THEORIES OF PERSONALITY NOTES
Source: Feist & Feist, 7th Ed
What Is Personality?
- It originated from the word persona, referring to a
theatrical mask worn by Roman actors in Greek
dramas.
- Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent
traits and unique characteristics that give both
consistency and individuality to a person’s
behavior.
- A theory of personality is an organized attempt
to describe and explain how personalities develop
and why personalities differ. (Plotnik, 2009)
- Traits contribute to individual differences in
behavior, consistency of behavior over time, and
stability of behavior across situations.
- Characteristics are unique qualities of an
individual that include such attributes as
temperature, physique, and intelligence.
A useful theory:
(1) generates research
(2) is falsifiable
(3) organizes data
(4) guides action
(5) is internally consistent
(6) is parsimonious
Dimensions for Concept of Humanity
(1) determinism vs. free choice - Are people’s
behaviors determined by forces over which they
have no control, or can people choose to be what
they wish to be?
(2) pessimism vs. optimism - Are people
doomed to live miserable, conflicted, and troubled
lives, or can they change and grow into
psychologically healthy, happy, fully functioning
human beings?
(3) causality vs. teleology - Briefly, causality
holds that behavior is a function of past
experiences, whereas teleology is an explanation
of behavior in terms of future goals or purposes.
(4) conscious vs. unconscious - Are people
ordinarily aware of what they are doing and why
they are doing it, or do unconscious forces
impinge on them and drive them to act without
awareness of these underlying forces?
(5) biological vs. social – nature-nurture issue
(6) uniqueness vs. similarities – Is the salient
feature of people their individuality, or their
common characteristics?
SIGMUND FREUD: Psychoanalysis
Hysteria - a disorder typically characterized by
paralysis or improper functioning of certain parts of
the body. (Jean Martin-Charcot)
Catharsis – the process of removing hysterical
symptoms through “talking them out” (Josef
Breuer)
Free Association Technique & Hypnosis –
principal therapeutic techniques used by Freud
Interpretation of Dreams – Freud’s greatest work
Phylogenetic Endowment – a portion of our
unconscious originates from the experiences of
our early ancestors that have been passed on to
us through hundreds generations of repetition
Provinces of the Mind
(1) Id – serves the “pleasure principle”. It has no
contact with the reality, it strives constantly to
reduce tension by satisfying basic desires.
(2) Ego – governed by the “reality principle”. The
only region in the mind in contact with reality. It
reconciles the blind, irrational claims of the id.
(3) Superego – guided by the “moralistic
principle”. Basically unrealistic in its demands for
perfection because it has no contact with reality.
- It has two subsystems:
(a) conscience – results from experiences
with punishments for improper behavior
and tells us what we ‘should not do’
(b) ego-ideal – develops from experiences
with rewards for proper behavior and tells
us what we ‘should do’
Guilt results when the ego acts contrary to the
moral standards of the superego. A function of
conscience.
Feelings of inferiority arise when the ego is
unable to meet the superego’s standards of
perfection. A function of ego-ideal.
Dynamics of Personality
(1) Drive
- an internal stimulus that operates as a constant
motivational force
Sex Drive or Eros
- erogenous zones: genitals, mouth, and anus
Forms/Manifestations:
(a1) primary narcissism – libido exclusively
invested on their own ego, a universal condition
(a2) secondary narcissism – Not universal, but a
moderate degree of self-love is common to nearly
every one. Here narcissistic libido is transformed
into object libido
(b) love – develops when people invest their libido
on an object or person other than themselves
(c) sadism – is the need for sexual pleasure by
inflicting pain or humiliation on another person.
Considered sexual perversion extreme.
(d) masochism – is the need for sexual pleasure
by suffering pain and humiliation inflicted by
themselves or by others.
(2) Aggression
- the aim of the destructive drive is to return the
organism to an inorganic state, which is death
(3) Anxiety
- the center of the Freudian dynamic theory
- a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by
a physical sensation
- it is ego-preserving and self-regulating
(a) neurotic anxiety – defined as an
apprehension about an unknown danger. It results
from the dependence of the ego to the id.
(b) moral anxiety – stems from the conflict
between the ego and superego
o.
(c) realistic anxiety – It is closely related to fear.
It is defined as an unpleasant, nonspecific feeling
involving a possible danger.
Defense Mechanisms
- It helps the ego to avoid dealing directly with
sexual and aggressive impulses and to defend
itself against the anxiety that accompanies them
(1) Repression – It is the most basic of the
defense mechanisms. When the ego is threatened
by undesirable id impulses, it forces threatening
feelings into the unconscious.
(2) Reaction Formation – repressed impulse
becomes conscious by adopting a disguise that is
directly opposite to its original form
(3) Displacement – unacceptable urges are
redirected onto a variety of people or objects so
that the original impulse is disguised or concealed
(4) Fixation – when the prospect of taking the next
psychological stage becomes too anxiety
provoking, the ego may resort to the strategy of
remaining at the present, more comfortable
psychological stage. This is held universally and
demands a more or less permanent expenditure of
psychic energy.
(5) Regression – a reversion in which during
times of stress and anxiety of a developmental
stage, the libido reverts back to an earlier stage.
Infantile and rigid in nature just like fixation, but is
usually temporary.
(6) Projection – seeing in others unacceptable
feelings or tendencies that actually resides in
one’s own unconscious. The ego may reduce the
anxiety by attributing the unwanted impulse to an
external object, usually another person. A severe
variety of it is called paranoia.
(7) Introjection - a defense mechanism whereby
people incorporate positive qualities of another
person into their own ego. People introject
characteristics that they see as valuable and that
will permit them to feel better about themselves.
(8) Sublimation – is the repression of the genital
aim of Eros by substituting a cultural or social aim.
(9) Rationalization – involves covering up the true
reasons for actions, thoughts, or feelings by
making up excuses and incorrect explanations
(10) Denial – is refusing to recognize some
anxiety-provoking event or piece of information
that is clear to others
Stages of Development
For Freud, the first 4 or 5 years of life, or the
infantile stage, are the most crucial for personality
information. It is divided into three stages:
1 Oral Phase (early infancy, first 18 months of life)
- Pleasure-seeking activities include sucking,
chewing, and biting.
- If fixated at this stage, because oral wishes were
gratified too much or too little, oral gratification
continues in adulthood.
2 Anal Phase (late adulthood, 1½ to 3 years)
- Infant’s pleasure seeking is centered on the anus
and its function of elimination.
- Fixation at this stage results to retention or
elimination.
- Anal retentive – may take the form of being very
neat, stingy, or behaviourally rigid
- Anal expulsive – may take the form of being
generous, messy, or very loose or carefree
- Anal triad: orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy
3 Phallic Stage (early childhood, 3-6 years)
- Infant’s pleasure-seeking is centered on the
genitals.
- Oedipus complex occurs at this stage: a
process in which a child competes with the parent
of the same sex for the affections and pleasures of
the parent of the opposite sex. (Electra complex
for female)
- Castration anxiety may arise, the fear of losing
the penis, or penis envy for females
4 Latency Stage (6 to puberty)
- A time when the child represses sexual thoughts
and engages in nonsexual activities, such as
developing social and intellectual skills.
- dormant psychosexual development
5 Genital Stage
- puberty signals the reawakening of sexual
impulses
Dream Analysis
- to transform the manifest content of dreams to
the more important latent content
- the “royal road” to the knowledge of the
unconscious
- Manifest content of a dream refers to the
surface meaning or the conscious description
given by the dreamer
- Latent content refers to the unconscious
material
- For Freud, all dreams are wish fulfilments
- Dreams can work their way to consciousness in
two ways:
(1) Condensation refers to the fact that the
manifest dream content is not as extensive
as the latent level, indicating that the unconscious
material has been abbreviated or condensed
before appearing on the manifest level
(2) Displacement means that the dream is
replaced by some other idea remotely related to it
Freudian slips (parapraxes)
Critique of Freud’s Psychoanalysis
- His theory of personality was strongly oriented
towards men, he lacked a complete understanding
of the feminine psyche.
- an area of criticism on Freud centers around his
status as a scientist
ALFRED ADLER: Individual Psychology
- Individual psychology rests heavily on the notion
of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness
with all humankind.
- People are motivated mostly by social influences
and by their striving for superiority or success.
- People are largely responsible for who they are
- Present behavior is shaped by the people’s view
of the future.
- an opposing theory to psychoanalysis
Striving for success or superiority
- 1st tenet: The one dynamic force behind
people’s behavior is the striving for success or
superiority
- He reduced all motivation to this single drive.
- Everyone begins with a life of physical
deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority.
- The striving force serves as a compensation for
feelings of inferiority.
- People, by their nature, possess an innate
tendency toward completion or wholeness.
Masculine protest – implied will to power or a
domination of others. This term was used after
Adler rejected aggression as the single
motivational force.
Striving for superiority – limited to those people
who strive personal superiority over others
Striving for success – describes actions of
people who are motivated by highly developed
social interest.
- Each individual is guided by a final goal
regardless of the motivation for striving. It is
fictional and has no objective existence, a product
of creative power.
Creative Power – it refers to the people’s ability to
freely shape their behavior and create their own
personality.
Inferiority Complex – exaggerated feelings of
personal inferiority
Subjective Perceptions
- 2nd tenet: People’s subjective perceptions
shape their behavior and personality.
Fictionalism. Striving superiority is shaped by
people’s perceptions of reality that is by their
fictions, or expectations of the future.
- Fictionalism is consistent with the teleology.
Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
- 3rd tenet: Personality is unified and selfconsistent.
- Each person is unique and indivisible.
Organ Dialect - The whole person strives in a
self-consistent fashion toward a single goal, and
all separate actions and functions can be
understood only as parts of this goal. The
disturbance of one part of the body cannot be
viewed in isolation; it affects the entire person.
- For Adler, conscious and unconscious are not
considered as a dichotomy, but two cooperating
parts of the same unified system. The conscious
thoughts are helpful for striving superiority while
unconscious is not helpful.
Social Interest
- 4th tenet: The value of all human activity must
be seen from the viewpoint of social interest.
- Social interest means a feeling of oneness with
all humanity; it implies membership in the social
community of all people. It can also be defined as
an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general
as well as the empathy for each member of the
community.
- Social interest was Adler’s yardstick for
measuring psychological health and is thus “the
sole criterion of human value”.
Style of Life
- 5th tenet: The self-consistent personality
structure develops into a person’s style of life.
Style of life is the term Adler used to refer to the
flavor of a person’s life. It includes a person’s goal,
self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude
toward the world. It is the product of the interaction
of heredity, environment, and a person’s
creative power.
- Although the final goal is singular, style of life
need not be narrow or rigid.
- Three major problems of life: neighborly love,
sexual love, and occupation.
Creative Power
6th Tenet: Style of life is molded by people’s
creative power.
- Each person is empowered with the freedom to
create his or her own style of life. Ultimately,
people are responsible for who they are and how
they behave. It makes each person a free
individual.
- Each person uses heredity and environment as
the bricks and mortar to build personality, but the
architectural design reflects that person’s own
style. The building materials of personality are
secondary. We are our own architect and can build
either a useful or useless style of life.
Abnormal Development
- For Adler, the one factor underlying all types of
maladjustments is underdeveloped social interest.
- Also neurotics tend to:
(1) set their goals too high
(2) live in their own private world
(3) have a rigid and dogmatic style of life
External Factors in Maladjustment
(1) Exaggerated physical deficiencies
(2) Pampered style of life
- the heart of most neuroses
(3) Neglected style of life
Safeguarding Tendencies
- People create patterns of behavior to protect
their exaggerated sense of self-esteem against
public disgrace.
- This protective devices enable people to hide
their inflated self-image and to maintain their
current style of life.
- These can be compared to Freud’s defense
mechanisms, but are largely conscious to shield a
person’s fragile self-esteem.
Three forms:
(1) Excuses – commonly expressed in “Yes, but
or If only” format
(2) Aggression – most common safeguarding
tendency
Depreciation. The tendency to undervalue
other people’s achievements and to overvalue
one’s own (e.g. criticism and gossip).
Accusation. The tendency to blame others for
one’s failures and to seek revenge.
Self-accusation. Marked by self-torture and
guilt (e.g. masochism, depression, suicide).
(3) Withdrawal – Running away from difficulties or
referred to as “safeguarding through distance”
Four Modes:
Moving Backwards. The tendency to safeguard
one’s fictional goal of superiority by
psychologically reverting to a more secure period
of life. It is designed to elicit sympathy.
Standing Still. They do not move in any direction,
thus, they avoid all responsibility by ensuring
themselves against any threats of failure.
Hesitating. In face of difficult problems, some
people hesitate or vacillate. (e.g. procrastination)
Constructing Obstacles. The least severe of the
withdrawal safeguarding tendencies.
Masculine Protest
- Psychic life of women is essentially the same as
that of men and that a male-dominated society is
not natural but rather an artificial product of
historical development.
- According to Adler, cultural and social
practices—not anatomy—influence many men and
women to overemphasize the importance of being
manly.
Applications of Individual Psychology
(1) Family Constellation
- Analytical psychology is essentially a psychology
of opposites.
(2) Early Recollections
(3) Dreams
Golden rule of dream work in individual
psychology: “Everything can be different.”
(4) Psychotherapy
Adlerian theory postulates that psychopathology
results from lack of courage, exaggerated feelings
of inferiority, and underdeveloped social interest.
Thus, the chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy
is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of
inferiority, and encourage social interest.
Critique of Adler
- Like that of Freud, produced many concepts that
do not easily lend themselves to either verification
or falsification.
- It suffers from a lack of precise operational
definitions.
- Individual psychology is somewhat philosophical
even moralistic.
- The concept of creative power cannot be
scientifically studied.
- high on free choice and optimism, very low on
causality, moderate on unconscious influences,
and high on social factors and the uniqueness of
individual
________________________________________
CARL JUNG: Analytical Psychology
- It rests on the assumption that occult
phenomena can and do influence the lives of
everyone.
- Jung believed that each of us is motivated not
only by repressed experiences but also by
certainly emotionally toned experiences inherited
from our ancestors. These make up the collective
unconscious.
- Some elements of the collective unconscious
become highly developed and are called
archetypes.
Levels of the Psyche
- Jung strongly asserted that the most important
part of the unconscious springs not from personal
experiences of the individual but from distant past
of human existence, the collective unconscious. Of
lesser importance are conscious and personal
unconscious.
Conscious. Images that are sensed by the ego;
the center of consciousness. Ego is not the whole
personality, but must be completed by the self, the
center of the personality that is largely
unconscious.
- The consciousness plays a minor role in
analytical psychology, and an overemphasis on
expanding one’s conscious psyche can lead to
psychological imbalance.
Personal Unconscious. It embraces all
repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived
experiences of one particular individual. It contains
repressed infantile memories and impulses,
forgotten events, and experiences originally
perceived below the threshold of our
consciousness. Our personal unconscious is
formed by our individual experiences and is
therefore unique to each of us.
Complexes – are contents of the personal
unconscious. It is an emotionally toned
conglomeration of associated ideas. It is partly
conscious and may stem from both the personal
and collective unconscious.
- an individualized component of the personal
unconscious.
Collective Unconscious – This has roots in the
ancestral past of the entire species. The physical
contents of the collective unconscious are
inherited and pass from one generation to the next
as a psychic potential.
- This refers to human’s innate tendency to react in
a particular way whenever their experiences
stimulate a biologically inherited response
tendency.
- This does not lie dormant but are active and
influence a person’s thoughts, emotions, and
actions.
- Countless repetition of these biologically based
predispositions have them part of the human
biological constitution which then begin to develop
some content and to emerge as a relatively
autonomous archetypes.
Archetypes
- are ancient or archaic images that derive from
the collective unconscious.
- These emotionally tones collection of associated
images are generalized components of the
collective unconscious.
- Archetypes cannot be directly represented, but
when activated it expresses itself through several
modes (e.g. dreams, fantasies, and delusions).
Persona
- the side of personality that people show to the
world
- If we over identify with our persona, we lose
touch with our inner self and remain dependent on
society’s expectations of us.
Shadow
- the archetype of darkness and repression
represents those qualities we do not wish to
acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves
and others
Anima
- the feminine side of men’s personality
- represents irrational moods and feelings
Animus
- the masculine side of women’s personality
- symbolic of thinking and reasoning
Great Mother
- derivative of anima archetype
- represents both positive and negative feelings:
fertility and nourishment and on the one hand,
power and destruction
- Fertility and power combine to form the concept
of rebirth, which maybe a separate archetype.
Wise Old Man
- archetype of wisdom and meaning, symbolizes
human’s pre-existing knowledge of the mysteries
of life.
Hero
- the conquering hero archetype represents victory
over the forces of darkness
Self
- the innate disposition possessed by each person
to move toward growth, perfection, and completion
- the most comprehensive of all archetypes
- the self is the archetype of archetypes because it
pulls together the other archetypes and unites
them in the process of self-realization
-its ultimate symbol is the mandala, representing
the strivings of the collective unconscious for unity,
balance and wholeness
Dynamics of Personality
Causality and Teleology
- He insisted that both causal and teleological
forces must be balanced.
Progression – adaptation to the outside world
involving the forward flow of psychic energy
Regression - adaptation to the inner world
involving the backward flow of psychic energy
* Alone, neither progression nor regression leads
to development. Either can bring about too much
one-sidedness and failure in adaptation; but the
two, working together, can activate the process of
healthy personality development.
Psychological Types
Attitudes. Jung defined it as a predisposition to
act or react in a characteristic direction. He
insisted that each person has both an introverted
and an extraverted attitude, although one may be
conscious while the other is unconscious.
Intoversion
- is the turning inward of psychic energy with an
orientation toward the subjective. Introverts are
tuned in to their inner world with all its biases,
fantasies, dreams, and individualized perceptions.
Extraversion
- is the turning outward of psychic energy with an
orientation toward the objective.
4 Functions:
Sensing – tells people that something exists
Extraverted sensing- people perceive external
stimuli objectively
Introverted sensing – guided by their subjective
interpretation of sense stimuli
Thinking – enables them to recognize its meaning
Extraverted thinking – relying heavily on concrete
thoughts, objective
Introverted thinking – interpretation of an event is
colored more by the internal meaning, subjective
Feeling – tells them its value or worth
Extraverted feeling – people use objective data to
make evaluations
Introverted feeling - people base their value
judgments primarily on subjective perceptions
Intuiting – allows them to know without knowing
how they know
Extraverted intuitive people – are oriented towards
facts in the external world
Introverted intuitive people – are guided by
unconscious perceptions of facts that are basically
subjective and have no resemblance to external
stimuli
Development of Personality
Stages of Development: childhood, youth, middle
life, and old age
Childhood
Three Substages:
(1) Anarchic phase – characterized by chaotic
and sporadic consciousness. Experiences of the
anarchic phase sometimes enter consciousness
as primitive images, incapable of being accurately
verbalized.
- “Islands of consciousness” may exist but there is
little or no connection among these islands.
(2) Monarchic phase – characterized by the
development of ego and by the beginning of
logical and verbal thinking. During this time,
children refer to themselves in the third person.
- The islands of consciousness become larger,
more numerous and inhabited by a primitive ego.
- The ego is perceived as an object, not as a
perceiver.
(3) Dualistic phase – The ego as perceiver arises
during this stage and divided into the subjective
and objective.
- Children now refer to themselves in the first
person and aware of their existence as separate
individuals.
- The islands of consciousness become
continuous land, inhabited by an ego-complex that
recognizes itself as both object and subject.
Youth
- the period from puberty until middle life
- Young people strive to gain psychic and physical
independence from their parents, find a mate,
raise a family, and make a place in the world.
- A period of increased activity, maturing sexuality,
and growing consciousness.
Middle Life
- approximately begins at age 35 or 40
- presents people with increasing anxiety, and a
period of tremendous potential
- If middle-aged people retain the social and moral
values of their early life, they become rigid and
fanatical in trying to hold on to their physical
attractiveness and agility.
Old Age
- people certainly fear death during this stage
Self-realization
- also called as psychological rebirth
- the process of becoming an individual or a whole
person
- the process of integrating the opposite poles into
a single homogenous individual
- this process of “coming to selfhood” means that a
person has all psychological components
functioning in unity, with no psychic process
atrophying
- The self-realized person must allow the
unconscious to be the core of personality.
Methods of Investigation
(1) Word Association Test
(2) Dream Analysis
- Jung objected to Freud’s notion that nearly all
dreams are wish fulfilments and that most dream
symbols represent sexual urges; rather people
used symbols to represent a variety of concepts to
try to comprehend the “innumerable things beyond
the range of human understanding”.
- Dreams are our unconscious and spontaneous
attempt to know the unknowable.
- The purpose of Jungian dream interpretation is to
uncover elements from the personal and collective
unconscious and to integrate them into
consciousness in order to facilitate the process of
self-realization.
- Jung felt that certain dreams offered proof for the
existence of the collective unconscious. These
dreams included big dreams, which have special
meaning for all people; typical dreams, which are
common to most people; and earliest dreams
remembered.
(3) Active Imagination
- This method requires a person to begin with any
impression—a dream image, vision, picture, or
fantasy—and to concentrate until the impressions
begins to “move”. The person must follow these
images and courageously face these autonomous
images and freely communicate with them.
- The purpose of active imagination is to reveal
archetypal images emerging from the
unconscious.
- Jung believed that active imagination has an
advantage over dream analysis in that its images
are produced during a conscious state of mind,
thus making them more clear and reproducible.
Variations:
- nonverbal manner (drawing, painting)
(4) Psychotherapy
- The first stage is the confession of a pathogenic
secret (adopted from Breuer’s cathartic method).
- The second stage involves interpretation,
explanation, and elucidation. This gives the
patients insight into the causes of their neuroses
but may still leave them incapable of solving social
problems (adopted from Freud).
- The third stage is the education of patients as
social beings (adopted from Adler).
- The fourth stage is transformation. By
transformation, he meant that the therapist must
first be transformed into a healthy human being,
preferably by undergoing psychotherapy. Only
after transformation and an established philosophy
of life is the therapist able to help patients move
toward individuation, wholeness, or selfrealization.
- He adopted an eclectic approach in
psychotherapy. His treatment varied according to
the age, stage of development, and particular
problem of the patient.
- The ultimate purpose of Jungian therapy is to
help neurotic patients become healthy and to
encourage healthy people to work independently
toward self-realization.
Critique of Jung
- has a subjective and philosophical quality
- the collective unconscious remains a difficult
concept to test empirically
- the acceptance of Jung’s archetype and
collective unconscious rests more on faith than on
empirical evidences
- Analytical psychology is unique because it adds
new dimension to personality theory dealing with
the occult, the mysterious, and the
parapsychological
- usefulness of most analytical psychology is
limited to those therapists who subscribe to basic
Jungian tenets
- his view of personality was neither pessimistic
nor optimistic, neither deterministic nor purposive
- people are motivated partly by conscious
thoughts, partly by images from their personal
unconscious.
- the theory leans strongly in the direction of
biology
- can be rated high on similarities among people
and low in individual differences
________________________________________
MELANIE KLEIN: Object Relations
Theory
- Klein stressed the importance of the first 4 to 6
months after birth.
- an offspring of Freud’s instinct theory but differs
in three general ways:
(1) It places less emphasis on biologically based
drives and more importance on consistent patterns
of interpersonal relationships.
(2) It tends to be more maternal, stressing the
intimacy and nurturing of the mother, as opposed
to Freud’s rather paternalistic theory that
emphasizes the power and control of the father.
(3) Object relations theorists generally see human
contact and relatedness – not sexual pleasure as
the prime motive of human behavior.
Psychic Life of the Infant
- first 4-6 months of an infant is important
- To her, infants do not begin life with a blank slate
but with an inherited predisposition to reduce the
anxiety they experience as a result of the conflict
produced by the forces of the life instinct and the
power of the death instinct. The infant’s innate
readiness to act or react presupposes the
existence of phylogenetic endowment, a concept
that Freud also accepted.
Phantasies
- Infants, even at birth possesses an active
phantasy life.
- Phantasies are psychic representations of
unconscious id instincts
- It also springs from reality and universal
predispositions.
- Infants possess unconscious images of “good”
and “bad” (e.g. bad breast and good breast)
- As they mature, newer phantasies emerge
Objects
- Humans have innate drives or instincts, including
death instinct
- The earliest object relations are with the mother’s
breast
- In their active fantasy, they introject, or take into
their psychic structure the external objects.
Positions
- Infants attempt to deal with life instincts and
death instincts, and they attempt to organize these
experiences into positions, or ways of dealing
with both internal and external objects. The term
“position” was used to indicate that positions
alternate back and forth. They are not stages of
development through which a person passes.
(1) Paranoid-Schizoid Position (3-4mos.)
- a way of organizing experiences that includes
both paranoid feelings of being persecuted and a
splitting of internal and external objects into good
and bad.
- Paranoid-Schizoid position develops during
which the ego’s perception of the external world is
subjective and fantastic rather than objective and
real.
- The child alternately experiences feelings of
gratification and frustration. In order to tolerate
these feelings, the ego then splits itself, retaining
parts of the life and death instincts while deflecting
parts of both instincts onto the breast.
Persecutory breast
Ideal breast which provides love, comfort, and
gratification.
- Thus, the persecutory feelings are considered to
be paranoid; that is, they are not based on any
real or immediate danger from the outside world.
- In the young child’s schizoid world, rage and
destructive feelings are directed toward the bad
breast, while feelings of love and comfort are
associated with the good breast.
- Language is not used to identify the good and
bad breast, they use a biological disposition.
(2) Depressive Position (5-6 mos.)
- An infant begins to view external objects as
whole and to see that good and bad exist in the
same person.
- The infant develops a more realistic picture of the
mother and recognizes that she is an independent
person who can be both good and bad.
- The ego is beginning to mature to the point at
which it can tolerate some of its own destructive
feelings rather than projecting them outward.
- The infant experiences feelings of guilt for its
previous destructive urges toward the mother.
- The feelings of anxiety over losing a loved object
coupled with a sense of guilt for wanting to destroy
the object constitute what Klein called the
depressive position.
- When the depressive position is resolved,
children close the split between the good and the
bad mother. They are able not only to experience
love from their mother, but also to display their
own love for her. However, an incomplete
resolution of the depressive position can result in
lack of trust, morbid mourning at the loss of a
loved one, and a variety of other psychic
disorders.
