Individual Reflection

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According to Monash University (2015), Behavioural studies’ main purpose is to have students develop insight into their own behaviour and motivations and those of others, making them socially acute and interpersonally effective workers. As a student of ‘Personality Beyond Persona” myself, writing an individual reflection gives me the opportunity to express my personal thoughts and feelings about what I learnt and how much I have enjoyed the unit. This is very important in my learning approach because it gives me the opportunity to apply this knowledge to the real world that could potentially make a difference for me in various ways. These ways will be elaborated further in the reflection. In this unit, three theorists have had a significant impact on my perception of the world; Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. To me, they are like three wizards who have magically led me into the way towards an eye opening introspection. Being 21 years old and having stepped into university life, like many others, I am still in the search of my true identity because I am still not quite sure what type of a person I actually am. This unit has helped me understand the theoretical aspects of personality which I can relate to me own lifestyle. I have grown to be an admirer of the three theorists who’s theories have been immensely touching and inspiring. This is why, in my reflection, I will explore my thoughts and feelings about some of Freud, Maslow and Rogers’ theories of personality and how it has impacted me.

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis’ interesting theories of behavioural attributes led me to the interest of knowing more about his concepts. Although he has had an enormous amount of criticism about his theories, it did not stop me from admiring his brilliance in thinking. His idea of Id, Ego and Superego made perfect sense to me. It was simple, notable and relatable. Being a Muslim and a strong believer of God, I could link Id, Ego and Superego to my beliefs, where I distinguish my wrong decisions I make and why I might make them. I can relate Id with the manipulative tactics of Satan; the uncontrollable, irresistible hunger and temptation towards the ‘forbidden’ and ‘bad’, such as unhealthy junk food, smoking, alcohol, sexual drives, clubbing, which sums up to basically seeking pleasure and enjoyment Superego is like my alternate self, the side of me that is not affected my Satan that tells me not to do such things and reminds me of the rules and where my loyalties and priorities lie. It reminds me of my culture and religion and tries to direct to the right path. Ego is my practical side telling me what is good for myself. Ego is also my conscious that decides what I do. In addition, I think that in between my wrong doings, which could be due to anxiety or impulse, I use Freudian defence mechanism to explain my mistakes. For example, for most cases I use ‘rationalization’, where I try to come up with a rational explanation for why I did it; such as, when I eat McDonalds, I tell myself that I am eating to get energy and save time for study; whereas I eat McDonalds because I love burgers (Lilienfield, 2011). In addition, I use “intellectualization” where to avoid melancholy; I quickly start focusing on abstract thoughts. To such degree, I learnt more and more about my personality.

Freudian psychology was very interesting to me so I decided to pick his topic for my group project work. I was very enthusiastic about working on someone who I found this interesting. However, I had a few struggles during my group work where I did not get sufficient equal amount of work from everyone. It was frustrating researching on Freud’s unconscious theory and then switching to Freud’s influence on the modern culture in the last minute just because one of the members did not understand their part clearly. It was my idea to switch because I did not want to put my group members through a part that they could potentially not do well in, which could jeopardize our report. It was also frustrating doing the entire poster by myself and working for hours straight till 4am while others only had to send their bullet points which I copy pasted on the poster. I agreed to take that workload because I wanted to make sure that I made the perfect themed poster that shows the Freudian look. I spent an hour in photo-shop software where I edited every photo, including making one of the photo’s background transparent using advanced tools. I felt it was unfair for me to do so much work both in the report; where I collated, proof read, wrote the conclusion and fixed the APA formatting including the handing indents in every reference; nevertheless, I ended up feeling like it was worth it. I felt happy and glad when I finally put the poster up for presentation. Working in a group has enhanced my  leadership skills and responsibility as a student and a learner.

Besides feeling the pressure of group work and immersed in Freudian knowledge, as the weeks flew by, week 7 refreshed my mind. I learnt about a great man, the founder and spiritual leader of Humanistic Psychology called Abraham Maslow. (Schultz & Schultz, 2012). This was surprising and ironic for me because Maslow critiqued Sigmund’s Freud’s approach to personality (Schultz & Schultz, 2012). I think that Abraham Maslow was a great person. I felt grief learning about his difficult, unhappy childhood struggling against parents, especially his mother. Maslow’s theory fascinated me with his beautiful way of explaining personality; he introduced ‘The Hierarchy of Needs’ that direct human behaviour (Maslow, 1968, 1970b; as cited in Schultz & Schultz, 2012). According to my understanding and interpretation, the hierarchy of needs are the five most important things that can fundamentally make us the happiest and satisfied to the highest extent. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs inspired me to make a plan about my own life in the long run. Besides managing food, the main aspect I focused on was my safety and security where I study well for this unit and other units to get good grades and eventually get a good job that can ensure my financial stability and security. This could lead me to a more socially acceptable place with a good social surrounding which could contribute to fulfil my self-esteem, leading me to the peak of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, hence attempt to being self-actualized, which would be my most comfortable and satisfying place in life. It was almost as if Maslow has left us a formula to a happy life. That is partly why I got motivated to study harder in this unit to be one step closer to that ‘stability’. Taking into account that Maslow survived the hardships from his parents and his childhood life, still remaining ambitious, becoming an excellent well-known theorist has inspired me a lot and taught me not lose hope and should keep trying to do best of myself and work harder no matter the obstacles.