Notes

Defining Personallity/Part 2:

In the 1940s, teacher Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers (an author), created a personality assessment tool based on Jung’s theory: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). While creating the MBTI, they added two more dimensions to Jung’s theory: judging and perceiving. (Interestingly, neither woman had training in psychology.)

Judging (J): This function relates to the way in which some people tend to be more careful, meticulous, cautious, and restrained than others.
Perceiving (P): This function, as opposed to judging, allows a person to be more spontaneous, confident, flexible, and possibly even careless at times.

Based on various combinations of all these dimensions (Introversion-Extroversion, Sensing-Intuiting, Thinking-Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving), MBTI proposes 16 personality types such as ESTJ (Extrovert-Sensing-Thinking-Judging), ISFP (Introvert-Sensing-Feeling-Perceiving), and so on. The test-taker answers 126 questions (which are multiple choice) and the test scores reveal the test-taker’s personality combination.

MBTI scores can vary over the years. This occurs because aside from retaining certain permanent traits, a personality will evolve over the years through education and experiencing new things. Essentially, if a person takes the same test after a span of several years, it’s highly likely that the results will vary dramatically. Thus, the test scores take into consideration an individual’s lifespan development as an important aspect of the overall personality.
In the 1950s, cardiologists Meyer Friedman and R. H. Rosenham were researching the reasons behind heart disease, and they realized that people with a certain personality type were relatively more vulnerable to heart disease than were others. Thus, they formulated the Type A and Type B personality theory.

Type A: Individuals with a Type A personality are competitive and aggressive. They are typically very productive and effectively manage their time. Such people are more prone to suffering from stress, which arises from their anxiety, impatience, anger, etc., and can even cause heart disease.

Type B: Type B relates to a more relaxed personality. These types of people are often calm, satisfied with life, friendly, confident, creative, patient, self-assured, and cheerful. These people focus more on the quality of life, than on productivity.

Personality tests for the Type A and Type B theory use questions that direct a test-taker to choose an alternative that describes the test-taker’s personality to the best possible extent. However, this theory has faced criticism because of how rigid the two types are.

Psychodynamic and Sociocultural Theories:
During the early 1900s, psychologist Sigmund Freud introduced a psychodynamic theory of personality, better known as the psychoanalytic theory. According to Freud, psychoanalysis refers to a thorough evaluation of a patient’s feelings, emotions, and behavior to understand the hidden causes of the patient’s psychological problems.

Freud believed that the disputes, conflicts, and other issues that people experience with family in their early years affect them unconsciously. The unconscious is thus an invisible aspect of a person’s psyche that affects behavior, thoughts, opinions, and even actions. Freud used a method known as free association to reach his patients’ unconscious. In this method, Freud would let his patients talk endlessly about anything that came to mind, even if what they said did not always relate to a specific problem. Freud realized that it was possible to reach the underlying cause of a patient’s psychological concern by letting the person speak without any restrictions.

Based on his observation of the unconscious, Freud sectioned an individual’s personality into three parts: id, superego, and ego

In the 1920s, psychologist Alfred Adler presented a slightly different perspective on Freud’s psychodynamic theory. According to Adler, Freud’s theory did not consider the effect of social life on an individual’s personality; it focused more on biological urges. Adler emphasized the importance of an individual’s social interactions and experiences on the person’s feelings, emotions, and thoughts. He believed that most people are more concerned about feeling needed and wanted by members of their social environment, such as their parents, friends, coworkers, and so on.

According to Adler, an insecure person is more comfortable being around people who are comparatively weaker so that the insecure person can establish dominance or superiority over them. Such insecure people suffer from an inferiority complex at an unconscious level. Thus, they tend to be more controlling and aggressive in general to compensate for their hidden insecurities.

As part of his social psychodynamic theory, Adler also put forward his opinion about the effects of an individual’s birth order on the individual’s insecurities, behavior, and overall personality.
During the 1950s, psychologist Erik Erikson proposed a psychosocial theory of personality the emphasized the importance of an individual’s social aspects on personality. Let’s find out more about Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development and how these stages affect an individual’s personality.

Stage 1 (trust vs mistrust): During this stage, between infancy and two years of age, a child ideally learns to trust the social environment because of the love and care shown by the family (especially the mother). However, since the child is completely dependent on the mother (or primary caregiver) during the early years, any neglect, abuse, or lack of care might lead the child to develop mistrust.

Stage 2 (autonomy versus shame): Between two and three years of age, a child attempts to become independent. The child starts to crawl, walk, play with toys, etc. The child’s ego gets a boost if such independence or autonomy receives encouragement from the parents (or caregivers). On the other hand, if the child receives constant criticism, the child might develop low self-esteem and lack confidence, which can lead to a feeling of shame in the child.

