Strengths and Weaknesses of Personality Theories

Strengths of Psychodynamic Approach

• still influential worldwide

• early experiences do help shape you as a person

• the personality may conflict with demands of reality

• we do use defense mechanisms

Weakness of Psychodynamic Theory

• difficult to test empirically

• not representative of most people; freud chose a very limited observation group

• places too much emphasis on childhood, sexuality, and unconscious processes

Strengths of Trait Approaches

• allows for comparisons across clearly defined dimensions

• addresses stability over time and different contexts

Weaknesses of Trait Approaches

• overly simplistic

• tells us where pe

Strengths of Social-Cognitive Approaches

• blends behavioral learning theory and cognitive psychology

• accounts for the role of cultural values

Weaknesses of Social-Cognitive Approaches

• overly simplistic

• no account for unconscious