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Personality Written Report

This document discusses personality from several perspectives: 1. It defines personality as a pattern of traits and characteristics that give consistency and individuality to a person's behavior. 2. It outlines Freud's structural model of personality consisting of the id, ego, and superego. It also discusses his model of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels of mental life. 3. It describes six major theories of personality: behaviorist, social learning, trait, psychoanalytic, humanist, and existential theories. It provides a brief overview of each theory's key concepts.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
183 views19 pages

Personality Written Report

This document discusses personality from several perspectives: 1. It defines personality as a pattern of traits and characteristics that give consistency and individuality to a person's behavior. 2. It outlines Freud's structural model of personality consisting of the id, ego, and superego. It also discusses his model of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels of mental life. 3. It describes six major theories of personality: behaviorist, social learning, trait, psychoanalytic, humanist, and existential theories. It provides a brief overview of each theory's key concepts.

Uploaded by

angelito
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1

I. PERSONALITY

1.1. DEFINITION

Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both
consistency and individuality to a person‘s behavior. (Myers, 2005)

Personality is the dynamic and organized set of characteristics and traits possessed by a person that
uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. (Ryckman,
2008)

Traits are relatively permanent and broad reaction tendencies and serve as the building blocks of
personality. These are habitual patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotion.

Characteristics are unique qualities of an individual that include such attributes as temperament,
physique, and intelligence.

Attitude is a favorable evaluative reactions towards something or someone exhibited in one‘s beliefs,
feeling, or intended behavior (Myers, 2005). It is the consistency of reaction to a given situation.

Behavior is the observable changes in the way the individual copes with or adjusts and reacts to the
environment.

1.2. 6 DIMENSIONAL FRAMEWORKS IN THE THEORISTS CONCEPTS OF HUMAN


PERSONALITY
(Feist and Feist, 2008)

1. Determinism vs. Free Choice


- Determinism – behaviors determined by uncontrolled forces
- Free choice – people choose to be what they wish to be
2. Pessimism vs. Optimism
- Pessimism – people are doomed to live a miserable, conflicted, and troubled lives
- Optimism – people can change and grow into psychologically healthy, happy, and fully
functioning human being
3. Causality vs. Teleology
- Causality – holds that behavior is a function of the past experiences
- Teleology – explanation of behavior in the term of future goals or purposes
4. Conscious vs. Unconscious
- Conscious – aware of what we do and why we do things
- Unconscious – without awareness
5. Biological vs. Social Influences
- Biological – genetic determinants- heredity, recessive and dominant genes (nature)
- Social Influences – environmental determinants- culture, social class, family, peers (nurture)
6. Uniqueness vs. Similarities
- Uniqueness – noticeable feature is the persons individuality or traits that make people different
- Similarities – the common characteristics or traits that make people alike

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Personality Psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and its variations among
individuals.
2

II. COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY

2.1.Fundamental Characteristics of Personality:

Consistency - There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behaviors. Essentially,


people act in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situations.

Psychological and physiological - Personality is a psychological construct, but research


suggests that it is also influenced by biological processes and needs.

It impacts behaviors and actions - Personality does not just influence how we move and
respond in our environment; it also causes us to act in certain ways.

Multiple expressions - Personality is displayed in more than just behavior. It can also be seen in
our thoughts, feelings, close relationships and other social interactions.

2.2.Structural Model of Personality: (Freud)

2.3.1. Freud’s Provinces of the Mind


1. Id
- Pleasure principle
- Animalistic desire
- Pleasure seeking and seeks own satisfaction
- Don‘t accept frustrations
- Needs immediate gratification
- We are all born with ―id‖

2. Ego
- Reality principle
- Understands that other people have needs and desires
- Executive part, ego‘s job to meet the needs of the id
- A psychologically healthy person is dominated by the ego

3. Superego
- Conscience, it dictates our belief of right and wrong
- Moral or ethical restrains
- A guilt-ridden or inferior-feeling person is dominated by the superego

 At age 5, the 3 structures of personality are already formed and have a solid relationship.
The first 5 years of the child is crucial for the child‘s foundation.

2.3.2. Sigmund Freud’s Level of Mental Life (―The Iceberg Metaphor‖)


1. Conscious (tip of the iceberg)
- Everything that we are aware of is stored here
- Makes up a very small part of our personality
3

2. Preconscious/subconscious (upper submerged part of the iceberg)


- Related to superego
- Can only be accessed if prompted
- Childhood memories are stored here

3. Unconscious (submerged deep into the water and the large part of the iceberg)
- Bad experiences, emotions, beliefs, feelings and impulses are not available at conscious
level, buried due to extreme anxiety they caused but has continuous impact in our
personality.
- Ego is free floating in all 3 levels

4. Non-conscious (the water where the iceberg is submerged)


- Everything that we are not aware of, have not experienced, and that has not been
integrated into our personalities.

