Personality Theory Analysis

Personality Theory Analysis
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Background
The humanistic approach to personality highlights on the person worth as being crucial to understanding the psychology of human beings. Existentialism is closely related to humanistic personality theory, with the main focus being choice making through freewill. The personality theories further emphasize why certain behaviors influence personality development. People typically have their needs which are to be met, and this motivates them to get satisfaction. Both theories also highlight on a person’s perceptions about life and relation to their behavior. The theories are potentially beneficial in maintaining and improving psychological health. This essay focuses on the link between personality and situational behavior, personality characteristics of existential and humanistic personality theories and how interpersonal relational aspects are related to the two theories.
Personality and situational behavior
Even though, personality development may be predictable, one cannot consistently predict the behavior of a person. People can respond to the same situations differently and when faced with an expected event then they may exhibit behaviors which appear out of them the norm. Situational behavior can help explain personality when people are confronted with certain situations. For instance a person who seems fairly passive could exhibit aggressive tendencies and become violent when directed by a powerful authority of influence. In any case, in situations where one is pressured or made to feel wrong, then they are less likely to show the drive for self determination or express personalities (Ashcraft, 2012) .
The theories of personality suppose that to understand a person’s personality, and then there is a need to highlight on internal traumas as well as mitigating outside factors. Situational behavior also explains personality traits and behavior as people interact with their friends and families, while also culture and the society norms. Existential theories focus on a holistic approach, where individuals are free to make decisions at their own free will. In other words, the decisions that individuals make affect their personality’s as well interpersonal relationships (Ashcraft, 2012). Existentialism also focuses on the inevitability of death, and strategies with which one can cope. In essence, the theory captures the problems associated with human existence and how this helps one to understand the human nature.
For the humanists’ theorists environmental factors also play a proiminnent role in personality development because individuals make decisions freely. In particular, the concept of self-actualization is of interest to humanists as it is a powerful motivator that affects personality. Maslow further suggested that culture and the environment do influence the ego identity which represents a person’s identity (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2013). It is through self- awareness that people decide to have certain personality traits as they make decisions. In any case, when people face similar situations they may rely on familiar reward values and their expectations before undertaking any action, and this can ex...