Analytical Theory & Individual Theory
Amanda Unruh
PSY 405
August 6, 2012

When people hear the term “psychology”, most of them probably think of Sigmund Freud, who was the founder of the psychodynamic approach to psychology. The psychodynamic approach is still widely used today to understand relationships between people, the interaction of drives and forces inside a person (especially the unconscious), and distinguish the different structures of the human personality. Karen Horney developed the Psychoanalytical Social Theory and Alfred Adler developed the Individual Theory, which are two theories that have proved to be interesting from the readings. (NNDB, 2012) Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor and psychologist who was known for being the creator of Individual Psychology. He believed that the patient must be treated as a “whole person” where he emphasizes how individuals tried to combine feelings, thoughts, attitudes, values, and actions to accomplish their goals. His theory indicates that man’s main thoughts and behaviors are a result of his determination for superiority and power, which can be compensating for any feelings of inferiority (individual psychology, 2012). (NNDB, 2012) Adler’s theory based personality off of the order of birth, gender, and the age gap among siblings. He believed that individuals come up with a childhood story about themself that leads their views and choices throughout life, and being able to cooperate with other people for benefit was the assurance of normal mental health. (Carducci, 2009) Adler’s basic assumptions include that social motivation is designed to increase the benefit of the group over selfish personal benefits. He also believed that the conscious has a great awareness and control over our thoughts and actions, future ambitions are connected to our goals and can explain most of their behaviors, and personality is determined by both personal forces and personal relationships with other people. The self plays an important role in forming a unique personality for each person. With these assumptions, it can be said that Adler’s theory demonstrates free will, rather than determinism. Adler holds that a person’s main personality, individuality, and how they live their lives comes from the creative power of the self that is contributed to by their heredity, environment, unconscious, and conscious. People do not have to react one way to a certain situation, they have the right to make a choice, and they by doing that they create their own personality or lifestyle.
Jung’s Analytical Theory is the examination of the human mind, psyche, and the unconscious, along with the conscious components of the mind. Jung believed that man’s behavior and conscious states can only be rationalized by unconscious sources of motivation (Psychology Campus, 2004-2008). Jung believed that personality is developed through a series of stages that turn into an end result in individualism. These stages are grouped into four periods: Childhood, youth, middle life, and old age. To him, personality was shaped by both casual (current events have their beginning in prior experiences) and teleological (motivation of current events by future goals and ambitions that guide a person’s destiny) forces and that causal rationalizations must be equal to teleological rationalizations (Feist &Feist, 2009). He also believed that progression (adjusting to the outside world consists of a progressive movement of psychic energy) and regression (adjustment to the internal world depends on a regressive movement of psychic energy) are important in achieving individual growth or self-realization (Feist & Feist, 2009).
(Carducci, 2009) Jung’s basic assumptions are that the libido is a universal source of psychic energy that’s purpose is to motivate various aspects of the individual’s personality; the unconscious is a warehouse of suppressed memories that are specific to the individual and contain information that is passed on from prior generations; causality occurs from past experiences and from future opportunities and ambitions; and the motivation to find stability in the individual’s personality through separate development and the ultimate combination of its various elements. Archetypes, which are ancient images that originate from the collective unconscious, are an important part of the collective unconscious according to Jung, and the self is the most important archetype of all. The self is that component of the personality influencing the individual to join all of the other components. Jung believed that the growth of the self as an archetype shows a desire by people across the generations to find harmony together. The self is the motivation behind obtaining this harmony among all the introversion and extroversion, manly and womanly, and conscious and unconscious components. Jung’s theory demonstrates a deterministic stand point because the unconscious is considered hereditary. The Psychodynamic approach has several strengths and limitations. While it made the case study very popular in its time, case studies are subjective and they cannot generalize results, plus they are unscientific from the lack of experimental support. It brought about defense mechanisms that can be correlated to a person’s behavior and linked to their personality. The Psychodynamic approach is too deterministic and not so much free-will, and this could be due to ignoring processes such as thinking and memory. This approach does emphasize on the significance of childhood in the development in personality, though.
Both theories have aspects that help to understand how and why personality develops. Childhood is the important time in life, though in the development of a healthy, stable personality. Without guidance, love, affection, and all other basic needs being met as a child, their personality can take a turn for the worse or just end up being self-centered individuals. We do have the option to choose how we are going to react to certain situations, but because of being exposed to these situations at an early age, we may already be programmed to react one way and it is hard to “teach and old dog new tricks”, especially in personality.
References

Carducci, B.J. (2009). The Psychology of Personality (2nd ed.). Chichester, UK:
Wiley-Blackwell.

individual psychology. (2012). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/286293/individual-psychology

McLeod, S. (2007). Psychodynamic Approach. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/psychodynamic.html NNDB. (2012). Alfred Adler. Retrieved from http://www.nndb.com/people/256/000097962/

Psychology Campus. (2004-2008). Analytical Psychology. Retrieved from

http://www.psychologycampus.com/analytical-psychology.html