analyze your own behavior from the perspective of Freud, Jung, Alder, Horney, Mu
ID: 3487866 • Letter: A
Question
analyze your own behavior from the perspective of Freud, Jung, Alder, Horney, Murray, and erikson that we have discussed in this class. Explain how your personality might be explained based on those four theories. Identify how the theory does and does not apply to your person. Finally, develop your own explanation of personality development. You may use components of the various theories, but must include your own unique contributions. Use books and/or professional journals as reference material. In your conclusion include an explanation of whether or not the different theories contradict or support one another and how well they explain your personality
Explanation / Answer
Personality is defined as the unique set of individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behavior. This means that each individual has their own set of unique thinking, feeling, action (TFA) pattern. These differences accumulate in totality into what we call as personality. The two significant aspects of study in the field of personality comprise of understanding particular characteristics that differ and the second aspect is looking at how it transforms into overall personality as a culmination.
In attempting to analyze my own behavior in the light of Freud's theory of personality, I can say that in alignment to what he said regarding the immediate gratification and initial nurturance provided by the caregiver in a consistent manner, my overall personality is that of a strong believer that the world is indeed a predictable place to live in and that people in general are not harmful in nature. This is mostly because of the care and consistent nurturance provided to me in the initial years of my life. Moreover, the balanced personality that I possess is a culmination of the successful completion of all the stages of psychosexual development that I surpassed.
Looking at this in light of jung's theory of personality, personality preferences are innate predispositions and are mostlt temperamental. Temperament is biologically determined and cannot be controlled by an individual, simply meaning that a person is born with it. Moreover cultural and societal influences play a role in determining how this functions. Since I was in a collectivistic Asian culture, I saw the world more from the eyes of others and the adult figures in my life played a significant role in deciphering my belief systems, values, thought patterns, etc. Moreover in line with the big 5 personality characteristics and the MBTI types, my personality is that of an INFP which means introvert (an indivdiual who derives the source of his energy to function from within him/her), instinctual (decides and comprehends more on the basis of gut and instinct rather than a belief of senses), feeler (a person who relies more on feelings and is emotionally driven rather than logical thinking) and perception based (perceives and goes with flow rather than judgement based).
According to Adler's theory of personality, a person is striving for perfection in an attempt to enhance competence in whatever they do throughout their life. He also spoke about the birth order and nature of nurturance provided during the childhood. Since I was the only child and always received a lot attention, caregiving and affection from my environment perpetually, I often times feel crippled while making my own decisions. This is because mostly my childhood comprised of a comfort zone wherein I didn't struggle too much in any domain.
Karen Horney's theory comprises of the role of social learning including tensions in early life to determine anxiety in adult life- Since I did iften seem to witness many unfortunate tussles at home, I do often feel that I undergo more anxiety than is typical for normal functioning which includes panicking and over-reaction to events that may not be of such elaborate proportion. Murray too focused on the role of unconscious in determining the personality- he concluded certain psychogenic needs of individuals as well. Moreover he spoke about the need for achievement, affiliation and power in great detail. My understanding of my own personality is that the need for affiliation is highest in my case since the non fulfillment of this need can significantly hamper my emotional well being and ability to operate typically in my environment.
Erickson's theory of personality speaks of the psychosocial phases of development. If I attempt to place myself in this theory, intimacy vs isolation is the stage in which I happen to fit in. In alignment o the theory, I do feel the need for connection and stability/predictability that the future holds furthermore.
My own belief system regarding the development of personality is that personality is a unique culmination of various domains of our life. Multiple factors have an impact on it which means that it may be influenced by as many factors as one can think of and may be developing in some or the other way perpetually. All the theories may fit into this, including both views of unconscious and conscious playing a role in the development of characteristic patterns of behavior.
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