A personal domain, a priceless fortune that reflects oneself, a concious and subconscious level that portrays the very essence of our inner nature -- personality. A distinct explanation could be described as an individual's unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits. Most of us have some sort of integrated identity, some personal integrity, and some desire to self-reflect. Discussion will commence with why the self is important followed by a prolonged synopsis of brain development and the anatomy of who we are, thought and consciousness, and a look at the "healthier person" along with its counterpart, psychopathology or mental disorders.
1.Self Importance
It is not enough to understand what we ought to be, unless we know what we are; and we do not understand what we are, unless we know what we ought to be. In our present day, we have assumed a pursuit to "find our self," or to "be oneself," a volition, and in doing so have lost the vigor or very core of existence, to not act but to live. The principle of self hood or the current search for it, can be explained by the personality theory -- an involvement of the relationship between affective (emotional) and cognitive (thinking) dimensions. In another word, what we feel about self, environment, and others has a correlation with the thought and perception of these impulses.
A burgeoning area of interest within the multi-variegated realm of psychology is self-knowledge. Aptly stated as the idea that your behavior is tied to how you view yourself in relation to the rest of the world, and how you determine and control your own actions depends on your particular understanding of the reasons for doing so. Such strategies to manage and control our lives would coincide with the notion of self-efficacy, described as our belief about our ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes: high self-efficacy exhibits confidence in that we can execute the responses necessary to earn reinforces, and low self-efficacy presents agitation in which necessary responses may be beyond our abilities. Self-knowledge and self-efficacy combine to form personal integrity or the coherence of personality. It is the apprasial of information (self-knowledge) and how it is exerted and enacted in reality (self-efficacy) as perceived by others to form an identity (personal integrity).<Image>
Self-hood, personal integrity, was underscored by Heinz Hartman who pioneered the idea of ego autonomy. The ego as described by Sigmund Freud is the decision-making component of personality, which operates according to the reality principle in which it seeks to delay gratification of the id's (pleasure ridden) urges until appropriate outlets and situations can be found. To the contrary, many professors proclaim that rather than a mere messenger to do the bidding of the drive-laden and impulsive id, the ego is seen as having important functions of its own, as being a psychological structure or process suited to bear the conceptual mantle of self-hood. Joined with autonomy, or independence, is created a relatively free ego -- ego autonomy. People with this attribute are seen as rulers of their domain, their own master driven to excellence, or as Abraham Maslow called achievers of self-actualization (see figure below for Maslow's hierarchy of needs). An inexorable drive toward making the most of their own inner resources, in effect to fulfill one's potential. Of course, many of us do not accomplish such a status or fame, but we do possess qualities of personal integrity, at times an autonomous ego, and some sort of impending awareness of self-actualization to which is more accurately drawn along the lines of reality.
2.Brain Development
The soul is the voice of the body's interests. By observing the crevices and fissures of the brain and charting the exemplified behavior to a specific location, one could presumably determine the personality trait -- the philosophy of phrenology. Though faulty and discredited, Franze Joseph Gall, the prominent phrenologist, was on the right track. His predictions that the bumps on the brain were tied to certain and discrete mental traits (casualness, conscientiousness, etc..) had not been confirmed by any legitimate empirical evidence or research. What did endure is the idea that the brain is composed of subsystems and that these subsystems in their myriad daily interactions are in some way responsible for the way we think, feel, and act.
One theorist elaborated on this newly found idea. Stuart Dimond, a British neuropsychologist, proclaimed that personality is function of the brain. We are bound together by those differences in cerebral and mental structure that make possible an organized, yet diverse, human society. Similiar to Hans Eysenck's theory that personality is determined to a large extent by a person's genes. An example would be that of a fingerprint; the many loopholes and swirls, compared with that of the brain; the many bumps and fissures, both represent the anatomy of a unique character. Below is a list of eight brain personality types as described by the discussed Dimond, and by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa as illustrated with the five-factor model of personality.
Dimond's personality types
•Visualists -- looking, seeing
•Audists -- listening, hearing
•Sexists -- seduction, procreation
•Motorists -- movement, action
•Linguists -- speech, language
•Spacists -- form, image
•Emotionists -- feeling, passion
•Aggressists -- confrontation, belligerence
McCrae/Costa's personality types
•Neuroticsm -- anxious, insecure, self-conscious, guilt prone
•Extraversion -- talkative, sociable, fun-loving, affectionate
•Openness -- daring, showing, non-conforming, imaginative
•Agreeableness -- sympathetic, warm, trusting, cooperative
•Conscientiousness -- dependable, purposeful, ethical
The vast majority of personality traits and the way we identify with them is subjectively tailored to the provider.
