reaction to the events we encounter. But the point is that behavior is not
solely a function of the situation. The fear we experience while watching afrightening movie is the result of the film, but the different ways we each ex-
press or deal with that fear come from within.
SIX APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY
What are the sources of consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal pro-
cesses? This is the basic question asked by personality theorists and research-
ers. One reason for the length of this book is that personality psychologists
have answered this question in many different ways. To help make sense of
the wide range of personality theories proposed over the past century, we ’ll
look at six general approaches to explaining personality. These are the psy-
choanalytic approach, the trait approach, the biological approach, the hu-manistic approach, the behavioral/social learning approach, and the cognitive
approach. Although the fit is not always perfect, each of the major theories of
personality can be placed into one of these six general approaches.
But why so many theories of personality? This question can be answered
by way of analogy. Nearly everyone has heard the story about the five blindmen who encounter an elephant. Each feels a different part of the animal andthen tries to explain to the others what an elephant is like. The blind man
feeling the leg describes the elephant as tall and round. Another feels the ear
and claims an elephant is thin and flat, whereas another, holding onto the
trunk, describes the animal as long and slender. The man feeling the tail and
the one touching the elephant ’s side have still different images. The point to
this story, of course, is that each man knows only a part of the whole animal.
Because there is more to the elephant than what he has experienced, each
man’s description is correct but incomplete.
In one sense, the six approaches to personality are analogous to the blind
men. That is, each approach does seem to correctly identify and examine animportant aspect of human personality. For example, psychologists who sub-
scribe to the psychoanalytic approach argue that people’ s unconscious minds
are largely responsible for important differences in their behavior styles. Other
psychologists, those who favor the trait approach, identify where a person
might lie along a continuum of various personality characteristics. Psychologists
advocating the biological approach point to inherited predispositions and physi-
ological processes to explain individual differences in personality. In contrast,those promoting the humanistic approach identify personal responsibility and
feelings of self-acceptance as the key causes of differences in personality.
Behavioral/social learning theorists explain consistent behavior patterns as
the result of conditioning and expectations. Those promoting the cognitive
approach look at differences in the way people process information to ex-
plain differences in behavior.
It’s tempting to suggest that by combining all six approaches we can ob-
tain the larger, accurate picture of why people act the way they do. Unfortu-nately, the blind men analogy is only partially applicable to the six approaches
to personality. Although different appr oaches to a given issue in personalitySix Approaches to Personality 5