Personality Psychology - Essay Example

Personality Psychology The young man who came to Vienna to learn visual arts in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian empire and had to stay in jam packed hostels of the city, learned his oratorical skills and got the political awareness that later mesmerized his audience from the same city (Forward, 1999). Adolf Hitler, whose personality was keenly analyzed for the sake of understanding the enemy by the western psychologists in the world war, is still an interesting subject for personality analysis for many.

This paper aims to analyze Hitler’s personality from the perspective of Psychoanalytic Theory, Humanistic Theory and Social Cognitive Theory. Psychoanalytic theory describes humans to be driven by basic instincts and having a deterministic behavior that overrides free will. The personality structure, by this approach, is divided into id, ego and superego. The id being driven by instinctive and basic needs, ego being a balance of instincts and morality; driven by realism, and superego being driven by morality and higher thought.

Hitler’s psychoanalytic personality shaped in his childhood; losing his brother and having a unresolved son-father relationship. Psychoanalytic theory attributes obsessions and compulsions to be maladaptive responses to such conflicts that root from early personality development. The insecurity developed during Hitler’s childhood also played its part in Hitler’s conjecture that people needed to strive hard to overcome the inherent oppression and succeed in life against social parasitism (Alston, 2006).

The repressed feelings of one’s past often develop later into such mixed positive and negative traits which result in extreme self-will, persistence in the face of defeat, extreme reactions to criticism, bullying others, holding grudges and desiring revenge. Lacking the offsetting attributes to balance his personality in regards to the above traits, Hitler was prone to narcism and was said to be affected by it. The belief that, humans are inherently good, having free will, aware and aware of being aware, seeks meaning value and creativity, responsible and unique to individuality and self actualization is propagated by the humanistic theory.

In contrast to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, this is regarded as the ‘third force’ by its definition. This also puts the human experience at the center of personality development. Hitler’s approach to social parasitism might be considered an example of humanistic theory where he drives his ideology based on unfair treatment of citizens who are the actual workforce of the nation by the few who leech on their hard work (Hitler, 1925). Capitalism and related social parasitism was seen as evil by Hitler who strived to counter its ideologies.

Nationalism in this regard can be taken as an example of self awareness and responsibility towards nation which was interpreted by Hitler in its extreme. In reaction to poverty and unfair distribution of wealth, this measure to swing to the other extreme and purging the society of the accused would be considered inhumane, but the driving psychological force of nationalism was conceptualized as the individuals’ commitment to the community. Retrospectively, Hitler’s past ambitions of learning art can also be attributed as creativity in humanistic theory.

Social cognitive theory, on the other hand, says that social interactions, experiences, outside influences and others’ behavior are major factors in personality development and are responsible for resulting actions and behavior. Watching and learning from others’ experiences teach one how to react to different situations. This means that the learner’s relation to the one being imitated and the confidence to perform the same act after learning from the experiences dictates the learner’s capability to successfully go through the same situation (Bandura 1988).

This was the major factor that morphed Hitler’s interpretation of the world. The poor living conditions, cultural challenges, chaos in the parliamentary system and the prevailing contention became his teaching ground (Forward, 1999). Hitler being an autodidact, acquired most of his passions in this phase of his life. The city of Vienna being the center of civil unrest and ethnic strife, xenophobia was a common thing and the contention in the parliamentary debates created contempt in Hitler’s mind for the system, eventually influencing him negatively about the system and the prevailing rule of law.

Starting from tidy attire to being destitute in the same city, Hitler’s experiences in Vienna can be regarded as extremely harsh. Social cognitive theory in this situation makes it reasonable to understand Hitler’s reactive approach to the western set up and capitalism. The unhealthy influences of the later victims of his scrimmage in Hitler’s life are often ignored while judging his actions and decision. The theories of psychology rightly place one’s treatment of the world in respect to the reciprocative treatment vis a vis, be it a theory centered on human nature and instincts, one’s own experiences or on external influence.

References Alston, William (January 1, 2006). Psychoanalytic Theories, Logical Status of. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Hitler, Adolf (1925). Mein Kampf, vol. 1 chapter 9. Bandura, A. (1988). Organizational Application of Social Cognitive Theory. Australian Journal of Management, 13(2), 275–302. (February 26, 1999). What the Viennese Taught Adolf Hitler: Hitler's Vienna; A Dictator's Apprenticeship. Forward.