Theories and Explanation
According to Erikson’s theory, I am currently in the intimacy vs. isolation stage. The desire to form lasting intimate relationships with someone not from my family is strong. Some of the milestones within this stage include finding a partner with whom you can share a lifelong commitment and overcoming feelings of loneliness (Cloninger, 2013). To transverse all stages of Erikson’s theory successfully, one can adapt the following measures. Parents can help infants overcome stage 1 by being sensitive and responsive to their needs. Stage 2 will require parents’ attitudes, encouragement, and patience to allow a child to develop his/her own judgment. Stage 3 will require parents to acknowledge their kid’s desires and energies in being involved in physical and imaginative efforts. To overcome stage 4, parents have to support the kid’s efforts and abilities. Stage 5 can be overcome by building on fidelity and devotion. Stage 6 requires love and affection while stage 7 requires care and production. To move through the last stage, one will require wisdom and renunciation.
Per Horney’s theory, a child’s feeling of insecurity causes them to develop a sense of basic anxiety. She further describes basic anxiety as feeling helpless and lonely in a hostile setting (Cloninger, 2013). This basic anxiety then led to conflict. For the child to pass through this stage successfully, basic hostility ought to be repressed. This produces a sense of security within the child.
Allport defined personality as “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behavior and thought.” This definition is very imperative since it purports that the individual is unique and possesses an idiographic view (Vollmer 2). Moreover, the definition depicts that personality is affected by one’s experiences, environment, and the interaction between these two.
References
Cloninger, S. (2013). Theories of personality: understanding persons. Boston: Pearson Education.
Vollmer, F. (1974). Gordon Allport on the definition of personality. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 15(1), 1-3.