Chapter 1
Introduction to Personality Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 1, you should be able to:
1. Express your own definition of personality.
2. Differentiate theory from (a) philosophy,
(b) speculation, (c) hypothesis,
and
(d)
taxonomy.
3. Defend the need for more than one theory.
4. Show how an understanding of the various
theorists' life story is related to their theory.
5. Explain the relationship between theory and
observations.
6. List and explain the criteria of a useful
theory.
7. Explain why falsifiability is a positive
characteristic of a theory.
8. Discuss various components for a concept of
humanity.
9. Define reliability and validity and explain
why both concepts are important in personality
research.
Summary Outline
I. Overview of Personality Theory
From the investigations of Freud during the last
decade of the 19th century until the present time,
a number of personality theorists have (1) made
controlled observations of human behavior and
(2) speculated on the meaning of those
observations. Differences in the theories of these
men and women are due to more than differences
in terminology. They stem from differences on
basic issues concerning the nature of humanity.
II. What Is Personality?
The term personality comes from the Latin word
persona, meaning the mask people wear or the
role they play in life.
However, most
psychologists use the term to refer to much more
than the face or facade people show to others.
Personality can be defined as a pattern of
relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics that give both consistency and
individuality to human behavior
III. What is a Theory?
The term theory is often used quite loosely and
incorrectly to imply something other than a
useful scientific concept. Theories are used by
scientists to generate research and organize
observations.
A. Theory Defined
A theory is a set of related assumptions that
allow scientists to use logical deductive
reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses
B. Theory and Its Relatives
People often confuse theory with philosophy,
speculation, hypothesis, or taxonomy. Although
theory is related to each of these concepts, it is
not synonymous with any of them.
Philosophy—the love of wisdom—is a broader
term than theory, but one branch of philosophy—
epistemology—relates to the nature of
knowledge, and theories are used by scientists in
pursuit of knowledge.
Theories rely on
speculation, but speculation must be based on
the controlled observations of scientists. Science
is the branch of study concerned with observation
and classification of data and with the
verification of general laws.
Theories are
practical tools used by scientists to guide
research. A theory is more general than a
hypothesis and may generate a multitude of
hypotheses, that is, educated guesses.
A
taxonomy is a classification system, and
classification
is
necessary
to
science.
Taxonomies, however, do not generate
hypotheses—a necessary criterion of a useful
theory.
C. Why Different Theories?
Psychologists and other scientists have developed
a variety of personality theories because they
have differed in their personal background, their
philosophical orientation, and the data they chose
to observe.
In addition, theories permit
individual
interpretation
of
the
same
observations, and each theorist has had his or her
own way of looking at things.
D. Theorists'
Personalities
Theories of Personality
and
Their
Because personality theories evolve from a
theorist's personality, psychologists interested in
the psychology of science have begun to study
the personal traits of leading personality theorists
and their possible impact on their scientific
theories and research.
E. What Makes a Theory Useful?
A useful theory (1) generates research, both
descriptive and hypothesis testing; (2) is
falsifiable; that is, it must generate research that
can either confirm or disconfirm its major tenets;
(3) organizes and explains data into some
intelligible framework; (4) guides action; that is,
it provides the practitioner with a road map for
making day-to-day decisions; (5) is internally
consistent and relies on operational definitions
that define concepts in terms of specific
operations; and (6) is parsimonious, or simple.
IV.
Dimensions for a Concept of Humanity
Personality theorists have had different
conceptions of human nature, and the authors of
Theories of Personality use six dimensions for
comparing these conceptions. The dimensions
include: determinism versus free choice,
pessimism versus optimism, causality versus
teleology, conscious versus unconscious
determinants of behavior, biological versus
social influences on personality, and uniqueness
versus similarities among people.
V. Research in Personality Theory
Personality theories, like other theories, are based
on systematic research that allows for the
prediction of events. In researching human
behavior, personality theorists often use various
measuring procedures, which must be both
reliable and valid.
Reliability refers to a measuring instrument's
consistency and includes test-retest reliability and
internal consistency.
Validity refers to the accuracy or truthfulness of
test and includes predictive validity and construct
validity.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. The term personality comes from the word
persona,
meaning
a
theatrical
__________________.
2. Personality is a pattern of relatively
permanent
_____________________,
dispositions, or characteristics within an
individual that give some measure of
consistency to that person's behavior.
3. A ___________________ is a set of related
assumptions that allows scientists to use
logical deductive reasoning to formulate
testable hypotheses.
4. Theories are most closely related to
_________________________, the branch of
philosophy that deals with the nature of
knowledge.
5. The field of study concerned with observation
and classification of data and with the
verification of general laws through the
testing
of
hypotheses
is
called
_______________________.
6. A _________________________ is a
classification of things according to their
natural relationships.
7. A hypothesis is often defined
___________________ guess.
as
an
8. The
psychology
of
_______________________ is a subdiscipline
of psychology that studies the personal traits
of scientists.
9. A
useful
theory
must
be
_____________________, which means that
research must be able to either confirm or
disconfirm its major tenets.
10. The law of parsimony states that the
______________________ of two theories is
preferred.
11. The most important function of a
___________________ is to generate
research.
12. An _________________ definition is one that
defines concepts and units in terms of specific
operations.
13. Teleology is an explanation of behavior in
terms of _______________________ goals.
14. A
reliable
test
will
___________________ results.
yield
15. A test that measures what it is supposed to
measure is said to be ___________________.
True-False
_____1. Useful theories are founded on both
speculation and scientific evidence.
_____2. The word personality comes from the
Latin persona, meaning a mask or facade.
_____3. Personality refers mostly to those
characteristics that a person projects to the
rest of the world.
_____4. The terms theory and hypothesis are
synonymous.
_____5. Philosophy is a broader term than
theory.
_____6. The terms theory and educated guess are
used interchangeably by scientists.
_____7. Epistemology is the branch of
philosophy dealing with the nature of
knowledge.
_____8. Science is the branch of study concerned
with observation and classification of data
and with the verification of general laws.
_____9. Theories should be viewed as
impractical but interesting speculations.
____10. Theory is
hypothesis.
a
broader
term
than
____11. Taxonomies are dynamic and generate a
multitude of hypotheses.
____12. A useful theory should generate multiple
hypotheses.
____13. A cyclic relationship should
between theory and observation.
exist
____14. The psychology of science studies
personal traits of personality theorists.
____15. A useful theory of personality should be
falsifiable.
____16. Personality theorists should avoid being
influenced by their own personalities and
backgrounds.
____17. The psychology of science investigates
ways in which personal characteristics of
scientists influence scientific theory and
research.
____18. The value of a theory rests mostly on the
personal characteristics of the theorist who
developed it.
____19. If a theory is falsifiable, it has been
proven false.
____20. Personality tests may be reliable yet lack
validity.
Multiple Choice
_____1. The word personality comes from
"persona," which originally meant
a. theatrical mask.
b. soul.
c. the animal side of human nature.
d. that which one truly is.
_____ 2. Psychologists are most likely to agree
that
a. three personality traits can explain all
human behavior.
b. personality refers mostly to surface
appearance.
c. there is a single best definition of
personality.
d. none of the above.
_____ 3. A pattern of relatively permanent traits
and unique characteristics that give both
consistency and individuality to human
behavior is called
a. personality.
b. a general trait.
c. a specific trait.
d. a genetic predisposition.
_____4. Which term should be most closely
associated with the word theory?
a. speculation
b. taxonomy
c. science
d. philosophy
______5.
A theory can be defined as
a. an unverified hypothesis.
b. an educated guess.
c. a group of philosophical speculations
concerning the nature of reality.
d. a set of related assumptions that generate
testable hypotheses.
______6.
Which statement best reflects the
relationship
between
theory
and
hypothesis?
a. Theories are narrower than hypotheses.
b. A single theory may generate several
hypotheses.
c. Theories flow logically from specific
hypotheses.
d. Theories can be proven; hypotheses
cannot.
______7.
A hypothesis is best defined as
a. a classification system.
b. armchair speculation.
c. an unproved theory.
d. an educated guess or prediction.
______ 8. Taxonomies are
a. systems for classifying data.
b. principles of learning that make up a
theory.
c. guidelines for living a principled life.
d. legal entities for raising revenue.
______9.
What is the relationship among
theory, hypothesis, and observation?
a. Observations are practical tools; theories
and hypotheses are impractical.
b. Theories generate hypotheses that lead to
observations that may alter the original
theory.
c. Hypotheses generate theories, which then
result in observations.
d. Observations generate hypotheses, which
in turn generate theories.
_____10.
The ultimate value of a theory is its
a. truthfulness.
b. usefulness.
c. simplicity.
d. logic.
_____11.
A theory should be open to
disconfirmation. This refers to the theory's
ability to
a. be proven.
b. generate research.
c. provide guidelines for the practitioner.
d. be falsified.
_____ 12. A related set of if-then assumptions
would constitute a
a. hypothesis.
b. philosophy.
c. theory.
d. scientific experiment.
_____ 13. The subdiscipline of psychology
that looks at the personal traits of scientists
is called
a. psychology of science.
b. the science of psychology.
c. science in autobiographical study.
d. psychology in autobiographical study.
_____ 14. Although scientists are influenced
by their personal characteristics, the
usefulness of their work is
a. the clarity of their observations.
b. the reliability of their measuring
instruments.
c. judged by their scientific product.
d. judged by their ability to create a workable
taxonomy.
_____15.
A useful theory should
b. serve as a guide to action.
c. organize observations.
d. generate research.
e. all of the above.
_____16.
An internally consistent theory
a. generates a single hypothesis.
b. can be directly verified.
c. can explain nearly all empirical
observations.
d. includes operational definitions of its
terms.
_____17.
A theory that is as simple as
possible is
a. internally consistent.
b. parsimonious.
c. useless.
d. an operational theory.
_____ 18. An explanation of behavior in terms
of future goals or purposes is
a. a parsimonious theory.
b. also hypothetical.
c. causal.
d. teleological.
_____19.
A test that yields consistent results
is said to be
a. standardized.
b. a norm-referenced test.
c. reliable.
d. valid.
_____ 20. A valid test
a. is also reliable.
b. has a pencil and paper format.
c. is usually unreliable.
d. is also standardized.
Short Answer
1. Define theory and show its relationship with
(a) philosophy, (b) speculation, (c) hypothesis,
and (d) taxonomy.
2.
Explain the interaction among theory,
hypotheses, and observations.
3. List six criteria of a useful theory.
4.
List and discuss the six dimensions for a
concept of humanity discussed by the authors.
