Mt Kenya University

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF EDUACATION

COURSE CODE: BCP 1103

COURSE TITLE: PERSONALITY THEORIES

Instructional Module for B. COUNS. Distance

Learning
P.O BOX 342-01000 THIKA
www.mku.ac.ke
EMAIL:[email protected]
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In the course “Personality theories,” we shall explore the key personality theories
that will assist you (the learner) to understand the nature of human
personality. We shall first explore the classical psychoanalytic theory of
personality development by Sigmund Freud. In this theory, we shall see the
various levels at which the mind operates and the psychic processes of the id,
ego and the superego. Next, we shall explore the analytical theory of psychology
as presented by Carl Gustav Jung. In this theory, we shall examine the
personality components of the persona, the shadow and the animus-anima.
We shall then move to Adlerian theory in which we shall explore feeling of
inferiority as a motivation to human behaviour. This will be followed by
George Kelly’s theory of personal construct in which we shall see how Kelly uses the
analogy of sunglasses to illustrate the variations in human constructions. Trait
factors theories by Allport and Cattel will follow next. Here we shall explore the
role of inborn traits in influencing human behaviour. We shall then move to
interpersonal theories of Sullivan, Fromm and Horney in which we shall explore
the role of society in influencing human behaviour. Finally, we shall explore
the social cognitive theories of Bandura and Rotters in which Bandura exposes
the role of modeling in human behaviour while Rotter presents us with the
personality orientations of internal and external locus of control.
COURSE OUTLINE

TOPIC ONE: BACKGROUND

Background to personality theory
Definition of theory
Definition of personality
Goals of a personality theory
Components of a standard personality theory

TOPIC TWO: SIGMUND FREUD’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY

Biographical details
View of personality structure
• Topographical structure of the mind(conscious, sub/pre conscious and
unconscious levels)
• Basic mind processes(id, ego, superego)
• Ego defense mechanisms
View of human motivation
• Repression and unconscious motivation
View of personality development
• Oral stage(o-2yrs)
• Anal stage(2-3yrs)
• Phallic stage (4-5yrs)
• Latency stage (6-10yrs)
• Genital stage(10-12yrs)
View of psychopathology
• Phenomenon of fixation
• Inadequate super ego function
• Inadequate ego function
• Overuse or unnecessary of ego defense mechanisms
• Inadequate parenting styles
Techniques of psychotherapy
• Free association
• In-depth analysis of past history of clients
• Interpretation of transference phenomenon
• Re-education
• Making of repressed material conscious
View of a healthy personality
Concluding remarks

TOPIC THREE: CARL JUNG ANALYTICAL THEORY OF PERSONALITY

Biographical details
View of personality structure
• Major personality orientations
• Psychological functions in human personality
View of human motivation
View of personality development
View of psychopathology
Techniques of psychotherapy
View of a healthy personality
TOPIC FOUR: ALFRED AELER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY
Biographical details
View of personality structure
View of human motivation
View of personality development
View of psychopathology
Techniques of psychotherapy
View of a healthy personality

TOPIC FIVE: GEORGE KELLY’S THEORY OF PERSONAL

CONSTRUCT
Biographical details
View of human nature
Key theoretical positions/assumptions
The concept of constructive alternativism
Corollaries to Kelly’s fundamental postulates
View of personality structure
View of human motivation
View of personality development
View of psychopathology
View s of psychotherapy
View of a healthy personality
TOPIC SIX: THE INTERPERSONAL THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Biographical details
View of personality structure
View of human motivation
View of personality development
View of psychopathology
View of psychotherapy
View of a healthy personality

TOPIC SEVEN: TRAIT THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Biographical details (Bandura)
View of distinctive human abilities
View of human motivation
View of personality development
View of psychopathology
View of psychotherapy

TOPIC EIGHT: SOCIAL-CIGNITIVE THEORIES

Biographical details
View of Distinctive human abilities
View of human motivation
View of personality development
View of psychopathology
View of psychotherapy
View of a healthy personality
Rotter’s biography
Locus of control personality orientations
MODE OF ASSESSMENT

The course will be assessed through end of semester examination, take home
assignments and a sit in assessment test. The end of semester examinations
will carry 70% of the total marks; the take home assignments 15% of the total
marks and the sit in assignments 15% of the total marks totaling to 100%.
The passmark is 40%.

MODULE AUTHOR: AGNES NTHANGI

☺ GENERAL OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course unit the learner should be able to:
Define personality
i) Define theory
ii) Discuss the goals of a personality theory
iii) Identify the components of a an effective personality theory
iv) Discuss view of personality structure in relation to all the theories
v) Discuss view of human motivation in relation to all the theories
vi) Discuss view of human development in relation to all the theories
vii) Discuss the nature of psychopathology in relation to all the theories
viii) Discuss view of psychotherapy in relation to all the theories
ix) Discuss view of a healthy personality in relation to all the theories
 TOPIC ONE
BACKGROUND TO PERSONALITY THEORIES

☺ OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:
 Define personality
 Define theory
 Discuss the goals of a personality theory
 Discuss the components of a standard personality theory

BACKGROUND TO PERSONALITY THEORY

Previous efforts at understanding the essential nature of human beings were

dominated by contributions from philosophers such as Plato Aristotle, John
Locke, Descartes and number of theologians such as John Taylor, Jonathan
and Rousseau. Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and John Locke supports a
view of human nature that is now understood as the ‘innocent theory’. This
theory proposes that children do not come into this world either good or bad.
They come with a neutral nature ready to take any shape from the influences
of nature and experiences. These philosophers uphold the stance that we do
not come into the world ready made, we become what we become through
the factors of experience, upbringing, and education.
Some philosophers such as Descartes and St.Thomas disagreed with this
innocent theory and instead defend original sin theory. This theory teaches that
human beings come into the world defiled following the downfall of original
parents. Theologians such Jonathan Edwards who supported this philosophy
drew strength from bible.

Some theologians like Taylor however disagreed with this theory arguing that
some biblical aspects of the Old Testament are contradicted by New
Testament.
Due to these disagreements between philosophers and theologians, some
scholars felt a scientific understanding of human and animal nature was
necessary to avoid speculation. Against this background, psychology that had
originally existed as a sub-field of philosophy separated from philosophy to
undertake this new challenge of studying and understanding human
behaviour scientifically. Here the presumption is that there is strong merit in
using the scientific and objectivity to learn about the nature of human beings.
However, with humans as subjects, certain categories of experimental study
process would not ethically be supported. Due this constraint psychologist
chose to understand human being scientifically through indirect method by
using animal like apes, pigeons and rats as substititutes. Some psychologists
complained that man’s spiritual nature cannot be understood by mere study
of animals in the laboratory. Influential psychologists in this group were
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers who complained that man is capable of
determining his destiny. They proposed that true knowledge of the
constitution of human nature must go beyond study of animals. This
position brought with it two tradition in study of human personality namely:
The experimental approach and the clinical approach.

ACTIVITY 1:
Reflect on the ‘innocent theory’ and the ‘original sin theory’ theories of the child.
List down the strengths and the weaknesses of each theory. Which theory appeals to you
most? Why?

WHAT IS THEORY?

In philosophy, theory to refers to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to

action. Theory is especially often contrasted to "practice” which is a concept
that in its original Aristotelian context referred to actions done for their own
sake. Theorizing involves trying to understand the causes and nature of
something for example health and sickness, while the practical side in relation
to this example is trying to make people healthy. Theory and practice are thus
related in that theory lays the ground for systematic practice. Theories allow
us to contemplate deeply on the nature of that which is being described by the
theoretical framework. Theory allows us to make advance intelligent
conjecture of the outcome. Personality theories for example allow us to make
informed guesses in relation to human bahaviour. Theories provide us with a
basis for practice and scientific research.

WHAT IS PERSONALITY?

The word ‘personality’ originates from the Latin ‘persona’, which means ‘mask’.
Significantly, in the theatre of the ancient Latin-speaking world, the mask was
not used as a plot device to disguise the identity of a character, but rather was
a convention employed to represent or typify that character. Psychologists
have not settled for any one definition of the term personality hence an
eclectic approach to the definition of personality is often adopted. Different
theorists have attempted to give their understanding of the personality.
According to Carl Rogers, personality can be considered as self or inner
agency acting as an organizing centre controlling an individual’s everyday
experiences/choices. Allport another major personality theorist shared same
view. According to him, personality is ‘what individual is really is’. For Erikson
personality is an ‘evolving something’ requiring the whole of man’s life to grow
and mature. Generally, Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized
set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her
cognitions/thoughts, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. Personality
therefore is not what the layman construes it to be i.e. the mere physical
disposition; rather it is more comprehensive, encompassing both external and
internal sets of characteristics.

GOALS OF PERSONALITY THEORY

The chief objective of personality theory is to give a systematic account of the
nature and constituents of human nature. This entails an explanation of how
personality grows and develops; how personality energizes behaviour; how
personality can be sick and what can be done to restore its health when hurt.

COMPONENTS OF A STANDARD PERSONALITY THEORY

A standard personality theorist must cover number of grounds as follows:
• View of human structure….. A standard personality theory must give
its theoretical view on the structure or major components of human
nature. For example the id, ego and superego basic mind processes in
Freud’s theory.
• View of human motivation……it must contain an explanation of
people behave the way they do. It must respond to the question:
What moves human being into action? What activates human
behavior? For example, Adler in his theory cites a desire to
overcome inferiority as one force motivating humans into action.
• View of personality development…… must explain how human
personality grows and develops from infancy to adulthood and old
age. It must explain factors behind these changes. For example,
Freud gives five psychosexual stages through which human
personality develops: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages.
• View of psychopathology (sick mind)…… It must explain how mind
disturbance come about and why some people are unable to adjust
to demands of society and function effectively. For example one
cause of psychopathology according to Jung is when an individual
refusals to accept his/her age.
• View of psychotherapy……..It must explain how personality can be
cured through psychological interventions (counseling). For example
one goal of psychotherapy according to Kelly is to restructure
clients’ incorrect constructions.
• View of a healthy personality…… A standard personality theory is
expected to explain what constitutes a good life. It must contain
some criteria to define a healthy personality. For example a healthy
person according to Freud is one who has the capacity to love, work
and play.
 SUMMARY

The above chapter has defined the concepts of theory and personality,
explored the goals of a personality theory and the components of a standard
personality theory. Personality is unique to each individual and this explains
why people are different from one another. A standard personality theory
should be able to help us as counsellors diagnose a sick personality and extend
the relevant psychological interventions.

