Psychological Disorders and Personality Theories of Behaviors
The three areas that I found interesting in this week’s topics include Freud’s explanation of personality development, criteria for establishing abnormal behavior and antisocial personality disorder. Freud offers an explanation of the personality development of an individual, which he identifies three parts namely, Id (present at birth), ego (develops after three years of life) and superego (starts developing at the age of five). Concerning the issue of abnormal behavior, I gained insight on the criteria used to determine abnormality. Abnormal behavior is characteristic of violation of social norms, the statistical rarity of the behavior, personal distress and maladaptive behavior (Carter, 2016). Lastly, the antisocial personality disorder is one in which an individual cannot initiate and maintain social relationships. Instead, one draws away from people as far as possible.
The idea that I can relate to my personal life is the one of Freud’s theory of personality development. That is the case given that overexpression of either Id or superego personality in my life has a huge implication to my wellbeing. For example, Id will mediate pleasure-seeking principle, which in real life situations can result in a reckless way of living. On the contrary, overreliance on the superego can also be detrimental, as it will make me very moralistic who can only draw satisfaction from abiding the societal norms (Carter, 2016). As such, with this knowledge, it is clear that I have to rely more on the ego personality to help balance the other two personalities.
Finally, the criteria for diagnosing abnormal behavior are of utmost importance to my work life. That is for a fact because I do not want to surrender to the issue of labeling my colleague’s ways of doing things as abnormal without testing to see if indeed the behavior is strange. With this tool, it is possible to make accurate diagnosis since the tool is tailored for that purpose (Carter, 2016). Clearly, with such a provision, it is beyond doubt that fair hearing and assessment of issues will become inevitable.
Reference
Carter, K. (2016). Learn Psychology (1st Ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
