Theories of Personality -Case Study-

According to personality theorists there are various definitions of the word ‘personality’ as each theorist has developed his own “unique and vital theories” which result from their disagreement on the human nature, and because each theorist has his own point of view about personality according to the individual “reference” angle at which he sees the personality. However, Jess Feist and Gregory J. Feist in their book “Theories of Personality” define it as “a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior”; (Feist, 2008. p.4). The aim of studying theories of personality is to dive deep in the human self by analyzing its behavior to pinpoint the areas of conflict that causes its abnormalities. Once the reasons for abnormalities are discovered, the therapy for amending the behavior and reforming the personality will be feasible. In our case study number 37 of Myra from “Personality Theories Workbook” by Donna Ashcraft, an account of her behavior, concerning cleaning her house, spending money, setting relationships with others and a hint of her childhood, will be exposed; then trials of exploring the traits and characteristics of her personality type according to the theories of Freud, Jung, Bandura, Horney, and Fromm will be the focus of this paper with a final evidential explanation whether Myra would score high or low on each of McCrae and Costa’s Big Five Dimension.

Here is an account of Myra’s behavior and attitude relating to cleaning her house, spending money, developing relationships with friends and neighbors, and the way her parents treated her as a child.

1- Mayra is always diligent in cleaning her house and tidying its yard and garden. She loved very much spring cleaning which is dreaded by almost everyone. She takes pride in the appearance of the house, the yard and the garden. She loves other people’s compliments. She is neat and everything is well arranged in its place and she gets so angry if things are not in their places. Once grass went flying into her garden from a neighbor’s while mowing; and as a result Myra threw a fit and did not talk to the neighbor for two years. The main agenda of the family conference is to discuss ways to help keeping the house clean; telling them how she works hard to keep the house clean while everyone else is almost doing nothing. She frequently portrays herself as a martyr who does so much for others and asks so little for herself, when in reality she usually overseas the cleaning and tells others what to do, and her husband or children help her. Even after her retirement cleaning continues; and she always thinks it is her job to care for the house despite her husband or children’s help. On visiting her grown children, she is dismayed by how messy their homes are, and she begins to clean them.

2- Despite being middle class and really not poor, nor lacking in any of the essentials, the family rarely spends money on anything except the necessities; they rarely go to movies or buy toys for the children. Myra is always concerned about money; so she is keen on saving it by keeping almost everything beyond the usual life span. She uses plastic and sheets to save the furniture and rugs. She washes and reuses aluminum foil. Leftovers are eaten even if they are unappetizing. Once she got agitated when someone borrowed fifty cents for a soda and did not return it. She usually tells stories about relatives who accept invitations at her house but do not return the invitations; thus complaining she is tired of spending money on these occasions without ever getting something in return. Although she is retired and still healthy, she does not participate in any productive activities such as volunteer work, and she prefers to spend all her time and energy working on her house and yard.

3- Myra displays a disturbing pattern of establishing relationships and then ending them by being rude. She has an intense relationship with someone she has just started a friendship with, often having that person over for lavish meals, and then complains about some aspects of that person’s personality. She sometimes criticizes people to their faces, or she just stops calling them. Her complaints are based on the idea of her superiority to them in some way as being cleaner, better, quieter than them. She often complains about how other people do not know how to clean anymore and that her neighbors do not take care of their property as well as she does. When these people no longer want to interact with her, she does not understand why.

4- Myra’s mother always took care of their house and thought that it was the woman’s responsibility to do so; and Myra has learnt how to clean “correctly” from her mother. Both Myra’s parents believed in physical punishment, and Myra and her brother were hit if they did something wrong. Myra was punished if she did not clean something thoroughly enough.

