Introduction to Personality Theories

Course Code: Psy- Credit Hours: 3

Course Title: Theories of Personality (Foundation Course)

Introduction
This course highlights and studies personality and its variation among individuals. It is a
scientific study which aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological
forces. It also focuses on construction of a coherent picture of the individuals and their major
psychological processes, further discloses individual psychological differences, human
nature and psychological similarities between individuals

Course Objectives
 To cover different perspectives and theories explaining personality. Main concepts and
principles, explanation of personality development, assessment, and proposed
interventions will be covered in this course

Course Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student is expected to:
 Comprehend classical theories, their major postulates, concepts, assessment and
interventions proposed by different theorists
 They will be able to make compare different theories and be able to comprehend human
personality in the light of different perspectives

Course Contents
Introduction to Personality
Definition and meanings of personality
Components of a personality theory
The psychoanalytic perspective, Basic assumptions and main proponents

Sigmund Freud
Basic concepts, Personality structure
Three interacting systems, Personality development
Stages of development, Personality dynamics and defense mechanisms
Introduction to Personality Theories

Application of psychoanalytic theory: Assessment and intervention Critical evaluation

Carl Jung
Basic concepts: Conscious and unconscious
archetypes, personality typology, personality development
Assessment and intervention
Critical evaluation

Alfred Adler
Basic concepts, Assessment and intervention
Critical evaluation

Karen Horney
Basic concepts, assessment and intervention
critical evaluation

Erik Erikson
Basic concepts, Psycho-social stages of personality development
Assessment and intervention
Identity crises, Cognitive perspective
Major assumptions and main proponents

Aaron Beck
Basic concepts, Assessment and intervention, Critical evaluation

Albert Ellis
Basic concepts, Assessment and intervention, Critical evaluation
Introduction to Personality Theories

George Kelly
Basic concepts, Personality as a system of constructs
Personality development, Critical evaluation, Dispositional and trait theories
Major assumptions and main proponents

Gordon Allport
Basic concepts, Personality traits
Assessment and intervention, Critical evaluation

Raymond Cattell
Basic concepts, Assessment and intervention
Critical evaluation, Humanistic and existentialist theories
Major assumptions and main proponents

Abraham Maslow
Basic concepts, Five basic human needs, Assessment and intervention, Critical evaluation

Carl Rogers
Basic concepts, Personality development, Assessment and intervention
Critical evaluation.

Semester Work will include Assignments, Quizzes, Presentations, Class Projects, Class
participation

The goal through Sessional work would be to inculcate (learning goal of) acquisition of factual
information/ subject matter/ course content, Application of knowledge and enhancing the
synthesizing and generalization capacity of the students.
Introduction to Personality Theories

Evaluation

Total Marks 100

Semester Work=25; Midterm Examination= 35; Final Term Examination= 40
Exam Paper will contain both objective (True False, MCQ, and Fill in the Blanks, Matching the
columns) and subjective section (Short Questions)

Recommended Books

Bem., P. A. (2016). Personality Theories: Development, Growth, and Diversity. (5th ed.). Milton
Park: New York
Benis, A. M. (2017). NPA Theory of Personality.
Buss, D. M. (2004). Evolutionary psychology: The science of mind (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn &
Bacon.
Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. A. (2015). Personality: Theory and research. John Wiley & Sons.
Edi, P. R. S. (2011). Human aggression and violence. Washington: American Psychological
Association.
Ewen, R. B. (1998). An introduction of theories of personality. (5th ed.). New Jersey: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associate Publishers.
Guindon, M. H. (2010). Self-esteem. NY: Routledge.
John, O. P., Robins, R. W., & Pervin, L. A. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of personality: Theory and
research. Guilford Press.
Landy, F., Zedeck, S., & Cleveland, J. (Eds.). (2017). Performance measurement and theory (Vol.
25). Taylor & Francis.

Larsen, R. J. (2008). Personality psychology (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Pervin, L. A., Cervone, D., & John, O. P. (2005). Personality theory and research (9th ed.). New
York: John Wiley & Sons.
Introduction to Personality Theories

