Personality Theories - George Boere.pdf - psOP - DarkDream

C. George Boeree: Personality Theories  Introduction

Dr. C. George Boeree

Psychology Department

Shippensburg University

Original E-Text-Site:

[ http://www.ship.edu/%7Ecgboeree/perscontents.html ]

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C. George Boeree: Personality Theories  Introduction

MAIN INDEX

Introduction

Sigmund Freud

Anna Freud

Erik Erikson

Carl Jung

Otto Rank

Alfred Adler

Karen Horney

Albert Ellis

Erich Fromm

B. F. Skinner

Hans Eysenck and others

Albert Bandura

Gordon Allport

George Kelly

Snygg and Combs

Abraham Maslow

Carl Rogers

Ludwig Binswanger

Medard Boss

Viktor Frankl

Rollo May

Jean Piaget

Sociobiology

Buddhist Psychology

The Ultimate Theory of Personality

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C. George Boeree: Personality Theories  Introduction

This is an electronic textbook ("e-text") created for undergraduate and graduate

courses in Personality Theories. While it is copyrighted, you may download it or

print it out without permission from the author, as long as the material is used

only for personal or educational purposes, and the source is indicated. I hope you

enjoy the chapters!

To read about my own personality theory, see Perspectives Theory and Seven

Perspectives .

Dr. H. Berryman Edwards offers the BehaveNet Clinical Capsules : Notable figures in behavioral health care,

which include good readings lists as well as therapists not covered here.

Brent Dean Robbins has created a wonderful collection of essays on significant psychoanalytic and

existential-phenomenological theorists, therapists, and writers.

Finally, for access to tons of personality research and theory, visit Dr. William Revelle's Personality Project

and Dr. Scott Acton's Great Ideas in Personality.

I hope you enjoy the readings.

If you have any comments or questions,

please feel free to contact me at

cgboeree@ark.ship.edu

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C. George Boeree: Personality Theories  Introduction

Index

Index to introductory chapter 4

Welcome 5

Theory

Personality

Pitfalls 6

[ Ethnocentrism | Egocentrism | Dogmatism | Misunderstandings | Evidence ]

Philosophical assumptions 10

Organization 12

[ Psychoanalytic | Behavioristic | Humanistic ]

Resources 13

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C. George Boeree: Personality Theories  Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to "Theories of Personality!"

This course and "e-text" will examine a number of theories of personality, from Sigmund Freud's famous

psychoanalysis to Viktor Frankl's logotherapy. It will include biographies, basic terms and concepts,

assessment methods and therapies, discussions and anecdotes, and references for further reading.

Some of you may find the area a bit confusing. First, many people ask "who's right." Unfortunately, this

aspect of psychology is the least amenable to direct research that pits one theory against another. Much of it

involves things that are only accessible to the person him- or herself – your inner thoughts and feelings.

Some of it is thought not to be available even to the person – your instincts and unconscious motivations. In

other words, personality is still very much in a "pre-scientific" or philosophical stage, and some aspects may

well always remain that way.

Another thing that throws some people about personality theories is that they come into it thinking it's the

easiest topic of all, and that everyone – especially they themselves – already knows all the answers. Well,

it's true that personality theories doesn't involve all the higher math and symbolic systems that physics and

chemistry (the famously "tough" courses!) involve. And it's true that we all have pretty direct access to our

own thoughts and feelings, and plenty of experience dealing with people. But we are mistaking familiarity

with knowledge, and in much of what we think we know turns out to be prejudices and biases we've picked

up over the years. In fact, the topic of theories of personality is probably one of the most difficult and most

complex we ever deal with.

So, at present, we are stuck with theories (plural) rather than the science of personality. As we go through the

various theories, however, there will be ones that fit well with your experiences of self and other – that tends

to be a good sign. And there will be times that several theorists say similar things, even though they are

taking very different approaches – that, too, is a good sign. And once in a blue moon there is a research

program that supports certain ideas over others – that's a very good sign.

What makes personality theories so interesting, I think, is that we can actually participate in the process. You

don't need labs and federal funding, just a bit of intelligence, some motivation, and an open mind.

It might be nice to start off with a definition of theories of personality. First, theory: A theory is a model of

reality that helps us to understand, explain, predict, and control that reality. In the study of personality, these

models are usually verbal. Every now and then, someone comes up with a graphic model, with symbolic

illustrations, or a mathematical model, or even a computer model. But words are the basic form.

Different approaches focus on different aspects of theory. Humanists and Existentialists tend to focus on the

understanding part. They believe that much of what we are is way too complex and embedded in history and

culture to "predict and control." Besides, they suggest, predicting and controlling people is, to a considerable

extent, unethical. Behaviorists and Freudians, on the other hand, prefer to discuss prediction and control. If

an idea is useful, if it works, go with it! Understanding, to them, is secondary.

Another definition says that a theory is a guide to action: We figure that the future will be something like the

past. We figure that certain sequences and patterns of events that have occurred frequently before are likely

to occur again. So we look to the first events of a sequence, or the most vivid parts of a pattern, to serve as

our landmarks and warning signals. A theory is a little like a map: It isn't the same as the countryside it

describes; it certainly doesn't give you every detail; it may not even be terribly accurate. But it does provide a

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Theory

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