Personality. Psychodynamic approaches to personality trait. Learning, Biological, Evolutionary, and humanistic approaches to personality Assessing personality: determinig what makes people distinctive

Personality is the pattern of enduring characteristic that produce consistency and individuality in a given person. . Personality encompasses the behaviors that make each of us unique and that differentiate us from others.

Psychodynamic approaches to personality are based on the idea that personality is motivated by inner forces and conflicts about which people have no control. The most important pioneer of the psychodynamic approach was Sigmund Freud. He developed psychoanalytic theory. This theory state that unconscious forces act as determinants of personality. To describe the structure of personality, Freud developed a comprehensive theory that personality consists of three components :the id, the ego, and the superego.

The ID  is the raw, unorganized , inborn part of personality. From the time birth , the ID attempts to reduce tension created by primitive drives related to hunger , sex , aggression , and irrational impulse.

The EGO , which begins to develop soon after birth , strives to balance the desire of the ID and the realities of the objective , outside world.

The SUPEREGO , the final personality structure to develop in childhood , represents the right and wrong of society  as taught and modeled by a person‘s parents, teachers, and other significant individuals.

Freud also provided us with a view of how personality develops through a series of five psychosexual stages. 

The first psychosexual stage of development, called the oral stage, the baby’s mouth is the focal point of pleasure.

The second psychosexual stage is anal stage. At this point, the major source of pleasure is anal region and children obtain considerable  pleasure from the both retention and expulsion of feces.

The phallic stage begins at about age 3.All interest is focusing on the genitals and the pleasures derived from fondling them.

After this children move into the latency period , which last until puberty. During this period , sexual interest become dormant , even in the unconscious

Last stage is  genital stage, which extends until death. The focus during the genital stage is on mature.

Furthermore Freud believe that people develop a range of defense mechanism to deal with anxiety. Defense mechanism are unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by canceling the source from themselves and others.

Trait theory is a model of personality that seeks to identity the basic traits necessary to describe personality.  Traits is consistent personality characteristics and behavior display in different situations. 

There are  big five personality traits are:  opennesses to experience (Independent-Conforming , Imaginative-practical...) , conscientiousness (Careful-Careless , Disciplined-Impulsed...) , extraversion(Talkative-Quiet , Fun-loving—Sober...), agreeableness (Kind-Cold , Appreciative-Unfriedly) , neuroticism (Calm-Anxious , Stamble-Tense).

Learning approaches to personality focus on the “outer” person. Learning theorists say that it is best understood by looking at features of a person’s environment.

Biological and evolutionary personality means the theory that suggests that important components of personality are inherited.

Humanistic approaches to personality means the theory that emphasize people’s innate goodness and desire to achieve higher levels of functioning.

It is very important to assess personality  determining what makes people distinctive.

Psychologist interested in assessing personality must be able to define  the most meaningful ways of discriminating between one person  personality to another. To do this they  use psychological tests. Psychological tests is standart measures devised to assess behavior objectively; used by psychologists to help people make decisions about their lives and understand more about themselves.

Self-report measure- A method of gathering data about people by asking them questions a sample of their behavior.

Projective personality test: A test in which a person is show  an ambiguous stimulus and asked to describe it or tell a story about it.

Rorschach test: A test that involves showing a series of symmetrical visual stimuli to people who  then are asked what the figures represent to them.

Behavioral  assessment- direct measures of an individual‘s behavior used to describe personality characteristics

Before relying too heavily on the results of any personality test , everyone should keep several points in mind :

Understand what the test claim to measure

Base no decision only on the result of any one test(The results should be interpreted in the context of other information)

Remember that test result are not always accurate

Personality leads us to act consistently in different situations and over extended periods of time