Personality
A personality is a unique set of relatively permanent traits that are a combination of our feelings,
thoughts, and actions. It can be something partially internal but is mostly an interpretation of how
other people view you. Both genetics and environmental factors can influence your personality. An
aspect of personality that you might be familiar with is temperament. Temperament is responsible
for how we perceive and experience situations, especially as children.
"Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that
determine his characteristics behavior and thought" (Allport, 1961, p. 28).
Components of Personality
• Openness to Experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism (emotionality)
Most psychologists believe that these traits are usually stable and result from interaction between
a person's genes and his environment.
Openness to experience- Inventive/Curious vs. Consistent/Cautious
Openness to experience refers to a person's accepted level of imagination and includes multiple
experiences like appreciating art, experiencing various emotions and taking up adventurous
ideas. Someone who is inventive and curious is likely to have a more active intellectual thought
process and multiple/different ways of dealing with a situation or problem.
Conscientiousness- Efficient/ Organized vs. Easy-going/ Careless
It represents a planned and organized approach rather than spontaneity and randomness. A
'structured' person puts great value on order and control which reflects a way of approaching
tasks. For example, such a person plans a project to the last detail, in a precise manner. In certain
extreme cases, it appears somewhat obsessional or overly perfectionist. A 'low structured' person
has a more relaxed and casual approach to life.
Extraversion- Outgoing/Energetic vs. Solitary/Reserved
Extraversion implies energy, positive emotions, forcefulness, friendliness, and chattiness. The
extrovert person is sociable, outgoing and attracted to others. However, extroverts can be
impulsive and sometimes take risks without weighing the odds. Contrarily, an introvert is less
concerned with others and is more inward-looking
Agreeableness- Friendly/Compassionate vs. Cold/Unkind
Introduction to Personality Theories

The ability to show compassion and co-operation. It is a personality trait that can help you be an
amicable person in the workplace. Giving a cold shoulder to people you encounter on a regular
basis may not go down well and may hamper your work and progress in the long and short run.
Neuroticism- Sensitive/Nervous vs. Secure/Confident
It refers to emotional stability, control over emotions and impulses, a tendency for anger,
nervousness, despair, or susceptibility. Those with self-confidence are relaxed, optimistic, enjoy
responsibility and like to be tested. Under pressure, they react calmly and in an organized way,
and have faith in their coping ability. At work, they can deal with unexpected events easily, and
present their views confidently. Those with low confidence or emotional instability, have
difficulty coping with stress. While they can assume responsibility, they may find it to be a
strain. They also question their abilities, and show pessimism. At workplace, they like
predictability and avoid complex, open-ended situations. It suggests that routine jobs in large,
supportive organizations are more likely to suit them.
Defining the Psychoanalytical/Psychodynamic Perspective
The psychoanalytical/psychodynamic perspective relates to not just the behavior that an
individual engages in, but why they engage in it. According to this perspective, there is a reason
for everything an individual does and it is related directly to something that has occurred in that
individual’s past.
Sigmund Freud founded the idea of psychoanalysis, which has evolved into the
psychoanalytical/psychodynamic perspective. He believed that unconscious thoughts or
motivations of an individual would directly correlate with the way they behaved in their
conscious actions. Therefore, if an individual underwent trauma in their childhood, it would
affect the way that they behaved throughout their adult life. The memory from childhood could
potentially be positive or negative and still affect the individual in a negative way.
Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective is based on a belief that the past will dictate the
future. In order to fully understand this theory, it’s important to understand that the way a person
acts is a direct reflection of an experience they had when they were younger. It doesn’t have to
be a childhood experience. It could be an experience from earlier in adulthood. It may even be an
experience that was witnessed and not experienced personally.

Freud's Theory of Personality

According to Freud's theory, there are a few different factors that affect personality. They include
cathexis and anti-cathexis, along with life and death instincts.
Cathexis and Anti-cathexis
According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, all psychic energy is generated by libido. Freud
suggested that our mental states were influenced by two competing forces: cathexis and anti-
cathexis.
Introduction to Personality Theories

Cathexis was described as an investment of mental energy in a person, idea, or object.

Anti-cathexis involves the ego blocking the socially unacceptable needs of the id. Repressing
urges and desires is one common form of anti-cathexis, but this involves a significant investment
of energy.
Life Instincts and Death Instincts
Freud also believed that much of human behavior was motivated by two driving instincts: life
instincts and death instincts.
Life instincts (Eros) are those that relate to a basic need for survival, reproduction, and pleasure.
They include such things as the need for food, shelter, love, and sex.
Death instincts (Thanatos) are the result of an unconscious wish for death, which Freud
believed all humans’ have. Self-destructive behavior was one expression of the death drive,
according to Freud. However, he believed that these death instincts were largely tempered by life
instincts.
Sigmund Freud's Theory of the Psyche
In Freudian theory, the human mind is structured into two main parts: the conscious and
unconscious mind.
The conscious mind includes all the things we are aware of or can easily bring into awareness.
The unconscious mind, on the other hand, includes all of the things outside of our awareness—
all of the wishes, desires, hopes, urges, and memories that we aren't aware of yet continue to
influence behavior.
Components of Personality
In addition to these two main components of the mind, Freudian theory also divides human
personality into three major components: the id, ego, and superego.
The id is the most primitive part of the personality that is the source of all our most basic urges.
The id is entirely unconscious and serves as the source of all libidinal energy.
The ego is the component of personality that deals with reality and helps ensure that the
demands of the id are satisfied in ways that are realistic, safe, and socially acceptable.
The superego is the part of the personality that holds all of the internalized morals and standards
that we acquire from our parents, family, and society at large.
Freud's Theory of Psychosexual Development
Freudian theory suggests that as children develop, they progress through a series of psychosexual
stages. At each stage, the libido's pleasure-seeking energy is focused on a different part of the
body.
The five stages of psychosexual development are:
Introduction to Personality Theories

