Psychoanalytic Theory and Personality Research Paper

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Personality Theories

Psychologists have described personality as specific way of feeling, thinking and self-conduct (Mcleod, 2014) of an individual. Personality is the constantly changing system in the minds of individuals and made up of specific psychological traits that influence their specific self-conduct and thinking. Personality is the combination of behavior that distinguishes a person. The personality of a person is affected by genetic and biological factors as well as factors such as upbringing, environment etc.

Personality theories are broken down into two classes:

• Trait theories of personality that believe that personality depends more on biological factors

• State theories, which see upbringing and societal factors as the major determinants of personality

This paper will be exploring two personality theories: Hans Eysenck's Personality Theory and Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory.

Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

This theory of personality believes that our differing personalities arise from the communication between what Sigmund Freud described as the three basic composite parts of human thinking namely the id, ego, and the superego.

The first and earliest developed of these parts is the 'id', which has to do with immediate satisfaction of the normal human yearnings and desires and it works on its own, uncontrolled by humans. The superego deals with moral and societal conduct which is also referred to as "conscience." A little child's upbringing and knowledge of what his tradition describes as right or wrong develops his conscience. However, the ego is the most logical and practical part of our personality. It is not as crude as the id and is partly controllable by human reasoning.

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Freud describes the ego as the "self," and states that it has the function of balancing the id and the superego's needs in a feasible manner. Freud holds the opinion that the id, ego and superego are in a state of constant conflict, and that the behavior and conduct of mature persons are based on these childhood mind battles. Freud stated that persons with big egos mostly possess very good personalities while those who do not balance these needs suffer problems such as worry or constant sadness as well as harmful self-conduct. (Boundless, 2016)

The kind of conflict between the id, ego, and superego varies with time and as per the developmental processes that occur during growth of an individual, according to Freud. He stated that these battles are subject to a process of five stages, each stage giving attention to these various areas: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Freud named his process the psychosexual theory of development with each stage associated with a specific area of bodily gratification. While undergoing this process, the developing child is faced with several battles between their biological urges (id) and their ethical conscience (superego) because these urges are aimed at various parts of the body (which Freud describes as "erogenous zones"). The child's capacity to counter the internal battles has significant effect in defining his/her future capacity to perform and behave as an adult. Inability to get past a stage in the….....

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