clients. With this environment, Rogers felt that it allowed his clients to get more in touch with the resources and knowledge within himself (Rogers) for successfully dealing with life and his client's own development self esteem. Having that one on one time and feeling to the sessions gave the clients the ability to develop their individuality and learn more about themselves rather than just having their questions answered in a scientific based way.

Abraham Maslow, the popular hierarchy of needs. Maslow liked to focus on the individual and the thought of self actualization. Maslow thought that humans are basically good in nature and within themselves need to develop their own full potential all while staying true to themselves. Maslow's hierarchy of needs includes both physiological and psychological levels of a person's daily needs. The physiological were the more primary in his thinking and theory of his creation of the hierarchy of needs. These needs are a daily thing, rather than what a person should focus on for their life. A person should focus on accomplishing each tear of the popular ladder or triangle that is often used to show the hierarchy of needs. The pyramid has the largest, most fundamental level of needs at the bottom and the need for self actualization at the top.

The first tear is physiological, this is the basic human needs such as breathing, food, water, sleep, sex and exercise. The second tear is safety. The need of employment, feeling that your body is safe, having family, healthy, morality and a roof over your head. Middle tear is love and belonging. The basic human need of friendship, family and intimacy. Then goes esteem. Having self esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others and respect by others. The top tear is self actualization. This tear is often the hardest for people to accomplish. This is the human need of morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving and the acceptance of facts.

Though each of the above theorists contributed greatly to the study of personality traits. It is easy to see that each one is different from the other. Freud focuses on physical motivation, Jung believes more in the state of dreams, Rogers focuses on self worth and development of self esteem then Maslow focuses on individual needs on a day to day basis.

Personally, I agree more with Maslow's theory in that everyone is an individual and needs to focus more on their own individual needs versus focusing on the human race as a whole and putting them as groups and categories rather than individualizing them as people. Having something to aim towards day to day and over a life time is a very realistic motivation and though the hierarchy of needs is in a vague set up, each stage can mean something different to each individual. For example, safety to me means that I'm in no way shape or form going to be in a situation that my life or health is on the line. To others, it might simply mean having a roof over their head and money in their pockets. But in the hierarchy of needs, your just supposed to successfully feel safe. A vague theory can almost be the best because each person can take it on as they see fit and as it fits them, where having something just pin pointed, such as Freud's theory of sexual motivation, doesn't work for everyone because there are people who don't enjoy sex or even to be touched.

Either way, each theorist contributed greatly to the study of personality development and self individual growth and development. Each in their own way but still working with each other. Maslow's pyramid does include human sexual need from Freud, and self worth from Rogers. Though they are each different, they are each working together and including similar aspects of the study of personality and motivation in human beings as individuals and as a group."