Chapter 5
Theories of personality
• What is a theory?
• What is personality?
Psychological qualities that contribute to an
individual’s enduring and distinctive patterns of
feeling, thinking and behaving.
, Theories of personality
o The psychoanalytic approach
o The neopsychoanalytic approach
o The life span approach
o The behaviourist approach
o The trait approach
o The humanistic approach
o The cognitive approach
o The social learning approach
, The psychoanalytic approach
• This approach assumes that the structures of person
are largely unconscious and that behaviour is strongl
influenced by the ongoing conflict between instincts,
unconscious motives, past experiences and social no
• Its main proponent is Sigmund Freud.
, The psychoanalytic approach cont.
Freud’s view on personality development
• Freud believed that instincts are the basic emotional drives t
provide the basis for personality. He distinguished two types
1. Life instincts (eros)
2. Death instincts (thanatos).
• The personality has three levels:
1. Conscious
2. Preconscious
3. Unconscious.
Theories of personality
• What is a theory?
• What is personality?
Psychological qualities that contribute to an
individual’s enduring and distinctive patterns of
feeling, thinking and behaving.
, Theories of personality
o The psychoanalytic approach
o The neopsychoanalytic approach
o The life span approach
o The behaviourist approach
o The trait approach
o The humanistic approach
o The cognitive approach
o The social learning approach
, The psychoanalytic approach
• This approach assumes that the structures of person
are largely unconscious and that behaviour is strongl
influenced by the ongoing conflict between instincts,
unconscious motives, past experiences and social no
• Its main proponent is Sigmund Freud.
, The psychoanalytic approach cont.
Freud’s view on personality development
• Freud believed that instincts are the basic emotional drives t
provide the basis for personality. He distinguished two types
1. Life instincts (eros)
2. Death instincts (thanatos).
• The personality has three levels:
1. Conscious
2. Preconscious
3. Unconscious.
