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The theories of personality are contributed to by different psychologist such as B.F. Skinner, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Sigmund Freud and many more. It has been a part of psychology which enjoyed great attention because of its close relation to human beings. The personality of a person is not something that can be easily taken away nor could it disappear into thin air. Everywhere a person goes, that person carries his/her personality.
To create a personal theory of personality, the author would mix the theories of B.F.
Skinner, Abraham Maslow, and Sigmund Freud.
First, it would bear the hierarchy of needs of Abraham Maslow. It would have stages from the deficit needs to the being needs. The first stage is the physiological needs which are the basic survival needs for a person. It includes the food, water, shelter, clothing, oxygen, and other essential life-sustaining minerals and vitamins.
The second stage holds the safety needs, which are mostly the need to protect one’s self from danger.
It also includes security in all aspects of life.
The third stage is the love and belonging need where one person has the need to belong to a group and be accepted lovingly by that said group. The fourth stage will have the esteem needs where one aspires for respect, status, glory, and fame in this stage. The fifth and last stage would be the self-actualization where the people have the chance to gain a full understanding and fulfillment in their life.
Just the same, one can not push through to the second level without fulfilling the first level first.
Then a person will proceed from one level to another as the current level is fulfilled.
Deprivation from each stage would mean negative drawbacks from society and different coping mechanisms will be employed.
Another feature of this theory of personality would be that there are certain things in each level which serves as the reinforcer for people. These reinforcers would motivate them towards attaining the second level. People have this nature of longing for the things they are yet to have in life. As they see and feel the good things in the next level of the hierarchy of needs, these would make them act accordingly in order for them to reach the second level.
This operant conditioning stage gets into work when there is a transition from a lower level to a higher level. For example, when a person has satisfied the needs present in the first level, the person would be conditioned to work towards the needs listed in the second level by the satisfaction he/she feels for each level. Moreover, even when the person already has achieved that need, he would respond the same way to the stimuli.
Furthermore, people would work their way towards these needs in accordance with the societal norms and as dictated by their ego. There are impulses produced by the id but it is controlled by the superego for the person to stay directed in their path upwards and to avoid negative social drawbacks due to the non-attainment of the needs in each level.
I see these three particular constructs of Abraham Maslow, B.F. Skinner, and Sigmund Freud namely hierarchy of needs, operant conditioning, and personality structures respectively as important factors for the personality of the human beings. These are simple to explain theories which can be easily related to the everyday living and behavior of people. In addition to this, they are among the theories that are somehow related to form a theory of personality. Their relatedness proves them important and flexible in any environment.
The personality aspect of a human being is a very interesting field. More theories are added to it and it becomes a much enriched one. Soon, additional interesting theories will enter the field and make it a more colorful one and expand its horizon to accommodate the various personalities present today.
My Own Theory of Personality. (2017, Mar 17). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/my-own-theory-of-personality-essay
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