The oral stage: The libidinal energies are focused on the mouth.
The anal stage: The libidinal energies are focused on the anus.
The phallic stage: The libidinal energies are focused on the penis or clitoris.
The latent stage: A period of calm in which little libidinal interest is present.
The genital stage: The libidinal energies are focused on the genitals.
The successful completion of each stage leads to a healthy personality as an adult. If, however, a
conflict remains unresolved at any particular stage, the individual might remain fixated or stuck
at that particular point of development.
A fixation can involve an over-dependence or obsession with something related to that phase of
development. For example, a person with an "oral fixation" is believed to be stuck at the oral
stage of development. Signs of an oral fixation might include excessive reliance on oral
behaviors such as smoking, biting fingernails, or eating.
Freud's Theory of Dream Analysis
The unconscious mind played a critical role in all of Freud's theories, and he considered dreams
to be one of the key ways to take a peek into what lies outside our conscious awareness.
He dubbed dreams "the royal road to the unconscious" and believed that by examining
dreams, he could see not only how the unconscious mind works but also what it is trying to hide
from conscious awareness.
Freud believed the content of dreams could be broken down into two different types:
The manifest content of a dream included all the actual content of the dream—the events,
images, and thoughts contained within the dream. The manifest content is essentially what the
dreamer remembers upon waking.
The latent content, on the other hand, is all the hidden and symbolic meanings within the
dream. Freud believed that dreams were essentially a form of wish fulfillment. By taking
unconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires and transforming them into less threatening forms,
people are able to reduce the ego's anxiety.
Freud often utilized the analysis of dreams as a starting point in his free association technique.
When working with a client, he would focus on a particular dream symbol, then use free
association to see what other thoughts and images immediately came to the client's mind.
EGO Defense Mechanisms
When someone seems unwilling to face a painful truth, you might accuse them of being "in
denial." If they try to look for a logical explanation for unacceptable behavior, you might suggest
that they are "rationalizing."
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Freud's Theory of Female Psychology

Freud's perspective on women was, and continues to be, one of his most controversial. One of his
theories relating to female psychology is known as the Electra complex, also sometimes referred
to as penis envy.
According to Freud, females start out close to their mothers. But once they realize they don't
have a penis, they start to hate their moms for mutilating them, then become close to their dad.
At the same time, females start to imitate their mom because they fear the loss of her affection.
The Electra complex is the opposite of the Oedipus complex, which Freud contended is when a
male child develops a sexual attachment to his mother, viewing his father as a sexual rival.
Freud's Theory of Religion
Freud theorized that religious beliefs are essentially delusions, and also that turning away from
these types of ideologies is preferable because religion does not lead to happiness and
fulfillment; in fact, it is a belief structure not based on evidence.
Freud felt that a person's religious views were, at least in part, a result of their relationship with
their father. He believed that people tend to depict their idea of a "God" based on the qualities
and traits of the father figure in their life and that these qualities changed as their relationship
with their father changed.
It is believed that Freud's theory of religion was influenced by his relationship with his own
father. Freud had a Jewish upbringing, which he said he had no desire to change, yet he also
stated that he was "completely estranged from the religion of his fathers—as well as from
every other religion."
Introduction to Personality Theories

Psychotherapy
Many contemporary psychologists do not give credence to Freud's ideas, but the theories remain
important. And research has validated the effectiveness of various forms of talk therapy, such as
one finding that psychodynamic therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy were both effective for
treating anxiety in college-age students. Freud's belief that mental problems could be resolved by
actually talking about them helped revolutionize psychotherapy.
When the patient and analyst are well suited to work together, they can see how the
patient's past gets reactivated in their current therapy and much learning takes place.
DR. DEBORAH FRIED, MEDICAL SERVICES PROVIDER WITH THE YALE
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
Freud's theories have also sparked a major change in how we view mental illness by
suggesting that not all psychological problems have physiological causes.

Science
Freud's contributions have also impacted the foundational science of what we know about
psychology today. His idea that our thoughts are largely unconscious has withstood scientific
scrutiny, for instance, retaining their importance in understanding human development and
behavior.
Culture
Freud has even influenced thoughts about how society has formed into what it is today. Some
believe that his theories help explain some of the successes of modern society while also
explaining some of its failures.

