Comparison of Personality Theories
Humanistic/existentialist psychology
is a branch of psychology known as humanism, which incorporates existential views,
a focus on one’s self by finding one’s place, and building connections with
others. Abraham Maslow’s holistic-dynamic personality theory is included in
this division of psychology. Hans Jurgen Eysenck factor theory is encompassed in the major
theoretical area of study of personality psychology known as trait theory. His
model discusses three main dimension of personality and Maslow’s theory
describes how personality is motivated by a hierarchy of needs.
Who
is Maslow?
Abraham Maslow was born in Manhattan,
New York on April 1, 1908. As a child, Maslow was shy, inferior, and depressed
due to his absentee father and his mother’s cruelty. When he was young, he
found two kittens and brought them home. His mother saw them and smashed the kitten’s
heads against the wall until they died, as Maslow watched. This is only one of
the reasons Maslow hated his mother until the day she died. After graduating
from high school he attended the City College of New York. During this time,
his parent divorced and Maslow and his father’s relationship grew closer. His
father wanted him to become a lawyer, but during one of his law classes, Maslow
walked out and never looked back. He did well in courses that sparked his
interests, philosophy and psychology.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts
degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Maslow continued on and
obtained his PhD in psychology in 1934. He became E. L. Thorndike’s research
assistant in researching human dominance and sexuality, which lasted about a
year and a half. From there he started teaching at Brooklyn College and
attending Friday night seminars at Alfred Alders home. In 1951, Maslow became
the chairman of the psychology department at Brandeis University in
Massachusetts. He became unhappy with Brandeis University in the 1960’s because
students started to rebel against his methods of teaching, wanting less on
intellectual and scientific approaches and more experimental participation. Due
to this lack of happiness, Maslow pursued a job with Saga Administrative
Corporation, where he was able to work freely. On June 8, 1970, Maslow suffered
a severe heart attacked and died (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Maslow’s
Strengths and Weaknesses
Maslow’s holistic-dynamic
personality theory has shown both strength and weakness regarding the criterion
of a useful theory. The theories ability
to generate research ranks above average because the interest in
self-actualization still remains a popular subject among researchers. His
theories organization is also an asset because it is easy to follow. If a
person has not had anything to eat, they are not going to be motivated by other
things, they are going to be focused on finding something to fill their
stomachs. Maslow’s theory also ranks high on the criterion to guide
practitioners. His hierarchy of needs can be useful for parents, teachers, and
counselors. If a counselor’s client feels unsafe, the counselor has to find a
way to ensure their client’s environment is secure in order for them to fulfill
the next need in the hierarchy. Maslow’s holistic-dynamic personality theory is
considered moderately simple because while the hierarchy of needs is a simple
concept to understand, the whole theory is not. One weakness of this theory is
its low rating on falsifiability. Researchers have not been able to validate or
falsify Maslow’s methods of identifying a self-actualizing individual.
How
Does Maslow’s Theory Explain Individual Relationships?
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
describes how every individual is motivated by a variety of needs, through
accomplishing lower needs an individual can move up and obtain higher needs.
Physiological needs are the most basic needs that include food, water, and
oxygen. If a person is hungry they are not going to worry about anything else
but satisfying that need for food. The need for safety is Maslow’s second
factor of motivation. Safety needs describe security, stability, dependability,
and freedom. This motivation cannot be completely satisfied because there are
always unfortunate events that one cannot predict such as hurricanes, drive by
shootings, and fires. Although once one has personally felt secure they can
move on to the next motivation, which is love and belongingness. This is the
need for friendship, the need for a partner to love and to give love, the need
for a family, etc. Those individuals who have their needs of love satisfied, do
not get alarmed when they are denied love (Feist & Feist, 2009).
After the need for love is fulfilled,
one is motivated to satisfy their need for esteem. This is the need for
self-respect, confidence, and the understanding that others hold them in high
regard. Once an individual has met their esteem needs, they are motivated to
pursue what Maslow’s believes is the highest level one can meet, self-actualization.
Self-actualization needs describe the motivation to become self-fulfilled,
realizing one’s true potential, and having a desire to be creative. Although
one cannot just satisfy this motivation, they first have to conquer the lower
needs and then they have to fulfill the B-values. The B-values include 15
different qualities that illustrate what a self-actualizing individual should exemplify
(Feist & Feist, 2009).
How
Does Maslow’s Theory Explain Interpersonal Relationships?
Maslow believed that individuals are
shaped by biological and societal factors and they cannot be separated.
Relationships with other individuals are important in order to obtain
self-actualization. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, after an individual feels
their security needs are met the can move on to obtaining love and
belongingness, the need for friendship, a mate, and/or children. Individuals
whose need for love was satisfied at a young age, do not show signs of
devastation when rejected by others. Individuals who have never been loved or
felt like they belonged are incapable of giving their love to others. Maslow
also described how individuals who have only had a small amount of love tend to
have a more intense need for love. Children are straightforward when they need
love, adults on the other hand do not openly show they need love (Feist &
Feist, 2009).
Who
is Eysenck?
