PSY 328 Project One Template
For this project, you will write a theory application paper; you will apply theories of personality to
yourself, someone you know, or someone you have read about in a biography or autobiography.
Complete this template by replacing the bracketed text with the relevant information.
1. Identify you are applying theories of personality to and explain why. Your response should who
be about 3 to 5 sentences in length.
I am applying the theories of personality to myself because I have felt throughout my life that I
exhibited certain behaviors and traits that got me in trouble. I remember when I was young
after I would exhibit such behavior, that I would clearly know that it was not a good choice to
make, but could never explain why I did it. I had no understanding as to where they stemmed
from. My focus will be on humanistic psychology and the psychoanalytic approach as both of
them have helped me in understanding where these behaviors and traits that I exhibited as a
child, as an adolescent, and as an adult could have come from.
2. Describe how components of a of your choice relate to your subject. Your personality theory
response should be about 6 to 10 sentences in length and include the following:
A. Components of personality theory, including but not limited to traits, behaviors,
motives, or defense mechanisms
B. Multiple components from the theory applied to your subject with examples (i.e.,
behaviors that exemplify the concepts)
C. Citations when you are describing the theory
In psychoanalytic theories, the role of environmental influences is essential as
psychoanalytic theory postulates that childhood experiences as well as unconscious
desires shape human behavior and personality traits (APSAA, n.d.). According to Freud,
the events that we experience “in our childhood have a great influence on our adult
lives, shaping our personality” (McLeod, S. A., 2018). For instance, anxiety that
originates from an individual's past traumatic experiences is masked from his or her
consciousness and may cause issues in adulthood (in the form of neuroses). The
importance of the unconscious mind was also emphasized by Freud, believing that
behavior is also governed by the unconscious mind. It was believed by Freud that there
were three components that make up the psyche: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego,
each developing at different stages throughout a person's life. These three components
of the psyche have frequently been conceptualized as "three essential parts of the
human personality" (McLeod, S. A., 2018). Operating unconsciously “according to the
pleasure principle (gratification from satisfying basic instincts)” (McLeod, S. A., 2018), is
the Id. Operating in both the unconscious and conscious mind following the reality
principle, the ego is developed with the “goal to satisfy the demands of the id in a safe
and socially acceptable way” (McLeod, S. A., 2018). And operating on the morality
principle motivating “us to behave in a socially responsible and acceptable manner, the
superego is in charge of ensuring that moral guidelines are followed (McLeod, S. A.,
2018). I experienced a great deal of traumatic event in my childhood including growing
up without a father, seeing my mother constantly struggle, seeing my grandmother fight
with my mom saying she was going to take me from her, living with an abusive/alcoholic
step-father, being molested on the bus by an older kid, and finding out my father
committed suicide and that I had two brothers who I had never met. I developed many
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defense mechanisms in response to all of these events including that of repression,
projection, displacement, and sublimation. Many of my childhood experiences and
emotions were repressed as I was not consciously aware of them until talking with my
mother about them later in adulthood. I became an angry and aggressive child as I
remember getting angry easily which later turned into sublimation and displacement. As
I grew older, I began putting as much effort as I could into basketball and softball. I
remember telling my mom that is how I take out my aggression. Other times when I was