Assignment# 1How to Perform Psychoanalysis/ Psychotherapy

Introduction to Personality Theories

Carl Jung
Carl Jung (born July 26, 1875, Kesswil, Switzerland—died June 6, 1961, Küsnacht) was a Swiss
psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytic psychology, in some aspects a response to
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted
and the introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been
influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields.
Early life and career
Jung was the son of a philologist and pastor. His childhood was lonely, although enriched by a
vivid imagination, and from an early age he observed the behaviour of his parents and teachers,
which he tried to resolve. Especially concerned with his father’s failing belief in religion, he tried
to communicate to him his own experience of God. In many ways, the elder Jung was a kind and
tolerant man, but neither he nor his son succeeded in understanding each other. Jung seemed
destined to become a minister, for there were a number of clergymen on both sides of his family.
In his teens he discovered philosophy and read widely, and this, together with the
disappointments of his boyhood, led him to forsake the strong family tradition and to study
medicine and become a psychiatrist. He was a student at the universities of Basel (1895–1900)
and Zürich (M.D., 1902).
He was fortunate in joining the staff of the Burghölzli Asylum of the University of Zürich at a
time (1900) when it was under the direction of Eugen Bleuler, whose psychological interests had
initiated what are now considered classical studies of mental illness. At Burghölzli, Jung began,
with outstanding success, to apply association tests initiated by earlier researchers. He studied,
especially, patients’ peculiar and illogical responses to stimulus words and found that they were
caused by emotionally charged clusters of associations withheld from consciousness because of
their disagreeable, immoral (to them), and frequently sexual content. He used the now famous
term complex to describe such conditions.
Association with Freud

(Carl JungSwiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung in Burghölzli Asylum, Zürich, c. 1909).
These researches, which established him as a psychiatrist of international repute, led him to
understand Freud’s investigations; his findings confirmed many of Freud’s ideas, and, for a
period of five years (between 1907 and 1912), he was Freud’s close collaborator. He held
important positions in the psychoanalytic movement and was widely thought of as the most
likely successor to the founder of psychoanalysis. But this was not to be the outcome of their
relationship. Partly for temperamental reasons and partly because of differences of viewpoint, the
collaboration ended. At this stage Jung differed with Freud largely over the latter’s insistence on
the sexual bases of neurosis. A serious disagreement came in 1912, with the publication of
Jung’s Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (Psychology of the Unconscious, 1916), which ran
counter to many of Freud’s ideas. Although Jung had been elected president of the International
Psychoanalytic Society in 1911, he resigned from the society in 1914.
Introduction to Personality Theories

His first achievement was to differentiate two classes of people according to attitude types:
extraverted (outward-looking) and introverted (inward-looking). Later he differentiated four
functions of the mind—thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition—one or more of which
predominate in any given person. Results of this study were embodied in Psychologist Types
(1921; Psychological Types, 1923). Jung’s wide scholarship was well manifested here, as it also
had been in The Psychology of the Unconscious.
As a boy Jung had remarkably striking dreams and powerful fantasies that had developed with
unusual intensity. After his break with Freud, he deliberately allowed this aspect of himself to
function again and gave the irrational side of his nature free expression. At the same time, he
studied it scientifically by keeping detailed notes of his strange experiences. He later developed
the theory that these experiences came from an area of the mind that he called the collective
unconscious, which he held was shared by everyone. This much-contested conception was
combined with a theory of archetypes that Jung held as fundamental to the study of the
psychology of religion. In Jung’s terms, archetypes are instinctive patterns, have a universal
character, and are expressed in behavior and images.
Analytic psychology
Analytic psychology, the psychoanalytic method of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung as he
distinguished it from that of Sigmund Freud. Jung attached less importance than did Freud to the
role of sexuality in the neuroses and stressed the analysis of patients’ immediate conflicts as
being more useful in understanding their problems than the uncovering of childhood conflicts.
According to Jung’s definition, the unconscious includes individuals’ personal unconscious and
that which they have inherited from their ancestors (the “collective unconscious”). He classified
people into introverted and extraverted types and further distinguished them according to four
primary functions of the mind—thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition—one or more of
which Jung believed predominates in any given person.
Archetype
Archetype, (from Greek archetypes, “original pattern”), in literary criticism, a primordial image,
character, or pattern of circumstances that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently
enough to be considered a universal concept or situation.

The term was adopted and popularized by literary critics from the writings of the psychologist
Carl Jung, who formulated a theory of a “collective unconscious.” For Jung, the varieties of
human experience have somehow been genetically coded and transferred to successive
generations. These primordial image patterns and situations evoke startlingly similar feelings in
both reader and author. The Canadian literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye was influential in
extending the use of the term archetype to specifically literary contexts. Archetypal criticism has
been connected with another group of thinkers more closely allied to its Jungian roots, including
Maud Bodkin and James Hillman.
Introduction to Personality Theories