2.3.3. Carl Jung’s Personality Structure

1. Ego
- identifies with the conscious mind
2. Personal unconscious
- Anything which is not conscious, but can be.
- Memories that can be easily brought to mind
- Memories that are suppressed for some reason
3. Collective unconscious
- ―psychic inheritance‖
- Reservoir of our experiences
- Knowledge we are all born with
- It influences all our experiences and behaviors most especially the emotional ones
- Latent learning with later applications

III. THEORIES OF PERSONALITY


 Personality theories describe behaviors and make predictions about future behaviors.

3.1. 6 Major Theories of Personality


Quantitative Personality Theories:
1. Behaviorist (John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov)
2. Social Learning (Albert Bandura)
3. Trait (Gordon Allport, Raymond Catell)

Clinical and Qualitative Personality Theories:


1. Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung)
2. Humanist (Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers)
3. Existential (Rollo May)

Why theories? Theory-Hypothesis-Research- Research Data-Theory Cycle then data reshapes


theory and theory gives meaning to data.
4

THEORIES:

1. BEHAVIORIST THEORY
Suggest that personality is a result of interaction between the individual and the
environment. Behavioral theorists study observable and measurable behaviors, rejecting
theories that take internal thoughts and feelings into account.

2. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORIES


Observational learning behaviors made up a personality through observation, imitation,
and vicarious reinforcement because of the power of persuasive models. (model
characteristics: interesting, competent, attractive, successful, popular)

3. TRAIT THEORY
Traits contribute to individual differences in behavior, consistency of behavior over time,
and stability of behavior across situations. Traits may be unique, common to some group,
or shared by the entire species, but their pattern is different for each individual. Thus
each person, though like others in some ways, has a unique personality.

4. PSYCHOANALYSIS
Present behaviors are influenced by what is in the unconscious or past. All human
behavior is motivated by drives or instincts which in turn are the neurological
representations of physical needs.

5. HUMANIST THEORY
Individual drives and habit to achieve self-actualization and self-realizations. Personality
is an interaction among the environment, behavior, and the person‘s psychological
processes. It focuses on subjective experiences of persons as opposed to forced, definitive
factors that determine behavior.

6. EXISTENTIAL THEORY
It is concerned with the great problems of human existence, and understanding of human
nature. It focuses on the irrational as well as the rational side of our natures (needs).

IV. TYPE THEORIES (Typology)


 People need to deal with the world (inner and outer), and each has a preferred way
of dealing with it, comfortable ways where people are good at. Typology is the early
perspectives on personality. These theories suggested that there are a limited number of
"personality types" which are related to biological influences.

4.1.Carl Jung’s Personality Types

1. Introversion
- People who prefer their internal world of thoughts, feelings, fantasies, and dreams
2. Extraversion/ Extroversion
- People who prefers the external world of things, people and activities
5

4.1.1. 4 Functions of Personality:


1. Sensing Type (S)– getting information by means of the senses, good at looking and
listening (irrational), involves perception than judging of information
2. Thinking Type(T) – evaluating information or ideas rationally and logically (rational),
involves decision making or judging not just simple intake of information
3. Intuiting Type(N) – involves perception that works outside of the usual conscious
process (irrational/perceptual), comes from the complex integration of large information
than simple seeing or hearing
4. Feeling Type (F)– involves evaluating of information by weighing ones overall
emotional response (rational)

4.2. MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)


By Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myers

-based on Carl Jung‘s assumption on the types of personality

4.2.1. 4 Scales:
1. Extroversion-Introversion (E-I)
2. Sensing-Intuiting (S-N): Perceiving Functions
3. Thinking-Feeling (T-F): Judging Functions
4. Judging-Perceiving (J-P): to determine superior functions

4.2.2. Scales Combinations:


ENFJ- Extroverted feeling with intuiting, ENFP- Extroverted intuiting with feeling
ENTJ- Extroverted thinking with intuiting, ENTP- Extroverted intuiting with thinking
ESFJ- Extroverted feeling with sensing, ESFP- Extroverted sensing with feeling
ESTJ- Extroverted thinking with sensing, ESTP- extroverted sensing with thinking
INFJ- Introverted intuiting with feeling, INFP- Introverted feeling with intuiting
INTJ- Introverted intuiting with thinking, INTP- Introverted thinking with intuiting
ISFJ- Introverted sensing with feeling, ISFP- Introverted feeling with sensing
ISTJ- Introverted sensing with thinking, ISTP- Introverted thinking with sensing

4.3. Alfred Adler’s Personality Type Theories

Basic Principle:
a. Striving for Perfection/Success
- Overcoming feelings of inferiority by psychologically healthy people
b. Striving for superiority
- Overcoming feelings of inferiority by psychologically unhealthy people