5. Define reliability and validity and discuss at
least two types of each.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. mask
2. traits
3. theory
4. epistemology
5. science
6. taxonomy
7. educated guess
8. science
9. falsifiable
10. simpler
11. theory
12. operational
13. future
14. reliable
15. valid
True-False
1. T
2. T
3. F
4. F
5. T
6. F
7. T
8. T
9. F
10. T
11. F
12. T
13. T
14. F
15. T
16. F
17. T
18. F
19. F
20. T
Multiple Choice
1.
a
2.
d
3.
a
4.
c
5.
d
6.
b
7.
d
8.
a
9.
b
10. b
11. d
12. c
13. a
14. c
15. e
16. d
17. b
18. d
19. c
20. a
Chapter 2
Freud: Psychoanalysis
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 2, you should be able to:
1. Describe how Freud's childhood experiences
may have influenced his theory of personality.
2. Argue pro or con whether Freud was scientific
in his writings.
3. Identify and explain the three levels of mental
life.
4. Describe the three provinces of the mind and
their characteristics.
5. Explain Freud's concept of the sexual and
aggressive instincts.
6. Discuss the importance
psychoanalytic theory.
of
anxiety
in
7. List the Freudian defense mechanisms and give
examples of each.
8. Summarize the psychosexual stages of
development and their possible effects on
personality.
9. Trace the development of the Oedipus complex
for both boys and girls.
10. Debate the accuracy of Freud's concept of
women.
11. Compare Freud's early therapeutic technique
with his later approach and explain how his
shift in techniques may have permanently
altered the history of psychoanalysis.
12. Explain Freud's concept of dreams.
13. Discuss recent research related to Freud's
concept of dreams.
Summary Outline
I. Overview of Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis has endured
because it (1) postulated the primacy of sex
and aggression—two universally popular
themes, (2) attracted a group of followers who
were dedicated to spreading psychoanalytic
doctrine, and (3) advanced the notion of
unconscious motives, which permit varying
explanations for the same observations.
II. Biography of Sigmund Freud
Born in the Czech Republic in 1856, Sigmund
Freud spent most of his life in Vienna. Early in
his professional career, Freud believed that
hysteria was a result of being seduced during
childhood by a sexually mature person, often a
parent or other relative. In 1897, however,
Freud abandoned his seduction theory and
replaced it with his notion of the Oedipus
complex, a concept that remained the center of
his psychoanalytic theory. Near the end of his
life and to escape Nazi rule, Freud moved to
London where he died in 1939.
III. Levels of Mental Life
Freud saw mental functioning as operating on
three levels—unconscious, preconscious, and
conscious.
A. Unconscious
The unconscious includes drives and instincts
that are beyond awareness but that motivate
most human behaviors. Freud believed that
unconscious drives can become conscious only
in disguised or distorted form, such as dream
images, slips of the tongue, or neurotic
symptoms. Unconscious processes originate
from two sources: (1) repression, or the
blocking out of anxiety-filled experiences and
(2) phylogenetic endowment, or inherited
experiences that lie beyond an individual's
personal experience.
B. Preconscious
The preconscious contains images that are not
in awareness but that can become conscious
either quite easily or with some level of
difficulty.
C. Conscious
Consciousness plays a relatively minor role in
Freudian theory. Conscious ideas stem from
either the perception of external stimuli (our
perceptual conscious system) or from the
unconscious and preconscious after they have
evaded censorship.
IV. Provinces of the Mind
Freud conceptualized three regions of the
mind—the id, the ego, and the superego.
A. The Id
The id, which is completely unconscious,
serves the pleasure principle and contains our
basic instincts. It operates through the primary
process.
B. The Ego
The ego, or secondary process, is governed by
the reality principle and is responsible for
reconciling the unrealistic demands of the id
and the superego.
C. The Superego
The superego, which serves the idealistic
principle, has two subsystems—the conscience
and the ego-ideal. The conscience results from
punishment for improper behavior whereas the
ego-ideal stems from rewards for socially
acceptable behavior.
V. Dynamics of Personality
Dynamics of personality refers to those forces
that motivate people.
A. Instincts
Freud grouped all human drives or urges under
two primary instincts—sex (Eros or the life
instinct) and aggression (the death or
destructive instinct). The aim of the sexual
instinct is pleasure, which can be gained
through the erogenous zones, especially the
mouth, anus, and genitals. The object of the
sexual instinct is any person or thing that
brings sexual pleasure. All infants possess
primary narcissism, or self-centeredness, but
the secondary narcissism of adolescence and
adulthood is not universal. Both sadism
(receiving sexual pleasure from inflicting pain
on another) and masochism (receiving sexual
pleasure from painful experiences) satisfy both
sexual and aggressive drives. The destructive
instinct aims to return a person to an inorganic
state, but it is ordinarily directed against other
people and is called aggression.
B. Anxiety
Only the ego feels anxiety, but the id,
superego, and outside world can each be a
source of anxiety. Neurotic anxiety stems
from the ego's relation with the id; moral
anxiety is similar to guilt and results from the
ego's relation with the superego; and realistic
anxiety, which is similar to fear, is produced
by the ego's relation with the real world.
VI. Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms operate to protect the ego
against the pain of anxiety.
A. Repression
Repression involves forcing unwanted,
anxiety-loaded
experiences
into
the
unconscious. It is the most basic of all defense
mechanisms because it is an active process in
each of the others.
B. Reaction Formation
A reaction formation is marked by the
repression of one impulse and the ostentatious
expression of its exact opposite.
C. Displacement
Displacement takes place when people redirect
their unwanted urges onto other objects or
people in order to disguise the original
impulse.
D. Fixation
Fixations develop when psychic energy is
blocked at one stage of development, making
psychological change difficult. Some adults
may remain fixated on the anal stage of
psychosexual development.
E. Regression
Regressions occur whenever a person reverts
to earlier, more infantile modes of behavior.
Some adults may return to the oral stage as a
means of reducing anxiety.
F. Projection
Projection is seeing in others those
unacceptable feelings or behaviors that actually
reside in one's own unconscious. When carried
to extreme, projection can become paranoia,
which is characterized by delusions of
persecution.
G. Introjection
Introjections take place when people
incorporate positive qualities of another person
into their own ego to reduce feelings of
inferiority.
H. Sublimation
Sublimations involve the elevation of the
sexual instinct's aim to a higher level, which
permits people to make contributions to society
and culture.
VII. Stages of Development
Freud saw psychosexual development as
proceeding from birth to maturity through four
overlapping stages.
A. Infantile Period
The infantile stage encompasses the first 4 to 5
years of life and is divided into three
subphases: oral, anal, and phallic. During the
oral phase, an infant is primarily motivated to
receive pleasure through the mouth. During
the 2nd year of life, a child goes through an
anal phase. If parents are too punitive during
the anal phase, the child may adopt an anal
triad, consisting of orderliness, stinginess, and
obstinacy. During the phallic phase, boys and
girls begin to have differing psychosexual
development. At this time, boys and girls
experience the Oedipus complex in which they
have sexual feelings for one parent and hostile
feelings for the other. The male castration
complex, which takes the form of castration
anxiety, breaks up the male Oedipus complex
and results in a well-formed male superego.
For girls, however, the castration complex
takes the form of penis envy, precedes the
female Oedipus complex, leads to a gradual
and incomplete shattering of the female
Oedipus complex and results it a weaker and
more flexible female superego.
B. Latency Period
Freud believed that psychosexual development
goes through a latency stage—from about age
5 years until puberty—in which the sexual
instinct is partially suppressed.
C. Genital Period
The genital period begins with puberty when
adolescents experience a reawakening of the
genital aim of Eros. The term "genital period"
should not be confused with "phallic period."
D. Maturity
Freud hinted at a stage of psychological
maturity in which the ego would be in control
of the id and superego and in which
consciousness would play a more important
role in behavior.
VIII. Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory.
Freud erected his theory on the dreams, free
associations, slips of the tongue, and neurotic
symptoms of his patients during therapy. But
he also gathered information from history,
literature, and works of art.
A. Freud's Early Therapeutic Technique
During the 1890s, Freud used an aggressive
therapeutic technique in which he strongly
suggested to patients that they had been
sexually seduced as children. He later dropped
this technique and abandoned his belief that
most patients had been seduced during
childhood.
B. Freud's Later Therapeutic Technique
Beginning in the late 1890s, Freud adopted a
much more passive type of psychotherapy, one
that relied heavily on free association, dream
interpretation, and transference. The goal of
Freud's later psychotherapy was to uncover
repressed memories, and the therapist uses dream
analysis and free association to do so. With free
association patients are required to say whatever
comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant or
distasteful. Successful therapy rests on the
patient's transference of childhood sexual or
aggressive feelings onto the therapist and away
from symptom formation. Patients' resistance to
change is seen as progress because it indicates
that therapy has advanced beyond superficial
conversation.
C. Dream Analysis
In interpreting dreams, Freud differentiated the
manifest content (conscious description) from
the latent content (the unconscious meaning).
Nearly all dreams are wish-fulfillments,
although the wish is usually unconscious and
can be known only through dream
interpretation. To interpret dreams Freud used
both dream symbols and the dreamer's
associations to the dream content.
D. Freudian Slips
Freud believed that parapraxes—now called
Freudian slips—are not chance accidents but
reveal a person's true but unconscious
intentions.
IX. Related Research
Although Freudian theory has generated much
related research, it rates low on falsifiability
because most research findings can be explained
by other theories. In recent years, however, many
researchers have investigated hypotheses inspired
by psychoanalytic theory. This research includes
such topics as (1) unconscious mental processing,
(2) pleasure and the id: inhibition and the ego, (3)
the defense mechanisms, and (4) dreams.
A. Unconscious Mental Processing
In recent years, neuroscience has been
investigating the brain during a variety of
cognitive and emotional task, and much of this
work relates to Freud's notion of unconscious
motivation.
For example, one pair of
reviewers (Bargh & Chartrand, 1990)
concluded that 95% of human behaviors are
unconsciously determined, and that Freud's
metaphor of the iceberg was probably accurate.
In addition Mark Solms (2000, 2004; Solms &
Turnbull, 2002) argued that many Freudian
concepts are consistent with modern
neuroscience research.
These include
unconscious motivation, repression, and the
pleasure principle.
B. Pleasure and the Id /Inhibition and the
Ego
Some research (Solms, 2001; Solms &
Turnbull, 2002) has established that the
pleasure-seeking drives have their neurological
origins in two brain structures, namely the brain
stem and the limbic system.
C. Repression, Inhibition, and Defense
Mechanisms
Solms (2004) reported cases from the
neuropsychological literature demonstrating
repression of information when damage occurs
to the right-hemisphere and if this damaged
region becomes artificially stimulated the
repression goes away; that is, awareness
returns.
D. Research on Dreams
Research by Wegner and colleagues (Wegner,
Wenzlaff, & Kozak, 2004) tested Freud's
hypothesis that wishes repressed during the day
will find their way into dreams during the night.
Results showed that people dreamed more
about their repressed targets than their nonrepressed ones; that is, they were more likely to
dream about people they spend some time
thinking about, a finding quite consistent with
Freud's hypothesis.
X. Critique of Freud
Freud regarded himself as a scientist, but many
critics consider his methods to be outdated,
unscientific, and permeated with gender bias.
