Sigmund Freud's Concept of Personality

Where does the concept of personality come from

Personality is not an article that is achieved in the corner store and it is not appropriate to talk about the concept without understanding what it means and what it represents. From birth, each has its own personality that does nothing more than refer to certain characteristics of each one that change and / or modify over time. There are several theories that are responsible for explaining the concept of personality, but in this case we will only focus on one.

Sigmund Freud developed certain models to explain human personality. In his first topic, Freud proposed that the human psyche was structured in three systems: an unconscious one governed by the search for the reduction of tensions that works through the pleasure principle, a conscious one that is governed by the perception of the external world and the logic and the reality principle and, finally, a preconscious in which the unconscious contents can be made conscious and vice versa.

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In the second topic Freud determines a second great structure of the personality compatible with the previous one in which the psyche is configured by three psychic instances: the Id, the I and the Super-ego. The Id is our most instinctive part, which governs and directs the internal energy in the form of impulses and from which all other structures depart. The I would be the result of the confrontation of the impulses and impulses with the reality, being a mediating structure and in continuous conflict that uses different mechanisms to sublimate or redirect the energies coming from the impulses.

Finally, the third instance is the superego or part of the personality that is given by society and whose main function is to judge and censure behaviors and desires that are not socially acceptable. The personality is built up throughout the development, in different phases, based on the existing conflicts between the different instances and structures and the defense mechanisms applied to try to solve them.

There are different approaches within the study of personality: each person chooses an approach according to what they want to study in specific about the personality. It should be noted that each approach requires to be studied in different ways: as the focus changes, the method changes, very contrary to what we know as a scientific method that regardless of the subject, the researchers are carried away by it. It is important to take in consideration the theories used, when they were developed, the validity of each one and how they are applied in each theoretical model. There are four theoretical approaches to the study of personality, which is responsible for organizing each and every one of the theories about personality. The psychoanalytic perspective is about the importance of early childhood experiences and specially that unconscious mind. The humanistic perspective's purpose is to focus on the psychological growth and personal awareness.

The trait perspective talks about identifying, describing and measuring traits that builds up the personality. And, the social cognitive perspective emphasizes the observational learning.There are several factors that can surely influence the development of the personality of each individual, even from the moment we are born. In chronological order we can mention the inheritance first because with whom we first relate or what we are exposed to first is our family. The biological inheritance is the conformation of the raw material of the personality, that is, the characters determined by the genes of our parents. The physical environment is the space in which each person grows and where the behavior of each person develops.

Culture greatly influences values, language, religion and qualities such as behavior (which is not equal to conduct), habits and customs. People born in certain cultures are exposed to family values, society and the rules of behavior that are considered "acceptable." In addition to these, the personal experiences of each one are those that arise as a "consequence" of contact with a person and those that may arise suddenly. Within these experiences we can mention the traumas that can impact and have a significant effect on the development of the personality. It is not easy to decipher which of these factors can influence more or less in the personality of each one because we are all different, we all come from different cultures, we have a different inheritance and we grew up in different physical environments.

Even so, in each person there will be a factor that will influence more than another, even if they are all the same. A good example of this can be brothers: they have the same inheritance, they grow in the same environment, the same culture, but personal experiences can be somewhat similar, but they will never be nor will they feel them in the same way. Everyone has the option to build their personality, but many circumstances will influence it without us noticing. Well says the saying that everyone is what they want to be.

References

1. Kalat, J. W. (2016). Introduction to psychology. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.Stafford, J. (1970).
2. Psychological Studies. Retrieved from Freudian Theory of Personality. (n.d.).