4.3.1. Adler’s Personality Types

1. Ruling/ Dominant Type


- Tends to be aggressive and dominant over others
- Active in unsocial way/confront major life task on hostile, unsocial manner (bullies,
sadistic, suicidal)
6

- Assertive, aggressive, and active in little way in social awareness


2. Getting/Leaning Type
- Relates to the world in parasitic manner (living off on others generosity)
- Leans to others to satisfy most of their needs
- Lacks social interest
- Wants to get much from others
- Possess low activity level
3. Avoiding Type
- Lowest level of energy and only survive by essentially avoiding life or other people
- Avoids any failure so they are afraid of doing something
4. Socially Useful Type
- Healthy person who has both social interest and energy
- A sign of mature individual, having high social interest and high level of activity
- Have genuine concern for/ communion with others

4.3.2 Four Personality Types: (4 Temperaments)

 First proposed by Greek physician Hippocrates (humors or body fluids)


 First typology of temperaments by Galen (elements of hot/cold, dry/wet)

1. Choleric Type (Fire, yellow bile, hot/dry)


- Egocentric, extroverted, excitable, impulsive, restless (ruling type)
- Ambitious, strong-willed, job efficient, good planner, practical, and solution-oriented
2. Phlegmatic Type (Water, phlegm, cold/wet)
- Private, thoughtful, reasonable, calm, caring, and tolerant, clumsy (getting/leaning type)
3. Melancholic Type (Earth, black bile, cold/dry)
- Serious, introverted, cautious even suspicious, not sociable (avoiding type)
- Moody, susceptible to depression, focused, and conscientious
4. Sanguine Type (Air, blood, warm/moist)
- Lively, sociable, carefree, talkative, and pleasure-seeking, warm-hearted, and optimistic,
imaginative and artistic (socially useful type)
- Changeable, chronically late or forgetful

V. TRAIT THEORIES (Dispositional Theories)

 Trait Theories are primarily interested in the measurement of traits which are relatively
stable over time and differ across individuals.

5.1.Gordon Allport’s Trait/Disposition


Basic Principle: traits/dispositions produce equivalences in function and meaning
between various perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and actions that are not necessarily
equivalent in the natural world, or in anyone else‘s mind.

5.1.1. Traits or Dispositions


1. Personal Traits- generalized unique traits peculiar to that person
2. Common Traits- adapted traits particular to that culture that everyone recognized
7

3. Central Traits- traits that are closely tied to one self than to others. Building blocks of our
personality. Characteristics found in some degree in every person (honesty)
4. Secondary Traits- traits that are not quite so obvious, or so general or so consistent, are
seen only on certain circumstances(preferences, attitudes)
5. Cardinal Traits- traits that define a person‘s life, shape a behavior, tends to develop late
in life(passions, obsessions)

5.2.Raymond Catell’s Theory (developed 16PF)

1. Constitutional traits are determined by biology (nature)


2. Environmental-mold traits are determined by experience—that is, by interactions with
the environment (nurture)
3. Ability traits refer to the person‘s skill in dealing with the complexity of a given
situation. Thus, intelligence is an ability trait in Cattell‘s scheme.
4. Temperament traits refer to stylistic tendencies— being, for example, chronically
irritable, excitable, moody, easygoing, or bold.
5. Dynamic traits refer to the person‘s motivation and interests. An individual may be
characterized, for example, as ambitious, power-seeking, or sports-oriented.
6. Surface traits are ―simply a collection of trait elements, of greater or lesser width of
representation which obviously ‗go together‘ in many different individuals and
circumstances‖.
7. Source trait, in contrast to surface traits, is the underlying factor that controls the
variation in the surface cluster.

5.2.1. The Five Factor Theory (R.R McCrae and P.T. Costa, Jr.)
1. Extraversion: adventurous, assertive, frank, sociable, talkative, vs.
Introversion: quiet, reserved, shy, unsociable
2. Openness to experience: cultured, esthetic, imaginative, intellectual, open-minded
3. Agreeableness: altruistic, gentle, kind, sympathetic, warm
4. Conscientiousness: competent, orderly, responsible, thorough
5. Neuroticism: angry, anxious, depressed (emotional) vs.
Emotional Stability: calm, relaxed, emotionally stable

5.3.Hans Eysenck’s Personality Factor Theory of Traits


Basic Principle: Only three major factors can be discerned by a factor analytic approach.
Human personality and that personality dimensions arrived at through factor analytic
methods are sterile and meaningless unless they have been shown to possess a biological
existence.
Criteria for Identifying Factors:
1. Psychometric evidence- consistent, reliable, and replicable factor
2. Heritability- eliminates learned characteristics such as voice mimicking.
3. Must make sense from a theoretical view- deductive method: theory, gathering
consistent logical data.
4. Possesses social relevance- must be demonstrated that mathematically derived factors
have a relationship (not necessarily causal) with such socially relevant variables as drug
8

addiction, proneness to unintentional injuries, outstanding performance in sports,


psychotic behavior, criminality, and so on.

