what theories inform our understanding of personality?
Allport's theory of personality emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and the internal cognitive and motivational processes that influence behavior. For example, intelligence, temperament, habits, skills, attitudes, and traits.
Freud's Tripartite Theory of Personality. Freud (1923) saw the personality structured into three parts (i.e. tripartite), the id, ego and superego (also known as the psyche), all developing at different stages in our lives. These are systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical. The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality.
For this reason, social-cognitive theorists have devoted extensive effort to identifying the mechanisms of personality that either foster or inhibit change. According to Schwarz (2001), the social cognitive theory of personality considers change to be comprised of two distinct processes that must be deployed in stages.