PSYCOLOGY- I

TAKE HOME ASSIGNMENT

DESCRIBING PERSONALITY USING DIFFERENT
PERSONALITY THEORIES

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

RAKESH KUMAR SAHU Ms. CHARU KRITI

SEMESTER - III SEC-B FACULTY (PSYCHOLOGY),

ROLL NO. -704 NUSRL, RANCHI

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF STUDY AND RESEARCH

IN LAW, RANCHI
QUESTION PRESENTED: DESCRIBE YOUR OWN PERSONALITY USING THE PERSONALITY
THEORIES.

Personality is the unique and consistent pattern of behavior, thinking and feeling that makes up an
individual Many psychologists have devised many theories which explain the development of
personality in different individuals and how these personalities differentiate between individual
identity. One can easily relate its pattern of behavior with the available theories and can identity
its personality. The following theories define my overall personality in a nutshell.

PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH TO MY PERSONALITY

The psychoanalytical theory of personality by Sigmund Freud was one of the first personality
theories to be introduced. It defined personality to be formed when there is a conflict between the
basic structure of the mind that is the id, ego and superego. It refers the struggle between the
pleasure principle of the id, the reality principle of the ego and the guilt or morality principle of
the superego. Id basically the most animal and unconscious portion of personality, it is primitive
and not affected by values, ethics or morals. Id is understood to be that part which requires
immediate gratification. The ego emerges from the psychological energy of the Id, it is partly
conscious and represents the rational, decision making part of the personality. It provides the
necessary delays to the demands and needs of the Id until a more appropriate time. On the other
hand, Superego represents the internal voices of reason, it acts as a judge about the persons conduct
and when the person does not live up to the superego standard they experience guilt.

I relate to this theory as most of the time I face this type of conflict whenever I see a thing that I
have been desiring from a long time. For instance, I always have an urge to buy an expensive
Gaming laptop whenever I see its advertisement. My Id provokes me for an immediate gratification
of this desire. I get tempted towards obtaining it without thinking how would I be able to buy it.
Subsequently the ego emerges as according to the definition it uses the psychological energy of
the Id. Ego provides a reality perspective to my urge to satisfy the Id. Ego provides me with a
practical approach of satisfying the Id by giving a delay to it. Ego tells me that there would be
ample opportunities in the future to buy these expensive things. It makes me know that to obtain
those expensive objects I need to think rationally and provides me reason regarding the same. Ego
helps me in the decision-making process for the urge to satisfy the Id. When talking about the
superego, it is mostly the guilt conscious part. Superego tells me whether it would be right to
satisfy the needs and urges of the Id. More likely it acts as a superman providing some moral
reasons for satisfying and not satisfying the needs. It acts in the form of the guilt while spending
more of the fathers hard-earned money on those expensive things, the guilt of not attending other
important needs etc. The superego a moral background to the decision-making process of the ego.
This theory defines my personality as to how I approach things. It defines the pattern of behavior
that I have towards the things I desire and consequently makes up my personality.

THE SOCIAL COGNITIVE APPROACH TO MY PERSONALITY

According to Albert Bandura Social Cognitive approach explains personality by showing how
conscious thoughts influence persons actions and vice versa. In a nutshell personality is the result
of the cognitive, behavioral and environmental factors. Albert believed that personality is the result
of the interaction between thoughts, behavior and environmental situations known to be reciprocal
determinism. It the environment which influences and shapes our behavior and subsequently our
personality. He said that human beings acquire new forms of behavior through observing others
(role models), they were conditioned by the environment to behave in a particular manner.

This approach defines my overall personality as I had always been most of the time influenced by
environment and other peoples thoughts. Since from my childhood my behavior was greatly
shaped by what I had observed. Being a third born child I had always been majorly influenced by
my brothers. They always acted like role models for me. Their experiences and their conduct had
shaped me behavior towards different things. For instance, when I was at a point to decide my
career option I had options of engineering and medical. The past experience of my brothers in this
field helped me to choose a different career option. Moreover, my friends and other people close
to me have always influenced my behavior towards other things. My way of thinking and
approaching to different issues in my life has always been based on the experiences and thoughts
of other people. Even while buying new things I look for opinion and thoughts of other people on
it. Most of the time I am afraid of doing a thing which I think would bring different or bad opinion
about me in the mind of other people. This is the result of the major societal influence on my
behavior which has become my personality now. I fear doing new things or doing things which
others I have not done during their age, most of time I try to figure out things from opinion and
influence of other people rather than doing it individually on my own. This dark side of me has
instilled a sense of fear in me whenever I think of doing a new thing. Though this part of me has
contributed towards limiting my capability of doing new things, this has always provided me with
better chance of success for instance I know that the past experiences of other people in doing a
particular thing is good, this means that I would have a good chance of success in doing it. Another
instance is when I try to buy things online, the first thing that I do is look for reviews of other
people on the product that I am buying. This gives me a chance to look for a better product in
different options. I had always tried to observe and learn from different people in my life, getting
influenced and inspired by them, learning from their mistakes etc. This has always given a sense
of avoiding things before trying it, since the past experiences with the particular thing wasnt good
with other people. Further I relate to this approach because I had always behaved in the manner
other people have expected me to be. Being the younger child most of time I was expected to
behave in a manner in which my brothers behaved. I had been expected to behave up to a particular
level of threshold set up by my brothers. Thus, getting influenced by them and regulated my
behavior. Moving further I had been influenced by the environment around me. I had always
performed better when people around have performed in a good manner. The fact that people are
trying hard for achieving a particular objective has influenced a lot about my behavior. My
personality has always been working harder when I see others working hard for achieving a
particular goal. This contributed to my self-efficacy, which basically refers to the belief in ones
capacity to perform a particular task. This fills me with positive feelings while approaching a
particular thing.

REFERENCES

1. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall, Inc.
2. Baron, R. (2004) Psychology, Boston, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
3. Freud, Sigmund. (1940) An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, London, The Hogarth Press and
the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
4. K10bloger (2011, October 17) Freud theories of Id, Ego and Superego. Retrieved from
https://iiteeeestudents.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/freuds-theory-of-id-ego-and-superego/
5. Pajares, F. (1996). Self-efficacy beliefs in academic settings. Review of Educational
Research, 66(4), 543578.