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Theories on Personality Development

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Theories on Personality Development

Personality may be described as a characteristic approach to behaviour, thinking, and feeling. Through personality, one is able to embrace other people’s attitudes, opinions and moods during social interaction(Sigelman & Rider, 2014). In general, personality development comprises the dynamic construction and deconstruction of the integrative features which tend to differentiate a person based on their interpersonal behavioural traits (Boeree, 2006).

Psychoanalytic Theory

The psychoanalytic theory hypothesis is that the childhood experiences and the unconscious desires we encounter tend to contribute significantly to shaping an individual’s behaviour. Moreover, by having the psychoanalytic theory emerging from Freud’s theories, it identifies that the human mind comprises three major components, namely the superego, id, and ego (Boeree, 2006). Due to this, the theory affirms that to be in a position to determine the root of one’s personality, it is important to focus on their past experiences while growing up. For instance, with the psychoanalytic theory, a therapist needs to question their patients regarding their childhood memories or other related potential events they have experienced, which has contributed to the conflict between the superego and id(Sigelman & Rider, 2014). Therefore, according to psychoanalytic theory, personality development is mainly influenced by the different repressed emotions of an individual.

Trait Theory

Personality traits tend to reflect an individual’s feature patterns in feelings, thoughts and behaviour. In psychology, the trait theory often argues the idea that people’s personality tends to differ from one another based on the aspect of strength and the intensity of the common trait dimension (Boeree, 2006). The theory further categorizes personality trait features into three specific components, namely stability, consistency, and individual differences. Thus, an individual personality trait needs to be consistent across different situations in relation to their behaviour. For instance, if a student is talkative at home, he or she is likely to be talkative at school. In addition, a trait relating to an individual’s behaviour needs to be stable over an extensive period of time (Sigelman & Rider, 2014).

Social Learning Theory

The social learning theory argues that people tend to learn their social conduct through observation and imitation of others(Sigelman & Rider, 2014). This affirms that as an individual grows the various behavior encounters and other related experiences from other people contributes to the development of one’s personality.

Thus based on the different personality theories article the alteration of personality may not be appropriately achieved when an individual reaches a specific age. However, the theories affirm that when an individual is below the age of thirty his or her personality may be changed compared to individuals who are older than thirty(Boeree, 2006). In general, the personality research tends to offer support to the newspaper article by affirming that age and duration that an individual is exposed to specific behavior are the main influencers of personality change (Sigelman & Rider, 2014).

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References

Boeree, C. G. (2006). Personality Theories: Erik Erikson. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.html

Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2014). Life-span human development. Cengage Learning.

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