Introduction
As I started the
fascinating volume titled Personality Theories by Barbara Engler, I
discovered that from the start, there were several famous psychologists who
greatly influenced every aspect of psychology. Their impact is so great that
their names are still known by almost everybody in the modern world. Therefore,
I decided that a short overview of each of the most influential, along with
their psychological approaches, was in order. Allow me to present you with
Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, B. F. Skinner, and Abraham Maslow.
Sigmund Freud
In
the year 1856, Sigmund Freud was born as the first child of a Jewish wool
merchant living in Moravia.[1]
Four years later, his family moved to Vienna where Freud lived until the Nazis
took over the city in 1938. From a young age, Freud was a child prodigy in the
eyes of his parents. They gave him his own room and he used oil lamps to study
while the rest of the family was forced to content themselves with candles. In
1873, at age 17, Freud started in the field of medical studies at the
University of Vienna and spent eight years there. He lingered over the topics
that interested him, making numerous important discoveries even while in
school, and it wasn’t until 1881 that he actually established his own practice as
a clinical neurologist.
Due
to his profession, Freud saw many patients with neurotic disorders, and
gradually, his interest in neurosis increased. He published his first book, The
Interpretation of Dreams, in 1900 – but it was generally unknown at the
time. In 1909, Freud traveled to the United States with his friend Carl Jung
and they spoke at Clark University in Massachusetts.
In
the following years, Freud continued to create and perfect his theories of
psychoanalysis. When he died in 1939 at age 83, he left behind 24 volumes of
published works. According to my source, there is also a great deal of material
that will not be released until sometime in this century. Whether or not this
has yet happened, I do not know.[2]
Let’s
take a few minutes to delve deeper into what exactly Freud’s theories consisted
of. Unfortunately, he never completed them – indeed, most of his works have an
unfinished feel to them.
One
part of his theory was that humans sometimes subconsciously withhold a strong
part of their emotion, especially a negative emotion. He believed that by
putting patients under hypnosis, they would then subconsciously and without
real thought, share these experiences, resulting in catharsis. This allowed the
emotions to be released since they could not be naturally, and would restore
peace to the neurotic tendencies of the person involved.
Freud
suggested a number of methods that could be used in his type of study, known as
The Psychoanalytic Method of Assessment and Research. Part of this was free
association – it’s relatively simple. The person undergoing the procedure is
simply asked to verbalize what goes through their mind, however unpleasant it
may be. These thoughts are then analyzed and deductions made. Another technique
used was the interpretation of dreams and slips – of memory, the pen, or the
tongue. We often see these as minor and entirely unimportant, but Freud
considered them important and could draw elaborate conclusions from the combination
of these two methods. It is from him that we derived the Freudian Slip.
The
concepts of Freud’s best known work are not the above – though they are also
interesting and important. He also explored extensively into the ideas of
sexuality and how it relates to the actions of a person. At the moment, I don’t
wish to delve deeply into his theories in this area. However, Freud assigned
stages of sexuality to children from birth to about age seven, and then again
beginning around age 13 as they matured into adults. It is my personal belief
that most of this is unfounded and unnecessary. However, it is for this work
that Freud gained much of his popularity and fame.
Freud
also divided the personality into three parts – the id, the ego, and the
superego. He called the id “the core of our being” and considered it to contain
our drives and instincts, along with reflexes and psychic energy that powers
all our psychological powers. According to Freud, the id is basically
uncontrollable by us consciously, and presents itself in newborns, dreams, and
some hallucinations. The ego shows itself in meeting the wants and needs of the
id. It is here defined as the “intermediary between the id and the external
world.” While the id follows something known as the “pleasure principle”
(steered solely to find pleasure), the ego follows the “reality principle”
(which curbs impulses and portrays the person properly to the real world). Finally,
the superego is the center of the ego. It contains the conscience and ego-ideal
(an “ideal self-image consisting of approved and rewarded behaviors”). It is
the superego that strives for perfection – resulting in it striving towards
moralistic over realistic solutions.
Out
of those three, according to Freud, the ego was the controller in a
well-adjusted adult. However, since most people are not that “well adjusted,” often
the id or the superego start steering the person. The latter “demands instant
satisfaction and release” while the former “places rigid prescriptions on that
release.” Clearly, being totally steered by either of those is a formidable
thought. However, ultimately, relating any of these three of the forms of being
conscious or unconscious is impossible. The simplest relation, though not the
most accurate, would be to identify the ego with consciousness and the id with
unconsciousness.
Another
study by Freud was about anxiety. He identified “reality anxiety” (a generally
rational fear of a true danger in the external world); “neurotic anxiety” (fear
that inner impulses will rage out of control); and “moral anxiety” (fear of the
retributions of the conscience). Freud speculated that the ego developed
defense mechanisms to fight against these anxieties. A few of the most
well-known include repression (blocking something from expression); denial
(refusing to believe something that is real); and projection (the unconscious
laying of something unpleasant on another person, place, or object) among
others.
