Personality theories

PERSONALITY THEORIES



When it comes to the human being as a social and psychological being, there are many theories that have been developed, trying to explain why humans behave the way theydo. Different people have developed these theories at different times, but each present a possible explanation for the way humans are. In this article, I will talk about and briefly explain sometheories, like Freud’s psychodynamic theory, Erikson’s psychosocial theory, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Skinner’s behaviorism theory.
The first one, Sigmund’s psychodynamic theory,states that a person’s personality is made up of 3 structures: the id, superego and the ego. Each has a specific characteristic, and function. The id is the only one you are born with, it is completelyunconscious, and has no contact with reality. It makes up a person’s basic needs like hunger, thirst, and pleasure. As children start to interact with their surroundings and with other people, they seethat society and reality have constraints, things you do and don’t do, so another structure is born: the ego. The ego deals with the demands of reality. It takes what you can perceive and what you wantand makes a decision according to society. It is the conscious part of the personality, because it uses reasoning. The third structure is in charge of morality, it decides whether something is rightor wrong: the superego. If you want to understand it, think of it as your conscience. The id wants something, but the superego tells you its wrong, so you use reasoning to decide what you will do,with your ego. Also, Freud believed that most of our personality exists below our conscious level, like an iceberg, what you can see is the ego, but what is underneath is the id and superego.
Thesecond, Erikson’s psychosocial theory, unlike Sigmund’s theory, explains the impact of social experiences across the lifespan. According to him, our ego identity is developed through social interaction,...