Introduction
When characterizing human behavior, it might be difficult to distinguish between normal and aberrant development. The classification of products as usual or abnormal can be done in various ways. These comprise the use of data, conventional wisdom, a person’s emotions, and even physical harm. Using personality theories to examine typical and abnormal development is one approach. Here, various theories are employed to categorize multiple aspects of human development as either normal or abnormal. Three different views of personality will be used to distinguish between normal and abnormal growth in this instance. The psychoanalytic theory of personality covers both normal and abnormal development. According to this view, inner forces control one’s actions (Cummings et al., 2020). The hypothesis holds that this is because the mind is divided into two sections. The conscious mind is made up of things people are aware of, and the unconscious mind contains urges, memories, and thoughts that are not apparent to people.
Discussion
These cognitive domains regulate how people become psychologically conscious and active. Sometimes odd behavior may be a result of unconscious mental activity. The conscious or unconscious portions of the mind can affect normal and pathological growth. The method employed to reveal the unconscious functions of the brain is called psychoanalysis. This procedure conveys the unconscious mind’s contents to the conscious mind. Adlerian theory is another conjecture that describes development. According to this notion, a person’s behavior can be influenced by their social environment. Lifestyle, birth order, egalitarianism, and parental education are a few societal factors. This idea contends that sentiments of competence, encouragement, and praise promote healthy and constructive development. Consequently, this aspect could be regarded as a strength and weakness of the therapy.
The ease of influence during development suggests a chance for the difficulty in adjusting within the society. In part, it is attributable to cultural elements of the environment that shape one’s character. What is seen as a favorable quality in one culture may be viewed as a bad one in another, leading to a wide range of individual manifestations throughout the globe and even identity crises in a multicultural context.
People should be considered as a whole but their mind is complex. Famous psychologist Jung created the analytical theory which proposes a conscious and unconscious component to the human mind, according to Conklin (2018). Sublayers are further separated within the unconscious. Among these is the individual unconscious which keeps a person’s memories and experiences that the conscious part cannot access. This hypothesis could be considered as a challenge for further research and raise the difficulty for human understanding of the subconscious.
Moreover, the collective unconscious is the second layer. This layer contains inherited ancestry-based developmental predispositions. These are in charge of shared ancestry individuals’ actions. The creator of this idea describes human behavior using archetypes. One of these is the persona archetype or the characteristics of who one is willing to display to others. The shadow archetype is another aspect of oneself that one tries to conceal from others. However, the existence of the shadow archetype may point to the personality disgruntling of humans which may be unreasonable or challenging to overcome via therapy.
The analytic hypothesis states that all these factors contribute to average growth when they are in good working order. Atypical development occurs when one or more of these archetypes is dysfunctional. These three hypotheses describe how a person develops. The nature of this development can be either standard or aberrant, depending on the specifics of each theory. Depending on the implementation this knowledge could be used for developmental therapy to organize acceptance of personal self and development towards a healthier future which is advantageous.
Conclusion
In conclusion, despite the varying approaches to normal and abnormal personality development various questions remain unanswered as some people despite being put in a loving environment display cold and harsh qualities. In an attempt to better understand such processes this essay provided key theoretical hypotheses on the matter. It was identified that the approach is intriguing in terms of practical application and requires a high level of understanding which could be a weakness for the therapy.
References
Conklin, E. S. (2018). Principles of abnormal psychology. Routledge.
Cummings, E. M., Davies, P. T., & Campbell, S. B. (2020). Developmental psychopathology and family process: Theory, research, and clinical implications. Guilford Publications.