Individualism
Determination that an individual identified in one way is numerically identical with or distinct
from an individual identified in another way (e.g., Venus, known as “the morning star” in the
morning and “the evening star” in the evening). Since the concept of an individual seems to
require that it be recognizable as such in several possible situations, the problem of individuation
is of great importance in ontology and logic. The problem of identifying an individual existing at
two different times (trans temporal identity) is one of many forms that the problem of
individuation can take: What makes that caterpillar identical with this butterfly? What makes the
person you are now identical with the person you were a decade ago? In modal logic, the
problem of Transworld individuation (or Transworld identity) is of importance because the
standard model of theoretic semantics for systems of modal logic assumes that it makes sense to
speak of the same individual existing in more than one possible world.
Dream, a hallucinatory experience that occurs during sleep.
Dreaming, a common and distinctive phenomenon of sleep, has throughout human history given
rise to myriad beliefs, fears, and conjectures, both imaginative and experimental, regarding its
mysterious nature. While any effort toward classification must be subject to inadequacies, beliefs
about dreams nonetheless fall into various classifications depending upon whether dreams are
held to be reflections of reality, sources of divination, curative experiences, or evidence of
unconscious activity.
ASSIGNMENT # 2 Types of Dreams and Dream Reports

ALFERD ADLER
Alfred Adler's Life and Career
To best understand who Alfred Adler was and how this contributed to his theory of personality
development, it helps to take a look at his life and career.
Early Life
Alfred Adler was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 7, 1870. He suffered rickets as a young
child, which prevented him from walking until after the age of 2. Then he got pneumonia at the
age of four. Due to his health problems as a child, Adler decided he would become a physician.
After graduating from the University of Vienna in 1895 with a medical degree, he began his
career as an ophthalmologist and later switched to general practice.

Mid-Life
In mid-life, Alder turned his interests toward the field of psychiatry. In 1902, Sigmund Freud
invited him to join a psychoanalytic discussion group. This group met each Wednesday in
Freud's home and would eventually grow to become the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.
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After serving as President of the group for a time, Adler left in part because of his disagreements
with some of Freud's theories. While Adler had played a key role in the development of
psychoanalysis, he was also one of the first major figures to break away to form his own school
of thought. He was quick to point out that while he had been a colleague of Freud's, he was in no
way a disciple of the famous Austrian psychoanalyst. In 1912, Alfred Adler founded the Society
of Individual Psychology.
Later Life
Although Adler had converted to Christianity, his Jewish heritage led to the Nazis closing down
his clinics during the 1930s. As a result, Adler immigrated to the United States to take a
professor position at the Long Island College of Medicine. In 1937, Adler went on a lecture tour
and suffered a fatal heart attack in Aberdeen, Scotland, on May 28, 1937. His family lost track of
his cremated remains shortly after his death and the ashes were presumed lost before being
discovered in 2007 at a crematorium in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2011, 74 years after his death,
Adler's ashes were returned to Vienna, Austria.

Adler's Theory of Personality

Adler's theory of personality contended that individuals are whole beings. Therefore, their
personality is formed based on several key concepts, including:5

Social interest: a sense of community and one's attitude toward others

Masculine protest: a desire to be "a real man," superior and perfect
Lifestyle: a pattern of responses to situations
Goal-directed and purposeful behavior: all behaviors are a result of our goals
Feelings of inferiority: relying totally on others in early life causes us to feel inferior
Striving for superiority: an attempt to overcome feelings of inferiority
Fictional finalism: ideals with no basis in reality, thus cannot be tested or confirmed (i.e.,
"honesty is the best policy")
Family constellation: one's family makeup and position within the family
Birth order: the order in which we are born affects our familial relationships, interactions, and
feelings of inferiority
Adler suggested that there were four personality types based on a person's lifestyle
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1. The socially useful type

2. The ruling type
3. The getting or learning type
4. The avoiding type

Inferiority Complex
One of the main contributors to Adler's personality theory was the idea that all people
develop feelings of inferiority early in life, resulting in an inferiority complex. From
childhood, people work toward overcoming this inferiority by "striving for superiority."

Adler believed that this drive was the motivating force behind human behaviors, emotions,
and thoughts. An example of Adler's theory would be a child who feels inferior, then
misbehaves in an attempt to get their parent to pay more attention to them. Later in life,
feeling inferior may cause some individuals to focus on collaboration and contributions to
society while others will try to exert power over others.
Assignment# 3 (Intervention and Assessment of theory by Alferd Adler)
Introduction to Personality Theories

ABRAHAM MASLOW
Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who developed a hierarchy of needs to
explain human motivation. His theory suggested that people have a number of basic needs
that must be met before people move up the hierarchy to pursue more social, emotional, and
self-actualizing needs.
Abraham Maslow Was Best Known For:
 Hierarchy of needs
 Founder of humanistic psychology
 Peak experiences
 Self-actualization

