Personality Changes Over Time Essay

There has been a lot of debate over whether or not personality can change over time. Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson are two philosophers who debate the subject on opposite sides. I will discuss their views on the matter and state my opinion about which philosopher I agree with. But to even begin to dive into the subject, we must know what the subject is. Personality and it’s components are going to be discussed in this paper, so we must understand what personality is. Although there are many theories about personality, they all seem to center around the same thing, genetics and life experience. The term personality comes from the Latin word Persona, which referred to a theatrical masks worn by performers to disguise themselves. “Personality

His theory define that the most powerful force in personality is the unconscious. The unconscious contains all the drives, urges, or instincts that are outside awareness but nonetheless motivates most of our speech, thoughts, feelings, or actions. Before, most people seems that we consciously think, feel, and believe is a relatively accurate and important source of information for explaining our behavior and personality. The conscious layer is what we are aware of at any given moment in time, whereas the preconscious is just below the surface of awareness. It is not currently conscious but can become so relatively easy. Freud believed that much of what we do and the reasons we do it are hidden from our awareness and revealed to us in only distorted forms, such as slips of the tongue and dreams. Fraud didn't believe that personality could completely change over time. He thought that the personality remains mostly consistent throughout a person's whole life.(9)
I would have to agree with Erik Erikson and Alfred Adler's theories. I believe that personality can change and genetics and childhood development plays a big part in it. Through our experiences while growing up, we are influenced by others and we try to make ourselves better and that can change your personality. Our personality is not set in stone, we can change it according to how we want to