5.3.1. Eysenck’s Personality Factor


1. Extraversion E: sociable, lively, active, assertive, sensation-seeking, carefree, dominant,
quick-wittedness, optimistic, and risk-taker

2. Neuroticism N (has hereditary component): anxious, depressed, guilt feelings, low


self-esteem, tense, irrational, shy, moody, and emotional

3. Psychoticism (predisposed to succumb to stress and develop psychotic illness):


aggressive, cold, egocentric, impersonal, impulsive, antisocial, unempathic, creative,
suspicious, and tough-minded

VI. DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES


 Human development as affected by the interaction between personal characteristics, the
individual‘s behavior, and the environmental factors including social context.
6.1.Biopsychological (Lifespan Perspective) (Berk, 2004)
 Development as lifelong
 Development as multidimensional and multidirectional
 Development as highly plastic
 Development as embedded in multiple contexts (age-graded influence, history-graded
influence, non-normative influence)

Biopsychological Brief Description


Prenatal (conception- birth) One-celled organism transforms into a human
baby with remarkable capacities to adjust to life
outside the womb, spends more time sleeping,
baby reflexes are visible, close physical contact
with caregivers reduces crying
Infancy to Toddler (birth-2 years old) Dramatic changes in the body and brain support
(motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities
emerges), first intimate ties to others, stranger
anxiety and separation anxiety appear, complies
with simple directives, shows gender-stereotyped
toy choices, shows signs of empathy, self-control
appears, “terrible 2”
Early childhood (3-6 years old) Play years, refined motor skills, thought, language
expands, sense of morality is evident, improve
emotional self-regulation, establish ties to peers.
(sex preferences),interpret/predict other’s
emotion, forms first friendships, relies more on
language to express empathy
Middle Childhood (7-11 years old) School years, athletic abilities, logical thought
processes, basic literacy skills, understanding self,
morality, and friendship, peer-group membership,
self-concepts begins to include personality traits
9

and social comparisons, self-esteem tends to rise,


sibling rivalry tends to increase
Adolescence (12-19 years old) Puberty, adult-sized body and sexual maturity,
abstract thought and idealistic, school
achievement more serious, focus on defining
personal values and goals, establishing autonomy
from family, moodiness and parent-child conflict
increase, spends more time with peers, conformity
to peer pressure seems to decline at later age
Early adulthood (20-39 years old) Most leave home, complete their education,
begin fulltime work, concerned on developing a
career, forming intimate relationships, marrying,
rearing children establishing lifestyles, sibling
rivalry becomes more companionate, tries to
reevaluate life structure and tires to change
components that are inadequate
Middle Adulthood (40- 59 years old) Height of careers, attain leadership, help their
children begin independence, generativity
increases, focuses on personally meaningful living,
siblings may feel closer, number of friends
generally decline, parent-to-child help-giving
decreases and child-to-parent help-giving
increases, coping strategies become more
effective, job satisfaction increases
Late Adulthood (60 years old- death) Comes to term with life, develop ego integrity,
agreeableness and acceptance of change
increases, sibling support and closeness increases,
frequency and variety of leisure activities decline,
relationship with adult children become more
important, marital satisfaction increases, may
engage in reminiscence and life review

6.2. Robert J. Havighurst’s Developmental Tasks


- Tasks that arise from physical maturation
- Tasks that arise from personal sources
- Tasks that have their source in the pressures of society.

6.2.1. Developmental Tasks

Infancy and Early Childhood (Ages 0-5 years)


- Learning to crawl and walk
- Learning to take solid foods
- Learning to control the elimination of body wastes
- Learning sex differences and sexual modesty
- Forming concepts and learning language to describe social and physical reality
- Getting ready to read
- Learning to distinguish right from wrong and developing a conscience
10

Middle Childhood (Ages 6-12 years)


- Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games
- Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a growing organism
- Learning to get along with age-mates
- Learning an appropriate masculine or feminine social role
- Developing concepts necessary for everyday living
- Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values
- Achieving personal independence
- Developing attitude towards social groups and institutions

Adolescence (Ages 13- 18 years)


- Achieving new and more mature relations with age-mates of both sexes
- Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
- Accepting one‘s physique and using the body effectively
- Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults
- Preparing for marriage and family life
- Preparing for an economic career
- Achieving assurance of economic independence and selecting and preparing for
occupation
- Acquiring a set of values and ethical system as a guide to behavior; developing an
ideology
- Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior
- Developing intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic competence

