Personality theories focus on the variation among individuals. It helps people understand, predict and explain human behavior. A summary of Freud’s concept of human personality, Piaget’s attitude to human development, Meads view of the development of the self and the comparisons and the alterations of the theories is discussed in the following essay.
Sigmund Freud’s theory of human personality says that the interaction among id, ego, and superego which are components of the mind. This interaction results in human behavior. This theory places importance on how the unconscious interaction between the parts of the mind shape the personality and behavior of an individual (Sandler et al, 2018). The theory states that personality starts to develop during childhood and is molded through a sequence of five psychosexual phases which include oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. In all of these phases, children are faced with struggles between biological motivations and communal prospects. Actual steering of these inner struggles leads to a mastery of each stage and finally a completely developed personality.
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Jean Piaget developed his theory on human development based on the idea that children keenly concept knowledge as they discover and operate the world around them. Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational are the four stages of human development theory that correspond with age. Sensorimotor is the first stage of human development and it occurs at the age of two years. It is categorized by the impression that children reason by seeing their surroundings. The second stage is the preoperational stage which happens from the age of 2 years to the age of 7 years. It is characterized by the impression that children use symbols to represent their discoveries. The third phase takes place from the age of seven to the age of eleven years (Budwig et al, 2017). It is characterized by the impression that reasoning becomes attentive and rational. The last phase is the official operational stage which takes place from the age of 11 to maturity. It is characterized by the impression that offspring grow the aptitude to think in intellectual ways.
George mead theory on developing self argues that individuals grow self-esteems through interaction with different people. According to meads theory, self develops in three stages which include preparatory stage, play stage, and game stage (Heath et al, 2017). The preparatory stage takes from birth to the age of 2 years. In this phase, offspring imitate those who are around them. The next stage takes place from the age of 2 to 6 years and it is known as the play stage. In this phase, offspring play make-believe and do not follow the instructions of the game. The game stage is the final stage, it occurs from the age of 7 onwards. In this stage, children begin to understand and follow the rules and start taking perspective into account.
There are similarities among Piaget’s operational phase and Mean’s I and Me idea where children grow the ability to think in reasonable ways. There is also a similarity in Freud’s id and Piaget’s sensorimotor phase that children think by seeing the world around them. However, there are some differences among them, one of them is that Mean’s theory rejects Piaget’s sensorimotor s and Freud’s id by not acknowledging the biological effect on personality. Another difference is that Piaget’s and Freud’s theories are social-biological while Mean’s theory is informally driven.
In conclusion, personality theories explain how certain traits in an individual can be explained or how they are formed. Some personality theories include Freud’s theory of human personality, Piaget’s theory of human development and Mead’s theory on the development of self. These theories have some similarities and also some differences.
References
Sandler, J. (2018). On Freud's" Analysis Terminable and Interminable". Routledge.
Heath, G. (2017). The self and communicative theory. Routledge.
Budwig, N., Turiel, E., & Zelazo, P. D. (Eds.). (2017). New Perspectives on Human Development. Cambridge University Press.
