Now that I have discussed the major events that took place throughout my life until where I am now, I would have to say that the two theorists along with their theories that relate most to my life are Alfred Adler and Karen Horney. I am going to start with Adler; his theory is called individual psychology. “This stresses the wholeness and uniqueness of each person as he or she struggles to overcome feelings or inferiority by aspiring toward some future goal” (Hergenhahn, Olson & Cramer, 2014 p. 123). For Adler’s theory on individual personality the first point I am going to discuss is his view on inferiority. In class I learned that Adler grew up with an older brother, thus leaving him to develop feelings of inferiority and causing him to always …show more content…
I believe that events in my life can relate to these topics. The first event I will be discussing which is related to Horney is parent-child relationships. As discussed above, my parents got divorced when I was twelve years old leaving me to become emotionally and mentally scarred. During the divorce there was emotional abuse that was mainly directed towards me through my dad, there was also addiction problems where my dad was concerned. Due to the emotional abuse and addiction I found myself developing what Horney would call basic hostility towards my dad. Basic hostility is defined as “a feeling generated in a child if needs for safety and satisfaction are not consistently and lovingly satisfied by the parents” (Hergenhahn, Olson & Cramer, 2014 p. 454). What this means is that I could no longer depend on my dad to take care of me and I no longer looked to him for comfort, in a sense I lost all respect for my dad. Throughout my parent’s divorce and developing basic hostility towards my dad I also found myself developing basic anxiety. What this means is that I no longer trusted anyone but myself because I thought that they would all do the same thing that my own dad did to me, and I still believe that to this day. This left myself moving away from people and creating an invisible bubble around myself, what this means is that I can now only depend on myself. I need to be independent, in control, and everything needs to be perfect. For example, I have a hard time committing in relationships because I do not want to get emotionally attached to someone and them emotional traumatizing me again. It took a toll on me when my dad did it, I do not need it again. Throughout these events I also became somewhat of a perfectionist. What I mean by this is that I have the need to have everything right, and if its not I will sit down wherever I am and
With a nod to a psychodynamic approach that recognizes the influence of past events—and more importantly, how those events are interpreted—Adlerian theory postulates that most problems are social in nature, with the dynamic among the family being one of the
Sigmund Freud is credited with the establishment of the psychoanalytic theory. At the foundation of Freud's personality theory is that people are basically an energy system through which energy is directed and released through a means of expression that faces the lease resistance. Another aspect of Freud's theory is that the majority of one's development occurs in the early years of life, up until the age of five. There are three main stages: oral, anal and phallic. These may eventually become exemplified as types of adult personalities. Additionally, people's actions are ...
Psychodynamic theory is a contemporary psychological approach to personality that focuses on the unconscious mind and childhood memories. According to psychologist Sigmund Freud, psychodynamic theory has three main components: the ID, Ego, and Superego. The ID is the instinctive part of personality. It
This theory states that we are influenced by our parents but not determined by our early childhood developments or instincts. Most people live with limited self-reflection, they avoid core issues related to humanness and meaninglessness, facing our core issues head on leads to anxiety and dread, not facing our core life issues head on leads to a neurotic existence. It is better to face our core issues, aloneness, death, and living meaningfully, even if there is a price to pay with such awareness. Changing ones way of living requires focused self-discipline. When treating an issue the person has, you have to consider the whole person and how that issues might have contributed to all parts of their
People tend to analyze the personality of someone while meeting new people. This way, they are often unconsciously evaluating how that person reacts of behaves. Out of all the personality theories I chose Freud’s theory, because it was the theory that I could identify myself the most. Sigmund Freud developed the psychoanalytical theory of personality development. He described that personality is the outcome of the interaction between three mental structure levels: ego, superego and id.
Sigmund Freud is one of the most influential psychologists and had a very significant impact in psychoanalysis techniques. Not only was Freud considered the father of psychoanalytic theory, but he also developed the first comprehensive theory of personality (Burger, 2012).
“People are very complex. And for a psychologist, you get fascinated by the complexity of human beings, and that is what I have lived with, you know, in my career all of my life, is the complexity of human beings” - Daniel Kahneman.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something- your gut, destiny, life, home, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life” (Steve Jobs, 1955). Throughout all of my 25 years blessed on planet earth, my personality have somewhat been compared to that of a roller coaster, filled with many ups and downs, positives and negatives, rewards and punishments. As such, I have frequently embarked on numerous journeys in a dyer attempt to discover and recollect the shattered fragments left of me. With this being said, the term personality however, could be defined as “the patterns of behavior and ways of thinking and feeling that are distinctive for each individual” (Tischler, 2007). At the completion of this paper, I intend to achieve answers to some pertinent questions for instance how has the development of personality affected or impacted on human nature. I also hope to discover the various transitions of my personality starting from infancy to present and the reason or motives behind such changes. Finally, I would like to be able to gain an in-depth understanding of a variety of Personality Theories especially the Psychoanalytical Theory of
What is my personality? How do we develop our individual personalities? Was I born with a preset personality? And if so can my personality be changed well into adulthood? These are questions I asked myself, while I gather my thoughts as to what my personal theory of personality is. So far in my quest of self discovery and introspection, I can see that individual personality can be altered and is very adaptive throughout life. I see this in the ways that may individuals go into counseling and with time and true determination are able to move at times from unstable personality condition into healthier state of being. I truly believe that many aspects of theories already developed can be used to explain the development of personalities. Some of the most important theories that impact the development of my personality theory are the biological, attachment, and cognitive theories.
Theorists have expanded our knowledge of psychology, influenced one another to broaden, and built upon each other’s theories to develop their own. One theorist who has built upon previous theorists was Erik Erikson. Erikson developed an eight-stage theory of identity and psychosocial development, which has countless strengths and weaknesses.
-Freud’s came up with the first theory on personality which then kicked started the field and more personality theories came up.
Alfred Adler, an Austrian psychiatrist and former disciple of Freud, acknowledge environmental influences such as social class, geographic origin and relationship with parents as factors in the development of personality. But it was birth order and relationship with siblings that was the single most reliable predictor of human nature (Udall).
Alfred Adler directed his attention to searching for immediate results to the issues of the patient. The assumption of Adler’s individual psychology is that social factors and goals for the future are the motivating factors in human behavior. It was Adler’s position that people needed to have a sense or a feeling of belonging and that belonging was tied to their social ties (Ferguson, 2010). Individual psychology also makes the assumption that individuals are conscious of their thoughts and feelings and are personally responsible for how they respond or behave in a given situation (Overholser, 2013). Alfred Adler contributions to the theory of personality centered on the importance of society. Adler felt that as humans, individuals are all connected together and through that
Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality was the first and main influence for the development of Psychodynamic perspectives. Freud discussed about instincts, anxiety, and defense mechanism, levels of personality, structure of personality and psycho sexual developments of a child. Freud believed, the childhood experiences will affect to lead the future life. Freud’s psychotherapy is called psychoanalysis. After Freud’s personality theory was developed by neo Freudians like Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, Anna Freud. Carl Jung focused on the ego, the personal unconscious and collective unconscious, extraversion and introversion and archetypes. Alfred Adler presented the ideas on Superiority complex Inferiority complex social interest, psychological types, faulty life styles and the Birth order.