Question

Imagine that TWO of the theorists below were invited to speak at a symposium on personality theory development and are both on the stage. Someone in the audience raises her hand and asks, "So what do you think was your theory's greatest contribution to our current understanding of human personality?" What would each of the theorists you chose say in answer to the question? Freud Jung Adler Rogers Horney

Answer 1

• Carl Rogers would say that his greatest contribution to our current understanding of human personality is the Rogerian perspective. In order to have a healthy personality, people must trust themselves. They have to be able to accept the fact that everyone is different and everyone has different experiences. People can’t conform to what society wants to see. His perspective emphasizes self-actualization.
• Karen Horney would say that her greatest contribution to our current understanding of human personality is neurosis. Horney believed that neurosis came from basic anxiety, children not having a healthy relationship with their parents. As they get older, they find different ways of dealing with those around them. These coping strategies are put into three categories. Neurotics will either move towards people, move against people or move away from other people. The strategy used will depend on the person’s relationship with their parents when they were younger.
• When Sigmund Freud was invited to speak at a symposium on personality theory development, he mentioned the three discovered pieces of the unconscious such as the id, the ego and the superego. Freud explained that the id, ego and superego revolve around the psychosexual stages of development from birth to adulthood. He cited that those elements will in a simplistic manner work together by developing a human behavior (Malone, 2009). Within Freud's structure of the mind, he stated that basic psychic energy and motivations as well as instincts and impulses operate according to the demands of the pleasure principle.
• Freud called this the id which he considered to be basic needs. Freud's term of ego stated that there are realities facing the principle in which one cannot always satisfy the needs of the flesh and that we must compromise. He continued by saying that the personality structure that emerged from moral rulesthat society deems right drives what he has called superego which similar to a conscience (Malone 2009).
• According to Jung, the ego represents the conscious mind as it comprises the thoughts, memories, and emotions a person is aware of. The ego is largely responsible for feelings of identity and continuity. Like Freud, Jung emphasized the importance of the unconscious in relation to personality.
• Adler called his theory Individual Psychology because he believed that people were unique and that no theory created before his applied to all people. Adler's Personality Theory is similar to that of Freud's Personality Theory except that Adler's drive for human behavior is the need to overcome the feelings of inferiority.
• Inferiority is a feeling that humans feel since they are born. They grow up being dependent on their parents and feeling like they cannot do anything on their own. It is humans drive to overcome inferiority and become superior which causes humans to act. Humans act to achieve perfection and superiority. Those that do feel like they are being overwhelmed by feelings of inferiority will develop an inferiority complex. An inferiority complex brings an exaggerated feeling of inferiority on the sufferer and they will feel less motivated to strive for superiority.
• His theory also contains the effects of the order of the family. Children who are the only child will get pampered which will cause the child to feel inferior when left to do things on their own. Those who are firstborn get all the attention at first but then all that attention goes towards the middle child. Now the firstborn feels neglected and inferior and develops to reserved and conservative.
• The middle child will be competitive and constantly try to beat the firstborn. The youngest child will be pampered and will feel inferior when left to do things by themselves. The youngest child could also feel the need to constantly beat their older siblings like the middle child.