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Personality assumes various names and
concepts in present day world. Since humans started believing that they
are superior than other creations, because they possess this rare tool
called mind, they have used every possible means to explain how mind can
affect the development of human characteristics and perspectives, and
all of they constitute personality.
Eighteenth century was a booming era for a school of theorists who
practiced psychoanalysis; Freud, Erikson, Adler and Jung were few of
them. They believed in the innate basis of personality development
psychology. Freud described the various stages of personality through
which a child progresses and reached adulthood. He famously talked about
Id, ego and superego, and how inner sex drives and how inner conflicts
between the drives and what a child gets from his/her surroundings
determines his fixation and deviant personality development later on in
life. He claimed that humans have minimal control over such development
as the stages are determined on an unconscious level.
While psychoanalysis was still in boom, behaviourists slowly started
taking over the psychological arena. They theorized a stimulus and
response phenomenon, where human beings behave in response to the
situations and triggers in the environments, and that’s the cause of
variant personalities. These behaviourists took a step ahead and started
studying animal models and relating them back to human behaviour. They
believed that personality forms as a result of situations invoking a
response in us. Which is positively or negatively reinforced by the
environment, and after sufficient reinforcements, we develop a certain
pattern of behaviour called “habits”. Dollard and Miller are some of the
pioneer behaviourists.
The humanistic approach is another way to address personality
development theories. Humanists believe in complete independence of
mind, and contrast the other approaches who believe in human tendency to
have innate or learned personality development. Maslow and Carl Rogers
have been the fundamental humanists. Maslow brought out the stages to
achieve of self actualization and utmost fulfilment. He like other
humanists believed in the free will of human mind, which can make good
and bad choices for itself and thus bring out individual personality
traits. The whole emphasis has been placed on consciousness and how it
brings about personality depending on subjective view of the self. Since
every self is different, it would view the world in a different manner
and thus present a variant personality. No importance has been
associated to unconsciousness, as basis of human mind has been claimed
to be the awareness and independence of self.
There are several conflicts and disagreements within each panel of
theorists, but combines them all are their fundamental beliefs on what
determines personality i.e. psychoanalysts believe in sex and aggressive
drives to be the motive, behaviourists signify environment and its
interaction with human drives, and humanists believe in the inner choice
to reach fulfilment and self actualization.
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