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Alesha Hall Mr. Willett English 11 29 February 2012 Actions Speak Louder than Words

Personality is something that makes a person a true individual. It is the structure of a persons life, it distinguishes whether or not a certain person is likeable or not. Employers only think of a few things when considering a person to hire, and personality is one of them. What truly makes a person have the personality that he or she does? Is it how a person raised or how he/she is programed in general? Now all psychologists have their own opinions like everyone else in the world, they too have different personalities and judgments. For instance Sigmund Freud believes in the nurture and nature approach (which means he believes that both nature and nurture effect how personality is developed), rather than Carl Jung who strictly believes in the nature aspect. Then there is Karen Horney, she believes that it is strictly nurture and that the personality of a person changes as the person grows and develops, and it never stops. Personality is an individuals unique and relatively consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving. There are many theories as to how this develops in human beings. One theory was developed by Sigmund Freud; he believed that most of our personality came from our unconscious behavior such as dreams (Hockenbury, 422). He also believed that our mistakes, accidents, or even instances of forgetting happened at an unconscious level and they truly are not mistakes, they are determined by unconscious motives (Hockenbury, 422). Freud suggests that

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all people have a certain amount of psychological energy, and there are three basic structures the id, the ego and the superego (Hockenbury, 422). The id is the most primitive part of personality. It is entirely unconscious, however present at birth. The ego is the partial consciousness; it represents the organized, rational, and planning detentions of personality. The superego evaluates the acceptability of behavior and thoughts, then praises or admonishes (Hockenbury, 422). According to Freud, the child identifies with the same-sex parent as a way of resolving sexual attraction towards the opposite-sex parent. Freud believed that imitating the same-sex parent also plays an important role in the development of gender identity and, ultimately, of healthy sexual maturity (Hockenbury, 427). Some people thought that Freud was crazy himself, in fact one person who remained anonymous stated, I truly believe that he needs help himself! Those people believed in the self-concept theory. This states that personality was formed around a persons self-beliefs and thoughts, and assuming that these are all on a conscious level (Gillham, 2). Freud believed solely in cognitive learning rather than looking for other opinions. Some people even said that he did not deserve to be considered a psychologist, yet in his lifetime he had over 3 thousand patients (Gillham, 4). This is quite large for many psychologists only get within 5 hundred in their practice. Carl Jung was born in a small town in Switzerland and lived from 1875-1961. He was one that strongly did not agree with Freud. He was fascinated by the myths, folktales and religions of his own and other cultures (Newbury, 77). Jung talked with Freud about the structures of our personalities for 13 hours straight and they absolutely do not agree. Jung rejected Freuds idea that human behavior is fueled by the instinctual drives of sex and aggression (Newbury, 78). Instead Jung believed that people are motivated by a more general psychological energy that pushes them to achieve psychological growth, self-realization, and

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psychic wholeness and harmony (Newbury, 80). Jung also believed that the deepest part of the individual psyche is the collective unconscious, which is shared by all people and reflects humanitys collective evolutionary history. He described the collective unconscious as containing the whole spiritual heritage of mankinds evolution, born anew in the brain structure of every individual (Kriptzs, 3). Jung believed that subconsciously we have created things that boost some aspects of personality. In the movie The Wizard of Oz, the motherless child, Dorothy, is on a quest for self-knowledge and selfhood. This is symbolized by the circular Emerald City. She is accompanied by her symbolic helpers, the Cowardly Loin (seeking courage), the Tin Woodsman (seeking love), and the Scarecrow (seeking wisdom), (Hockenbury, 429). So Jung believed that if your energy pushes you towards one characteristic, that is the one that you will pick up and in a sense it becomes part of you and your personality. One of the first woman psychologists, Karen Horney, disagreed with both men. She believed that a man has the capacity as well as the desire to develop his potentialities and become a decent human being. These deteriorate if his relationship to others and hence to himself is, and continues to be, disturbed. She believed that a man can change and go on changing as long as he lives (Hockenbury, 430). The studies that she ran consisted of a person exposed to a numerous amount of things and substances. The studies showed that the person when surrounded by happy things had a happier life and better lifestyle. It is simply just what we are exposed to throughout our lives. There are numerous studies and ways that people can be described by their personalities, and how they have grown and found themselves. Sigmund Freud has some viewpoints that are interesting, such as, he agrees with both terms like most people, Carl Jung says it is all nature and that nothing else is involved at all. One of the first woman psychologists, Karen Horney,

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believed that, it is all nurture and that a person can evolve until he or she dies. It should all depend on how people are brought up and research says that, both things are important in our cognitive minds and actions. All of the Psychologists are correct in their own ways. It is both so really Freud is the winner, however without the knowledge of the others he would not have the structure that he did to make his points.