SELF EVALUATION QUESTIONS

 Define the term personality

 Define the term theory
 Explain the significance of personality theory in counseling
 Explore the components of a standard personality theory

FURTHER READING

Engler, Barbara (2006). Personality Theories. Houghton Mifflin.

INTERNET
 TOPIC TWO
SIGMUND FREUD’S
PSYCHOANALYIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY

☺ OBJECTIVES

By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:

 Discuss personality structure according to Freud
 Discuss psychosexual stages of human development.
 Discuss Freud’s view of human motivation
 Identify the causes of psychopathology according to Freud
 Identify the techniques of psychotherapy according to Freud
 Discuss the attributes of a healthy person according to Freud.
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech
Republic). Sigmund was the first child of his twice-widowed father's third
marriage. His mother, Amalia Nathanson, was nineteen years old when she
married Jacob Freud, aged thirty-nine. Sigmund's two stepbrothers from his
father's first marriage were approximately the same age as his mother, and his
older stepbrother's son, Sigmund's nephew, was his earliest playmate. Thus,
the boy grew up in an unusual family structure, his mother halfway in age
between himself and his father. Though seven younger children were born,
Sigmund always remained his mother's favorite. When he was four, the family
moved to Vienna (now the capital of Austria), where he lived until the year
before his death. Freud was a physician and psychiatrist by profession who
founded the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. His theory of personality
emerged from clinical treatment of his patients. Freud is the pioneer
personality theorist.

VIEW OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

Freud has two perspectives under this component:
• View of topographical structure of human the mind
• The view of basic mind process system Id, Ego and super Ego.
i) Topographical structure of mind
 Freud proposes three levels of consciousness at which the human
mind operates:

• Conscious level…… This is the part of the mind that holds what you
are aware of; materials that are within your immediate memory. You
can verbalize about your conscious experience and you can think
about it in a

• Logical fashion. No mental energy is required to recall this material.

This level contains 5-10% of the materials.
• Pre/subconscious level…contains materials within the preconscious
memory. So although materials stored here aren’t in the conscious,
they can be readily brought into conscious through use of moderate
mental energy. This level contains 10-15% of the materials.
• Unconscious level…. This level according to Freud, houses most of
our materials (75_80%). Freud felt that this part of the mind was
not directly accessible to awareness. In part, he saw it as a dump box
for urges, feelings and ideas that are tied to anxiety, conflict and
pain. These are the unacceptable wishes, desires, fantasies and past
painful/traumatic experiences. For example, a girl who is defiled
may have the experience erased from her memory. These
experiences however have not disappeared according to Freud, they
are there, buried in the unconscious region of our minds and
exerting influence on our actions and our conscious awareness.
 When these materials come back to haunt us, they can cause
emotional suffering and even physical pain in our bodies.

ACTIVITY 2

Study the diagram on the three levels of the mind carefully. List down some selfish
needs, unacceptable wishes and traumatic experiences that may constitute a client’s
unconscious materials. What is the difference between the mind and the brain? How
are the two related?
 Basic Mind Processes

One original aspect of Freud personality theory is the view of basic mind
process. Freud proposes that the human mind is made of three principle
agencies /forces that organize our behaviour namely:
• Ego
• Id
• superego
Id
The id comprises the unorganised part of the personality structure that
contains the basic drives. The mind of a newborn child is regarded as
completely "id-ridden", in the sense that it is a mass of instinctive drives and
impulses, and needs immediate satisfaction. The id obeys "pleasure
principle", helping man to go for pleasure and to avoid pain. It is the dark,
part of our personality which we call chaos; a cauldron full of seething
excitations... id is illogical; not believing in postponement of pleasure but only
striving to bring about the satisfaction of the id impulses and basic drives. The
id is thus responsible for our basic drives such as food, water, sex, and basic
impulses. It is amoral and selfish, without a sense of time, completely illogical,
primarily sexual, infantile in its emotional development, and is not able to
take "no" for an answer.
The Ego
The word ego is taken directly from Latin, where it is the nominative of the
first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as "I myself". The Ego
acts according to the ‘reality principle’ seeking to please the id’s drives in
realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bring grief. The
Ego comprises that organised part of the personality structure that includes
defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions.
Conscious awareness resides in the ego. The ego weighs the consequences of
actions before allowing an individual to behave. It helps us to organize our
thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us. The ego is that
part of our personality that has been modified by the direct influence of the
external world. The ego represents what may be called reason and common
sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the passions. In Freud's theory, the
ego mediates among the id, the super-ego and the external world. Its task is to
find a balance between the demands of the id and super-ego. Its main concern
is with the individual's safety. It allows some of the id's desires to be expressed,
but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. The ego operates
as a traffic cop; checking the id impulses and regulating the needs of the
super-ego and ensuring that the individual maintains a healthy balance.
Super Ego

The Super-ego aims for perfection hence it obeys the moral principle. The
superego is the product of social standards that have been inculcated in us the
significance others. The Super-ego punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.
For example: having extra-marital affairs, killing etc. The Super-ego works in
contradiction to the id. The Super-ego helps the individual to strive to act in
socially appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant self-
gratification. The Super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong. The Super-
ego's demands oppose the id’s, so the ego has a hard time in reconciling the
two. Freud's theory implies that the super-ego is a symbolic internalization of
the father figure and cultural regulations. The super-ego tends to stand in
opposition to the desires of the id because of their conflicting objectives, and
its aggressiveness towards the ego. The super-ego acts as the conscience,
maintaining our sense of morality; a sense of what is right or wrong and
punishing us with guilt when we fail to keep the moral standards that we have
internalized. The super-ego is the influence of authority, religious teaching,
schooling and reading. The stricter the authority, the stricter will be the
domination of the super-ego over the ego later on — in the form of conscience
or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt. The ego ideal component of the
superego helps us to become the best that we can become.

ACTIVITY 3
A strong ego is able to postpone your id impulses allowing you to achieve your life goals.
Do you consider your ego to be strong or weak? Reflect on your id impulses that keep
dragging you down. Is it oversleeping? Drunkenness? Uncontrollable jealousy? Casual
sex? How well is your ego able to delay their immediate gratification? The superego
also helps to check the id impulses. Reflect on your superego ability to do this.

iii) Ego Defense Mechanisms

The Ego Defense Mechanisms are psychological strategies employed by
individuals, groups and even nations to cope with reality and to maintain self-
image. Healthy persons normally use different defenses throughout life. An
ego defense mechanism becomes pathological only when its persistent use
leads to maladaptive behavior such that the physical and/or mental health of
the individual is adversely affected. The purpose of the Ego Defense
Mechanisms is to protect the ego (you) from anxiety, social sanctions or to
provide a refuge from a situation with which you cannot currently cope.
According to Freud every individual is at times confronted with need to justify
his/her behaviour that appears to contradict the normal behaviour. When
contradictions arise in our behaviour, they cause emotional anxiety and must
be explained to create emotion relief. According to Freud, it is the ego that
does the process called defense mechanism. Some examples of ego defense
mechanisms include the following:

• Repression

Process of pulling thoughts into the unconscious and preventing painful or

dangerous thoughts from entering consciousness; repression is unconscious.
Example: forgetting sexual abuse from your childhood due to the trauma and
anxiety. (Give more examples).

• Denial

Refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening; arguing against

an anxiety provoking stimuli by stating it doesn't exist; resolution of
emotional conflict and reduce anxiety by refusing to perceive or consciously
acknowledge the more unpleasant aspects of external reality. For example
denying the death of a loved person. (Give more examples).

• Displacement

Defense mechanism that shifts aggressive impulses to a more acceptable or

less threatening target; redirecting emotion to a safer outlet; separation of
emotion from its real object and redirection of the intense emotion toward
someone or something that is less offensive or threatening in order to avoid
dealing directly with what is frightening or threatening
Example – attacking your child rather than your boss. (Give more examples).

ACTIVITY 4

There are very many defense mechanisms and we use them every day. How many
defense mechanisms have you used today? List them down. Reflect on the behaviour or
circumstance that led to your use of the defense mechanism. Most likely the
behaviour/circumstance was causing you some anxiety. Defense mechanisms have both
advantages and disadvantages. As part of your homework do the following:
 Discuss the advantages of ego defense mechanism
 Discuss the disadvantages of ego defense mechanisms
 Discuss at least twenty more defense mechanisms giving practical examples
VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION

Unconscious motivation plays a prominent role in Sigmund Freud's theories

of human behaviour. According to Freud, most human behavior is the
result of desires, impulses, and memories that have been repressed into an
unconscious state, yet still influence actions. Freud believed that the human
mind consists of a tiny, conscious part that is available for direct observation
and a much larger subconscious portion that plays an even more important
role in determining behavior. According to Freud, motivation behind our
behaviour is largely unconscious. Human beings according to him, tend to
act before they think. Freud therefore supports the theory of unconscious
motivation as the main force behind human behaviour.

VIEW OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Freud’s position is that personality emerges as the child develops from infancy
to adolescence. According to him, human personality develops across five
psychosexual stages namely: Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages from ages
of 0 to 12 years. By the age of twelve according to Freud, the child is supposed
to develop a mature personality. However some children get fixated in one of
the developmental stages and this sabotages the evolution of a mature
personality. Such individuals will demonstrate these fixations even in their
adult life.
• Oral stage(o-2yrs)
During this period a child’s centre of pleasure is the mouth. The child derives
pleasant sensations through biting swallowing and sucking. Children who are
overindulged by being overfed and having all their needs met by caregivers, or
under indulged by being underfed and lacking other basic needs, turn into
oral

Personalities. Oral personalities are characterized by oral character traits such

as greed, selfishness, over optimism, and overdependence on other people.
They also manifest oral compensatory behaviours such as continuous
chewing, of gum, pens etc and finger sucking among other such behaviours.

