Essay on Understanding Humanistic Psychology : The Big Five
Bioenergetic-Analytic Character Typology vs. “The Big Five” and objectively assessing something we can’t see. Humanistic psychology has been influenced by body-orientated approaches to psychotherapy, yet little empirical research has been conducted upon approaches. Bioenergetic-analysis’ historic origins are traced back to the early psychoanalytic work of Reich (1933 / 1980), in which personality and character structure were related to body armouring. An area of research relevant to the association of body armouring and character has been the study of muscle tension patterns in correlated relationship to personality. Goldstein (1964) reviewed this area, whilst Matus (1974) also visited this relationship. Both concluded there was an empirical relationship, but with limited reliability (Glazer & Friedman, 2009). By comparison, “The Big Five” personality traits are basic trait factors supposed to capture the spectrum of meanings of personality characteristics entitled Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Autonomy. These factors form the most important accomplishment of the psycholexical description of personality. The factors summarise findings that aim to give a full account of the language of personality traits (De Raad, 1998). Both of the research papers and…