Focus on psychodynamic forces

Psychoanalytic theory was created by Sigmund Freud in the twentieth century. The theory of Freud remains the most comprehensive and influential theory of personality created till present.  He discovered that the method of free association, in which a patient is instructed to say everything that comes to mind, regardless of how embarrassing it may seem.  Through recalling dreams and early childhood memories, he detected that there were signs of unconscious wishes and fears.

Later on, Freud compared human mind to an iceberg, which is divided in to three parts; conscious [the small part that shows above the surface of water, which represents our current awareness], preconscious [a small part below the surface of water, which represents information which is present but not currently used, e.g., the name of a U.S. President] and unconscious [the much larger mass of the iceberg below the water, which represents a storage of impulses, wishes and inaccessible memories that affect our thoughts and behavior].

Raymond B. Cattell’s Personality Theory

Personality as a structure of Traits.  As Cattell believes that we cannot define personality until we have fully specified all the concepts we plan to use in our endeavor.  Raymond B Cattell offers only the very general statement that personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation.  He does, however, add that personality is concerned with all behavior, including what is concrete and observable and what may only be inferred, and he reminds us that the meaning of small segments of behavior can be fully understood only when seen within the framework of the entire functioning person.  Like Gordon Allport, Cattell grounds his theory on the concept of trait; like William Sheldon, he strongly emphasis the biological basis of behavior; and like Henry Murray, he explicitly gives a formal place in his scheme to both person variables and environment variables.

B F Skinners Theory of Behavior

Skinners theory is based on operant conditioning, which means when the organism is operating on the environments; the organism will encounter a special kind of reinforcing stimulus or simply a reinforcement.

Punishment may end an undesirable behavior, but ending the reinforcement of such behavior and replacing it with a desirable behavior [by means of positive reinforcement] is more effective.

By shaping [giving direction or assistance], we can make a living thing produce behaviors it would never have produced if it were to do as it wishes.  To stop an unrestrained behavior, the behaviors which are closer and closer to the desired behavior can be rewarded, and in the end, the desired behavior will appear.  The most common schedules of reinforcement are continuous, fixed interval, variable interval, fixed ration and variable ratio.  Continuous reinforcement is the most effective way to reinforce a behavior; and variable reinforcement is the least effective way.

Albert Bandura Personality Theory

According to social learning theory, human behavior is mostly developed, and learning principles are sufficient to explain the development and maintenance of human behavior.  Bandura thinks that human beings are not simply pawns of the environment, they think and regulate theory own behavior.  To him, a theory of personality must take account of the social contexts in which behavior is acquired and maintained.

Reciprocal determinism is the continuous mutual interaction among the persons mind, the person’s behavior, and the external environment.  The self system refers to structures concerned with acquisition of knowledge and sub functions involved in perception, evaluation and the regulation of behavior.  The self system regulated behavior through self observation, judgmental processes, and self response.  The impression of how well one can function in a given situation is self efficacy.  Persistence and hard work are led to by strong efficacy expectations and realistic outcome expectations.  Altering the expectation of personal efficacy can change the behavior.  Efficacy expectations can be altered by four kinds of experience; enactive or performance; vicarious; persuasive; and physiological information experience.  Coping and adaptive behaviors in persons with a variety of behavioral problems can be improved by changing personal efficacy expectations.