Early Adulthood (Ages 19-29 years)


- Selecting a mate
- Achieving a masculine or feminine social role
- Learning to live with a marriage partner
- Starting a family
- Rearing children
- Managing a home
- Getting started in an occupation
- Taking on civic responsibility
- Finding a congenial social group

Middle Adulthood (Ages 30-59 years)


- Assisting children to become responsible and happy adults
- Achieving adult social and civic responsibility
- Reaching and maintaining satisfactory performance in one‘s occupational career
- Developing adult leisure time activities
- Relating oneself to one‘s spouse as a person
- Adjusting to aging parents

Late Adulthood/ Maturity (Ages 60 and above)


- Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health
- Adjusting to retirement and reduced income
11

- Adjusting to death of a spouse


- Establishing an explicit affiliation with one‘s age group
- Adopting and adapting social roles in a flexible way. Meeting social and civic obligation
- Establishing satisfactory physical living arrangements

6.3.Freud’s Pscyhosexual Development Theory


Basic Principle: Exploration and understanding of the unconscious and that people are
motivated primarily by drives of which an individual have little or no awareness. This is
the five erogenous zones as the source of child‘s psychosexual energy.

6.3.1. Defense Mechanism


Freud said that tensions or conflicts affect everyone, and humans have a way of
reacting, coping or cooling off tensions called defense mechanism.

Types of Defense Mechanisms:


A. Withdrawal Reactions
1. Fantasy- reversal
2. Nomadism- hopping/shifting, wandering
3. Repression- simply ignoring bad events and not dwell on it
4. Regression- returning or going back to early stage of development
5. Reaction Formation- projecting the opposite of what is felt
B. Aggressive Reactions
1. Displaced Aggression (displacement)-expressing feeling of anger to less
threating target
a. Scapegoating- blaming other person
b. Free-floating Anger- kicking anything that blocks way
c. Suicide
2. Identification- imitating the hated or liked person
3. Introjection- incorporating the personality of the somebody that threatens
4. Projection- attributing one‘s own traits, attitude, faults, feeling to others
C. Compromise Reactions
1. Sublimation- unacceptable impulses displaced by one that is socially
acceptable
2. Substitution- dealing frustrations by replacing or substituting
3. Compensation- trying to develop an area where a person is good at
4. Rationalization- intellectualization
a. Sour-grape attitude- not pursuing
b. Sweet-lemon attitude- looking for alternative to pursue
5. Isolation- keeping away/ withdraw from crowd
6. Undoing- keep cleansing oneself (washing of hands)
7. Denial- trying to ignore by denying

6.3.2. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development:


1. Oral stage (starts at birth and lasts up to 18 months). Focus of pleasure is, of course, the
mouth. Sucking and biting are favorite activities.
12

- gratified (trust, independence)


- overindulged/ swallows everything(gullible, dependent, conforming, trusting, happy,
obese)
- frustrated (very tense, verbally aggressive, hypercritical, anxious)
- oral aggressive/oral sadistic (biting): sarcastic, argumentative, envious,
exploitative/manipulative, tactless, pessimistic, hostility, aggressive, makes biting
remarks.
- fixation (oral activities): eating, drinking, smoking, kissing

2. Anal stage (lasts from about 12-18 months to three or four years old). Focus of pleasure
is the anus. Holding feces in and letting it go are greatly enjoyed. Toilet training starts.
- conformity to toilet training: orderly and neat
- appreciated: creativity, productivity
- fixation: anal expulsive personality (defecate anywhere): sadistic, cruel, destructive,
temper tantrums, vandalism, disorderly
- fixation: anal retentive personality (hold back feces): stubborn, stingy, hoards/retains to
feel secure, rigid, compulsively neat, obstinate, overly conscientious, aggressive

3. Phallic stage (lasts from three up to six or seven years old). Focus of pleasure is the
genitalia. Masturbation is common. Incestuous desires and sexual curiosity.
- Oedipus complex fixation: self-assured, repeated sexual conquests
If castration anxiety is resolved: child will remodel his father, identification, masculinity
Unresolved: promiscuous, exhibitionist, homosexual, sexual deviant (bestiality, fetishism,
incest, voyeurism). Ideal wife is mother.
- Electra complex fixation: strong narcissism, acting to be attractive, difficulty establishing
mature heterosexual relationships, exaggerate femininity, uses talents/ charms to conquer
men, flirt, feeling of superiority over men
4. Latency stage (lasts from six or seven to puberty). Sexual impulses were suppressed in
the service of learning. Most children seem to be fairly sexually calm and stable during
their school years when conflicts are resolved. Busy with asexual pursuits such as
school, athletics, and same sex friendships.
5. Genital stage (begins at puberty to adulthood). Represents the resurgence of the sex
drive in adolescence, and the more specific focusing of pleasure in sexual intercourse and
masturbation. Develop satisfaction in love and being loved, intimacy, and work as a
socially acceptable outlet. Positive: ability to love unselfishly, ability to find fulfillment
in work, responsible. Negative: aimless, stagnation, self-centered.