• Anal stage (2-3yrs)

This is stage of toilet training and the centre of pleasure is around the anal
region. According to Freud, if training is overstrict and premature, it will
deprive the child of pleasurable sensations around the anal membrane.
Consequently the child will become frustrated and will transfer this effect
later in life giving rise to anal personalities characterized by overordeliness,
perfectionism, stinginess and lack of flexibility. If the toilet training on the other
hand is too lenient, allowing the child the leeway to behave as they wish in
relation to toilet mannerisms, the child is likely to become careless and too
permissive later in life.
Phallic stage (4-5yrs)
Here the focus of pleasure is the genitals. Basic conflict of phallic stage centre
on the incestuous desire of child for the parent of the opposite sex. This is
subconscious desire or wish in the subconscious mind of the child to kill the
parent of same sex in order to marry the parent of opposite sex. Boys are
sexually attracted to their mothers a conflict referred to as Oedipus complex,
while girls are sexually attracted to their fathers a conflict referred as Electra
complex. If the conflicts are not handled carefully through understanding
and support on the part of the parents, phallic personalities may result later
in life. Phallic male characters want to sexually conquer as many women as
they can to prove their manhood. Female phallic personalities develop penis
envy and sleep with different to compare their sexual prowess and for material
gain. Both males and females are unconsciously trying to prove to the parents
of the opposite sex that they too can have partners of the opposite sex just like
them.

Latency stage (6-11years)

No serious event in terms of physical development takes place in this stage.

The sexual drive appears to be dormant or latent hence the name latency.
Children develop interest in their age mates of the same sex and they form
groups. They expend their energy in school work, games sports and other
forms of play.
Genital stage (10-12years)
This is the final stage in personality development according to Freud. If the
conflicts of all the previous stages have been successfully resolved, a mature
personality will emerge. A mature personality according to Freud is referred to
as a genital personality. A healthy individual is able to live a healthy (non-
neurotic) life style without need for proof complexes. Mature personalities
according to Freud have the capacity for normal heterosexual relationships,
capacity to work and capacity to love and play. On the other hand if the
conflicts of the previous stages are not resolved an immature personality will
emerge. Such a personality is characterized by masturbatory and homosexual
tendencies, extreme selfishness and other fixations of the oral anal and phallic
stages.
VIEW OF PSCHOPATHOLOGY
According to Freud psychopathology (psychological sickness) can result from
any of the following:

• Phenomenon of fixation
This is tendency to stick to childish ways of doing things where adult
behaviour is required. These individuals are fixated at one of the
developmental stages; oral, anal or phallic. For example a father crying
hysterically because he is unable to provide for the family.
• Inadequate super ego function
This gives rise to scrupulous conscience (very sensitive conscience) which
is always punishing an individual with guilt even over small mistakes or lax
conscience (hardened conscience) which can easily make an individual to
commit grievous crime without remorse.

• Inadequate ego function

The ego is the seat of logic and intelligence hence it allows people to use
common sense in tackling daily realities. Inadequate ego function is
 reflected in people who are unable to use common sense in addressing
issues of life.

• Overuse or unnecessary use of ego defense mechanism

Overuse or unnecessary use of ego defense mechanism in handling every

day challenges leads to procrastinations, lowered productivity, and further
frustrations due to inability to change negative habits/behaviours which
they are always justifying. For example a student who continousily gives an
execusefor failing an exam.
• Inadequate parenting styles
Inadequate parenting styles especially in the first three psychosexual stages of
development can result to oral, anal and phallic personalities. For example
parents who over gratify all the needs of their children fail to prepare them for
any lack and possibility of sharing later in life.

• Uncontrollable forces from the id

The id component of our personality is always seeking sensual gratification. If
an individual is not able to control these id impulses a sick personality will
result. Imagine an individual who must have sex every time he/she
experiences a sexual desire! or a person who must eat when the eating desire
comes irrespective of where he/she is or what he/she is doing!

• Repressed wishes from the unconscious

According to Freud our unconscious level contains 75-80% of all our
experiences most of which are negative traumatic experiences and
unacceptable wishes. If some of these materials find their way to our
conscious mind, psychopathology will result.

TECHNIQUES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
According to Freud psychological healing is effected through the following
techniques:
• Free association…… putting the client in a relaxed position and allowing
them to speak what comes to their mind.
• Past history… In-depth analysis of past history of clients concerned in
search of clients origin problem.
• Dream analysis…..analysis of client’s recurrent dream content to
establish motivation.
• Interpretation of transference ….transference occurs when a client directs
either positive or negative feelings towards the counselor because the
counselor reminds the client of someone from his/her past.
• Re-education…educating the client on motivation behind their negative
behaviour.
• Making of repressed material conscious….this leads to insight and
psychological relief of the client concerned

(N.B. These psychotherapy techniques will be fully explored in the unit on

“Counselling Theories.”)
VIEW OF A HEALTHY PERSONALITY
According to Freud a mature personality is one with the capability to love,
work and play.

ACTIVITY 5

Reflect on your life. Are there some undesirable behaviours that you keep repeating and
you don’t seem to understand why? Which are these behaviours? Freud’s theory tells us
that such behaviours could be connected to your past. How much do you know about
your past? As part of your homework draw a family tree up to the 4th generation. You
can do this with the help of your parents or older members of your family. Find out the
behaviour patterns, lifestyle, health history, nature of death etc of the people in your
family tree. By the end of the exercise, you should gain a deeper understanding of
yourself and your motivations. Reflect on the idea of a healthy personality according to
Freud. Do you view yourself as a healthy personality?

 SUMMARY
 Psychoanalytic theory is a classical theory of personality upon which
many other theories have been built. According to the theory our
minds operate at the conscious, preconscious and unconscious levels
with the unconscious level holding over 70% of our material. Thus
according to Freud most of our behaviour results from unconscious
motivation. According to the theory also,

 three psychic processes namely the id, the ego and the superego are
always at work in an individual continually influencing the individual’s
behaviour. Personality according to Freud develops across five
psychosexual stages namely the oral, anal, genital, latency stages. A
healthy person according to Freud is one with the ability to love, work
and play.

SELF EVALUATION QUESTIONS

 Explain the theory of unconscious motivation according to Freud.

 Explain how the three basic mind/psyche processes: id, ego and super-ego can
cause psychopathology in a human.
 Apart from psychopathology resulting from the above basic mind processes,
which are the other sources of psychopathology according to Freud?
 In relation to the workings of the three mind processes, explain why the ego is
always under constant pressure.
 Discuss the first three psychosexual stages of development accord ding to Freud
highlighting the pathological personalities associated with each stage.
 Discuss the techniques of psychotherapy according to Freud.
 FURTHER READING

Elliott, Anthony (2002). Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction, Second Edition,

Duke University Press

INTERNET
 TOPIC THREE
CARL JUNG’S ANALYTICAL THEORY OF PERSONALITY

☺ OBJECTIVES
By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:
 Discuss personality structure according to Jung
 Discuss personality development according to Jung
 Discuss Jung’s view of human motivation
 Identify the causes of psychopathology according to Jung
 Discuss Jung’s view of psychotherapy
 Discuss the attributes of a healthy person according to Jung
 List the attributes of introverts and extroverts
 Discuss the four functions of the person

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Carl Gustav Jung was born July 26, 1875, in the small Swiss village of
Kessewil. His father was Paul Jung, a country parson, and his mother was
Emilie Preiswerk Jung. He was surrounded by a fairly well educated extended
family, including quite a few clergymen and some eccentrics as well. Carl was
a rather solitary adolescent, who didn't care much for school, and especially
couldn't take competition. He went to boarding school in Basel, Switzerland,
where he found himself the object of a lot of jealous harassment. He began to
use sickness as an excuse, developing an embarrassing tendency to faint under
pressure. Though he was interested in archeology, he went on to study
medicine at the University of Basel where he settled on psychiatry as his
career. Long an admirer of Freud, he met him in Vienna in 1907. Jung was a
neo Freudian meaning he build his theory on the psychoanalytic theory.
World War I was a painful period of self-examination for Jung and also the

beginning of one of the most interesting theories of personality the world has
ever seen. He died in 1961 and authorities characterized him as best brain of
20th century.
VIEW OF PERSONALLITY STRUCTURE
Jung believes in ancestral origins of our personality. This is in contrast to
Freud who believed in the early childhood experiences as the origins of our
personality. He urges that common patterns and practices noticed in human
beings from different races and places are not from influences of early
experiences but from our common inheritance as human beings. He teaches
full self realization is the end point of our personality development. The
concept of self in Jung framework refers to total possibility of what individuals
can become. According to Jung the psyche is made up of three separate but
interacting structures namely
• The ego
• The personal unconscious
• Collective unconscious
Within some of these components are found other areas of personality such
as the self, shadow, and the animus anima.
The Ego
The Ego is equivalent to conscious mind. It is seat of conscious memories,
perceptions, feelings action and thoughts. It is through the ego that we come
to learn of ourselves and world around us.
The personal unconscious
The personal unconscious is the aspect/region of psyche/mind that is
personal to every individual. It houses our personal hurts, regrets, bitterness
and forgotten/repressed memories.

