Exploring Four Major Theories of Personality

In this essay I will describe the four major theories of personality and identify the advantages and disadvantages of each. The first major theory of personality is psychodynamic which was created by Sigmund Freud. The second major theory of personality is trait or five-factor model which is the most scientifically supported model. The third major theory of personality is humanistic, and Carl Rogers was the best known humanistic theorist. Finally, the fourth major theory of personality is social cognitive which was developed by social learning theorists. The first major theory of personality called psychodynamic was developed by Sigmund Freud who is the most known figure in personality psychology. Psychodynamic which is also known as psychoanalytic is based upon three different assumptions. The first assumption is called Psychic Determinism which is the belief that any psychological event that happens have a root cause, that how we act and what we do today is based upon our past childhood experiences. The second assumption is

The goal of this theory was to find ones full potential and harness it. A person with this personality will spend the time essentially building themselves. Finding the intrinsic values, what kind of person they want to be in life. But under Rogers theory this would only be possible if society wanted it to happen. Another well-known humanistic theorist named Abraham Maslow believed that this could happen regardless if society wanted it to, but only to a small amount of people. According to Maslow these types of people were confident but not cocky, and focused on the real-world problems at hand. This is what helped them become self-actualized. A disadvantage of this theory is that you cannot tell when a person reaches the full capacity of humanism. An advantage would be that it helps people live a more honest life to