Psychic Defense Mechanisms
Infants adopt several psychic defense
mechanisms to protect their ego against the
anxiety aroused by their own destructive fantasies.
(1) Introjection
- Infants fantasize taking into their body those
perceptions and experiences that have had with
the external object, originally the mother’s breast.
- Introjected objects are not accurate
representations of the real objects but are colored
by children’s fantasies.
(2) Projection
- Projection is the fantasy that one’s own feelings
and impulses actually reside in another person
and not within one’s body.
- By projecting unmanageable destructive
impulses onto external objects, infants alleviate
the unbearable anxiety of being destroyed by
dangerous internal forces
(3) Splitting
- keeping part incompatible impulses, the good
and bad aspect of themselves and of external
objects
- In order to separate bad and good objects, the
ego must itself be split. Thus, infants develop a
picture of both the “good me” and the “bad me”
that enables them to deal with both pleasurable
and destructive impulses toward external objects.
- If splitting is not extreme and rigid, it has a
positive effect on the child. The child can see both
positive and negative aspects of their self. If
splitting is excessive an inflexible, it can lead to
pathological repression.
(4) Projective Identification
- A psychic defense mechanism in which infants
split off unacceptable part of themselves, project
them into another object, and finally introject them
back into themselves in a changed or distorted
form. Then they identify with the object.
- It exerts a powerful influence on adult
interpersonal relations.
Internalizations
- When object relations theorists speak of
internalizations, they mean that the person
takes in (introjects) aspects of the external world
and then organizes those introjections into a
psychologically meaningful framework.
(1) Ego
- Klein largely ignored the id, and that the ego
reaches maturity at a much earlier stage than
Freud had assumed.
- Ego’s has the early ability to sense both
destructive and loving forces and to manage them
through splitting, projection, and introjection.
- before a unified ego emerges, it must first
become split
(2) Superego
- Klein’s conception of superego differs with Freud
in three important respects:
(a) emerges much earlier in life
(b) it is not an outgrowth of Oedipus complex
(c) it is much more harsh and cruel
- Early superego not produces guilt but terror
(3) Oedipus Complex
- merely an extension not a refutation to Freud’s
ideas
(a) begins at much earlier stage, overlaps with oral
and anal stage and reaches its climax during the
genital stage at around age 3-4
(b) A significant part of the Oedipus complex is
children’s fear of retaliation from their parent for
their fantasy of emptying the parent’s body.
(c) stressed the importance of children retaining
positive feelings toward both parents during the
Oedipal years
(d) Fourth, she hypothesized that during its early
stages, the Oedipus complex serves the same
need for both genders, that is, to establish a
positive attitude with the good or gratifying object
(breast or penis) and to avoid the bad or terrifying
object (breast or penis). In this position, children of
either gender can direct their love either alternately
or simultaneously toward each parent.
Female Oedipal Development
1st month – the little girl sees her mother’s breast
as both good and bad.
6 months – she begins to the view the breast as
more positive than negative
- She sees her mother as full of good things (this
leads to her imagining of how babies are made).
- She y by fantasizes that the father’s penis feeds
her mother with riches, including babies (she
fantasizes that the father will her with babies).
- If the Oedipal stage flows smoothly, the little girl
adopts a “feminine” position and has a positive
relationship with both parents.
- Under less ideal circumstances, the little girl will
see her mother as a rival and will fantasize robbing
her mother of her father’s penis and stealing her
mother’s babies. The little girl’s wish to rob her
mother produces a paranoid fear that her mother
will retaliate against her by injuring her or taking
away her babies.
- This anxiety will only be alleviated when she later
gives birth to a healthy baby.
- Penis envy stems from the little girl’s wish to
internalize her father’s penis and to receive a baby
from him. This precedes the desire to have an
external penis.
Male Oedipal Development
- The little boy sees his mother’s breast as both
good and bad
- During the early months; the boy shifts some of
his oral desires from his mother’s breast to his
father’s penis. The little boy is in his feminine
position, a positive homosexual attitude toward his
father.
- Next, he moves to a heterosexual relationship
with the mother.
- As the boy matures, the boy develops oralsadistic impulses toward his father and want to
bite off his penis and to murder him. This feeling
arouses penis castration, which resolves the boy’s
Oedipus complex.
* For both girls and boys, a healthy resolution
of the Oedipus complex depends on their
ability to allow their mother and father to come
together and to have sexual intercourse with
each other. No remnant of rivalry remains.
Children’s positive feelings toward both
parents later serve to enhance their adult
sexual relations.
Later Views on Object Relations
MARGARET MAHLER
- Psychological birth begins during the first
weeks of postnatal life and continues for the next 3
years or so. It meant that the child becomes an
individual separate from his or her primary
caregiver, an accomplishment that leads ultimately
to a sense of identity.
- The child proceeds through a series of three
major developmental stages and four substages to
achieve psychological birth and individuation:
First Stage: Normal Autism
- spans from birth until about age 3 or 4 weeks
- Newborn infant satisfies various needs within the
all-powerful protective orbit of a mother’s care.
- This stage is a period of absolute primary
narcissism in which an infant is unaware of any
other person unlike Klein who conceptualized a
newborn infant as being terrified.
- An “objectless” stage when an infant naturally
searches for the mother’s breast.
- She disagreed with Klein’s notion that the infants
incorporate the good breast and other objects into
their ego.
Second Stage: Normal Symbiosis
- This stage occurs as infants gradually realize
they cannot satisfy their own needs, and they
begin to recognize their primary caregiver and to
seek a symbiotic relationship with her.
- begins around 4th or 5th week of age but reaches
its zenith during the 4th or 5th month
- The symbiosis is characterized by a mutual cuing
of infant and mother.
- objects relations have not yet begun – mothers
and others are still preobjects
Third Stage: Separation-Individuation
- spans the period from about the 4th or 5th month
of age until about the 30th or 36th month.
- Children become psychologically separated from
their mothers, achieve a sense of individuation,
and begin to develop feelings of personal identity.
- they no longer experience a dual unity with their
mother, they must surrender their delusion of
omnipotence and face their vulnerability to
external threats
Overlapping Substages of SeparationIndividuation
First Substage: Differentiation
- lasts from about the 5th month until the 7th to 10th
month of age
- marked by a bodily breaking away from the
mother-infant symbiotic orbit
- Psychologically healthy infants who expand their
world beyond the mother will be curious about
strangers and will inspect them; unhealthy infants
will fear strangers and recoil from them.
Second Substage: Practicing
- a period from about 7th to 10th month of age to
about the 15th or 16 th month
- an autonomous ego begin to develop, a specific
bond with the mother is established, and the
children easily distinguish their body from their
mother’s
- during the early stages, they do not like to lose
sight of their mother
- later, they begin to walk and to take in the
outside world.
Third Substage: Rapprochement
- about 16 to 25 months of age
- they desire to bring back their mother and
themselves back together, both physically and
physiologically
- their increased cognitive skills make them more
aware of their separateness and make various
ploys to regain the desired unity
Fourth Substage: Libidinal Object Constancy
-approximates the 3rd year of life
- children will continue to depend on their mother’s
physical presence for their own security if they do
not develop a constant inner representation of
their mother.
- children must also learn to consolidate their
individuality, that is they must learn to function
without their mother and to develop other object
relations
*The strength of Mahler’s theory is its elegant
description of psychological birth based on
empirical observations of mother-child interactions.
Although many of her tenets rely on inferences
gleaned from reactions of preverbal infants, her
ideas can easily be extended to adults.
infants as if they had a sense of self.
- Through the process of empathic interaction,
the infant takes in the selfobject’s responses as
pride, guilt, shame, or envy—all attitudes that
eventually form the building blocks of the self.
- He believed that infants are naturally narcissistic
and self-centered. The self is crystallized around
two basic narcissistic needs:
(1) the need to exhibit the grandiose of self
- The grandiose exhibitionistic self is established
when the infant relates to a “mirroring” selfobject
who reflects approval of its behavior. The infant
thus forms a rudimentary self-image from
messages such as “If others see me as perfect,
then I am perfect.”
(2) the need to acquire an idealized image of
one or both parents
- The idealized parent image is opposed to the
grandiose self because it implies that someone
else is perfect. Nevertheless, it too satisfies a
narcissistic need because the infant adopts the
attitude “You are perfect, but I am part of you.”
*Both narcissistic self-images are necessary for
healthy personality development. Both, however,
must change as the child grows older. If they
remain unaltered, they result in a pathologically
narcissistic adult personality.
- Grandiosity must changed into a realistic view of
self. The idealized parent image must grow into a
realistic picture of the parents.
HEINZ KOHUT
- He emphasized the process by which the self
evolves from a vague and undifferentiated image
to a clear and precise sense of individual identity.
- He defined the self as “the center of the
individual’s psychological universe” and “the
center of initiative and recipient of impressions”.
- He also focused on early mother-child
relationship as the key to later development just
like other object relations theorists.
- Infants require adult caregivers not only to gratify
physical needs but also to satisfy psychological
needs. The adults or selfobjects must treat
JOHN BOWLBY: Attachment Theory
- He realized that object relations theory could be
integrated with an evolutionary perspective. But
this he believed that he can correct the empirical
shortcomings of the theory end extend it into a
new direction.
- Attachment theory also departed from
psychoanalytic thinking by taking childhood as
starting point and then extrapolating toward
adulthood.
- Bowlby firmly believed that the attachments
formed during childhood have an important impact
on adulthood. Childhood attachments are crucial
to later development.
- Humans just like primate infants go through a
clear sequence of reactions when separated from
their primary caregivers.
Three Stages of Separation Anxiety
(1) protest – When the caregiver is first out of
sight, infants will cry, resist soothing by other
people, and search for their caregiver.
(2) despair – As separation continues, infants
become quiet, sad, passive, listless, and apathetic.
(3) detachment – The last stage the only one
unique to humans. During this stage, infants
become emotionally detached from other people
including their caregiver. If their caregiver returns,
infants will disregard and avoid her. As they
become older, their interpersonal relations are
superficial and lack warmth.
Bowlby’s theory rests on two fundamental
assumptions:
(a) A responsive and accessible caregiver must
create a secure base for the child. If this
dependability is present, the child is better able to
develop confidence and security in exploring the
world.
(b) A bonding relationship (or lack thereof)
becomes internalized and serves as a mental
working model on which future friendships and
love relationships are built.
* Attachment style is a relationship between two
people and not a trait given to the infant by the
caregiver. It is a two-way street—the infant and the
caregiver must be responsive to each other and
each must influence the other’s behavior.
MARY AINSWORTH: Strange Situation
- influenced by Bowlby’s theory
- Ainsworth and her associates developed a
technique for measuring the type of attachment
style that exists between caregiver and infant,
known as the Strange Situation.
Three attachment styles:
(1) secure attachment – Infants are confident in
the accessibility and responsiveness of their
caregiver.
(2) anxious-resistant attachment – Infants are
ambivalent. They seek contact with their mother,
while on the other hand, and reject attempts at
being soothed.
(3) anxious-avoidant attachment - With this
style, infants stay calm when their mother leaves;
they accept the stranger, and when their mother
returns, they ignore and avoid her.
Psychotherapy
- Klein insisted that negative transference was an
essential step toward successful treatment.
- She substituted play therapy for Freudian dream
analysis and free association.
- The aim of Kleinian therapy is to reduce
depressive anxieties and persecutory fears and to
mitigate the harshness of internalized objects.
Object Relations and Eating Disorders
- As applied to eating disorders, when these
individuals feel anxious, they look for comfort in
external sources; and food is a primary means of
soothing and regulating their anxiety.
- Bulimia is associated with overseparation
(detachment) from parents, whereas anorexia was
associated with high levels of guilt and conflict
over separation from parents.
Attachment Theory and Adult Relationships
- People who had early secure attachments with
their caregivers would experience more trust,
closeness, and positive emotions.
- Avoidant adults would fear closeness and lack
trust, whereas anxious-ambivalent adults would be
preoccupied with and obsessed by their
relationships.
- Attachment is also related to the type of
information people seek or avoid regarding their
relationship and romantic partner. Avoidant
individuals strive to maintain emotional
independence, so they would not seek out
additional information about their partner’s intimate
feelings and dreams. While anxious individuals
tend to be chronically worried about the state of
relationship so they express a strong desire to
gain more information about their romantic partner.
Attachment Style and Leadership
- Leaders with a secure attachment style (neither
anxious nor avoidant) are more effective than
insecurely attached (anxious or avoidant) leaders.
Critique of Object Relations Theory
- low on its ability to generate research
- Since it grew out of the orthodox psychoanalytic
theory, it suffers from some of the falsifications
that confront Freud’s theory.
- Klein used needlessly complex phrases and
concepts to express her theory.
- It has the ability to organize information about the
behavior of infants. Objects relations theory has
speculated on how humans gradually come to a
sense of identity.
- It is built on careful observations of the motherchild relationship.
- Parents of young infants can learn the
importance of a warm, accepting, and nurturing
caregiver.
- high on determinism, low on free choice
- can either be pessimistic or optimistic
- tends to be more causal, expectations of the
future play a very minor role
- high on unconscious determinants of behavior
- biology as more important than environment in
shaping personality in terms of the concept of
phylogenetic endowment and death instinct
- the biologically based infantile stages lean more
toward social determinants of personality
- it tends toward similarities
________________________________________
KAREN HORNEY: Psychoanalytic Social
Theory
Overview
- Culture, especially childhood experiences, plays
a leading role in shaping human personality, either
neurotic or healthy.
- Social rather than biological forces are
paramount in personality development.
- Horney criticized Freud on several accounts:
(1) strict adherence to orthodox psychoanalysis
would lead to stagnation in both theoretical and
therapeutic practice.
(2) She objected to Freud’s ideas on feminine
psychology
(3) psychoanalysis should move beyond instinct
theory emphasize the importance of cultural
influences in shaping personality
The Impact of Culture
- Modern culture is based on competition among
individuals.
- Competitiveness and the basic hostility it
spawns result in feelings of isolation. These
feelings of being alone in a potentially hostile world
lead to intensified needs for affection, which in
turn, causes people to overvalue love.
- They see love and affection as solution to their
problems. Desperate need for love can lead to the
development of neuroses.
The Importance of Childhood Experiences
- Childhood is the age from which the vast majority
of problems arise.
- Horney hypothesized that a difficult childhood is
primarily responsible for neurotic needs. These
needs become powerful because they are the
child’s only means of gaining feelings of safety.
- But it should be the sum total of childhood
experiences, no single early experience is
responsible for later personality.
Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
- Each person begins life with the potential for
healthy development, but favorable conditions for
growth are needed conditions that provide feelings
of safety and satisfaction and permit them to
grow in accordance with their real self.
- If parents do not satisfy the child’s need for
safety and satisfaction, the child develops feelings
of basic hostility toward the parents.
- This hostility is often repressed and takes the
form as a basic anxiety, the profound feelings of
insecurity and vague sense of apprehension. It is
further defined as a feeling of being isolated and
helpless in a world conceived as potentially
hostile.
- Hostile impulses are the principal source of basic
anxiety, but basic anxiety can also contribute to
feelings of hostility.
Protective mechanisms from feelings of isolation
(1) affection
(2) submissiveness
(3) striving for power, prestige or possession
(4) withdrawal
- Everyone uses these various protective devices
to guard against the rejection, hostility, and
competitiveness of others. People become
unhealthy when people feel compelled to rely on
them.
Compulsive Drives
- Compulsion is the salient characteristic of all
neurotic drives.
Neurotic Needs
(1) The neurotic need for affection and
approval. In their quest for affection and
approval, neurotics attempt indiscriminately to
please others. They try to live up to the
expectations of others, tend to dread selfassertion, and are quite uncomfortable with the
hostility of others as well as the hostile feelings
within themselves.
(2) The neurotic need for a powerful partner.
Lacking self-confidence, neurotics try to attach
themselves to a powerful partner. This need
includes an overvaluation of love and a dread of
being alone or deserted.
(3) The neurotic need to restrict one’s life
within narrow borders. Neurotics frequently
strive to remain inconspicuous, to take second
place, and to be content with very little. They
downgrade their own abilities and dread making
demands on others.
(4) The neurotic need for power. Power and
affection are perhaps the two greatest neurotic
needs. The need for power is usually combined
with the needs for prestige and possession and
manifests itself as the need to control others and
to avoid feelings of weakness or stupidity.
(5) The neurotic need to exploit others.
Neurotics frequently evaluate others on the basis
of how they can be used or exploited, but at the
same time, they fear being exploited by others.
(6) The neurotic need for social recognition or
prestige. Some people combat basic anxiety by
trying to be first, to be important, or to attract
attention to themselves.
(7) The neurotic need for personal admiration.
Neurotics have a need to be admired for what they
are rather than for what they possess. Their
inflated self-esteem must be continually fed by the
admiration and approval of others.
(8) The neurotic need for ambition and
personal achievement. Neurotics often have a
strong drive to be the best. They must defeat other
people in order to confirm their superiority.
(9) The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and
independence. Many neurotics have a strong
need to move away from people, thereby proving
that they can get along without others.
(10) The neurotic need for perfection and
unassailability. By striving relentlessly for
perfection, neurotics receive “proof ” of their selfesteem and personal superiority. They dread
making mistakes and having personal flaws, and
they desperately attempt to hide their weaknesses
from others.
Neurotic Trends
- The 10 neurotic needs can be grouped into three
categories, each relating to a person’s basic
attitude toward self and others (also referred as
basic conflict).
(1) moving toward people
(2) moving against people
(3) moving away from people
Normal Defenses (Spontaneous Movement)
Toward people
(friendly, loving personality)
Against people
(a survivor in a competitive society)
Away from people
(autonomous, serene personality)
Neurotic Defenses (Compulsive Movement)
Toward people (1-3)
(compliant personality)
Against people (4-8)
(aggressive personality)
Away from people (9-10)
(detached personality)
- Neurotics are limited to the use of a single trend,
whereas normals can choose a variety of
strategies.
- Neurotics are unaware of their basic attitude and
they are forced to act.
Moving Toward People
- refers to the neurotic need to protect oneself
against feelings of helplessness through
compliance
- complaint people comply either or both of the first
two neurotic needs: (1) they desperately strive for
affection and approval of others (2) they seek a
powerful partner who will take responsibility of
their lives
- Horney referred to this need as “morbid
dependency”
Moving Against People
- they move against others by appearing tough or
ruthless to resolve feelings of hostility
- they are motivated by the strong need to exploit
others and to use them for their own benefit
- compulsively driven to appear perfect, powerful,
and superior
- Neurotic needs incorporated include: (1) the
need to be powerful, (2) to exploit others, (3) to
receive recognition and prestige, (4) to be
admired, and (5) to achieve.
* Moving towards others and moving against
people are “polar opposites”. The compliant
person needs affection from others while the
aggressive person sees everyone as a potential
enemy.
* For both types, “the center of gravity lies outside
the person”.
Moving Away From People
- To resolve basic conflict of isolation, people
behave in a detached manner and adopt a
neurotic need.
- an expression of needs for privacy,
independence, and self-sufficiency
- this needs become neurotic when people try to
satisfy each of these needs by compulsively
putting emotional distance between themselves
and other people
- they want to attain autonomy and separateness
Intrapsychic Conflicts
- Horney did not neglect the impact of intrapsychic
factors in the development of personality.
The two important intrapsychic conflicts are:
the idealized self-image and self-hatred
The Idealized Self-Image
- If given an environment of discipline and warmth,
people will develop feelings of security and selfconfidence and a tendency toward selfrealization. Yet, early negative influences often
impede people’s natural toward self-realization,
growing sense of alienation from themselves.
- This dilemma can only be solved by acquiring a
stable sense of identity, an extravagantly positive
view of themselves that exists only in their
personal belief system.
- The idealized self-image is not a global
construction. As it becomes solidified, they lose
touch with their real self and use the idealized self
as the standard for self-evaluation. Rather than
growing toward self-realization, they move toward
actualizing their idealized self.
- Horney recognized three aspects of the idealized
self.
(1) The Neurotic Search for Glory
- As neurotics come to believe in the reality of their
idealized self, they begin to incorporate it into all
aspects of their lives—their goals, their selfconcept, and their relations with others.
- It includes three other elements:
(a) the need for perfection – Refers to the drive to
mold the whole personality in to the idealized self.
They try to achieve perfection by erecting a
complex set of ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’, referred
as the “tyranny of the should”.
(b) neurotic ambition – Refers to the compulsive
drive toward superiority.
(c) the drive toward a vindictive triumph – The
most destructive element of all. It may be
disguised as a drive for achievement or success
but its chief aim is to put others to shame or defeat
them through one’s very success, to attain power.
. . to inflict suffering on them–mostly of a
humiliating kind.
(2) Neurotic Claims
- In their search for glory, neurotics build a fantasy
world – a world that is out of sync with the real
world.
- They proclaim that they are special and therefore
entitled to be treated in accordance with their
idealized view of themselves.
- Neurotic claims grow out of normal needs and
wishes, however when neurotic claims are not
met, neurotics become indignant, bewildered, and
unable to comprehend why others have not
granted their claims.
(3) Neurotic Pride
- A false pride based not on a realistic view of the
true self but on a spurious image of the idealized
self.
- It is qualitatively different from healthy pride or
realistic self-esteem.
- Genuine self-esteem is based on realistic
attributes and accomplishments and is generally
expressed with quiet dignity. Neurotic pride on the
other hand, is based on an idealized image of self
and is usually loudly proclaimed in order to protect
and support a glorified view of one’s self.
Self-Hatred
People with a neurotic search for glory can never
be happy with themselves because when they
realize that their real self does not match the
insatiable demands of their idealized self, they will
begin to hate and despise themselves.
- Horney recognized six ways in which people
express self-hatred:
(1) relentless demands on the self
(2) merciless self-accusation
(3) self-contempt
(4) self-frustration
(5) self-torment or self-torture
(6) self-destructive actions and impulses
Feminine Psychology
* Psychic differences between men and women
are not the result of anatomy but rather of cultural
and social expectations
- Oedipus complex is not universal, instead is
found only in some people and is an expression
for the neurotic need for love.
- A child may passionately cling to one parent and
express (neurotic need for love) and express
jealousy toward the other, as means of alleviating
basic anxiety and not manifestations of an
anatomically based Oedipus complex.
- The child’s main goal is security not sexual
intercourse.
- Horney agreed with Adler that women possess a
masculine protest (men are superior than women)
that leads to the neurotic desire to be a man, not
an expression of penis envy.
Psychotherapy
-The general goal of Horneyian therapy is to help
patients gradually grow in the direction of selfrealization. More specifically, the aim is to have
patients give up their idealized self-image,
relinquish their neurotic search for glory, and
change selfhatred to an acceptance of the real
self.
- Self-understanding is the key to positive change.
- Successful therapy is built on patient’s selfanalysis (idealized self-image vs. real self).
- In terms of techniques, Freudian dream
interpretation and free association are employed.
Horney saw dreams as attempts to solve conflicts.
- When therapy is successful, patients gradually
develop confidence in their ability to assume
responsibility for their psychological development,
they move toward self-realization.
Related Research
- The Neurotic Compulsion to Avoid the Negative.
Neuroticism is associated with setting avoidance
goals rather than approach goals. High levels of
neuroticism is also associated with experiencing
more negative emotion and being more likely to
develop generalized anxiety disorder.
- Neuroticism can also be seen in a positive light.
For those people high in neuroticism, they have
the ability to recognize threats in the environment
and would be related to decreased negative mood.
Critique of Horney
- The strength of Horney’s theory is her lucid
portrayal of the neurotic personality. Her
comprehensive descriptions of neurotic
personalities provide an excellent framework for
understanding unhealthy people.
- A serious limitation to her theory is that her
references to the normal or healthy people are
general and not well-explicated. There was no
clear picture of what self-realization would be.
-deterministic for neurotic individuals, but a healthy
person would have a large element of free choice
- somewhat more optimistic than pessimistic,
people possess inherent curative powers that lead
toward self-realization.
- a middle position on causality vs. teleology:
childhood experiences can block the movement
toward self-realization
- most people have limited awareness of their
motives
- strongly emphasized social influences more than
biological ones
- it highlights similarities among people more than
uniqueness
________________________________________
ERICH FROMM: Humanistic
Psychoanalysis
- His humanistic psychology assumes that
humanity’s separation from the natural world has
produced feelings of loneliness and isolation, a
condition called basic anxiety.
- It takes an evolutionary view of humanity.
Fromm’s Basic Assumptions
- Individual personality can be understood only in
the light of human history.
- Humans, unlike other animals, have been “torn
away” from their prehistoric union with nature.
They have no powerful instincts to adapt to a
changing world; instead they have acquired the
facility to reason – a condition called the human
dilemma. The human ability to reason permits
people to survive; yet, it forces them to attempt to
solve “existential dichotomies”.
(1) Life and death is the most fundamental
dichotomy.
(2) Humans are capable of conceptualizing the
complete goal of self-realization, but we are also
aware that life is too short to reach the goal.
- People are ultimately alone, yet we cannot
tolerate isolation.
Human Needs
- Humans are motivated by animal needs such as
physiological needs as hunger, sex, and safety;
but satisfying these needs can never solve their
human dilemma. Only their human needs, their
existential needs can move people toward a
reunion with the natural world.
- These existential needs grew out of the attempts
to find answer to their existence and to avoid
becoming insane. Healthy individuals are better
able to find ways of reuniting to the world by
productively solving the following human needs:
Relatedness
- It is the drive for union with another person or
other persons. A person may relate to the world in
three basic ways: (1) submission, (2) power, and
(3) love.
* Symbiotic relationship – Established when a
domineering person finds a submissive partner.
However, this relationship blocks growth toward
integrity and psychological health. They are drawn
to one another not by love but by a desperate
need for relatedness. Underlying the union are
feelings of hostility (blaming their partners for not
being able to completely satisfy their needs.
- Fromm believed that love is the only route by
which a person can become united with the world
and at the same time, achieve individuality and
integrity. He defined love as a “union with
somebody, or something outside oneself under the
condition of retaining the separateness and
integrity of one’s own self “.
Four Basic Elements of Genuine Love
(1) Care
(2) Responsibility
(3) Respect
(4) Knowledge
Transcendence
- Humans are thrown into the world without their
consent or will and then removed from it – again
without their consent or will.
