Theories of Personality

Lesson 1: Fundamentals of Understanding the Self

• An overview of self focuses on physical identity.
• Persona originates from the Latin word that links to Greek theater in ancient times.
• Greek actors would wear masks on their faces during stage performances.

What is Personality?

• Inner psychological characteristics that determine and show how an individual responds to the environment
• The sum total of both hereditary characteristics and childhood experiences.
• Social and environmental influences

Three Distinct Properties of Personality (Mohuiddin, 2015)

• Personality reflects individual differences
• Personality is consistent and enduring
• Personality can change

Nature of Personality (Rathod, 2013)

• Personality is the combined result of heredity and environment
• Personality implies an integration of various traits
• Personality is composed of traits, which learn or are acquired
• Personality is a dynamic process

Heredity

• Involves all physiological and psychological peculiarities.
• Peculiarities are transmitted through genes.

Environment

• Affects from birth to death.
• Different statuses in society lead to different roles, temperaments, ways of thinking, and characters.

Personality and Integration of Traits

• Identified elements are integrated rather than assembled.
• Integration of various traits results in a distinct whole.
• The unique way we laugh, smile, weep, cry, talk, lecture, greet, or salute becomes the watermark of our personality.

Learned Traits

• Learning plays an important role.
• Learned traits, also known as learned behavior, gained through experience.

Seven Different Types of Learning Styles

• It is shown that the most effective study comes from blending different learning styles together.
• Visual learners do well usesymbols, boxes, charts and colours in their notes.
• Verbal learners uses techniques such as reciting information out loud, writing your own notes and highlighting the key points.
• Aural learning involves using sound and music to understand spoken instructions.
• Physical learning involves using your body and sense of touch to learn.
• Logical learners use questions.
• Social learners prefer to learn in groups.
• Solitary learners tend to be more independent and introspective, spending a lot of time on their own, enjoying their own company.

Personality and Dynamic Process

• Dynamic means constant change but is still organized.

Freud's Psycho-sexual theory

• Sigmund Freud believed in psychoanalysis for the study of human behavior. In Psychoanalysis human psychology focuses on complex reasoning process of human mind.
• Psychoanalysis has three subsystems, ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO.
• ID (pleasure oriented) is the seat of basic biological drives and needs believed to be primarily bound up with sexual energy.
• Operates on the pleasure principle, seeking pleasure and doing what one wants.
• Hunger and thirst.
• EGO is aware of reality and operates via reality principles.
• Recognizes what is real and the consequences of behavior, and social rules.
• SUPER EGO (conscience-driven) consist of values and norms of the society.
• Prevents a person from doing morally bad things and inspire a person to do morally proper.

5 Psychosexual Stages Of Development (Freud)

• Oral stage: Birth to 1 year. Mouth-sucking, swallowing and ego develops
• Anal stage: 1 year to 3 years. The Anus withholds or expelling faces.
• Phallic stage: 3 year to 6 years. The penis or clitoris masturbation and superego develops.
• Lantent stage: 6 years to puberty. Little or no sexual motivation.
• General Stage: Puberty to adulthood.

William James on the Nature of Self

• Things become part of the me through emotional identification.

Carl Rogers on Self-Actualization

• Carl Rogers agreed with Abraham Maslow’s self-actualization.
• An environment that provides genuineness is needed for a person to grow.
• A person has one basic motive: the desire to self-actualize and to reach the highest potential.
• A person must be in a state of congruence or actual experience.

Real Self vs. Ideal Self

• Real Self is the original form of a person
• Ideal Self is what a person wants to become.
• The real is something permanent and the term ideal pertains to something that is suited for a purpose.

Chromosomes

• Humans normally contain 23 pairs
• 46 chromosomes total in each cell
• Twenty-two of these pairs called autosomes
• 23rd pair, the sex chromosomes, differ between males and females.
• Females have two copies of the X chromosome, while males have one X and one Y chromosome.

The Physical Self

• The stages of life and physical changes that affect physical development of self.
• Genetic and environmental factors on physical development of the self.
• Factors that affect body image.
• Examine the impact of the Culture on the body image and self to Develop a positive body image

Physical Self and Life Span

• Refers to the body that has basic parts such as head, neck, arms, and legs
• Made of other organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and muscles.
• Body performs its functions least well during infancy and old age.
• Physical efficiency generally peaks in early adulthood and declines into middle age.
• Physical development and growth during childhood continues at a slow rate compared with the rapid rate of growth in babyhood.

Adolescence

• Begins with the onset of puberty.
• Rapid physical changes that include the maturation of the reproductive system.

Life Span

• Life Span development from conception to death

Elizabeth B. Hurlock

• Outlined stages in the life span, dividing the stages into 10 parts.

Stages of Life Span

• Prenatal: Fertilization to birth
• Infancy: Birth to 2 weeks of life
• Babyhood: 2 weeks of life to 2nd year
• Early Childhood: 2 to 6 years old
• Late Childhood: 6 to 10 or 12 years old
• Puberty: 10 or 12 to 14 years old
• Adolescence: 14 to 18 years old
• Early Adulthood: 18 to 40 years old
• Middle Adulthood: 40 to 60 years old
• Late Adulthood: 60 years old to death

Factors Affecting Physical Growth and Development

• Human Nature: A debate of nature versus nurture

Nature vs Nurture

• Nature: Sociobiiologists, psychologist, and others in the natural sciences argue that behavior traits can be explained by genetics.
• Nurture: Sociobiologists, anthropologists and others in the social sciences argue that human behavior is learned and shaped through interaction.

Heredity

• It is transmission of traits from biological parents
• Sex and other physical traits are determined by chromosome and genes during fertilization.

Chromosomes Types-

• Autosomes or traits: (22 Pairs)
• Gonosome or sex chromosomes- (the X and Y)

Genes

• Genes are basic carriers of heredity traits
• Dominant or recessive

Environment

• The Environment includes learning and experience
• Occurs after conception to death
• Diet, nutrition, and diseases impacts physical development

Body Image

• Refers to how individuals perceive, think, and feel about their body and physical appearance.
• Appearance: About height, weight, skin color, clothes, and hairstyle.

Self Esteem

• A person’s overall evaluation of his or her worth.

Effects of Poor Body Image

• Body Dissatisfaction
• Depression
• Low Self esteem
• Eating disorder
• Body Modification

Concepts of Beauty

• Historical arts portray beauty in women by with being slim, high waist, narrow hips, and long black hair.
• Women with full figure and rounded hips are be considered beautiful.

Standards of Beauty

• Standards of beauty change over time based on cultural values.
• Clean and unblemished skin, thick, shiny hair, well- proportioned body, and symmetrical faces

Explore key concepts, definitions, and influences related to personality development. Examine Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory, including the id, ego, and superego, and understand the dynamic interplay of genetic and environmental factors shaping individual differences.