Theories of Personality - Essay Example

This theory was proposed by Carl Roger as a reaction to the psychoanalytic and behaviorist theories of personality. The psychoanalytic theory of personality says that our personality is the product of unconscious drives, while behaviorist theory proposes that a person’s conditioning develops his or her personality. But the humanistic theory of personality speaks on the importance of self-growth and self-actualization. It gives freedom for the persons to choose, while other theories are of the view that we are limited in many ways.

This is the reason for choosing this idea and this theory changed my attitude that every individual has his or her freedom that would bring self-growth and self-actualization. Development over the Life Span: The father of modern psychology Sigmund Freud has identified eight stages of life span in the theory of psycho-analysis. They are prenatal, infancy, early childhood, late childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. It speaks that every individual belongs to each stage.

The prenatal stage of development is the state from conception to birth. Infancy, which is the second stage, ends up with eighteen months. Early childhood is from eighteen months to six years in which the cognitive development of a child occurs. Late childhood starts from six years to thirteen years in which the child becomes sexually mature. The stage of adolescence is between thirteen years to twenty years. Early adulthood stage begins from twenty years to thirty years in which the individual’s important things in life are getting over such as marriage, rearing children, etc, Middle adulthood starts from thirty years and ends up at the age of sixty-five.

The last stage, which is known as late adulthood, is above sixty-five. As far as this life span is concerned for each individual, it is very important and each one of us goes across these stages. Behavior in Social and Cultural Context:The personality of a person is influenced by the cultural and social atmosphere around the person. The difference in the family context and cultural context is the reason for different personalities. The behavior of two persons who are born and brought up in rich families and poor families will be entirely different.

And also, the personalities in different geographical areas also will be different due to cultural differences. “The behavior of children and adolescents reflects the social conditions in which they live. Aggressive and disruptive children commonly live in aggressive and violent circumstances; similarly, supportive and empathic environments figure prominently in the developmental histories of responsible children and adolescents.” (Hartup). Therefore we can come to the conclusion that one personality goes through different stages in life and each stage is influenced by the social and cultural atmosphere.