Abraham Maslow's Early Life

Abraham Maslow was born on April 1, 1908, in Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up the
first of seven children born to his Jewish parents who emigrated from Russia. Maslow later
described his early childhood as unhappy and lonely. He spent much of his time in the library
immersed in books. Maslow studied law at City College of New York (CCNY). After
developing an interest in psychology, he switched to the University of Wisconsin and found a
mentor in psychologist Harry Harlow who served as his doctoral advisor. Maslow earned all
three of his degrees in psychology (a bachelor's, master's, and doctorate) from the University
of Wisconsin.
Abraham Maslow's Humanistic Theories
Abraham Maslow began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1937 and continued to work as a
member of the school's faculty until 1951. During this time, he was heavily influenced by
Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer and anthropologist Ruth Benedict.
During the 1950s, Maslow became one of the founders and driving forces behind the school
of thought known as humanistic psychology. His theories—including the hierarchy of needs,
self-actualization, and peak experiences—became fundamental subjects in the humanist
movement. Maslow felt that Freud's psychoanalytic theory and Skinner's behavioral theory
were too focused on the negative or pathological aspects of existence.
He also felt that these theories neglected all of the potential and creativity that human beings
possess. Maslow's theories were more focused on maximizing well-being and achieving one's
full potential.
Self-Actualization
The process of self-actualization played a critical role in Maslow's theory. He defined this
tendency as "the full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities, etc."1 In other
words, people are constantly in the process of striving to reach their full potential. Self-
actualization is not an endpoint or a destination. It is an ongoing process in which people
continue to stretch themselves and achieve new heights of well-being, creativity, and
Introduction to Personality Theories

fulfillment. Maslow believed that self-actualizing people possess a number of key

characteristics. Some of these include self-acceptance, spontaneity, independence, and the
ability to have peak experiences.
Motivation, forces acting either on or within a person to initiate behavior. The word is
derived from the Latin term motives (“a moving cause”), which suggests the activating
properties of the processes involved in psychological motivation. Psychologists study
motivational forces to help explain observed changes in behaviour that occur in an
individual. Thus, for example, the observation that a person is increasingly likely to open the
refrigerator door to look for food as the number of hours since the last meal increases can be
understood by invoking the concept of motivation. As the above example suggests,
motivation is not typically measured directly but rather inferred as the result of behavioral
changes in reaction to internal or external stimuli. It is also important to understand that
motivation is primarily a performance variable. That is, the effects of changes in motivation
are often temporary. An individual, highly motivated to perform a particular task because of
a motivational change, may later show little interest for that task as a result of further change
in motivation. Motives are often categorized into primary, or basic, motives, which are
unlearned and common to both animals and humans; and secondary, or learned, motives,
which can differ from animal to animal and person to person. Primary motives are thought to
include hunger, thirst, sex, avoidance of pain, and perhaps aggression and fear. Secondary
motives typically studied in humans include achievement, power motivation, and numerous
other specialized motives. Motives have also sometimes been classified into “pushes” and
“pulls.” Push motives concern internal changes that have the effect of triggering specific
motive states. Pull motives represent external goals that influence one’s behaviour toward
them. Most motivational situations are in reality a combination of push and pull conditions.
For example, hunger, in part, may be signaled by internal changes in blood glucose or fat
stores, but motivation to eat is also heavily influenced by what foods are available. Some
foods are more desirable than others and exert an influence on our behaviour toward them.
Behaviour is, thus, often a complex blend of internal pushes and external pulls.
Debates in motivational study
The nomothetic versus ideographic approach
However motivation is studied, certain fundamental debates have typified the positions taken
by researchers. One such debate concerns the question of whether it is better to study groups
of individuals and attempt to draw general conclusions (termed the nomothetic approach) or
to study the behaviours that make individuals unique (termed the idiographic approach).
Although both approaches have added to the understanding of motivational processes, the
nomothetic approach has dominated motivational research.
Introduction to Personality Theories

Innate versus acquired processes

A second debate among theorists concerns the degree to which motivational processes are
innate (genetically programmed) versus acquired (learned). Since the 1890s this debate has
swung from one extreme to the other and then back toward the middle. Early approaches
viewed motivation as largely or entirely instinctive. When the instinctive approach fell into
disfavour during the 1920s, the idea that all behaviours were learned largely replaced the
instinctive approach. By the 1960s, and continuing to the present, research indicated that the
answer to the debate is that both positions are correct. Some motives, in some species, do
appear to be largely innate, as, for example, in the courting behaviour of the three-spined
stickleback, a small fish of the Northern Hemisphere (see below Biological approaches to
motivation: Genetic contributions). Other motives, such as achievement motivation, seem
more closely associated with learning. Some motive states, such as extreme shyness, seem to
result from an innate predisposition coupled with a particular environment where learning
interacts with the predisposition.

Internal needs versus external goals

Another dimension along which debates concerning motivational processes have flourished
is the question of whether motivation is primarily the result of internal needs or external
goals. As noted earlier, this dimension describes differences between push and pull motives.
Research suggests that some motive states are best classified as internal (push motives) while
other motive states develop from goals external to the individual (pull motives). Many real-
life situations are undoubtedly a combination of both internal and external motives.