On the six criteria of a useful theory,
psychoanalysis we rate its ability to generate
research as high, its openness to falsification as
very low, and its ability to organize data as
average. We also rate psychoanalysis as
average on its ability to guide action and to be
parsimonious. Because it lacks operational
definitions, we rate it low on internal
consistency.
XI. Concept of Humanity
Freud's concept of humanity was deterministic
and pessimistic. He emphasized causality over
teleology, unconscious determinants over
conscious processes, and biology over culture,
but he took a middle position on the dimension
of uniqueness versus similarity of people.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. As a young man, Freud harbored a strong wish
to make a great discovery and thus to become
famous. One such attempt involved the
anesthetic
properties
of
the
drug
__________________.
2. When
Freud
abandoned
the
________________ theory, he dramatically
changed the course of psychoanalysis.
3. Freud's heavy emphasis on _______________
motivation allows for opposing explanations
for the same observation.
4. Freud believed that our _________________
endowment, or inherited unconscious images,
sometimes influences our behavior.
5. Unconscious
images
may
become
__________________ after being distorted,
disguised, or otherwise transformed.
6. The _______________ serves the pleasure
principle.
7. The
superego
has
two
parts,
_______________ and the conscience.
the
8. A _______________ receives sexual pleasure
from inflicting pain on other people.
9. According to Freud, the two great instincts are
sex and –––––––––––––––––––––––––––.
10. Moral anxiety results from
relationship
with
__________________________.
the
ego's
the
11. Defense mechanisms protect the ego against
the pain of __________________________.
12. A ________________ formation is marked by
the repression of one impulse and the
ostentatious expression of its exact opposite.
13. The defense mechanism whereby a person
redirects unwanted urges onto another person
or object is called _________________.
14. The defense that involves the repression of the
sexual instinct and the substitution of cultural
or social accomplishments is called
________________________.
15. The infantile stage is divided into three
substages: oral, _____________________, and
phallic.
16. According to Freud, the _________________
stage may lead to compulsive neatness,
obstinacy, and miserliness in some people.
17. Freud
believed
that
______________________ differences are responsible
for different psychosexual development in boys
and girls during the phallic stage.
18. The castration complex takes the form of
______________________ for girls.
19. The castration complex takes the form of
________________________ for boys.
20. The
proper
resolution
of
the
__________________________ results in the
emergence of a mature superego for boys.
True-False
_____1. Psychoanalytic doctrine is based in part
on Freud's analysis of his own dreams.
_____2. Freud regarded himself mostly as a
philosopher.
_____3. Freud's data were based mostly on
experimental investigation.
_____4. Freud's lifelong friendship with Carl Jung
greatly influenced the final shape of
psychoanalysis.
_____5. Unlike many of his other theories,
Freud’s famous seduction theory was one he
never changed.
_____6. Freud believed that people are motivated
mostly by unconscious urges.
_____7. Ideas that are not conscious but that can
become so quite easily are said by Freud to
belong to the preconscious.
_____8. The superego serves the idealistic and
moralistic principles.
_____9. Psychoanalysis rests on two
instincts or drives: sex and hunger.
great
____10. The aim of an instinct is to seek pleasure.
____11. Neurotic anxiety stems from the ego's
dependence on the id.
____12. Defense mechanisms defend the id
against anxiety.
____13. Repressions are the most basic of the
defense mechanisms because they underlie
all other defense mechanisms.
____14. The permanent attachment of libido onto
an earlier stage of development best
describes the defense mechanism of fixation.
____15. Sublimations often benefit society.
____16. The principal source of frustration during
the oral period is weaning.
____17. For boys, the Oedipus complex occurs
prior to the castration complex.
____18 For girls, the Oedipus complex occurs
prior to the castration complex.
____19. During the 1880's, Freud's practice of
psychotherapy was much more passive than
it would become decades later.
____20. Freud's theory rates high on falsifiability.
Multiple Choice
______1 The twin cornerstones of psychoanalytic
motivation are
a. sex and security.
b. safety and security.
c. hunger and sex.
d. sex and aggression.
______2.
Freud began his self-analysis shortly
after
a. he broke off his relationship with Fliess.
b. he broke off his relationship with Jung.
c. his mother died.
d. his father died.
______ 3. As a youth and young man, Freud
was strongly motivated to
a. win fame by making a great discovery.
b. overtake his older brother Julius.
c. practice medicine on the poor people of
Vienna.
d. become a rabbi and move to New York.
______4.
What analogy did Freud use to
illustrate the relationship between the ego
and the id?
a. rider and horse
b. groom and bride
c. chicken and egg
d. hammer and anvil
______5.
The
principle.
a. pleasure
b. reality
c. moralistic
d. idealistic
id
serves the __________
_____6. Which regions of the mind have no direct
contact with the external world?
a. id and superego
b. id and ego
c. id only
d. ego and superego
______7.
Which of these is a manifestation of
both sex and aggression?
a. anxiety
b. narcissism
c. sadism
d. love
______8.
A masochist receives sexual pleasure
from
a. inflicting pain on others.
b. joining a credit union.
c. receiving pain inflicted by others.
d. watching other people undress.
______ 9. Freud called the mouth, anus, and
genitals
a. Oedipal strivings.
b. erogenous zones.
c. the aim of the sexual instinct.
d. the aim of the aggressive instinct.
_____10.
The guilt a person experiences after
violating personal standards of conduct is
called ________ anxiety.
a. realistic
b. neurotic
c. manifest
d. moral
_____11.
the
a. id.
b. ego.
According to Freud, anxiety is felt by
c. superego.
d. conscience.
_____12.
Defense mechanisms protect the ego
against
a. feelings of shame.
b. guilt.
c. anxiety.
d. public disgrace.
_____13.
In Freudian theory, anxiety
a. reduces repression.
b. triggers repression.
c. increases repression.
d. is caused by repression.
_____14.
After a drive or image has been
repressed, it
a. may remain unchanged in the unconscious.
b. could force its way into consciousness in an
unchanged form.
c. could be expressed in a disguised or
distorted form.
d. any of the above.
_____15.
With this defense mechanism, a
repressed desire finds an opposite and
exaggerated expression.
a. fixation
b. reaction formation
c. sublimation
d. projection
_____16.
A completely weaned child goes
back to the bottle after a younger sister is
born. This return to a more infantile pattern
of behavior expresses a
a. reaction formation.
b. fixation.
c. regression.
d. projection.
_____17.
Chad has great admiration for his
history teacher. He attempts to imitate this
teacher's lifestyle and mannerisms. This is
an example of
a. displacement.
b. sublimation.
c. projection.
d. introjection.
_____18.
This defense mechanism, unlike the
others, usually results in some benefit to
society.
a. projection
b. fixation
c. sublimation
d. regression
_____19.
To Freud, the most crucial stage of
development is
a. infancy.
b. latency.
c. genital.
d. maturity.
_____20.
The anal triad consists of all these
characteristics EXCEPT
a. miserliness.
b. aggressiveness.
c. stubbornness.
d. compulsive neatness.
_____21.
Freud believed that differences
between boys and girls in psychosexual
development are due to
a. parental expectations.
b. cultural experiences.
c. anatomy.
d. hormones.
_____22.
For boys, the castration complex
a. takes the form of penis envy.
b. shatters the Oedipus complex.
c. comes before the Oedipus complex.
d. all of these are correct.
e. none of these is correct.
_____ 23. For girls, the castration complex
a. takes the form of penis envy.
b. shatters the Oedipus complex.
c. comes after the Oedipus complex.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
_____ 24. For boys,
a. the Oedipus complex comes before the
castration complex.
b. the castration complex takes the form of
castration anxiety.
c. the Oedipus complex is solved when they
identify with their father—at around age 5
or 6.
d. none of these.
e all of these are correct.
_____25.
Freud believed that, with few
exceptions, the unconscious meaning of
dreams is an expression of
a. early childhood traumas.
b. wish-fulfillments.
c. experiences of the day before.
d. feelings of inferiority.
_____26.
Psychoanalytic therapy is most likely
to include this technique.
a. homework assignments
b. free association
c. interpretation of early recollections
d. an active, aggressive therapist
_____27.
During the past dozen or so years,
psychoanalysis has received most research
support from
a. operant conditioning.
b. sociology.
c. religion.
d. neuroscience.
Short Answer
1. List several personal qualities of Freud that
contributed to his psychoanalytic theories.
2. Explain how the three levels of mental life relate
to the three provinces of the mind.
3. List and briefly describe at least eight Freudian
defense mechanisms.
4. Compare and contrast the course of
development for both the male and the female
Oedipus complexes.
5. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of
psychoanalysis as a scientific theory.
6. Discuss recent neuroscience research as it
relates to Freud's theory.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10,
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
cocaine
seduction
unconscious
phylogenetic
conscious
id
ego-ideal
sadist
aggression
superego
anxiety
reaction
displacement
sublimation
anal
anal
anatomical (biological)
penis envy
castration anxiety
Oedipus complex
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
T
F
F
F
F
T
T
T
F
T
T
F
T
T
T
T
T
F
F
F
Multiple
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8..
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
d
d
a
a
a
a
c
c
b
d.
b
c
b
d
b
c
d
c
a
b
c
b
a
e
b
b
c
Chapter 3
Adler: Individual Psychology
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 3, you should be able to:
1. Distinguish between striving for superiority
and striving for success.
2. Describe the role of subjective perceptions in
Adler's theory of personality.
3. Explain
how
seemingly
contradictory
behaviors may reflect a single goal of striving
for superiority.
4. Define social interest and give examples of
what it is and what it is not.
5. Explain organ dialect and give examples of
how it is expressed in a person's behavior.
6. Define causality and teleology and discuss
Adler's teleological approach to personality.
7. Define style of life and discuss various
methods of identifying a person's style of life..
8. List and describe three types of Adlerian
safeguarding tendencies.
9. Discuss Adler's ideas on birth order.
10. Compare and contrast Adler's view of women
with that of Freud.
11. Summarize recent
recollections.
research
on
early
12. Critique Adler's ideas as a scientific theory.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Adler's Individual Psychology
Adler was an original member of Freud's
psychoanalytic group, but he never saw
himself as a disciple or a follower of Freud.
If fact, throughout his life he carried with him
the note Freud had sent to him proposing the
establishment of an organization of
physicians. Adler saw the invitation as
Freud's recognition of Adler as an equal.
After Adler broke from that group, he built a
theory of personality that was nearly
diametrically opposed to that of Freud.
Whereas Freud's view of humanity was
pessimistic and rooted in biology, Adler's
view was optimistic, idealistic, and rooted in
family experiences.
II. Biography of Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler was born in 1870 in a Viennese
suburb, a second son of middle-class Jewish
parents. Like Freud, Adler was a physician,
and in 1902, he became a charter member of
Freud's organization. However, personal and
professional differences between the two men
led to Adler's departure from the Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society in 1911. Adler soon
founded his own group, the Society for
Individual Psychology. Adler's strengths
were his energetic oral presentations and his
insightful ability to understand family
dynamics.
