NOTE: There are three major issues one must consider regarding the nature of personality:

■Genetic versus environmental influences ■Conscious versus unconscious behavior ■Free will versus determinism

Personality Theories Matrix

Behavioral/
THEORY Psychoanalytic Neo-Freudian Trait Biological Humanistic Social Cognitive
School of The origin of the
Thought personality lies in the
workings of the
(List the factors
unconscious mind,
related to
specifically in the
personality
balance among the id,
development that
ego, and superego.
each school
Unconscious motives
emphasizes.)
and the conflicts that
surround them
influence our behavior,
even though we are
unaware of their
existence.

Freud’s psychosexual
stages describe the
major themes
encountered during
development:
Oral-Focus on oral
satisfaction.
Anal-Concern with
anus and feces.
Phallic-Fear of
castration from father--
sexual desires for one’s
mother.
Latency-Absence of
strong sexual energy.
Genital-Maturity of
sexuality.
Fixation caused by
traumatic events during
any of the pregenital
stages can result in
 excessive libido being
attached to that stage
of development (i.e.,
excessively seeking
gratification). This
fixation can produce
psychological
disturbances and
impact the development
of one’s personality.

Principles Humanism is Behaviorism

(In addition to characterized by emphasizes the
those related to the view that difficulty of
personality, list human beings studying private
some important possess an mental
components of innate tendency processes
each school of to improve and because only
thought.) determine their outward
lives by the behavior can
decisions they be measured.
make.
It suggests that
Behavior is goal behavior can
directed, and be understood
emphasis is and controlled
placed on unique, in very precise
individual, and predictable
subjective ways through
experiences. principles of
conditioning,
The natural e.g., positive
tendency of reinforcement,
human beings to punishment,
move toward self- negative
actualization and reinforcement,
the realization of chaining,
our full potential shaping, etc.
is at the forefront
of this theory. It emphasizes
determinism
Rogers views over free will in
people as that behavior is
 basically good or determined by
healthy—or at the inherited
very least not bad capabilities,
or ill. He sees conditioned
mental health as responses, and
the normal stimuli in a
progression of given situation.
life, and he sees
mental illness,
criminality, and
other human
problems as
distortions of that
natural tendency.

Practitioners Sigmund Freud Alfred Adler Gordon Alport Hans Eysenck Carl Rogers John B. Watson George Kelly
Carl Jung Henry Murray Arnold Buss Abraham Maslow B. F. Skinner Albert Ellis
Erik Erikson Raymond B. Robert Plomin Julian Rotter
Karen Horney Cattell Albert Bandura
Harry Stack
Sullivan
Erich Fromm