6.4.Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory


Basic Principle: Epigenetic principle- a child must live according to age and develop through a
predetermined unfolding of our personalities in eight stages. Progress in each stage is in part determined
by our success or lack of it in all the previous stages.

Maladaptation is too much of positive and little of negative, result of overcompensation or over
gratification
13

Malignancy is too little of the positive and too much of the negative aspect of the task, unmet needs.

Virtues are the traits that will help through lifetime.

Psychosocial
Stage (age) Ego crisis Maladaptation Malignancies
virtues
I (0-1) -- sensory
trust vs mistrust hope withdrawal
oral-sensory maladjustment
II (2-3) -- autonomy vs shame
will impulsivity compulsion
muscular-anal and doubt
III (4-5) --
initiative vs guilt purpose ruthlessness inhibition
locomotor- genital
IV (6-12) -- narrow
industry vs inferiority competence inertia
latency virtuosity
V (13-19) -- ego-identity vs role-
fidelity fanaticism repudiation
adolescence confusion
VI (20-40’s) --
intimacy vs isolation love promiscuity exclusion
young adulthood
VII (40’s to 60’s) -- generativity vs
care overextension rejectivity
middle adulthood stagnation
VIII (60’s and beyond)
integrity vs despair wisdom presumption despair
-- late adulthood

Chart based from Erikson's 1959 Identity and the Life Cycle (Psychological Issues vol 1, #1)

6.4.1. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development

1. Infancy or the oral-sensory stage. The task is to develop trust without completely
eliminating the capacity for mistrust.
- Virtue – Hope: strong belief that even when things are not going well, they work out
well in the end, to pursue with faith
- Maladaptation - Sensory maladjustment: overly trusting/gullible
- Malignancy - Withdrawal: depression, paranoia, and possibly psychosis

2. Anal-muscular stage of early childhood, from about eighteen months to three or four
years old. The task is to achieve a degree of autonomy while minimizing shame and
doubt.
- Virtue – Will/ willpower : determination with insistence and persistence, a ―can do‖
attitude
- Maladaptation – Impulsiveness: shameless willfulness that leads to jumping into things
without proper consideration of abilities
14

- Malignancy – Compulsiveness: overconfidence in what they do so everything must be


done perfectly by following all the rules to avoid mistakes, and mistakes must be avoided
at all cost
.
3. Genital-locomotor stage or play age. The task confronting every child is to
learn initiative without too much guilt.
- Virtue – Purpose: courage and the capacity for action despite a clear understanding of
limitations and past failures.
- Maladaptation – Ruthlessness: never caring who they step on to achieve their goals
- Malignancy – Inhibition: will not try things because ― nothing ventured, nothing lost‖

4. Latency stage, or the school-age child from about six to twelve. The task is to develop a
capacity for industry while avoiding an excessive sense of inferiority. Children must
"tame the imagination" and dedicate themselves to education and to learning the social
skills their society requires of them.
- Virtue – Competence: capability of doing something
- Maladaptation – Narrow Virtuosity: children aren‘t allowed to ―be children‖
- Malignancy – Inertia: suffer from inferiority complex never developed social skills
(become inert)

5. Adolescence. The task during adolescence is to achieve ego identity (fit in to the rest of
the society), and avoid role confusion.
- Virtue – Fidelity: loyalty, the ability to live by societies standards despite their
imperfections, incompleteness, and inconsistencies
- Maladaptation – Fanaticism: his way is the only way, promote their beliefs and life
styles without regard for others‘ rights to disagree
- Malignancy – Repudiation: repudiate/refuse/decline their need for an identity and ―fuse
with groups eager to provide the details of identity (gangs, fraternity, cults, etc.)

6. Young adulthood. The task is to achieve some degree of intimacy, as opposed to


remaining in isolation.
- Virtue – Love: able to set aside differences and antagonisms through mutuality of
devotion (love a partner, find a good marriage, love friends, co-workers, etc.)
- Maladaptation – Promiscuity: tendency to become intimate too freely, too easy without
depth of intimacy
- Malignancy – Exclusion: tendency to isolate oneself from love, friendship, and
community, and develop hate in compensation for ones loneliness

7. Middle adulthood. The task here is to cultivate the proper balance of


generativity and stagnation.
- Virtue – Care: capacity for caring that will serve through the rest of life
- Maladaptation – Overextension: so generative that they no longer have time for
themselves, for rest and relaxation
- Malignancy – Rejectivity: no longer participating or contributing to the society

8. Late adulthood. The task is to develop ego integrity with a minimal amount of despair.
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- Virtue – Wisdom: seeing the meaning and significance of life, ―generosity of spirit‖
- Maladaptive – Presumption: presumes ego integrity without actually facing the
difficulty of old age
- Malignancy – Disdain: a contempt of life, one‘s own life or anyone‘s life

6.5.Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory


Basic Principle: Persons‘ environment and heredity influences cognitive development of
the schema during interactions.