He was not a gifted writer, a
limitation that may have prevented him from
attaining world recognition equal to that of
Freud.
III. Introduction to Adlerian Theory
Although Adler's individual psychology is
both complex and comprehensive, its main
tenets can be stated in simple form.
IV. Striving for Success or Superiority
The sole dynamic force behind people's
actions is the striving for success or
superiority.
A. The Final Goal
The final goal of success or superiority
toward which all people strive unifies
personality and makes all behavior
meaningful.
B. The Striving Force as Compensation
Because people are born with small, inferior
bodies, they feel inferior and attempt to
overcome these feelings through their natural
tendency to move toward completion. The
striving force can take one of two courses—
personal gain (superiority) or community
benefit (success).
C. Striving for Personal Superiority
Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive
for personal superiority with little concern for
other people. Although they may appear to
be interested in other people, their basic
motivation is personal benefit.
D. Striving for Success
In contrast, psychologically healthy people
strive for the success of all humanity, but
they do so without losing their personal
identity.
V. Subjective Perceptions
People's subjective view of the world—not
reality—shapes their behavior.
A. Fictionalism
Fictions are people's expectations of the
future.
Adler held that fictions guide
behavior, because people act as if these
fictions are true. Adler emphasized teleology
over causality, or explanations of behavior in
terms of future goals rather than past causes.
B. Physical Inferiorities
Adler believed that all humans are "blessed"
with physical inferiorities, which stimulate
subjective feelings of inferiority and move
people toward perfection or completion.
VI. Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
Adler believed that all behaviors are directed
toward a single purpose. When seen in the
light of that sole purpose, seemingly
contradictory behaviors can be seen as
operating in a self-consistent manner.
A. Organ Dialect
People often use a physical disorder to
express style of life, a condition Adler called
organ dialect, or organ jargon.
B. Conscious and Unconscious
Conscious and unconscious processes are
unified and operate to achieve a single goal.
The part of our goal that is not clearly
understood is unconscious; that part of our
goal we fail to fully comprehend is conscious.
VII. Social Interest
Human behavior has value to the extent that it
is motivated by social interest, that is, a
feeling of oneness with all of humanity.
A. Origins of Social Interest
Although social interest exists as potentiality
in all people, it must be fostered in a social
environment. Adler believed that the parentchild relationship can be so strong that it
negates the effects of heredity.
B. Importance of Social Interest
According to Adler, social interest is "the
sole criterion of human values," and the
worthiness of all one's actions must be seen
by this standard. Without social interest,
societies could not exist; individuals in
antiquity could not have survived without
cooperating with others to protect themselves
from danger. Even today an infant's
helplessness predisposes it toward a nurturing
person.
VIII. Style of Life
The manner of a person's striving is called
style of life, a pattern that is relatively well
set by 4 or 5 years of age. However, Adler
believed that healthy individuals are marked
by flexible behavior and that they have some
limited ability to change their style of life.
IX. Creative Power
Style of life is partially a product of heredity
and environment—the building blocks of
personality—but ultimately style of life is
shaped by people's creative power, that is,
by their ability to freely choose a course of
action.
X. Abnormal Development
Creative power is not limited to healthy
people; unhealthy individuals also create their
own personalities. Thus, each of us is free to
choose either a useful or a useless style of
life.
A. General Description
The most important factor in abnormal
development is lack of social interest. In
addition, people with a useless style of life
tend to (1) set their goals too high, (2) have a
dogmatic style of life, and (3) live in their
own private world.
B. External Factors in Maladjustment
Adler listed three factors that relate to
abnormal development: (1) exaggerated
physical defects, which do not by themselves
cause abnormal development, but which may
contribute to it by generating subjective and
exaggerated feelings of inferiority; (2) a
pampered style of life, which contributes to
an overriding drive to establish a permanent
parasitic relationship with the mother or a
mother substitute; and (3) a neglected style
of life, which leads to distrust of other people.
C. Safeguarding Tendencies
Both normal and neurotic people create
symptoms as a means of protecting their
fragile self-esteem. These safeguarding
tendencies maintain a neurotic life style and
protect a person from public disgrace. The
three principal safeguarding tendencies are
(1) excuses, which allow people to preserve
their inflated sense of personal worth; (2)
aggression, which may take the form of
depreciating
others'
accomplishments,
accusing others of being responsible for one's
own failures, or self-accusation; and (3)
withdrawal, which can be expressed by
psychologically moving backward, standing
still, hesitating, or constructing obstacles
D. Masculine Protest
Both men and women sometimes
overemphasize the desirability of being
manly, a condition Adler called the
masculine protest. The frequently found
inferior status of women is not based on
physiology but on historical developments
and social learning. Boys are often taught
early that being masculine means being
courageous, strong, and dominant. The
ultimate accomplishment for boys is to win,
to be powerful, to be on top. In contrast,
girls often learn to be passive and to accept
an inferior position in society. In contrast to
Adler's more democratic attitude, Freud
believed that anatomy is destiny and that
women occupy the 'dark continent" of
psychology. Near the end of his life, Freud
was still asking what women wanted.
According to Adler, Freud's attitudes toward
women would be evidence of a person with
a strong masculine protest. In contrast to
Freud's views on women, Adler assumed
that women—because they have the same
physiological and psychological needs as
men—want more or less the same things
that men want.
XI. Applications of Individual Psychology
Adler applied the principles of individual
psychology to family constellation, early
recollections, dreams, and psychotherapy.
A. Family Constellation
Adler believed that people's perception of
how they fit into their family is related to
their style of life. He claimed that firstborns
are likely to have strong feelings of power
and superiority, to be overprotective, and to
have more than their share of anxiety.
Secondborn children (such as Adler) are
likely to have strong social interest, provided
they do not get trapped trying to overcome
their older sibling. Youngest children are
likely to be pampered and to lack
independence, whereas only children have
some of the characteristics of both the oldest
and the youngest child.
B. Early Recollections
A more reliable method of determining style
of life is to ask people for their earliest
recollections.
Adler believed that early
memories are templates on which people
project their current style of life. These
recollections need not be accurate accounts of
early event, but true or false, they have
psychological importance because they
reflect a person's current view of the world.
C. Dreams
Adler believed that dreams can provide clues
to solving future problems. However, dreams
are disguised to deceive the dreamer and
usually must be interpreted by another
person.
D. Psychotherapy
The goal of Adlerian therapy is to create a
relationship between therapist and patient that
fosters social interest. To ensure that the
patient's social interest will eventually
generalize to other relationships, the therapist
adopts both a maternal and a paternal role.
XII. Related Research
Although family constellation and birth order
have been widely researched, topics more
pertinent to Adlerian theory are early
recollections and career choice. For example,
research by Jon Kasler and Ofra Nevo (2005)
found that early childhood recollections did
match career types in adulthood, which is
consistent with Adler’s view.
Adler’s theory of inferiority, superiority, and
social feeling can be applied to health-related
behaviors such as eating disorders and binge
drinking. For example, Susan Belangee
(2006) found that dieting, overeating, and
bulimia are unhealthy ways of compensating
for feelings of inferiority. Moreover, eating
disorders
suggest
that
a
person’s
Gemeinschaftsgefühl or social feeling is out
of whack.
Recently, Teresa Laird and
Andrea Shelton (2006) examined binge
drinking and birth order among college
students. They found youngest children in a
family significantly more likely to binge
drink than older children. The researchers
explained this using Adlerian theory, in that
youngest children are more likely to be
dependent, and dependent people are more
likely to cope with stress by heavy drinking.
Some evidence exists that early recollections
change through the course of counseling. For
example, Gary Savill and Daniel Eckstein
(1987) found significant changes in both
mental status and early recollections for a
therapy group, but not for people in a control
group. Similarly, Jane Statton and Bobbie
Wilborn (1991) found that recollections of
preadolescent children changed after
receiving therapy, whereas those of a control
group did not. These results tend to support
Adler’s teleological approach to personality,
in that early childhood experiences are less
important than adults’ views of those
experiences.
XIII. Critique of Adlerian Theory
Individual psychology rates high on it ability
to generate research, organize data, and guide
the practitioner. It receives a moderate rating
on parsimony, but because it lacks
operational definitions, it rates low on
internal consistency. It also rates low on
falsification because many of its related
research findings can be explained by other
theories.
XIV. Concept of Humanity
Adler saw people as forward moving, social
animals who are motivated by goals they set
(both consciously and unconsciously) for the
future. People are ultimately responsible for
their own unique style of life. Thus, Adler's
theory rates high on free-choice, social
influences, and uniqueness; very high on
optimism and teleology; and average on
unconscious influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. According to Adler, the striving for success or
_____________ is the dynamic force behind
our actions.
2. Adler believed that people are motivated more
by _______________ than by reality.
3. Consistent with Adler's final theory, healthy
people
strive
for
the
_________________________
of
all
humankind.
4. Adler frequently stated that all people come
into the world _____________________ with
physical inferiorities.
5. Fictions are people's expectations of the
____________________.
6. Lack of ______________________ is the
essence of maladjustment.
7. Gemeinschaftsgefühl,
or
____________________________, refers to a
positive feeling for all humanity.
8. Unhealthy people strive for personal
_____________________,
whereas
psychologically healthy people strive for the
success of all people.
9. Adler held that personality is shaped by the
________________ power, although heredity
and environment contribute to its building
material.
10. Unhealthy people have an essentially useless
________________ of life whereas healthy
people have a useful one.
11. The concept of organ _________________
suggests that a person can express a diseased
or inferior part of the body to gain sympathy
from other people.
12. To Adler, personality is molded by subjective
________________ rather than by reality.
13. Maladjusted people tend to set their goals too
______________.
14. People with a ___________________ style of
life try to make permanent a parasitic
relationship with their mother.
15. Safeguarding tendencies protect a person from
__________________________.
16. Adler believed that if style of life changes,
then one's ____________________________
should also change.
17. Two
common
excuses
___________________ and "Yes, but."
are
18. The masculine _________________ is a false
belief that men are superior to women.
19. Research has found that prisoners tend to have
low _________________________ .
20. Adler was a ____________________ born
child, and he believed that children who enter
their family in that position are likely to
develop strong social interest.
True-False
_____1. Adler was an original member of Freud's
Wednesday Psychological Society.
_____2. Among many differences between Freud
and Adler were their attitudes toward
Americans.
_____3. Both Adler and Freud came from
middle-class Jewish backgrounds and grew
up in the Vienna area.
_____4. The Wednesday Psychological Society
began when Adler asked Freud and a few
other physicians to join him at his home on
Wednesday evening.
_____5. Most people who have read Freud and
Adler agree that Adler was the better writer.
_____6. During the first few years after breaking
from Freud's organization, Adler was
unable to write or to continue his practice of
psychotherapy.
