Jung’s psychological types offer unique insights concerning personality psychology. The psychoanalyst was convinced that consciousness contains different attitudes and functions. First, there are two attitudes, such as extraversion and inversion. Jung believed that if a person is consciously extraverted, their unconscious tendencies are introverted. Extraverted individuals mostly concentrate their attention on the outer world, other people, and material things, while those who are introverted prefer their own inner world, thoughts, emotions, impressions, and ideas. The ways they perceive various issues and their lifestyles are often entirely different.
Furthermore, Jung identified four functions of consciousness, such as sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking. He arranged them in two pairs containing opposite functions: the former was perceiving and included sensation and intuition, and the latter was judging and covered thinking and feeling. Besides, Jung combined both attitude and function types in order to present more clearly outlined psychological types of individuals.
For example, extroverted thinking, introverted sensation, extraverted intuition, and introverted feeling are four of them. For instance, I have encountered people with the extroverted thinking type numerous times. They think, speak, and behave, analyzing objective information either obtained by senses or retrieved from some collective ideas. Such individuals expect others to follow a general universal moral code and obey social norms. In contrast, those with the introverted feeling type act and think differently.
They mostly fully concentrate on their inner world, trying to stay unnoticed and avoiding responding to others’ feelings and thoughts. Besides, the introverted sensation type is common among artists who perceive various objects indirectly. People with the extraverted intuition type always seek stimulus for the intuitive process and see more opportunities than others.
According to the big five personality model, each person can fall anywhere on the continuum of five personality traits, which are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to new experiences. For instance, people can be extraordinarily extroverted or introverted. However, most of them are somewhere in between, representing different levels of positive emotions, excitement seeking, activity, warmth, sociability, and assertiveness. Agreeableness focuses on how people interact with each other. An individual can demonstrate trust or be highly skeptical, show empathy or avoid worrying about others’ feeling, and behave modestly or talk boastfully.
Furthermore, conscientiousness is associated with the ways people control their impulses. For instance, it depends on whether they are self-disciplined, competent, and organized or not. Neuroticism concentrates on humans’ emotional stability, as they may be anxious or calm and vulnerable or resilient. In addition, openness to new experiences is critical, as it shows whether a person is curious and creative or predictable and unimaginative. The big five personality traits determine the way people perceive the world and live their lives.
Undoubtedly, Jonathan sticks to positive thinking, excitement seeking, and being sociable; thus, his extraversion level is high. The 20-year-old male also represents high agreeableness, as he is trustful, empathetic, and straightforward. Furthermore, he appears to be more conscientious than spontaneous, as he is always well organized and punctual. Jonathan’s level of neuroticism seems to be low since he is calm and confident. In addition, the male is definitely open to new experiences because he explores new activities and gets to know people with different viewpoints.
Sigmund Freud largely contributed to the development of personality psychology and helped humans understand themselves better. He was convinced that the mind is structured, consisting of the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. According to him, it also contains three essential parts, such as the id, ego, and superego, which operate at different levels. First, the id belongs to the unconscious level and is associated with individuals’ needs, instincts, drives, and emotions. It always seeks pleasure and satisfaction, undermining social norms. Second, the ego represents the subconscious level, which operates according to reality principles (McLeod, 2018).
It works diligently to get as much pleasure as possible, avoiding adverse consequences. Third, the superego exists at the conscious level and aims at controlling behavior. It is concerned with moral rules and social norms, which every human should follow. In general, Freud clearly described the structure and functions of the mind.
Alabama was assaulted physically and mentally by his mother, and it had a significant impact on his mind. His mind defended against external aggression, distorting reality in order to avoid stress. Freud believed that “the ego can deploy various defense mechanisms to prevent it from becoming overwhelmed by anxiety” (McLeod, 2018, para. 27). They lead to different outcomes shown in behavior or thinking.
For example, Alabama might deny the fact that his mother beat and called him ‘a useless piece of trash’ (denial). The boy could also think that all parents are cruel and mistreat their children (projection). Moreover, he might endeavor to forget about this unpleasant experience by taking up a new activity, such as running (sublimation). In contrast, Alabama could start to mistreat others behaving in a socially unacceptable way (displacement). Finally, the boy might try to repress the thoughts concerning the violent event (repression).
Reference
McLeod, S. A. (2018). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud? Simply Psychology. Web.