- Transcendence is defined as the urge to rise
above a passive and accidental existence into “the
realm of purposefulness and freedom”.
- People can transcend their passive nature by
creating or by destroying it.
- Humans are the only species to use malignant
aggression that is to kill for reasons other than
survival.
Rootedness
- The need to establish roots or to feel at home
again.
- When humans evolved as a separate species,
they lost their home in the natural world. At the
same time, their capacity for thought enabled them
to realize that they were without a home, without
roots.
- Rootedness can be sought in a productive way
when people are weaned from the orbit of their
mother and become fully born, that is they actively
and creatively relate to the world and become
whole or integrated.
- People also seek rootedness through the nonproductive strategy of fixation – a tenacious
reluctance to move beyond the protective security
provided by one’s mother.
Sense of Identity
- Sense of identity refers to our capacity to be
aware of ourselves as a separate identity.
- a true sense of “I”
- Neurotics tend to tend to attach themselves to
powerful people or to social or political institutions.
Frame of Orientation
- Being split off from nature, humans needs a road
map to make their way through the world.
- A frame of orientation without a frame of
orientation is useless. This goal or object of
devotion focuses people’s energies in a singular
direction, enables to transcend our isolated
existence, and confers meanings to their lives.
SUMMARY OF HUMAN NEEDS
Human Needs
Relatedness
Transcendence
Rootedness
Sense of
Identity
Frame of
Orientation
Negative
Component
Submission or
domination
Destructiveness
Fixation
Adjustment to a
group
Irrational goals
Positive
Component
Love
Creativeness
Wholeness
Individuality
Rational
Goals
The Burden of Freedom
- Human is the only animal possessing self-
awareness, imagination, and reasoning. Humans
are the “freaks of universe”.
- Reason is both a blessing and a curse. It is
responsible for feelings of isolation, but it is also
the process that enables humans to become
reunited with the world.
Mechanisms of Escape
- Because basic anxiety produces a frightening
sense of isolation, people attempt to flee from
freedom through a variety of escape mechanisms.
- Fromm’s mechanisms of escape are the driving
forces in normal people, both individually and
collectively.
(1) Authoritarianism
- Defined as the capacity to give up the
independence of one’s own individual self and to
fuse one’s self with somebody or something
outside oneself, in order to acquire the strength
which the individual is lacking.
- It can take one of two forms:
(a) Masochism - Results from basic feelings of
powerlessness, weakness, and inferiority and is
aimed at joining the self to a more powerful person
or institution.
(b) Sadism – It is more neurotic and harmful
compared with masochism. Like masochism, it is
aimed at reducing basic anxiety through achieving
unity with other person.
The first is the need to make others dependent on
oneself and to gain power over those who are
weak. The second is the compulsion to exploit
others, to take advantage of them, and to use
them for one’s benefit or pleasure. A third sadistic
tendency is the desire to see others suffer, either
physically or psychologically.
(2) Destructiveness
- It does not depend on a continuous relationship
with another person; rather, it seeks to do away
with other people. By destroying people and
objects, a person or a nation attempts to restore
lost feelings of power.
(3) Conformity
- People who conform try to escape from a sense
of aloneness and isolation by giving up their
individuality and becoming whatever other people
desire them to be.
Positive Freedom
- People can attain this freedom by spontaneous
and full expression of both their rational and their
emotional potentialities.
- Positive freedom represents a successful
solution to the human dilemma of being part of the
natural world and yet separate from it. Through
positive freedom and spontaneous activity, people
overcome the terror of aloneness, achieve union
with the world, and maintain individuality.
- Love and work are the twin components of
positive freedom.
Character Orientations
- Personality is reflected in one’s relatively
permanent way of relating to people and things.
- Fromm defined personality as: “the totality of
inherited and acquired psychic qualities which are
characteristic of one individual and which make
the individual unique”
- The most important of the acquired qualities of
personality is character, defined as “the relatively
permanent system of all noninstinctual strivings
through which man relates himself to the human
and natural world”
- The character acts as substitute for lack of
instincts.
- People relate to the world in two ways – by
acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by
relating to the self and others (socialization)
Nonproductive Orientations
- This suggests to strategies that fail people to
move closer to positive freedom and selfrealization. They are not entirely negative; each
has both a negative and positive aspect.
(1) Receptive
- Receptive characters feels that the source of all
good lies outside themselves and that the only
way that they can relate to the world is to receive
things including love, knowledge, and material
possessions.
- They are more concerned with receiving than
with giving.
* Negative qualities: passivity, submissiveness,
and lack of self-confidence.
* Positive qualities: loyalty, acceptance, and trust
(2) Exploitative
- They also believe that the source of all good is
outside themselves, however, they aggressively
take what they desire rather than passively receive
it.
* Negative qualities: egocentric, conceited,
arrogant, and seducing
* Positive qualities: impulsive, proud, charming,
and self-confident
(3) Hoarding
- Hoarding characters seek to save that which they
have already obtained.
- They tend to live in the past and are repelled by
anything new.
* Negative traits: rigidity, sterility, obstinacy,
compulsivity, and lack of creativity
Positive traits: orderliness, cleanliness, and
punctuality
(4) Marketing
- Marketing characters see themselves as
commodities, with their personal value dependent
on the exchange value, that is their ability to sell
themselves.
- They see themselves as being in constant
demand; they must make others believe that they
are skillfull and salable.
* Negative traits: aimless, opportunistic,
inconsistent, and wasteful
* Positive traits: changeability, open-mindedness,
adaptability, and generosity
The Productive Orientation
- The single productive orientation has three
dimensions: working, loving, and reasoning.
- Productive people are the most healthy of all
character orientations, because they work toward
positive freedom and a continuing realization of
their potential.
- Productive work is a means of producing life’s
necessities.
- Productive love is characterized by care,
responsibility, respect, knowledge. It is also
characterized by passionate love of life and all that
is alive, called biophilia.
- All people have the capacity for productive love
but most do not achieve it because they cannot
first love themselves.
- Productive thinking, which cannot be separated
from productive work and love, is motivated by a
concerned interest in another person or object.
Healthy people see others as they are and not as
they would wish them to be.
Fromm (1947) believed that healthy people rely on
some combination of all five character orientations.
Their survival as healthy individuals depends on
their ability to receive things from other people, to
take things when appropriate, to preserve things,
to exchange things, and to work, love, and think
productively.
Personality Disorders
- Unhealthy personalities are marked by problems
in the three areas of work, love, and thinking
productively, especially failure to love productively.
Necrophilia
- The term means love of death and usually refers
to a sexual perversion in which a person desires
sexual contacts with a corpse.
- Fromm generally denotes it as any attraction to
death.
- Necrophilia is an alternative character orientation
to biophilia.
- The entire lifestyle of the necrophilous person
revolves around death, destruction, disease, and
decay.
Malignant Narcissism
- Healthy people manifest a benign form of
narcissism, that is, an interest in their own body. In
its malignant form, narcissism impedes the
perception of reality so that everything belonging
to a narcissistic person is highly valued and
everything to belonging to another is devalued.
- Preoccupation with one’s body often leads to
hypochondriasis, an obsessive attention to one’s
health.
- Moral hypochondriasis refers to a
preoccupation with guilt about previous
transgressions. People who are fixated on
themselves are likely to internalize experiences
and to dwell on both physical and moral virtues.
Incestuous Symbiosis
- An extreme dependence on the mother or mother
surrogate. It is an exaggerated form of the more
common and benign mother fixation.
- Fromm suggested that attachment to the mother
rests on the need for security and not sex. Sexual
Strivings are not the cause, but the result.
- People living in incestuous symbiotic
relationships feel extremely anxious and frightened
if that relationship is threatened.
* Such people possessing all the three personality
disorders form what Fromm called syndrome of
decay. He contrasted these pathological people
with those who are marked by the syndrome of
growth, which is made up of the opposite qualities
of biophilia, love, and positive freedom. Both
syndromes are extreme forms of development;
most people have average psychological health.
Psychotherapy
- He named his psychotherapy humanistic
psychoanalysis.
- Compared with Freud, Fromm was much more
concerned with the interpersonal aspects of a
therapeutic encounter. He believed that the aim of
psychotherapy is patients to come to know of
themselves.
- Patients come to therapy seeking satisfaction of
their basic human needs. Therefore, therapy
should be built on a personal relationship between
the therapist and patient.
- Dreams, as well as fairy tales and myths are
expressed in symbolic language.
Fromm’s Methods of Investigating Personality
- psychotherapy
- social characterization (Mexican village)
- psychohistory or psychobiography (Hitler)
Critique of Fromm
- highly abstract model that was more
philosophical than scientific
- Fromm’s social, political, and historical
perspective provides both breadth and depth for
understanding the human condition, but the theory
lacks precision.
- Fromm’s views are internally consistent in the
sense that a single theme runs throughout his
writing. However the theory lacks a structured
taxonomy, a set of operationally defined terms,
and a clear limitation of a scope.
- Fromm was reluctant to abandon earlier
concepts or to relate to them precisely to his later
ideas; his theory lacks simplicity and unity.
- The human species can be defined as the
primate who emerged at that point of evolution
where instinctive determinism had reached a
minimum and the development of the brain a
maximum.
- Humanistic psychoanalysis is both pessimistic
and optimistic.
- a middle position on the dimension of free choice
versus determinism; their ability to reason enables
people to take an active part in their own fate
- He believed that people constantly strive for a
frame of orientation, a road map by which to plan
their lives in the future. Thus, favoring teleology
slightly.
- Placing more emphasis on conscious motivation
and contending that self-awareness is one of the
unique human traits, yet, self-awareness is a
mixed blessing and that many people repress their
basic character to avoid mounting anxiety.
- Fromm placed somewhat more importance on
the impact of history, culture, and society than on
biology. But he did not overlook biological factors,
defining humans as the freaks of the universe.
- Humans are species sharing many of the same
human needs, but interpersonal experiences
throughout people’s lives give them some
measure uniqueness.
________________________________________
HARRY STACK SULLIVAN: Interpersonal
Theory
Overview
- People develop their personality within a social
context. Without other people, humans would have
no personality. “A person can never be isolated
from the complex of interpersonal relations in
which the person lives and has his being.”
Tensions
- Sullivan saw personality as an energy system
just like Freud and Jung. Energy can exist either
as tension (potentiality for action) or energy
transformations (actions themselves).
- Tension is a potentiality for action that may or
may not be expressed in awareness.
Two types of Tensions
Needs
- leads to productive actions
- tensions brought about by biological imbalance
between a person and the physiochemical
environment
- Needs are episodic because–once satisfied, they
temporarily lose their power, but after a time, they
are likely to recur.
- Although needs have a biological component,
many of them stem from interpersonal situation.
- The most basic interpersonal need is
tenderness. An infant needs to develop
tenderness from its primary caretaker, “the
mothering one”.
- Tenderness requires actions from at least two
people:
(a) infant’s need to receive tenderness satisfied
through the use of the infant’s mouth
(b) mother’s need to give tenderness satisfied
through the use of the mother’s hand
-Tenderness is a general need because it
concerns with the overall well-being of the person
opposed to zonal needs, which arise from a
particular area of the body.
- While satisfying general needs for food, water,
and so forth, an infant expends more energy than
necessary, and the excess energy is transformed
into consistent characteristic modes of behavior,
which Sullivan called dynamisms.
Anxiety
- It differs from tension of needs in that it is
disjunctive, it is more diffused and vague, and calls
forth no consistent actions for its relief.
- Anxiety is transferred from the parent to the
infant through the process of empathy. Anxiety in
the mothering one while caring for her babies
inevitably induces anxiety in the infant.
- The parent has no effective means of dealing
with the baby’s anxiety, usually the parents satisfy
the infant’s need in an attempt to reduce anxiety.
For example, a mother may feed her anxious,
crying baby because she mistakes anxiety for
hunger.
- Whereas other tensions result in actions directed
specifically toward their relief, anxiety produces
behaviors that:
(1) prevent people from learning from their
mistakes, (2) keep people pursuing a childish wish
for security, and (3) generally ensure that people
will not learn from their experiences
- Because anxiety is painful, people have a natural
tendency to avoid it, inherently preferring the state
of euphoria or complete lack of tension.
- Sullivan distinguished anxiety from fear in several
important ways. (1) Anxiety usually stems from
complex interpersonal situations and is only
vaguely represented in awareness; fear is more
clearly discerned and its origins more easily
pinpointed. (2) Anxiety has no positive value. Only
when transformed into another tension (anger or
fear, for example) can it lead to profitable actions.
(3) Anxiety blocks the satisfaction of needs,
whereas fear sometimes helps people satisfy
certain need.
Energy Transformation
- leads to unproductive and disintegrative
behaviors
- Energy transformations transform tensions into
either covert or overt behavior and are aimed at
satisfying needs and reducing anxiety – the two
great tensions.
- Not all energy transformations are obvious, overt
actions; many take the form of emotions, thoughts,
or covert behaviors that can be hidden from other
people.
Dynamisms
- Energy transformations become organized as
typical behavioral patterns that characterize a
person throughout a lifetime.
Two Major Classes of Dynamisms
(1) Those related to specific zones of the body,
including the mouth, anus, and genitals.
(2) Those related to tensions. This class is
composed of three categories.
a. Disjunctive – include those destructive patterns
that are related to malevolence
b. Isolating – include those behavior patterns
(such as lust) that are unrelated to interpersonal
relations
c. Conjunctive – include beneficial behavioral
patterns, such as intimacy and the self-system
Malevolence
- the disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred
characterized by the feeling of living among one’s
enemies.
- It originates around 2 or 3 years when children’s
actions that earlier had brought about maternal
tenderness are rebuffed, ignored, or met with
anxiety and pain.
- Malevolent actions take the form of timidity,
mischievousness, cruelty, or other kinds of asocial
or antisocial behavior.
Intimacy
- the conjunctive dynamism that grows out of the
earlier need for tenderness but is more specific
and involves a close interpersonal relationship
between two people who are more or less of equal
status.
- Intimacy helps avoid anxiety and loneliness, thus
it is a rewarding experiencing that most people
desire.
Lust
- It is an isolating tendency, requiring no other
person for its satisfaction. It manifests itself as an
autoerotic behavior even when another person is
the object of one’s lust.
- Lust is a powerful dynamism during adolescence.
Self-System
- As the most complex and inclusive of all
dynamisms, the self-system is a consistent pattern
of behaviors that maintains people’s interpersonal
security by protecting them from anxiety.
- Like intimacy it is a conjunctive dynamism that
arises out of the interpersonal situation. However,
it develops much earlier than intimacy at about
age 12 to 18 months.
- As children develop intelligence and foresight
they become able to learn which behaviors are
related to an increase or decrease in anxiety,
providing the self-system with a built-in warning
device.
- The warning is serves as a signal, alerting people
to increasing anxiety and giving them an
opportunity to protect themselves. On the other
hand, this desire for protection against anxiety
makes the self resistant to change and prevents
people from profiting from anxiety-filled
experiences.
- Security Operations is the means by which to
reduce feelings of insecurity or anxiety that results
from endangered self-esteem – due to
interpersonal experiences that conflict with their
developed self-esteem.
Dissociation is a security operation by which a
person refuses to allow into his awareness
impulses, desires, and needs. These experiences
do not cease to exist but continue to influence
personality on an unconscious level.
Selective Inattention is the control of focal
awareness, a refusal to see things that we do not
wish to see. Selectively inattended experiences
are more accessible to awareness and more
limited in scope.
Personifications
- Personifications are people’s acquired images of
themselves and others. They may be relatively
accurate, or because they colored by people’s
needs and anxieties, they may be grossly distorted
Bad-Mother, Good-Mother
- similar to Klein’s concept of the bad breast and
good breast
- The bad-mother personification grows out of the
infant’s experiences with the bad-nipple: that is,
the nipple that does not satisfy hunger needs. It is
also completely undifferentiated. It is not an
accurate image of the “real” mother but merely the
infant’s vague representation of not being properly
fed.
- An infant will acquire a good-mother
personification based on the tender and
cooperative behaviors of the mothering one.
Me Personifications (bad-me, good-me, and
not-me)
- The bad-me personification is fashioned from
experiences of punishment and disapproval that
infants receive from their mothering one.
- The good-me personification results from infant’s
experiences with reward and approval.
- The not-me personification is caused by sudden
severe anxiety- related experiences, and these
experiences are either dissociated or selectively
inattended. When adults are struck by sudden
severe anxiety, they are overcome by uncanny
emotion (awe, horror, and loathing).
Eidetic Personifications
- Not all interpersonal relations are with real
people, some are eidetic personifications: that is
unrealistic traits or imaginary friends that many
children invent in order to protect their self-esteem.
- These are not limited to children; most adults see
fictitious traits in other people.
Levels of Cognition
Levels of Cognition refer to ways of perceiving,
imagining, and conceiving.
Prototaxic Level
- The earliest and most primitive experiences of an
infant. The experiences on a prototaxic level are
impossible to communicate.
- These are undifferentiated experiences
- Infant prototaxic experiences take the form of
experiences that relate to different zones of the
body (e.g. sucking or crying).
- Adult prototaxic experiences take the form of
momentary sensations, feelings, moods, and
impressions. These are dimly perceived or
completely unconscious.
Parataxic Level
- Parataxic experiences are personal, prelogical,
and communicated only in distorted form.
- Parataxic cognitions are more clearly
differentiated than prototaxic experiences, but their
meanings remain private.
- Parataxic distortion is an illogical belief that
cause-and-effect relationship exist between two
events in close temporal proximity.
Syntaxic Level
- Syntaxic cognition is meaningful interpersonal
communication.
- Experiences that are consensually validated (two
or more persons agree) and that can be
symbolically communicated.
- The syntaxic level of cognition becomes more
prevalent as the child begins to develop formal
language.
Stages of Development
Infancy
-begins at birth and continues until a child
develops articulate or syntaxic speech, usually at
about age 18 to 24 months
- Infant becomes human through tenderness
received from the mothering one.
- An infant expresses anxiety and hunger through
crying.
- In the mother-infant relationship, the infant
develops a dual personification of mother, seeing
her as good and bad; the mother is good when
she satisfies the baby’s needs and bad when she
stimulates anxiety.
- Around midinfancy, infants begin to learn how to
communicate through language on an
individualized or parataxic level. This period of
infancy is marked by autistic language, that is,
private language that makes little or no sense to
other people.
Childhood
- This era begins with the advent of syntaxic
language and continues until the appearance of
the need for playmates of an equal status.
- covers the period from about age 18 to 24
months until about age 5 or 6 years
- During this stage, the mother remains the most
significant other person, the dual personification of
mother are now fused into one, more congruent
with the “real mother” perception.
- The child sees the mother and father as having a
distinct role.
- The me-personifications are fused into a single
self-dynamism. Good and bad now imply social or
moral value and no longer refer to the absence or
presence of that painful tension, anxiety.
- Emotions become reciprocal, a child is able to
give tenderness and as well receive it. Seeing the
mother as good or bad is based not on the how
she satisfied hunger needs, but on how she shows
reciprocal tender feelings.
- Children often have other significant relationship
– an imaginary playmate (eidetic friend). This
prepares children for intimacy with real friends.
- Sullivan referred to childhood as a period of rapid
acculturation.
- They also learn the processes of dramatizations
(attempts to act or sound like significant authority
figures) and preoccupations (strategies for
avoiding anxiety and fear-provoking situations by
remaining occupied with an activity that has earlier
proved useful or rewarding).
- Children also evolve their self-dynamism, which
helps them handle anxiety and stabilize their
personality due to the restraints placed by the
society on their freedom.
Juvenile Era
- It begins with the appearance of the need for
peers or playmates of equal status and ends when
one finds a single chum to satisfy the need for
intimacy.
- Begins around age 5 or 6 and ending at about
age 8 ½
- A child learns to compete, compromise, and
cooperate.
- By the end of the juvenile stage, a child should
have developed an orientation toward living that
makes it easier to consistently handle anxiety,
satisfy zonal and tenderness needs. This prepares
the person for the deeper interpersonal
relationships to follow.
Preadolescence
- Begins at 8 ½ and ends with adolescence.
- It is a time for intimacy with one particular
person, usually a person of the same gender.
- It takes a genuine interest in the other person,
not egocentric. Sullivan called this process of
becoming a social being the “quiet miracle of
preadolescence”.
- The outstanding characteristic of this stage is the
genesis of the capacity for love.
- Sullivan believed that preadolescence is the most
untroubled and carefree time of life.
Early Adolescence
- Begins with puberty and ends with the need for
sexual love with other person.
- It is marked by the eruption of genital interest and
advent of lustful relationships.
- The need for security remains active during this
stage, interfering with lust.
Late Adolescence
- its outstanding feature is the fusion of intimacy
and lust
- embraces the period of self-discovery when
adolescents are determining their preferences in
genital behavior, at about ages 15 to 17 to 18
- People of the other gender are no longer desired
as solely sex objects but as people who are
capable of being loved nonselfishly.
- Successful late adolescence includes a growing
syntaxic mode.
- When unsuccessful, people have no intimate
interpersonal relations, inconsistent patterns of
sexual activity, and a great need to maintain
security operations.
Adulthood
- A period when people can establish a love
relationship with at least one significant other
person.
- Mature adults are perceptive of other people’s
anxiety, needs, and security. They operate
primarily on the syntaxic level.
Stage
Infancy
Age
0-2
Significant
Others
Mothering
one
Interpersonal
Process
tenderness
protect
security
through
imaginary
playmates
Childhood
2-6
Parents
Juvenile
era
6-8 1/2
Playmates
of equal
status
Orientation
toward living
in the world
of peers
Preadolesc
ence
8 ½ to
13
Single chum
Intimacy
Early
Adolescence
13-15
Several
chums
Intimacy and
lust toward
different
persons
Late
Adolescence
15-
Lover
Fusion of
intimacy and
lust
Important
Learnings
good/bad
mother;
good/bad me
Syntaxic
language
competition,
compromise,
cooperation
Affection and
respect from
peers
Balance of
lust, intimacy,
and security
operations
Discovery of
self and the
world outside
of self
Psychological Disorders
- Sullivan believed that all psychological disorders
have an interpersonal origin and can be
understood only with reference to the patient’s
social environment.
- There is nothing unique about psychological
difficulties; they are derived from the same kind of
interpersonal troubles faced by all people.
- Most of Sullivan’s therapeutic work dealt with
schizophrenia.
Psychotherapy
- Since psychic disorders grow out of interpersonal
difficulties, Sullivan based his therapeutic
procedures on an effort to improve a patient’s
relationship with others.
- Sullivanian therapy is aimed at uncovering
patients’ difficulty in relating to others. Mental
health can only be achieved through consensually
validated personal relations.
- The therapeutic ingredient is face-to-face
communication.
Critique of Sullivan
- What is presently known about human behavior
has a biological basis and does not easily fit into a
theory restricted to interpersonal relations.
- For him, similarities among people are much
more important than differences.
- Sullivan’s theory is neither optimistic nor
pessimistic. Interpersonal relations can transform
a person into either a healthy personality or
marked by anxiety and a rigid self-structure.
- very high on social influence
ERIK ERIKSON: Post-Freudian Theory
Overview
- Erikson intended his theory of personality to
extend rather than repudiate Freud’s assumptions
and to offer a “new way of looking things”
- Erikson coined the term identity crisis, a
specific psychosocial struggle that contributes to
the formation of personality at each stage of
development.
- He elaborated on psychosexual stages beyond
childhood into adolescence, adulthood, and old
age, and placed more emphasis on both social
and historical influences.
The Ego in Post-Freudian Theory
- In contrast to Freud, Erikson held that our ego is
a positive force that creates a self-identity, a sense
of “I”. It helps us adapt to the various conflicts and
crises of life and keeps us from losing our
individuality to the leveling forces of society. To
- The ego is weak during childhood but gain its
strength by adolescence.
- He defined ego as the person’s ability to unify
experiences and actions in an adaptive manner.
Interrelated Aspects of Ego:
1. Body Ego. Refers to experiences with our
body; a way of seeing our physical self as different
for other people.
2. Ego Ideal. Represents the image we have of
ourselves in comparison with an established ideal.
3. Ego Identity. The image we have of ourselves
in the variety of social roles we play.
* Although adolescence is ordinarily the time
when these three components are changing
most rapidly, alterations in body ego, ego ideal,
and ego identity can and do take place at any
stage of life.
Society’s Influence
-The ego exists as potential at birth, but it must
emerge from within a cultural environment.
- Erikson placed emphasis on social and historical
factors in contrast with Freud’s mostly biological
view.
- Pseudospecies, an illusion perpetrated and
perpetuated by a particular society that it is
somehow chosen to be the human species.
Epigenetic Principle
- Erikson believed that the ego develops through
the various stages of life according to an
epigenetic principle. Epigenetic development
implies a step-by-step growth of fetal organs as to
the concept of embryology.
- The ego follows the path of epigenetic
development, with each stage developing at its
proper time. One stage emerges from and is built
upon a previous stage, but it does not replace that
earlier stage.
- Erikson described it by saying: “anything that
grows has a ground plan and that out of this
ground plan the parts arise, each part having its
time of special ascendancy, until all parts have
arisen to form a functioning whole.”
Stages of Psychosocial Development
- Basic points of understanding Erikson’s eight
stages of psychosocial development:
a) The growth takes places according to the
epigenetic principle.
b) In every stage of life, there is an interaction of
opposites – between a syntonic (harmonious)
element and a dystonic (disruptive) element.
People must have both harmonious and disruptive
experiences for proper adaptation (e.g. trust and
mistrust).
c) At each stage, the conflict between syntonic
and dystonic elements produces an ego quality or
ego strength, referred to as basic strength
(e.g. the antithesis between trust and mistrust
emerges hope).
d) Too little basic strength at any one stage results
in a core pathology for that stage (e.g. insufficient
hope will lead to withdrawal)
e) Although Erikson referred to his eight stages as
psychosocial stages, he never lost sight of the
biological aspect of human development.
f) Events in earlier stages do not cause later
personality development. Ego identity is shaped is
shaped by a multiplicity of conflict and events –
past, present, and anticipated.
g) During each stage, but especially from
adolescence forward, personality development is
characterized by an identity crisis, “a turning
point, a crucial point of increased vulnerability and
heightened potential.”