Schema or schemes: psychological structure, organized ways of making sense of experience


a. Adaptation- building schemes through direct interaction with environment by
assimilation (use current schemes to interpret external world) and accommodation
(create new schemes or adjust old ones to current ways of thinking to fit)
b. Organization- internally rearrange, linking new schemes to other schemes to create a
strong interconnected cognitive system
Equilibration: a steady comfortable process of conditioning to balance schemes
Disequilibrium: rapid cognitive change that can cause cognitive discomfort
Constructionism: process of creating knowledge to solve problems and eliminate disequilibrium

6.5.1. Piaget’s Cognitive Stages of Development:


1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)- the child develop object permanence to preverbal
intelligence. Infants ―think‖ by acting on the world with their eyes, ears, hands, and
mouth. As a result, they invent a way of solving sensorimotor problems, such as finding
hidden toys, putting in and taking out toys from containers, pulling lever to hear a sound
from a music box.
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)- the child develop internal representation (thinking)
that emerge from imitation, symbolic play, mental imagery, and language (spoken
language). Thinking lacks logical qualities.
a. Irreversibility- inability to mentally reverse physical action to return an object to its
original state.
b. Centration- inability to mentally hold changes in two dimensions at the same time.
c. Egocentrism- inability to consider another point of view.

3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)- the child is able to mental representations to
think about physical objects and events but is not yet able to think abstractly. Thinking
falls short of adult intelligence.
4. Formal Operational Stage (11 years onwards)- able to use symbolic representations in
abstract thought and think logically through hypothetical situations (can discuss
philosophy, religion, and morality with concepts of justice and freedom). Can also think
of all possible outcomes in a scientific problem, not just the most obvious ones.

6.6.Urie Bronfebrenner’s Ecological Systems Development Theory


Basic Principle: These systems contain roles, norms, and rules that can powerfully shape
development
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 Microsystem- direct environment such as home and school


 Mesosystem- home, peer, classmates‘ interaction
 Exosystem- parents‘ work, siblings‘ friends, friends affect interactions
 Macrosystem- social economic status, political, culture, beliefs, customs, and morals
 Chronosystem- life events and circumstances, its transition and interactions

6.7.Lawrence Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory


Basic Principle: the process of moral development is principally concerned with justice,
and that it continued throughout the individual‘s lifetime (uses Heinz Dilemma)

6.7.1. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development:


Level 1: Preconventional (4 years to late childhood)- no moral values internalization, external
standards control them to avoid punishment
Stage 1: Punishment and Obedience orientation- obey because adults told them so
Stage 2: Individualism and Purpose orientation- based on rewards and self-interest (right
is what feels good and rewarding)
Level 2: Conventional (late childhood to adolescence)- internalization of rules and standards
after accepting external standards, and behaviors are performed to please others (parents or laws
of society)
Stage 3: Interpersonal Norms- moral judgment based on personal values, trust, care, and
loyalty (good boy-good girl orientation), ideal reciprocity in the Golden Rule
Stage 4: Social System Morality- based on the understanding of the social order, laws,
and justice (social-order-maintaining orientation)
Level 3: Postconventional or Principled (adolescence to later age)- autonomous moral
principles, internalization of control over moral conduct
Stage 5: Community and Individual Rights- values and laws are relative and standards
vary (social contract orientation)
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Purpose- based on universal rights, follow conscience even it
decision involves personal risks. (universal-ethical principle orientation)
VII. NEEDS THEORIES

7.1.Erich Fromm’s Needs Theory


Basic Principle: humanistic analysis suggest that the human needs can be expressed in
one simple statement: ―the human being needs to find an answer to his existence‖.

7.1.1. Fromm’s 5 Basic Needs


1. Relatedness
- Need or drive for union with other person or something outside of self
- 3 ways: submission, power, and love (genuine love: care, responsibility, respect,
knowledge)

2. Transcendence
- Need of finding the meaning and purpose of existence
- Transcending by destroying or creating people or things (creativity)
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3. Rootedness
- Need to establish roots and to feel at home again in the world
- It enables to grow beyond the security of the mother and establish ties with the outside
world
- Productive way is to relate to the world by weaning (independence)
- Unproductive way is fixation, dependence and incestuous (psychological incest-afraid to
leave home or mother)

4. Sense of Identity
- Need to have a sense of identity or individuality in order to stay sane.
- Unproductive is conformity to a group for signs of status (pretend identity)