Collective unconscious
The collective unconscious in Jung’s theory refers to primordial or collective
aspect of human mind shared by all human beings by virtue of being members
of human race. According to Jung the reason why humans act in similar ways
is because of benefit of our archetypes buried in our collective unconscious.
For example the parent archetype, the adolescence archetype etc that make
parents and adolescents from all over the world to behave in similar
predictable ways. In his view, it is due to the presence of certain archetypes in
our minds that we learn to behave in predictable ways anywhere we are as
human beings. The collective unconscious according to Jung is the one that
houses our persona, shadow animus-anima and the self.
i) The persona
The persona refers to public image of ourselves. It is aspect that helps us to
choose a spouse. It is aspect of persona that we try to present when we want to
impress or be classified in a given manner such as sociable, saved, holy, great
or nice among other such adjectives. It is therefore our persona that our lovers
tend to be blinded by during courtship. After marriage, the shadow
component of our personality starts to show itself.
ii) The shadow
The shadow is the untamed and evil part of our personality. The component
of shadow in Jung’s theory is aspect of person by which Jung teaches us that
evil is an integral part of our personality. In his view, man is neither totally
good nor totally bad. By nature therefore man is both good and bad.

ii) The animus- anima

It is the component depicting our personality as both masculine and feminine
in composition. By this concept, Jung too teaches us that each man or woman
is composed of two principle orientations called animus and anima. The
dominant

component in males is animus while the dominant component in female is the

anima. Too much animus in either men or women makes them to be
extremely stern and cruel with minimal capacity for empathy. This is a sick
personality. Too much anima on the other hand either in men or women
makes them to be too soft and gullible to the point that they can easily be
exploited. Such individuals are not assertive hence they don’t know how to
fight for their rights. Women are especially treated as doormats by men and
they have no courage to walk out of such relationships. This too is a sick
personality. Mature personality results when there is a healthy balance of the
animus and anima components in an individual.

iv) The self

The self is centre of our personality. It plays the role of central coordinating
principle our personality. Jung uses self to refer to personality as coordinated,
integrated and fully developed; that is the idea of personality at its best.

ACTIVITY 6

The ‘persona’ is the sugar coated aspect of our personality that is especially projected
during courtship. We all have a persona image according to Jung. Do you agree? An
exaggerated persona image during courtship can lead to separation and divorce.
Support this statement before you proceed.
 Jung's Conception of the Collective Unconscious

i) MAJOR PERSONALITY ORIENTATION

• Extroversion/ Introversion

According to Jung we come into world with two principle attitudes or

approaches to the world namely extroversion and introversion.
The extroverts are those in whom the extraversion component is
predominant. They like being in the thick and thin of things, like being
noticed, are delighted when in company of others; are bored when alone and
externally oriented. Consequently they are more comfortable in company of
their friends and feel secure when getting along with their friends. Introverts
are those in whom the introversion component prevails. They feel happier left
to themselves. They don’t believe they need to be seen in order to be happy
and acceptable. They are reflective and meditative and often more creative
planned and orderly than extroverts. According to Jung, a healthy personality
is a blend of the two personalities. However in each individual one
component is dominant while the other is recessive in majority of people.

ACTIVITY 7

Identify your dominant personality orientation, is it extroversion or introversion? Write

down the personality characteristics that make you to identify with this orientation.
Reflect on your behaviour and see if you are in the extreme of one personality.
According to Jung, this is unhealthy. Strive to attain a balance between the two
personalities.

ii) PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS IN HUMAN PERSONALITY

According to Jung a normal human being is blessed with following
psychological functions:
 Thinking
  Feeling
 Sensing
 Intuition
A healthy personality results when the four functions/capacities are working
in their collect proportion while distress or neurosis results when one aspect is
overindulged at the expense of others. For example a personally who is purely
rational in his/her approach towards life may fail to fulfill emotional needs
and may completely ignore his/her intuitions. Such a person has an
unhealthy personality.

VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION

Jung agrees with Aldler that what initiates human action are values, aspirations
and ideas. Anticipation or vision energizes our action consequently helping us
to organize our life and realize our potential. According to Jung, any other
aspect of personality such as the shadow or persona may trigger us into action.

VIEW ON PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

According to Jung there are two seasons in human life:
• First season from birth-39yrs
• Second starting from 40yrs

CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH SEASON

During 1st half of 1st season(0-19 years) major decisions that affect our life are
made not by us but by our parents, our elders and our teachers. During the
2nd half of the 1st season (20-39) we tend to be very idealistic in our approach
to life hence we are impatient and intolerant. During 2nd season of life, (after
middle age) in late 40s, more critical transformation in personality takes place.
We tend to look at our lives as so far lived, see where correction can be made
and where new directions can be forged. A sensible person tends to be
reserved, restrained and rigid in his/her views on how life should be lived. At
this age, we are able to tolerate the ambiguities of life; we are

able to realize that life is much larger than logic. According to Jung, it is after
that 40s we seem to enjoy another chance to re-draw the map of our lives
striving to see how we can re-shape the direction towards our destiny. Jung
though observes that we can re-shape our lives either positively or negatively.
If we re-shape our lives negatively, we destroy ourselves and the significant
relationships we had struggled to create earlier. If we revise our lives positively,
we give a new lease to our lives. Thus Jung is behind the famous statement:
Life begins at fourty.

VIEW OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
• Refusal to avoid life of gambling that promote inability to learn from
our mistakes.
• Refusal to engage in self engaging ventures in fear of failure or
difficulties to be encountered.
• Refusal to believe that you can change your destiny by correcting
mistakes made earlier in life.
 • Refusal to accept your age and responsibilities associated with that age.

VIEW OF A HEALTY PERSONALITY

According Jung a healthy person is one who is able to choose his/her own
direction and to achieve full self- realization which never really comes. What is
important however is that an individual is continuously striving towards this
ideal.

PROCESS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychological health according to Jung can be achieved by means of `word
association test’ and dream analysis to get to know how patients mind works.
The actual therapy process according to Jung involves the process of:

• Confession…….client to tell what is going on in his/her life.

• Illumination….help client to understand motivation behind undesired
behaviour
• Education…..to create awareness by imparting knowledge
• Transformation…..help client to change from irresponsible to responsible
behavior.

 SUMMARY
 Carl Jung is rated as one of the most brilliant psychologist of his time.
Carl Jung believes in the ancestral origin of human personality.
According to Jung, humans have a subjective way of behaving due to
their subjective experiences and a universal way of behaving due to
their common ancestry. Jung teaches that every individual is both
female and male (the concept of animus -anima). Every person
according to Jung too has a public image (persona) and a hidden image
(the shadow) which influence his/her behaviour. Jung presents two
broad personality orientations of extroverts and introverts. Jung is the
psychologist behind the statement “Life begins at fourty” because
according to him, people revise their lives at that age.
 SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONS
 Distinguish collective unconscious and personal unconscious according to Jung
 Discuss the concept of animus-anima
 Highlight the causes of psychopathology according to Jung
 Who is a healthy personality according to Jung?
 Highlight the differences between introverts and extroverts
 A healthy person according to Jung should fulfill four psychological functions.
Discuss these functions.
 Distinguish the persona and the shadow components of personality
 Critique Jung’s theory

FURTHER READING

Vivianne (1999). Jung: A Journey of Transformation. Quest Books.

INTERNET
 TOPIC FOUR
ALFRED AELER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY

☺ OBJECTIVES

By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:

 Discuss personality structure according to Adler
 Discuss Adler’s view of human motivation
 Discuss Adler’s view of personality development
 Identify the causes of psychopathology according to Adler
 Discuss Adler’s view of psychotherapy
 Discuss the attributes of a healthy person according to Adler

BIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
Alfred Adler was born on February 7, 1870, in a suburb of Vienna, Austria.
He was the second of seven children of a Hungarian born grain merchant.
The Adlers were a musical family and Alfred was known for his singing voice.
Although he was encouraged to pursue a career in opera, in his childhood he
suffered some illnesses and the death of a younger brother. These experiences
contributed greatly to his early decision to become a medical doctor. He
attended classical secondary school and received a degree from the University
of Vienna Medical School in 1895. He died of heart attack in May 1937.
Adler left behind many theories and practices that very much influenced the
world of psychiatry. Today these concepts are known as Adlerian psychology.

VIEW OF STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

Adler believed that we are influenced by our biological drives in most of what
we do. Adler adopted the teleological view. According to him every human
being has one fundamental goal which is to attain perfection or improved
state of life or actualize himself. This striving for perfection is generated in
early experience by feelings of inferiority started at birth. According to him we
are all engaged in the upward drive and this is the true ground of our
personality. Thus according to Adler, the building blocks of personality are
our goals, aspirations and ideals.

ADLER’S VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION.

According to him major factors in human motivation are as follows:
• Feeling of inferiority and striving for superiority and perfection.
According to him it is feeling of inferiority that illuminate us into upward
drive from negative to positive in their lives. This feeling arises from presence
in people of organ inferiority for example stammerers, small bodies, lack of
limbs among others.

• Impact of fictions or ideals

Fictions or ideals rather than facts guide our behaviour according to Adler.
Humans are motivated into action by psychology of as if. According to him
positive fiction beliefs or illusions operate as goals that propel us into action
in life us to persist in what we doing with the aim of improving our destiny.
With the strength of such positive illusions that make us to believe in a better
tomorrow we are able to overcome the usual frustrations or disappointments
in life.
• The urge for social interest
Adler teaches that human beings are driven to action by the urge to graduate
from the state of receiving or selfish tendencies to helpers of their fellow
human beings.

• The force of life plan or style of life

According to Adler, we are motivated action by the grand plan we make for
our lives; that is by the type of life we have functioned for ourselves.
Variations in people style of life give rise to uniqueness in each of our life.

• The power of the creative self

According to Adler man by nature is planful animal. It is through this
capacity to plan our life that each of us is able to create order in our life and
productivity. It is through power of creative self are able to see where we are
and where we can. For Adler, man is purposeful animal responsible for the
kind of life he ends up living.
• Influence of future orientation in man
Adler believes that man is influenced by pull of future than pull of
past/present. Our future orientation is the basis for our hopes.
 ACTIVITY 8

According to Adler, humans are propelled forward by the psychology of as if (i.e. a hope
for a better tomorrow). Reflect on your life. What is your life’s vision? What is your
life’s mission? Write them down. Write down your short-term medium-term and long
term career goals. Reflect on your social life. Are you enjoying healthy relationships
with family? Colleagues? Neighbours? Are you fulfilling your social responsibility by
reaching out to the needy people? Do you have spiritual connectivity?

HIS VIEW PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Like Freud Adler believes direction of our personality is influenced by early
experience. He believes that active and collaborative effort of both parents is

essential for proper bringing of a child. Their cooperative existence in the

home helps children to learn meaning of life, importance of cooperation
among fellow human beings and right conception of love and friendship. In
his view, mothers have greater role in proper development of child. Adler
believes that each child is treated uniquely by his parent depending on order
of birth within a family. According to him the youngest child tends to be
pampered but he has many role models to learn from to develop competitive
orientation to live and grow.
A lot of expectations is placed on the first born who may grow to become very
independent or become psychopathological if he is dispossessed by his
siblings. The middle child is often given too little attention and may
sometimes look for maladaptive ways of getting this attention.

