Continuing our ASWB exam content outline sojourn, we come to this: Personality theories. What about personality theories? Let's theorize about what the ASWB is looking for and how the material may appear on the social work exam.

Psychodynamic Theories

  • Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

    • Emphasizes the role of the unconscious mind, early childhood experiences, and innate drives, particularly sexual and aggressive impulses.
    • Divides the psyche into three parts: the Id (primitive desires), Ego (rational thinking), and Superego (moral standards).
    • Introduces the stages of psychosexual development: Oral (pleasure centers on the mouth), Anal (pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder control), Phallic (focus on genitalia), Latency (dormant sexual feelings), and Genital (maturation of sexual interests).
    • Key concepts include defense mechanisms (e.g., repression, denial) and the Oedipus complex.

  • Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory

    • Extends Freud’s ideas to emphasize social and environmental factors across the lifespan.
    • Proposes eight stages of development, each characterized by a specific conflict that must be resolved:
      • Trust vs. Mistrust (infancy)
      • Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (early childhood)
      • Initiative vs. Guilt (preschool)
      • Industry vs. Inferiority (school age)
      • Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence)
      • Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)
      • Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
      • Integrity vs. Despair (old age)
    • Resolution of these conflicts leads to the development of strengths, such as hope, will, and fidelity.

Behavioral Theories

  • B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

    • Focuses on how behavior is influenced by its consequences through reinforcement and punishment.
    • Positive reinforcement (e.g., rewards) increases the likelihood of a behavior recurring, while punishment (e.g., consequences) decreases it.
    • Introduces concepts such as shaping (reinforcing successive approximations of a behavior) and schedules of reinforcement (fixed vs. variable, ratio vs. interval).

  • John Watson’s Classical Conditioning

    • Explores how behavior is learned through associations between stimuli.
    • Demonstrated in the famous experiment with Little Albert, where a child was conditioned to fear a white rat by pairing it with a loud noise.
    • Key concepts include unconditioned stimulus (naturally elicits a response), conditioned stimulus (learned association), and conditioned response (learned response to the conditioned stimulus).

Humanistic Theories

  • Carl Rogers’ Person-Centered Theory

    • Centers on the self-concept and the belief that individuals have an inherent drive toward growth and fulfillment.
    • Emphasizes the importance of unconditional positive regard (acceptance without judgment), empathy, and genuineness in therapeutic relationships.
    • Suggests that incongruence between the self-concept and experiences can lead to psychological distress.

  • Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

    • Proposes a hierarchy of human needs, with basic physiological needs at the base and self-actualization at the top.
    • Levels include physiological needs (food, water), safety needs (security, stability), love and belonging needs (relationships, affection), esteem needs (self-respect, recognition), and self-actualization (realizing one’s potential, creativity).
    • Asserts that lower-level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs can be addressed.

Cognitive Theories

  • Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory

    • Describes how children’s thinking evolves through four stages:
      • Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2 years): Understanding the world through sensory experiences and physical interactions.
      • Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years): Development of language and symbolic thinking but with egocentric and illogical thought processes.
      • Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years): Logical thinking about concrete events, mastery of the concept of conservation.
      • Formal Operational Stage (11 years and up): Ability to think abstractly, reason logically, and plan for the future.
    • Emphasizes the role of schemas (mental frameworks) in organizing and interpreting information.

  • Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

    • Focuses on learning through observation, imitation, and modeling.
    • Introduces the concept of self-efficacy, which refers to an individual’s belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations.
    • Stresses the importance of reciprocal determinism, where personal factors, behavior, and the environment influence each other.

Attachment Theories

  • John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

    • Explores the bond between children and their primary caregivers and its impact on future relationships.
    • Proposes that secure attachment in early childhood leads to healthier social and emotional development.
    • Identifies four main attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized, each influencing how individuals relate to others in adulthood.

  • Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

    • A research method used to assess the attachment styles of infants by observing their reactions to the presence and absence of their caregivers.
    • Securely attached children show distress when the caregiver leaves but are comforted upon their return.
    • Insecurely attached children may display ambivalence, avoidance, or disorganization in their responses.

Social-Cognitive Theories

Chances are you don't need to know these by theorist, but just in case...

  • Walter Mischel’s Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS)

    • Proposes that personality is a complex system of cognitive and emotional processes that interact with situational factors to produce behavior.
    • Emphasizes the importance of understanding how individuals perceive, interpret, and respond to different situations.
    • Suggests that behavior is not consistent across all situations but varies depending on the context.

  • Julian Rotter’s Locus of Control

    • Refers to an individual’s belief about the degree of control they have over their life events.
    • Internal Locus of Control: Belief that outcomes are the result of one’s own actions and decisions.
    • External Locus of Control: Belief that outcomes are determined by external forces, such as luck, fate, or other people.
    • Influences how individuals approach challenges and their overall sense of agency.

These rest of these are unlikely to show up on the licensing exam (maybe a .00001% chance)--but just in case you're interested...

Self-Theories

  • Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology

    • Focuses on the exploration of the unconscious mind, including the collective unconscious, which is shared among all humans and contains archetypes (universal symbols and themes).
    • Introduces the process of individuation, where individuals integrate different aspects of their personality to achieve self-realization.
    • Emphasizes the importance of balancing opposing forces within the psyche, such as the anima and animus (feminine and masculine aspects of the personality).

  • Karen Horney’s Neurotic Needs Theory

    • Proposes that neurotic behavior stems from basic anxiety, which arises from feelings of helplessness and insecurity.
    • Identifies 10 neurotic needs or coping strategies, such as the need for affection, power, or social recognition, which individuals use to manage their anxiety.
    • Emphasizes the role of social and cultural factors in shaping personality and psychological health.

Trait Theories

  • Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory

    • Focuses on identifying and measuring individual personality traits, which are consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
    • Classifies traits into three levels:
      • Cardinal Traits: Dominant traits that influence almost all of a person’s behaviors (e.g., a passion for justice).
      • Central Traits: General characteristics found in varying degrees in every person (e.g., honesty, sociability).
      • Secondary Traits: Traits that appear in specific situations (e.g., preferences, attitudes).

  • The Five-Factor Model (Big Five Personality Traits)

    • Describes personality through five broad dimensions:
      • Openness to Experience: Creativity, curiosity, and willingness to explore new experiences.
      • Conscientiousness: Organization, dependability, and attention to detail.
      • Extraversion: Sociability, assertiveness, and enthusiasm.
      • Agreeableness: Compassion, cooperation, and trustworthiness.
      • Neuroticism: Tendency toward emotional instability, anxiety, and moodiness.
    • Widely used in personality assessments and research.

On the Exam

What will theory questions look like on the social work exam? Something like these:

  • A client has recently begun therapy and is struggling with feelings of emptiness and a lack of direction in life. They report that, despite achieving professional success, they feel disconnected from their true self and unsure of their purpose. Which concept from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs might this client be struggling with?

  • During a therapy session, a client discusses their difficulty in forming and maintaining close relationships. They describe a pattern of pushing others away whenever they start to feel vulnerable. Based on Bowlby’s Attachment Theory, which attachment style might this client exhibit?

  • A social worker is using cognitive-behavioral techniques to help a client who struggles with low self-esteem. The client tends to focus on negative feedback and dismiss positive comments, leading to a negative self-concept. Which cognitive concept is most relevant to this client’s situation?

You get the idea. (Answers, by the way: Self-Actualization, Avoidant Attachment, Cognitive Distortions.) 

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August 21, 2024
Categories :
  knowledge  
  theory  
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