Analysis:

According to Freud, Myra’s ego which is “the only region of the mind in contact with reality” and it is governed by the “reality principle” has made the decision on cleanness and neatness of her house and yard, besides arranging things in order. And because the ego is partially conscious, partly preconscious and partly unconscious, her ego can make decisions on each of these three levels. Myra exaggerates in cleaning her house, tidying her yard and garden and arranging her things in order as her ego consciously motivates her to choose excessive neatness, tidiness and arrangements because she feels comfortable and proud of her estate and things being like this and people compliment her for this. Meanwhile she may be, on her preconscious level, only dimly aware of her previous experience when her friends or neighbors first praised her for the way she cleans the house, tidies the yard and the garden and arranges her things. Besides, she may be unconsciously motivated to be excessively clean, neat and orderly “due to her childhood experiences of the toilet training” and cleaning the house with her mother so as to avoid pain resulting from her parents punishment and gain pleasure of their love and security, (Feist, 2009. p. 29). Also it has been settled in her superego what she should and should not do because of her experiences with reward and punishment she must have received from her parents during her childhood. Thus she can be dominated by the superego which results in her “guilt-ridden or inferior-feeling person;” (Feist, 2009. p. 30). According to Freud “levels of mental life and provinces of the mind refer to the structure of personality” (Feist, 2009. p. 31); in the sense that people’s actions are motivated to seek pleasures and reduce tension and anxiety that result from basic driving forces (physical or psychical) which are sex of which aim is pleasure and aggression of which aim is to “return the organism to an inorganic state”, (Feist, 2009. p. 33); both of which “originate in the id” (Feist, 2009. p. 31), but are controlled by the ego. Freud’s concept of sexual pleasure involves not only the genitals but also the entire body especially the mouth and anus; (Feist, 2009. p. 32). Sex and aggression are associated with anxiety which is, according to Freud, “a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger” even though this unpleasantness is not clear; (Feist, 2009. p. 33). While “only the ego can produce or feel anxiety, the id, superego and external world each are involved in one of three kinds of anxiety; neurotic, moral and realistic”; (Feist, 2009. p. 33). Neurotic anxiety, as apprehension about an unknown danger, exists in the ego but originates in the id. Myra must have experienced neurotic anxiety in the presence of her husband “authority” as she previously must have experienced unconscious feelings of destruction against her parents because of fear of punishment, so she exaggerates her cleanings and frequently portrays herself as a martyr who does so much for others and asks so little for herself, when in reality she usually overseas the cleaning and tells others what to do, and her husband or children help her. This same neurotic anxiety makes her aggressive towards her neighbor as once grass went flying into her garden from her neighbor’s while mowing; and as a result Myra threw a fit and did not talk to the neighbor for two years. Myra displays a disturbing pattern of establishing relationships and then ending them by being rude. She sometimes criticizes people to their faces, or she just stops calling them. Moreover, this neurotic anxiety makes her concerned about spending money and she refrain from expending it despite being middle class and really not poor. And as a defense mechanism, Myra has developed an anal fixation which manifests in her obsession with neatness and orderliness. This can be explained as defense mechanisms are “carried to an extreme, they lead to compulsive, repetitive, and neurotic behavior;” (Feist, 2009. p. 34).

According to Jung the mind or psyche has two levels; conscious and unconscious. The unconscious is divided into two portions; the personal conscious which “results from individual experience, and the collective unconscious which is the most important portion of the unconscious that stems from the distant past of human existence; so Jung calls it collective unconscious. (Feist, 2009. p. 103). Freud also believes that a portion of our unconscious comes from our earlier ancestors’ experiences which he calls phylogenetic endowment; (Feist, 2009. p. 24). Unlike Freud, Jung believes that collective unconscious refers to humans’ “innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever their experiences stimulate a biological inherited response tendency;” (Feist, 2009. pp 104, 105). This explains why Myra unexpectedly reacts with love and persistence to the house cleanliness, tidiness and orderliness although she had negative or at least neutral feelings toward the job, especially when we know that her mother always took care of their house and thought that it was the woman’s responsibility to do so; and Myra has learnt how to clean “correctly” from her mother who punished her when she (Myra) did not clean something thoroughly enough. Of course, her mother belief of house cleanliness was passed to her from her mother (Myra’s grandmother) and so on through generations until it became a collective unconscious which Jung sees as autonomous forces called archetypes which, when evolved, “can be conceptualized” into persona, shadow, anima, animus, great mother, wise old man, hero, and self ; (Feist, 2009. pp 104, 106). Myra’s persona is shown to the world as a woman, wife and mother responsible for all the housework from A to Z, and she is keen on showing this persona during her family conference to discuss ways to help keeping the house clean; telling her household how she works hard to keep the house clean while everyone else is almost doing nothing. She frequently portrays herself as a martyr who does so much for others and asks so little for herself, when in reality she usually overseas the cleaning and tells others what to do, and her husband or children help her. Thus, according to Jung Myra projects a particular role that society dictates to her; (Feist, 2009. p 107). It seems that Myra has confused her public face with her complete self, thus she remains unconscious of her individuality and cannot attain self-realization and in fact she has lost touch with her inner self and remained dependent on society’s expectations of her, (Feist, 2009. P 107), and could not know why friends, neighbor and relatives no longer keep in touch with her. Thus, Myra has lost balance between what she really is (as friendly and generous as inviting her friends to lavish meals), and her social appearance as caring responsible and economical mother.

