Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Jung: Analytical
Psychology
(^138) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
132 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
Concept of Humanity
Jung saw humans as complex beings with many opposing poles. His view of hu-
manity was neither pessimisticnor optimistic,neither deterministicnor purposive.
To him, people are motivated partly by consciousthoughts, partly by images from
their personal unconscious,and partly by latent memory traces inherited from
their ancestral past. Their motivation comes from both causal and teleological
factors.
The complex makeup of humans invalidates any simple or one-sided descrip-
tion. According to Jung, each person is a composition of opposing forces. No one
is completely introverted or totally extraverted; all male or all female; solely a
postulated to account for them, Jung is the only modern personality theorist to make
a serious attempt to include such a broad scope of human activity within a single the-
oretical framework. For these reasons, we have given Jung’s theory a moderate rat-
ing on its ability to organize knowledge.
A fourth criterion of a useful theory is its practicality. Does the theory aid
therapists, teachers, parents, or others in solving everyday problems? The theory of
psychological types or attitudes and the MBTI are used by many clinicians, but the
usefulness of most analytical psychology is limited to those therapists who subscribe
to basic Jungian tenets. The concept of a collective unconscious does not easily lend
itself to empirical research, but it may have some usefulness in helping people un-
derstand cultural myths and adjust to life’s traumas. Overall, however, we can give
Jung’s theory only a low rating in practicality.
Is Jung’s theory of personality internally consistent?Does it possess a set of
operationally defined terms? The first question receives a qualified affirmative an-
swer; the second, a definite negative one. Jung generally used the same terms con-
sistently, but he often employed several terms to describe the same concept. The
words regressionand introvertedare so closely related that they can be said to de-
scribe the same process. This is also true of progressionand extraverted,and the list
could be expanded to include several other terms such as individuation and self-
realization,which also are not clearly differentiated. Jung’s language is often arcane,
and many of his terms are not adequately defined. As for operational definitions,
Jung, like other early personality theorists, did not define terms operationally. There-
fore, we rate his theory as low on internal consistency.
The final criterion of a useful theory is parsimony.Jung’s psychology is not
simple, but neither is human personality. However, because it is more cumbersome
than necessary, we can give it only a low rating on parsimony. Jung’s proclivity for
searching for data from a variety of disciplines and his willingness to explore his
own unconscious, even beneath the personal level, contribute to the great complexi-
ties and the broad scope of his theory. The law of parsimony states, “When two the-
ories are equally useful, the simpler one is preferred.” In fact, of course, no two are
ever equal, but Jung’s theory, while adding a dimension to human personality not
greatly dealt with by others, is probably more complex than necessary.