- Identity crisis is not a catastrophic event but
rather an opportunity for either adaptive or
maladaptive adjustment.
1. Infancy (Hope: Trust vs. Mistrust)
- A period encompassing approximately the first
year of life and paralleling Freud’s oral phase of
development.
- Infancy is a time of incorporation, with infants
“taking in” not only through their mouth but through
their various sense organs as well.
- Infancy is marked by the oral-sensory
psychosexual mode. This stage is characterized
by two modes of incorporation – receiving (the
infant must get someone else to give) and
accepting what is given.
- In getting other people to give, infants learn to
trust or mistrust other people, thus setting up the
basic psychosocial crisis of basic trust vs. basic
mistrust.
- If infants realize that their mother (primary
caregiver) will provide food regularly, or they
constantly hear the voice of their mother, then they
begin to learn basic trust. In contrast, they learn
basic mistrust if they find no correspondence
between their oral-sensory needs and their
environment.
- Nevertheless, infants must develop both
attitudes. Too much trust makes them gullible and
too little trust leads to frustration and anger.
- If infants successfully solve this crises, they
acquire their first basic strength – hope. If infants
do not develop sufficient hope during infancy, they
will demonstrate withdrawal, the core pathology
of infancy.
2. Early Childhood (Will: Autonomy vs. Shame,
Doubt)
- A period paralleling Freud’s anal stage and
encompassing approximately the 2 nd and 3rd years
of life.
- Erikson took a broader view. Young children
receive pleasure not only from gratifying the
erogenous zone of anus, but also from mastering
other body functions such as urinating, walking,
throwing, holding, and so on. Children also
develop a sense of control over their interpersonal
environment, as well as a measure of self-control. i
- This stage is marked by the anal-urethralmuscular mode. Children learn to control their
body, especially in relation to cleanliness and
mobility.
- Early childhood is a time of contradiction, a time
of stubborn rebellion and meek compliance, a time
of impulsive self-expression and compulsive
deviance, a time of loving cooperation and hateful
resistance. This triggers the psychosocial crisis of
autonomy vs. shame and doubt.
- As children stubbornly express their analurethral-muscular mode, they are likely to find a
culture that attempts to inhibit some of their selfexpression, leading to shame and doubt.
- Ideally, children should develop a proper ratio
between autonomy and shame and doubt, and the
ratio should be in favor of autonomy. Children who
develop too little autonomy will have difficulties in
subsequent stages, lacking the basic strength of
later stages.
- This crisis grows out of basic trust and mistrust
according to the epigenetic principle. Shame is a
feeling of self consciousness, of being looked at
and exposed. Doubt is the feeling of not being
certain; the feeling that something remains hidden
and cannot be seen.
- The basic strength of will evolves from the
resolution of the crisis. But this is only a beginning;
mature willpower and a significant measure of free
will are reserved for later stages of development.
- Inadequate basic strength of will is expressed as
compulsion, the core pathology of early
childhood.
3. Play Age (Purpose: Initiative vs. Guilt)
- A period covering the same time as Freud’s
phallic phase – roughly ages 3 to 5 years.
- Erikson contended that in addition to identifying
with parents (Freud’s Oedipus complex), children
are developing locomotion, language skills,
curiosity, imagination, and the ability to set goals.
- The primary psychosexual mode during the play
age is genital-locomotor
- According to Erikson, the Oedipus complex is a
prototype “of the lifelong power of human
playfulness”. It is a drama played out in the child’s
imagination and includes the budding
understanding of such basic concepts as
reproduction, growth, future, and death. It is not
always to be taken literally.
- Play-age children show interests on locomotor
activity, and their plays shows imagination. Their
cognitive ability enables them to manufacture
elaborate Oedipal fantasies.
- Although they begin to adopt initiative in their
selection and pursuit of goals, many goals, such
as their fantasies are either repressed or delayed.
This inhibited guilt produces guilt. Initiative vs.
guilt becomes the predominant psychosocial crisis
of the play age.
- Their rudimentary will, developed during the
preceding stage, is now evolving into an activity
with purpose. The conflict of initiative and guilt
produces the basic strength of purpose.
4. School Age (Competence: Industry vs.
Inferiority)
- This covers development from about age 6 to
approximately age 12 or 13 and matches the
latency years of Freud’s theory.
- The social world of the child is expanding.
- The basic striving for competence becomes
strong.
- School age is a period of sexual latency. It is
important because it allows children to divert their
energies to learn the skills required by their
culture.
- Although school age is a period of little sexual
development, it is a time of tremendous social
growth. As children learn to do things well, they
develop a sense of industry, the syntonic quality of
this period. But if their work is insufficient to
accomplish their goals, they acquire a sense of
inferiority, the dystonic quality. Thus, the
psychosocial crisis for this stage is industry vs.
inferiority.
- Earlier inadequacies can also contribute to
feelings of inferiority.
- Industry should be favored more than inferiority
in terms of ratio. Inferiority can serve as an
impetus to do one’s best. Conversely, an
oversupply of inferiority can block productive
activity.
- From the conflict of industry versus inferiority,
school-age children develop the basic strength of
competence: that is the confidence to use one’s
physical and cognitive abilities to solve the
problem that accompany school age.
- The antithesis of competence is inertia, the core
pathology of school age wherein children are likely
to give up and regress to an earlier stage of
development, such as being preoccupied with
infantile genital and Oedipal fantasies.
5. Adolescence (Fidelity: Identity vs. Identity
Confusion)
- the period from puberty to young adulthood
- one of the most crucial developmental stages
because by the end of this period, a person must
gain a firm sense of ego identity.
- Erikson saw adolescence as period of social
latency, where they are permitted to experiment in
a variety of ways while seeking to establish a
sense of ego identity.
- Puberty, defines as genital maturation, plays a
relatively minor role in Erikson’s concept of
adolescence, it present no major sexual crisis.
- The search for ego identity reaches a climax
during adolescence as young people strive to find
out who they are and who they are not. This
triggers the psychosocial crisis of identity vs.
identity confusion.
- According to Erikson, identity emerges from two
sources:
(1) adolescents’ affirmation or repudiation of
childhood identifications.
(2) their historical and social contexts, which
encourage conformity to certain standards
- Young people must experience some doubt and
confusion about who they are before they evolve a
stable identity. But too much identity confusion can
lead to pathological adjustment in the form
regression to earlier stages of development.
- The basic strength emerging from adolescent
identity crises is fidelity, or faith in one’s ideology.
- Other basic strengths developed during the
previous stage are prerequisites for fidelity, just as
fidelity is essential for acquiring subsequent ego
strengths.
- The pathological counterpart of fidelity is role
repudiation. It blocks one’s ability to synthesize
various self-images and values into a workable
identity. It can take either the form of:
(a) Diffidence, an extreme lack of self-trust or selfconfidence and is expressed as shyness or
hesitancy to express oneself.
(b) Defiance, the act of rebelling against authority
6. Young Adulthood (Love: Intimacy vs.
Isolation)
- After achieving a sense of identity during
adolescence, people must acquire the ability to
fuse that identity with the identity of another
person while maintaining their sense of
individuality.
- a time from about age 19-30
- True genitality, the chief psychosexual
accomplishment of young adulthood, can only
develop when it is distinguished by mutual trust
and a stable sharing of sexual satisfactions with a
loved person.
- This stage is marked by the psychosocial crisis of
intimacy vs. isolation. Intimacy is the ability to
fuse one’s identity with that of another person
without fear of losing it. The psychosocial
counterpart to intimacy is isolation, defined as the
incapacity to take chances with one’s identity by
sharing true intimacy.
- Some degree of isolation is essential before one
can acquire mature love. Too much togetherness
can diminish a person’s sense of identity.
- Love is the basic strength of young adulthood.
The antipathy of love is exclusivity, the core
pathology,
7. Adulthood (Care: Generativity vs.
Stagnation)
- The time when people begin to take their place in
the society and assume responsibility for whatever
society produces.
- spanning from age 31-60
- Adulthood is characterized by the psychosexual
mode of procreativity, an instinctual drive to
perpetuate the species. Procreativity refers to
more than genital contact with an intimate partner.
It includes assuming responsibility for the care of
offspring that result from that sexual contact.
- This stage is marked by the psychosocial crisis of
generativity vs. stagnation.
- The syntonic quality of generativity is defined as
the generation of new beings as well as new
products and new ideas. It also procreation of
children, the production of work, and the creation
of new things and ideas that contribute to the
building of a better world. It also grew out from
intimacy and identity.
- The antithesis of generativity is self-absorption
and stagnation. The generational cycle of
productivity and creativity is crippled when people
become too absorbed in themselves, too selfindulgent.
Stage
- However, some elements of stagnation and
self-absorption are necessary.
Infancy
- The interaction of generativity and
Early
stagnation produces care, the basic strength
Childhood
of adulthood. Erikson defined care as “a
Play Age
widening commitment to take care of the
persons, the products, and the ideas one
School
Age
has learned to care for.”
Adolesce
- The antipathy of care is rejectivity, the
nce
core pathology of adulthood. It is manifested
Young
as self-centeredness, provincialism, and
Adulthood
pseudospeciation; the belief that other
groups of
Adulthood
people are inferior to one’s own.
8. Old Age (Wisdom: Integrity vs. Despair,
Old Age
Disgust)
-the period from about age 60 to the end of life
- The psychosexual mode of old age is
generalized sensuality; that means to take
pleasure in a variety of different physical
sensations. It may also include a greater
appreciation for the traditional lifestyle of the
opposite sex.
- A person’s final identity crisis is integrity vs.
despair. Integrity means a feeling of wholeness
and coherence, an ability to hold together one’s
sense of “I-ness” despite diminishing physical and
intellectual powers. But ego integrity is difficult to
maintain when people see that they are losing
familiar aspects of their existence, people often
feel a pervading sense of despair. Despair literally
means to be without hope.
- The inevitable struggle between integrity and
despair produces wisdom, the basic strength of
old age. Erikson defined wisdom as “informed and
detached concern with life itself in the face of
death itself”
- The pathological counterpart of wisdom is
disdain, which Erikson defined as “a reaction to
feeling (and seeing others) in an increasing state
of being finished, confused, helpless.” Disdain is a
continuation of rejectivity.
Psychosexual
Mode
Psychosocial
Crisis
Basic
Strength
Core
Pathology
Oral-Sensual
Trust vs.
Mistrust
Hope
Withdrawal
Autonomy vs.
Shame & Doubt
Will
Compulsion
Parents
Purpose
Inhibition
Family
Compete
nce
Inertia
Neighborh
ood, school
Fidelity
Role
Repudiation
Peer groups
AnalUrethralMuscular
GenitalLocomotor
Latency
Puberty
Initiative vs.
Guilt
Industry vs.
Inferiority
Identity vs.
Identity
Confusion
Genitality
Intimacy vs.
Isolation
Love
Exclusivity
Procreativity
Generativity
vs.
Stagnation
Care
Rejectivity
Generalized
Sensuality
Integrity vs.
Despair,
Disgust
Wisdom
Disdain
Significant
Relations
The
mothering
one
Sexual
partners,
friends
Divided
labor &
shared
household
All
humanity
Erikson’s Method of Investigation
- anthropological studies of the Sioux and Yurok
- psychohistory (Mahatma Ghandi & Martin Luther)
Critique of Erikson
- Erikson built his theory largely on ethical
principles and not necessarily on scientific data.
- Erikson’s theory is mostly limited to
developmental stages. It does not adequately
address such issues as personal traits or
motivation.
- The terms used to label the different
psychosocial crises, basic strengths, and core
pathologies are very carefully chosen. However
some concepts like hope, purpose, love, and will
were not operationally defined.
- The psychosexual stages and psychosocial
crises, especially in the later stages, are not
always clearly differentiated.
- anatomy combined with past events, social and
historical influences will determine who a person
will become
- in the middle position between determinism and
free choice; although personality is molded in part
by culture and history, people retain some limited
control over their destiny
- Erikson’s theory tended to be optimistic. Even
though core pathologies may predominate early
stages of development, humans are not inevitably
doomed to continue to a pathological existence in
later stages. Although weaknesses in early life
make it more difficult to acquire basic strengths
later on, people remain capable of changing at any
stage of life.
- People are influenced more by biological and
social forces than by their view of the future; thus
Erikson’s theory is high on causality.
- Erikson’s position on conscious and unconscious
determinants is mixed. Prior to adolescence,
personality is largely shaped by unconscious
motivation (e.g. psychosexual conflicts). From
adolescence forward , people are ordinarily aware
of their actions and most of their reasons
underlying those actions.
- more social than biological, although it did not
overlook anatomy and physiological factors in
personality development
- Erikson tended to place more emphasis on
individual differences. Each person resolves
psychosocial crises in a unique manner, and each
uses the basic strengths in a way that is peculiarly
theirs.
________________________________________
(3) People are continually motivated by one need
or another. When one need is satisfied, it ordinarily
loses its motivational power and is then replaced
by another need.
(4) All people everywhere are motivated by the
same basic needs.
(5) Needs can be arranged on a hierarchy.
Hierarchy of Needs
HUMANISTIC / EXISTENTIALTHEORIES
Self-Actualization
ABRAHAM H. MASLOW: HolisticDynamic Theory
Esteem
Love & Belongingness
Overview
- Maslow’s theory has been called humanistic
theory, transpersonal theory, the third force in
psychology, the fourth force in personality, needs
theory, and self-actualization theory.
- Maslow referred to it as holistic-dynamic theory
because it assumes that the whole person is
constantly being motivated by one need or another
and that people have the potential to grow toward
psychological health, that is self-actualization. To
attain self-actualization, people must satisfy lower
needs.
- Maslow’s theory accepted some tenets of
psychoanalysis and behaviorism just like other
humanistic theories. However, he criticized both
theories for their limited views of humanity and
their inadequate understanding of the
psychologically healthy person.
Maslow’s View of Motivation
- Maslow’s theory of personality rests on several
basic assumptions regarding motivation:
(1) He adopted a holistic approach to motivation.
That is, the whole person, not any single part or
function, is motivated.
(2) Motivation is usually complex, meaning that a
person’s behavior may spring from several
separate motives.
Safety
Physiological
- The hierarchy assumes that lower needs must be
satisfied or at least relatively satisfied (prepotency)
before higher level needs become motivators. The
needs are arranged in order of their prepotency.
- The five basic needs, composing the hierarchy
are conative needs, meaning that they have a
striving or motivational character.
Physiological Needs
- the most basic and prepotent needs of any
person, including food, water, oxygen, and so on
- Physiological needs differ from other needs in
two important respects:
(1) they are the only needs that can be completely
satisfied or even overly satisfied
(2) it has a constantly recurring nature
Safety Needs
- These includes physical security, stability,
dependency, protection, and freedom.
- they cannot be completely or overly satisfied
Love and Belongingness Needs
- These include the desire for friendship, the wish
for a mate and children, to belong to a family, a
neighbourhood. These also include some aspects
of sex and human contact, and the need to both
give and receive love.
Esteem Needs
- These include self-respect, confidence,
competence, and the knowledge that others hold
them in high esteem.
- Maslow identified two levels of esteem needs:
(1) Reputation, the perception of the prestige,
recognition, or fame a person has achieved in the
eyes of others.
(2) Self-esteem is a person’s own feelings of worth
and confidence.
Self-Actualization Needs
- the highest need recognized by Maslow
- Once esteem needs are satisfied, they do not
always move to the level of self-actualization
unless they embrace the B-values.
- Self-actualization needs includes self-fulfillment,
the realization of all one’s potential, and the desire
to become creative in the full sense of the world.
- Self actualizing people become independent on
the satisfaction of either love or esteem needs.
In addition to the five conative needs, Maslow
identified three other categories of needs:
Aesthetic Needs
- Unlike conative needs, they are not universal.
- People with strong aesthetic needs desire
beautiful and orderly surroundings and pleasing
experiences.
Cognitive Needs
- the desire to know, to solve mysteries, to
understand, and to be curios
- When cognitive needs are blocked, all of the five
conative needs are threatened, that is, knowledge
is necessary to satisfy each of the basic needs.
Neurotic Needs
- Satisfaction of neurotic needs lead only to
stagnation and pathology unlike the satisfaction of
conative, aesthetic, and cognitive needs which
leads to physical and psychological health.
- Neurotic needs are non-productive. They are
usually reactive, that is, they serve as
compensation for unsatisfied basic needs.
General Discussion of Needs
Reversed Order of Needs
- Occasionally the hierarchal order of the basic
needs are reversed.
Unmotivated Behavior
- Maslow believed that even though all behaviors
have a cause, some behaviors are not motivated.
In other words, not all determinants are motives.
Much of what Maslow called “expressive
behaviors” is unmotivated.
Expressive and Coping Behavior
- Expressive behavior (which is often unmotivated)
is often an end itself and serves no other purpose
than to be. It is frequently unconscious and usually
takes place naturally and with little effort.
- Coping behavior (which is always motivated and
aimed at satisfying a need) is ordinarily conscious,
effortful, learned, and determined by the external
environment. It serves some aim or goal.
Deprivation of Needs
- Lack of satisfaction of any the basic needs leads
to some kind of pathology.
- Metapathology, the deprivation of selfactualization needs by the absence of values, the
lack of fulfillment, and the loss of meaning in life.
Instinctoid Nature of Needs
- Instinctoid needs are human needs that are
innately determined even though they can be
modified by learning (e.g. sex).
- The thwarting of instinctoid needs produces
pathology unlike noninstinctoid ones.
- Instinctoid needs are persistent and their
satisfaction leads to psychological health.
- Instinctoid needs are species-specific.
- Though difficult to change, instinctoid needs can
be molded, inhibited, or altered by environmental
influences. Even though instinctoid needs are
basic and unlearned, they can be changed and
even destroyed by the more powerful forces of
civilization.
Comparison of Higher and Lower Needs
- Higher needs (love, esteem, and selfactualization) and lower needs (physiological and
safety) are similarly instinctoid in nature.
- Differences between the two are those of degree
and not kind:
(1) Higher level needs are later on the
phylogenetic or evolutionary scale [e.g. only
humans (a relatively recent species) have the
need for self-actualization]. Also, higher needs
appear and operate late during the course of
individual development.
(2) Higher level needs produce more happiness
and more peak experiences, although satisfaction
of lower level needs produce a degree of
hedonistic pleasure, which is usually temporary.
Also, the satisfaction of higher level needs is more
subjectively desirable to those people who have
experienced both higher and lower needs. A
person who has reached the level of selfactualization would have no motivation to return to
a lower stage of development.
Self-Actualization
- represents the highest level of human
development (The Good Human Being)
Criteria for Self-Actualization
(1) Self-actualizing people were free from
psychopathology.
(2) They had progressed through the hierarchy of
needs
(3) embracing of the B-values
(4) Self-actualizing individuals fulfilled their needs
to grow, to develop, and to increasingly become
what they were capable of becoming
Values of Self-Actualizers
- Self-actualizing people are motivated by the
“eternal verities “called B-value, Being values.
- B-values are “metaneeds” to indicate that they
are the ultimate level of needs.
- The motives of self-actualizing people are called
metamotivation. It is characterized by expressive
behaviors and is associated with the B-values.
- Only people who live among the B-values are
self-actualizing, and they alone are capable of
metamotivation.
- The values of self-actualizing people include
truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness or the
transcendence of dichotomies, aliveness or
spontaneity, uniqueness, perfection, completion,
justice and order, simplicity, richness or totality,
effortlessness, playfulness or humor, and selfsufficiency or autonomy.
- All people have a holistic tendency to move
toward completeness or totality; and when this
movement is thwarted, they experience an
existential illness. They suffer from feelings of
inadequacy, disintegration, and unfulfillment.
Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People
1. More efficient perception of reality
2. Acceptance of self, others, and nature
3. Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness
4. Problem-centering
5. The need for privacy
6. Autonomy
7. Continued freshness of appreciation
8. The peak experience
9. Gemeinschaftsgefühl or social interest,
community feeling, or a sense of oneness with the
humanity
10. Profound interpersonal relations
11. The democratic character structure
12. Discrimination between means and ends
13. Philosophical sense of humor
14. Creativeness
15. Resistance to enculturation
Love, Sex, and Actualization
- Self-actualizing people are capable of B-love
that is they love for the essence or “Being” of the
other. B-love is mutually felt and shared and not
motivated by a deficiency or incompleteness within
the lover. Self-actualizers do not love because
they expect something in return. They simply love
and are loved.
- They can also tolerate the absence of sex,
because they have no deficiency need for it.
of awesomeness in the presence of beauty and
perfection.
- But why? First, the human body is not strong
enough to endure the ecstasy of fulfillment for any
length of time. Second, people compare
themselves with those who have accomplished
greatness, and get appalled by their own
arrogance.
Philosophy of Science
- Maslow belied that value-free science does not
lead to the proper study of human personality. He
argued for a different philosophy of science, a
holistic, a humanistic approach that is not
value-free and that has scientists who care about
the people and the topics they investigate.
- Psychological should place more emphasis on
the study of individuals and less on the study of
large groups. Subjective reports should be favored
over rigidly objectives ones, and that people
should be allowed to tell about themselves in a
holistic fashion instead of the more orthodox
approach that studies people in bits and pieces.
- Desacralization, the concept that originated
from Maslow which refers to the type of science
that lacks emotion, joy, wonder, awe, and rapture.
- Maslow also argued for a Taoistic attitude for
psychology, one that would be noninterfering,
passive, and receptive. Prediction and goal be
replaced with sheer fascination as goals for
science.
Psychotherapy
- For Maslow, the aim of therapy is for clients to
embrace the Being-values and to accomplish this
aim, clients must be free from their dependency on
others so that their natural impulse toward growth
and self-actualization could become active.
- Most people who seek for psychotherapy have
the lower needs relatively well satisfied but have
some difficulty achieving love and belonging
needs.
- Psychotherapy is largely and interpersonal
process. Through a warm, loving, interpersonal
relationship with the therapist, the client gains
satisfaction of love and belongingness needs and
thereby acquires feelings of confidence and selfworth.
The Jonah Complex
- According to Maslow, everyone is born with a will
toward health, a tendency to grow toward selfactualization. People do not achieve selfactualization because:
(a) Growth toward health personality can be
blocked at each of the steps in the hierarchy of
needs.
(b) Jonah complex, or the fear of being one’s
best. It is characterized by the attempts to run
away from one’s destiny. It represent a fear of
success, a fear of being one’s best, and a feeling
Positive Psychology
- This field in psychology which combines an
emphasis on hope, optimism, and well-being
stems directly from humanistic theories such as
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
- One area of positive psychology where Maslow’s
ideas have been particularly influential is in the
role of positive experiences in people’s lives (peak
experiences).
Critique of Maslow
- Maslow’s ideas have received less research
interest.
- Maslow left future researchers with few clear
guidelines to follow when attempting to replicate
his studies on self-actualization. He failed to
provide an operational definition of selfactualization and full description of his sampling
procedures.
- Maslow’s framework on hierarchy of needs gives
his theory excellent flexibility to organize what is
known about human behavior.
- His theory is also highly useful in psychotherapy,
workplace motivation.
- Maslow’s arcane and often unclear language
makes important part of his theory ambiguous and
inconsistent.
- The hierarchy of needs concept follows a logical
progression, and Maslow hypothesized that the
order of needs is the same for everyone, although
he does not overlook the possibility of certain
reversals.
- A hierarchy of needs model with only five steps
gives the theory a deceptive appearance of
simplicity. A full understanding of Maslow’s total
theory, however, suggests a far more complex
model.
- Maslow’s theory is high on optimism, but he
recognized that people are capable of great evil
and destruction when basic needs are being
thwarted.
- His theory places emphasis on both uniqueness
and similarities, basic needs are structured the
same for all people and that people satisfy these
needs at their own rate.
- Maslow’s view can be considered teleological
and purposive because high level needs exist as
potentials and people aim for it.
- The behavior of people motivated by
physiological and safety needs is determined by
outside forces, whereas the behavior of selfactualizing people is at least partially shaped by
free choice.
- For Maslow, individuals are both shaped by
biology and society, and the two cannot be
separated.
________________________________________
CARL R. ROGERS: Person-Centered
Theory
Overview
- The personal preference of Rogers was to be a
helper of people and not a constructor of theories.
- He developed a humanistic theory of personality
that grew out of his experiences as a practicing
psychotherapist.
- He emphasized the growth of patient (called by
Rogers the “client”) rather than the identification
and labeling of disorders.
- The sole emphasis of Roger’s therapy was on
the client-therapist relationship called the
“nondirective” technique.
Basic Assumptions of Person-Centered Theory
1. Formative Tendency
- Rogers believed that there is a tendency for all
matter, both organic and inorganic, to evolve from
simpler to more complex forms. For the entire
universe, a creative process, rather than a
disintegrative one, is in operation.
2. Actualizing Tendency
- An interrelated and more pertinent assumption
which refers to the tendency within all humans
(and other animals and plants) to move toward
completion or fulfillment of potentials. Actualization
involves the whole person.
- There are two tendencies subsumed within the
actualizing tendency. The need for maintenance
is similar to lower steps on Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs. It includes such basic needs as food, air,
and safety; but it also includes the tendency to
resist change and to seek the status quo. Even
though people have a strong desire to maintain the
status quo, they are willing to learn and to change.
This need to become more, to develop, and to
achieve growth is called enhancement.
personalized and differentiated in awareness as “I”
or “me” experiences. They begin to evaluate
experiences as positive or negative.
- Self-actualization is a subset of the actualization
tendency and is therefore not synonymous with
actualization tendency. Actualization tendency
refers to organismic experiences of the individual,
that is, it refers to the whole person. On the other
hand, self-actualization is the tendency to
actualize self as perceived in awareness.
- The organism and the perceived self must be in
harmony so that a discrepancy does not exist
between actualization tendency and selfactualization.
The Two Self-Subsystems
1. The Self-Concept
- Includes all those aspects of one’s being and
one’s experiences that are perceived in awareness
(though not always accurately) by the individual.
Self-concept is not identical with the organismic
self because portions of the organismic self may
be beyond a person’s awareness or simply not
owned by that person.
- Thus, once people form their self-concept, they
find change and significant learnings quite difficult.
Experiences that are inconsistent with their selfconcept usually are either denied or accepted only
in distorted forms.