SOURCES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCES

• Excessive inferiority feelings which leads to exaggerated striving for success
in life even when the individual can see that he/she has succeeded
when compared to agemates.
• Poor rearing of child….for example parental overprotection, parental
pampering and parental neglect…All these disturb the smooth
emergence in children of mature orientation to living. Badly treated
character develop memories of hurt that last long in life and make
them to develop a negative view of society. They then tend to close
themselves in cocoons and to live a selfish existence with little or no
consideration for welfare of others.

According toAdler the following are the goals of counseling:

• To foster social interest or spirit of sharing in the child in order to
help him/her to learn to give and not to always receive.
• To decrease clients inferiority feeling and promote overcoming of
discouragements.

• To change in clients wrong or inflated perceptions and goals or

aspirations and expectations.
 • To change clients faulty motivation to words orientation to life.
• To re-parent the badly treated or brutalized children.
• To encourage the child to recognize his/ her equality among fellow
humans.

VIEW OF A HEALTHY PERSONALITY

According to Adler a psychologically health person is one who shows the
following characteristics:
• A person who knows how to give and receive (social interest)
• Expends mature efforts in pursuing goals he/she believes to be
right
• Changes his/her fictional positive illusions should circumstances
call for it
• Lives by principles
• Is not over rigid in his approach to life.

 SUMMARY

 Adlerian theory posits that humans are all born with a fundamental
goal of achieving perfection. Humans, according to Adler are born with
feelings of inferiority which they are perpetually struggling to overcome.
Upward mobility is thus a basic goal for all persons. According to
Adler, the birth order in the family influences the behaviour of
 children due to the different treatment accorded to them. Adler
proposes that that individuals should have both career and familial
goals. Individuals should have healthy social interactions and learn to
give back to the society and not to merely concentrate on themselves.

SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONS

 Discuss Adler’s view of human motivation.

 What are the building blocks of our personality according to Adler?
 Discuss causes of psychological sickness according to Adler
 What are the goals of counseling according to Adler?
 Discuss Adler’s view of a healthy personality.
 Give a critique of Adler’s theory.

FURTHER READING

Carlson, J., Watts, R. E., & Maniacci, M. (2005). Adlerian Therapy: Theory and Practice.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

INTERNET
 TOPIC FOUR
GEORGE KELLY’S THEORY OF PERSONAL CONSTRUCTS

☺ OBJECTIVES

By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:

 Discuss personality structure according to Kelly
 Discuss Kelly’s view of human motivation
 Identify the causes of psychopathology according to Kelly
 Discuss Kelly’s view of psychotherapy
 Discuss the attributes of a healthy person according to Kelly

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

George Kelly was born in 1905 in small town in Kansas City in USA. He was
the only child of Presbyterian minister and his wife. He graduated from Parks
College in 1926 with degree in maths/physics. He got PhD in 1931 in area of
speech and reading disabilities. Soon after this, he began an attempt to
develop psychological services for the Kansas City by establishing network of
mobile clinics through the states. It is during this period that he abandoned
psychoanalytic approach to the understanding human personality. He
reported that his clinical experiences had taught him that people of mid-west
are disturbed by drought, dust storms and economic considerations. The crux
of his theory of personal constructs was created
when he observed that people tended to have symptoms they had heard of or
read about.
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
His assumption about human nature is that every person behaves like a
scientist. We try to predict and act as scientist try to predict and control
phenomena. We then act in images of our predictions. This view of
personality as scientific leads to the view that we are essentially oriented
towards the future or prediction of results of our personality. We act in
anticipation of achieving the results we want in our lives. In his view, we are
influenced by future than past in our deeds. We have the capacity to represent
the environment. Rather than merely respond to it, we respond in line with
what we believe the situation demands from us.

KELLY’S KEY THEORITICAL POSITIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS

We anticipate and interpret life events from our own personal constructs and
from our view of reality. According to Kelly’s personal construct theory of
personality, our psychological processes are patterned by the way we anticipate
events. Kelly compares our way of looking at unseen events in which people
with different sun glasses see events in world. The colour of the sun glass the
observers puts on colours everything the observer sees thereby influencing the
conclusion he/she makes and meaning he/she draws from the world. In this
way, several persons can look at the same scene and end up perceiving it in
different ways. This variation is caused by each person’s angle of vision in
looking at events in world. This special angle of vision with which we
approach life events is what Kelly refers to as construction of events and the
results of individual interpretation of events based on this construction
process is what he calls constructs.

THE CONCEPT OF CONSTRUCTIVE ALTERNATIVISM

According to Kelly, the constructs we create about events in world are meant
to guide the way of responding to these events. When we test these constructs
against the reality and they fail to work, we change them in favour of others
that promise to work when tested. It is the freedom to revise and replace
events that our perception of events with alternative perceptions or
constructions when need be that Kelly refers to as the capacity for
constructive alternativism in human beings. We are by nature according to
Kelly not fixed to seeing the world in the same way all time. He classified as
being psychologically disabled those who cannot revise the view about the
world even on the face of obvious contradicting results. The essential message
of the personal constructs to counsellors is that change for better is always
possible in our lives if we explore other ways of judging and relating with the
world. According to him a mature human being is one who knows that there
is more than one way of looking at life. According to Kelly, this capacity is not
easy to come by but it makes us to be hopeful that many times what we can do
for our clients point is to point to them new possibilities in their lives.
 ACTIVITY 9

Reflect on your life. The sunglasses you are wearing are affecting the way you perceive
reality; how you relate with other people and the environment. Are your glasses black or
green? Glasses are our subjective experiences which differ from one individual to
another. Reflect on how the colour of your sunglasses could be affecting your
relationship with other people positively or negatively. If the effect is negative, strive for
constructive alternativism by accommodating other people’s constructions. For example
in Kenya there are 42 tribes with different construct systems. Construct systems are
neither superior nor inferior; they are simply different. Do you agree?

COROLLARIES TO KELLY’S FUNDAMENTAL PROSTULATES

There are up to eleven corollaries to Kelly’s fundamental postulates. The

following constitute the key ones:

• The individuality corollary

This follows from the sunglass vision analogy. It is the notion of existence of
individual differences in which we draw meaning to events. People differ from
one another in how they perceive, interpret and judge events due to subjective
experiences. As a result people formulate different constructs of these events.

• The dichotomy corollary

This makes reference to the fact that we construe events in such a way that
when we affirm one thing as empty we by implication exclude the idea of it
being white at same time. According to Kelly each of our constructs has two
opposing rules and if we affirm one it automatically excludes the other. It is in
view of this collorary that spouses expect each other to keep the marital vows.

• Range of convenience corollary

This refers to Kelly’s theory about each construct’s range of applicability.
According to him, the construct we use to classify events have limited range of
convenience. There are certain words we can use in relation to our
spouse/children and there are others we cannot use without annoying them.
For example we cannot call our spouse a dog without annoying them.
• Communality corollary

This refers to Kelly’s theory of existence of similarity among people in

interpreting events. According to him, though people differ in behaviuor and
their construction

of reality, there are times they can nonetheless be similar in their

constructions due to sharing of similar construct systems within families,
religion or other aspects of culture.
VIEW OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

According to him, our personality is made up of our personal constructs or

our unique way of making sense of events in world. Our basic orientation is
influenced by the way we see (interpret construe or anticipate events) hence
we are composed of our constructs. Two people are similar if they have similar
construct systems. According to him to understand a person you must find
out the construct they use in relating to the world.

VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION

According to him people are basically active by the nature. It is it is the
anticipation of gain in action involved that motivates people According to
Kelly, people plan out the lives through this anticipation. They are motivated
to repeat the same behaviour if acting on anticipation brought them pleasant
results.

VIEW OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

According Kelly, our construct system is influenced by our cultural
development. According to him people who belong to the same cultural
group tend to share certain way of construing events and have similar
expectations. (Think of the cultures of Kenya). In Kelly’s view, our personal
constructs become more complex with age, education and exposure hence it has
been observed that as children grow they increase the number of constructs
available to them and become more flexible in their view of events. Thus, our
capacity for constructive alternativism grows with age and exposure.
 ACTIVITY 10

Reflect: In reference to the above view, explain why children’s construct system differs
from that of adult; graduate construct differs from that of a non-graduate; Christians
construct differ from that of Muslims? And why does your construct system differ from
that of your sibling?

VIEW OF PSCHOPATHOLOGY

According to Kelly, people with psychological problems get into these

problems when they become rigid in their way of viewing or anticipating the
future. The disorder here is any personal construction which is used
repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation. Another source of psychological
sickness occurs when we view the world as unfriendly and bad. For example
we get stuck in the view that the world is bad we get paranoid. We are
suspicious and anxious to eat, stay and mingle with people in our world. We
also develop psychological problem according to Kelly if we are too
inconsistent in our construct system such that today we see people as our
friends, and tomorrow we see them as enemies.

VIEW OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

According to Kelly a number of conditions are necessary for psychological

healing:

• Development of counseling relationship that promotes an attitude of

experimentation in search of truth regarding what is hindering the
client’s way of moving forward in life.
 • Provision of new education that will help to revise and contradict the
rigid opinion that has been eating up the client.
• Helping clients to take a hard look (or re-reading the meaning) of
events and their worlds to persuade them to make a creative shift where
need be.
• See the world through the eyes of clients. This means wearing the
client’s sunglass to see things as he/she sees as a way of learning where
improvement can be made to the client construct system.
• Suspending one’s values or ways of constructing events in listening to
client’s story. In this way you listen to story without interfering with it.
• Presence of counselor creativity if he/she is able 2 approach clients with
new

mind are a fresh sense as demanded by each case.

VIEW OF A HEALTHY PERSON

According to Kelly, a healthy individual is one with a guiding construct system

but also with the capacity for constructive alternativism.