_____7. According to Adler, people's present
behaviors are strongly influenced by their
experiences of the past.
_____8. Adler believed that the most important
fiction is the goal of superiority or success.
_____9. Causality is an explanation of behavior
in terms of future goals and aspirations.
____10. Style of life is usually developed
between the 10th and 12th years of life,
according to Adler.
____11. Everyone
inferiority.
has
some
feelings
of
____12. Even criminals possess some amount of
social interest.
____13. Heredity and learning account for all
personality development, according to
Adler.
____14. People with very high levels of social
interest eventually become self-centered.
____15. Social interest is synonymous with
charity and unselfishness.
____16. Because all of us have survived infancy,
Adler concluded that we have at least some
potential for social interest.
____17. Adler believed that people are basically
what they make of themselves.
____18. Most pathological individuals have a
neglected or pampered life style.
____19. A pampered style of life is the result of
too much mother love.
____20. Safeguarding tendencies protect the ego
from the pain of anxiety.
____21. Adler believed that the psychic life of
women is essentially the same as that of
men.
____22. Adler agreed with Freud that dreams are
expressions of infantile wishes.
____23. Adler believed that dreams are forwardlooking.
____24. Adler hypothesized that physical
deficiencies can contribute to either a useful
or a useless style of life.
____25. Adler
believed
that
people's
interpretations of experiences are more
important than the experiences themselves.
Multiple Choice
______1.
As a child, Adler had an intense
rivalry with
a. his mother.
b. his father.
c. an older brother named Sigmund.
d. an older sister named Anna.
_____2. For more than 30 years, Adler carried an
invitation from _______ suggesting that
these two men should combine with other
physicians to establish the Wednesday
Psychological Scoiety.
a. Sigmund Freud
b. Carl Jung
c. his wife
d. William James
______3.
Individual
considered to be
a. deterministic.
b. optimistic
c. pessimistic.
d. neo-Freudian.
e. none of these.
Psychology
can
be
_____4. To Adler, the one dynamic force behind
a person's activity is
a. the striving for success or superiority.
b. organ inferiorities.
c. organ dialect.
d. feelings of superiority.
______5.
According to Adler, a person's final
goal is
a. set at about age 18.
b. a creation of the creative power.
c. death.
d. shaped by heredity and environment.
______6.
Adler insisted that personality is
shaped by
a. subjective perceptions.
b. birth-order.
c. early childhood experiences.
d. organ inferiorities.
______7.
According to Adler, ideas that have
no real existence, yet influence individuals
as if they really existed, are called
a. fictions.
b. fabrications.
c. hypotheses.
d. postulates.
______8.
The doctrine that motivation should
be considered according to its final purpose
or aim is called
a. fictional imperative.
b. Gemeinschaftsgefühl.
c. causation.
d. teleology.
______9.
Alder
believed
that
organ
inferiorities
a. cause superiority personalities.
b. cause inferiority personalities.
c. bestow meaning and purpose on all
behavior.
d. stimulate feelings of inferiority.
____10. Gemeinschaftsgefühl
translated as
a. style of life.
b. fictional finalism.
c. social interest.
d. organ inferiority.
is
usually
____11. According to Adler ______, the "sole
criterion of human values" would be
a. social interest.
b. productive work.
c. self-interest.
d. religion.
____12. A person's final goal is ultimately shaped
by
a. heredity.
b. early childhood experiences.
c. the superego.
d. the creative power.
______13. People strive toward superiority
through one of two paths. One is the route
of social interest; the other is the road of
a. success.
b. individuation.
c. exaggerated personal gain.
d. submission.
____14. Adler held that people are continually
pushed by the need to overcome inferiority
feelings and pulled by the desire for
a. love.
b. Gemeinschaftsgefühl
c. food and sex.
d. completion.
____15. To Adler, the core of maladjustment is
a. innate physical deficiencies.
b. lack of social interest.
c. a pampered style of life.
d. a neglected style of life.
____16. Early recollections are
a. easily verified by talking to parents or older
siblings.
b. keys to understanding one's present style of
life.
c. usually unpleasant and traumatic.
d. the cause of one's style of life.
____17. According to Adler, the creative power
a. usually
leads
to
outstanding
accomplishments.
b. shapes one's style of life.
c. is a deterministic concept.
d. is secondary to heredity and environment
in shaping personality.
____18. Adler believed that the goals of a
pathological person
a. are exaggerated and unrealistic.
b. are easily reached.
c. both of these.
d. neither of these.
____19. Pampered children
a. frequently feel neglected.
b. have received too much love.
c. become productive contributions to society.
d. none of these.
____20. Adlerian safeguarding tendencies are
a. sometimes conscious and sometimes
unconscious.
b. completely conscious.
c. completely unconscious.
d. used only by neurotics.
____21. Safeguarding
tendencies
protect
exaggerated feelings of superiority against
a. anxiety.
b. guilt.
c. public disgrace.
d. an uncontrollable id.
____22. Compared with Freud, Adler
a. had a more positive view toward women.
b. placed more emphasis on aggression.
c. relied more on dream interpretation during
psychotherapy.
d. was more likely to use hypnosis to treat
patients.
____23. Style of life is most reliably revealed by
a. the word association test.
b. hypnosis.
c. dream interpretation.
d. early recollections.
____24. According to Adler, dreams
a. can be interpreted only by the dreamer.
b. express childhood sexual fantasies.
c. provide information for dealing with future
problems.
d. can foretell the future.
____25. According to Adler, human personality is
a. the result of the interaction of heredity and
environment.
b. determined by people's experiences with
frustration and conflict.
c. shaped by people's interpretations of
experiences.
d. motivated by a complexity and multiplicity
of drives and needs.
____26. The ultimate goal of Adlerian therapy is
to
a. reduce needless anxiety.
b. increase self-confidence.
c. increase social interest.
d. decrease safeguarding tendencies.
____27. Research
suggests
that
early
recollections
a. may change during the course of
psychotherapy.
b. are not consistent with scores on current
personality inventories.
c. have little or no usefulness to the clinician.
d. tend to remain unchanged while personality
changes.
____28. A major weakness of Adler's theory is
that it
a. is not easily falsifiable.
b. has failed to generate much research.
c. is anti-Freudian.
d. cannot explain inconsistencies in behavior.
____29. In his concept of humanity, Adler saw
people as
a. destined for a life of conflict and chaos.
b. being driven by security and safety.
c. determined mostly by environmental
factors.
d. determined mostly by genetic factors.
e. none of these.
Short Answer
1. Name four differences between the theories of
Adler and Freud.
2. List and briefly explain six major tenets of
Adler's theory.
3. Name three contributing factors to abnormality,
according to Adler.
4. Discuss Adler's concept of family constellation.
5. Discuss Adler's use of early recollections.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
superiority
fictions (beliefs)
betterment
blessed
future
social interest
social interest
superiority, gain
creative
style
dialect (jargon)
perceptions
high
pampered
public disgrace
early recollections
"if only"
protest
social interest
second
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
F
T
T
F
F
F
F
T
F
F
T
T
F
F
F
T
T
T
F
F
T
F
T
T
T
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
c
a
b
a
b
a
a
d
d
c
a
d
c
d
b
b
b
a
a
a
c
a
d
c
c
c
a
a
e
Chapter 4
Jung: Analytical Psychology
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 4, you should be able to:
1. Describe how Jung's experiences with women
may have influenced his concept of personality.
2. Discuss the importance of Jung's encounter with
his anima.
3 Name and discuss the Jungian levels of the
psyche.
4. Discuss pro or con the possible existence of a
collective unconscious.
5. List and describe eight major archetypes.
6. Identify Jung's two major attitudes and four
functions.
7. Identify and describe Jung's stages of personality
development.
8. Discuss Jung's concept of dreams and how they
reflect the unconscious.
9. Discuss research on Jungian typology as a means
of selecting engineering students.
10. Critique analytical psychology as a scientific
theory.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Jung's Analytical Psychology
Carl Jung believed that people are extremely
complex beings who possess a variety of
opposing qualities, such as introversion and
extraversion, masculinity and femininity, and
rational and irrational drives.
II. Biography of Carl Jung
Carl Jung was born in Switzerland in 1875, the
oldest by about 9 years of two surviving
children.
Jung's father was an idealistic
Protestant minister and his mother was a strict
believer in mysticism and the occult. Jung's
early experience with parents who were quite
opposite of each other probably influenced his
own theory of personality, including his fanciful
No. 1 and Number 2 personalities. Soon after
receiving his medical degree he became
acquainted with Freud's writings and eventually
with Freud himself. Not long after he traveled
with Freud to the United States, Jung became
disenchanted with Freud's pansexual theories,
broke with Freud, and began his own approach
to theory and therapy, which he called
analytical psychology. From a critical midlife
crisis during which he nearly lost contact with
reality, Jung emerged to become one of the
leading thinkers of the 20th century. He died in
1961 at age 85.
III. Levels of the Psyche
Jung saw the human psyche as being divided
into a conscious and an unconscious level, with
the latter further subdivided into a personal
unconscious and a collective unconscious.
A. Conscious
Images sensed by the ego are said to be
conscious.
The ego thus represents the
conscious side of personality, and in the
psychologically mature individual, the ego is
secondary to the self.
B. Personal Unconscious
The unconscious refers to those psychic images
not sensed by the ego. Some unconscious
processes flow from our personal experiences,
but others stem from our ancestors' experiences
with universal themes.
Jung divided the
unconscious into the personal unconscious,
which contains the complexes (emotionally
toned groups of related ideas) and the collective
unconscious, which includes various archetypes.
C. Collective Unconscious
Collective unconscious images are those that
are beyond our personal experiences and that
originate from the repeated experiences of our
ancestors. Collective unconscious images are
not inherited ideas, but rather they refer to our
innate tendency to react in a particular way
whenever our personal experiences stimulate an
inherited predisposition toward action.
D. Archetypes
Contents of the collective unconscious are called
archetypes.
Jung believed that archetypes
originate through the repeated experiences of our
ancestors and that they are expressed in certain
types of dreams, fantasies, delusions, and
hallucinations. Several archetypes acquire their
own personality, and Jung identified these by
name. One is the persona—the side of our
personality that we show to others. Another is
the shadow—the dark side of personality. In
order for people to reach full psychological
maturity, they must first realize or accept their
shadow. A second hurdle in achieving maturity
is for men to accept their anima—their feminine
side—and for women to embrace their animu—
their masculine side. Other archetypes include
the great mother (the archetype of nourishment
and destruction); the wise old
man (the
archetype of wisdom and meaning); and the
hero, (the image we have of a conqueror who
vanquishes evil but who has a single fatal flaw).
The most comprehensive archetype is the self;
that is, the image we have of fulfillment,
completion, or perfection. The ultimate in
psychological maturity is self-realization, which
is symbolized by the mandala, or perfect
geometric figure.
IV. Dynamics of the Psyche
Jung believed that the dynamic principles that
apply to physical energy also apply to psychic
energy. These forces include causality and
teleology as well as progression and
regression.