2. The Ideal Self
- Defined as one’s view of self as one wishes to
be. The ideal self contains all those attributes,
usually positive that people aspire to possess.
- A human’s actualizing tendency is realized only
under certain conditions: empathy, unconditional
positive regard, congruence.
Awareness
Without awareness the self-concept and the idealself would not exist. Rogers defined awareness as
the “symbolic representation (not necessarily in
verbal symbols) of some portion of our
experience”.
The Self and Self-Actualization
- Infants begin to develop a vague concept of self
when a portion of their experience becomes
Levels of Awareness:
1. Some events are experienced below the
threshold of awareness and are either ignored or
denied.
2. Some experiences are accurately symbolized
and freely admitted to the self-structure (consistent
with the self-concept).
3. Experiences that are perceived in a distorted
form (inconsistent with the self-concept).
Denial of Positive Experiences
- It is not only negative or derogatory experiences
that are distorted or denied to awareness, positive
experiences (genuine compliments, positive
feedback) are not accepted.
Becoming A Person
- First, an individual must make contact – positive
or negative – with another person. This is the
minimum experience for becoming a person.
- After experiencing contact, they become aware
that another person has some measure of regard
for them. The person then develops a need to be
loved, liked, or accepted by another person,
referred to as positive regard.
- Positive regard is a prerequisite for positive selfregard, defined as the experience of prizing or
valuing one’s self.
Barriers to Psychological Health
Conditions of Worth
- Instead of receiving unconditional positive
regard, most people receive conditions of worth;
that is they perceive their parents, peers, or
partners love and accept them only if they meet
those people’s expectations and approval.
- We gradually assimilate into our self-structure the
attitudes we perceive others expressing toward us,
and in time we begin to evaluate experiences on
this basis.
- Our perception of others people’s view are called
external evaluations.
Incongruence
- Organism and the self are the two separate
entities that may or may not be congruent with one
another.
- Psychological disequilibrium begins when we fail
to recognize our organismic experiences as self-
experiences; when we do not accurately symbolize
organismic experiences into awareness because
they appear to be inconsistent with our emerging
self-concept.
- Vulnerability. Rogers believed that people are
vulnerable when they are unaware of the
discrepancy between their organismic self and
their significant experience.
- Anxiety and Threat. Anxiety and threat are
experienced as we gain awareness of the
incongruence between the organismic self and
self-concept. Both can represent steps toward
psychological health because they signal us that
our organismic experience is inconsistent with our
self-concept. Nevertheless, they are not pleasant
or comfortable feelings.
Defensiveness
- It is the protection of the self-concept against
anxiety and threat by the denial or distortion of
experiences inconsistent with it.
- There are two chief defences. With distortion,
we misinterpret an experience in order to fit into
some aspect of our self-concept. We perceive the
experience in awareness, but we fail to understand
its true meaning. With denial, we refuse to
perceive an experience in awareness, or at least
we keep some aspect of it from reaching
symbolization.
Disorganization
- Defensiveness sometimes fail and behavior
becomes disorganized or psychotic. When the
incongruence between people’s perceived self and
their organismic experience is too obvious or
occurs too suddenly to be denied or distorted.
- In a state of disorganization, people sometimes
behave consistently with their organismic
experience and sometimes in accordance with
their shattered self-concept.
Psychotherapy
Rogerian therapy can be viewed in terms of
conditions, process, and outcomes (if-then).
Conditions
(1) For anxious people to grow psychologically,
they must come into contact with a therapist who
is congruent and whom they perceive as providing
an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance and
accurate empathy.
(2) The client must perceive these characteristics
in the therapist.
(3) The contact between the client and therapist
must be of some duration.
Counselor Congruence
- Congruence exists when a person’s organismic
experiences are matched by awareness of them
and by an ability and willingness to openly express
these feelings.
- To be congruent means to be real or genuine,
authentic, to be whole or integrated, to be what
one truly is. Congruence involves feelings (both
positive and negative), awareness, and honest
expression.
- Incongruence can occur: First, if there is a
breakdown between feelings and awareness.
Second, if there is a discrepancy between
awareness o fan experience and the ability or
willingness to express it.
Unconditional Positive Regard
- Unconditional positive regard is the need to be
liked, prized, or accepted by another person
without any conditions or qualifications.
- showing a nonpossessive warmth and
acceptance, not evaluating clients
- “Regard” means that there is a close relationship
and that the therapist sees the client as an
important person; “positive” indicates that the
direction of the relationship is toward warm and
caring feelings; and “unconditional” suggests that
the positive regard is no longer dependent on
specific client behaviors and does not have to be
continually earned.
Empathic Listening
- Empathy exists when therapist accurately sense
the feelings of their clients and are able to
communicate these perceptions so that clients
know that another person has entered their world
of feelings without prejudice, projection, or
evaluation.
- Empathy suggests that a therapist sees things
from the client’s point of view and that the client
feels safe and unthreatened.
- In empathy, the feelings belong to the client, not
the therapist.
Process
- if the three conditions are present, then the
111process of therapeutic change will be set in
motion.
Stages of Therapeutic Change
Stage 1. Characterized by an unwillingness to
communicate anything about oneself. People at
this stage ordinarily do not seek help, but if for
some reason they come to therapy, they are
extremely rigid and resistant to change. They do
not recognize any problems and refuse to own any
personal feelings or emotions.
Stage 2. Clients become slightly less rigid. They
discuss external events and other people, but they
still disown or fail to recognize their own feelings.
They do not recognize any problems and refuse to
own any personal feelings or emotions.
Stage 3. They more freely talk about their self,
although still as an object. Clients talk about
feelings and emotions in the past or future tense
and avoid present feelings. They refuse to accept
their emotions, keep personal feelings at a
distance from the here-and-now situation, only
vaguely perceive that they can make personal
choices, and deny individual responsibility for most
of their decisions.
Stage 4. They begin to talk of deep feelings but
ones personally felt. They begin to question some
values that have been introjected from others, and
they start to see the incongruence between their
perceived self and their organismic experience.
They accept more freedom and responsibility than
they did in Stage 3 and begin to tentatively allow
themselves to become involved in a relationship
with the therapist.
Stage 5. They have begun to undergo significant
change and growth. They can express feelings in
the present, although they have not yet accurately
symbolized those feelings. They are beginning to
rely on an internal locus of evaluation for their
feelings and to make fresh and new discoveries
about themselves. They also experience a greater
differentiation of feelings and develop more
appreciation for nuances among them. In addition,
they begin to make their own decisions and to
accept responsibility for their choices.
Stage 6. They experience dramatic growth and an
irreversible movement toward becoming fullyfunctioning or self-actualizing. They freely allow
into awareness those experiences that they had
previously denied or distorted. They become more
congruent and are able to match their present
experiences with awareness and with open
expression. They no longer evaluate their own
behavior from an external viewpoint but rely on
their organismic self as the criterion for evaluating
experiences. They begin to develop unconditional
self-regard, which means that they have a feeling
of genuine caring and affection for the person they
are becoming. This stage is also marked by
physiological loosening and signals an end to
therapy.
Stage 7. This stage can occur outside the
therapeutic encounter. Clients become fully
functioning “persons of tomorrow”. They are able
to generalize their in-therapy experiences to their
world beyond therapy.
Theoretical Explanation for Therapeutic
Change
- The example of the therapist enables them to
prize and accept themselves and to empathically
understand themselves. As a consequence, their
perceived self becomes more congruent with their
organismic experiences. They become their own
therapist.
Outcomes
- The most basic outcome of successful clientcentered therapy is a congruent client who is less
defensive and more open to experiences. Each of
the remaining outcomes is a logical extension to
this basic one.
a. have a more realistic view of the world;
b. develop positive self-regard;
c. narrow the gap between ideal self and real self;
d. be less vulnerable to threat;
e. become less anxious;
f. take ownership of experiences;
g. become more accepting of others;
h. become more congruent in relationships with
others.
The Person of Tomorrow
- If the three necessary and sufficient therapeutic
conditions are optimal, these kind of person would
emerge:
a. more adaptable
b. open to experiences; trust in their organismic
selves
c. to live fully in the moment, known as existential
living
d. harmonious relations with others
e. more integrated
f. have a basic trust of human nature
g. greater richness in life
Philosophy of Science
- According to Rogers, science begins and ends
with the subjective experience, although in
between must be objective and empirical.
- Scientists should be completely involved in the
phenomena being studied.
- Procedures themselves must be rigorously
controlled, empirical, and objective; and the
findings out from the methods are subjectively
communicated.
Related Research
Self-Discrepancy Theory, Higgins
- real self-ought self discrepancy
- real-ideal discrepancy should lead to dejectionrelated emotions (e.g., depression, sadness,
disappointment), whereas real-ought discrepancy
should lead to agitation-related emotions (e.g.,
anxiety, fear, threat).
Motivation and Pursuing One’s Goals
Critique of Rogers
- Roger’s if-then framework of is theory yields high
falsification
- Rogerian theory can be extended to a relatively
wide range of human personality.
- Operational definitions were carefully worked out.
- Concepts such as “organismic experiencing,”
“becoming,” “positive self-regard,” “need for selfregard,” “unconditional self-regard,” and “fully
functioning” are too broad and imprecise to have
clear scientific meaning.
- People have some degree of free-choice and
some capacity to be self-directed.
- His concept of humanity is realistically optimistic.
- Roger’s theory is also high on teleology,
maintaining that people strive with purpose
towards goals that they freely set for themselves.
- More emphasis on individual differences and
uniqueness; people can grow in their own fashion
toward the process of becoming more fully
functioning.
- Psychological growth is shaped by social
influences, under “nurturant and favorable
conditions”.
________________________________________
ROLLO MAY: Existential Psychology
Background of Existentialism
- Existential psychology is concerned with the
individual’s struggle to work through life’s
experiences and to grow toward becoming more
fully human.
- Modern existential psychology has roots in the
writings of Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
and theologian.
- The works of two German philosophers Friedrich
Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger helped
popularized existential psychology during the 20th
century. Heidegger exerted considerable influence
on two Swiss psychiatrists, Ludwig Binswanger
and Medard Boss. Binswanger and Boss, along
with Karl Jaspers, Victor Frankl, and others,
adapted the philosophy of existentialism to the
practice of psychotherapy.
What is Existentialism?
- First, existence takes precedence over essence.
Existence means to emerge or to become, while
essence implies a static immutable substance.
Existence suggests process; essence refers to a
product. Existence is associated with growth and
change; essence signifies stagnation and finality.
Existentialists affirm that people’s essence is their
power to continually redefine themselves through
the choices they make.
- Second, existentialism opposes the split between
subject and object. People are both subjective and
objective and must search for truth by living active
and authentic lives.
- Third, people search for meaning to their lives.
- Fourth, existentialists hold that ultimately each of
us is responsible for who we are and what we
become.
- Fifth, existentialist are basically antitheoretical.
Theories dehumanize people and render them as
objects, losing their authenticity.
BASIC CONCEPTS
Being-in-the-world
- Existentialists adopt a phenomenological
approach to understanding humanity. To them, we
exist in a world that can be best understood form
our own perspective.
- The basic unity of the person and environment is
expressed in the German word Dasein, meaning
to exist there.
- Many people suffer from anxiety and despair
brought on by their alienation from themselves or
from their world. Alienation manifests itself in
three areas:
1. separation from nature
2. lack of meaningful interpersonal relations
3. alienation from one’s authentic self
- People experience three simultaneous modes in
their being-in-the-world.
1. Umwelt. The environment around us, the world
of object and things that would exist even if people
had no awareness.
2. Mitwelt. Refers to relating to people as people,
not as things.
3. Eigenwelt. Refers to one’s relationship with
oneself. It means to be aware of oneself as a
human being and to grasp who we are as we
relate to the world of things and to the world of
people.
Nonbeing
- Being-in-the-world necessitates an awareness of
self as a living, emerging being. This awareness,
in turn, leads to the dread of not being: that is,
nonbeing or nothingness.
- Life becomes more vital, more meaningful when
we confront the possibility of our death.
Anxiety
- May claimed that much of human behavior is
motivated by an underlying sense of dread and
anxiety.
- May defined anxiety as “the subjective state of
the individual’s becoming aware that his or her
existence can be destroyed, that he can become
nothing.
- The acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to
anxiety.
Normal Anxiety
- Defined by May as that “which is proportionate to
the threat does not involve repression, and can be
confronted constructively on the conscious level.”
Neurotic Anxiety
- May defined neurotic anxiety as “a reaction which
is disproportionate to the threat, involves
repression and other forms of intrapsychic conflict
and is managed by various kinds of blocking-off
activity and awareness.
Guilt
- Guilt arises when people deny their potentialities,
failure to accurately perceive the needs of fellow
humans, or remain oblivious to their dependence
on the natural world.
- Both anxiety and guilt are ontological, that is,
they refer to the nature of being and not to feelings
arising from specific situations or transgressions.
- May recognized three forms of ontological guilt:
1. Guilt that arises from a lack of awareness of
one’s being in the world (corresponds to Umwelt),
one’s separation from nature. This is especially
prevalent in advanced societies.
2. Guilt that stems from our inability to perceive
accurately the world of others (corresponds to
Mitwelt).
3. Guilt that is associated with our denial of our
potentialities or with our failure to fulfil them. The
guilt is grounded in our relationship with the self
(Eigenwelt). This is reminiscent of Maslow’s
concept of Jonah complex, the fear of being or
doing one’s best.
- Like anxiety, ontological guilt can have either a
positive or a negative effect on personality. We
can use this guilt to develop a healthy sense of
humility, to improve our relations with others, and
to creatively use our potentialities. However, when
we refuse to accept ontological guilt, it becomes
neurotic or morbid.
Intentionality
- The ability to make a choice implies some
underlying structure upon which that choice is
made. The structure that gives meaning to
experience and allows people to make decisions
about the future is called intentionality.
- Intentionality bridges the gap between subject
and object. A man’s action depends on his
intentions and on the meaning he gives to his
experience.
- Intentionality is sometimes unconscious.
Care, Love, and Will
- Care is an active process, the opposite of
apathy. To care for someone means to recognize
that person as a fellow human being, to identify
with that person’s pain or joy, guilt or pity. Care is
not the same as love but it is the source of love.
- May defined love as the “delight in the presence
of the other person and an affirming of that
person’s value and development as much as one’s
own.
- Care is also the source of will. Will is “the
capacity to organize one’s self so that movement
in a certain direction or toward a certain goal may
take place.
Union of Love and Will
- Modern society is suffering from an unhealthy
division of love and will. Love has become
associated with sex, which lacks commitment;
whereas will has come to mean power, it becomes
self-serving and manipulative.
- One of the biological reasons why love and will
are separated because when we first come into
the world, our needs are met without selfconscious effort in our part. But later, the blissful
love we enjoyed during infancy is now opposed by
the emerging wilfulness. Parents often interpret
this positive assertion of self negatively. As a
result, children learn to disassociate will from love.
Forms of Love
Sex. A physiological need that seeks gratification
through the release of tension.
Eros. A physiological desire that seeks
procreation or creation through an enduring union
with a loved one. Eros is built on care and
tenderness.
Philia. An intimate nonsexual friendship between
two people. It builds the foundation of eros.
Agape. Defined as the esteem for other, the
concern for other’s welfare beyond any gain that
one can get out of it. Agape is altruistic love, it is
undeserved and unconditional.
________________________________________
- In summary, healthy adult relationships blend all
four forms of love. They are based on sexual
satisfaction, a desire for an enduring union,
genuine friendship, and an unselfish concern for
the welfare of the other person.
Freedom and Destiny
What is Freedom?
- Healthy individuals are able to assume their
freedom and to face their destiny.
- Freedom is the individual’s capacity to know that
he is the determined one. The word “determined”
is synonymous with destiny
Forms of Freedom:
Existential Freedom
- It is the freedom of action – the freedom of doing
on the choices that one makes.
Essential Freedom
- refers to freedom of being
What is Destiny?
- May designed destiny as “the design of the
universe speaking through the design of each one
of us.”
- Our ultimate destiny is death, but on a lesser
scale, our destiny includes other biological factors
and psychological and cultural factors.
- Destiny does not mean preordained or
foredoomed, we have the power to choose, and
this power allows us to confront and challenge our
destiny.
________________________________________
Freedom and destiny are not antithetical but rather
a normal paradox of life.
The Power of Myth
- Myths are not falsehoods; rather, they are
conscious and unconscious belief systems that
provide explanations for personal and social
problems.
- May believed that people communicate with one
another on two levels. The first is rationalistic
language; truth takes precedence over the people
who are communicating. The second is through
myths, the total human experience is more
important than the empirical accuracy of the
communication.
- May believed that the Oedipus story is a powerful
myth in our culture because it contains elements of
existential crises common to everyone. These
crises include (1) birth, (2) separation or exile from
parents and home, (3) sexual union with one
parent and hostility toward the other, (4) the
assertion of independence and the search for
identity, and (5) death.
- May’s concept of myth is comparable to Jung’s
idea of collective unconscious in that myths are
archetypal patterns in the human experience; they
are avenues to universal images that lie beyond
individual experience.
Psychopathology
- Without some goal or destination, people
become sick and engage in a variety of selfdefeating and self-destructive behaviors.
- Psychologically disturbed individuals deny their
destiny and thus lose their freedom.
Psychotherapy
- May rejected the idea that psychotherapy should
reduce anxiety and ease feelings of guilt. Instead,
he suggested that psychotherapy should make a
person more human that is to help them expand
their consciousness so that they will be in a better
position to make choices. These choices lead to
the simultaneous growth of freedom and
responsibility.
- The purpose of psychotherapy is to set people
free.
- Existential therapy has no special set of
techniques or methods that can be applied to all
patients. The therapists have only themselves to
offer, their own humanity.
- Therapy is a human encounter, an I-Thou
relationship with the potential to facilitate growth
within both the therapist and the patient.
Related Research
- Mortality salience and denial of our animal nature
(terror management theory)
Critique of May
- Existentialism in general and May’s psychology
have been criticized as being anti-intellectual and
antitheoretical. May did not formulate his views in
a theoretical structure.
- May’s theory have explored aspects of humanity
not examined by other personality theorists. His
view of humanity is both broader and deeper than
the views of most other personality theorists.
- His use of certain concepts was at times
inconsistent and confusing. He also neglected
several important topics in human personality like
development, cognition, learning, and motivation.
- There were no operational definitions of May’s
terms. He offered a variety of definitions for such
concepts as anxiety, guilt, intentionality, will, and
destiny.
- May’s theory is rated high on the dimension of
free choice.
- May’s theory is optimistic, though he painted a
gloomy picture of humanity.
- May clearly favored teleology over causality.
Although May recognized the potential impact of
childhood experiences on adult personality, each
one of us has a particular goal or destiny that we
must discover and challenge or else risk alienation
and neurosis.
- People have enormous capacity for selfawareness, but people sometimes lack the
courage to face their destiny or to recognize the
evil that exist within their culture and themselves.
- Society contributes to personality through
interpersonal relationships. Biology also
contributes to personality.
- May’s view of humanity definitely leans toward
uniqueness. Each of us is responsible for shaping
our own personality within the limits imposed by
the society.
________________________________________
DISPOSITIONAL THEORIES
GORDON W. ALLPORT: Psychology of
the Individual
- More than any other personality theorists, Allport
emphasized the uniqueness of the individual.
- He called the study of the individual
morphogenic science; those that gather data on
a single individual; whereas nomothetic methods
gather data on groups of people as used by most
other psychologists.
- He also advocated on eclectic approach to
theory building; accepting some of the
theories/contributions of other psychologists such
as Freud, Maslow, Rogers, Eysenck, and Skinner.
- Allport also argued against particularism, or
theories that emphasize a single aspect of
personality. He cautioned other theorists not to
“forget what you have decided to neglect.” No
theory is completely comprehensive and much of
human theory is not included in any single theory.
Allport’s Approach to Personality Theory
What is Personality?
- Allport defined personality as “the dynamic
organization within the individual of those
psychosocial systems that determine his
characteristic behavior and thought.
- The term dynamic organization implies an
integration or interrelatedness of the various
aspects of personality. But personality is always
subject to change, it is not static organization.
- The term psychosocial emphasizes the
importance of both the psychological and physical
aspects of personality.
- The word determine suggests that personality is
not simply a behavior, it refers to the person
behind the action.
- By characteristic is to imply “individual” or
“unique”.
- Personality is both physical and psychological,
both substance and change, both product and
process, both structure and growth.
Role of Conscious Motivation
- Healthy adults are generally aware of what they
are doing and the reasons for doing it but he also
recognized the existence and importance of
unconscious processes.
Characteristics of a Healthy Person
- Psychologically mature people are characterized
by proactive behavior; they not only react to
external stimuli, but they are capable of
consciously acting on their environment in new
and innovative ways and causing their
environment to react to them.
- Mature personalities are more likely than
disturbed ones to be motivated by conscious
processes that allow them to be more flexible and
autonomous.
Six Criteria for Mature Personality:
1) Extension of the sense of self. Mature people
continually seek to identify with and participate in
events outside themselves.
2) Warm relating of self to others
3) Emotional security or Self-acceptance
(emotional poise)
4) Realistic perception of their environment
5) Insight and Humor
6) Unifying philosophy of life
Structure of Personality
- This refers to its basic units or building blocks. To
- Common traits are general characteristics held
in common by many people. Common traits
provide the means by which people within a given
culture can be compared to one another.
- For Allport, the most important structures are
those that permit the description of the person in
terms of individual characteristics, he called the
personal dispositions. Defined as “a generalized
nueropsychic structure (peculiar to the individual),
with the capacity to render many stimuli
functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide
consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and
stylistic behavior.
Levels of Personal Dispositions:
Personal dispositions can be placed in a
continuum form those that are most central to
those that are of only peripheral importance to a
person.
Cardinal Dispositions. An eminent characteristic
or ruling passion, so outstanding that it dominates
people’s lives (narcissistic, sadistic). Only few
people have cardinal dispositions.
Central Dispositions. These are characteristics
that are sufficiently strong to be detected around
which a person’s life focuses. Adler believed that
people have 5 to 10 central dispositions.
Secondary Dispositions. Less conspicuous but
far greater in number than central dispositions.
These are not central to personality yet occur with
some regularity.
Motivational and Stylistic Dispositions
All personal dispositions are dynamic in a sense
that they have motivational power.
Motivational Dispositions. These are intensely
experienced dispositions that receive their
motivation from basic needs and drives.
Motivational dispositions initiate action. Similar to
Maslow’s concept of coping behavior.
Stylistic Dispositions. These are dispositions
that are less intensely experienced even though
this disposition possesses some motivational
power. Stylistic dispositions guide action. Similar
to Maslow’s expressive behavior.
- Allport saw no distinction between the two
dispositions.
Proprium
- Allport used this term to refer to those behaviors
and characteristics that people regard as warm,
central, and important to their lives.
- Some characteristics and behaviors exist on the
periphery of personality. These nonpropriate
behaviors are performed automatically and are not
crucial to the person’s sense of self.
- The proprium includes a person’s values and
conscience that is personal (not generalized and
shared) and consistent with one’s adult belief
systems.
Motivation
Allport believed that most people are motivated by
present drives rather than by past events and are
aware of what they are doing and why they are
doing it.
- Peripheral Motives are those that reduce a
need whereas propriate strivings seek to
maintain tension and disequilibrium.
- Allport believed that a useful theory rests on the
assumption that people not only react to their
environment but also shape their environment and
cause it to react to them.
- Psychoanalysis and learning theories are
basically homeostatic or reactive because they
see people as being motivated primarily by the
needs to reduce tension and to return to state of
equilibrium. Allport contended that an adequate
theory of personality must allow for proactive
behavior. It must view people as consciously
acting on their environment in a manner that
permits growth toward psychological health.
Functional Autonomy
- This concept represents Allport’s most distinctive
and controversial postulate.
- This is Allport’s explanation for the myriad human
motives that seemingly are not accounted for by
hedonistic or drive-reduction principles.
- The concept of functional autonomy holds that
some, but not all, human motives are functionally
independent from the original motive responsible
for the behavior. Human behavior is based on
present interests and on conscious motivation.
-This notion is in harmony with the commonsense
belief of many people who hold that they do things
simply because they like to do them.
Requirements of An Adequate Theory of
Motivation
1) It will acknowledge the contemporaneity of
motives.
2) It will be a pluralistic theory – allowing for
motives of many types.
3) It will ascribe dynamic force to cognitive
processes (e.g. planning and intention).
4) It will allow for concrete uniqueness of motives.
Perseverative Functional Autonomy
- It is an elementary level of functional autonomy,
borrowed from the term “perseveration,” which is
the tendency of an impression to leave an
influence on subsequent experience.
Propriate Functional Autonomy
- This is the master system of motivation that
confers unity on personality, which refers to those
self-sustaining motives that are related to the
proprium not on the periphery of personality.
Processes That Are Not Functionally
Autonomous
- Functional autonomy is not an explanation for all
human motivation. Allport listed eight processes
that are not functionally autonomous:
(1) biological drives, such as eating, breathing,
and sleeping; (2) motives directly linked to the
reduction of basic drives; (3) reflex actions such as
an eye blink; (4) constitutional equipment, namely
physique, intelligence, and temperament; (5)
habits in the process of being formed; (6) patterns
of behavior that require primary reinforcement; (7)
sublimations that can be tied to childhood sexual
desires; and (8) some neurotic or pathological
symptoms.
The Study of the Individual
Morphogenic Science
- Allport distinguished a scientific approach which
is peculiar to the single case, termed as
idiographic. Allport later abandoned the term
because it was often misunderstood and misused
and spoke of morphogenic procedures.
- Both “idiographic” and “morphogenic” pertain to
the individual, but “idiographic” does not suggest
structure or pattern. In contrast, “morphogenic”
refers to patterned properties of the whole
organism and allows for intraperson comparisons.
Critique of Allport
- He based his theory of personality more on
philosophical speculation and common sense than
on scientific investigations.
- He has been careful in defining terms, in
categorizing previous definitions, or in questioning
what units should be employed in his personality
theory.
- Much of what is known about human personality
cannot be easily integrated into Allport’s theory.
Behaviors motivated by unconscious forces as
well as those that are stimulated by primary drives
were not adequately explained.