Another great neuropsychologist of his time was Norman Geschwind, who believed the notion of brain laterlization -- the left and right hemispheres. Task-oriented, well-organized types are high in left-brain dominance, while emotional, aesthetic, and creative types are more right-brained.
An excerpt is shown below to help understand the preceding views:
The son of two English Lit professors probably already has at birth a greater genetic brain-
bent toward a verbally contemplative life of the mind than his neighbor, the son of a football
pro and his artist wife. Add to this a lower level of fetal testosterone (hormonal secretion
that determines gender and structure of the hemispheres), and you have a brain whose left
hemisphere is more likely to be unrestrained in its potential to begin with. Moreover,
this kid is more likely to be raised in a home full of books, rather than on a playing field.
All other things being equal, who's going to be the novelist and who the next all-American?
Genes, hormones, and environment all play their role in the development of our talents and proclivities, temperments, and personlaities.
3.Thought and Consciousness
An idea, like a ghost, according to the common notion of ghosts, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. In decoding and identifying with the many thoughts and ideas, what does the role of the hemispheres play in our daily comprehension? It can be said that the two cerebral hemispheres interact with each other in a constantly oscillating, reciprocally balanced relationship; aided, altered, and shaped by the operations of the other.
For example, when listening to a speaker, the left hemisphere interprets the linguistic grammer and processes that for future reference or communication, while the right hemisphere determines the logic and coherent message the speaker wishes to convey. The left hemisphere specializing in the descriptive analysis of the syntactic (grammatical), semantic (informational), and literal qualities of communication is good for perceiving details and particulars of events; the right hemisphere specializing in the integration of information in the spatial dimension and imagistic coding is also more inferential and generally takes a more symbolic and associational approach.<Image>
To acknowledge this, let's regress for a minute to early childhood. Extraversion was a common attribute found in many children during the comprehension of the English language, as was openness and defiance. As the manifestation accompained by the integration of the hemispheres continued, the inner speech (introversion) grew alongside it, which is in accordance with Rhawn Joseph's explanations. It is also known that in early childhood, habits were created through what Ivan Pavlov called classical conditioning -- a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus (see the Pavlov cartoon below).The progressive development and maturation of the left-hemisphere and the structures and fiber pathways interconnecting different regions of that hemisphere and the right is a process that's not entirely complete until late adolescence. This could account for the failure to verbally encode experiences and as Joseph adds, "are so infrequently remembered, why they're in effect unconscious."
4.Healthier Personality
The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner than the average person. With a variety of documentation from clinicians and therapists on their patient's disorders, one can derive and study these ill natured conditions. But, when the time comes to conceptualize "good" aspects of personality within the neuropsychodynamic model, empirical evidence is absent. Some hypothesis and theories can give way to the explanation of these psychologically healthier people.
John Briggs points out that creativity is the essence of euphoria. He further adds that individuals who possess specialized talents which contibute to the instrumentation of imagination are often identified as "geniuses", derived from the Latin word for spirit. The creative genius is not some person with a supernatural talent such as prodigies are, but who "commit themselves intensely to their talent, but are people who commit their talents intensely to their vision." They are flexible and open-minded, and are able to tolerate ambiguity and ambivalence. Indulgence in a certain task or action with neglect to more consequential matters in which to obtain complete and absolute dedication is common in geniuses. Accomplishment is sweet and savvy for those who contribute -- as was Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity.
One of the hallmarks of a healthy personality is the ability to maximize the available amount of information needed to make adaptive decisions about behavior. Julius Seeman's theory of personality integration comes quite close to our current neuropsychodynamic conceptualization of ego autonomy. Recall that an autonomous ego is a relatively free ego that elicits the full potential of oneself; the very principle of wholeness. Therefore, personality integration regarding personality as being comprised of multiple components of perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal subsystems, would entail the degree to which the individual has an effective internal communication network between these various components. A psychologically healthy, emotionally mature, and well-integrated person is one that can discern outer and inner information to the best of his/her potential, devise creative and imaginative ideas and propaganda, and one that can contain a high degree of self-efficacy in the pursuit for happiness.
5.Psychopathology
In an otherwise disconcerting mood, the multiple sets and subsets of psychopathology is more prevalent than ever. Psychopathology, or mental illness, is revealed in impaired behavioral or psychological functioning, referring to a broad range of syndromes that involve abnormalities in sensations, cognition, and emotional states. These psychological dysfunctions are sorted into the nine major categories contained in the DSM-III-R.