Stage 3 (initiative versus guilt): Between three and five years of age, a child tends to take the initiative to play games, interact with other children, etc. This stage eventually determines whether the child will turn into a leader or follower in the years to come. For instance, if parents support a child’s initiative to participate in games, the child becomes more confident. However, if parents try to control or restrict such initiative, the child loses self-confidence and develops a sense of guilt instead.

Stage 4 (industry versus inferiority): Between six and twelve years of age, a child starts to set and achieve certain goals in terms of school exams, sports, etc. The child also starts to expect rewards for attaining these goals, such as appreciation, prizes, etc. Thus, a child learns to be independent and industrious. If the child’s efforts receive criticism and go unrewarded, it might lead to a feeling of inferiority due to a lack of self-confidence.

Stage 5 (identity versus identity confusion): During adolescence (i.e., between 13 and 18 years of age), a teenager tries to achieve a sense of identity by being part of a group to which the teen can relate, exploring strengths and weaknesses, etc. This period helps teenagers decide what they want to achieve, what career they will choose, etc. However, if a teenager is unable to answer such questions, it could lead to identity confusion.

Stage 6 (intimacy versus isolation): Between 18 and 30 years of age, a person begins sharing intimacy with others as adults. During this period, if an individual is unable to commit to a relationship, it might lead to feelings of isolation.

Stage 7 (generativity versus stagnation): Between 30 and 65 years of age, a person tends to assume greater responsibilities at work, have children, be part of a community, and thus be generative or productive in society. Failure to become part of such social concerns can make a person feel dejected and redundant, leading to stagnation.

Stage 8 (ego integrity versus ego despair): The last stage comprises life beyond 65 years of age. If a person feels content with life so far, it leads to a renewed sense of integrity. However, if an individual is not happy with life, it can lead to severe regret and despair.

Humanistic Theories:
During the 1950s, psychologist Carl Rogers presented a humanistic view of personality. According to Rogers, each person has the potential to grow and be a good human being if provided with a healthy social environment. Thus, Rogers’ humanistic theory of personality emphasized the importance of healthy human qualities. Rogers stated that an individual’s personality comprises three parts: the real self, the perceived self, and the ideal self.

Real self: The real self is the individual’s original and fundamental personality. It consists of a person’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behavior.

Perceived self: This refers to a person’s self-image. The perceived self is the way a person actually thinks of oneself. For instance, people who perceive themselves as less intelligent than others are will generally have low self-confidence.

Ideal self: The ideal self is the benchmark that a person sets in terms of personality. The ideal self is not who the person currently is, and the need to become the ideal self will drive the individual to make an effort to be a better person.

According to Rogers, a congruence between the real self and ideal self makes an individual a fully functioning person. Three primary conditions are necessary for the healthy development of an individual’s personality: genuineness, acceptance, and empathy.
uring the 1940s, psychologist Abraham Maslow supported the humanistic approach to the concept of personality. He, like Carl Rogers, believed that every person was capable of being a good human being and growing as a person, given an appropriate environment. Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs theory that determined the different needs that people attempt to fulfill. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs takes the form of a pyramid that initially consisted of five levels, or five different types of needs, which a person attempts to satisfy in ascending order.

At the bottom of the original pyramid are an individual’s physiological needs such as thirst, hunger, sleep, etc. The next level is that of safety needs, i.e. the need to seek protection in the form of shelter, money, insurance, health care, etc. The third level consists of a person’s social needs, or the need to share warm, loving, and caring relationships with those in the person’s social environment (family, friends, spouses, children, etc.). The fourth stage contains esteem needs. These needs depict a person’s motivation to achieve independence, success, earn respect, attain social status, etc. The top level of the pyramid symbolizes an individual’s self-actualization needs. Self-actualization refers to a state where a person reaches the highest level of potential and achieves tremendous personal growth.
During the 1970s and 1990s, other psychologists revised Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. They included three more types of needs. These were cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, and transcendence needs.

Cognitive needs refer to a person’s need to continuously learn and explore new avenues. Thus, it includes the need to study, discover, innovate, and add to one’s knowledge base. Aesthetic needs are an individual’s need to seek beauty, order, and balance. For instance, such needs make people decorate their homes in certain ways. The most important addition to the model was the eighth level. This level was known as transcendence needs. Such needs reflect a person’s genuine interest in helping another person to achieve self-actualization. Thus, this need can only arise when an individual has already achieved self-actualization and wants to give back to society by helping someone else to reach the same level.