- Adler used precise language rendering his theory
both internally consistent and parsimonious.
- Allport basically had a basically optimistic view of
human nature. He believed that our fates and traits
are not determined by unconscious motives
originating in early childhood but by conscious
choices we make in the present.
- Allport adopted a “limited freedom approach”
Although free will exists; people however are not
completely free.
- Allport’s view of humanity is more teleological
than causal. Personality to some extent is
influenced by past experiences, but the behaviors
that make us human are those that are motivated
by our expectations of the future.
- Allport also placed only moderate emphasis on
social factors. He recognized the importance of
environmental influences in helping to shape
personality’ but how each of us reacts to it
depends on our unique personality and our basic
motivation.
- People are motivated by a variety of motivations;
most of which are within the realm of
consciousness.
- Individual differences and uniqueness receive far
greater emphasis in Allport’s psychology.
________________________________________
HANS J. EYSENCK, ROBERT R.
McCRAE, & PAUL T. COSTA, JR.: Trait
and Factor Theories
The Pioneering Work of Raymond B. Catell
- Catell’s trait theory enhances the understanding
of Eysenck’s three-factor theory.
- First, Catell used an inductive method; that is,
he began with no preconceived bias concerning
the number of traits or types. Eysenck used a
deductive method to identify three personality
factors.
- Second, Catell used three different media of
observations to examine people: These include a
person’s life record (L data) derived from
observations made by other people, self-reports
(Q data) obtained from questionnaires and
objective tests (T data). In contrast, Eysenck’s
three-bipolar factors is limited to responses on
questioners.
- Third, Catell divided traits into common traits and
unique traits. He also distinguished source traits
from surface traits (trait indicators). Catell further
classified traits into temperament (how a person
behaves), motivation (why one behaves), and
ability (how far or how fast one can perform).
- Fourth, Catell’s multifaceted approach yielded 35
primary or first-order traits which measure mostly
the temperament division. 23 of these characterize
the normal population and 12 measure the
pathological dimension. The most frequently
studied of the normal traits are the 16 personality
found on Catell’s Sixteen Personality Factor’s
Questionnaire. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
yields score only on three factors.
- Fifth, while Cattell was measuring a large number
to traits, Eysenck was concentrating on types, or
superfactors that make up several interrelated
traits.
Basis of Factor Analysis
- A correlation coefficient is a mathematical
procedure for expressing the degree of
correspondence between two set of scores.
- Factor analysis can account for a large number
of variables within a smaller number of more basic
dimensions, factors. These more basic
dimensions represent a cluster of closely related
variables.
- After identifying the factors, the next step is to
determine the extent to which each individual
score contributes to the various factors.
Correlations of scores with factors are called
factor loadings.
- Traits generated through factor analysis may be
either unipolar or bipolar. Unipolar traits are
scaled from zero to some large amount (e.g.,
height, weight). Bipolar traits extend from one
pole to an opposite pole, with zero representing a
midpoint (e.g., introversion vs. extraversion)
- In order for mathematically derived factors to
have psychological meaning, the axes on which
the scores are plotted are usually turned on
rotated into a specific mathematical relationship
with each other. The rotation can either be
orthogonal or oblique.
Orthogonally rotated axes are at right angles with
each other. As scores on the x variable increase,
scores on the y-axis may have any value, that is,
they are completely unrelated to scores on the xaxis. (favored by Eysenck)
The oblique method, assumes some positive or
negative correlation and refers to an angle of less
than or more than 90°. As scores on the x variable
increase, scores on the y-axis have a tendency
also to increase.
Eysenck’s Factor Theory
- The personality theory of Hans Eysenck has
strong psychometric and biological components.
Criteria for Identifying Factors
1) Psychometric evidence for the factor’s
existence must be established. A corollary to this
criterion is that the factor must be reliable and
replicable.
2) Factor must also possess heritability and must
fit an established genetic model. This criterion
eliminates learned characteristics.
3) The factor must make sense from a theoretical
view. Eysenck employed the deductive method of
investigation, beginning with a theory and then
gathering data that are logically consistent with
that theory.
4) The factor must possess social relevance.
Hierarchy of Behavior Organization
- Lowest level: specific acts or cognitions
-Second level: habitual acts or cognitions
- Third level: traits. Several related habitual
responses form a trait defined by Eysenck as
“important semi-permanent personality
dispositions”.
- Fourth level: types or superfactors. A type is
made up of several interrelated traits.
Dimensions of Personality
- Eysenck extracted only three general
superfactors: The three personality dimensions are
extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), and
pscyhoticism (P).
- Eysenck regarded all three factors as part of
normal personality structure. All three are bipolar,
with extraversion on one pole and introversion at
the other, neuroticism/stability, and
psychoticism/superego function.
- The bipolarity does not imply that most people
are at one end or the other of the three main
poles.. Each factor is unimodally distributed.
- Extraverts are characterized primarily by
sociability and impulsiveness but also by jocularity
liveliness, quick-wittedness, optimism, and other
traits indicative of people who are rewarded for
their association with others.
- Introverts are characterized by traits opposite to
those of extraverts. They can be described as
quiet, passive, unsociable, careful, reserved,
thoughtful, pessimistic, peaceful, sober, and
controlled.
- The differences between extraverts and
introverts are not behavioral, but rather biological
and genetic in nature. One is the cortical arousal
level, a physiological condition that is largely
inhibited rather than learned. Extraverts have a
lower level of cortical arousal than introverts, they
have higher sensory thresholds, thus lesser
reactions to sensory stimulation. Introverts with
their congenitally low sensory threshold, avoid
situations that will cause too much excitement.
Neuroticism
- People who score high on neuroticism often have
a tendency to overact emotionally and to have
difficulty returning to normal state after emotional
arousal. They frequently complain of physical
symptoms.
- Eysenck accepted the diathesis-stress model
of psychiatric illness, which suggests that some
people are vulnerable to illness because they have
either a genetic or an acquired weakness that
predisposes them to an illness. This predisposition
(diathesis) may interact with stress to produce a
neurotic disorder.
- The higher the neuroticism score, the lower level
of stress necessary to precipitate a neurotic
disorder.
Psychoticism
- Eysenck’s original theory of personality was
based on only two personality dimensions –
extraversion and neuroticism. But after several
years, psychoticism was elevated to a position
equal to E and N.
- High psychoticism scores are often egocentric,
cold, nonconforming, impulsive, hostile,
aggressive, suspicious, psychopathic, and
antisocial. People low on psychoticism, in the
direction of superego function, tend to be altruistic,
highly socialized, empathic, caring, cooperative,
conforming, and conventional.
- P scorers are also genetically more vulnerable to
stress than are low P scorers, having an increased
chance of developing a psychotic disorder.
- It is independent of both E and N.
Eysenck’s view of personality, therefore, allows
each person to be measured on three independent
factors.
Measuring Personality
Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) –
assessed only neuroticism and extraversion.
Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) – contains
an additional lie (L) scale aside from E and N to
detect faking.
- Sybil B.G. Eysenck extended EPI to children 7 to
16 years of age, called the Junior EPI.
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) – this
included psychoticism, which has both an adult
and junior version
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised
was developed due to subsequent criticisms
Biological Bases of Personality
The three superfactors, according to Eysenck, all
have powerful biological determinants. He
estimated that three fourths of the variance can be
accounted for by heredity and about one fourth by
environmental factors.
- Antecedents of the three superfactors are genetic
determinants like DNA (distal) and biological such
as limbic system arousal (proximal).
- Consequences include such experimental
variables as conditioning experiences, sensitivity,
and memory (proximal) and social behaviors such
as criminality, creativity, psychopathology, and
sexual behavior.
In Search of the Big Five
- Initially Costa and McCrae focused on the two
main dimensions of neuroticism and extraversion.
Almost immediately, they found a third factor
which they called openness to experience.
- Not until 1985 did they began to report work on
the five factors of personality. This work
culminated their five-factor personality inventory:
the NEO-PI. In the inventory, the last two
dimensions were agreeableness and
conscientiousness; but were still the least welldeveloped scale, having no subscales.
- Throughout the 1980’s, they continued their work
on factor analyzing most every other major
personality inventory, including the Myer-Briggs
Type Indicator and the Eysenck Personality
Inventory.
Description of the Five Factors
- McCrae and Costa agreed with Eysenck that
personality traits are bipolar, and that people score
near middle of each trait, with only few people
scoring in the extremes.
- Neuroticism and extraversion are the two
strongest and most ubiquitous personality traits.
Extraversion
Neuroticism
Openness
Agreeableness
High Scores
affectionate
joiner
talkative
fun loving
active
passionate
High Scores
anxious
temperamental
self-pitying
self-conscious
emotional
vulnerable
High Scores
imaginative
creative
original
prefers variety
curios
liberal
High Scores
softhearted
Low Scores
reserved
loner
quiet
sober
passive
unfeeling
Low Scores
calm
even-tempered
self-satisfied
comfortable
unemotional
hardy
Low Scores
down-to-earth
uncreative
conventional
prefers routine
uncurious
conservative
Low Scores
ruthless
Conscientious
trusting
generous
acquiescent
lenient
good-natured
High Scores
conscientious
hardworking
well-organized
punctual
ambitious
persevering
suspicious
stingy
antagonistic
critical
irritable
Low Scores
negligent
lazy
disorganized
late
aimless
quitting
- Originally the five-factor theory constituted noting
more than a taxonomy, a classification of basic
personality traits.
Units of the Five-Factor Theory
In the personality theory of McCrae and Costa,
behavior is predicted an understanding of three
central or core components and three peripheral
ones.
Core Components of Personality
Basic Tendencies are one of the central
components of personality, defined as the
universal raw material of personality capacities
and dispositions that are generally inferred rather
than observed. They defined the individual’s
potential and direction (talent, intelligence,
aptitude).
- The essence of basic tendencies is their basis in
biology and their stability over time and situation.
Characteristic Adaptations are acquired
personality structures that develop as people
adapt to their environment.
- The principal difference between basic
tendencies and characteristic adaptations is their
flexibility. Whereas basic tendencies are quite
stable, characteristic adaptations can be
influenced by external influences that result from
the interaction of individuals with their environment
(acquired and specific skills). It also fluctuates,
making them subject to change over a person’s
lifetime.
Self-Concept is an important characteristic
adaptation that consists of knowledge, views, and
evaluations of the self ranging from miscellaneous
facts of personal history to the identity that gives a
sense of purpose and coherence to life. The
beliefs, attitudes, and feelings one has toward
oneself are characteristic adaptations in that they
influence how one behaves in a given
circumstance.
Peripheral Components of Personality
Biological Bases. The Five-Factor Theory rests
on a single causal influence on personality traits
namely biology. This should not suggest that
merely that it has no direct influence on basic
tendencies.
Objective Biography is defined as everything the
person does, thinks, or feels across the whole
lifespan. Objective biography emphasizes what
has happened in people’s lives (objective) rather
than their view or perceptions of their experiences
(subjective).
External Influences is all about how respond to
opportunities and demands in a particular physical
or social situation that has some influence on the
personality system.
- Behavior is a function of the interaction between
characteristic adaptations and external influences.
Basic Postulates
Postulates for Basic Tendencies
- Basic tendencies have four postulates.
1. The individuality postulate stipulates that
adults have a unique set of traits and that each
person exhibits a unique combination of trait
patterns.
2. The origin postulate states that all personality
traits are solely of endogenous (internal forces)
such as genes, hormones, and brain structures.
3. The development postulate assumes that traits
develop and change through childhood, but in
adolescence their development slows, and by
early to middle-adulthood, change in personality
nearly stops together.
4. The structure postulate states that traits are
organized hierarchically from narrow and specific
to broad and general.
Postulates for Characteristic Adaptations
1. The postulate concerning characteristic
adaptations states that, over time, people adapt to
their environment “by acquiring patterns of
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are
consistent with their personality traits and earlier
adaptations.”
2. The second postulate – maladjustment –
suggests that our responses are not always
consistent with personal goals or cultural values.
3. The plasticity postulate stipulates that basic
traits may “change over time in response to
biological maturation, changes in the environment,
or deliberate interventions.”
Critique of Trait and Factor Theories
- Trait and factor theories provide important
taxonomies that organize personality into
meaningful classifications.
- They are example of a strictly empirical approach
to personality investigation.
- The comprehensiveness of Eysenck’s personality
theory has generated significant amounts of
research, most especially empirical research.
- The approach of trait and factor theories is the
essence of parsimony; the very purpose of factor
analysis is to reduce a large number of variables
to as few as possible.
-Eysenck, as well as McCrae and Costa, placed
heavy emphasis on genetic factors of personality.
- Trait factor lean toward individual differences.
Factor analysis rests on the premise of differences
among individuals and thus variability in their
scores.
________________________________________
LEARNINGTHEORIES
BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER:
Behavioral Analysis
Overview of Behavioral Analysis
- The behaviorism approach in psychology
emerged from laboratory studies of animals and
humans.
- Two of the early pioneers were E.L. Thorndike
and John Watson, but the person most often
associated with the behaviorist position is Skinner.
- Skinner minimized speculation and focused on
observable behavior, earning his approach the
label radical behaviorism, a doctrine that avoids
all hypothetical constructs, such as ego, traits,
drives, needs, hunger, and so forth.
- Skinner can also be regarded as a determinist
and environmentalist. As a determinist, he
rejected the notion of volition or free will. Human
behavior does not stem from an act of will. As an
environmentalist, Skinner held that psychology
must not explain behavior on the basis of the
psychological or constitutional components of the
organism but rather on the basis of environmental
stimuli.
- The history of the individual rather than anatomy,
provides the most useful data for predicting and
controlling behavior.
Precursors to Skinner’s Scientific Behaviorism
Edward L. Thorndike
- Thorndike observe that learning takes place
mostly because of the effects that follow a
response, and he called this observation the law
of effect.
- The law of effect had two parts. The first held that
responses to stimuli that are followed immediately
by a satisfier tend to be “stamped in”. The second
held that responses to stimuli that are followed
immediately by an annoyer tend to be “stamped
out”.
- Rewards (satisfiers) strengthen the connection
between a stimulus and a response; punishments
(annoyers) do not usually weaken this connection.
That is, punishing a behavior merely inhibits that
behavior; it does not “stamp it out.”
- The law of effect in other words states that
behaviors followed by positive consequences are
strengthened, while behaviors followed by
negative consequences are weakened.
John B. Watson
- Watson had studied both animals and humans
and became convinced that the concepts of
consciousness and introspection must play no role
in the scientific study of human behavior. Human
behavior should be studied objectively.
- Watson argued that the goal of psychology is the
prediction and control of behavior and that goal
could best be reached by limiting psychology to an
objective study of habits formed through stimulusresponse connections.
Scientific Behaviorism
- Skinner insisted that psychology must avoid
internal mental factors and confine itself to
observable physical events; internal states do exist
but they are not explanations for behavior.
Philosophy of Science
- Scientific behaviorism allows for an interpretation
of behavior but not an explanation of its causes.
Characteristics of Science
- Science has three main characteristics:
1. Science advances in a cumulative manner.
2. Science is an attitude that places value on
empirical observation above all else. There are
further three components of the scientific attitude:
a. It rejects authority
b. It demands intellectual honesty
c. It suspends judgment
3. Science is a search for order and lawful
relationships. The scientific method consists of
prediction, control, and description.
Conditioning
- Skinner recognized two kinds of conditioning:
classical and operant. With classical conditioning
(Skinner called respondent conditioning), a
response is drawn out of the organism by a
specific, identifiable stimulus. With operant
conditioning (instrumental conditioning), a
behavior is made more likely to recur when it’s
immediately reinforced.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
- A neutral stimulus is paired with – that is,
immediately precedes – an unconditioned stimulus
a number of times until it is capable of bringing
about a previously unconditioned now called the
conditioned response.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
- The key to operant conditioning is the immediate
reinforcement of a response. The organism first
does something and then is reinforced by the
environment.
- The organism operates on the environment to
produce a specific effect.
Shaping
- In operant conditioning, the desired behavior is
too complex to be emitted without first being
shaped by the environment.
- Shaping is a procedure in which the
experimenter or the environment successively
reinforces behaviors that lead up to or
approximate the desired behavior; the process of
successive approximation.
- In all instances of operant conditioning, the three
conditions are present: the antecedent, the
behavior, and the consequence.
Reinforcement
- Reinforcement has two effects. (1) It strengthens
the behavior and it rewards the person.
Positive Reinforcement refers to the presentation
of a stimulus that increases the probability that a
behavior will occur again.
Negative Reinforcement refers to aversive
(unpleasant) stimulus whose removal increases
the likelihood that the preceding response will
occur again.
Punishment
- Punishment does not strengthen a response;
neither does it inevitably weaken it. The effects of
punishment are less predictable than those of
reward.
- Punishment does not tell us what to do; it merely
suppresses the tendency to behave in the
undesirable fashion.
- Another effect of punishment is the conditioning
of a negative feeling and the spread of its effects.
Positive Punishment refers to presenting an
aversive (unpleasant) stimulus after a response,
decreasing the chances that the response will
recur.
Negative Punishment refers to removing a
reinforcing stimulus after a response, decreasing
the chances that the response will recur.
Conditioned or secondary reinfocers are those
environmental stimuli that are not by nature
satisfying but become so because they are
associated and can be exchanged with such
primary reinforcers as food, water, sex, or physical
comfort.
Generalized reinforcers are those associated
with more than one primary reinforcer (e.g.
attention, approval, affection, submission of
others, and money)
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous Reinforcement means that every
occurrence of the operant response results in the
delivery of the reinforcer.
- Continuous reinforcement is often used in the
initial stages of operant conditioning because it
results in rapid learning of some behavior but is an
inefficient use of reinforcer.
Partial Reinforcement refers to a situation in
which responding is reinforced only some of the
time.
- This is very effective in maintaining behavior over
the long run. They make more efficient use of the
reinforcer and they produce responses that are
more resistant to extinction.
1) Fixed-Ratio Schedule
- A reinforcer only occurs after a fixed number of
responses are made by the subject. That is, the
organism is reinforced after every nth response.
2) Variable-Ratio Schedule
- A reinforcer is delivered after an average number
of correct responses has occurred. That is,
reinforcer is delivered after the nth response on
the average.
- This produces a high rate of responding because
the person doesn’t know which response will
finally deliver the reinforcer.
3) Fixed-Interval Schedule
- Reinforcer occurs following the first response that
occurs after a fixed interval of time.
- This schedule of partial reinforcement has slow
responding at first, but as the time for the
reinforcer nears, responses increase.
4) Variable-Interval Schedule
- A reinforcer occurs following the first correct
response after an average amount of time has
passed.
- This results in a more regular rate of responding
than does a fixed-interval schedule.
_______________________________________
- For humans, reinforcement results more often
from one’s effort rather than the passage of time.
For this reason, ratio schedules are more common
than interval schedules, and the variable-interval
schedule is probably the least common of all.
Other Conditioning Concepts
- Generalization in operant conditioning means
that an animal or person emits the same response
to similar stimuli. In classical conditioning,
generalization is the tendency for a stimulus
similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit
a response similar to the conditioned response.
- Discrimination in operant conditioning means
that a response is emitted in the presence of a
stimulus that is reinforced and not in the presence
of unreinforced stimuli. In classical conditioning,
discrimination is the tendency for some stimuli but
not others to elicit a conditioned response.
- Extinction in operant conditioning refers to the
reduction in an operant response when it is no
longer followed by the reinforcer. In classical
conditioning, extinction refers to the reduction in a
response when the conditioned stimulus is no
longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus.
- In general, the higher the rate of responses per
reinforcement, the slower the rate of extinction; the
fewer responses an organism must make or the
shorter the time between reinforcers, the more
quickly extinction will occur.
- Spontaneous Recovery in operant conditioning
refers to a temporary recovery in the state of
responding after extinction. In classical
conditioning, spontaneous recovery refers to the
temporary occurrence of the conditioned response
Operant Conditioning
goal is to increase or
decrease the rate of some
response
voluntary (learned) response
emitted response
contingent behavior
consequences (reward or
punishment)
Classical Conditioning
goal is to create a new
response to a neutral stimulus
involuntary response (reflex)
elicited response
conditioned response
expectancy
to the presence of the conditioned stimulus after
undergoing extinction.
- Skinner believed that human behavior and
personality are shaped by three forces: (1) natural
selection, (2) cultural evolution, and (3) the
individual’s history of reinforcement.
Inner States
- Although Skinner rejected explanations of
behavior founded on nonobservable hypothesis,
he did not deny the existence of inner states such
as feelings of love, anxiety, or fear.
- In terms of self-awareness, humans are not only
aware of their environment but are also aware of
themselves a part of the environment. They not
only observe external stimuli but are also aware of
themselves observing that stimuli.
- From the viewpoint of radical behaviorism,
drives are not causes of behavior, but merely
explanatory fictions. Drives simply refer to the
effects of deprivation and satiation and to the
corresponding probability that the organism will
respond.
- Skinner recognized the subjective existence of
emotions, but he insisted that behavior must not
be attributed to them.
- Purpose and intention exist but they are not
subject to direct outside scrutiny. A felt, ongoing
purpose may itself be reinforcing, and not
mentalistic events responsible for behavior.
Complex Behavior
- Human thought or higher mental processes is
the most difficult of all behaviors to analyze but it
potentially be understood as long it is not
considered in a hypothetical fashion such as
“mind.” These covert behaviors of thinking,
problem solving, and reminiscing for example are
amenable to same contingencies of reinforcement.
- To Skinner, creativity is simply the result of
random or accidental behaviors (overt or covert)
that happen to be rewarded.
- As a radical behaviorist, Skinner could not accept
the notion of a storehouse of unconscious ideas or
emotions. He did, however, accept the idea of
unconscious behavior. A behavior is labelled
unconscious when people no longer think about it
because it has been suppressed through
punishment.
- Skinner saw dreams as covert and symbolic
forms of behavior that are subject to the same
contingencies of reinforcement. He agreed with
Freud that dreams may serve as wish-fulfillment.
Dream behavior is reinforcing when repressed
sexual or aggressive stimuli are allowed
expression.
- Skinner’s stand on social behavior is that
individuals establish groups because they have
been rewarded for doing so.
- Membership in a social group is not always
reinforcing; yet, for at least three reasons, some
people remain a member of a group. First, people
may remain in a group that abuses them because
some group members are reinforcing them;
second, some people, especially children, may not
possess the means to leave the group; and third,
reinforcement may occur on an intermittent
schedule so that the abuse suffered by an
individual is intermingled with occasional reward.
Control of Human Behavior
- Ultimately, an individual’s behavior is controlled
by environmental contingencies not free will.
Social Control
-Each of us is controlled by a variety of social
forces and techniques: (1) operant conditioning,
(2) describing contingencies, (3) deprivation and
satiation, and (4) physical restraint
Self-Control
People can also control their own behavior through
self-control, but all control ultimately rests with the
environment and not free will.
The Unhealthy Behavior
Counteracting Strategies
When social control is excessive, people can use
three basic strategies foe counteracting it:
1. With the defensive strategy of escape, people
withdraw from the controlling agent either
physically or physiologically.
2. People who revolt against society’s controls
behave more actively, counterattacking the
controlling agent.
3. People who counteract control through passive
resistance, whose capricious feature is
stubbornness, are more subtle than those who
rebel and are more irritating to the controllers than
those who rely on escape.
Inappropriate Behaviors
- These behaviors follow from self-defeating
techniques of counterattacking social control or
from unsuccessful attempts at self-control,
especially when either of these failures is
accompanied by strong emotion.
- These are learned behaviors, shaped by positive
and negative reinforcements especially
punishment.
1. excessively vigorous behavior
2. excessively restrained behavior
3. blocking out reality
4. defective self-knowledge (boasting,
rationalizing)
5. Self-punishment
Psychotherapy
- Regardless of theoretical orientation, a therapist
is a controlling agent.
- A therapist molds desirable behavior by
reinforcing slightly improved changes in behavior.
- Behavior therapy does not explain behavior by
resorting to a variety of explanatory fictions and
internal causes.
Critique of Skinner
- Skinnerian theory can be applied mostly to all
areas of training, teaching, and psychotherapy.
- Eysenck criticized Skinner for ignoring such
concepts as individual differences, intelligence,
genetic factors, and the whole realm of
personality.
- Skinner defined his terms precisely and
operationally, a process greatly aided by the
avoidance of fictionalized mentalistic concepts.
- Skinner definitely held a deterministic view of
human nature and concepts like free will and
individual choice had no place in his behavioral
analysis. People are not free but are controlled by
environmental forces.
- Skinner’s view is highly optimistic. The principle
of reinforcement makes human behavior
adaptable.
- Skinner’s theory is very high on causality.
Behavior is caused by the person’s history of
reinforcement as well as the species’
contingencies for survival and by the evolution of
cultures.
- Skinner’s radical behaviorism is very high on the
unconscious dimension of personality because the
complex of environmental contingencies is beyond
peoples’ awareness.
- Human personality is shaped by the environment
although he believed that genetics play an
important role in personality development.
- His concept of humanity inclines more toward
social than biological determinants of behavior.
- Skinner emphasized uniqueness because each
human has a singular history of reinforcement and
contingencies.
________________________________________
ALBERT BANDURA: Social Cognitive
Theory
Overview
- Social cognitive theory takes chance encounters
and fortuitous events seriously, but how we react
to these events is usually more important than
these events itself.
- Social cognitive theory rests on several basic
assumptions:
1. The outstanding characteristics of humans is
plasticity: that is humans have the flexibility to
learn a variety of behaviors in diverse situations.
2. People have the capacity to regulate their lives
through a triadic reciprocal causation model that
includes behavioral, environment, and personal
factors.
3. Social cognitive theory takes an agentic
perspective, meaning that humans have the
capacity to exercise control over the nature and
quality of their lives. That is, they exhibit selfefficacy
4. People regulate their conduct through both
external and internal factors. External factors
include people’s physical and social environments,
whereas internal factors include self-observation,
judgmental process, and self-reaction.
5. In morally ambiguous situations, people typically
attempt to regulate their behavior through moral
agency, which includes redefining the behavior,
disregarding or distorting the consequences of
their behavior, dehumanizing or blaming the
victims of their behavior, and displacing or
diffusing responsibility for their actions.
