The theories are presented in semi-chronological order. But you’ll soon discover that ideas are not limited to one period of time. They pop up, are popular for a while, subside and vanish. But these same ideas will pop up again years, decades or centuries later.

video: What’s Personality All About?

Day 1: Trait Theory

Trait theory gives an external explanation of personality. Your personality is the result of some external force: the planets, essential fluids, body type, or inherited propensity.

Ancient explanations include the Chinese zodiac, Hippocrates’ humors, and the Egyptian belief that names determine personality. More modern trait explanations were offered by Galton, Allport, Sheldon, and Cattell. Most recently, a collection of researchers summarized personality as having five dimensions (Big Five).

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    A Bit About Trait Theory
    Even More About Trait Theory
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Since Freud’s approach was the first modern theory of personality, psychoanalysis is sometimes called the First Force of psychology (behaviorism is the 2nd and humanism is the 3rd). Since his theory is over 100 years old, Freud’s views sometimes conflict with current research findings. Yet it is still surprisingly popular.

I have written an extended report on Freud. It’s 50+ pages, so I think you’ll find it helpful. It’s available as a download here; it’s $5. No pressure to buy.

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A Bit More About Freud
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 The followers of Freud developed their own theories. Although based on, or a reaction to, their experiences with Freud, two major psychodynamic theories stand out.

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   A Bit More About Adler & Jung
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   Even More About Jung
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After Freud, Adler and Jung, psychoanalysis began to change. These shifts weren’t so much the work of outsiders but by those who believed in the psychodynamic model.

The changes came from within. In the process of extending Sigmund’s work, their work unintentionally undermined the very core of psychoanalysis…how Freudian. The culprits were Anna Freud (Sigmund’s youngest daughter), Erik Erikson (analyzed by Anna Freud), Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Melanie Klein.

Anna Freud (1895-1982) helped pioneer applying psychoanalysis to children. She is best known for showing children look to parents for cues on how they should feel.

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) emphasized the impact of society on the ego, stressed the continuity of the present and the past, and proposed an eight-stage theory of personality development.

Karen Horney (1885-1952) is best known for her concept of basic anxiety and her emphasis on needs. She divided needs into 3 personality types: toward people, against people, and away from people

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) maintained that people have five basic needs (relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, identity, and orientation. To counteract loneliness, people use myths, religions, and totalitarianism to bind themselves to each other.

Melatne Klein (1892-1960) was the first to apply psychoanalysis to the treatment of children. She was one of the founders of object relations theory.

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   A Bit More About NeoFreudians
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 Behaviorism starts with the idea that personality is simply what you do. You are the sum of your behaviors. If you want to change your personality, change your behavior.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) was a student of Ivan Schenov (who was a student of Muller and Helmholtz). Pavlov was a Nobel prize winning physiologist (digestion) and the founder of classical conditioning. His work in Russia with salivating dogs served as the basis for American behaviorism.

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) proposed that there are no internal processes; thinking is subvocalized speech, personality is a collection of habits. Applying the principles of S-R learning, Watson popularized behaviorism and proposed “experimental ethics,” a classical conditioning rehabilitation program for inmates. Watson showed that fear can be classically conditioned.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) was the founder of operant conditioning. Best known for the “Skinner box”, his schedules of reinforcement, token economies, programmed learning and teaching pigeons to play table tennis, B.F. Skinner founded operation conditioning. Instead of emphasizing the stimuli which elicit responses (as in classical conditioning), he focused on behavior that is emitted and on what occurs immediately after a behavior occurs.

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Social learning theories are an extension of behaviorism. They use an empirical approach but emphasize social influence and environmental adaptation. Think of them as behaviorism with a context.

Social learning theories are an extension of behaviorism. They use an empirical approach but emphasize social influence and environmental adaptation. Think of them as behaviorism with a context.

Dollar & Miller and a good example of cross-discipline research. Both were professors at Yale but in different departments. They came together on a simple premise: explain Freudian theory in behavioral terms using experimental methods. They explain internal conflict through external processes: drive, cue, response and reward.

Bandura viewed learning as an imitative process. He proposed that people need reinforcement (in the Skinner sense of the word) to exhibit a response but that reinforcement is not necessary for learning to occur. Learning is the interaction of the person, behavior and environment. It occurs naturally by observation of others.

Rotter expands behaviorism by incorporating expectations. He maintained that behavior is a function of two things: the likelihood of getting a reward and the size of it. People might keep a low paying job because the income is steady (likely), even though the reward in low. On the other hand, people engaged in behavior where the potential reward is huge but the chances are small (e.g., playing the lottery).

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    A Bit More About Social Learning
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Humanism was a reaction to behaviorism. It was a return to valuing being human. According to this view, people can’t be reduced to stimulus-response explanations. We’re more complex than that. We’re more valuable than that.

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) is best known for his optimistic view of human nature, his hierarchy of needs, his emphasis on self-actualization, and his distinction between D motives and B motives.  

Carl Ramsom Rogers (1902-1988) founded “nondirective” therapy. Later, he modified the approach and called it “client centered” because it stressed the client-therapist relationship and the importance of “unconditional regard” (total acceptance).

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    A Bit More About Humanism
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Like humanistic psychology, existential psychology was more of a movement or philosophy than a systematic school of thought. Basically a reaction to behaviorism, existential philosophers differentiated between existence (being) and essence (how things are). Existence is primary, and essence is fleeting.

Existentialism stands in contrast to the determinism of trait theory, psychoanalysis, and the reductionism of behaviorism. Now is what matters, not the past. You are responsible, not others. You have one life, so don’t waste it.

Viktor Frankl and Rollo May provide a good introduction to existentialism. Both emphasize the need for you to fill your life with meaningful, caring actions. They put the responsibility for your life on you. Your past doesn’t matter. Your poor childhood, physical limitations and current circumstances cannot relieve you of the responsibility for running your life.

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    A Bit More About Existentialism
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Cognitive approaches to personality emphasize our ability to think. In general, this view comes out of behaviorism and social learning theory. It takes the empirical approach of behaviorism, and applies it to how people think. It takes the concepts of social learning theory, and formulates them as internal representations. Essentially, cognitive science believes you are what you think.

Aaron Beck (1921-) combined Rogers, Kelly and Freud to create Cognitive Therapy.  From Rogers, he takes the importance of developing a relationship with the client and Roger’s emphasis on phenomenology (how you see the world). Like Kelly, Beck emphasizes the personalized nature of thinking. We construct our view of the world from our past experiences and internal processes. And from Freud, Beck takes the importance of treating severe conditions, the value of a good medical education (Beck got his MD from Yale), and the great impact that internal processing has on external behavior.

Albert Ellis (1913-2007) was trained by one of Karen Horney’s followers. So it is no surprise that he believes we should battle the Tyranny of Should. According to Ellis, we make ourselves miserable by doing what others think we should do. If we worried less about what others thought, we’d be happier. For Ellis, thinking and happiness go together. How we think impacts how we feel. According to this view, thinking causes emotional consequences. Emotions don’t stand by themselves. They are the result of your thinking; the product of your belief system.

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   A Bit About Cognitive Approaches
   Even More About Beck
   Even More About Ellis
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