Trait Perspective
When analyzing Peter’s personality he first needs to be placed in one of the big five of the “Big Five Trait Theory” out of the five he mostly fits into two which are openness and extraversion. Peter fits into these because he is emotional; he likes adventure, he has unusual ideas, he is curious, and has a variety of experiences. Also he is a party guy he’s crazy he likes to be around people. Him fitting into this category illustrates why his character develops the way it does. Peter often finds himself stuck in multiple shenanigans and this is because he is so curious and loves adventure; he is very open to new situations and has very strange ideas a majority of the time. This is evident when he becomes a space cowboy, mayor of Quahog, death’s substitute, a theater director, a reality show actor, a renaissance fair jouster, a petorian president, and many many more. Doing these things provided him with many experiences although many of them end in failure due to his idiocy they still have contributed to his development like when he was a bull rider he never rides bull anymore due to his fear of being raped by one again. These little things shape his life and his character. Peter’s character is not consistent at all he is a very random and spontaneous person; his personality is always changing within the situation unless he is inebriated. Therefore his traits do not define his behavior which is stated in the person situation theory. From all of his experiences Peter is more of a type B personality than type A because he is easy going not high strung.
Humanistic Perspective
People argue that Peter has no purpose and is just there to have fun but he is not. In an episode he says to Lois that he wants to finally chase his dream as a renaissance jouster. Although this is not that big of a dream he feels as if it is his purpose. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Peter must first satisfy his lower level needs like food, and water then move up the ladder until he gets to self-actualization. Peter seemed to have met all of them but he did not completely meet the second to last step which requires achievement, respect of others, and respect by others. Peter completely fails to meet that because his co-workers don’t respect him because of his foolishness, he hasn’t had any major achievements, and he feels as if he is superior to everyone else not showing any respect for his peers. Especially for his daughter Meg an example of this is when Peter tells her to shut up whenever she starts talking or hitting her in the face with a baseball bat because she was worried. This reflects the concept that all humans can do evil, Peter isn’t an evil person but he tends to evil things to better himself because that is in human nature. He is also un-bothered by how he mistreats people like when he bashes Connie’s face into a fire extinguisher until she bleeds because she made fun of Meg. This reflects a narcissistic aspect of Peter’s personality because he is un-bothered by the pain he causes others and he thinks that he is the best and everything revolves around him which also means he has good positive self-concept of himself but it almost exceeds to over self-confidence. All of that is most likely the reason why he was unable to maintain being the jouster because he still hasn’t completed the level below self-actualization. It seems as if all of Peter’s family and friends give him unconditional positive regard, regardless of all the stupid things he does. But, he does not re-compensate that to certain people, like Meg. On the other hand he does have UPR for Brian his best friend.
Social-Cognitive Perspective
Peter’s environment has influenced his personality in many ways due to working in a toy store he tends to act like a child a lot, and from working in a pub he has become an alcoholic. These two things describe his personality very well, a drunk with a child inside. In order to have a sense in belonging Peter finds friends that are much like him, people that like the same things as him, and do the same things. By doing so he is shaping his own environment to fit his personality. An example of him shaping his environment is when he turns his living room into Pee-wee’s Playhouse. In reality it seems as if Peter doesn’t even have a locus of control because Peter never shows that he thinks he is guided by fate and he never demonstrates that his life is guided by his own efforts. This is probably why most of Peter’s life is hectic and chaotic. He doesn’t really have a sense of guidance therefore many of the things he does are extremely random. An example of Peter’s reciprocal determinism is he acts out the way he does now because he lacked a sufficient father figure. Peter is sensitive of that fact and therefore he acts out, causing his family and friends to get annoyed with him at times and even sometimes puts a hole in Cleveland’s house and causes him to fall off the second floor while in the bath. When confronted about his behavior they are informed he is a drunken man because he wants to forget about his daddy issues making his friends more accepting of his behavior. This problem might be due to his social-cognitive perspective because he knows his dad was a drunk and his mom didn’t leave him for it so he figured that it is an acceptable behavior and does it as well to cope with his pain. Peter Griffin is an all-around crazy character and fairly difficult to understand but when he is psychoanalyzed it is found out that even the problems of middle aged drunk fat man are due to early childhood occurrences and these occurrences can impact someone for their entire life! But, wait…before you go….haven’t you heard?......
ABOUT THE BIRD?!?!
