Biological and humanistic approaches to personality formation

Psychology Personality

There are six approaches for studying the personality development of a person. Two of the most popular ones are the biological and humanistic approaches. The other four of these approaches include the trait, cognitive, behavioral and psychoanalytic. Each of these approaches are used to describe the system through we acquire our personality and factors that influence this personality development. The use of the approach is determined by the psychotherapist as well as the client, as they can differ from one person to another with respect to their effectiveness. However, it is the responsibility of the therapist to make sure that the approach used by him would be appropriate for the particular client he is dealing with. Even though it is not expected of the therapist to specialize in all the approaches, he should at least have an idea about each one of them. In this paper, we will discuss the two most commonly used approaches; humanistic and biological and compare and contrast them with each other.

Biological approach

Psychologists and therapists who think that biological approach is the appropriate one are the ones who believe that the personality of the person is derived from the personality of their parents. In other words it can be said that they believe personality is a genetic subject. According to this approach, when a person is born, they have a certain foundation on which the personality is based later on. This belief contradicts the blank slate position of many therapists who believe that when a person is born, he or she does not have any personality but a person learns from the personality of his or her parents and the environment in which he or she is living.

It should be noted that the psychologists who use this approach do admit that biology is not the only factor influencing the personality development of a person, but they are of the view that the foundation of the personality is acquired from one's parents.

Personalities are not fully developed when a person is born; rather people are born with what can be called a temperament. This indicates a predisposition towards certain personality traits. However, this does not determine the personality of a person for the rest of his life. There are many ways to understand the temperament of the people, especially children by their actions. For example, when we observe the children who are playing, we can tell if they are inhibited or uninhibited. An inhibited child would be seen as a withdrawn one, who is only watching the others play and not participating much himself, meanwhile an uninhibited child will be moving around and interacting with others (Sawyer, 2009).

Humanistic Approach

Humanistic approach is not the same as biological approach as it explains that the control of the personalities is in the hands of the people. It states that people are responsible for their actions. Psychologists who make use of this approach are of the belief that no one else knows the person more than one knows oneself. They also believe that people are aware of the flaws of their personalities and how they can correct them. This belief is demonstrated by making use of the Q-sort test. In this test, the person who is being observed for personality development is given a dew cards that contain the description of different personalities. The client is then asked to arrange these cards according to what they feel and what describes them the best. This is one of the tools that are used by psychologists to test the personality of the people.

According to this approach, the personality of person is determined through their actions. For example, a person can choose to be evil or good by going for the right and wrong actions. The things that we consider as a "must-do" are a window through our personality, since they determine our priorities and choices in life and reflect our personality.

It is commonly seen that the people who are humanistic like to live one day at a time. They are not concerned about what has already happened in their past, neither are they worried about what is to come in the future. They enjoy the day that they are living in.

According to the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we find out that the humanistic approach can find its basis in the demand for therapy of people who are healthy. On the other hand, the Freudian approach is the one that is used to focus on the people who are mentally ill. Even though, humanistic approach is for mentally healthy people, Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests that these people have some personality issues that need to be sorted out before these people can attain self-actualization. Therefore, the main theme of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is that self-actualization can only be obtained once a person knows oneself (Vigil, 2002).

Comparison

The main difference between the two approaches is the determination of the factors that control the personality of the people. As for the humanistic approach, the personality is in control of the person and the conscious level of the people determines their personalities by their various actions. On the other hand, according to the biological approach, personality is developed by control of the genetics. In other words, it can be said that the humanistic approach is the conscious decision of the person to develop his or her personality, meanwhile biological approach is not. If we consider the biological approach, it can be concluded that personality is laid at the time of the birth; meanwhile humanistic approach suggests that the person himself or herself is responsible for the personality development.