According to Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, the way we react to an expected evenst is usually more powerful than the event itself. The theory takes chance encounters and fortuitous events seriously even though these events do not variably alter one’s life path, (Feist, 2009. P 478), this is due to the outstanding characteristic of human plasticity or flexibility that enables humans to learn a variety of behaviors in various situations through direct experience, yet more importantly through vicarious learning or learning by observing others. Myra’s traditionally feminine cleaning behavior can be explained on the basis of her observing her mother cleaning and perhaps financially managing the house as well as having the same belief that her mother had as housework is the main responsibility of a woman. Myra’s behavior is also reinforced by the compliments she receives from her neighbors and friends who overtly express their admirations of her clean house, tidy yard and beautiful garden. This accords with Bandura’s idea that reinforcement can be vicarious whether it is direct or indirect. According to Bandura’s triadic reciprocal model that includes behavioral, environmental, and personal factors, (Feist, 2009. P 483), Myra has the capacity to regulate her life; and her behavioral cleanliness has turned into a consistent way of evaluating and regulating her social and cultural environment, seeing that her house is cleaner, tidier and more beautiful than any house in the neighborhood or any of her friends or relatives’ houses. However, Myra has stopped at sensory experiences and hence lacked the capacity to anticipate events, create new ideas or use internal standards to evaluate present experiences. This can be shown from the way she deals with her friends as she cannot go on further with her relationships with them; and when these people no longer want to interact with her, she does not understand why. There has been some sort of disturbance in her triadic reciprocal causation model that made her refrain from participating in any productive activities such as volunteer work, and she prefers to spend all her time and energy working on her house and yard. She may lack self-efficacy as a self-reflective mechanism which is confined only in her housework performances.

In accordance with Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory, Myra has been influenced by cultural impacts (feminine responsibility for housework) of her society as “the primary bases for both neurotic and normal personality development;” (Feist, 2009. P. 166). Modern culture is based on completion (her exaggeration in cleanliness, tidiness and orderliness compared to others) which triggers off basic hostility (in dealing with her friends and neighbors), which, in return, results in isolation, (her break up with friends and not participating in productive volunteer work), that brings about “intensified needs for affection” (her feeling of doing everything alone without being helped by anyone and illustrating herself as martyr or victim). Childhood at any stage is considered the source of most problems as a result of traumatic events, such as beating, open rejection, neglect or sexual abuse; (Feist, 2009. P. 167). During her childhood Myra was physically punished (hit) by her parents; the thing which generated a feeling of lack of genuine warmth and affection and developed into anxiety and hostility towards others. (Feist, 2009. P. 168). From her behaviors of exaggerated cleanliness, hostility, economization (saving money) and refrain from participating in productive volunteer work, Myra demonstrates some basic neurotic needs: (1) Need to restrict her life within narrow borders: she does not participate in any productive activities such as volunteer work, and she prefers to spend all her time and energy working on her house and yard. (2) Need for security and power: she economizes on everything and does not spend money which represents a source of power to her. (3) Need to exploit others: she breaks up with friends and relatives who do not return her invitations to meals. (4) Need for social recognition or prestige: she tries to be the best at cleaning and orderliness and criticizes others as not equal to her. (5) Need for personal admiration: she likes people admiring her house cleanliness, her yard and garden tidiness and beauty, and her orderliness. (6) Need for perfection and unassailability: she always cleans, tidy and rearrange her house, garden, yard and things so as not to be criticized; on the contrary she always criticizes and blames others. Moreover, Myra manifests two neurotic trends: one of moving against people by rudely criticizing them to their faces and being rudely hostile to them by throwing fits and not talking to them; the other trend is that of moving away from people as she stops calling them and does not participate in productive volunteer work and she prefers to stay and spend her energy on home.

