Theoretical Account of Oprah Winfrey's Personality

Introduction

Leaders emerge from all forms of work in life. They are people who direct others to achieve a common objective, by being icons and establishing an environment where all individuals feel actively incorporated in the whole procedure of achieving such goals. There are numerous women leaders who have been prosperous just like men such as who often intervene for those suffering and campaign for human rights as well as those who have struggled to reach where they are with a desire to transform the society, for instance, Oprah Gail Winfrey. She is one of the most influential and richest women globally. However, her power and wealth did not come easily. Winfrey had an extremely challenging life while growing and she did not have much money. She often worked hard with acting and hosting passion which has ensured her success in her Oprah Winfrey Show and surprisingly, she is the main host in this show. She is good at what she performs and influential through the manner she reached where she is as powerful woman, particularly in the social media. She has made a significant impact in the lives of many women in all parts of the world. Oprah has established awareness on many social, sensitive matters via her personality which is the primary motivation to acknowledge more about her using Psychoanalytic theory and Eysenck's Trait Theory.

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Account of Oprah Winfrey Life Experiences

Childhood and Early Life

She was born on 29th January 1954 in Mississippi a place known as Kosciusko. Her parents had separated immediately after her conception. She lived with her grandmother in Milwaukee from the age of three until she was fourteen years. She taught Oprah how to read at her tender age of three. Additionally, Oprah was cleverer and intelligent compared to her age mates while growing (Gilmore, 2010). Nevertheless, she began experiencing issues as she became older and prettier. She faced considerable hardship in her childhood. For instance, due to the absence of close supervision of her mother who was a maid, she was abused, molested, and raped by her family friend, uncle, and cousin, at the age of five. This made her ran away, but at the age of thirteen, she was sent to juvenile detention. However, her admission was repudiated due to lack of vacant beds.

During her adolescent years, at the age of fourteen years, Oprah use to date around. She also never talked much regarding her past, for example, stories concerning her mother and siblings to her friends and boyfriend. Unluckily, she got pregnant and did not even inform her boyfriend. She had no desired of aborting it since she held that abortion was an act of murder. She gave birth to a baby boy. Unfortunately, it died. Her mother sent Oprah to live with her father in Vernon in Nashville. Her father, Vermon Winfrey, acted as a disciplinary who desired to see Oprah educated (Gilmore, 2010). For instance, he saw that she followed a midnight curfew, and demanded her to write book reports after reading them every week. While at school at the age of nineteen years, she started her television occupation in WTVT-TV, where she performed as the new anchor. Later, she was popular, particularly among her audiences. However, at this period she writhed with weight complications while aiding various individuals who experienced similar complications (Gilmore, 2010). Over the decades, she has motivated a big population not only in America but also in other parts of the globe. She has additionally established different organizations which handle children and women problems in the U.S and other nations. Oprah through her talk shows she has greatly inspired many individuals in fighting evil as well as their rights which influence humans' lives (Cheers, 2017).

Theoretical Analysis of Oprah's Personality

Psychoanalytic Theory

It was established by Sigmund Freud which is a significant model that can be applied to Oprah Winfrey to assess her most of her childhood experiences to comprehend how her personality from her early life influenced her adult life. Freud concentrated on the idea of the unconscious where he divided the human mind into preconscious, unconscious, and conscious (Fairbairn, 2013). Additionally, he further categorized human personality into Super-ego, Ego, and Id. The Superego encompasses moral conscience while the Id comprises primitive emotions and desires. On the other hand, the Ego acts as an equilibrium between Super-ego and Id. Therefore, in Oprah's case, Sigmund Freud would say that Winfrey had an overactive Id, particularly when she participated in sexual behavior. Additionally, at puberty which according to Freud is the latent period, she participated in immoral acts as a way of satisfying her sexual desires (Fairbairn, 2013). While evaluated in terms of psychoanalytical theory, this is centered on the concept which states that Id functions in relation to pleasure principle demand in efforts to fulfill pleasure while decreasing inner tension. Therefore, she got pregnant at fourteen years due to the sexual abuse and immoral behavior she indulged. During this era, having a child prior to marriage was regarded as wrong. Even though she faced social rules and pressures of the super-ego, they did not have any impact in keeping the pregnancy. Freud may argue that Oprah Winfrey had a weak ego since her individual victimization stopped from aborting the infant as influenced by the reality principle of having a child before marriage (Fairbairn, 2013).