Ultimately,
although Freud tested his own theories and discoveries, some of them have caved
miserably under deeper scrutiny. So while they may be interesting ideas to
consider, it would be unwise to entirely trust any of them without further
research into the matter. Sigmund Freud was undoubtedly a unique and
fascinating character.
Carl Jung
Carl
Jung was born in 1875 in the country where he spent his entire life,
Switzerland. He was raised at first almost as only child – his sister was born
when he was nine. So he spent a lot of time playing by himself. He was also a
rather sickly child, who spent six months out of school at one point, due to
fainting spells. Though he had originally longed to be an archaeologist, he
couldn’t afford to go to school for it and instead attended the University of
Basel and worked on a medical degree.
While
there, he at first planned to turn his degree towards working in surgery, but
happened to read a textbook by a German neurologist. It piqued his curiosity,
and his interest began to turn towards that work instead. Eventually, he
arrived in Zurich, where he worked with a psychiatrist, and then later became a
lecturer at the University of Zurich. He met Sigmund Freud in 1907 and was very
impressed with him and his work. It was with him that he traveled to Clark
University in the United States.
However,
by 1913, Jung and Freud had too many disagreements, especially on the matter of
sexuality and its influence in psychological matters. Jung left Freud and his
work, and eventually became engrossed in self-analysis. He continued on to
develop analytical psychology and wrote extensively. He continued to research
and write throughout his life. In 1961, Jung died, having changed fundamentally
the thoughts of the world in relation to psychology.
Jung
saw the personality as “a complex network of interacting systems that strive
toward eventual harmony.” However, he managed to make this complex network
fairly understandable for any person. He split everything into two attitudes
and four functions. The two attitudes were extraversion and introversion. These
are differentiated by whether the person is oriented towards the outer or inner
world. Were they more comfortable with the outer world of people and things or
the inner world of concepts and ideas? This is what Jung asked.
The
four functions were sensation and intuition, and then thinking and feeling. The
first two, sensation and intuition, were based off of how people gather their
data and information. Those who are sensors use the five senses more and prefer
facts and realities. Those who are intuitors tend more towards relationships
and possibilities and meanings. Thinking and feeling are more about how people
come to judgments and conclusions. Thinkers use logic and impersonal analysis,
while feelers are more oriented towards personal values, attitudes, and
beliefs. Jung’s theories allowed the two attitudes to be combined with the four
functions for a total of eight different psychological types.
Jung
also thought and wrote about numerous other psychological aspects. For example,
he coined the persona and the shadow. The persona is the mask that people wear
to be acceptable in their society. It is “a compromise between one’s true
identity and social identity.” Of course, one must not identify either too much
or too little with the persona, for the consequences are either becoming
entirely the persona or becoming asocial. The shadow is the unsocial thoughts
and feelings that a person may have. One way to put it might be as the devil
within. It is from the shadow that things like prejudice may arise. Jung
“suggested a need to come to know our baser side and recognize our animalistic
impulses.” He believed that it resulted in “dimension and credibility” and
“increased zest for life.”
Jung
had numerous other theories that are more complicated than the ones detailed
here, so for the present, I shall not expand on them. However, they are
fascinating and I encourage my readers to pursue a deeper knowledge of them. One
to note especially is that Jung was one of the first people to think of the
word-association test frequently used today.
His
studies into neurotic psychology and psychoanalysis are more widely known than
most people realize. For example, the MBTI test. MBTI stands for the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It was formed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter
Isabel Briggs Myers. It was created to make Jung’s ways of sorting people even
simpler for the general population. It consists of four sections, each with two
things, which can be combined in a total of 16 ways. They are: Extroversion-Introversion
(represented by the letters EI); Sensing-Intution (SN); Thinking-Feeling (TF);
and Judging-Perceiving (JP).
One
of the wonderful things about the MBTI test is that anyone can read through the
definitions for each letter and probably choose one or the other that they
identify with the most. The MBTI test comes in very handy for employers, as
they can figure out how to work best with various personality types in the
workplace. It also has applications in numerous other settings.
Jung
influenced our culture in many ways, both those that we realize and those that
we may not. He was a person with a brilliant mind who contributed greatly to
the world of psychoanalysis. While some of his theories and interests (in
things like alchemy, dreams, and astrology) were a little strange, for the most
part, many of his discoveries are still applicable today.
Alfred
Adler
Alfred
Adler was born in 1870 as the second of six children. He had rickets at a young
age, making him generally clumsy and awkward. Besides that, he was run over
twice in the street, and later came down with pneumonia. It is little wonder
that he described his childhood as unhappy and hard. School was not his forte,
and his teacher suggested he become a shoemaker – but his perseverance paid off
and eventually, Adler moved on to the top of his class, especially in such
matters as math. In addition, he gained an appreciation for the company of
others.
