Family Living 120 Personality Theories

In Today’s Class… Objectives: 1. To define personality 2. To understand how personality is related to both the past and the future. 3. To discuss different theories of personality development. 4. To identify the most important factors that influence personality development. To be aware of the possibilities for improving your own personality. Personality is related to the past, present and future through heredity and experiences.

Generalizations… 1. Personality represents the totality of one’s being. 2. The three most important factors that shape and influence a child’s personality are: 1. The home atmosphere 2. Discipline 3. Adult role models

Psychoanalysts Summary: Lewin Born in 1890, Poland. Field theory – human behavior = person + environment Often recognized as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first researchers to study group dynamics and organizational development.

Psychoanalysts Summary: Lewin Gertault Psychology: Study of the whole person. 3 Elements of Self: 1. Personal Self – who we are (beliefs, attitudes, values, habits). 2. Social self – how we want others to see us. 3. Ideal self – the image you have of who you want to become.

Psychoanalysts Summary: Freud Id: I want, I need (unconscious) Ego: Helps control the ID (partly conscious) Superego: Causes you to feel guilt if you do the wrong thing (conscience)

Psychoanalysts Summary: Freud Id: I want, I need (unconscious) Ego: Helps control the ID (partly conscious) Superego: Causes you to feel guilt if you do the wrong thing (conscience)

Psychoanalysts Summary: Adler He coined the phrase “inferiority complex”. He felt everyone tried to go from feelings of inferiority to those of superiority. Birth order: Your personality is dependent on when you were born into a family. Oldest to youngest.

Psychoanalysts Summary: Allport He believed that all humans tried to satisfy biological survival needs (opportunistic functioning). He also believed that most of what we do in life is because of who we are (propriate functioning).

Psychoanalysts Summary: Sheldon He believed that a persons body type determined their personality. Endomorphic: fat, chunky (Santa) Ectomorphic: Fragile, lean (absent minded professor) Mesomorphic: Musuclar (tarzan)

Psychoanalysts Summary: Erikson He thoughts that personality development was a process through life, in which the person had to successfully pass through each of the 8 stages. Each stage presented a basic conflict that needed to be overcome.

Steps to Change Personality 1. Realize the need for improvement 2. Develop a strong desire to improve 3. Analyze strong and weak points. 4. Develop a systematic plan. 5. Execute the plan. Your personality can be changed, but only if you want!