Running Head : Comparing the theories of Freud , Adler and Jung

Comparing the theories of Freud, Adler and Jung

Alfred Adler , Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung collectively and individually contributed immensely to the development of contemporary psychology . The three notable individuals either worked together at some point or corresponded on a number of s , though they had varied views and each went ahead to adopt his unique theories . Adler developed the theory of personal development , Freud the theory of sexuality and Jung 's of mythology
All the three individuals had varied views on personality . Freud viewed an individual as possessing

three levels of personality , the id , ego and the superego . The id contained primitive drives that acted on the basis of pleasure principle . Its main goal was to seek immediate pleasure and avoid pain . The ego was aware of reality and operated via the reality principle , on the basis of secondary processes of perception recognition , judgement and memory . The superego sought perfection , it contained values and social morals contained within the conscience Boeree (2006
Jung on the other hand , identified the ego as the conscious mind which was related to personal unconsciousness . He developed the concept of collective unconsciousness a part of the psych which was inherent , and influenced our experiences and behaviours especially the emotional ones According to Jung , this collective unconsciousness linked humanity together , made people fall in love , share religious experiences , have similar dreams , literature and fantasies , Aziz (1999 . The contents of the collective unconscious he called archetypes similar to what Freud called instincts . There is a particular difference since Jung 's archetypes were not biological like Freud 's , but were largely spiritual . Jung further developed the personality typologies one of his most famous accomplishments . He identified the concepts of introversion and extroversion as the main definitions of personality and sensing , thinking and intuition as the major ways of relating to the world whether introverted or extroverted . These formed the foundation of the Myers-Briggs Type indicators are founded
Adler on the other hand developed the concept of individual psychology as the means of understanding the personality of any human being . Adler felt that , the key to understanding individuals ' personality was to study them as unified wholes rather than a collection of parts as both Freud and Jung had proposed . He was of the view that , a psychologist had to consider both the physical and social environments of individual . His theory is particularly popular since it sought to understand the complete lifestyle of an individual rather than consider specific segments of an individual 's personality , Boeree (2006
Freud proposed that sex drive was the driving force in individual behaviour . He wrote extensively on how sexuality starts when people are young shaping their behaviour throughout their lives . He indentified the psychosexual stages the oral , anal , phallic , latency and the genital stages and developed fixation , a concept in which improper or inadequate response to any of the stages generated conflict . On the other hand Adler proposed that sex drives did not direct the behaviour of individuals , but every individual.

ugh the guidance of theories of personality , is supported by sociological concepts which look into the significance of explicating why human beings act , react or respond in a specific manner in to determine behavioral problems and learn hot to address them appropriately and efficiently (Magnavita , 2001 ) For instance , the issue of violence toward the female population is a sociological problem which shall be efficiently addressed by understanding the personality pros of offenders and determining how violence is to be prevented by curbing factors that influence violent personalities and prejudices toward women . At this point , we realize how learning theories of personality is severely important , first in describing how personality is formed , and understanding how various factors contribute to this formation . With this in mind , the remainder of this text will look into three theories of personality established by three well-known theorists - Sigmund Freud , Alfred Adler , and Carl Jung