Theories and Experimentation

While people have long speculated on the causes and types of individual differences
in personality, the theory of Sigmund Freud was the first and most
influential psychological personality theory. All subsequent theories have
directly or indirectly addressed the central concerns of motivation, development,
and personality organization first proposed by Freud. Psychoanalytic
theorists such as Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, while trained by Freud, disagreed
with Freud’s emphasis on sexual instincts and developed their own
theories, emphasizing different motivations. Similarly, Karen Horney, Erich
Fromm, and others developed theories placing greater emphasis on the ego
and its interaction with society than did Freud’s.
Psychoanalytic theory has had somewhat less of an influence in the
United States than it did in Europe. Personality psychology in the United
States is relatively more research-oriented, practical, and optimistic. In the
United States, Gordon Allport developed one of the first trait approaches to
personality. The humanistic theories of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow,
social learning theories of Albert Bandura and Julian Rotter, and cognitive
theory of George A. Kelly flourished in the 1950’s and 1960’s and continue
to have their advocates. Modern personality psychologists, however, are
much more likely to confine themselves to personality measurement and research
than to propose broad theories of personality.
Many have questioned personality’s status as a scientific subdiscipline of
psychology. In 1968,Walter Mischel’s Personality and Assessment, arguing that
the consistency and behavior-prediction assumptions inherent in all personality
theories are unsupported by the evidence, was published. At the same
time, attribution theories in social psychology were suggesting that personality
traits are largely in the “eye of the beholder” rather than in the person
being observed. For example, Edward Jones and Richard Nisbett argued
that people are more inclined to see others as possessing personality traits
than they are to attribute traits to themselves. The continued existence of
personality as a subdiscipline of scientific psychology was debated.
The result has been a refined approach to measurement and personality
analysis. Current research on personality does not boldly assert the influence
of internal personality characteristics on behavior. There are no new
theories purporting to explain all of personality or the nature of all people.
Rather, attention is paid to careful assessment of personality and to the complex
interactions of persons and situations. For example, research on loneliness has found that people who describe themselves as lonely often lack social
skills and avoid interactions with others, thus perpetuating their feelings
of loneliness. All personality characteristics, including loneliness, are most
meaningfully seen as the product of a complex interrelationship between
the person and the environment.
Sources for Further Study
Hall, Calvin Springer, Gardner Lindzey, and John Campbell. Theories of Personality.
4th ed. New York: JohnWiley & Sons, 1998. A classic textbook describing
personality theories. Personality research is mentioned but not
discussed in detail. Includes particularly readable, thorough, and accurate
descriptions of psychoanalytic theories. Chapter 1 introduces the
topic of personality theories and describes many dimensions upon which
theories can be contrasted.
Hampden-Turner, Charles. Maps of the Mind. New York: Collier Books, 1982.
Presents brief descriptions and pictorial representations (termed “maps”)
of basic psychological and philosophical concepts. The organization
and presentation are a bit idiosyncratic; the summaries are very good
and the diagrams helpful in synthesizing complex information. Descriptions
and maps relevant to the theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung,
Erich Fromm, Rollo May, Hans Eysenck, Carl Rogers, Harry Stack Sullivan,
and Erik Erikson are particularly relevant to basic issues in personality
theory.
Mischel,Walter. Introduction to Personality. 6th ed. FortWorth, Tex.: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1999. A college-level personality textbook with an emphasis
on modern issues and research. Each major orientation to personality—
psychodynamic, trait, phenomenological (humanistic), and behavioral—
is presented with thorough discussions of measurement and
research. The reader may find that this text alone is incomplete in its description
of personality theories per se, but it makes an excellent companion
reading to Hall, Lindzey, and Campbell’s Theories of Personality
(above). Mischel’s approach to social learning theory is presented.
__________. Personality and Assessment. 1968. Reprint. Hillsdale, N.J.: Analytic
Press, 1996. The text that inspired debate about the utility of traditional
personality theories. Readable but detailed; primarily of historical
importance.
Pervin, Lawrence A., and Oliver John, eds. Handbook of Personality: Theory
and Research. 2d ed. New York: Guilford Press, 2001. A compilation of personality
theory and research for the sophisticated reader. Chapters by
Walter Mischel (“Personality Dispositions Revisited and Revised: A View
After Three Decades”), David Magnusson (“Personality Development
from an Interactional Perspective”), and Bernard Weiner (“Attribution
in Personality Psychology”) may be of particular interest.
Storr, Anthony. Churchill’s Black Dog, Kafka’s Mice, and Other Phenomena of the
Human Mind. New York: Grove Press, 1988. This fascinating book demonstrates how personality theories can be used to interpret lives. Storr describes
the creative process in general and the lives ofWinston Churchill,
Franz Kafka, and others from his psychological point of view, primarily
psychoanalytic in orientation. The perspectives of Sigmund Freud, Carl
Jung, and Erik Erikson are featured.
Susan E. Beers
See also: Analytical Psychology: Carl Jung; Cognitive Social Learning: Walter
Mischel; Humanistic Trait Models: Gordon Allport; Psychoanalytic Psychology;
Psychoanalytic Psychology and Personality: Sigmund Freud; Social
Learning: Albert Bandura.