Personality development
Theorists have similar and sometimes opposite ideas about how and when personality develops in an individual. Developmental influences can involve parental influence, the influence of societal values and traditions, and / or the environment in which an individual is raised. Personality can be innate, developed only during the first three years of life, or continue to develop into adulthood. Some theorists tried to discover the essence of personality and created theories from their observations and research. Theorists like Freud, Jung, Adler, Fromm, Rogers, and May have different thoughts and ideas about how an individual’s personality develops. So which theory is accurate?
What do the theorists say?
Freud believes that it is the responsibility of the parents to pressure the child to advance through the stages of development. For Adler, without the initial bond with the mother, the child’s relationship with himself and the environment will not develop normally. If a child’s innate needs are not met, this is the deciding factor for normal development in Jung’s theories. For Fromm, parents are essential for the normal development of social interest, love and independence. Similarly, Rogers thought that family facilitates individual development of self-esteem. Parents are also the facilitators for an individual to develop as an independent entity in May’s personality theory. All of these theorists emphasized many influences that can potentially lead to poor personality development at an early age.
Early development
We know that for a child to grow up to be physically and mentally normal, it is the initial connection and bond that the child needs or future development will be affected. A child must be given food, touch, and movement, including hugs, strokes, and human contact to build trust and connection with the outside world. A child must establish a secure base from which to relate to the world beyond himself. What about the needs of a teenager or an adult? Are these connections and bonds necessary throughout a person’s life to ensure normal development and maintenance of a normal personality? Is personality development isolated from childhood in its development and growth, or does it really evolve throughout a person’s life beyond childhood and into adolescence and adulthood?
Is it nature or is it nurture?
It appears that many factors influence the development of an individual’s personality, and one factor cannot be examined without examining the importance of another. Is it nature or the nurture we receive that determines our personality? It may be that the first years of life eventually affect a person’s entire life, but what happens when we get older? How do we unravel the complexities of the development of an individual’s personality and its formation in the first years of life and throughout a person’s life? How long will this debate continue among theorists in the field? Only time will reveal that decision.
The role of psychotherapy
Regardless of this ongoing debate, psychotherapy can be a great way to support, strengthen, and even transform one’s personality. Often times, clients walk into my office complaining about certain personality traits they like and don’t like and some traits they would like to get rid of all together. Therapy can be a way of understanding and deepening awareness of how we have come to be and operate in the world. “I sound like my father” is often a statement that is said in my office. Psychotherapy can be a way to change habits, old ways of thinking and acting, to finally be more authentically who we really are.