The meaning of personality is defined as the characteristics that make up a person’s individual distinctive character. From this definition, many psychologists over the span of decades have formulated theories that which explain why people do certain things, whether they truly think about them or not. The four main personality theories are as follows as they are, psychodynamic, trait or five factor model, humanistic, and social-cognitive theory. These personality theories have followed the subject of psychology for many decades, tracing their roots all the way back to the 1930s. These theories have formed the backbone of modern philosophy and psychology, and are still used in today’s psychological studies. The first personality theory is
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Alport. Alport’s personality theory made an effort to build upon what Sigmund Freud was attempting to develop, and explained the structure of one’s personality, both in the conscious and the unconscious mind. Rather than focusing on what causes personality traits to develop, the trait or five factor model theory described what makes up a person’s character. The five factors that the theory refers to are openness to experiences, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism. The advantage of this theory is that it can use the five factors to explain all people, no matter how diverse they are from each other. The disadvantages of this theory however are that the traits are not easy to measure, and as personality changes, it becomes difficult to stabilize the five …show more content…
The social-cognitive personality theory pertained mainly to the conscious mind, rather than the unconscious mind that Sigmund Freud made such great emphasis on. Bandura believed that in order to develop themselves psychologically, they must learn from other people and the environment around them. One main advantage of the social-cognitive theory is that it is more specific to observable behavior rather than both observable and non-observable. Though this theory can lead to in depth explanations of observable behavior, the social-cognitive theory contradicts itself, because the emphasis of cognition is contrary to the belief that organisms learn from each
Alport. Alport’s personality theory made an effort to build upon what Sigmund Freud was attempting to develop, and explained the structure of one’s personality, both in the conscious and the unconscious mind. Rather than focusing on what causes personality traits to develop, the trait or five factor model theory described what makes up a person’s character. The five factors that the theory refers to are openness to experiences, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism. The advantage of this theory is that it can use the five factors to explain all people, no matter how diverse they are from each other. The disadvantages of this theory however are that the traits are not easy to measure, and as personality changes, it becomes difficult to stabilize the five …show more content…
The social-cognitive personality theory pertained mainly to the conscious mind, rather than the unconscious mind that Sigmund Freud made such great emphasis on. Bandura believed that in order to develop themselves psychologically, they must learn from other people and the environment around them. One main advantage of the social-cognitive theory is that it is more specific to observable behavior rather than both observable and non-observable. Though this theory can lead to in depth explanations of observable behavior, the social-cognitive theory contradicts itself, because the emphasis of cognition is contrary to the belief that organisms learn from each