5. Frame of Orientation
- Need to have a road map with a destination and goal at the end to stay excited and
stimulated
- Understanding the natural and human world, and our place in it
- Rationalization to a have a frame of orientation but a good frame of orientation is one that
is useful and accurate where reason comes in
- Need to be provided with meaning and want understanding but a warm human
understanding
- Formulate philosophy in life as guiding rule or principle to stay effective and feel
accomplished

7.2.Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs


Basic Principle: Drive plus a habit will result to behavior/ motivational tendencies

7.2.1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs


1. Physiological Needs
- met: no cravings, higher needs will come
- unmet: craving for water, rest and food
2. Safety and Security Needs
- met: physical security, fear and anger will be eliminated which is an obstacle for learning
- unmet: anxiety, dread, fight and fight behavior

3. Love and Belongingness Needs


- met: love self and other/ feel being loved, trusts and inspired
- unmet: lonely, rejected and rootless, strong conformity to group norms, dislikes or hostile
towards out-groups

4. Self-Esteem Needs
- met: self-confident, cooperative, generous and kind
- unmet: fearful of criticism, fear of failure and risks, frustrated or angry, envious and bitter

5. Self-Actualization Needs
- met: desire to grow, polish more virtues, creative, positive and energetic, think of others
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- unmet: restless and bored, lack of zest for life, life is meaningless, boring, and without
purpose

7.3.Karen Horney’s Needs Theory: (Coping mechanism to cope with basic anxiety)
 Childhood is characterized by two needs: the need for satisfaction of the basic needs, the
need for safety to feel wanted, loved, and protected.
 Parental behavior may have caused basic anxiety to the child that leads to the
development of becoming neurotic as they try to achieve idealized self-image.
 3 aspects of idealized self-image: neurotic search for glory (need for perfection, neurotic
ambition, drive towards a vindictive triumph), neurotic claims, neurotic pride

7.3.1. Horney’s Neurotic Needs

I. Compliance: Moving Towards People “If I give in…I shall not be hurt.”
1. Need for Affection and Approval
- indiscriminate need in striving to be loved and admired by others
- characterized by overly sensitive to criticism, afraid of rejection and unfriendliness

2. Need for Having a Partner to Take Control


- has excessive dependence on others
- afraid to be abandoned and alone
- they over value love because they believe love can solve everything

3. Need for Restricting Life Within Narrow Limits


- contentment to what they have and the life they live
- love routinary work and hate to break routines, orderliness is paramount
- undemanding, and satisfied with little
- submit to the will of others

II. Aggression: Moving Against People “If I have the power no one can hurt
me.”
4. Need for Power
- to control and dominate other people
- hate weakness and always seek for strength
- a façade of omnipotence and believe in one‘s own rational powers

5. Need for Exploiting Others


- manipulative and believe that people are there to be used, they take advantage of others
- they fear of being used and of looking stupid

6. Need for Social Recognition


- need to be appreciated, admired and respected by others
- overwhelmingly concerned with appearances and popularity

7. Need for Personal Admiration


- need to admired for inner qualities and outer ones
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- need to feel important and valued and desperate to remind everyone of their importance
- they live with flattery and enflated flawless self-image

III. Withdrawal: Moving Away from People “I don’t care about anything, if I
stay away nothing can hurt me.”
8. Need for Personal Ambition
- obsessed with ambition and they have to be on top of everything they do
- if academic abilities are their strength, physical abilities are of no importance
- strive to be the best, perfect regardless of the consequences and they are afraid of failure

9. Need for Self-sufficiency and Independence


- they feel they don‘t need anybody and tend to refuse help
- reluctant to commit to a relationship and avoid obligation
- distant themselves from anyone or anything

10. Need for Perfection and Unassailability


- driven to be perfect and scared of being flawed
- they can‘t be caught making a mistake and need to be in control at all times
- they tend to be being moral and flawless in every aspect and self-righteousness

References:

Berk, L. A. (2004). Development through the lifespan (3rd edition).Boston, MA: Pearson

Calderon, J. F. (1998). Foundations of education (psychological, sociological, anthropological,


historical, philosophical and legal foundations of education), chapter 4. QC: Rex Printing
Company, Inc.

Corey, G. (2009). Transactional analysis for theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy
(8th edition). Web Tutor.

Fiest, G. J., Feist, J. (2008). Theories of personality (7th edition). USA: McGraw-Hill.

Ryckman, R. M. (2008). Theories of Personality (9th edition). Belmont, CA: Thomson


Wadsworth.

Schultz, D.P., Schultz, S. E. (2005). Theories of personality (8th edition). Belmont, CA: Thomson
Wadsworth

www.wikipedia.com/personality psychology

Written Report by: Jorge W. Echavia, Jr.

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