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Personality Theories

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According to personality-development.org (n.d. ), “Sigmund Freud developed some of the most influential theories in modern psychology and psychoanalysis. His division of the mind into the conscious and unconscious components have driven research on the brain into very specific directions, and his contributions extend into the field of neuroscience, as well. By exploring the underlying motivations of our behaviors, Freud pioneered new levels of abstraction in human thought. For Freud, the mind is best conceptualized in two distinct components, the conscious and unconscious. The unconscious portion contains the thoughts we may potentially have, as well as the desires which dictate our behavior without our awareness. Societal regulations force us to repress certain aspects of ourselves, and the unconscious serves as the storehouse for this collection. Many of our inner urges are too disturbing for the conscious mind and society at large to cope with immediately. Therefore, we sublimate these secrets into a region we cannot face directly. The ego is responsible for repressing unconscious thoughts. Things that are too disturbing to face immediately are pushed out of awareness by the ego. However, the unconscious continues to exert influence on the behavior of the individual. This psychological pressure creates a continuous battle between the ego and unconscious portions of the psyche. The dynamics of this struggle are the target of much of Freud's psychoanalytic theories. He described the mind as composed of various components. Each component is responsible for one of the various functions the mind executes”.
The Boeree (1997, 2006 ) website Jung's theory divides the psyche into three parts. The first is the ego, which Jung identifies with the conscious mind. Closely related is the personal unconscious, which includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious is like most people's understanding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason.
But it does not include the instincts that Freud would have it include. But then Jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theory stand out from all others: the collective unconscious. You could call it your "psychic inheritance." It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences. There are some experiences that show the effects of the collective unconscious more clearly than others: The experiences of love at first sight, of deja vu (the feeling that you've been here before), and the immediate recognition of certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all be understood as the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality of the collective unconscious. It seems that many people, of many different cultural backgrounds, find that they have very similar recollections when they are brought back from a close encounter with death.
According to "Carl Rogers" (2015), “Rogers approached personality in a different way. Rogers saw people as people; not as objects to be studied. He believed that people are fundamentally positive in nature. He believed that when we act irrationally or in a negative way people are not functioning properly. Rogers supported the phenomenological approach to personality. This approach stated that an individual perceives the world in a unique way… these perceptions make up an individual’s phenomenal field This phenomenal field is a component in the phenomenological approach. It takes in all experiences both conscious and unconsciousness. As some experiences are not as important as others we are left with those that are important which becomes what is known as the self. This is a key concept in Rogers’ theory. The self, or self concept, is what people identify as “I” or “Me”. This awareness and identification of the self comes through the perceptions and experiences encountered by an individual throughout their lives. Probably the most important aspect of the theory is the actualizing tendency. This is a person's innate motivation towards developing to the fullest potential.
Rogers believed that all organisms, not just people, have this tendency from the moment of birth. Rogers believed that through positive regard and positive self-regard a person could become their "real self", a person functioning at their true and full potential.
However due to conditions of worth and the standards other people place on an individual, a person could instead become their "ideal self". This ideal self is a self that is at a standard an individual cannot meet: not really attainable. The space between the real and ideal self is known as incongruity. The bigger this space is, the less likely an individual will attain their potential”.

Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people. He believed that people possess a

set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. Maslow (stated that

people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil

the next one, and so on. The earliest and most widespread version of Maslow's hierarchy of

needs includes five motivational needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.

This five stage model can be divided into basic or deficiency needs (e.g. physiological, safety,

love, and esteem) and growth needs (self-actualization). The deficiency, or basic needs are said

to motivate people when they are unmet. Also, the need to fulfil such needs will become stronger

the longer the duration they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food the

more hungry they will become. One must satisfy lower level basic needs before progressing on

to meet higher level growth needs. Once these needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be

able to reach the highest level called self-actualization. Every person is capable and has the

desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. Unfortunately, progress is

often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. Life experiences including divorce and loss

of job may cause an individual to fluctuate between levels of the hierarchy. Maslow noted only

one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation

primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs (McLeod, 2007/2014).

Although Freud was the first to analyze psychological issues, Jung is still attached to his
Freudian roots. He emphasizes the unconscious even more than Freudians do. In fact, he might be seen as the logical extension of Freud's tendency to put the causes of things into the past.
Freud, too, talked about myths --Oedipus, for example -- and how they impact on the modern psyche. Finally, we owe to Jung the broadening of interpretation, whether of symptoms or dreams or free-associations. While Freud developed more-or-less rigid interpretations, Jung allowed for a rather free-wheeling "mythological" interpretation, wherein anything could mean, well, anything. Existential analysis, in particular, has benefited from Jung's ideas. As with Freud,
Rogers also came up with the idea of defense mechanisms, though he only has two. Denial, when one denies the situation altogether and perceptual distortion, when one changes the meaning of the situations for themselves. While Maslow took a different direction and decided to find the motivations and needs behind certain behavioral and physiological actions.

References

Boeree, G. C. (1997, 2006 ). Carl Jung. Retrieved from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html
Carl Rogers. (2015). Retrieved from http://carl-rogers.wikispaces.com/Theory+Of+Personality
McLeod, S. (2007/2014). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html personality-development.org. (n.d. ). Sigmound Freud . Retrieved from http://personality-development.org/theories-personality-development/sigmound-freud

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