 SUMMARY

 Kelly’s basic postulate is that people behave like scientist by predicting

events and acting in the direction of their predictions. Kelly teaches
that each individual has his/her own construct system which influences
how he/she will construe the world. Kelly uses the analogy of the
 sunglasses to teach that just like the colour of the sunglass an individual
is wearing mirrors their perception of reality, so do the subjective
individual experiences mirror their construction of reality. Kelly
however acknowledges the fact that people can share a similar construct
system if they share similar experiences by the virtue of similar
parentage, religion and other aspects of culture.

SELF- EVALUATION QUESTIONS

 Discuss Kelly’s perspective of human nature

 What is constructive alternativism according to Kelly?
 Discuss Kelly’s view of human motivation
 Discuss four corollaries to Kelly’s fundamental postulates
 What causes psychological sickness according to Kelly?
 Discuss Kelly’s view of psychotherapy
 Critique Kelly’s theory.

FURTHER READING

Kelly, G.A. (1963) A theory of personality. New York: W.W. Norton.

INTERNET
 TOPIC FIVE
THE INTERPERSONAL THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
(BY Sullivan, Fromm and Horney)

☺ OBJECTIVES

By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:

 Discuss personality structure according to Sullivan.
 Discuss Sullivan’s view of human motivation.
 Identify the causes of psychopathology according to Sullivan and Fromm.
 Discuss goals of psychotherapy according to Sullivan, Fromm and Horney.
 Discuss the attributes of a healthy personality according to Sullivan, Fromm
and Horney.

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
The above named theorists share a social view of personality. They believe like
Hillary Clinton that it takes a village to bring up a child and give him/her
personality. They are often studied together because of common emphasis in
importance of role of culture in personality formation and evolution of
psychopathology. Harry Sullivan was born 1892 in New York U.S.A and he
died in1949. Eric Fromm was born in Flunkfurt German in 1900 and died in
1980 and the oldest Karen.D Horney was born 1885 in Germany and died in
1952. Among to three theorists Horney was known to be a divorcee while
Sullivan was known 2 have particularly rough and lonely childhood. He
found very little affection from his parent and in addition found it very
difficult to get along with other children in school. Consequently he had no
friend except in their farm. This negative factor in his life constituted a
considerable influence that personality is product of interpersonal experience.
Sullivian was a well known American psychiatrist.

VIEW OF STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

Understanding personality as per interpersonal phenomenon, Sullivan

teaches that major components of personality are as follows:
• Dynamism…..this refers to people habitual way or pattern of carrying or
relating with people in life. It is in this way that we identify people with
rough patterns and pleasant patterns.
• Personification……this refers to the image we carry about in our minds
about others and ourselves which control our habits or relating to
others and ourselves. Images of sets of people shared by more than one
person function as personification referred to as stereotypes. In his view,
images can be accurate, distorted or grossly distorted.
• Cognitive processes…….Cognition is the mental process by which
knowledge is acquired including our perceptions intuitions and
reasoning. Cognitive processes interact together to give rise to what
Sullivan refers to as a person’s self system. According to Sullivan, the
main effort of people is to protect themselves against shame in
interpersonal situations.
VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION

Of the three theorists, it is again Sullivan who came out clearly in stating
motivation behind behaviour. According to Sullivan, humans are socially
conscious and regulated animals. Man’s behaviour therefore is influenced by
his calculation of what people will say about what it is he does. Another
source of motivation for humans includes personifications, stereotypes,
attitudes and opinions of others which are also in ourselves and influence our
behaviour. Finally, human behaviour is motivated by social values, morals and
regulations of society where we live.

VIEW OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Again of the three theorist, it is Sullivan who gave an elaborate description on
how human personality develops and major stages that it transverses. In his
view, human personality is not fully developed in childhood or even at stage
of adolescence as Freud would believe. It improves and changes with age.
According to him, personality passes through seven stages before achieving
full maturity which include the following:
• Infancy (0-2)
• Childhood (3-6)
• Juvenile (7-10)
• Pre-adolescence (11-12)
• Early adolescence (13-18)
• Late adolescence (19-23)
• Adulthood stage (24++)
In all these stages Sullivan emphasises that motivation behind our behaviour
is pegged on the impact of others. We learn from what we see others do hence
a child is a socialized animal. We are what we are by the type of community
we live in and by society which we are born and bred. Supporting Sullivan
observation, Fromm teaches that the actual ways in which people try to realize
their potential are determined by social norms within which they live.
According to Horney, basic anxiety results in the child from feelings of
insecurity found in every human relations most of which results out of
possibility for misunderstandings, exploitation, disappointment and betrayal.
According to him, the concept of basic anxiety in human environment as a
whole is dreaded because it is seen to be improper, unjust and unfair to most
human beings. Children are left to parents or care takers for satisfaction of
child need although some are unable to meet the need satisfactorily. Horney
called this negative environment that proves insecure in child basic evil. Such
an environment is characterized by domination, isolation, overprotection, hostility
and discrimination. According to Horney, although children are made to
endure certain amount of frustration and trauma, for healthy personality
development children should grow in an atmosphere where they feel safe and
secure and properly understood.
VIEW OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
i) Sullivan’ View
According to Sullivan the following factors can lead to psychological sickness:
• Excessive craving for approval or acceptance of others.
 • Inability to satisfy our basic or physical needs leading to
unbearable inner urges which often leads to psychological
complications
• Lack of emotional intelligence for example lack of empathy and
ability to relate cordially with others.
• Lack of social intelligence manifested in peoples’ inability to
read situations accurately and know what one is required to say
or do in presence of others as situation demands. This makes
people fools of themselves in front of others leading to
isolation.
• Lack of appropriate upbringing and social model across one’s
social development history.
• Inability to fulfill moral demands and societal rules and
resulting to one being an outlaw or even being jailed.

ii) Fromm’s View

According to Fromm, the psychological sickness is associated with people with
the following orientations:
• The receptive orientation…… reflected in people interested only in
receiving rather than giving others.
 • The exploitative orientation….. characteristics of people who
believe in thriving through cheating and surviving on the sweat
of others
• Marketing orientation….. characteristics of people who can spend
all fortunes of their life to maintain themselves and external
appearance. They live on makeup and are overcome by crisis of
debts in bid to outclass their mates in external appearance:
flashy cars, expensive rental houses etc on borrowed money!
• The suicidal character types ….who view death as the answer to the
ups and downs of life.
• Hording orientation …. Misers who invest not on people but in
things. They adore money in bank accounts and would prefer to
go hungry or suffer instead of disturbing the money in account!

ACTIVITY 11

The above personalities are common in Africa and especially in Kenya. Reflect on this
statement. Reflect on whether you could be having any of these personality orientations.
If so make a conscious choice to begin the change process. Reflect on whether you find
yourself having an excessive craving for approval by other people. If so try to trace the
genesis of this need and start the healing process. Assist other people with such cravings
to build their self esteem.
GOAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
The goal of psychotherapy according to the three theorists is that of re-
socialization which is designed to come up with re-conceptualization on how
to live in this world successfully in each society.

VIEW OF A HEALTY PERSONALITY

According to Sullivan, psychological maturity is ability of an individual to
coexist and live happily with others without interfering with needs of others.
According Fromm, healthy persons are those with adaptive character
orientation who are mutually responsible and caring. According to Horney,
healthy individuals are those with ability to resolve conflicts by being able to
integrate their needs without confronting the society.

 SUMMARY

 Interpersonal theory of personality teaches that humans are socially

conscious and regulated animals. Man’s behaviour therefore is
influenced by his calculation of what people will say about what he
does. Attitudes, stereotypes and opinions also influence human
behaviour according to the interpersonal theory. A healthy personality
according to this theory is demonstrated by an individual who is able
coexist and live happily with others without being confrontational and
without interfering with the rights and space of other people.
 SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONS

 Discuss the major components of personality according to Sullivan

 What motivates humans according to Sullivan?
 Highlight the goal of psychotherapy according to the three theorists
 Discuss the view of a healthy person according to the three theorists.
 Discuss the views of psychopathology according to Sullivan and Fromm.

FURTHER READING

Evans, F. Barton (1996). Harry Stack Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory and Psychotherapy. London:
Routledge.

INTERNET
 TOPIC SIX
TRAIT THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
(BY Gordon Allport and Raymond Cattell)

☺ OBJECTIVES

By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:

 Discuss personality structure according to Allport and Cattell.
 Discuss Allport and Cattell’s views of human motivation.
 Identify the causes of psychopathology according to Allport and Cattell.
 Discuss the attributes of a healthy personality according to Sullivan, Fromm
and Horney
 Discuss the view of psychotherapy according to Allport.
 Discuss the attributes of a healthy person according to Cattell and Allport.

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Gordon Allport and Raymond are from different nationalities. Allport is an
American while Cattell is English. They are known in psychology field as trait
theorist of personality because they both believe personality as composed of
inborn deposition called traits that determine people’s character and
behavioural patterns. Allport born was in 1897 in U.S.A as the youngest son
of a physician. His classmates described him as a person who read a lot and
others described him as one who could swallow a dictionary. He graduated
from Harvard and was a long serving professor of psychology. Raymond
Cattell was born in 1905 in England. His first

degree was in physics/Chemistry which he passed with honours at age of 19.

Because he wanted to understand social problems and their possible solution,
he studied psychology at graduate level and was awarded PhD in psychology
from university of London.