A. Causality and Teleology
Jung accepted a middle position between the
philosophical issues of causality and teleology.
In other words, humans are motivated both by
their past experiences and by their expectations
of the future.
B. Progression and Regression
To achieve self-realization people must adapt to
both their external and their internal worlds.
Progression involves adaptation to the outside
world and the forward flow of psychic energy,
whereas regression refers to adaptation to the
inner world and the backward flow of psychic
energy. Jung believed that the backward step is
essential to a person's forward movement toward
self-realization.
V. Psychological Types
Eight basic psychological types emerge from the
union of two attitudes and four functions.
A. Attitudes
Attitudes are predispositions to act or react in a
characteristic manner. The two basic attitudes
are introversion—which refers to people's
subjective perceptions—and extraversion—
which indicates an orientation toward the
objective world. Extraverts are influenced more
by the real world than by their subjective
perception, whereas introverts rely on their
individualized view of things. Introverts and
extraverts often mistrust and misunderstand one
another, but neither attitude is superior to the
other.
B. Functions
These two attitudes can combine with four basic
functions to form eight general personality types.
The four functions are: (1) thinking, or
recognizing the meaning of stimuli; (2) feeling,
or placing a value on something; (3) sensation,
or taking in sensory stimuli; and (4) intuition, or
perceiving elementary data that are beyond our
awareness. Jung referred to thinking and feeling
as rational functions and to sensation and
intuition as irrational functions.
VI. Development of Personality
Nearly unique among personality theorists was
Jung's emphasis on the second half of life. Jung
saw middle and old age as times when people
may acquire the ability to attain self-realization.
A. Stages of Development
Jung divided development into four broad
stages: (1) childhood, which lasts from birth
until adolescence; (2) youth, the period from
puberty until middle life, which is a time for
extraverted development and for being grounded
to the real world of schooling, occupation,
courtship, marriage, and family; (3) middle life,
from about 35 or 40 until old age and a time
when people should be adopting an introverted,
or subjective attitude; and (4) old age, which is a
time for psychological rebirth, self-realization,
and preparation for death.
B. Self-Realization
Self-realization, or individuation, involves a
psychological rebirth and an integration of
various parts of the psyche into a unified or
whole individual. Self-realization represents the
highest level of human development.
VII. Jung's Methods of Investigation
Jung used the word association test, dreams, and
active imagination during the process of
psychotherapy, and all these methods
contributed to his theory of personality.
A. Word Association Test
Jung used the word association test early in his
career to uncover complexes embedded in the
personal unconscious. The technique requires a
patient to utter the first word that comes to mind
after the examiner reads a stimulus word.
Unusual responses indicate a complex; that, an
element from the personal unconscious.
B. Dream Analysis
Jung believed that dreams may have both a
cause and a purpose and thus can be useful in
explaining past events and in making decisions
about the future. "Big dreams" and "typical
dreams," both of which come from the collective
unconscious, have meanings that lie beyond the
experiences of a single individual.
C. Active Imagination
Jung also used active imagination to arrive at
collective images. This technique requires the
patient to concentrate on a single image until
that image begins to appear in a different form.
Eventually, the patient should see figures that
represent archetypes and other collective
unconscious images.
D. Psychotherapy
The goal of Jungian therapy is help neurotic
patients become healthy and to move healthy
people in the direction of self-realization. Jung
was eclectic in his choice of therapeutic
techniques and treated old people differently
than the young.
VIII. Related Research
Although Jungian psychology has not generated
large volumes of research, some investigators
have used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI; Myers, 1962) to examine the idea of
psychological types. Some research suggests
that engineering students who score high on both
extraversion and feeling are likely to drop out of
school or change their major (Thomas et al.,
2000). . Other research has found that teachersin-training are more likely than other people in
general to score high in intuition and feeling
(Willing, Guest, & Morford, 2001). Filbeck,
Hatfield, & Horvath (2005) studied how
personality affects the ways people invest their
money, specifically as related to levels of risk
taking. The findings corresponded well with
Jungian personality types. The researchers
concluded that personality of investors is an
important factor to consider.
IX. Critique of Jung
Although Jung considered himself a scientist,
many of his writings have more of a
philosophical than a psychological flavor. As a
scientific theory, it rates below average on its
ability to generate research, but very low on its
ability to withstand falsification. It is about
average on its ability to organize knowledge but
low on each of the other criteria of a useful
theory.
X. Concept of Humanity
Jung saw people as extremely complex beings
who are a product of both conscious and
unconscious personal experiences. However,
people are also motivated by inherited remnants
that spring from the collective experiences of
their early ancestors. Because Jungian theory is
a psychology of opposites, it receives a moderate
rating on the issues of free will versus
determinism, optimism versus pessimism, and
causality versus teleology. It rates very high on
unconscious influences, low on uniqueness, and
low on social influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. After Jung broke off his relationship with Freud,
he went through a midlife crisis that included a
conversation
with
__________________________.
2. Jung's concept of a ____________________
unconscious is parallel to Freud's idea of the
unconscious.
3. The notion of a ______________________
unconscious is Jung's most controversial and
distinctive concept.
4. Jung's ________________ personality was in
touch with feelings and intuitions of which his
other personality was unaware.
5. According
to
Jung,
the
______________________ is the center of
consciousness.
6. The contents of the personal unconscious are
called _______________________.
7. Jung referred to the contents of the collective
unconscious
as
____________________________.
8. People
dominated
by
their
______________________ have a shallow
personality and strive to project a specific public
image.
9. Jung believed that recognition of the
______________________ is the first test of a
person's courage.
10. The anima is the ___________________ side of
men.
11. The masculine side of women is called the
__________________.
12. The great mother is the archetype of
_________________________ and nourishment.
13. The
_____________________
symbolizes wisdom and meaning.
archetype
14. The ___________________ archetype represents
our image of a conqueror who vanquishes evil but
who has a single fatal flaw.
15. The most comprehensive archetype is the
___________________.
16. Thinking,
feeling,
____________________
Jungian functions.
sensation,
make up the
and
four
17. Extraversion and introversion are the two basic
_________________.
18. The backward flow of psychic energy is called
__________________.
19. Jung
believed
that
during
the
________________________
stage,
people
should move from an extraverted attitude to an
introverted one.
20. Jung held that "big dreams" spring from the
__________________ unconscious.
21. The _____________________, or perfect figure,
symbolizes self-realization.
22. Jung was _______________________ in his
practice of psychotherapy, meaning that he used
whatever techniques seemed suitable for a
particular patient.
23. The notion of ________________________ has
received more research emphasis than any other
Jungian concept.
True-False
_____1. During the 2 years following his break with
Freud, Carl Jung enjoyed his most productive
stage of his life.
_____2. Jung's concept of the personal unconscious
is quite similar to Freud's concept of the
unconscious plus the preconscious.
_____3. According to Jung, as people approach old
age they should develop their extraverted
personality.
_____4. Complexes are contents of the collective
unconscious.
_____5. In Jungian psychology, the ego is the center
of consciousness but not the center of
personality.
_____6. Archetypes are expressed through dreams,
fantasies, delusions, and hallucinations.
_____7. The first test of courage for a man is to
confront his anima.
_____8. The persona is an archetype that refers to
the role we adopt in society.
_____9. To Jung, the ultimate goal in life and the
highest level of attainment is self-realization.
____10. A woman's masculine side is called the
anima.
____11. Both women and men have a great mother
archetype.
____12. The wizard in The Wizard of Oz would
symbolize the wise old man archetype.
____13. The hero archetype often has a fatal flaw.
____14. The tendency to move toward perfection
and completion is symbolized by the self
archetype.
____15. The mandala
archetype.
symbolizes
the
shadow
____16. Jungian psychology looks for causal
explanations rather than teleological ones.
____17. The two attitudes in Jungian psychology are
masculinity and femininity.
____18. A psychologically healthy middle-aged
person continues to rely on the social and
moral values learned during childhood and
youth.
____19. Extraverts rely on their subjective view of
the world rather than objectivity reality.
____20. Feeling, sensing, intuiting, and thinking are
the four basic functions in Jungian psychology.
____21. The behavior of extraverted sensing people
is guided mostly by their subjective opinions.
____22. In his stages of development, Jung
emphasized early childhood more than any
other stage.
____23. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator includes
judgment and perception, two functions not
included in Jung's concept of types.
____24. Like psychoanalysis, Jung's theory does not
lend itself easily to falsification.
____25. Unlike Freud, Jung was careful to phrase his
theory with operationally defined terms.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Jung's midlife crisis followed soon after
his break with
a. Adler.
b. Erikson.
c. Freud.
d. Goethe.
______2.
Jung divided the unconscious psyche
into two parts—the personal and the
a. preconscious.
b. social.
c. collective.
d. universal.
______3.
In analytical psychology, the center of
consciousness is
a. the ego.
b. the self.
c. individuation.
d. the shadow.
e. the persona.
______4.
The contents of
unconscious are called
a. archetypes.
b. complexes.
c. phylogenetic endowment.
d. shadows.
e. myths.
the
personal
______5.
Archetypes are
a. basic values acquired during childhood.
b. images embedded in the personal unconscious.
c. culturally acquired complexes.
d. components of the collective unconscious.
______6.
The persona archetype
a. is symbolic of evil.
b. is the social role others see.
c. is in opposition to the anima.
d. is largely conscious.
______7.
According to Jung, a person's first test
of courage is to
a. realize her or his shadow.
b. actualize her animus.
c. recognize the hero.
d. acquire self-realization.
______8.
The anima is
a. the inferior side of people.
b. the archetype of evil.
c. the masculine side of women.
d. the feminine side of men.
______9.
Irrational moods in men are represented
by the
a. animus.
b. anima.
c. mandala.
d. shadow.
_____10.
The archetype of nourishment and
destruction is the
a. great mother.
b. shadow.
c. wise old man.
d. hero.
_____11.
The great mother archetype is most
likely to be symbolized by
a. a house.
b. a witch.
c. a lawyer.
d. a baby.
_____12.
The wise old man archetype represents
a. life and death.
b. meaning and wisdom.
c. strength and courage.
d. masculinity and femininity.
_____13.
The hero archetype
a. typically has a tragic flaw.
b. is sometimes part god.
c. fights against great odds to conquer evil.
d. may be represented by comic book characters
such as Superman.
e. all of these.
_____14.
The self is usually represented by this
symbol.
a. the hero
b. the mandala
c. the north star
d. the ego
e. the moon
_____15.
In Jungian psychology, the self
a. is the archetype of completion and wholeness.
b. is the center or essence of personality.
c. includes the other archetypes.
d. all of these.
_____16.
If Freud's theory is basically causal and
Adler's is essentially teleological, then Jung's
theory is
a. both causal and teleological.
b. neither causal nor teleological.
c. causal only.
d. teleological only.
