The personality phenomenon is one of the most controversial in psychology. What or who is this person? What is the guideline for calculating personality and impersonality? What are the opinions on this matter? I suggest briefly familiarizing yourself with the most popular theories of personality.
Foreign psychology
In foreign psychology, several approaches can be distinguished within which the phenomenon of personality is interpreted.
Biological approach
It is based on the idea of biological maturation processes of an organism, broken down into universal stages.
S. Hall’s theory
In his concept, the author was guided by the law of recapitulation, that is, he argued that in his development, each person goes through the stages of development of the entire society.
E. Kretschmer’s theory
The author claims that there is a connection between a person’s constitution and his personal development.
Freud’s theory
According to this concept, all human behavior and development is permeated with unconscious drives and instincts, especially sexual ones.
Sociogenetic approach
Representatives of this direction are guided by the relationship between the development of personality and socialization, the development of society, the relationship of the individual with the environment. That is, a person becomes a person only in society, in the process of social relations.
The theory of E. Thorndike and B. Skinner
The life of an individual is the result of reinforced learning, the assimilation of knowledge and skills.
K. Levin’s theory
The author has developed a “field theory” or “living space”. According to the concept, the personality is governed by aspirations and intentions. They, in turn, are expressed in direction, size and point of contact with the personality field.
Psychogenetic approach
Representatives of this direction do not exclude the influence of both factors (biological and environmental). But in the first place in terms of importance is the development of mental processes.
E. Erickson’s theory
Psychodynamic concept, according to which the leading elements of the personality are non-rational, for example, emotions and aspirations.
Theories by J. Piazzet, J. Kelly
Cognitive concepts that focus on the cognitive development of the individual.
Theories of E. Spranger, K. Bueller, A. Maslow, K. Rogers
Personological concepts, the authors of which considered the development of the personality as a whole, and not by category.
Personality theories
Some authors have devoted their research to identifying personality traits, behavioral factors, and characteristics.
R. Cattell’s theory
The author identified 16 factors (stable traits) by which personality behavior can be predicted (figure below).
G. Eisenko’s theory
The English psychologist considered 2 distinctive areas of personality:
- extraversion (introversion);
- neuroticism (stability or instability of the emotional sphere).
The combination of these elements creates a personality type. As a result, 4 types of personality can be distinguished (figure below).
Even against the background of the analysis of these concepts, one can note the blurred boundaries between the concepts of personality, individual, individuality, character, temperament, innate and acquired.
Domestic psychology
Russian psychology is permeated with the idea of the relationship between man and the world.
N.A. Berdyaev’s theory
According to the concept, a person cannot be identified with society. Society is part of the personality. Personality itself is an ethical and spiritual category. Each personality contains something common to all people and something different.
There is some mysticism in the perception of a person as something spiritual, but this theory served as the basis for many of the current provisions on the phenomenon of man as a person.
V. N. Myasishchev’s theory of relations
According to the concept, a person as a person is characterized through a system of conscious relationships. The author highlights the relationship of man to the world of nature and things, people and society, to himself as a person. In this case, the system of relations is subordinated to a certain hierarchy, which reflects the importance of objects of relations for a person.
At the same time, any human attitude is endowed with the following features:
- arises, develops, takes shape and disintegrates in the process of a person’s life;
- always expresses the personality as a whole;
- meaningful (has a subject);
- consciously at a certain level;
- is of a direct or indirect nature (associated with a process or place);
- related to needs;
- has three aspects (strong-willed, cognitive, emotional);
- selectively;
- generalized to varying degrees;
- differs in importance and stability.
The author highlighted the relationship with people.
The development of any relationship, that is, the personality itself, is influenced by upbringing and self-education based on innate characteristics, as well as the social conditions of development and the conscious activity of a person.
V.S.Merlin’s theory
Merlin continued Myasishchev’s theory, but differentiated the concepts of “attitude” and “attitude of personality”, or mental properties. In the author’s concept, it sounds like this: “The properties of a person are only those properties in which the relationship of a person is expressed.”
The author was one of the first domestic researchers to consider personality as a unity of properties, and not as a collection of individual elements. As a result, the psychologist noted the generalization, activity and stability of the relationship. These are characteristics that are responsible for exactly how and how soon the symptom complex (certain interrelated personality traits) changes depending on changes in external conditions.
The author determined that the integrity of the personality depends on the equal development and influence of 3 factors (motives):
- ideological orientation;
- striving for self-expression;
- satisfaction of material needs and organic drives.
This approach is useful in studying the nature of neuroses, character disorders, personality and psyche.
Epilogue
The considered concepts are somewhat similar, but in some ways completely different. In particular, there is no unambiguous answer about what comes first in the end: man or society, nature or environment.
But if you focus on domestic concepts, then it can be noted that a person becomes a person under the influence of society, through relationships and the assimilation of cultural experience.
You can read more about what a personality is in the articles “The concept of personality in psychology: essence and structure” and “Orientation of personality – what is it in psychology”.