VIEW OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

i) Allport’s Perspective
Allport theory teaches that personality is a product of compartment,
intelligence, physique, learning & experience. These elements constitute for him
the basic raw materials which personality is made. In his view, human
personality will be crippled should any of element be disabled or absent in
human life.
According to him, there are two kinds of psychological traits namely:
 Common traits
 Personal traits
Common traits are similar across members of same place & culture while
personal traits are those unique to each person. He emphasises that some
personal traits are more active than others in their ability to initiate and to
control behaviour of a given individual. For this reason he identified three
kinds of personal deposition.
 Cardinal
 Central
  Secondary
Allport recognizes that some traits are more closely tied to the proprium (one’s
self) than others. Central traits are the building blocks of your personality.
When you describe someone, you are likely to use words that refer to these
central traits such as: smart, dumb, wild, shy, sneaky, dopey, grumpy.... He noted
that most people have somewhere between five and ten of these traits. Next
are the secondary traits, ones that aren’t quite so obvious, or so general, or so
consistent. Preferences, attitudes,

situational traits are all secondary. For example, “he gets angry when you try to
tickle him,” “she has some very unusual sexual preferences,” and “you can’t take him
to restaurants.” Finally we have the cardinal traits. These are the traits that
some people have which practically define their life. Someone who spends
their life seeking fame, or fortune, or sex is such a person. Often we use
specific historical people to name these cardinal traits: Scrooge (greed), Joan of
Arc (heroic self-sacrifice), Mother Teresa (religious service), Marquis de Sade
(sadism), Machiavelli (political ruthlessness), and so on. Relatively few people
develop a cardinal trait. If they do, it tends to be late in life. Allport teaches
that in addition to traits as basic structures, persons have other determined
tendencies that make personality which include: attitudes, prejudices and fears.
Allport system has seven dimensions and in his view each dimension is on its
own way intimate region of personality and all combine to make up the
subjective side of personality.
• Sense of self-pride or sense of self-esteem which comes within first years of life.
Self-esteem develops between two and four years old. There also comes
a time when we recognize that we have value, to others and to
ourselves. This is especially tied to a continuing development of our
competencies. This, for Allport, is what the “anal” stage is really all
about!
• Sense of self extension or idea of one as related to others outside
oneself……..Self-extension develops between four and six. Certain
things, people, and events around us also come to be thought of as
central and warm, essential to my existence. “My” is very close to
“me!” Some people define themselves in terms of their parents, spouse,
or children, their clan, gang, community, college, or nation. Some find
their identity in activities: I’m a psychologist, a student, a bricklayer.
Some find identity in a place: my house, my hometown. When my
child does something wrong, why do I feel guilty? If someone scratches
my car, why do I feel like they just punch me?

• Sense of self-image or body image…….Self-image also develops between four

and six. This is the “looking-glass self,” The ‘me’ as others see me. This
is the impression I make on others, my “look,” my social esteem or
status, including my sexual identity. It is the beginning of what others
call conscience, ideal self, and persona.
 • Propriate striving……..Propriate striving doesn’t usually begin till after
twelve years old. This is my self as goals, ideal, plans, vocations,
callings, a sense of direction, a sense of purpose.
• Sense of total self/full propriate…… This is the culmination of appropriate
striving. According to Allport, it is the ability to say that I am the
proprietor of my life -- i.e. the owner and operator!
• Sense of possible self…….This is the best that one can realistically become.
• Physical self……..These are the physical attributes that an individual
possesses.

• ACTIVITY 12

Central traits according to Allport are the building blocks of our personality. List down
your central traits before you proceed. To gain deeper understandings of yourself, reflect
on the above seven dimensions of personality in relation to yourself.
ii) Cattell’s Perspective
According to Cattel, human personality is made of mental structures called
traits. In his theory, traits refer to relatively permanent reaction tendencies
characteristics of an individual. These form the basic unit of structure of
individual. These aspects of Cattel trait theory of personality shows that he
recognizes like Allport the interaction of personal and situational variables in
personality formation. Cattel gives the following classification of these traits.

• Common traits…….these are traits possessed to some degree by

everybody such as anger and fear.
• Unique traits……possessed by a few individual for example creativity
• Ability traits……these describe an individual’s skills. For example
carpentry.
• Temperament traits……these describe an individual general style of
behaviour in response to environment. For example cynicism, caring, etc.
• Dynamic traits…….these are traits of motivation for example interest
and aspiration which some people lack.
• Constitution traits……refer to sub traits that depend on individual
physiological characteristics for example appetite drives.
• Environment mode traits……..which refers to traits that derive from
influences of social/physical environment. For example combativeness in
people resulting from constant exposure to war.
 ACTIVITY 13

List down both your positive and negative traits in relation to the above categories.
According to humanistic psychologists, we are always becoming. Which negative traits
do you need to work on in order to become a better person?

VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION

Allport theory teaches that a human being is a poly motivated organism. This
means that humans are not motivated by one master motive. His view is that
some human motivation is biological while others are developmental arising
from individual’s early experience. Some are social in nature for example
attitudes, prejudice, habits and addictions. Allport thus insists that those
people who merely assume that a human being is set into action by merely
one master motive are wrong. He believes that adult motives are controlled by
what is meaningful to engage in, in the person’s own eye or what can enhance
the self, and by what the situation demands. According to Cattel, dynamic
traits motivate humans. In his theory there are two kinds of such dynamic
traits: Ergs (inner energy) and Sentiments (thoughts, opinions or attitude).

BASIS OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

According to Allport, psychopathology in human arises when an individual

refuses to grow up and when he/she is overcome by sense of inferiority
complex or is unable to plan for the future. From the logic of his Cattel’s
theory, psychopathology can arise from improper parenting in childhood and
unsettled development from childhood-adolescence and neurotic anxiety
rather than protective and health anxiety which helps one to avoid dangers
and plan against insecurities of tomorrow.

VIEW OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

Not being a professional psychologist, Cattell did not give a view of

psychotherapy. According to Allport, the process of psychotherapy should
involve the following:
• Detailed study of client to understand his history.
• An attempt at reorienting of the client according to the need.
• Re-education of clients to promote installation of hope about self and
others.

 SUMMARY

 The trait theory explores the role of traits in human behaviour.

According to Allport, there are two kinds of psychological traits namely
Common traits which are similar across members of same place and
culture and Personal traits which are unique to each person. Cattel on
the other hand presents seven traits that influence human behaviour
namely: Common trait; .Unique traits; Ability traits; Temperament traits;
 Dynamic traits; Constitution traits and Environment mode traits. Unhealthy
personality can result when and individual refuses to give up and is
encumbered by feelings of inferiority and due to inappropriate
parenting styles.

SELF EVALUATION QUESTIONS

 Discuss the views of personality structure according to Allport and Cattell.

 What motivates humans according to the two theorists?
 Discuss the view of psychopathology according to the two theorists.
 Discuss the view of psychotherapy according to Allport
 Give a critique of the theory.

FURTHER READING

Nicholson, I. (1998). Gordon Allport, character, and the ‘culture of personality.

Cattell, R. B. (1957). Personality and Motivation Structure and Measurement. New
York: World Book.
INTERNET
 TOPIC SIX
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
(Albert Bandura and Julian Rotter)

☺ OBJECTIVES

By the end of this topic the learner should be able to:

 Discuss five distinctive human abilities according to Bandura.
 Discuss internal versus external locus of control personalities according to
Rotter.
 Discuss human motivation according to Bandura and Rotter
 Discuss the view of psychopathology according to Bandura and Rotter
 Discuss attributes of a healthy person according to Bandura

BIOGRAPHIC DETAILS

ALBERT BANDURA

Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, in Mundare, in northern

Alberta, Canada. He was the youngest child and only boy among six children
in a family of Eastern European descent. His parents had each immigrated to
Canada when they were adolescents—his father from Krakow, Poland, and his
mother from the Ukraine. In 1964, Bandura became a full professor at
Stanford and was elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
During the 1969/70 academic year he spent a year as Fellow at the Center for
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. In 1974 Stanford awarded him
an endowed chair and he became David Starr Jordan Professor of Social
Science in Psychology. During 1976/77, he served as chairman of the
Department of Psychology (1976/77). In 1977, Bandura published

the ambitious Social Learning Theory, a book that dramatically altered the direction
psychology was to take in the 1980s. The extraordinary growth of interest in social
learning and psychological modeling owes much to Bandura's theoretical analyses of this
important phenomenon. By the mid-1980s Bandura had developed a social cognitive

theory of human functioning. This theory accords a central role to cognitive,

vicarious, self-regulatory and self-reflective processes in human adaptation and change.
His book, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory,
provides the conceptual framework and analyzes the large body of knowledge bearing on
this theory. In the more fitting appellation as social cognitive theory, the social portion of
the title acknowledges the social origins of much of human thought and action; the
cognitive portion recognizes the influential contribution of cognitive processes to human
motivation, affect, and action.

VIEW OF DISTINCTIVE HUMAN ABILITIES

In response to the question of what makes man, Bandura identified the
following human abilities:
 Symbolizing capability…….through symbols according him, people
process and transform transient experiences into internal models that
serve as guides for future action. Through the process, they also are
able to give meaning and affect to experiences. Rather than solve
problems mainly by performing mistakes, people usually test possible
solutions symbolically in imagination and discard what they think
 can’t work. Through the medium of symbols, we are able to transient
sensory experiences and to communicate with others within any
distance in any time and space.

 Forethought capability……..this refers to human’s capability to anticipate.

They anticipate likely consequences of prospective action, set goals for
themselves

 and plan causes of action that lead to valued futures. By this capability
discover human behavior is influenced by pre planning and
anticipates of consequences.

 Vicarious capabilities…….Psychological theories have traditionally

assumed that learning can only occur when human performances are
followed by rewards or punishments. Learning through action was not
given major priority in psychological literature. But this is not the only
way man learns since most of what we learn come not from direct
experience but vicarious .through social modeling people can draw on
vast sources of information exhibited and altered by others expanding
their knowledge and skill.

 Self-regulatory capability…….this points to people capability to manage

their behaviour not only to suit the wishes and preferences of others,
but to also act in line with goals they have set themselves and apply
internally generated standards and self evaluated appraisals in reaction
to their own actions. With this capability positive self appraisal of our
 performance gives rise to self-administered rewards and positive
reaction while positive appraisals inspire punishing self reaction hence
man is a self-governing animal.

 Self-reflective capability……….this is capability for reflective self

consciousness (for putting ourselves as objects to be observed). According to
him, humans are capable of being subjects and objects of analysis at
the same time. That is the capacity of humans to be aware of
themselves and to make comments on their action. This enables man
to analyse his experiences and actions and think about his own
thoughts by reflecting on their varied experiences and what they hear
about themselves. Self-reflective capability helps people to derive a new
knowledge about themselves and the world around them.