_____17.
In Jungian psychology, introversion and
extraversion are regarded as
a. functions.
b. attitudes.
c. archetypes.
d. complexes.
e. ego-functions.
_____18.
According to Jung, extraversion is
basically
a. feminine.
b. masculine.
c. subjective.
d. objective.
e. all of these.
_____19.
Introverted feeling types
a. rely on subjective evaluations rather than the
opinions of others.
b. frequently become accountants.
c. are strongly motivated by physiological needs.
d. rely on intuition and sensation.
_____20.
Jung regarded thinking and feeling as
a. rational functions.
b. irrational functions.
c. rational attitudes.
d. irrational attitudes.
e. none of these.
_____21.
In 1909, Jung told Freud about a dream
in which he found two ancient human skulls in
an old cave. He told Freud that the skulls
were those of his wife and sister-in-law.
Later, however, Jung accepted the skulls as
representing
a. life and death.
b. the anima.
c. sex and aggression.
d. the collective unconscious.
_____22.
Jung believed that the most important
stage of life is middle life. At that time a
person should
a. move from an introverted attitude toward an
extraverted one.
b. move from an extraverted attitude toward an
introverted one.
c. actualize the rational functions.
d. actualize the irrational functions.
_____23.
The process of becoming whole or
complete—that is, actualizing the various
components of personality—is called
a. active imagination.
b. individuation.
c. introspection.
d. maturation.
_____24.
According to Jung, what types of
dreams originate from the collective
unconscious of the dreamer?
a. wish-fulfillment dreams
b. traumatic dreams
c. teleological dreams
d. big dreams
e. anxiety dreams
_____25.
Most research on Jungian concepts has
involved the notion of
a. collective unconscious images.
b. the four basic stages of development.
c. self-realization.
d. archetypal dreams.
e. typology.
Short Answer
1. Give specific examples of ways in which Jung's
personal life may have influenced his theory of
personality.
2. Explain the difference between a complex and an
archetype.
3. List and briefly define eight Jungian archetypes.
4. Give examples from literature, mythology, or fairy
tales of the great mother archetype.
5. Name steps a person must master in order to reach
the stage that Jung called self-realization.
6. Explain the difference between
thinking and introverted thinking.
extraverted
7. Critique Jungian psychology as a scientific theory.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
his anima
personal
collective
No. 2
ego
complexes
archetypes
persona
shadow
feminine
animus
destruction
wise old man
hero
self
intuition
attitudes
regression
midlife
collective
mandala
eclectic
typology
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
F
T
F
F
T
T
F
T
T
F
T
T
F
T
F
F
F
F
F
T
F
F
T
T
F
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
c
c
a
b
d
b
a
d
b
a
b
b
e
b
d
a
b
d
a
a
d
b
b
d
e
Chapter 5
Klein: Object Relations Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 5, you should be able to:
1. Define object relations theory and compare it
to Freudian theory.
2. Discuss the psychological life of the infant as
seen from Klein's point of view.
3. Explain Klein's concepts of the paranoidschizoid and depressive positions.
4. List and discuss Klein's psychic defense
mechanisms.
5. Compare and contrast Klein's concept of the
Oedipus complex with that of Freud.
6. Discuss Mahler's ideas on psychological birth.
7. Discuss Kohut's views of object relations.
8. Discuss Bowlby's attachment theory.
9. Discuss Ainsworth's Strange Situation.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Object Relations Theory
Many personality theorists have accepted
some of Freud's basic assumptions while
rejecting others. One approach to extending
psychodynamic theory has been the object
relations theories of Melanie Klein and
others. Unlike Jung and Adler who came to
reject Freud's ideas, Klein tried to validate
Freud's theories. In essence, Klein extended
Freud's developmental stages downward to
the first 4 to 6 months after birth.
II. Biography of Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein was born in Vienna in 1892,
the youngest of four children. She had
neither a PhD nor an MD degree but became
an analyst by being psychoanalyzed. As an
analyst, she specialized in working with
young children. In 1927, she moved to
London where she practiced until her death in
1960.
III. Introduction to Object Relations Theory
Object relations theory differs from Freudian
theory in three important ways: (1) it places
more emphasis on interpersonal relationships,
(2) it stresses the infant's relationship with the
mother rather than the father, and (3) it
suggests that people are motivated primarily
for human contact rather than for sexual
pleasure. The term object in object relations
theory refers to any person or part of a person
that infants introject, or take into their
psychic structure and then later project onto
other people.
IV. Psychic Life of the Infant
Klein believed that infants begin life with an
inherited predisposition to reduce the anxiety
that they experience as a consequence of the
clash between the life instinct and the death
instinct.
A. Fantasies
Klein assumed that very young infants
possess an active, unconscious fantasy life.
Their most basic fantasies are images of the
"good" breast and the "bad" breast.
B. Objects
Klein agreed with Freud that drives have an
object, but she was more likely to emphasize
the child's relationship with these objects
(parents' face, hands, breast, penis, etc.),
which she saw as having a life of their own
within the child's fantasy world.
V. Positions
In their attempts to reduce the conflict
produced by good and bad images, infants
organize their experience into positions, or
ways of dealing with both internal and
external objects.
A. Paranoid-Schizoid Position
The struggles that infants experience with the
good breast and the bad breast lead to two
separate and opposing feelings—a desire to
harbor the breast and a desire to bite or
destroy it. To tolerate these two feelings, the
ego splits itself by retaining parts of its life
and death instincts while projecting other
parts onto the breast.
It then has a
relationship with the ideal breast and the
persecutory breast. To control this situation,
infants adopt the paranoid-schizoid position,
which is a tendency to see the world as
having both destructive and omnipotent
qualities.
B. Depressive Position
By depressive position, Klein meant the
anxiety that infants experience around 6
months of age over losing their mother and
yet, at the same time, wanting to destroy her.
The depressive position is resolved when
infants fantasize that they have made up for
their previous transgressions against their
mother and also realize that their mother will
not abandon them.
VI. Psychic Defense Mechanisms
According to Klein, children adopt various
psychic defense mechanisms to protect their
egos against anxiety aroused by their own
destructive fantasies.
A. Introjection
Klein defined introjection as the fantasy of
taking into one's own body the images that
one has of an external object, especially the
mother's breast. Infants usually introject
good objects as a protection against anxiety,
but they also introject bad objects in order to
gain control of them.
B. Projection
The fantasy that one's own feelings and
impulses reside within another person is
called projection. Children project both good
and bad images, especially onto their parents.
C. Splitting
Infants tolerate good and bad aspects of
themselves and of external objects by
splitting, or mentally keeping apart,
incompatible images. Splitting can be
beneficial to both children and adults,
because it allows them to like themselves
while still
qualities.
recognizing
some
unlikable
D. Projective Identification
Projective identification is the psychic
defense mechanism whereby infants split off
unacceptable parts of themselves, project
them onto another object, and finally
introject them in an altered form.
VII. Internalizations
After introjecting external objects, infants
organize them into a psychologically
meaningful framework, a process that Klein
called internalization.
A. Ego
Internalizations are aided by the early ego's
ability to feel anxiety, to use defense
mechanisms, and to form object relations in
both fantasy and reality. However, a unified
ego emerges only after first splitting itself
into the two parts—those that deal with the
life instinct and those that relate to the death
instinct.
B. Superego
Klein believed that the superego emerged
much earlier than Freud had held. To her, the
superego preceded rather than followed the
Oedipus complex.
Klein also saw the
superego as being quite harsh and cruel.
C. Oedipus Complex
Klein believed that the Oedipus complex
begins during the first few months of life,
then reaches its zenith during the genital
stage, at about 3 or 4 years of age—the same
time that Freud had suggested it began. Klein
also believed that much of the Oedipus
complex is based on children's fear that their
parents will seek revenge against them for
their fantasy of emptying the parent's body.
For healthy development during the Oedipal
years, children should retain positive feelings
for each parent.
According to Klein, the little boy adopts a
"feminine" position very early in life and has
no fear of being castrated as punishment for
his sexual feelings toward his mother. Later,
he projects his destructive drive onto his
father, whom he fears will bite or castrate
him. The male Oedipus complex is resolved
when the boy establishes good relations with
both parents.
The little girl also adopts a "feminine"
position toward both parents quite early in
life. She has a positive feeling for both her
mother's breast and her father's penis, which
she believes will feed her with babies.
Sometimes the girl develops hostility toward
her mother, whom she fears will retaliate
against her and rob her of her babies, but in
most cases, the female Oedipus complex is
resolved without any jealousy toward the
mother.
VIII. Later Views of Object Relations
A number of other theorists have expanded
and altered Klein's theory of object relations.
Notable among them are Margaret Mahler,
Heinz Kohut, John Bowlby. and Mary
Ainsworth.
A. Margaret Mahler's View
Mahler, a native of Hungary who practiced
psychoanalysis in both Vienna and New
York, developed her theory of object
relations from careful observations of infants
as they bonded with their mothers during
their first 3 years of life. In their progress
toward achieving a sense of identity, children
pass through a series of three major
developmental stages.
First is normal
autism, which covers the first 3 to 4 weeks of
life, a time when infants satisfy their needs
within the all-powerful protective orbit of
their mother's care.
Second is normal
symbiosis, when infants behave as if they and
their mother were an omnipotent, symbiotic
unit. Third is separation-individuation,
from about 4 months until about 3 years, a
time
when
children
are
becoming
psychologically separated from their mothers
and achieving individuation, or a sense of
personal identity.
B. Heinz Kohut's View
Kohut was a native of Vienna who spent most
of his professional life in the United States.
More than any of the other object relations
theorists, Kohut emphasized the development
of the self. In caring for their physical and
psychological needs, adults treat infants as if
they had a sense of self. The parents'
behaviors and attitudes eventually help
children form a sense of self that gives unity
and consistency to their experiences.
C. John Bowlby's Attachment Theory
Bowlby, a native of England, received
training in child psychiatry from Melanie
Klein. By studying human and other primate
infants, Bowlby observed three stages of
separation anxiety: (1) protest, (2) apathy and
despair, and (3) emotional detachment from
people, including the primary caregiver.
Children who reach the third stage of
separation anxiety lack warmth and emotion
in their later relationships.
D. Mary Ainsworth and the Strange
Situation
Mary Ainsworth was born in Ohio in 1919
and died in 1999. She and her colleagues
developed a technique called the Strange
Situation for measuring one of three the types
of attachment styles—secure attachment,
anxious-resistant attachment, and anxiousavoidant attachment.
IX. Psychotherapy
The goal of Klein's therapy was to reduce
depressive anxieties and persecutory fears
and to lessen the harshness of internalized
objects.
To do this, Klein encouraged
patients to reexperience early fantasies and
pointed out the differences between
conscious and unconscious wishes.
