Last updated Oct 27, 2025

PSY 101 Personality II                 Class 26: Humanistic and Other Selected Approaches to Personality Theory

Evaluation of Freudian Theory 

Pro

Con

Unconscious forces do influence behavior though in a way differently than Freud thought Internal conflict can cause psychological distress Early childhood experiences can affect adult personality Defense mechanisms are ways we often cope with the world

Poor testability. Theory is so vague that it is almost impossible to test scientifically (that is, it can't be disproved). Non-representative Sample. Freud's theory developed out of his experience with upper-class, neurotic, sexually-repressed women in Vienna. This group did not represent either Western society generally or humanity universally. Few systematic studies support the central propositions of Freud & his followers. Most work was done with case studies. Highly male-centered in its theoretical focus and often ignores or downplays the experiences of women (despite its origins mostly with women patients). Contradictory evidence. While some aspects of Freud's theory are correct (e.g., development across a long period of time), important parts of his theory have little evidence in support, e.g., the Oedipal conflict as universal or sexuality as the root of most mental illness.

Other Selected Approaches to Personality Theory

Humanistic Psychology & the Self's Potential for Growth

• Humanism (humanistic psychology) is an orientation which emphasizes the unique qualities of each individual person as well as our freedom to act and our potential for personal growth.
  

Carl Roger's Person-Centered Theory

• Among the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, Carl Rogers (1902-1987) developed an approach to personality and the treatment of mental problems he called person-centered therapy.
  
  
• The self is the central notion of Rogers' theory. He spoke of each person as having a "self-concept" = a collection of beliefs (positive and negative) about one's own nature, unique qualities, and typical behavior.
  
• The self-concept is how we think about ourselves, e.g., "I'm smart, I'm athletic, I'm a loser, I'm not liked by others, I will be a great teacher, etc."
  
  
• Most people tend to have a generally positive or favorable self-concept which is congruent or parallel to what they do and think.
  
  
• However, in some individuals, there is a gap between the self-concept and actual experience and such persons experience incongruence.
  
  
• Development of the Self
  
  
• Early in life, we experience a strong need for affection and acceptance by others, most particularly from our parents. If they return that need with affection and acceptance unconditionally, we will grow up with a healthy and productive self-concept.
  
  
• However, if our parents make their affection and acceptance conditional, that is, they will only show us love IF we act in a certain way, we will grow up burdened by those conditions and a sense of incongruence--a gap between our self-concept and our experience--will grow. This leads to an experience of anxiety.
  
  
• Healthy growth requires what Rogers called "unconditional positive regard" -- we are accepted and affirmed without preconditions...either by our parents and friends or, in treatment, by our therapist.
  

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

• In our textbook and many others, you will see the famous "Hierarchy of Needs" pyramid (see diagram on the right). This image was developed to support (supposedly) Maslow's claim that our personalities are founded upon a graduated set of needs

• Physiological Needs Safety-Security Belonging-Love Esteem Cognitive Needs Aesthetic Needs (beauty) Self-Actualization

• According to the "pyramid" interpretation of Maslow's theory, we must satisfy needs at lower levels before moving to higher levels. In this hierarchical approach, human motivational needs move upward step by step and one cannot reach higher steps before ascending to the lower steps.
  

• At the top of the hierarchy is the need for self-actualization, i.e., to fulfill one's potential. These include qualities such as acceptance of self & others, spontaneity, autonomous and reliant on one's own judgment, deep interpersonal relationships, compassionate, living one's life as fully as possible.

HOWEVER, recent research has demonstrated that Maslow NEVER created the pyramid himself (Bridgeman et al., 2019). Rather, it was the invention of a management consulting psychologist, Charles McDermid, in 1960. And, while Maslow lived for almost 10 years after the first appearance of this graphic and never directly challenged it, the pyramid of needs misrepresents what Maslow actually argued motivated human beings and the growth of their personalities.

Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman (2020) claims that Maslow’s ideas of personal development are far better represented by the use of a “sailboat” metaphor in which there are two fundamental factors at play in life: security and growth. “Life is not a trek up a mountain,” Kaufman argues, “Life is about integration and being a whole person, just like a sailboat is a whole vehicle. A sailboat needs multiple parts to operate. It needs to have a secure structure. But security’s not enough or else it won’t go anywhere. It also needs growth—it needs to open a sail and go in a direction, usually a purposeful direction, even with the unknown sea crashing against it" (Nesterak, 2020). Thus, Kaufman (2020) offers a reformulation of Maslow's theory which revives what Maslow originally intended to say.

• Security involves the need for

• Safety (a life of stability, predictability, coherence, and the meeting of biological needs like food and shelter)
  
• Connection (a need to belong and to experience intimacy with others)
  
• Self-Esteem (respect for oneself, a sense of accomplishment and mastery)

• Growth involves the need for

• Exploration (new experiences, new meanings, cognitive growth, curiosity)
  
• Love (love for the being of another person, healthy authenticity where one takes responsibility for what one does, a "quiet" ego that balances self-interests and those of others)
  
• Purpose (finding goals that are mutually beneficial for self and society; working toward goals which are outside one's "own skin")
  

• Further, rather than "self-actualization," Kaufman notes, Maslow argued that the highest goal of personal growth is transcendence. Self-actualization can be defined as "being all that you can be" (a rather individualistic notion) while transcendence (resting on a healthy level of self-actualization) reaches beyond the individual and selfishness to embrace the world in its entirety. In so doing, transcendent experiences include what Maslow called "peak experiences" and open us up to a sense of connectedness to all of humanity and the world around us. Many of these experiences correspond to what religious believers experience in mystical prayer or contact with the sacred. 
  