Mechanistic versus cognitive processes

Finally, researchers have tended to view motivational processes as either mechanistic or
cognitive. The first of these assumes that motivational processes are automatic; that is, the
organism, human or otherwise, need not understand what it is doing in order for the
processes to work. This point of view has achieved considerable popularity. Neither
conscious awareness nor intent is assumed to be operative in the mechanistic approach.
Researchers taking the mechanistic point of view are often interested in studying internal
need states and genetically programmed behaviours. The second and newer approach,
promoted by researchers more often interested in external and acquired motives, has
emphasized the importance of cognition in motivational processes. The cognitive approach
assumes that the way in which one interprets information influences motives. Cognitive
motivational approaches assume that the active processing of information has important
influences on future motivation. Given the complexity of motivational processes, most
theorists feel safe in assuming that some motive states are relatively mechanistic while others
are more cognitive.
Hierarchy of Needs
Introduction to Personality Theories

1. Physiological needs are biological requirements for human survival, e.g., air, food, drink,
shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep.
2. Safety needs – people want to experience order, predictability, and control in their lives.
3. Love and belongingness needs refers to a human emotional need for interpersonal
relationships, affiliating, connectedness, and being part of a group.
4. Esteem needs are the fourth level in Maslow’s hierarchy and include self-worth,
accomplishment, and respect.
5. Self-actualization needs are the highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy, and refer to the
realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth, and peak
experiences.
Introduction to Personality Theories

Abraham Maslow's Contributions to Psychology

Abraham Maslow made a number of important contributions to the field of psychology.
Today, he is remembered as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century.
Among his contributions:
His theories focused on the positive aspects of human nature. At a time when most
psychologists focused on aspects of human nature that were considered abnormal, Abraham
Maslow shifted focus to look at the positive sides of mental health. His work influenced how
we see mental health. His interest in human potential, peak experiences, the improvement of
mental health, and personal growth had a lasting influence on psychology. His work
continues to exert an influence today. While Maslow’s work fell out of favor with many
academic psychologists and some suggest his hierarchy might be due for an update, his
theories are enjoying a resurgence due to the rising interest in positive psychology.
Assignment# 4 Create Assessment and intervention Strategies of Maslow’s Theory

Karen Horney
Early Life
Karen Horney was born in Germany in 1885 and was granted a medical degree from the
University of Berlin in 1911. After practicing medicine for a few years, Horney became
fascinated by the emerging field of psychoanalysis and studied under the guidance of Karl
Abraham, a personal associate and supporter of Sigmund Freud and his theories. After
researching psychoanalytic theory with Abraham, Horney conducted psychiatric work within
Berlin hospitals before moving to the United States to become the assistant director of the
Institute for Psychoanalysis (Vena, 2015).
Horney then relocated to New York City to build a private psychoanalytic practice as well as to
teach for the New School for Social Research. There, she composed two major works: The
Neurotic Personality of Our Time and New Ways in Psychoanalysis.
Critique of Freud
Horney took on views regarding the psychoanalytic theory that proved controversial for their
non-adherence to the classical Freudian school of thought. As a result, she was barred from the
New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1941.
Although she was invested in the tradition of psychoanalysis, Horney believed that many aspects
of personality and neuroses were determined by environmental and social contexts rather than a
person’s inborn, biological drives.
Horney also diverged drastically from Freud’s theories on female psychology, challenging the
idea that female mental issues are a product of the male-dominated world (Vena, 2015).
Introduction to Personality Theories

In its initial stages, the field of psychoanalysis was a largely male-dominated school that focused
on the human psyche and the underlying emotional disturbances that influenced it.
Karen Horney transformed and expanded the field of psychoanalysis by challenging many
prevailing masculine ideologies and is widely considered to be a pioneer in the field of
psychoanalysis. Horney’s beliefs on neurotic behavior challenged the notion that neurotic
tendencies were a result of one’s environment and not an intrinsic manifestation of who someone
was. Horney created concepts of female psychology that those who study deviance can use to
understand why crime is committed by women — a relatively rare occurrence.
Feminine Psychology
One of Horney’s main contributions was her work on feminine psychology, which challenged
traditional Freudian psychology’s view of women.
In The Flight from Womanhood, for example, Horney (1932) noted that the phallocentric bias of
psychoanalysis stemmed from the fact that its originators — such as Sigmund Freud — were
almost entirely male. Horney proposed that contrary to traditional Freudian theories, girls were
aware of their genitalia before puberty and that while girls may experience “penis envy” at a
young age, this longing can also apply to boys who want breasts or to be a mother (Horney,
1933; Vanacore, 2020).
Penis envy, according to Horney, comes from disappointment with the girls” father, leading to a
“flight from womanhood” — the desire not to be female. However, for Horney, this was not
inevitable, as a girl could overcome penis envy by identifying with her mother. Horney traced
what she called the “distrust between the sexes” through history and culture. She compared the
husband-wife relationship to a parent’s relationship with a child, one that breeds mistrust and
dislike. Likewise, she noted that society as a whole simultaneously fears and resents women in a
way that forces them into a position that makes them dependent on men. Horney concluded that
the resentment between men and women laid not in penis envy but in men’s envy of women’s
ability to produce life: womb envy (Horney, 1967). This highlights Horney’s most noticeable
deviation from psychoanalysis: Freud believed that women were incomplete because they lacked
a penis. Horney saw women as whole beings, deserving to be seen and discussed on their own
terms. Horney’s opposing views on women caused controversy within the world of
psychoanalysis (Vanacore, 2020).
As a result, Horney clashed with prominent psychologists at the time, concerned with her
deviation from Freud. Freud himself once called her “Able and malicious,” saying that female
psychoanalysts, in general, were more likely to devalue penis envy in their patients because they
could not detect it in themselves (Vanacore, 2020).
Neurotic needs
Horney, also in contrast to Freud, believed that culture, rather than instinctual drives, largely led
to behavior and psychological characteristics, especially in neurosis.
 Introduction to Personality Theories

