Evolution of Personality

tolly (34)in #health • 6 years ago

The study of personality is a simple experimental search for differences among individuals to a somewhat theoretical search for the significance of life. Typically we often discuss someone's personality, we are discussing what makes that individual unique from other people. Theorists that specialize in personality are just as fascinated in the shared aspects among people. Personality is a person’s unique outline of beliefs, feelings, and actions that continues over time and across circumstances. Many theorist have tried to explain why a person acts the way they do.

Psychodynamic theories are personality theories challenging that behavior results from psychological impulses that interrelate within the individual, often outside consciousness. In the Freud’s first level of awareness is the Conscious, involving one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions of which people are aware. Freud’s second level of awareness is the Preconscious, which consist of the intellectual actions of which people gain attentiveness by attending to them. Freud’s third level of awareness is the Unconscious, which is the mental events beyond a person’s normal awareness. (Therapy, 2014)

Personality structure: In Freud’s theory of personality, Id: the collection of unconscious, Ego: mediates between environmental demands, conscious, and instinctual need (often called self), the Super ego: the social and parental standards the individual has internalized; the conscious and the ego ideal. According to Freud the Ego ideal is the portion of the superego that involves what the person would like to be (Therapy, 2014).

In Jung’s theory of personality the Personal unconscious is one of the two levels of the unconscious; it contains the person’s suppressed thoughts, things that have been forgotten, and immature thoughts. The Collective unconscious is the level of unconscious that is hereditary and shared by all members of a species. In Jung’s theory all human beings’ thoughts are stored in the collective unconscious. According to Jung, the persona is, self, the disguise we wear to characterize ourselves. Extrovert is an individual that typically concentrates on the external world and social effects rather than on their inner understanding. An Introvert ordinarily focuses on their personal feelings and inner thoughts (McLeod, Carl Jung, n.d.).

According to Alfred Adler, the person’s struggle to overcome imaginary or actual individual weaknesses is Compensation. In Adler’s theory, Inferiority is the fascination on feelings of personal lowliness that results in low self-esteem and sensitive and social paralysis (Staff N. A., 2008).

Erik Erikson made a huge impact and adjustment of Freud's developmental theory. He transformed and extended the periods into a more multipart theory that included a person’s entire life. He also linked a virtue and an issue with each stage. The first period involves the virtue of hope and the issue of trust. The anal period involves the virtue of determination and the issue of independence. The Oedipal period involves the virtue of purpose and the issue of initiative. The latency period consists of the virtue of talent and the issue of industry. Adolescence consists of the virtue of fidelity and the issue of uniqueness. The period involving marriage and work has the virtue of love and the issue of closeness. The period of parenthood has the virtue of the ability to comfort and care for others and the issue of integrity (McLeod, Erik Erikson, 2008).

Much of our present-day frankness about sex whether for better or for worse originates from the perceptions of Freud. Most people today aren't ashamed by sex. Some people talk about sexuality to anyone who will listen almost all of the time. Sex is all over every aspect of our advertising, music, movies, the internet, basically its everywhere. This has become our culture, so we hardly notice it anymore. Freud’s culture misled him into thinking that psychosis constantly has a sexual root (Therapy, 2014). Our society has problems with feeling inadequate, fear of getting older and dying than they do about sex. Freud's society took death for granted, thought of aging a signal of maturing, everyone had a place in society.

In Freud and Jung's theories, the role of sexuality in developing personality was very different. To Freud sex was the distinct force that molded and directed personality. His obsession with sex was believed to have developed from his own personal experiences. Freud developed a sexual attachment to his mother when he was a young child (McLeod, Psychodynamic Approach, 2007). Jung did not base everything on sex in his theories. Jung did not establish any sexual longing for his mother, he was disgusted by her unpleasantness and mental uncertainty (McLeod, Carl Jung, n.d.). Freud assumed that by age five your personality was developed and set in stone. According to this theory, whatever happened in childhood determines your personality for life. Jung assumed that the past and the future are essential, and that personality is formed by happenings in the past and by what we plan to do in the future (McLeod, Carl Jung, n.d.). Freud felt the unconscious to be very important and was a deep hidden part of our personality unknown to the conscious. He believed that the unconscious is the uncontrolled instincts that influence us to act in a specific way (McLeod, Psychodynamic Approach, 2007). Jung believed the unconscious was more complex than Freud felt and he expanded it even further. In Jung's theory there is a personal and a collective unconscious (Therapy, 2014).

Feminist theory is one of the main modern sociological theories, which investigates the status of women and men in humanity with the determination of using that information to improve women's existence. Feminist theorists also question the dissimilarities between women. There are four main types of feminist theory that attempt to explain the societal differences between men and women: Gender Differences, Gender Oppression, Gender Inequality, and Structural Oppression, (theorists try to find to clarification to oppression and unfairness through an assortment of variables. They make the imperative awareness that not all women understand or experience oppression equally. White women and black women face different methods of discrimination in the place of work.) (Boundless, 2014)
Feminist theory has developed in three waves. The first wave concentrated on suffrage and civil rights. The second concentrated on social discrimination among genders. The current and third wave puts emphasis on the ideas of globalization, post-colonialism, post-structuralism, and postmodernism (Boundless, 2014).

The dramatic influence of fast growing technology continues to surprise us all. Media psychology has become a specialty in the field of psychology. According to recent studies Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is valid. People have begun to use broadcast and Internet media as a mental and emotional sanctuary and shelter. This is causing some people to become addicts and they begin to neglect family, work, studies, social relationships and themselves. Mind-altering media solicitations can be found in video games, iPods, YouTube and other progressing applications.
There are good and bad media effects on a person. Some Good Media Effects can include: the fact that IQs are rising, due to improvements in media supported learning and interactive games. In the field of science, more girls are progressing. The connection between media and learning is progressing and we are excited more about learning. Communication is increasing across cultures. Public understanding of many crucial issues can be linked to Media (UMD.edu, 2010).

Some Bad Media Effects include: exposure to excessive stimulating media is resulting in a decrease of attention spans. Exposure to media stimulation and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) link has appeared from research. Research shows that violence in media causes desensitization to violence and may assist violent acts. Crimes that use the media like identity theft and child pornography are taking new forms. Average number of hours per day of Internet use increases as sleep hours per night decrease. Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is being diagnosed at an increasing rate (UMD.edu, 2010).