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RUNNING HEAD: Personality Theories and Personal Interests

Personality Theories and Personal Interests

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RUNNING HEAD: Personality Theories and Personal Interests

Personality Theories and Personal Interests

Understanding Personality Theories

Personality theories are conceptual tools that, in one way or another, help to explain the nature of

personality and its changes (Lester, 2019). Two compelling theories are Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic

theory and Carl Jung's analytical psychology. Freud's theory focuses on personality arising from the

individual unconscious, and the means involve repressed desires and basic instincts, namely sexual and

aggressive. He developed a structural model of the psyche, which includes the id, ego, and superego acting

like the atom where the id is like the nucleus, the ego the orbital shell, and the superego the outer shell.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

Personality analysis considers Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory to this day. Freud paid close

attention to the pre-conscious and the idea, which he also espoused that most man's activity is being

triggered by factors of which they are unaware, for it is buried in elementary animal instincts. Freud's

structural model divides the psyche into three components: the id, which contains primitive instinct; the

rational part, or the ego; and the 'conscience' or the superego. It influences how people act and conduct

themselves and their personae.

Jung's Analytical Psychology

In his analytical psychology, Carl Jung puts forward the idea of the collective unconscious, which

contains collective memories and archetypes inherited from the ancestors of humankind. Unlike Freud, Jung

elaborated a theory in which the self's unity is the paramount goal through individuation. Some of the

significant ideas in Jung's theory include archetype, where he speaks of persona, shadow, anima, and animus

as basic patterns in the human psyche.

The Fascination with Jung's Concepts

Jung's approach to personality is most engaging when regarded from a perspective that embraces the

concept of the unconscious more inclusively. His idea of the collective unconscious introduces a novel way

of viewing the concern that embraces all people and cultural phenomena. Since the concept of archetypes
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RUNNING HEAD: Personality Theories and Personal Interests
offers a sound and impressive theoretical basis for examining the sacral and mythological aspects of the

human mind, Jung's theories can be easily employed in several fields, including literature, art, and

contemporary psychology.

Gender, Sexuality, and Personality

Personality theories have also been investigated in research further to consider the role of personality on

gender and sexuality. Research has established that there is evidence that personality can be determined by,

as well as determine, gender identity and sexual orientation (Brownell & Besnier, 2020). For instance, it

was found that people who do not subscribe to conventional gender roles possess personality characteristics

that are different from people who conform to gender roles. This interplay stresses the fluid and malleability

of the personality and its interaction with social and cultural settings.

All in all, such personality theories as Freud and Jung have a right to be considered as belonging to a

class of essential theories explaining the human psyche. Jung has focused on such aspects as collective

unconsciousness and archetypes, and I find it relatively easy to describe personality based on these concepts.

Furthermore, concerning the gender and sexual orientation perspectives, a relationship between personality

and these factors contributes to a better understanding of people's behavior and individuality.
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RUNNING HEAD: Personality Theories and Personal Interests

References

Lester, D. (2019). Theories of personality. Routledge eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429026027

Brownell, S., & Besnier, N. (2020). Gender and sexuality. In Routledge eBooks (pp. 239–258).

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003086987-18