Freud’s psychoanalysis also emphasizes that early experiences with parents play an important role in sculpting personality. This can seen in cases where children had early experiences with parents developed certain types of personality that are similar to parents or sometimes different, depending on the circumstances. The child might choose to adopt the good characteristic or the bad, which will then sculpture his/her personality.
Freud sees personality as having three aspects, these are the id, ego, superego. These three work together to produce the complexity of human behavior. According to Freud the id is the structure of personality that consists of instincts, it represents life and death sexual instincts, biological urges, aggressive and destructive impulse, is inherited, primitive, unconscious and seeks pleasure. The ego is the reality principle, it is conscious and houses our higher mental functions such as reasoning ,problem solving and decision making. The id and ego is said to have no morality and does not consider right or wrong. The superego is Freud’s moral branch of personality and considers whether something is wrong or right, it is often referred to as our conscience.
Freud in his theory liken personality to that of an iceberg, stating that our personality exists below the level of awareness, just as the massive part of an iceberg is submerge beneath the surface of water.
In John Holland’s personality theory Holland attempts to predict the behavior of persons in different types of environment and suggested that an individual is a product of heredity and environment.
Holland gives attention to behavioral style of personality types as major influence in career choices and development. He believes that in order to be successful and satisfied in ones career it is necessary to choose an occupation that is congruent with one’s personality and that an individual’s personality is the primary factor in terms of vocational choices. This theory has been described as structural interactive because it provides an explicit link with various personality characteristic and corresponding job titles. Holland assumes that it is best if members of any occupational group have similar personality and histories of personal development. He suggest that if persons in an occupational group have similar personalities they will respond to many situations and problems in similar ways and that the closer one’s personality matches their job the greater satisfaction they would achieve on their job.
In this theory it is observed that individuals are attracted to jobs in which the environment reflects their personality and that choices of an occupation is an expression of one’s personality.
William Glasser in his theory of personality development sees personality development as a function of how well individuals learn to meet their needs and states that the degree to which they are capable of meeting their needs largely determines whether they function appropriately. He believes that personality is formed as the individual strives to meet both physiological a psychological needs.
Another influential theory of personality is derived from behaviorism. This view, represented by thinkers such as B. F. Skinner, places primary emphasis on learning. Skinner sees human behavior as determined largely by its consequences. It states that if behavior is rewarded it recurs; if punished, it is less likely to recur.
Heredity and environment also interact to form personality. It has been observed that from the earliest age infants differ widely because of variables that either are inherited or which developed as a result from conditions of pregnancy and birth. Some infants are more attentive than others are, for example, where as some are more active. These differences can influence how parents respond to the infant. This is an illustration of how hereditary conditions affect environmental ones. Among the personality characteristics that are known to be at least partly determined by heredity are intelligence and temperament. Some forms of psychopathology are also in part hereditary.
In addition to the influence of heredity what happens to a developing child has a greater or lesser effect depending on when it happens. Many psychologists believe that critical periods exist in personality development. These are periods when individual is more sensitive to a particular type of environmental event. During one period, for example, language ability changes most rapidly; during another the capacity for guilt is most likely to be developed.
Experts believe that a child’s experience in the family is crucial for personality development. How well basic needs are meet in infancy, along with later patterns of child rearing, can leave a permanent mark on personality. Children, whose toilet training is started too early or carried out too rigidly, for example may become defiant. Children learn behavior appropriate to their sex by identifying with their\ it –sex parent; a warm relationship with that parent facilitates such learning. Their siblings can influence children.
Carl Gustav Jung believes that there are two basic personality types extroverted and introverted which alternate equally in the completely normal individual. Jung also believe that the unconscious mind is formed by the personal unconscious (the repressed feeling and thoughts developed during an individual’s life), and the collective unconscious (those inherited feeling thoughts and memories shared by all humanity).
As I conclude I must say that though all of the views shared by the different theorist was not exactly the same they all had something in common, in that it all had to do with development of an individual at one stage or another in his/her life span and in each view certain aspect of those developmental stages shaped the individual personality.
I think it is safe to say that personality emerges or is sculptured from early childhood experiences in most cases and thus plays an important part in determining who you will become in the future. It is very clear to see that an individual’s environment and relationship with parent in early stages also contribute to one’s personality.
In the final analysis if one is to say what a healthy personality should consist of, it would be, having a realistic perception of oneself, sticking to one’s moral code, defining and clarifying his/her values, knowing what he/she wants and knowing how much he wants it.
References: Oldhan, John M. & Lois B. Morris
The new personality self-portrait,
Guide to personality types.
Hall, Calvin S. and Gardner
Lindzey theories of personality 4th
Ed.
Carver Charles & Michael F.
Scheier, prerspective on personality
