Chart of Theories

Theory

Key Figures

Key Concepts of Personality Formation

Explanation of Disordered Personality

Psychodynamic

•Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Founder; structures of personality, psychosexual developmental stages, levels of consciousness.

•Erik Erikson (1902–1994): Psychosocial developmental stages.

•Alfred Adler (1870–1937): Inferiority complex.

•Carl G. Jung (1875–1961): Individuation, collective unconscious.

•Karen Horney (1885–1952): Feminist Psychology.

•Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949): Interpersonal theory.

•Basic structures of personality: Id, Ego and Superego: The id seeks release of excitation or tension; it pursues pleasure and avoids pain. The id looks for satisfaction through action or merely through imagining that it has gotten what it wants. The id functions entirely outside of conscious awareness. The superego involves the moral and ethical aspects of social behavior. It causes individuals to feel guilty if rules are violated. It pursues perfection. The Ego seeks reality. While it seeks to satisfy the desires, it does so in accordance with the real world and the demands of the superego.

•Psychosexual developmental stages (Freud): They are based on instinctual drives and tend to center on particular regions of the body called erogenous zones. The first one is the oral stage of development. Early oral gratification occurs in feeding, thumb‐sucking, and other mouth movements characteristic of infants. The second stage is the anal stage (ages 2 and 3), where the focus is the anus and the movement of feces through the anal passage way. There is conflict between pleasure in evacuation and the demands of the world for delay. Third is the phallic stage (ages 4 and 5), where excitation and tension are focused on the genitals. Anxiety and fears over genitals, as well as formation and conflicts on affection from the parents occur in this stage. The fourth stage is a latency stage during which the child experiences a decrease in sexual urges and interest. The fifth one is the genital stage during the onset of puberty and the reawakening of the sexual. Conflicts that were not fully resolved during the pre-genital stages of development come back at this stage.

•Psychosocial developmental stages (Erikson): In this theory, continuing formation of personality can occur after the phallic stage, and there is consideration of social influences in personality formation. There are eight stages: basic trust vs. mistrust (1 year); autonomy vs. shame and doubt (2-3 years); initiative vs. guilt (4–5 years); industry vs. inferiority (latency); identity vs. role diffusion (adolescence); intimacy vs. isolation (early adulthood); generativity vs. stagnation (adulthood); and integrity vs. despair (later years).

•Levels of Consciousness and the Unconscious: Freud proposed three levels of awareness. The conscious level (thoughts of which we are aware at any given moment); the preconscious level (mental contents of which we easily could become aware if we attended to them); and the unconscious level (parts of the mind of which we are unaware and cannot become aware except under special circumstances).

Freud explained that the psychological dynamics in psychopathology or neurotic disorders are related to personality development. Neuroses are found in any degree and form in all people. Any individual can develop pathology if there is a failure in the development of instincts at any of the psychosexual stages. The failures are called fixations and are efforts to gratify instincts that were fixated on at an earlier stage of development. To reduce anxiety, defense mechanisms are deployed, but if they are not successful, the energy produced might express itself in pathological symptoms.

Theory

Validity

Comprehensiveness

Applicability

Cultural Utility

Psychodynamic

Freud created a very large complex theory which was based only on only one type of evidence – case study evidence based on his patients and on himself, which is not diverse in nature. He analyzed his patients only using the free association method which does not offer a diverse sample to study, and there is no objectivity in data collection.

His insights were not scientifically proven; there was no laboratory research nor standardized, objective, replicable observations, which in turn don’t offer reliable predictions. However, Freud’s work was very systematic and internally coherent which provides internal validity, yet unfortunately, the theories are only testable in ambiguous procedures. Some elements of validity can be seen in the applicability of psychotherapy where scientific proof of efficacy in the improvement of patients’ lives have been found.

Freud’s theory is systematic where the different parts interrelate in a logical manner. The basic structures of personality: id, ego and superego counterpart the psychosexual developmental stages and the levels of consciousness and unconscious. It appears that Freud’s foundations in psychodynamics were exceptionally comprehensive. In later years with the addition of psychosocial elements, psychodynamics has become more diverse and less unified body of theories.

Although most theoretical components of psychodynamics are not consistently testable, the practical applications of psychodynamics are extensive. Freud aimed to find applicability for improvement of individual lives with his theories, particularly with psychoanalytic therapy. Studies have found that patients report improvement on their afflictions after psychoanalytic therapy.

Freud’s work created major awareness of psychological phenomena that were not previously considered by psychologists, such as the id, ego, and superego structures; unconscious, preconscious and conscious structures; sexual and aggressive instincts; defense mechanisms, psychosexual stages of development; and specific pathologies. Also, because of the comprehensiveness of the theory, most aspects of human behavior are covered, which provides a wealthy assortment of tools for psychologists and scholars to study and help individuals from any social and cultural background.