Horney recognized the role of culture in understanding neurosis; cultures, in defining what is
normal, shape and define what neurosis is against its own norms. Horney created a new structure
for neurosis. She believed that neurosis stemmed from basic anxiety, which in turn stems from
family conditions that make a child feel unwanted. This basic anxiety causes people to feel
helpless or lost in the world, and they try to fulfill their need for love and acceptance through
four “neurotic trends”: affection, submissiveness, power, or withdrawal (Horney, 1937;
Vanacore, 2020).
1. The need for affection;

2. The need for a partner who will take over one’s life;

3. The need for recognition;

4. The need for personal admiration;

5. The need for personal achievement;

6. The need for independence;

7. And, the need for perfection.

In particular, Horney believed that the need for affection and the need for power were the two
driving forces behind neurosis (Vanacore, 2020).

Moving toward people: when one clings to others and seeks to be loved;

Moving away from people: when one does not want to become involved with others;

Moving against people: when one sees the world as hostile and acts accordingly toward others.

Horney further developed her work on neurosis in Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle
toward Self-Realization (1950), where she proposed the idea of the “real self: ”a self that has
developed in a healthy way toward self-realization. According to Horney, the real or possible self
is made of “intrinsic potentialities that can either flourish or wither depending on the person and
the circumstances. According to Horney, people need a warm atmosphere, the freedom to feel and
express feelings, and healthy relationships in order to obtain their real selves (Vanacore, 2020).
According to Horney, neurosis arises from one of these three neurotic trends. Rather than self-
realization, neurotic people go on a so-called “search for glory” that will allow them to fulfill an
“idealized self.” Although self-realization, in Horney’s view, is difficult to achieve, one can do it
under the right circumstances. Meanwhile, the idealized self is an impossible self that will never
come to fruition. As a result, neurotic people enter a cycle of self-loathing: the “despised self.”
 Introduction to Personality Theories

Meanwhile, the “actual self” exists at any moment, made up of one’s strengths, weaknesses,
failures, and achievements.

Horney believed that there are five ways that neurotic personalities deal with the idealized
self.

People who move toward others develop compliant personalities whose idealized self is a person
who is loved and valued. They try to become what others need and, as a result, self-effacing,
subordinate, or weak. Oftentimes, they suppress aggressive tendencies because they believe these
tendencies would cause others to not love or value them. Meanwhile, those who move away from
people become detached personalities who desire freedom and independence from others. They
want to be alone and free from others” desires; however, as Horney points out, freedom from
constraints does not mean freedom to grow and be the real self (Vanacore, 2020). People who
move against people are aggressive personalities who are either narcissistic, perfectionistic, or
arrogant-vindictive. In contrast to Freud, Horney saw narcissism as a product of one’s
environment rather than as an inherent trait. A child who grows up pampered and admired may
grow up to be a narcissist. Narcissistic people are both convinced of their own greatness and
insecure, meaning that they may boast of talents without accomplishments or, conversely,
experience a breakdown of reality if they fail too often.

Perfectionistic people, according to Horney, have unrealistically high standards for themselves
and others. Horney attributed these to authoritarian parents who made them feel worthless as
children. Perfectionists view themselves as superior to others in a strive for perfection that they
will never achieve. Because perfectionists believe that they are fair and just — and that the world
should treat them accordingly — failure to obtain a goal translates to a failure to achieve
perfection (Vanacore, 2020).

As a result, perfectionism often breeds self-hatred.

Arrogant-vindictive people, meanwhile, are those who scorn affection, rather seeking to retaliate
against those who have or may have hurt them. This can result in arrogant-vindictive people being
possessive over other people and things as a result of both envying and hating the happiness of
others (Vanacore, 2020).