And this brings us to the concluding piece of our series on Personality Theories. Our journey began with earliest thinking of individual differences in Greek literature. We waded through psychoanalytic writings of Freud, Jung and Horney. We looked at how modern psychology and thinking around human nature developed rapidly in the American universities, including behaviorism. More recently, positive psychology has also emerged as a strong influence, and we can see its roots in humanistic and psycho-social theories of personality.
Humanistic psychologists believe that everyone is motivated by a need to develop their capabilities and the major goal of life is self-actualization. Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are some of the well-known psychologists in the humanistic tradition.
Viktor Frankl talks about purpose and how having a purpose helps people transcend their biological needs, their environment and their own past. He proposed that people want to believe that their lives are meaningful and that the need for meaning is the most important human motive.
Rollo May proposed that human beings are primarily motivated by a need for self development. Personal growth was about going beyond what we think we are to discovering what we really are.
Abraham Maslow argued that people have a powerful motive to develop their potential to the highest degree possible. He referred to this as the need for self-actualization. Self-actualization sits at the top of the hierarchy of needs that Maslow presents – physiological, security, social, esteem and self-actualization. According to Maslow, needs at the lower level need to be met before higher level needs become important.
Carl Rogers gave us the concepts of client-centered or person-centered approach to counselling and the concept of “unconditional positive regard”. Based on years of clinical practice, Rogers developed the most comprehensive theory of personality development. Core to his theory is also the concept of self. Children are born predisposed towards psychological growth. As they get older, they realize that to be liked and accepted by others, (positive regard), they need to live up to the expectations of others. They begin to develop an “ideal self” that reflects the values of others, that may or may not be congruent with their own values , which are based on their “real self”. Rogers proposed that people can discover their “true self” only if they don’t have to conform to the values of others (in society) in order to be accepted. Living in society and adaptation are important concerns for humanistic psychologists, but of more importance is development of the self.
After the death of Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysts like Anna Freud, Freud’s daughter and his intellectual heir, also turned their attention to the Ego and processes by which people adapt to everyday life. This movement came to be known as Ego Psychology. Erik Erikson became the most well known ego psychologist. According to Erikson, the most basic human motive is to fit into one’s social environment. He defined in detail eight development stages, from birth to old age, that describe the manner in which people fit into society. Feedback from social interactions not only helps individuals adapt, but also helps them develop a sense of identity. Erikson introduced self-concept – a conscious knowledge of the self.
His theory has an overall positive tone. Society and culture are important aspects of his theory, thus making it very integrative. He believed that human beings are biologically disposed to live in society and therefore come predisposed to adapting to society. Erikson’s stages of development bring into focus adult development, which was largely ignored by others. “Identity crisis” happens when an individual is unable to resolve developmental issues in a healthy manner or when their sense of self is different from how others see them. Concept of self, thus, become a social and not a biological phenomenon.
The socio-analytic theory of personality proposed by Drs. Joyce and Robert Hogan draws from humanistic and psycho-social traditions, as well as evolutionary psychology and psychometrics, to propose a way of understanding how people think and behave in the workplace.
The Five Factor model is an empirically driven taxonomy of what impacts workplace behavior. However, it is not a theory of workplace personality. Socio-analytic theory is probably the most respected view of workplace personality.
Drs. Hogan proposed that human beings are social animals. Living in groups, human behaviour is driven by three main motives – need to get along, need to get ahead and need to make meaning. Our personality develops in response to these needs. They also proposed the actor’s and the observer’s view of personality. Actor’s view of personality is a person’s “identity” – what they think of themselves. The Observer’s view of personality is a person’s “reputation” – what others think of them based on their behavior. While identity is important for the person, reputation is most consequential to a person’s working life and career.
Our interest in understanding human nature will continue, as long as we live and work in social environments. We hope that this short series of articles has given you, a practitioner who chooses to apply personality in the workplace, an appreciation of the long and varied research tradition.