Erich Fromm’s theory of Humanistic Psychoanalysis is based on the idea that the freakiness of modern humans lies in their separation from union with nature and also with one another, and in their possession of the power of reasoning, foresight, and imagination; and as a result of self-realization they feel lonely, isolated and homeless; (Feist, 2009. P. 187). Thus, Fromm’s theory of personality concentrates on the “influence of sociobiological factors, history, economics, and class structure;” (Feist, 2009. P. 187). Fromm believes that capitalism has increased leisure time and personal freedom; but it has led to feelings of anxiety, isolation, and powerlessness; (Feist, 2009. P. 188). Fromm believes that besides physiological needs as hunger, sex, and safety, there are existential needs, such as (relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, sense of identity, and frame of orientation), that motivate humans to restore their unity with both nature and species individuals. (Feist, 2009. Pp. 191-195). In case of Myra we know that she has gained a lot of economic freedom with the result that she feels more isolated, insecure, alone and lonelier so she has stuck to her home and saved money and has hardly any friends; the thing that has brought about her basic anxiety; (Feist, 2009. P. 196). Myra has resorted to mechanism of escape to flee from freedom; (Feist, 2009. P. 196). To reduce her basic anxiety she has taken to authoritarianism in its phase of sadism which manifests in letting her household be dependent on her (as she cleans the house for her grown up daughters or sons when visiting them) and in gaining power over them as being weak (as to order each one what they should or should not do), with the tendency of making other (her friends and neighbor) suffer as a result of her overt criticism and rudeness to them. Because of her aloneness, she has resorted to the mechanism of destructiveness as she always seeks to do away with other people whether her friends or her relatives. When her mother taught her to clean the house, Myra has developed conformity with her mother’s belief that cleanliness is the woman’s responsibility and she has been doing it mechanically like a robot without expressing her own opinion, and she has clung to expected standards of cleanliness, arrangement and orderliness; (Feist, 2009. P. 197). Moreover she often appears stiff and automated as she never goes to any refreshment place, or buys any toys for her children. Finally, Myra is a hoarding character, (Feist, 2009. P. 199), as she seeks to save what she has had whether furniture (by covering it with plastic) or the carpets (by covering them with sheets) or money (by saving and not spending it).

When Myra’s personality is weighed on the scales of McCrae and Costa’s Big Five dimension she can score low on the first four dimension, but she can score high on the last dimension. On the extraversion dimension she is reserved, loner, passive and unfeeling. On the neuroticism dimension, she is self-satisfied, comfortable, unemotional and hardy. On the openness dimension, she is down-to-earth, uncreative, conventional, prefers routine, uncurious, and conservative. On the agreeableness dimension, she is ruthless, suspicious, stingy, antagonistic, critical, and irritable. Finally, on the conscientiousness dimension, she scores high as she is hardworking, well-organized, persevering.

In conclusion, with Myra’s behavioral account concerning her house cleanliness, her relations with people whether relatives, friends or neighbors, her attitude towards spending money, and her childhood background, it has been pointed out that, according to Freud, Myra is a cathartic personality whose superego is in quite control of her ego, with fixation at the anal phase. Jung’s theory has pinpointed Myra as an archetype personality as a great mother; and Bandura’s social cognitive theory has related her to vicarious personality limitedly affected by triadic reciprocal causation model. Horney’s theory has shown that Myra is culturally-influenced as a competent personality. According to Fromm’s theory, Myra, as a resut of her economic freedom, is a more isolated, insecure, alone and lonelier character who has resorted to the mechanism of escape and authoritarianism. Thus, finally, Myra has scored low on McCrae and Costa’s Big Five dimensions.

Rate the article
Bad	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Very good
Result : 33%							Participated in the vote : 52