Like
Freud, Adler studied medicine at the University of Vienna. He centered at first
on becoming an eye specialist, but he eventually became a practicing
neurologist and psychiatrist instead. In 1902, he joined an elite group brought
together by Freud to discuss psychoanalysis. Adler later became the first
president of the group, named Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.[3]
Unfortunately, by 1911, Adler disagreed deeply with some of Freud’s
psychoanalytic views, and along with about a third of the society, he left the
group. He went on to be a soldier in World War I, and then to assist the
government in child guidance establishments in Vienna. Throughout the 1920s and
1930s, he continued to practice in Vienna – the same place as Freud, but they
avoided each other.
In
1935, Adler moved to the United States, working as a professor of medical
psychology at the Long Island College of Medicine. In addition, he maintained
his own private practice of neurology and spoke in many places. He was on a
tour in Scotland, speaking across the land, when he had a heart attack and
died. It was 1937 and he was only 67 years old.
Adler
had a special import to lay on the effects of human culture and society on the
individual human. He called it “social interest” – this denoted the want held
by humans to adapt to whatever is accepted in their culture. Adler also
believed that everything any human ever did was aiming towards some goal, every
thought, feeling, and action. He called this pursuing of a goal “finalism.”
Beyond this goal-driven mindset, Adler theorized that the human psyche has a
built-in “goal of superiority,” in which we strive constantly to be made whole.
Contrary to how it may sound to us, the goal of superiority is not to be better
than all our peers, but to be good and competent at what we do.
Four
groups of people were coined by Adler, four groups of people who strove for the
goal of superiority. They included ruling type (who were aggressive people with
little care for those around them); the getting type (people who take but do
not give); the avoiding type (people who try to avoid the problems of life and
most human interaction); and the socially useful type (the people with “a great
deal of social interest and activity”). Unsurprisingly, he called three of
these the “mistaken styles”.
One
very interesting area that Adler studied was birth order. While he didn’t go
into stages of development as Freud was fond of doing, he did hypothesize about
the difference made by “family constellation,” or the position of a person
within the family structure according to birth order. He decided that “older
children tend to be more intelligent, achievement oriented, conforming, and
affiliative.” They generally have more interest in power, and in the past.
Second or middle children are more likely to feel a need to catch up with their
older sibling. This makes them often competitive and motivated. Lastborn
children are often “more sociable and dependent, having been the ‘baby’ of the
family.” However, they may become competitive in order to pass their older
siblings. Care must be taken to not spoil or pamper the youngest child. Adler
was the one who fully created a theory of sibling rivalry. Often only children
tend to be most like oldest children – they spend more time in the company of
adults, and enjoy being the center of attention. Adler also warned, however,
that often only children are the most likely to be pampered, and stated that
pampering was “the greatest curse of childhood.”
While
the dynamics of the family constellation change by the family, the gender of
the children, and the number of years in between them (among other factors),
there is some solid truth to what Adler concluded. Sibling rivalry is very
real, no matter the size of the family. Oldest children can be quite
stereotypical, as can each of the others. Adler stated that family atmosphere
does make a difference in determining the ultimate temperament of a person.
Adler
considered his concept of “creative self” to be the greatest accomplishment of
his life, and the climax of his theories. To put it concisely, “the creative
self establishes, maintains, and pursues the goals of the individual.” Adler’s
theory on this matter only reinforced his belief that “human nature is
essentially active, creative, and purposeful in shaping its response to the
environment.” He believed that we were conscious of what we do, unlike Freud
and Jung, and could control ourselves and understand ourselves quite well.
It
was Adler who coined the terms “inferiority complex” and “superiority complex.”
Both of these refer to how a person may respond to either real or imaginary
feelings of inferiority or superiority. He believed that people used these
complexes as a way to protect themselves from often unreasonable fears.
Alfred
Adler was a brilliant man who made several ground-breaking discoveries and
theories over the course of his lifetime. While some of his theories may have
not been entirely concrete, they have contributed greatly to our culture today.
Without him, it would have been much later before the links between personality
and birth order, among other important topics, were discovered.
B. F.
Skinner
B.
F. Skinner, born Burrhus Frederick Skinner, was the child of a lawyer and his
wife. Born in 1904 in small town Pennsylvania, he grew up in a peaceful home
that was endowed with the ethics and morals of America. As a child, Skinner was
brilliant, inventing a number of electrical machines. In addition, he harbored
an interest in animal behavior, a study which served him well later in life. However,
when he went away to Hamilton College, his major was English. At first, he
longed to be a writer – but when he decided to take a few years to work on his
writing, he soon became frustrated and chose to instead pursue further degrees
at Harvard and work on graduate studies in psychology. He earned his Ph. D. in 1931.