Learning
- Humans are quite flexible and capable of
learning a multitude of attitudes, skills, and
behaviors as a result of vicarious experiences.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
- Bandura believes that observation allows
people to learn without performing any behavior. In
this respect, reinforcement is not essential to
learning.
- For Bandura, observational learning is much
more efficient than learning through direct
experience.
Modeling
- The core of observational learning is modeling.
Learning through modeling involves adding and
subtracting from the observed behavior and
generalizing from one observation to another, not
simply mimicry or imitation. It involves symbolically
representing information and storing it for use at a
future.
- There are several factors to determine whether a
person will learn from a model in any particular
situation:
1) The characteristics of the model are important.
People are more likely to model high-status
people, competent, and powerful people.
2) The characteristics of the observer affect the
likelihood of modeling.
3) The consequences of the behavior being
modeled may have an effect on the observer.
Processes Governing Observational Learning
Attention. Before we model another person, we
must attend to that person. First, we have more
opportunities to observe individuals with whom we
frequently associate. Second, attractive models
are more likely to be modeled than unattractive
ones. Also, the nature of the behavior being
modeled affects our attention – we observe
behavior that we think is valuable to us.
Representation. In order for observation to lead
to new response patterns, those must be
symbolically represented in memory.
Representation need not be verbal, some are
retained in imagery, but verbal coding helps us to
rehearse the behavior, aiding the retention
process.
Behavioral Production. After attending to a
model and retaining what we have observed, we
then produce the behavior. The cognitive
representations are converted to appropriate
actions.
Motivation. Observational learning is most
effective when people are motivated to perform the
modelled behavior. Motivation facilitates the
enactment of a particular behavior.
ENACTIVE LEARNING
- The consequences of a response serve at least
three functions
1) Response consequences inform us the effects
of our actions.
2) The consequences of our responses motivate
our anticipatory behavior, that is, we are capable
of symbolically representing future outcomes and
acting accordingly.
3) The consequences of behavior serve to
reinforce behavior.
Triadic Reciprocal Causation
- This system assumes that human action is a
result of interaction among three variables –
environment, behavior, and person.
- Bandura uses the term “reciprocal” to indicate a
triadic interaction of forces, not a similar or
opposite counteraction. The three factors do not
need to be of equal strength or to make equal
contributions. The relative potency of the three
varies with the individual and with the situation.
Chance Encounters and Fortuitous Events
Although people can and do exercise a significant
amount of control over their lives they cannot
predict or anticipate all possible environmental
changes.
- Bandura defined a chance encounter as an
“unintended meeting of persons unfamiliar to each
other.” A fortuitous event is an environmental
experience that is unexpected and unintended.
Human Agency
- Humans have the capacity to exercise control
over their own lives.
- Bandura believes that people are self-regulating,
proactive, self-reflective, and self-organizing and
that they have the power to influence their own
actions to produce desired consequences.
Core Features of Human Agency
1) Intentionality refers to acts a person performs
intentionally. An intention includes planning, but it
also involves actions.
2) People also possess forethought to set goals,
to anticipate likely outcomes of their actions, and
to select behaviors that will produce desired
outcomes and avoid undesirable ones.
3) They are also capable of self-reactiveness in
the process of motivating and regulating their own
actions. People not only make choices but they
monitor their progress toward fulfilling these
choices.
4) People have self-reflectiveness. They are own
examiners of their own functioning. People’s most
crucial self-reflective mechanism is self-efficacy.
Self-Efficacy
- Bandura defined self-efficacy as “people’s beliefs
in their capability to exercise some measure of
control over their own functioning and over
environmental events.”
- the “foundation of human agency”
- Self-efficacy varies from situation to situation
depending on the competency required for
different activities.
- Personal efficacy is acquired, enhanced, or
decreased through any one or combination of four
sources:
Mastery Experiences. Past performance is one
influential source of self-efficacy. Successful
performance raises efficacy expectancies, failure
tends to lower them. This has six corollaries.
1) Successful performance raises self-efficacy in
proportion to the difficulty of the task.
2) Tasks successfully accomplished by oneself are
more efficacious than those completed with the
help of others.
3) Failure is most likely to decrease efficacy when
we know that we put forth our best effort.
4) Failures under conditions of high emotional
arousal or distress are not as debilitating as failure
under maximal conditions.
5) Failure prior to establishing a sense of mastery
is more detrimental to feelings of efficacy than
later failure.
6) Occasional failure has little effect on efficacy,
especially for people with generally high
expectancy of success.
Social Modeling
- A second source of self-efficacy, that is,
vicarious experiences provided by other people.
Our self-efficacy is raised when we observe the
accomplishments of another person of equal
competence, but is lowered when we see a peer
fail. Social modelling will have a little effect on us
when we see a peer fail.
- In general, the effects of social modeling are not
as strong as those of personal performance in
raising levels of efficacy, but they can have
powerful effects where inefficacy is concerned.
Social Persuasion
- The effects of this source are limited, but under
proper conditions, persuasion from others can
raise or lower self-efficacy.
1. A person must believe the persuader.
2. The activity being encouraged must be within
one’s repertoire of behavior.
- The efficacious power of suggestion is directly
related to the perceived status and authority of the
persuader.
Physical and Emotional States
- Strong emotion ordinarily lowers performance.
But incidentally, for some situations, emotional
arousal, if not too intense, is associated with
increased performance.
- Arousal information is related to several
variables:
1. The higher the arousal, the lower the selfefficacy.
2. Another variable is the perceived realism of the
arousal.
3. nature of the tasks
Proxy Agency
- Proxy involves indirect control over those social
conditions that affect everyday lives. Through
proxy agency, people can accomplish their goals
by relying on other people.
- However, it has a downside. By relying too much
on the competence and power of others, people
may weaken their personal and collective selfefficacy.
Collective Efficacy
- Bandura defined self-efficacy as “people’s shared
beliefs in their collective power to produce desired
results.”
- Bandura suggested two techniques for
measuring collective efficacy:
1.Combine individual member’s evaluations of
their personal capabilities to enact behaviors that
benefit the group.
2. Another approach is to measure the confidence
each person has in the group’s ability bring about
a desired outcome.
- Collective efficacy does not spring from a
collective mind but rather from the personal
efficacy of many individuals working together.
Self-Regulation
- When people have high levels of self-efficacy,
are confident in their reliance on proxies, and
possess solid collective efficacy, they will have
considerable capacity to regulate their own
behavior.
- People use two strategies in self-regulation: That
is they reactively attempt to reduce the
discrepancies between accomplishments and their
goal; but after they close those discrepancies, they
proactively set newer and higher goals for
themselves.
- There are processes that contribute to selfregulation:
1. People possess limited ability to manipulate the
external factors that feed into the reciprocal
interactive paradigm.
2. People are capable of monitoring their own
behavior and evaluating it in terms proximate and
distant goals.
External Factors in Self-Regulation
- External factors affect self-regulation in at least
two ways:
1. External factors provide us with a standard for
evaluating our own behavior.
2. External factors influence self-regulation by
providing the means for reinforcement.
Internal Factors in Self-Regulation
- Bandura recognizes three internal requirements
in the ongoing exercise of self-regulation:
Self-Observation. We must be able to monitor our
own performance, even though the attention we
give to it need not be complete or even accurate.
We attend selectively to some aspects of our
behavior and ignore others altogether.
Judgmental Process. Self-observation alone
does not provide a sufficient basis for regulating
our behavior. We must evaluate our behavior
through the process of cognitive mediation.
- The judgmental process depends on: personal
standards, standard of reference, valuation of
activity, and performance attribution
Self-Reaction. People respond positively or
negatively to their behaviors depending on how
these behaviors measure up to their personal
standards.
- This concept of self-mediated consequences is in
a sharp contrast to Skinner’s notion that the
consequences of behavior are environmentally
determined. Bandura hypothesizes that people
work to attain rewards and to avoid punishments
according to self-erected standards.
Self Regulation Through Moral Agency
- People also regulate their actions through moral
standards of conduct. Bandura sees moral agency
as having two aspects:
1) doing no harm to people
2) proactively helping people
- Self-regulatory influences are not automatic but
operate only if they are activated, a concept
Bandura called selective activation.
- People justify the morality of their actions before
engaging in reprehensible actions so that they can
separate or disengage themselves from the
consequences of their behavior, a concept
Bandura calls disengagement of internal
control.
There are various mechanisms by which selfcontrol is disengaged or selectively activated:
Redefine the Behavior. People justify otherwise
reprehensible actions by a cognitive restructuring
that allows them to minimize or escape
responsibility by at least three techniques:
1) Moral Justification. Culpable behavior is made
to seem defensible or even noble.
2) Palliative Comparisons. Wrongful behavior is
advantageously compared with even greater
atrocities committed by others.
3) Euphemistic Labels. The murder of millions of
Jew as “purification of Europe” for example
Disregard or Distort the Consequences of
Behavior. Refers to the technique of obscuring
detrimental consequences of one’s actions by at
least three techniques:
1) Minimizing the consequences of their behavior
2) Disegarding or Ignoring the Consequences of
Behavior, usually as when they do not see
firsthand the harmful effects of their behavior.
3) Distorting or Misconstruing the Consequences
of their Actions
Dehumanize or Blame the Victims
Displace or Diffuse Responsibility
- With displacement, people minimize the
consequences of their actions by placing
responsibility on an outside source. To diffuse
responsibility is to spread it so thin that no one
person is responsible.
Dysfunctional Behavior
Bandura’s concept of dysfunctional behavior
follows the concept of triadic reciprocal causation.
Depression
-Bandura believes that depression can occur in
any of the three sub-regulatory functions.
1. Self-observation. Depressed people tend to
exaggerate their past mistakes and minimize their
prior accomplishments, a tendency that
perpetuates depression.
2. Judgmental Processes. They set their standards
unrealistically so high, much higher than their
perceived efficacy, so that any personal
accomplishment will be judged as failure.
3. Self-Reactions. Depressed people not only
judge themselves harshly, but they are also
inclined to treat themselves badly or their
shortcomings.
Phobias
- Negative reinforcement maintains phobic
reactions; that is the consequence the phobic
receives for avoiding fear-producing stimulation.
- Furthermore, dysfunctional (avoidance) behavior
is produced and maintained.
Aggression
- Bandura contended that aggressive behavior is
acquired through observation of others, direct
experiences with positive and negative
reinforcements, training or instruction, and bizarre
beliefs.
- Once established, people continue to aggress for
at least five reasons:
(1) They enjoy inflicting injury on the victim
(positive reinforcement)
(2) they avoid or counter the aversive
consequences of aggression by others (negative
reinforcement)
(3) they receive injury or harm for not behaving
aggressively (punishment)
(4) they live up to their personal standards of
conduct by their aggressive behavior (self
reinforcement)
(5) they observe others receiving rewards for
aggressive acts or punishment for nonaggressive
behavior.
- The Bobo doll experiment offered some of the
earliest experimental evidence that TV violence
does not curb aggression; rather, it produces
additional aggressive behaviors.
Therapy
- Therapeutic change, therefore, is difficult
because it involves eliminating behaviors that are
satisfying to the person (e.g. smoking, overeating)
- The ultimate goal of social cognitive therapy is
self-regulation. To achieve this end, the therapist
(1) introduces strategies designed to induce
specific behavioral changes, (2) to generalize
those changes to other situations, and (3) and to
maintain those changes by preventing relapse.
- Bandura suggested several basic treatment
approaches:
1. overt or vicarious modeling – People who
observe live or filmed models performing
threatening activities often feel less fear and
anxiety and are able to perform the same
activities.
2. covert or cognitive modeling – In this
approach, the therapist trains patients to visualize
models performing fearsome behaviors.
3. enactive mastery – This requires patients to
perform those behaviors that previously produced
incapacitating fears. But this is not the first step in
treatment.
- With systematic desensitization, the therapist
and patient work together to place fearsome
situations on a hierarchy from least to most
threatening. Patients, while relaxed, enact the
least threatening behavior and then gradually
move through the hierarchy until they can perform
the most threatening activity, all the while
remaining at a low state of emotional arousal.
Cognitive Mediation is the mechanism found in
each of these approaches which Bandura believe
is the reason for their effectiveness. When people
use cognition to increase self-efficacy, they
become able to cope with previously intimidating
situations.
Critique of Bandura
- Bandura evolved his social cognitive theory by a
careful balance of the two principal components of
theory building: innovative speculation and
accurate observation.
- The triadic reciprocal causation paradigm gives
Bandura’s theory more flexibility to organize and
explain behaviorism.
- Bandura’s theory is simple. Straightforward, and
unencumbered by hypothetical or fanciful
explanations.
- Bandura believes that people are quite plastic
and flexible. People have the capacity to store
past experiences and to use this information to
chart future actions.
- Humans are goal-directed and purposive
animals, being motivated by a multiplicity of goals.
- His concept of humanity is more optimistic than
pessimistic, because it holds that people are
capable of learning new behaviors throughout their
lives. However dysfunctional behaviors may
persist because of low self-efficacy or because
they are perceived as being reinforced.
- It emphasizes social factors more than biological
ones.
- His theory is high on freedom because he
believes that people can exercise a large measure
of control over their lives. Although people are
affected by both their environment and their
experiences with reinforcement, they have some
power to mold these two external conditions.
- On the issue of causality or teleology, Bandura’s
position would be described as moderate. Human
functioning is a product of environmental factors
interacting with behavior and personal variables,
especially cognitive activity.
- Social cognitive theory emphasizes conscious
thought over unconscious determinants of
behavior. Self-regulation of actions relies on selfmonitoring, judgment, and self-reaction, all of
which are ordinarily conscious during the learning
situation.
- Because people have a remarkable flexibility and
capacity for learning, vast individual differences
exist among them.
JULIAN ROTTER and WALTER
MISCHEL: Cognitive Social Learning
Theory
Overview
- The cognitive social learning theories of Rotter
and Mischel each rest on the assumption that
cognitive factors help shape how people will react
to environmental forces. It suggests that one’s
expectations of future events are prime
determinants of performance.
-As an interactionist, Rotter believes that neither
the environment itself nor the individual is
completely responsible for behavior. Instead, he
holds that people’s cognitions, past histories, and
expectations of the future are keys to predicting
behavior.
- Like Bandura and Rotter, Mischel believes that
cognitive factors, such as expectancies, subjective
perceptions, values, goals, and personal
standards, play important roles in shaping
personality.
Rotter’s Social Learning Theory
- Social learning theory rests on five basic
hypotheses:
1. It assumes that humans interact with their
meaningful environments.
People’s reaction to environmental stimuli
depends on the meaning or importance that they
attach to an event using the individual’s cognitive
capacity. Thus, human behavior stems from the
interaction of environmental and personal factors.
2. Human personality is learned.
This follows that personality is not set or
determined at any particular age of development,
instead it can be changed or modified. And
although accumulation of earlier experiences gives
our personality some stability, we are always
responsive to change through new experiences.
3. Personality has a basic unity.
- It means that people’s personality possesses
relative stability. People learn to evaluate new
experiences on the basis of previous
reinforcement.
4. Motivation is goal directed.
He rejects the notion that people are primarily
motivated to reduce tension or seek pleasure,
insisting that the best explanation for human
behavior lies in people’s expectations that their
behaviors are advancing them toward goals.
Empirical Law of Effect: Others things being
equal, people are mostly strongly reinforced by
behaviors that move them in the direction of
anticipated goals.
5. People are capable of anticipating events
Moreover, they use their perceived movement in
the direction of the anticipated event as a criterion
for evaluating reinforcers.
From these five basic assumptions, Rotter built a
personality theory that attempts to predict human
behavior.
Predicting Specific Behaviors
He suggested four variables that must be analyzed
in order to make accurate predictions of behavior
in any specific situation.
Behavioral Potential
(BP) is the possibility that a particular response will
occur at a given time and place.
* The behavioral potential in any situation is a
function of both expectancy and reinforcement
value.
- It’s either to hold expectancy and vary
reinforcement value or vary expectancy and hold
reinforcement value.
Expectancy
(E) refers to a person’s expectation of being
reinforced in a given situation.
- The probability is not determined by individual’s
history of reinforcement, but is subjectively held by
the person.
- Expectancies can be general or specific:
Generalized expectancies (GEs) are learned
through previous experiences with a particular
response or similar responses and are based on
the belief that certain behaviors will be followed by
positive reinforcement.
Specific expectancies are designated as E’ (E
prime). In any situation the expectancy for a
particular reinforcement is determined by a
combination of a specific expectancy (E’) and the
generalized expectancy (GE).
*Total expectancy of success is a function of both
one’s GE and one’s E’. Total expectancy partially
determines the amount of effort people will expend
in the pursuit of goals.
Reinforcement Value
This refers to the person’s preference for a
particular reinforcement, when the probabilities for
the occurrence of a number of different
reinforcements are all equal.
- What determines the reinforcement value for any
event?
1) Individual perception which Rotter distinguishes
as internal reinforcement and external
reinforcement
2) Individual needs. A specific reinforcement tends
to increase in value as the need it satisfies
becomes stronger.
3) Expected consequences for future
reinforcements. People are capable of using
cognition to anticipate a sequence of events
leading to some future goal and that ultimate goal
contributes to the reinforcement value of each
event in the sequence, this is referred to by Rotter
as reinforcement-reinforcement consequences.
Psychological Situation
(s) Refers to a complex pattern of cues that a
person perceives during a specific period of time.
This is further defined as that part of the external
and internal world to which a person is responding.
- The interaction between person and environment
is a crucial factor in shaping behavior. People do
not behave in a vacuum; instead they respond to
cues within perceived environment.
Basic Prediction Formula
BPx1,s1,ra= f (Ex1,ra ,s1+ RVa, s1)
This formula is read: The potential for behavior x
to occur in situation 1 in relation to reinforcement a
is a function of the expectancy that behavior x will
be followed by reinforcement a in situation 1 and
the value of reinforcement a in situation 1.
Predicting General Behaviors
Generalized Expectancies
- This prediction of general behavior, though not
specific, is nevertheless more useful in situations
where rigorous control of pertinent variables is not
possible.
- Predicting general behavior is a matter of
knowing how he views the options available to him
and also the status of his present needs.
Needs
- Rotter defined needs as any behavior or set of
behaviors that people see as moving them in the
direction of a goal.
- The concept of needs allows for more
generalized predictions than permitted by the four
specific variables that comprise the basic
prediction formula.
* Categories of Needs
1. Recognition-status. The people’s need to be
recognized by others and to achieve status in their
eyes.
2. Dominance. The need to control the behavior
of others.
3. Independence. The need to be free of the
domination of others.
4. Protection-Dependency. This category
includes the needs to be cared for by others, to be
protected from frustration and harm, and to satisfy
the other need categories.
5. Love and Affection. Needs for acceptance by
others that go beyond recognition and status to
include some indications that other people have
warm, positive feelings for them.
6. Physical Comfort. This is the most basic
because other needs are learned in relation to it.
This need includes those behaviors aimed at
securing food, good health, and physical security.
Other needs are learned as an outgrowth of needs
for pleasure, physical contact, and well-being.
* Need Components
Need Potential
NP refers to the possible occurrence of a set of
functionally related behaviors directed toward
satisfying the same or similar goals.
- This is analogous to the concept of behavior
potential, however, not specific.
Freedom of Movement
In the general prediction formula, FM is analogous
to expectancy. It is one’s overall expectation of
being reinforced for performing those behaviors
that are directed toward satisfying some general
need.
- Freedom of movement can be determined by
holding need value constant and observing one’s
need potential.
Need Value
NV is the degree to which she or he prefers one
set of reinforcements to another.
- When freedom of movement is held constant,
people will perform those behavior sequences that
lead to satisfaction of the most preferred need.
General Prediction Formula
- This formula is limited to highly controlled
situations where expectancies, reinforcement
value, and the psychological situation are all
relatively simple and discrete.
NP = f (FM + NV)
The equation means that need potential is function
of freedom movement and need value.
-Rotter’s general prediction formula allows for
people’s history of using similar experiences to
anticipate present reinforcement. That is, they
have a generalized expectancy for success.
Internal and External Control of Reinforcement
At the core of Rotter’s social learning theory is the
notion that reinforcement does not automatically
stamp in behaviors but people have the ability to
see a causal connection between their own
behavior and occurrence of the reinforcer. People
strive to reach goals because they have a
generalized expectancy that such strivings will be
successful.
- Rotter has suggested that both the situation and
the person contribute to feelings of personal
control or locus of control, that is, either internal
or external.
- The Internal-External Control Scale purports to
measure the degree to which people perceive a
causal relationship between their own efforts and
environmental consequences. People who score
high on internal control generally believe that the
source of control resides within themselves and
that they exercise a high level of personal control
in most situations. People who score high on
external control generally believe that their life is
largely controlled by forces outside themselves,
such as chance, destiny, or the behavior of other
people.
Misconceptions of the instrument:
1. Scores on the scale are determinants of
behavior.
2. Locus of control is specific and can predict
achievement in a specific situation.
3. The scale divides the people into two distinct
types: internals and externals, rather than seeing it
in a gradient.
4. People believe that high internal scores signify
socially desirable traits and that high external
score indicate socially undesirable characteristics.
Interpersonal Trust Scale
- Rotter defined interpersonal trust as “a
generalized expectancy held by an individual that
the word, promise, oral or written statement that of
another individual or group can be relied on.
- Rotter saw interpersonal trust as a belief in the
communication of others when there is no
evidence of disbelief.
Maladaptive Behavior
- Maladaptive behavior in Rotter’s social learning
theory is any persistent behavior that fails to move
a person closer to desired goal.
- It frequently, but not inevitably arises from the
combination of high need value and low freedom
of movement, that is, from goals that are
unrealistically high in relation to one’s ability to
achieve them.
- People may have low freedom of movement
because
1) they lack information or the ability to perform
those behaviors
2) they make a faulty evaluation of their intellectual
abilities
3) they generalize from one situation in which,
perhaps, they are realistically inadequate to other
situations in which they could have sufficient ability
to be successful.
Psychotherapy
- The goal of Rotter’s therapy is to bring freedom
of movement and value into harmony, thus
reducing and avoidance behaviors.
-He adopts a problem-solving approach, but he
does not limit his concern to quick solutions to
immediate problems but is more long range,
involving a change in the patient’s orientation
toward life.
- The therapist assumes an active role as a
teacher and attempts to accomplish the
therapeutic goals in two basic ways:
(1) Changing Goals
One role of the therapist is to help the patients
who are pursuing skewed or distorted goals to
understand the nature of their goals and to teach
them constructive means of striving toward
realistic goals.
- There are three sources of problems that follow
from inappropriate goals:
1.Two or more important goals may be in conflict.
* In this situation, the therapist may try to help
adolescents see how specific behaviors are
related to each of these needs and proceed to
work with them in changing the value of both
needs.
2. Destructive goal
The job of the therapist is to point out detrimental
nature of his pursuit and the likelihood that it will
be followed by punishment; movement away from
destructive goals should be positively reinforced.
3. Too high goals and people are continually
frustrated when they cannot reach or exceed
them, leading to non-productive ways of avoiding
pain.
*Therapy in this case, would consist of getting the
patient to realistically reevaluate and lower
exaggerated goals by reducing the reinforcement
value of these goals.
High reinforcement value often leads to
generalization; the therapist would work toward
teaching patients to discriminate between past
legitimate values and present spurious ones.
(2) Eliminating Low Expectancies
People may have low expectancies of success, its
analog, low freedom of movement for at least
three reasons:
1. Lack of skills or information needed to
successfully strive toward the goals
* With such patients, a therapist becomes a
teacher, warmly and emphatically instructing them
in more effective techniques for solving problems
and satisfying needs.
2. Faulty evaluation of the present situation
3. Inadequate generalization
* The therapist must reinforce even the smallest
success so that the patient will learn to
discriminate between realistic shortcomings in one
area and successful behaviors in other situations.
Therapy Techniques:
1. To teach patients to look for alternative courses
of action
2. Understanding other people’s motives
3. Help patients look at the long-range
consequences of their behaviors
4. To have patients enter into a previously painful
social situation and observe other people’s
behavior.
* Even though a therapist is an active problem
solver, patients must learn to solve their own
problems.
Mischel’s Cognitive-Affective Personality
Theory
- This theory of Walter Mischel holds that behavior
stems from relatively stable personal dispositions
and cognitive-affective processes interacting with
a particular situation.
- Behavior is largely a function of the situation.
- Cognitive social learning theory views people as
forward-looking, purposive, unified, cognitive,
affective, and social animals who are capable of
evaluating present experiences and anticipating
future events on the basis of goals they have
chosen for themselves.
Consistency Paradox
- It is intuitively believed that people’s behaviors is
relatively consistent, yet, empirical evidence
suggests much variability in behavior.
- Mischel contended that some basic traits do not
persist over time.
Person-Situation Interaction
- Mischel’s objection to the use of traits as
predictors of behaviors rested not with their
temporal instability but with their inconsistency
from one situation to another.
- The specific situation interacts with the person’s
competencies, interests, goals, values,
expectancies, and so forth to predict behavior.
Cognitive-Affective Personality System
To solve the classical consistency paradox, CAPS
(also called cognitive-affective processing system).
- Apparent inconsistencies in a person’s behavior
are due neither to random error nor solely to the
situation. Rather, they are potentially predictable
behaviors that reflect stable patterns of variation
within a person. The cognitive-affective personality
system predicts that a person’s behavior will
change from situation to situation but in a
meaningful manner.
- The frequently observed variability in behavior is
simply an essential part of a unifying stability of
personality.
- The pattern of variability is the behavioral
signature of personality, that is, the consistent
manner of varying behavior in a particular
situation.
Behavior Prediction
Mischel’s theoretical position for predicting and
explaining behavior is stated as follows:
“If personality is a stable system that processes
the information about the situations, external or
internal, then it follows that as individual encounter
different situations, their behaviors should vary
across situations.”
Situation Variables
- Interaction between the situation and personal
qualities was an important determinant of
behavior.
Cognitive-Affective Units
These are set of overlapping, relatively stable
person variables (psychological, social, and
physiological aspects) that interact with the
situation to determine behavior.
(1) Encoding Strategies
- These are people’s ways of categorizing
information received from external stimuli. People
use cognitive processes to transform these stimuli
into personal constructs.
