University of Phoenix
Individuality is expressed through unique behavior, also known as personality. Personality can be broken down into four perspectives, psychoanalytic, humanistic, social cognitive, and trait. Each perspective describes in detail what helps compare and contrast individuals to one another. Personality theories go into further detail from the perspective. Assessing personality has been around from years, yet it is still questioned whether it is reliable.
Psychoanalytic perspective describes the how the unconscious mind helps mold personality. According to Sigmund Freud, this perspective thrives from early childhood experiences. Psychoanalytic perspective is beyond one’s control, …show more content…
Freud, of course is the grandfather of psychology, especially personality theorizing. His psychosexual theory is broken down into five stages of development; oral, anal, phallic; latency, and genital stage. According to Freud, an individual develops personality during each psychosexual stage. The personality begins from birth and the oral stage, where pleasure or fixation from oral simulation. Anal fixation is during a child’s toilet training stage, here is where a child learns control. The phallic stage is genital focused pleasure. This stage is where most children discover their genitals. Latency stage is where same-sex friendships develop and children mold identity. The final stage, genital is during puberty. In this stage sexuality is abundant. Freud felt that each stage had importance for healthy development. If an individual spent too much time in a specific stage, it could affect him/her later in life. While Freud focused primarily on the unconscious mind, Carl Jung believed that individuals consciously motivated themselves. Any unconscious activities – instincts – are called archetypes. These archetypes developed universally through hereditary, surroundings, past memories, etc. Freud, mainly studied men, many may argue that his beliefs for women were inaccurate. One of the widely known individuals that questioned his understanding was Karen Horney. Freud believed that females developed penis envy during childhood, in which they wished they had a penises and form resentment towards their mothers. Horney resented Freud’s belief of penis envy by focusing on womb envy. This theory focuses on males feeling inferiority at times because women can bear