Cervone And Pervin's Psychodynamic Theories Of Personality

Within the textbook by Cervone and Pervin, there are a number of different theoretical perspectives discussed about on personality. From Freud’s psychodynamic theories to the personality research of today. More specifically, in chapter 7, the theoretical perspective that’s discussed is the different approach of trait theories compared to Freud and Rogers. This approach of trait theory is more data-driven rather than theory-driven. And in chapter 3, a whole different theoretical perspective is discussed, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality.
In chapter 3, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory describes personality as a “theory of a mind” or, in other words, that human behavior is the result of our mental state. His theory developed when he was plagued with periods of depression, and to understand why he was like this he conducted an activity that is fundamental to the development of psychoanalysis, a self analysis (Cervone & Pervin). He conducted his self analysis by analyzing his experiences to dreams. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was very much about the mind and uncovering the psychological causes of an individual. He also stated that the driving force of our personality stems from the id which contain the sexual and aggressive drives are part of the basic

Freud’s perspective is theory driven, while Eysenck is data-driven. Freud’s research was done based off of case studies, causing a limited sample size, while Eysenck had a large self-reported sample size. The one main difference is that Freud’s theory was developed by himself, while trait theory was developed by multiple people: Allport, Cattell, and Eysenck. Trait theory also doesn’t talk about the mental state of a human being but rather the behavior that an individual shows. Freud goes deeper into the unconscious, and role that anxiety plays in our lives and how we develop defense mechanisms to defend against