Walter Mischel : Person-Situation Consistency

An advocate of social learning theory, Walter Mischel (1930-2018) has argued that person do not behave consistently across different situations. Rather, our behavior is situationally specific. For example, individuals may be rigorously honest at work, but still cheat on their taxes. Or, the kindly loving parent at home may be a strict disciplinarian at work.

• Mischel's work brings the notion of "personality" itself into question.

The "Western" Self vs. The "Eastern" Self

Hazel Markus & Shinobu Kitayama (see photos) propose that American and Asian conceptions of the self differ.

• Western Self: Emphasis upon independence, self-achievement
• Eastern Self: Emphasis upon interdependence with family and others and fitting into society. Value given to achievement of the group, not the individual.
  

Dan P. McAdams' Three-Level (Actor-Agent-Author) Model of the Person
[also known as "The Narrative Theory of Identity"]

<not in our textbook>

Dan P. McAdams is a personality psychologist at Northwestern University in Chicago and a founding member of the Study of Lives Research Group  (successor to the Foley Center for the Study of Lives). He has developed a model of the developing human person as comprised of three levels or layers as illustrated in the diagram below (McAdams, 2015).

Narrative = "a story or tale that has a beginning (sometime in the past), a middle (now), and looks toward an end in the future"

McAdams defines personality as "a developing configuration of psychological individuality that expresses a person's recognizable uniqueness, wherein life stories are layered over salient** goals and values, which are layered over dispositional* traits" (2015, p. 8)

His theory argues that evolution has formed the human animal with a human nature (= "what we human beings have in common with each other by the fact that we are all human beings" and have been fashioned in our biology to be "brainy, bipedal [= walk on two feet] creatures who live together in social groups" (2015, p. 15). So, we are biological organisms who have inherited a genetically-determined "human nature" -- our evolutionary heritage. But, because we function within social groups throughout life, the ways in which that nature expresses itself and is influenced comes from the effects of social learning from others and from the general culture in which we live. 

• Social Actors. From birth onward, human persons interact with other persons in the social world first on the basis of their temperament which grow into a set of consistent dispositional* traits, that is, the Big Five. These traits are strongly linked to genetic/biological origins. As we continue to grow and develop this layer of our personality expresses itself in many different settings and circumstances. Remarkably, though, we tend to be fairly consistent across the lifespan in these traits.
  

• Motivated Agents. Sometime in the period after 5 to 7 years of age, i.e., around the time of the 2nd grade in middle childhood, persons begin to decide (1) what they want for themselves in terms of personal goals, plans, and projects, and (2) what they value morally (what is good), religiously (what I believe about God and the nature of the world), and politically (what kind of society do I want to be part of and shape). As life continues, these motivations may shift and change, grow more or less important. But, they do serve to motivate persons to move out into the world as agents, i.e., as individuals who do things.
  

• Autobiographical Authors. As persons move toward the end of adolescence, they begin to get a sense of past-present-and future, i.e., where I have come from (my family history, my personal history, etc.), who I am now (what motivates me, what causes me to act as I do), and who am I becoming (what does the future seem to offer me, how am I changing). In doing so, each person can begin to tell their own life story (= personal narrative) to themselves and to others. Each person is an author who can recite his or her autobiography (up to that point of time!)  As life continues on into middle and old age, the story gets elaborated or changed, new scenes are added, new characters enter into the author's life, etc. As McAdams (2015) argues, "in psychological science today, investigators use the term 'narrative identity' to refer to the internalized and evolving story of the self that a person constructs to provide his or her life with unity, purpose, and meaning" (p. 250). 

* The OED defines "disposition" as "the state or quality of being disposed, inclined, or ‘in the mind’ (to something, or to do something); inclination (sometimes = desire, intention, purpose); state of mind or feeling in respect to a thing or person; the condition of being (favourably or unfavourably) disposed towards" and as a "natural tendency or bent of the mind, esp. in relation to moral or social qualities; mental constitution or temperament; turn of mind."

** Similarly the OED defines the adjective "salient" as having multiple meanings. The meaning that McAdams has in mind is this one: "“Of immaterial things, qualities, etc.= Standing out from the rest; prominent, conspicuous. In Psychology, standing out or prominent in consciousness.”

References

Bridgman, T., Cummings, S., & Ballard, J. (2019). Who built Maslow’s pyramid? A history of the creation of management studies’ most famous symbol and its implications for management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 18(1), 81-98. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2017.0351

Kaufman, S. B. (2020). Transcend: The new science of self-actualization. New York, NY: TarcherPerigee.

McAdams, D. P. (2015). The art and science of personality development. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Nesterak, E. (2020, May 3). Self-actualizing in the 21st century: A Q&A with Scott Barry Kaufman. Behavioral Scientist. https://behavioralscientist.org/transcend-self-actualizing-in-the-21st-century-a-qa-with-scott-barry-kaufman/

 

This page was originally posted on 10/31/03