Disorders -Definition- (Symptoms)
•Schizophrenic-pressence of psychotic symptoms-(hallucinations, delusions)
•Dissociative-disruption of personality through identity, memory-(amnesia)
•Anxiety-debilitating tension, avoidance-(obsessive-compulsive, phobias)
•Affective-mood disturbances, extreme emotions-(dysthymia, depression)
•Psychosexual-paraphilias, sexual abnormalities-(transsexualism, fetishism) •Somatoform-physical symptoms w/o demonstrable bases-(hypochondria)
•Organic Mental-abnormality in brain functioning-(delirium, alzheimer's)
•Personality-inflexible, maladaptive traits causing impairment-(paranoia)
•Childhood, Adolescence-syndromes occuring in early life-(anorexia, bulimia)
As classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and published for the third time in 1987 (DSM-III-R), personality disorders include the three groups: paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal. All obtain the same similarities in that each incorporates idiosyncrasy and irregularity as their identity make-up. Hyperextensive and overtly excessive suspicion of others is characterized by paranoia, the most common. Albeit, appraised here as a personality disorder, most experience a "paranoid complex" at one time or another; it is when paranoia is protracted over the continuum of self does the innocuous behavior become dysfunctional, thereby treatmen through psychotherapy.
A variety of psychotherapies are currently used to treat disorders from paranoia to anorexia, schizophrenia to manic-depression, hypochondria to phobiax, etc. Some of the processes to treat these disorders are show below.
Psychotherapies
•Psychoanalysis:
Freud's psychoanalytic theory emphasizes the importance of the unconscious. Freud described personality structure in terms of three components that are involved in internal conflicts, which generate anxiety. According to Freud, we often ward off anxiety and other unpleasant emotions with defenseve mechanisms, which work through self-deception. Freud believed that the first five years of life are extremely influential in shaping adult personality.
Repression is thought to be a major reason for psychological problems. The model of repression involves the relation of punishment, repression, failure of repression, anxiety, and symptoms (defenses, phobias, obsessions). The task of therapy is to make unconscious influences on feelings and behavior conscious by the methods of free association and dream analysis. Therapy includes helping the person overcome resistance to coping more reasonably with their problems and also with transference problems. Therapy encourages insight and catharsis.
•Humanistic:
The theory takes an optimistic view of our conscious, rational ability to chart our own courses of action. Carl Rogers focused on the self-concept as the critical aspect of personality. He maintained that incongruence<Image> between one's self-concept and reality creates anxiety and leads to defensive behavior. Maslow theorized that our needs are arranged hierarchically. He asserted that psychological health depends on fulfilling our need for self-actualization.
The therapy is client centered, it involves a process of clarification, and reflection of the content and feelings of the client's statements. The task is to relieve incongruence,"the inconsistency of self-concept and subjective experience of reality", and promote the client's inclination toward self-actualization. This is done by creating a warm supportive climate and by the therapist's; 1. genuiness (authenic vs. phony and defensive), 2. unconditional positive regard (nonjudgemental acceptance of another person), and 3. accurate empathy (conveying an understanding of the client's feelings.
•Behavioristic:
Therapy views personality as a collection of response tendencies shaped through learning. Pavlov's classical conditioning can explain how we acquire emotional responses. B.F. Skinner 's model of operant conditioning shows how consequences such as reinforcement, extinction, and punishment shape our habitual patterns of behavior.
Problems of adjustment are operantly controlled. For example, to extinguish fear, the method would entail in the following way; <Image> 1. specifically identify the fear, 2. develop a hierarchy of situations where the fear occurs, 3. learn to relax when confronted with the fear, and 4. engage in desensitization procedures. Imagine the least feared situation in the hierarchy until you feel muscularly tense, relax until no tension, repeat with the same situation until no fear is aroused, and then continue the procedure with each situation in the hierarchy. Finally try in real life situations.
•Gestalt:
The main theorist on Gestalt, Perl, explained that people who play games need to get in the present here and now rather than talking about either their past or future. He conducts therapy by keeping the person in the present time, by noting their games and nonverbal behavior and by encouraging them to become more authentic in their present and other relations.
Utilizing the ancient and modern techniques of psychotherapy in contemporary society, our outlook is to treat and restore each individual to his/her potential as to develop a more "healthier personality."
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