(2) Competencies and Self-Regulatory
Strategies
- Our beliefs in what we can do relate to our
competencies. Mischel (1990) used the term
“competencies” to refer to that vast array of
information we acquire about the world and our
relationship to it.
- Mischel believes that people use self-regulatory
strategies to control their own behavior through
self-imposed goals and self-produced
consequences. People do not require external
rewards and punishments to shape their behavior;
they can set goals for themselves and then reward
or criticize themselves contingent upon whether
their behavior moves them in the direction of those
goals.
(3) Expectancies and Beliefs
- How people behave depends on one’s
hypotheses or beliefs concerning the outcome of
any situation.
Behavior-Outcome Expectancy. From previous
experience and by observing others, people learn
to enact those behaviors that they expect will
result in the most subjectively valued outcome.
Stimulus-Outcome Expectancy refers to the
many stimulus conditions that influence the
probable consequences of any behavior pattern.
These are important units of understanding
classical conditioning.
(4) Goals and Values
- People do not react passively to situations but
are active and goal directed. They formulate goals,
devise plans for attaining their goals, and in part
create their own situations.
(5) Affective Responses
- These includes emotions, feelings, and
physiological reactions.
- Affective responses, then, do not exist in
isolation. Not only are they inseparable from
cognitive processes, but also they influence each
of the other cognitive-affective units
Critique of Cognitive Social Learning Theory
- Rotter’s concept of locus of control is one of the
most widely researched topics in psychological
literature.
- Rotter’s basic formula and general prediction
formula are completely hypothetical and cannot be
accurately tested.
- Rotter’s general prediction formula takes
behavior on a different hue with its component like
need potential, freedom of movement, and need
value.
-Cognitive Social Learning theory in general is
relatively simple and does not purport to offer
explanations for all human personality.
-The theory is more teleological or future-oriented,
than it is causal. Goals serve as criteria for
evaluating events. People are motivated less by
past experiences with reinforcement than by
expectations of future events.
-Free choice is not unlimited. The theory holds that
people move in the direction of goals they have
established for themselves. These goals, however,
change as people’s expectancies for
reinforcement and their preference for one
reinforcement over another changes.
- Neither optimistic nor pessimistic because they
believe that people can be taught constructive
strategies for problem solving but direction
towards psychological growth was not mentioned
by the theorists.
- It leans on the direction of conscious forces.
People can consciously set goals for themselves
and consciously strive to solve old and new
problems.
- The theory emphasizes social factors, learning
within a social environment.
-Rotter believed that people have individual
histories and unique experiences that allow them
to set personalized goals, but there is also enough
similarities among people that would permit
reliable and accurate prediction of behavior.
- But Mischel places emphasis on uniqueness than
on similarities, there are unique patterns of
variation in each person’s behavior.
________________________________________
- All people anticipate events by the meanings or
interpretations they place on those events, called
constructs.
- People exist in a real world, but their behavior is
shaped by the gradually expanding interpretation
or construction of that world. They construe the
world in their own way, and every construction is
open to revision or replacement. Kelly called this
philosophical position constructive alternativism.
- The basic postulate of Kelly assumes that people
are constantly active and that their activity is
guided by the way they anticipate events.
Kelly’s Philosophical Position
- Kelly believed that human behavior is based on
reality and on people’s perception of reality. The
universe is real, but that different people construe
it in different ways. Thus, people’s personal
constructs, or ways of interpreting and explaining
events, hold the key to predicting behavior.
Constructive Alternativism
- The universe really exists and that it functions an
integral unit, with all its parts interacting precisely
with each other. The universe is constantly
changing, so something is happening all the time.
- People construe reality in different ways, and the
same person is capable of changing his or her
view of the world, “that all of our present
interpretations of the universe are subject to
revision or placement.
- Kelly believed that the person, not the facts,
holds the key to an individual’s future. We are
victims of neither our history nor our present
circumstances.
GEORGE KELLY: Psychology of
Personal Constructs
Personal Constructs
- People’s interpretation of a unified, everchanging world constitutes their reality.
- Personal constructs are ways of construing the
world.
Overview
- George Kelly’s theory is termed as a
“metatheory”, or a theory about theories.
Basic Postulate
- Personal construct theory is expressed in one
fundamental postulate and elaborated by 11
supporting corollaries.
- The basic postulate assumes that “a person’s
processes are psychologically channelized by
the ways in which [that person] anticipate
events.”
- Person processes refers to a living, changing,
moving human being. Channelized suggest that
people move with a direction through a network of
pathways. The network however, is flexible, both
facilitating and restricting people’s range of action.
Ways of anticipating events suggests that people
guide their actions according to their predictions of
future.
Supporting Corollaries
1) Similarities Among Events
No two events are exactly alike, yet we construe
similar events so that they are perceived as being
the same. Kelly referred to this similarity among
event as the construction corollary.
- The construction corollary states that “a person
anticipates events by construing their replications.”
2) Differences Among People
- People differ from each other in their construction
of events, referred to as the individual corollary.
3) Relationship Among Constructs
- The organization corollary emphasized
relationships among constructs and states that
people “characteristically evolve for convenience
in anticipating events, a construction system
embracing ordinal relationship between constructs.
- We organize similar events in a manner that
minimizes incompabilities and inconsistencies.
4) Dichotomy of Constructs
- A person’s construction system is composed of a
finite number of dichotomous constructs, referred
to as the dichotomy corollary.
- In order to form a construct, people must be able
to see similarities between events, but they must
also contrast those events with their opposite pole.
5) Choice Between Dichotomies
- The choice corollary states that if people
construe events in dichotomized fashion, then it
follows that they have some choice in following
alternative courses that are most likely to extend
their future range of choices (elaborative choice).
6) Range of Convenience
- The range corollary assumes that personal
constructs are finite and not relevant to everything.
- This corollary allowed Kelly to distinguish
between a concept and a construct. A concept
includes all elements having a common property,
and excludes those that do not have that property.
- The idea of construct is limited in its range of
convenience, that which is outside the range of
convenience is not considered part of the
contrasting field but simply an area of irrelevancy.
7) Experience and Learning
- Basic to personal construct theory is the
anticipation of events, then, as events become
revealed, we either validate our existing constructs
or restructure these events to match our
experience. This is referred to as the learning
corollary.
8) Adaptation to Experience
- The modulation corollary expands the
experience corollary assuming that the extent to
which people revise their constructs is related to
the degree of permeability of their existing
constructs. A construct is permeable if new
elements can be added to it.
9. Incompatible Constructs
- Although Kelly assumed an overall stability of a
person’s construction system, fragmentation
corollary allows for the incompatibility of specific
elements.
- A person may successively employ a variety of
constructive subsystems which are inferentially
incompatible with each other.
10) Similarities Among People
- Kelly’s commonality corollary assumes
similarities among people.
- Two people need not to experience the same
event or even similar events for their processes to
be psychologically similar; they must merely
construe their experiences in a similar fashion.
Social Processes
The final supporting corollary, the sociality
corollary can be paraphrased as: to the extent
that people accurately construe the belief systems
of others, they may play a role in a social process
involving those other people.
- The notion of role is introduced here, referring to
a pattern of behavior that results from a person’s
understanding of the constructs of others with
whom that person is engaged in a task.
- Role is more psychological rather than in a
sociological perspective. One’s role does not
depend on one’s place or position in a social
setting but rather on how one interprets that role.
Applications of Personal Construct Theory
Abnormal Development
- In Kelly’s view, psychologically healthy people
validate their personal constructs against their
experiences with the real world. They do not only
anticipate events but are also able to make
satisfactory adjustments when things do not turn
out as they expected.
- Unhealthy individual, on the other hand,
stubbornly cling to outdated personal constructs,
fearing validation of new constructs that would
upset their present comfortable view of the world.
- A person’s construction system exists in the
present – not the past or future. Psychological
disorders, therefore, also exist in the present; they
are caused neither by childhood experiences nor
by future events.
- The use of traditional classification of
abnormalities to label a person is likely to result in
misconstruing that person’s unique constrictions
given that construction systems are present.
- The personal constructs of unhealthy people fail
the test of permeability in one of two ways: They
may be too impermeable or they may too flexible.
- Kelly identified four common elements in most
human disturbance:
1) Threat. People experience threat when they
perceive the stability of their basic constructs is
likely to be shaken. Kelly defined it as “the
awareness of imminent comprehensive change in
one’s core structures.
2) Fear. It involves a more specific and incidental
change in one’s core structures, it does not
demand comprehensive restructuring like threat
does.
3) Anxiety. It is the recognition that the events
with which one is confronted lie outside the range
of convenience of one’s construction system,
especially a new event. Pathological anxiety exists
when a person’s incompatible constructs can no
longer be tolerated and the person’s construction
system breaks down.
4) Guilt. Kelly defined guilt as the sense of having
lost one’s core role structure. People construe a
core role that gives them a sense of identity within
a social environment, however, if that core role is
weakened or dissolved, a person will develop a
sense of guilt.
Psychotherapy
- People should be free to choose those courses
of action most consistent with their prediction of
events. This means that the client selects the goal,
not the therapist.
- Fixed-Role Therapy is a procedure that helps
clients change their personal constructs by acting
out predetermined role first within the relative
security of the therapeutic setting and then in the
environment beyond therapy. The new role s then
tried out in everyday life.
- The key to therapeutic change is that clients
must begin to interpret their lives from a different
perspective and see themselves in a different role.
The Rep Test
- The purpose of Role Construct Repertory
(Rep) test is to discover ways in which people
construe significant people in their lives.
- A person is given a Role Title List and asked to
designate people who fit in the role titles by writing
their names on a card. Next, the person is given
three names from the list and asked to judge
which people are alike and yet different from the
third. The reason a person gives for similarity and
contrast constitutes the construct. After a number
of sorts are completed, the examiner transfers the
information to a repertory grid.
Critique of Kelly
- The avoidance of problems of motivation,
developmental influences, and cultural force limits
his theory’s ability to give specific meanings to
much of what is currently known about the
complexity of human behavior.
- Personal construct is exceptionally
straightforward and economical. The basic theory
is stated in one fundamental postulate and then
elaborated by means of 11 corollaries.
- Kelly had an optimistic view of human nature. He
saw people as anticipating the future and living
their lives in accordance with those anticipations.
Kelly was also quite optimistic in his belief that
therapeutic experiences can help people live more
productive lives.
- Kelly’s theory leans toward free choice. We
choose between alternatives within a construct
system that we ourselves have built. We make
those choices on the basis of anticipation of
events.
- Kelly adopted a teleological view of human
personality. All human activity is directed by the
way that we anticipate events.
- Kelly emphasized conscious processes more
than unconscious ones. Kelly speaks of level of
cognitive awareness
- Kelly was more inclined toward social influences.
To some extent we are influenced by others and in
turn have some impact on them.
- Kelly emphasized the uniqueness of personality,
by which he held that our individual interpretations
of events are crucial and that no two persons ever
have precisely the same personal constructs.
________________________________________
Type Theories of Personality
Humoral Theory
- Greek physician Hippocrates (the father of
modern medicine) proposed a humoral theory;
with the fluids in the body
- Health prevails when the four humours of the
body are in balance, disease where there is an
imbalance.
- He proposed that disease have natural causes
not supernatural ones.
- Galen then associated the four humors of the
body with four temperaments. This created a
rudimentary theory of personality.
Galen’s Extension of Hippocrates’ Theory of
Humor
Humor
Phlegm
Blood
Yellow Bile
Black Bile
Temperament
Phlegmatic
Sanguine
Choleric
Melancholic
Characteristic
Sluggish, unemotional
cheerful
quick-tempered
sad
________________________________________
Type A, Type B Behavior Patterns
- Friedman and Rosenman (1974) investigated the
psychological variables that put individuals at
higher risk of coronary heart disease.
- Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern is
described as an “action-emotion complex that can
be observed in any person who is aggressively
involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve
more and more in less and less time., and if
required to do so, against the opposing efforts of
other things or persons.”
Further characterized by the ff. behavior pattern:
insecurity of status, hyperaggressiveness, freefloating hostility, and sense of time urgency
- On the other hand, Type B behavior pattern is
characterized by an easygoing, noncompetitive,
relaxed lifestyle.
* People vary along a continuum from pure Type A
to pure Type B.
- Type theorists tend to believe that most
individuals are near to the idealized types at the
end of each dimension.
______________________________________
HENRY MURRAY: Personology
- He designed an approach to personality that
includes conscious and unconscious forces; the
influence of the past, present, and future; and
impact of physiological and sociological factors.
- Personology is Murray’s system of personality
that is based on the following principles:
1. Personality is rooted in the brain.
2. Tension Reduction. People act to reduce
physiological and psychological tension, but this
does not mean we strive for a tension-free state.
We need excitement, activity, and movement
(generating tension) in order to have the
satisfaction of reducing it.
3. An individual’s personality continues to develop
over time and is constructed of all the events that
occur during the course of that person’s life.
4. Personality changes and progresses, it is not
fixed or static.
5. He emphasized the uniqueness of each person
while recognizing similarities among all people.
The Divisions of Personality
id
- The id contains the primitive, amoral, and lustful
impulses described by Freud, but also contains
desirable impulses such as empathy and love.
- The strength or intensity of the id varies among
individuals.
superego
- The sauperego is shaped not only by parents
and authority figures, but also by the peer group
and culture.
- The superego is not rigidly crystallized by age 5,
as Freud believed, but continues to develop
throughout life.
ego
- To Murray, the conscious organizer of behavior,
a broader conception than Freud’s.
Needs: The Motivators of Behavior
- A need involves a physiochemical force in the
brain that organized and directs intellectual and
perceptual abilities.
- It may either rise from internal processes or from
events in the environment.
- Needs arouse a level of tension; the organism
tries to reduce this tension by acting to satisfy the
needs. Thus, needs energize and direct behavior.
Types of Needs
primary needs
-Survival and related needs arising from internal
bodily processes
- also called as viscerogenic needs
secondary needs
- they arise indirectly from primary needs, they
develop after primary needs.
- concerned with emotional and psychological
needs such as achievement and affiliation
reactive needs
- needs that involve a response to a specific object
proactive needs
- needs that arise spontaneously
Murray’s list of needs
____________________________
Abasement To submit passively to external force. To accept injury,
blame, criticism,and punishment. To become resigned to fate. To
admit inferiority, error, wrongdoing, or defeat. To blame, belittle, or
mutilate theself. To seek and enjoy pain, punishment, illness, and
misfortune.
Achievement To accomplish something difficult. To master,
manipulate, or organize physical objects, human beings, or ideas. To
overcome obstacles and attain a high standard. To rival and surpass
others.
Affiliation To draw near and enjoyably cooperate or reciprocate with
an allied other who resembles one or who likes one. To adhere and
remain loyal to a friend.
Aggression To overcome opposition forcefully. To fi ght, attack,
injure, or kill another.
To maliciously belittle, censure, or ridicule another.
Autonomy To get free, shake off restraint, or break out of
confinement. To resist coercion and restriction. To be independent
and free to act according to impulse. To defy conventions.
Counteraction To master or make up for a failure by restriving. To
obliterate a humiliation by resumed action. To overcome
weaknesses and to repress fear. To search for obstacles and
difficulties to overcome. To maintain self-respect and pride on a high
level.
Defendance To defend the self against assault, criticism, and
blame. To conceal or justify a misdeed, failure, or humiliation.
Deference To admire and support a superior other. To yield eagerly
to the infl uenceof an allied other. To conform to custom.
Dominance To control one’s environment. To infl uence or direct the
behavior of others by suggestion, seduction, persuasion, or
command. To get othersto cooperate. To convince another of the
rightness of one’s opinion.
Exhibition To make an impression. To be seen and heard. To
excite, amaze, fascinate, entertain, shock, intrigue, amuse, or entice
others.
Harmavoidance To avoid pain, physical injury, illness, and death.
To escape from a dangerous situation. To take precautionary
measures.
Infavoidance To avoid humiliation. To quit embarrassing situations
or to avoid conditionsthat may lead to the scorn, derision, or
indifference of others.To refrain from action because of the fear of
failure.
Nurturance To give sympathy to and gratify the needs of a helpless
other, an infant or one who is weak, disabled, tired, inexperienced,
infi rm, humiliated, lonely, dejected, or mentally confused.
Order To put things in order. To achieve cleanliness, arrangement,
organization, balance, neatness, and precision.
Play To act for fun, without further purpose.
Rejection To exclude, abandon, expel, or remain indifferent to an
inferior other. To snub or jilt another.
Sentience To seek and enjoy sensuous impressions.
Sex To form and further an erotic relationship. To have sexual
intercourse.
Succorance To be nursed, supported, sustained, surrounded,
protected, loved, advised,
guided, indulged, forgiven, or consoled. To remain close to a
devoted protector.
Understanding To be inclined to analyze events and to generalize.
To discuss and argue and to emphasize reason and logic. To state
one’s opinions precisely. To show interest in abstract formulations in
science, mathematics, and philosophy.
Characteristics of Needs
needs prepotency
- Needs differ in terms of the urgency with which
they impel behavior. Some needs are
complementary and can be satisfied by one
behavior or a set of behaviors (fusion of needs)
subsidiation
- A situation in which one need is activated to aid
the satisfaction of another need
press
- the influence of the environment and past events
on the current activation of a need
thema
- a combination of press (the environment) and
need (the personality) that brings order to our
behavior; and is largely unconscious
- the thema is formed through early childhood
experiences and becomes a powerful force in
determining personality
Personality Development in Childhood
- Murray divided childhood into five stages: each
characterized by a pleasurable condition that is
inevitably terminated by society’s demands.
- Each stage leaves its mark on personality in the
form of an unconscious complex that directs out
later development.
STAGE
secure existence within the womb
sensuous enjoyment of sucking
nourishment while being held
pleasure resulting from defecation
pleasure accompanying urination
genital pleasures
COMPLEX
claustral complexes
oral complexes
anal complexes
urethral complexes
genital or castration complexes
Claustral Stage
- The fetus in the womb is secure, serene, and
dependent.
- The simple claustral complex is experienced as a
desire to be in small, warm, dark places that are
safe and secluded (remaining under the blankets).
Characteristics: tend to be dependent on others,
passive, and oriented toward safe, familiar
behaviors that worked in the past
- The insupport complex centers on feelings of
insecurity and helplessness that cause the person
to fear open spaces or any situation involving
novelty and change.
- The anti-claustral or egression form of the
claustral complex is based on a need to escape
from restraining womblike conditions.
Oral Stage
- The oral succorance complex features a
combination of mouth activities, passive
tendencies, and the need to be supported and
protected.
- The oral aggression complex combines oral and
aggressive behaviors (e.g., sucking, kissing, and
hunger for affection, sympathy, protection, and
love).
- The oral rejection complex include vomiting,
being picky about food, eating little, fearing oral
contamination, desiring seclusion, and avoiding
dependence on others.
Anal Stage
- In the anal rejection complex, there is a
preoccupation with defacation, anal humor, and
feces-like material such as dirt, mud, and clay.
Aggression is often part of this complex.
- In the anal retention complex is manifested in
accumulating, saving, and collecting things, and in
cleanliness, neatness, and orderliness.
Urethral Stage
- It is associated with excessive ambition, a
distorted sense of self-es teem, exhibitionism,
bedwetting, sexual cravings, and self-love.
(sometimes called the Icarus complex)
Genital or Castration Stage
- He interpreted the castration in narrower and
more literal fashion as a boy’s fantasy that his
penis might be cut off. Murray believed that such
fear grows out of childhood masturbation and the
parental punishment that may have accompanied
it.
* Personality is determined by our needs and by
the environment highlighting the equal importance
of free will and determinism.
* Each person is unique, but there are also
similarities in the personalities of all of us.
* On biological and social determinants of
personality, we are shaped by both inherited
attributes and by our environment.
* Murray’s view of human nature was optimistic.
He criticized psychology that projected a negative
and demeaning image of human beings.
* Our orientation is also largely toward the future.
Although Murray recognized the imprint of
childhood experiences on current behavior, he did
not envision people as captives of the past.
______________________________________
TYPE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
Humoral Theory - Greek physician Hippocrates
(the father of modern medicine) proposed a
humoral theory; with the fluids in the body - Health
prevails when the four humours of the body are in
balance, disease where there is an imbalance. He proposed that disease have natural causes not
supernatural ones. - Galen then associated the
four humors of the body with four temperaments.
This created a rudimentary theory of personality.
Galen’s Extension of Hippocrates’ Theory of Humor
Humor
Temperament
Characteristic
Sluggish,
Phlegm
Phlegmatic
unemotional
Blood
Sanguine
cheerful
Yellow Bile
Choleric
quick-tempered
Black Bile
Melancholic
sad
Type A, Type B Behavior Patterns
- Friedman and Rosenman (1974) investigated
the psychological variables that put individuals at
higher risk of coronary heart disease.
- Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern is
described as an “action-emotion complex that can
be observed in any person who is aggressively
involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve
more and more in less and less time., and if
required to do so, against the opposing efforts of
other things or persons.” Further characterized by
the ff. behavior pattern: insecurity of status,
hyperaggressiveness, free-floating hostility, and
sense of time urgency
- On the other hand, Type B behavior pattern is
characterized by an easygoing, noncompetitive,
relaxed lifestyle.
* People vary along a continuum from pure Type A
to pure Type B. - Type theorists tend to believe
that most individuals are near to the idealized
types at the end of each dimension.
_________________________________
EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
“For Darwin, evolution did not manifest any
prestructured, preestablished or predetermined
design or order throughout natural history; there is
no overall direction in evolution, i.e., no ultimate
purpose or final end-goal to organic evolution in
general, or human evolution in particular.” (Birx,
1998, p. xxii)
- Each species has certain physical and behavioral
characteristics that vary and are heritable.
- According to his theory of evolution, there is a
struggle for survival. The reproductive capacity
for all living organisms allows for many offspring
than can survive in a given environment.
- He also recognized that there are individual
differences among offspring, some of which are
more conducive to survival than others. This
results in the survival of the fittest.
- Fitness- defined as an organism’s ability to
survive and reproduce. It is largely determined by
the organism’s features and environment. Thus,
those organisms possessing adaptive features
are fit; those that do not are not. Adaptive features
are those features that are conducive to survival in
a given environment.
(e.g. If there is a shortage of food in the
environment of giraffes, only those giraffes with
necks long enough to reach the few remaining
leaves on tall trees will survive and reproduce.)
- Thus, natural selection of adaptive
characteristics occurs among the offspring of a
species.
- Evolution, then results from the natural selection
of those accidental variations among members of
a species that prove to have survival value.
- Darwin believed that evolution just happens!
Evolutionary Theory and Psychology
Premises:
1. Evolutionary processes have sculpted not
merely the body, but also the brain, the
psychological mechanisms it houses, and the
behavior it produces.
2. Many of those mechanisms are best
conceptualized as psychological adaptations
designed to solve problems that historically
contributed to survival and reproduction, broadly
conceived.
3. Psychological adaptations are activated in
modern environments that differ in some important
ways with the ancestral environment.
4. Psychological mechanisms have adaptive
functions.
Contributions to Psychology
- Popular topics in contemporary psychology
clearly reveal a strong Darwinian influence:
developmental psychology, animal psychology,
comparative psychology, psychobiology, learning,
tests and measurements, emotions, behavior
genetics, and abnormal psychology.
- Darwin influenced child psychology when he
carefully observed the development of his first son.
He observed the first appearance of various
reflexes, motor abilities, and learning abilities of
his son.
- He argued that human emotions are remnants of
animal emotions that once had been necessary for
survival. (e.g. baring of teeth, snarling)
- He also posited that expression of human
emotions is culturally universal.
- Human behavior can be further explored through
studying animal behavior.
In sum, Darwin’s influence changed the view of
human nature and also with it changed the history
of psychology. Darwin stimulated the interest in
individual differences and showed that studying
the behavior is as important as studying the mind.
_________________________________
FILIPINO PSYCHOLOGY
(Responsibleness)
Kapatiran
Thriftiness
* Pagkasigurista
(Prudence)
* Pagkamatimpi
(Restraint)
Panukat ng Ugali at Pagkatao (PUP)
- also called as the “Measure of Character and
Personality
- by Virgilio Enriquez and Angeles GuanzonLapeña
- They sought to construct a test in Filipino that
measured Filipino-oriented traits, behaviors, and
attitudes, primarily to identify inventive talent. This
materialized with the help of the National Science
and Development Board (NSDB)
▪
The PUP consists of 160 items, 141 of which
are organized into 24 trait scales; with Filipino
and with English translations.
▪
The items their level of agreement with each
item using a 5-point bipolar scale.
▪
19 “identifier items” on self-claimed
personality traits (e.g. prayerfulness,
accident-proness, smoking, gambling) which
were included in the PUP for personality
research purposes and can be used to
generate separate personality profiles. They
assess culturally-relevant behaviors and
attitudes for use as criterion variables in
personality research studies.
▪
The 2 validity scales indicate a respondent’s
tendency to deny basic truths (“Pagkakaila
Scale) and to reject cultural values held by
Filipinos (“Kaugalian Scale)
24 Trait Scales under Five Domains
Domain
Extraversion/Surgency
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Positive Traits
Ambisyon (Ambition)
Lakas ng Loob
(Guts/Daring)
Pagkamapagkumbaba
(Humility)
Pagkamatulungin
(Helpfulness)
Pagkamapagbigay
(Generosity)
Pagkamagalang
(Respectfulness)
Katiyahaan
(Perseverance)
Pagkaresponsable
Negative Traits
Pagkasunodsunoran (Conformity)
Pagkamhiyain
(Shyness/Timidity)
Pagkamapunahin
(Criticalness)
Pagkapalaaway
(Belligerence)
Hirap Kausapin
(Difficulty to deal with)
Pagkasalawahan
(Ficklemindedness)
Tigas ng Ulo
Pagkapikon (Low
tolerance for teasing)
Pagkamaramdamin
(Sensitiveness)
Sumpong (Mood)
Emotional Stability
Intellect/Openness to
Experience
▪
▪
(Stubbornness)
Pagkamausisa
(Inquisitiveness)
Pagkamaaalahanin
(Thoughtfulness)
Pagkamalikhain
(Creativity)
The PUP is scored either manually, using 15
scoring acetates, or using the computerized
systems developed for scoring the test. The test
takes about 30-4 minutes to finish.
It has also undergone factor structure analysis.