Additionally, during her adolescent years which Freud described it started at six years up to puberty, Oprah dated around which lead to her pregnancy at fourteen years. This can be seen as sexual promiscuity which is an illustration of directing sexual tension which came from her experience towards a different target. Additionally, this is an exemplar of displacement that Freud talks about in his theory. He defines displacement as a shifting an individual's unconscious anxiety to a diverse target. Freud held that such issues that develop within a person should be released. Therefore, Oprah utilized food as a way to decrease her internal tension. She had also confessed that she consumed much of her time in repression and denial. For instance, she was inspired to begin her life all over again. Therefore, she used to hide her pregnancy. This is an example of repression which Freud states it is a means of pushing away ideas and judgments from the unconscious mind (Fairbairn, 2013). Additionally, the act of Oprah not wanting to talk about her past and hiding it from her close friends, Freud can argue it is a form of denial which he defined as refusing to accept unease-provoking stimuli. This is because Oprah, for instance, did not want to acknowledge that she was born of unmarried parents. However, her drive and inspiration to success sprout from a willingness to reimburse her home life and past experiences.

Eysenck's Trait Theory

Dr. Hans Eysenck developed a Trait theory where he concentrated on innate, genetically centered personality distinctions (Eysenck, 2013). He formulated his model from a framework where he believed that biology was the greatest personality determinant. He centered his theory on three typical personality scales which encompassed socialization vs. psychoticism, stability vs. neuroticism, and introversion vs. extroversion. The most significant scales which can be used to comprehend Oprah Winfrey's personality using Eysenck's Trait Theory is introversion vs. extraversion. Eysenck (2013), gives a description of extroversion as the path of libido towards components in the outside environment. On the other hand, he described introversion as libido focused towards interior environment. In Oprah's case, she had numerous friends while in high school. A characteristic of extroverted personality which encompasses easily establishing new friendships with others. Nonetheless, she also revealed the introverted characteristics of her personality which ensured she was not emotionally swayed by others. Additionally, Oprah's sexual abuse emotionally affected her since she hid this component of her life from her family and friends. This furthermore can be seen to be the primary reason why she had a challenging period during her adolescent age. Even though she experienced challenging occurrences in her childhood and adolescent, her personality was evident in college. She had a hardworking and outgoing personality which aided her to secure different TV hosting occupations.

Additionally, through Eysenck's Trait Theory, Oprah's personality undoubtedly demonstrates signs of taking the highest degree of extraversion and agreeableness (Eysenck, 2013). The agreeableness trait quantifies the tendency of a person in being friendly or detached. Oprah has made agreeableness trait the basis from which all her performances, shows, and charitable causes sprout form. For instance, various sources claim that she has donated approximately $350 million of her salary to different charities. Conversely, people could anticipate that a person acknowledges as being among the greatest public and communicator personalities could reveal high levels of extraversion. Furthermore, this extraversion displays itself as sociability, assertiveness, surgency, positive emotions, and energy as well as talkativeness (Eysenck, 2013). Winfrey have mastered the art form of utilizing her naturally available personality to inject it to her shows in a manner to create an emotional attachment with all her viewers which would subconsciously appear like an individual friendship. Additionally, Oprah's utilization of self-disclosure that express that how her personal life had been since she was young is the basic to create patterns of friendship with her viewers who are mainly comprised of females.

Reasons for Psychoanalytic and Eysenck's Trait Theories in Oprah's Case

In order to understand why different pioneers chose the psychoanalytic theory established by Sigmund Freud, one should consider some of the features which make it great. For instance, the primary reason for its choice was because it could withstand the test of time, fit with other philosophies, and be applied in concrete manners (Fonagy & Target, 2014). Additionally, according to many scholars, a good theory is acknowledged by different researchers, lead to new concepts and theories, can be generalized, and is falsifiable. Psychoanalytic theory matches the majority of these criteria which also one of the primary reason to help the scholars in the analysis of Oprah's personality. Freud theory is also comprehensive. It can be used in the analysis of Oprah's personality which falls under the psychological or therapeutic field, to describe all mental functioning as well as the nature of her development. Moreover, most scholars chose to help them in the analysis since it can be utilized to explain an infinite array of ideas external to the psychological field realm. On the other hand, although Eysenck's in his Trait Theory observes disposition personality as key centered on genetics and physiology, he additionally weaves the significance of conditioning and learning the manner both disposition and personalities are formed (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015). This is the main reason why various scholar chose his theory in explaining Oprah's personality. The theory additionally, creates benchmarks which can be used to determine the appropriate leaders just as Oprah leads most women through her show.

Limitations of Psychoanalytic and Eysenck's Trait Theories

Although the psychoanalytic theory has many strengthens which it made appropriate for the analysis of Oprah's personality, Sigmund Freud had some limitations in describing his target. His theory has a narrow focus. This is because he paid less focus on the effect of...