ACTIVITY 14

Reflect on the extent to which you are aware of the above capabilities within yourself.
For example: Are you able to separate yourself from your mistakes? Or do you use your
mistakes to define who you are? Counsellors are interested in people. Start listening to
people more proactively noting how they use these capabilities.
VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION
According to Bandura, a human is driven to action by view of anticipated
consequences, goals and standards he/she has set for himself/herself and by
performance and feedback. In Bandura’s view personal goals have motivation
power although self-perceived inefficacy can nullify the motivating potential of
some desirable outcome. Those with health and high self-efficacy select more
difficult and challenging goals than those with low self-efficacy. Those with
high self-efficacy approach tasks with better mood and show greater effort and
persistence.

VIEW OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Relevant behaviours of modeling are acquired through modeling or through
observation of others as well as through education as form of direct
experience Behavior that are filled with reward are repeated and those filled
with punishment are avoided. Thus to him personality is composed of good
and bad habits formed as

we grow. His theory also identifies agencies that contribute to this habit
formation in human beings. He focuses on the role of TV, parents and peers
in personality development.

VIEW OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Maladaptive behaviour in humans originates from the following:
 • Wrong modeling particularly from parents, peers and Television.
• Structural problems in society such as joblessness and poverty which
promote anxiety, anger and self doubt.
• Crisis of dispossession affecting self-efficacy judgment in the long run.

VIEW OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
The central goal of psychotherapy is to correct the errors of wrong modelling
and to inspire people’s sagging self efficacy, judgment and beliefs in order to
help them regain confidence in themselves. In this way according to Bandura
psychotherapy, can be defined as a process of liberation and inspiration. To
achieve these goals, behavior modification therapy and cognitive therapy in
psychotherapy are essential to correct negative behaviours and to challenge
dysfunctional cognitions.

VIEW OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH

According toBandura healthy individuals are those who are self regulated,
who calculates consequences of behaviour before embarking on them and
those with high-self efficacy and those with realistic self confidence such
people approach life’s tasks with less anxiety and are able to withstand
difficult challenges in life.
JULIAN ROTTER

Rotter was born in 1916 in the United States, as the third son of Jewish
immigrant parents. Rotter attended Brooklyn College, where he earned his
undergraduate degree. He then earned a Masters degree at the University of
Iowa, studying there under Kurt Lewin. He then earned a doctorate in 1941
at Indiana University. Through his education, Rotter was influenced by
Alfred Adler, Clark Hull, B.F. Skinner, and Edward Tolman. After earning
his doctorate, Rotter became an adviser to the United States Army during
World War II. He then went to Ohio State University, where he taught and
served as the chairman of the clinical psychology program. At Ohio State,
Rotter was influenced by George Kelly. Rotter then went to the University of
Connecticut, where he remained for his career. Rotter's seminal work, Social
Learning and Clinical Psychology was published in 1954. In 1963, he became the
Program Director of Clinical Psychology at the University of Connecticut.
Rotter also served as Chairman of the Division of Social Psychology and
Personality in the American Psychological Association.

VIEW OF HUMAN MOTIVATION

Rotters suggested that the expected effect or outcome of the behaviour has an
impact on motivation of people to engage in that behavior. People wish to
avoid negative consequences, while desiring positive results or effects. If one
expects a positive outcome from a behavior, or thinks there is a high
probability of a positive outcome, then they will be more likely to engage in
the behaviour. If the behaviour is reinforced, with positive outcomes, chances
are high that the person will repeat the behaviour. This social learning theory
suggests that behaviour is influenced by social context or environmental
factors, and not psychological factors alone.

LOCUS OF CONTROL PERSONALITY ORIENTATIONS

"Locus" is Latin for "place" or "location". Locus of control according to Rotters

refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events
that affect them. Individuals can either have internal locus (meaning the person
believes that they control their life) or external (meaning they believe that their
environment, some higher power, or other people control their decisions and their life).
Individuals with an internal locus of control believe that events result
primarily from their own behaviour and actions. Those with an external locus of
control believe that powerful others, fate, or chance primarily determine
events. Those with a high internal locus of control have better control of their
behaviour, tend to exhibit more political behaviours, and are more likely to
attempt to influence other people than those with a high external locus of
control. Those with a high internal locus of control are more likely to assume
that their efforts will be successful. For example, college students with a strong
internal locus of control may believe that their grades were achieved through
their own abilities and efforts, whereas those with a strong external locus of
control may believe that their grades are the result of good or bad luck, or to a
professor who designs bad tests or grades capriciously; hence, they are less
likely to expect that their own efforts will result in success and are therefore
less likely to work hard for high grades.They are more active in seeking
information and knowledge concerning their situation.

According to Rotters, this has obvious implications for differences between

internals and externals in terms of their achievement motivation, suggesting
that internal locus is linked with higher levels of motivation. Due to their
locating control outside themselves, externals tend to feel they have less
control over their fate. People with

an external locus of control tend to be more stressed and prone to clinical

depression (Benassi, Sweeney & Dufour, 1988; cited in Maltby, Day &
Macaskill, 2007). This is because by blaming external forces for their
predicament, they likely to continue perpetuating their negative habits leading
to heightened stress.

ACTIVITY 15
Reflect on your dominant locus of control personality orientation. If your dominant
locus is external you are more prone to psychopathology. You can shift your locus to
internal by reflecting more on where you went wrong when you make a mistake instead
of blaming other people for the mistakes. You can also choose to be more proactive
asking yourself: what can I do to make things better instead of incessant complaining?!
 SUMMARY

 The social-cognitive theories of personality emphasise the role of

modeling and thoughts in moulding personality. People can model
positive or negative behaviours from the significant others. In relation
to thoughts, people with high self-efficacy select more difficult and
challenging goals compared to those with low self-efficacy according to
Bandura. According to Rotter, people
with an internal locus of control are likely to portray a healthier
personality compared to those with an external locus of control.

SELF-EVALUATION QUESTIONS

 Discuss five distinctive human abilities according to Bandura.

 Distinguish internal versus external locus of control personalities
according to Rotter.
 What motivates humans according to Bandura and Rotter?
 Discuss the view of psychopathology and psychotherapy according to
Bandura
 Behind many psychological sicknesses is the crisis of
dispossession…discuss.
 Give a critique of the social-cognitive theory of personality.
 FURTHER READING

Rotter, J. B. (1954). Social Learning and Clinical Psychology. Prentice-Hall.

Bandura, A. (1988). Application of Social Cognitive Theory.

INTERNET
 GLOSSARY

Psychopathology…..psychological sickness or sickness of the mind and

emotions.

Psychotherapy /Counseling ……treatment of psychological sicknesses

through psychological interventions

Locus ……a place or area where something occurred.

Neurosis ……a relatively mild mental disorder characterised by symptoms

such as hysteria anxiety, depression or obsessive behaviour.

Construct…..to compose or frame mentally

Corollary……a proposition that follows from the proof of another

proposition or an obvious deduction

Archetypes…….a constantly recurring symbol; a mental image

Illumination…....spiritual or intellectual enlightenment.

Psyche …….mental/psychological
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interpersonal psychiatry.
INTERNET
SAMPLE CONTINOUS TASKS (CATS)

SAMPLE CAT 1 (30mks)

i. Distinguish between central traits and cardinal traits with
the help of relevant examples (4mks)
ii. Explain why an individual with an internal locus of control
is more likely to be successful compared to his/her
counterpart with an external locus of control? (6mks)
iii. Why is the ego referred to as the traffic cop? (4mks)
iv. Explore the causes of psychopathology according to Jung
(6mks)
v. Discuss the views of human motivation according to Adler.
(10mks)

SAMPLE CAT 2 (30mks)

i. Discuss the view of human motivation according to Kelly
(4mks)
ii. Discuss three human capabilities according to Bandura
(6mks)
iii. Who is a healthy person according to Sullivan? (4mks)
iv. Distinguish introverts and extrovert personalities according
to Jung (6mks)
v. Discuss five causes of psychopathology according to Freud
(10mks)
 SAMPLE PAST PAPER

Mt Kenya University

SCHOOL OF APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
END OF SEMESTER UNIVERSITY EXAMINATION
DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMME
UNIT CODE: BCP 1103 TITLE: PERSONALITY THEORIES
Time: 2 Hours

INSTRUCTIONS
Answer Question ONE and any other TWO

SECTION A

Question one

(a) What is a theory? Explain the chief goal of personality theories.

(4 mks)

(b) According to Freud’s topographic structure of the mind (psyche), the

human mind operates at three levels. Discuss fully the unconscious
level of the mind. Of what importance is this level of you as a counselor
(6 mks)

(c) Distinguish the personal and the shadow components of human

personality according to Carl Gustav Jung. Explain how an exaggerated
persona image can lead to psychopathology (6 mks)
 (d) Distinguish between individuality and dihicotomy corollaries according
to George Kelly. (4 mks)

(e) Discuss the animus –anima component of personality according to

Jung highlighting how it can lead to psychopathology. (6
mks)

(f) Explain the view of psychopathology according to Albert Bandura

(6 mks)
(g) Define the term ego defence Mechanisms. Discuss positive and negative
use of ego defence mechanisms. (4 mks)

SECTION B

Question Two

(a) Explain why the ego is always under constant pressure according to
psychoanalytic theory (6 mks)

(b) Write short notes to distinguish between the following personality

orientations
i. Introverts and extroverts
ii. Internal Vs external locus personalities (12 mks)

(c) Explain the analogy of sunglasses in relation to human behaviour

according to Kelly.
(2 mks)

Question Three

(a) Discuss four causes of psychological sickness according to Sigmund

Freud (8
mks)
(b) Explain the view of human motivation according to the following
personality theorists:-
 i. George Kelly
ii. Carl Gustav Jung
iii. Albert Bandura (12 mks)

Question Four

(a) In his social learning theory ‘Albert Bandura’ exposes key human
abilities. discuss any four of these abilities (12 mks)

(b) George Kelly exposes a numbers of conditions that are necessary for
effective psychological healing in relation to his ‘personal construct
theory’. Discuss any four of these conditions (8 mks)

Question Five

(a) Discuss six components of a standard personality theory (12 mks)

(b) Discuss four causes of psychological according to Carl Jung
(8 mks)