Following
that momentous event, Skinner went on to teach at the University of Minnesota
for nine years and then to be the chairman of the psychology department at
Indiana University before going back to Harvard in 1948. By that time, he had
become a well-known psychologist and wrote an influential book, titled Walden II. He died in 1990 from
leukemia. He was 86 years old.
Skinner
did not focus on the inner aspects of personality, but on the impact made by
the environment on the personality. One example given is that rather than
trying to figure out how hungry a person is, Skinner would try to determine
what variables and outside effects would affect that hunger. To this means, he
would ask questions such as “when was the last meal eaten?” and “what are the
consequences of the amount of food consumed?”
However,
what Skinner is known best for is probably his theories concerning the
development of behavior through learning. One of his key words was
“reinforcement.” Anything that makes someone or something want to repeat a
specific behavior is a positive reinforcer. Skinner also noted the difference
between two types of behavior, respondent and operant. The former are behaviors
that are in direct response to a stimulus – for example, a reflex. Operant
behavior is a response that is not necessarily replying to a stimulus. In other
words, it is made freely.
Skinner
also used a method known as shaping to get the behavior results he wanted from
the animals he worked with. This involved providing reinforcements that helped
to mold the animal’s behavior. This created a belief in Skinner that most or
all human behavior is made by operant conditioning. He went on to experiment
with numerous other types of reinforcements as well.
Along
with Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner was one of the most controversial
psychological theorists to ever exist. His beliefs about behavior,
conditioning, and shaping have changed the way our culture thinks about
important issues. In addition to that, some of his practices have been
implemented in mental institutions and rehabilitation centers, used to help the
patients behave in acceptable ways.
Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow was
born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. His heritage was Jewish and he was the
first of seven children. It was early in his life that Maslow began delivering
newspapers. Sadly, he wasn’t close with either of his parents. He liked his
father well enough, but was also afraid of him. His mother seemed to hate him,
favoring his younger siblings constantly. The only love that was consistently
given to Maslow was from one of his uncles, who devoted time and energy to him
regularly.
Maslow did well in
the public schools in which he grew up, and after graduating, began going to
the City College of New York. At the time, his father compelled him to study
law and his grades fell, due in vast part to his lack of interest. Eventually
he went to the University of Wisconsin. About the same time, he married the
girl he truly loved, to the disappointment and disapproval of his parents.
Maslow went on to earn his Ph. D. there in 1934, and then returned to New York
to work as a research assistant and then a professor at Brooklyn College. In
1951, Maslow went on to teach instead at Brandeis University, and stayed there
for 19 years. It was in 1970 that Maslow died, having established something
that would be become well-known throughout American culture, known as Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow categorized
the needs of every human as B-needs and D-needs. The latter were deficiency
needs; the former were being needs. The latter had to be satisfied before the
former could be. The needs were as follows: physiological needs; safety needs;
belonging and love needs; self-esteem needs; and self-actualization needs
(which were the only B-needs). He stated that the first listed needs, the
biggest D-needs, had to be satisfied before the other needs could be
considered. Physiological needs are the needs for “food, drink, sleep, oxygen,
shelter, and sex.” If these needs are not satisfied, the others cannot be.
After them come the safety needs, which are often seen most clearly in children
and people who live in an unsafe environment. Insecurities arise when the need
for safety is not met. Then come the belonging and loving needs – the need for
love, affection, and trust in relationships. These needs can be difficult to
fulfill in a culture that has so much of life in a digital form.
The next two needs
can be slightly more difficult to understand: the D-need of self-esteem and the
B-need of self-actualization. The self-esteem need has two parts – “the need
for respect from others and the need for self-respect.” If these needs are not
met, often feelings of discouragement, inferiority, and weakness will follow.
“Healthy self-esteem is a realistic appraisal of one’s capacities and has its
roots in deserved respect from others.” The final need, for self-actualization,
is the hardest to encapsulate. It is easier to describe a person who has been
self-actualized.
Maslow tended to
move more towards philosophy than merely the actual definitions of “pure
science.” Indeed, “theories that entail self-actualization deal primarily with
issues of moral philosophy rather than psychological science.” He also tended,
especially near the end of his life, to have more of an interest in spiritual
and religious things than many scientists do.
Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs is widely known and remarkably popular. Whether or not it was an
entirely accurate hierarchy is debatable in some circles. However, it has
certainly influenced the world of science in the modern day.
Conclusion
Men like Sigmund
Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, B. F. Skinner, and Abraham Maslow have all had
a great deal of influence on the world of psychology. While clearly some of
their “findings” and beliefs were entirely off-base, each of them is also
fascinating to study and things can be learned from them. They were brilliant
men with impressive brains – however, they were men and sometimes went astray.
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