Integrative Personality Theory
Name
PSY 330: Theories of Personality
Date
, As a therapist one of the tools of the profession is to assess one’s client’s personality in
an attempt to learn how to better help that individual. Everyone is unique in both their
personality and in how that personality formed and expressed, but what is the best way to
assess this person’s uniqueness? In this paper we will look at seven major concepts of
personality: Psychodynamic, Neurobiological, Behavioral, Cognitive, Interpersonal, Trait, and
the Self- Psychology Model Concepts to determine which will be use to develop my own
personal Integrative Personality Theory
Psychodynamic Model Concept
Psychodynamic theory was first developed by Freud in an era of sexual repression
during a time when very little was known or studied of the human psyche. The psychodynamic
theory is a view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces and it
holds that childhood experiences are the major force that shapes a person’s personality. Critics
of this model site the difficulty in researching using scientific methods to verify hypotheses.
Even though this is the case, the pioneers in this field not only created the framework for
modern day psychotherapy but they also coined terms and ideas that are still used at least in
part today by professionals and laypersons alike.
Two of the early pioneers in the psychodynamic model concept are Freud and Jung both
emphasized the conscious and unconscious mind but of the two I favor Jung over Freud. Jung
emphasized collective unconscious and through a process he called analytic psychology
attempted to assist the patient too integrate their conscious and unconscious minds. Jung also
refused to “accept the sexual instinct as the primary force in mental life”. [Lec15] Although, he
disagreed with Freud fundamentally Jung did use some therapy techniques such as free
association and dream analysis.
Jung’s most impressive work and theory that I choose to include in my integrated
personality theory is his Extraversion-Introversion model, which he described as a dimension of
personality. Extroversion he defined as “an outward-turning of the libido” and introversion as
“turning inwards of the libido”[Dic64] To Jung libido was not solely about sexual energy but
Name
PSY 330: Theories of Personality
Date
, As a therapist one of the tools of the profession is to assess one’s client’s personality in
an attempt to learn how to better help that individual. Everyone is unique in both their
personality and in how that personality formed and expressed, but what is the best way to
assess this person’s uniqueness? In this paper we will look at seven major concepts of
personality: Psychodynamic, Neurobiological, Behavioral, Cognitive, Interpersonal, Trait, and
the Self- Psychology Model Concepts to determine which will be use to develop my own
personal Integrative Personality Theory
Psychodynamic Model Concept
Psychodynamic theory was first developed by Freud in an era of sexual repression
during a time when very little was known or studied of the human psyche. The psychodynamic
theory is a view that explains personality in terms of conscious and unconscious forces and it
holds that childhood experiences are the major force that shapes a person’s personality. Critics
of this model site the difficulty in researching using scientific methods to verify hypotheses.
Even though this is the case, the pioneers in this field not only created the framework for
modern day psychotherapy but they also coined terms and ideas that are still used at least in
part today by professionals and laypersons alike.
Two of the early pioneers in the psychodynamic model concept are Freud and Jung both
emphasized the conscious and unconscious mind but of the two I favor Jung over Freud. Jung
emphasized collective unconscious and through a process he called analytic psychology
attempted to assist the patient too integrate their conscious and unconscious minds. Jung also
refused to “accept the sexual instinct as the primary force in mental life”. [Lec15] Although, he
disagreed with Freud fundamentally Jung did use some therapy techniques such as free
association and dream analysis.
Jung’s most impressive work and theory that I choose to include in my integrated
personality theory is his Extraversion-Introversion model, which he described as a dimension of
personality. Extroversion he defined as “an outward-turning of the libido” and introversion as
“turning inwards of the libido”[Dic64] To Jung libido was not solely about sexual energy but
