Personality Disorders Theories

Personality Disorders Theories

Introduction

Many people believe that the personality types are considered by the biological and the genetic nature and hence it does not change in someone’s entire life. Other people believe that the personality types keep on changing and are affected by the external factors such as culture, environment as well as experiences one goes through. The described conflicting debate has there for a long time and is famously known as the nurture vs. nature. In whichever argument you believe in and so many other theories in existence about the personality, it shows that to exactly tell the unique features of a person is not an easy thing. (Beck at al.,  2015).

The theories

Psychologists have put forward many theories regarding the personality disorders. The four Major ones are the Psychoalytic, the trait, the Humanistic as well as the Social Cognitive theorem.

The Psychoanalytic view on the personality

A guy by the name Sigmund Freud made an assertion that personality is made of three important constituents which are the ID, the superego and the ego. The ID is believed to be the impulse energy. He believed that ID is responsible for the needs we experience in our daily lives. It causes urges such as the envy, the love, the hate and the sexual urge. Freud believes that the id will look for the satisfaction immediately with no regard to the morals or the logic.

He believes that the superego brings about the morality and the expected normal in any society. It comes up with the standards that are needed and brings the elements of guilt when you fall short of those standards. This component brings the basis for perfection. (Schultz,& Schultz,2016)

The ego component brings the needed balance between the two. The ego thing will work on the reality of life and will try to harmonize the high level demands of the id together with the superego. It will then go a long way and choose the solution that is the most realistic to the two of the two.

The trait theory

According to this theory, the personality is made up of very stable features that will cause someone to behave in a certain manner. They act as the blueprint on how we conduct ourselves. Some of those features include the loyalty, the submissiveness, the aggressiveness and the sociability. This has been regarded as the most scientific of all of them. It is a five factored model which include the agreeableness, the neuroticism, the Extraversion, the Conscientiousness and the openness. This theorem can be used in criminal behaviour to say that such traits are found in someone and not acquired as many claim. (Allen, 2015).

The Social Cognitive theory

This theorem is of the argument that personality is gained from the experiences of social interactions. These interactions influence the way we behave. This theorem gives us a much clearer view of the effect that the people we interact with have effect on the behaviour we exhibit. The argument of this theorem is that when someone sees that you gaining something from behaving in a certain manner, they will try to copy so that they gain the same way. This affects criminal behaviour in that many will want to copy a criminal in order to enjoy the same benefits being enjoyed by the criminal. (Lilgendahl,2015).

When people suffer from personality disorders, they exhibit peculiar signs such as suspicion and distrust to others, the unjustified belief that other people are working hard to deceive you for their own benefit and the hesitation into confiding unto others due to fear. They also exhibit hostile reaction to the people around them.

References

Beck, A. T., Davis, D. D., & Freeman, A. (Eds.). (2015). Cognitive therapy of personality disorders. Guilford Publications. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QC82CwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=personality+disorders&ots=RTNVMB_8OG&sig=atAycGGD_83b_T16y_H0Il-Zvhk&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=personality%20disorders&f=false

Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2016). Theories of personality. Cengage Learning. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=oStTCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=personality+type+theories&ots=wsPLaoT9uO&sig=Pi6hc8YnA40xcFnEOgT1_ycsUrU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=personality%20type%20theories&f=false

Allen, B. P. (2015). Personality theories: Development, growth, and diversity. Psychology Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=f9GoCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=personality+type+theories&ots=VPB5Xrbo6Q&sig=nyV69QdUlIyaLgSEbo5YFe94a88&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=personality%20type%20theories&f=false

Lilgendahl, J. P. (2015). The dynamic role of identity processes in personality development: Theories, patterns, and new directions. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-49097-030