Amy Paulus
Personality Psychology
Dr. Parkhurst
4 December 2018
Personality Theory Comparison Paper
Lindsay Lohan has been a star since she was just a little kid. Her first major role was starring in The Parent Trap and from there continued to be a successful presence in Hollywood. In her teenage years, she starred in Mean Girls, one of her most well-known roles. Everyone expected Lindsay to stay in the spotlight and continue to do well in Hollywood. However, into her adult years, she began to abuse drugs and alcohol and made many bad decisions that got her into trouble with the law. After serving time and vowing to remain sober, Lindsay is leading a better life as a business owner. The behaviorist and humanist theories of psychology each offer their own version of what went wrong with Lindsay Lohan.
Lindsay Lohan was born July 2nd, 1986 in New York City to parents Dina and Michael Lohan. Lindsay has three younger siblings, all who have been in the entertainment industry. They lived in the suburbs of Long Island in an area that was considered wealthy. From the age of three, Lindsay started to model and appear in television commercials. Her parents separated around this time but later reunited only to separate again in 2005 and finalize their divorce in 2007. She appeared in over sixty television ads and over one hundred print ads throughout her childhood before landing the lead role in The Parent Trap. The success of The Parent Trap led Lindsay to star in more Disney films including Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, and Herbie: Fully Loaded. As her status grew, so did her attendance at clubs and bars. Lohan was eventually arrested for multiple drunk driving crashes and possession of illegal drugs. She entered rehab and kept a relatively low profile following rehab. Today she seems to be living a more responsible life. Lohan is the owner of a beach club in Greece and has plans to open up another one. There are also rumors that MTV will follow Lindsay and her team at the beach club and create a reality show from it (“Lindsay Lohan.”).
Behaviorism approaches see people as a result of their interactions with the environment. Behaviorism asserts that when we are born, our mind “is a blank slate-tabula rasa” and that from there our experiences sculpt our life (Friedman & Schustack, 2016 pg 132). The two main ways that behaviorism thinks we interact with the environment is through classical and operant conditioning. Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning through an experiment with his dogs. Pavlov presented food when he called the unconditioned stimulus, which caused salivation in the hungry dogs, which he called the unconditioned or automatic response. At the same time, Pavlov paired the food with something that normally did not cause salivation, such as a bell, which was called a neutral stimulus. Pavlov discovered that if he paired the food presentation and bell a number of times, eventually just the sound of the bell caused the dogs to salivate, which showed that the conditioned stimulus, the bell, came to elicit a conditioned response, salivation (pg 132). BF Skinner studied operant conditioning. Skinner believed that all of his adult behaviors were related to earlier reinforcement of his childhood behaviors, punishment or rewards. Skinner decided to try to show this type of behavior in animals. Skinner placed rats in a box and if they pressed one lever, they would get a treat. If the rats pressed the other lever, they would get shocked. The lever that released the treat was known as the positive reinforcer or reward and the lever that shocked was known as the negative reinforcer or punishment. Skinner also identified stimuli that did not increase or decrease the probability of the rats behaving in a certain way, known as the neutral reinforcement. Skinner believed that this is the same way that humans make decisions and shape our personalities (pg 138).
The behaviorist theory would believe that when Lindsay was born, her mind was a blank slate or what they termed as tabula rasa. Behaviorism would believe that from birth, Lindsay’s personality was being shaped by the positive and negative reinforcements following her behaviors. Lindsay's behaviors as an adult included copious alcohol use and the use of illegal drugs. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, Lindsay witnessed alcohol and drug use in Hollywood. Behaviorism theorist might suspect that because Lindsay saw these behaviors by others go unpunished, it was okay for her to do them as well. Once she started using alcohol and drugs and was not punished by her parents, she continued to use them and eventually become reliant on them. The effects of the drugs and alcohol could make Lindsay feel that it was a positive reinforcement since she was feeling good while doing them, she should keep doing them. This type of reinforcement would be considered operant conditioning, which is the one that Skinner researched since she was essentially positively rewarded for underage drinking and drug use. She could also see the media attention from her reckless behavior has a positive reinforcement because some people believe that all press is good press, and therefore furthering her acting career. Lindsay was also never punished for her reckless behavior. Each time she was arrested, she would somehow get out of serving the entire sentence and would only serve part of it, instilling a perspective that she will never have to pay the consequences of her actions.
