How does the humanistic theory differ from the psychoanalytic and social cognitive approach to personality?

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Introverts. Extroverts. Ambiverts. These are some examples of people with different types of personalities. There are those that are outgoing, those that are closed off, and some a mix of both. And these types of personalities are influenced by a lot of factors around them. These factors can either be their environment, past experiences, innate nature, own choices, or the people around them. Different theories arose from different perspectives of psychologists that have different beliefs on how personality develops or works and what factors influences its development. Some of these are the psychoanalytic, cognitive and humanistic theories.

Personality, according to the American Psychological Association, “refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.” One personality theory is the psychoanalytic theory, mainly developed by Sigmund Freud, who proposed that the dynamic, and mostly unconscious interactions or conflicts between the three fundamental structures of the human mind: ID, ego and superego, are what causes the development in the personality and behavior. These changes are believed to be rooted from childhood experiences and are mainly driven by sexuality, as it is believed that the progress is through a series of psychosexual stages. Another is the cognitive theory, mainly developed by Albert Bandura, who focuses more on what other people think and places emphasis that behavior is influenced on how the person views things. It believes that personality traits can be learned through observing others. Unlike the psychoanalytic theory who views human nature as selfish and evil, cognitive theory views human nature as neither good nor bad. 

Lastly, the humanistic theory, mainly developed by Abraham Maslow, who believes that free will of the individuals and their drive to self-actualization are important. This perspective believes that the human’s innate drive for self-growth and the choices they make along the way is what determines personality, Maslow proposed a hierarchal model of human needs that needs to be satisfied from bottom to top. Like the psychoanalytic theory of Freud, one must satisfy one level first before proceeding to the next (Thompson, 2019). Also, they both view humans are the center of the development, how they satisfy their needs and wants, and not through external factors like what the cognitive theory believes. It also believes that human nature is innately good and focuses more on their potential and free will, unlike the psychoanalytic theory whose view of human nature is pessimistic (Lahey, 2009) and since most of the structure of personality is unconscious, it does not account free will. Also, similarly to the cognitive theory, it believes that the development of personality occurs over time, unlike psychoanalytic theory who believes it stops once the individual reaches puberty. All of these three perspectives however, believes that internalization of the individual is an important aspect of the personality.

Different theories about the development of personality were proposed and up until today, is still being studied by psychologists. Several other theories were also proposed by different psychologists and existing theories are being improved by others. Although some of the theories have similarities, some also have completely different views regarding personality development. This just means that up until now, psychologists are still far from discovering the true explanation on just how personality works. 

How does the humanistic theory differ from the psychoanalytic and social cognitive approach to personality?

AP Psychology: Personality Notes

January 24, 2019/in AP Psychology/



  • Personality: The set of thoughts, feelings, traits, and behaviors that are characteristic of a person and consistent over time and in different situations.
  • Type theory: A kind of personality theory that organizes people into different sorts of individuals.
  • Trait theory: A kind of personality theory that lists classifiable characteristics that add together in different combinations and to different degrees to make a unique personality.
  • Type-A: An ambitious and competitive personality, according to one type theory.
  • Type-B: A laid-back and relaxed personality, according to one type theory.
  • PEN model: Trait theory that focuses on placing people on a continuum for each of three personality traits: psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism.
  • Psychoticism: PEN trait that corresponds to aggression and non-conformity.
  • Extraversion: PEN trait that corresponds to thriving on external stimulation; also a member of the Big Five.
  • Neuroticism: PEN trait that corresponds to anxiety and fight-or-flight stress response; also a member of the Big Five.
  • Big Five: Trait theory that reorganizes and builds on the PEN traits, keeping extraversion and neuroticism, and adding openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Can be remembered using the mnemonic OCEAN.
  • Openness to experience: Big Five trait that corresponds to curiosity vs. caution.
  • Conscientiousness: Big Five trait that corresponds to organization vs. carelessness.
  • Agreeableness: Big Five trait that corresponds to friendliness vs. detachment.
  • Biopsychological approach: Theory that maintains that personality is heavily influenced by genes.
  • Behaviorist approach: Theory that maintains that personality is heavily influenced by environment and experience.
  • Social cognitive perspective: Theory that maintains personality both shapes and is shaped by environment.
  • Reciprocal determinism: The idea from the social cognitive perspective that thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and environment all influence each other in determining a person’s actions in a given situation.
  • Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective: Personality theory that explains behaviors by looking at unconscious drives and feelings.
  • Structural model: Divides the conscious and unconscious mind into the id, ego, and superego.

0 0 admin http://wpapp.kaptest.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/kaplan_logo_purple_726-4.png admin2019-01-24 01:43:552020-09-11 20:41:49AP Psychology: Personality Notes

AP Psychology: Research Methods Notes AP Psychology: Testing and Individual Differences Notes

What is the main difference between humanistic and social cognitive theories in personality?

Another difference is what each perspectives believes may cause a behavior change. The social-cognitive theory would blame it on an event, such as a relative dying. The humanistic perspective would blame it on an event in peoples' lives that cause them to lose motivation, and fall lower on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

How does the humanistic theory of personality differ from the psychodynamic theory of personality?

Psychodynamic theory is based on psychoanalysis that hypothesizes there are unconscious components of the human psyche that affect behavior. Humanistic perspectives of personality focus on a person's self-worth and self-concept as they discover important facets of their identity.

What is one major difference between humanistic theories of personality and psychoanalytic?

Both Psychoanalytic and Humanistic theories differ from one another in many ways. Their contradictive views on psychology are indeed evident. One most prominent difference is their views on human nature and the impact of society.

How was the humanistic approach different from the psychoanalytic and the behaviorism approach?

Behaviorists believe that all human behavior is controlled by externalenvironmental factors. Whereas psychoanalysts believe that human behavior iscontrolled and directed by unconscious internal forces. Thus, theHumanistic approach (this will send you tothe Humanistic Approach tutorial) perceives behavior as holistic.