The Four Theories Of Personality Development

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Personality development can be explained through four major theories that have some similarities and differences. Though there are many other theories in personality development, these are the most commonly used, the trait approach, psychodynamic, humanistic, and behaviorist and social learning theories. The trait approach theory uses words, or traits to describe a person's personality and his or her behaviors. Over 18,000 traits are used to describe personality. Traits can be classified. Common traits are shared within a culture, and show how people of that culture are similar. Individual traits describe how a person is unique. Cardinal traits are traits that influences everything about a person, such as, Abraham Lincoln, also known as "Honest Abe", because of his honesty in everything that he did. Central traits are a person's …show more content…
There are three mental structures that explain this theory, the id, ego, and superego. The id is biological instincts and urges, and operates on pleasure. Ego, or "executive" relates desires from id to external realities. Ego is reality based and uses thinking, planning, problem solving and deciding. It also has a conscious control of personality. Superego judges or censors the actions of ego, this is what we know as our conscience. Humanistic theories focus on experience, problems, potentials and ideas, or what can be improved. It views human nature as inherently good, and not just moldable responses. Humanists believe that a person is a product of all the choices he or she has made. Behaviorist theories looks at personality in a more scientific way, explaining that personality is learned through classical and operant conditioning, observational learning, reinforcement, extinction, generalization and discrimination. This theory also stresses external causes of a person's actions, or how something is perceived and

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