Humanism is a “philosophical movement that emphasizes the personal worth of the individual and the centrality of human values” (pg 207). Humanistic approaches include important views from psychologists Erich Fromm, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow. Fromm believed that love is a very important part of our lives that requires knowledge, effort, and experience. Fromm believed that love was the answer to the problem of human existence. Fromm believed that “love alone enables us to overcome our isolation from others but still maintain our individual integrity” (pg. 210). Erich Fromm traced human behavior to a “conscious person with certain needs existing within a network of societal demands” (pg 211). Carl Rogers “believed that people have an inherent tendency toward growth and maturation. But this maturation is not inevitable” (pg 211). Rogers agreed with the idea of the maturity principle. This principle asserts that most adults move toward a better functioning, more mature and emotionally stable personality as they age (pg 212). Rogers also had a great influence in the way that therapy is conducted. He created the Rogerian approach in which the therapist is “empathic, supportive, and nondirective” (pg 212). Also apart of his theory is that in order for changes in the patient are to be made there are two things that have to happen. First, the therapist has to display unconditional positive regard. Second, the therapist must show empathy and that they understand the problems with the patient. Abraham Maslow identified a hierarchy of needs in which people go through in order to reach self-actualization. Maslow identified this hierarchy because, in order reach self-actualization, you cannot also be concerned with satisfying other basic needs like food and safety. In order to reach self-actualization, you first must satisfy your physiological needs like hunger and thirst. Next, you must satisfy your safety needs like feeling secure and out of danger. The next tier is that you must satisfy your needs of belongingness and love such as being accepted among others. Next, you must satisfy your esteem needs which are needs like gaining approval and recognition. The next tier requires you to satisfy your cognitive needs like understanding and exploring. Once you have satisfied all of those needs you can finally start to begin self-actualization and satisfy the needs like appreciating order and beauty (pg 219).
Lindsay grew up with a lot of conflict in her life. Her parents divorced when she was only three years old and she lived in a household full of conflict between the two parents. Since she also had three other siblings that needed to also be looked after, Lindsay might have felt abandoned or unloved by her parents. According to Erich Fromm, Lindsay might have been missing the love that she needed as a child in order to grow into a healthy, functioning adult. Without the love that Lindsay needed growing up, Fromm would assert that is the reasoning behind Lindsay's tumultuous actions. Fromm would think that she is acting out in order to get the love and attention from her parents that she craved as a child. Carl Rogers would have a similar outlook on Lindsay. Rogers would also think that she was missing out on the love and attention that her parents should give her. Rogers would have also suggested therapy for Lindsay after her parents divorced so that she would have someone to empathize with her and give her their full attention to her problems that she was missing at home. If Lindsay would have had the therapy that Rogers created, she might have avoided becoming dependent on alcohol and drugs. Since Rogers believed that we all have a tendency to move towards growth, he would believe that Lindsay would eventually become a more responsible adult even with what she has gone through, which she did by eventually becoming a successful business owner. Abraham Maslow would also have a similar outlook on Lindsay’s life. Maslow might say that since she has not satisfied the hierarchy of needs tier that requires love and belonging because of her relationship with her parents. So, she is stuck there and will not get closer to reaching self-actualization until she fulfills that need.
The humanistic and behaviorist psychological points of view are both very different but have some similar ideas. Both views would agree that there was something wrong in Lindsay’s home environment surrounding her relationship with her parents that contributed to her later actions as an adult. However, the way that the home environment caused Lindsay’s actions is different. Behaviorism believes it is because she was not punished for her wrong actions by her parent whereas humanism would say that she was acting out because she felt unloved by her parents. Both theories also agree that there could have been some sort of intervention in order to change the course of Lindsay’s life. Humanism would say that if Rogerian therapy was introduced she might have made different decisions because she would get the love and understanding that she was acting out for. Behaviorism would say that if she started to be punished for the bad and rewarded for the good earlier rather than later then she also might have made different decisions because she would have rather been rewarded than punished.
The humanism and behaviorism theories might help explain the root cause of Lindsay’s behavior during her young adult years, but there are things that we do not know about Lindsay that could be the actual cause of her behavior. Both theories have their own limits and criticisms that might alter the way each theory would diagnose Lindsay today. Even though Lindsay started off life in a rough patch and experienced a series of traumatic events, she seems to be in a better place now where she can be happy and healthy and lead a successful business and safe social life.
Works Cited
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2016). Personality: Classic theories and modern
research. Boston: Pearson.
“Lindsay Lohan.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 9 Aug. 2018,
www.biography.com/people/lindsay-lohan-16599978.