The only child to Ruth and Eduard
Eysenck, Hans Jurgen Eysenck was born on March 4, 1916 in Berlin. Eysenck
mother and father were both in show business and after his parents divorced he
went to live with his grandmother. His parents and his grandmother were very
lenient when it came to rules and discipline. He was a very intelligent child
and in school he would often embarrass his teachers. After being told he would
have to join the Nazi secret police he left Germany and moved to England. He
married Margret Davies, a Canadian with a mathematics degree, in 1938. In 1940,
Eysenck received his PhD in psychology from the University of London. He began
working at Mill Hill Emergency Hospital, assisting in the treatment of
psychologically ill patients. It was this experience that led to the ideas he
published in his first book, Dimensions
of Personality (Feist & Feist, 2009).
When the war ended, he became the
psychology department director at Maudsley Hospital. He wanted to set up a
clinical psychology profession in Britain, so he traveled to the United States
and Canada to examine their clinical psychology programs. He divorced his wife
Margret and married his travel companion, Sybil Rostal, a quantitative psychologist.
After instituting a clinical psychology department at the University of London,
Eysenck became a psychology professor in 1955. Throughout his life, Eysenck
published 75 books and 800 journals. He retired from his senior psychiatrist
position at Maudsley and Bethlehem royal hospitals and served as a professor
emeritus until his death on September 4, 1997 at the University of London
(Feist & Feist, 2009).
Eysenck’s
Strengths and Weaknesses
Eysenck’s personality theory is
essential in the taxonomies that form personality into significant classifications.
His theory ranks high on its ability to generate research. Research has been
conducted using this theory in many areas related to both biological and social
antecedents of behavior; conditioning, memory, perception, sexuality, and criminality are just a few areas that
have been studied. In the area of falsifiability Eysenck’s theory ranks
moderate to high because his research results have not been duplicated by
external researchers. His theory also ranks high on its ability to organize
knowledge because extracted factors produce a depiction of personality in the
terms of traits, which ultimately offers a structure for organizing
observations of human personality. The theories simplicity is also considered
an asset, the reduction of variables is the purpose of factor analysis. One of
the two weaknesses related to Eysenck’s theory is the theories ability to guide
practitioners. A complete and organized taxonomy is provided with this theory
but this is not useful to parents, teachers, and counselors, it is only useful
to researchers. Because factor analysis is an exact mathematical procedure and
factor theories are strongly empirical this theory ranks indistinctly internally
consistent (Feist & Feist, 2009).
How
Does Eysenck’s Theory Explain Individual Relationships?
Eysenck’s factor theory is built off
of psychometric and biological components, which generated three factors,
extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. These three factors all have
biological causes, at least 75% of these personality dimensions are linked to
heredity. Through the study of twins, identical and fraternal, Eysenck found
evidence that biology is a strong element in personality. There was a higher
similarity with the identical twins then there was with the fraternal twins,
which proposes genetics play a large part in the differences of human
personality. People tend to preserve
their stance overtime on the different dimensions of personality and
researchers have found people in various areas of the world share nearly
identical factors, which are both individual pieces of evidence that heredity
influences the personality dimensions (Feist & Feist, 2009).
How
Does Eysenck’s Theory Explain Interpersonal Relationships?
When Eysenck estimated that 75% of the
change in extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism are linked with heredity,
he also stated about 25% of the variance of these personality factors can be
associated with environmental factors. In the Eysenck’s first dimension,
extraversion, people who are more extraverted are social, impulsive, and
optimistic, characteristics built on their association with others. People who
are introverted tend to be unsociable, shy, thoughtful, and reserved. In the
neuroticism dimension, Eysenck discussed how a person’s internal and social
state depends on where they score on the extraversion/ introversion scale and
where they score on the neuroticism/stable pole. In the psychoticism dimension,
Eysenck discussed scores high on the psychoticism side of the pole include
antisocial traits, such as being hostile, aggressive, and nonconforming. If an
individual were to score low on psychoticism, they would be an extremely
socialized, empathetic, and caring person. The three dimensions combined, along
with genetic factors, biological transitions, and experimental studies can predict
an assortment of social behaviors. In the area of learning, extraverted
children do better with active discovery learning and introverted children do
better with passive reception learning. Eysenck also discussed how children who
are troublemakers score high in either extraversion or psychoticism. If a
troublemaker child scores high in extraversion, parents and teachers often
regard their behavior as delightful scoundrels and forgive their mistakes. But
children who are troublemakers that score high in psychoticism are often considered more disorderly,
malicious, and unlovable (Feist & Feist, 2009).
Conclusion
Both Maslow and Eysenck provided an
insightful view into the theory of personality. Maslow believed a person could
never reach self-actualization if they did not meet their physiological needs,
their need for security, their need for love and belonging, and their esteem needs.
Eysenck believed the explanation of personality is modeled in three dimensions
extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. Each of these theorists brought
many great aspects to the theory of personality psychology and their ideas are
still being researched today (Feist & Feist, 2009).
References
Feist,
J & Feist, G. (2009). Theories of Personality (7th ed.). New York: McGraw
Hill.