X. Related Research
Research on object relations has included a
variety of topics, including eating disorders
and adult relationships. One study of both
topics was conducted by Smolak and Levine
(1993) who found that bulimia was associated
with detachment from parents, whereas
anorexia was associated with high levels of
guilt and conflict over separation from
parents. More recently, Steven Huprich and
colleges (Huprich, Stepp, Graham, & Johnson,
2004) found that both men and women who
were insecurely attached and self-focused
(egocentric) had greater difficulty in
controlling their compulsive eating than did
those who were more securely attached and
less self-focused. Attachment theory was
originally conceptualized by John Bowlby,
who emphasized the relationship between
parent and child. Since the 1980s, researchers
have begun to examine systematically the
attachment relationships in adults, especially
in romantic relationships. The usefulness of
attachment theory was investigated in a
classic study by Cindy Hazan and Phil Shaver
(1987). These researchers found that people
with secure early attachments experienced
more trust, closeness, and positive emotions in
their adult love relationships than did other
people. Steven Rholes and colleagues found
that as they predicted, avoidant individuals do
not seek out additional information about their
romantic partners’ intimate feelings and
dreams, and anxious individuals seek more
information about their partners’ intimacyrelated issues and goals for the future (Rholes,
Simpson, Tran, Martin, & Friedman, 2007).
Rivka Davidovitz and others also examined
attachment
style
in
leader-follower
relationships, specifically military officers and
their soldiers (Davidovitz, Mikulincer, Shaver,
Izsak, & Popper, 2007; Popper & Mayseless,
2003). They found units with officers who
had an avoidant attachment style to be less
cohesive, and their soldiers reported lower
psychological well-being than members of
other units. Anxiously attached officers’ units
rated low on instrumental functioning, but
high on socioemotional functioning. Recent
research shows that attachment theory is
important to understanding a wide range of
adult relationships.
XI. Critique of Object Relations Theory
Object relations theory shares with Freudian
theory an inability to be either falsified or
verified
through
empirical
research.
Nevertheless, some clinicians regard the
theory as being a useful guide to action and
as possessing substantial internal consistency.
However, the theory must be rated low on
parsimony and also low on its ability to
organize knowledge and to generate research.
XII. Concept of Humanity
Object relations theorists see personality as
being a product of the early mother-child
relationship, and thus they stress determinism
over free choice. The powerful influence of
early childhood also gives these theories a
low rating on uniqueness, a very high rating
on social influences, and high ratings on
causality and unconscious forces. Klein and
other object relations theorists rate average on
optimism versus pessimism.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Klein believed that the infant's relationship to
the __________________ served as a model
for later object relationships.
2. Object relations theory is an offspring of
_________________ instinct theory.
3. According to Klein, __________________ are
psychic representations of unconscious id
instincts.
4. Infants ___________________, or take
external objects, into their psychic structure.
5. An
infant
adopts
the
__________________________ position to
fight off feelings of persecution.
6. Klein's _____________________ position
consists of feelings of anxiety over losing a
loved object combined with a sense of guilt for
desiring to destroy that object.
7. With the psychic defense mechanism of
___________________, infants attempt to
manage the good and bad aspects of
themselves by keeping apart incompatible
impulses.
8. With __________________ identification,
infants split off unacceptable parts of
themselves, project these parts onto another
object, and then introject these parts back into
themselves in a changed form.
9. Although the ____________________ is
poorly organized at birth, it is strong enough to
feel anxiety and to use defense mechanisms.
10. A little boy's ______________________
position is marked by a passive homosexual
attitude toward his father.
11. During female oedipal development, a girl
fears that her ___________ will injure her and
take away her babies.
12. Mahler
emphasized
the psychological
________________ of the infant.
13. Kohut emphasized the evolution of the
______________________ from a vague
image to a clear sense of individual identity.
14. The ________________ stage is the first stage
of separation anxiety, as viewed by Bowlby.
15. The theorist who used the Strange Situation
to show the parent/infant relationship was
_________________.
True-False
_____1. Klein enjoyed a warm relationship with
her daughter Melitta.
_____2. In contrast to Freud’s, most of Klein’s
patients were children.
_____3. In comparison to Freudian theory, object
relations theory places more importance on
interpersonal relations.
_____4. Object relations theory emphasizes the
father-child relationship over the motherchild relationship.
_____5. Throughout her life, Klein regarded
herself as a Freudian, even though she had
strong disagreements with Anna Freud.
_____6. Klein rejected the idea of a death
instinct.
_____7. The paranoid-schizoid position is limited
to infants.
_____8. In theory,
internalization.
the
superego
is
an
_____9. During the early oedipal months, both
boys and girls adopt a "feminine" position.
____10. Mahler's first major developmental stage
was normal autism.
____11. During normal symbiosis, infants behave
as if they and their mother were a unified,
omnipotent system.
____12. Mahler's separation-individuation stage
takes place from about the 4th or 6th year of
life.
____13. A weakness of Mahler's theory is that it
is based on observations of neurotic adults.
____14. Kohut believed that infants are naturally
narcissistic.
____15. According to Kohut, innate instinctual
drives are the core of human personality.
____16. Bowlby's first stage of attachment theory
is despair.
____17. During Bowlby's third stage of
separation anxiety, the infant becomes
reattached to its mother.
____18. Ainsworth was influenced more by
Bowlby than by Klein.
____19. Ainsworth found that secure infants will
initiate contact with their mother
immediately when their mother returns
following a brief period of separation.
____20. Compared with secure infants, insecure
infants lack the ability to engage in effective
play.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Klein suggested that the infant's first
model for interpersonal relations was
a. the mother's breast.
b. the father.
c. the self.
d. an imaginary playmate.
______2.
One person
Melanie Klein was
a. Erik Erikson.
b. Erich Fromm.
c. Anna Freud.
d. Little Hans.
psychoanalyzed
by
e. her son Erich.
_____3. Klein had a bitter rivalry with
a. Sigmund Freud.
b. Anna Freud.
c. her daughter Melitta.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
_____4. Compared with Freudian theory, object
relations theory
a. places more emphasis on sexual pleasure.
b. places more emphasis on interpersonal
relations.
c. stresses the importance of the father.
d. emphasizes the id.
______5.
The person or part of a person that
satisfies the aim of an instinct is called
a. the impetus.
b. the source.
c. the object.
d. the unconscious motivator.
_____6. Like Freud, Klein believed that people
are motivated by
a. the need for self-actualization.
b. the need for homeostasis.
c. the death instinct.
d. separation anxiety.
______7.
Klein's two basic psychological
positions are
a. the ideal and the real.
b. the mature and the immature.
c. the ego and the superego.
d. the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive.
e. introjection and projection.
______8.
In order to control the good breast
and to fight off its persecutors, infants use
a. their superego.
b. their id.
c. the paranoid-schizoid position.
d. the depressive position.
_____9. Klein believed that feelings of anxiety
about losing a loved object and a sense of
guilt for desiring to destroy that object
were part of
a. the paranoid-schizoid position.
b. the depressive position.
c. moralistic anxiety.
d. idealistic anxiety.
____10. Klein's psychic defense mechanisms
a. protect the child against public disgrace.
b. defend the ego and superego against the id.
c. protect the ego against anxiety aroused by
destructive fantasies.
d. prevent unconscious fantasies from
reaching consciousness.
____11. Infants use this means of controlling
good and bad aspects of themselves.
a. the paranoid-schizophrenic position
b. the depressive position
c. projection
d. sublimation
e. splitting
____12. Compared to Freud, Klein believed that
the superego
a. is much more harsh and cruel.
b. emerged much later.
c. grew out of the Oedipus complex.
d. preceded the development of the id.
____13. Klein believed that at the end of a
successfully resolved Oedipus complex, a
girl will
a. see her mother as a rival.
b. develop positive feelings toward both
parents.
c. fantasize robbing her mother of her babies.
d. adopt a homosexual attitude toward her
mother.
e. develop negative feelings toward her
mother and neutral feelings for her father.
____14. Klein believed that a girl fantasizes that
her father's penis feeds the mother with
babies during this period.
a. separation anxiety
b. preadolescent
c. introjective identification
d. oedipal
____15. This object relations theorist spent much
time observing normal babies as they
bonded with their mothers during the first 3
years of life.
a. Margaret Mahler
b. Melanie Klein
c. Heinz Kohut
d. Mary Ainsworth
____16. Mahler's principal concern was with
a. the effects of the superego on a child's
development of morality.
b. the psychological birth of the child.
c. the child's neurotic-symbiotic relationship
with its mother.
d. the narcissistic needs of the child.
____17. During the separation-individuation
stage, Mahler said, children begin to
a. develop feelings of personal identity.
b. despair of reuniting with the mother.
c. develop normal autism.
d. blame their mother for weaning them.
____18. Kohut was most interested in the
a. physiological needs of infants.
b. effects of the Oedipus complex.
c. process by which the self evolves
d. acquisition of language and its role in
higher mental processes.
____19. According to Kohut, the needs to exhibit
the grandiose self and the idealized parent
image are called
a. masochistic needs.
b. sadistic needs.
c. self-esteem needs.
d. narcissistic needs.
____20. Bowlby's theory assumes that
a. psychologically healthy infants have
emotionally detached mothers.
b. infants who are loved too much by their
mother will have difficulty forming adult
relationships.
c. the mother-child bonding becomes a model
for the child's future friendships.
d. all of these.
____21. According to Bowlby, protest is the first
stage of
a. the oedipal period.
b. identity.
c. separation anxiety.
d. the anal period.
____22. Ainsworth found that secure infants will
a. strongly protest when their mother leaves
the room.
b. approach their mother when she returns to
the room.
c. grow up to have great difficulty with
interpersonal relationships.
d. relate more positively to their father than to
their mother.
Short Answer
1. Discuss similarities and differences between
object relations theory and Freudian theory.
2. Discuss the role of phantasies in Klein's theory.
3. Name and explain Klein's four psychic defense
mechanisms.
4. Discuss Klein's view of the male and female
Oedipus complexes.
5. List and discuss Mahler's three developmental
stages.
6. Discuss Kohut's views of object relations.
7. List and discuss the stages of Bowlby's
attachment theory.
8. Describe Ainsworth's Strange Situation.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
breast
Freud's
phantasies
introject
paranoid-schizoid
depressive
splitting
projective
ego
feminine
mother
birth
self
protest
Ainsworth
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
F
T
T
F
T
F
F
T
T
T
T
F
F
F
T
T
F
T
T
T
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20
21.
22.
a
e
c
b
c
c
d
c
b
c
e
a
b
d
a
b
a
c
a
c
d
b
Chapter 6
Horney: Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 6, you should be able to:
1. Compare and contrast the theories of Horney
and Freud.
2. Discuss Horney's concepts of basic hostility
and basic anxiety.
3. Identify and discuss Horney's three categories
of neurotic needs.
4. Describe Horney's three neurotic trends.
5. Explain Horney's concept of intrapsychic
conflicts.
6. List the modes of expression for self-hatred.
7. Discuss Horney's
psychology.
approach
to
feminine
8. Describe recent research on psychoanalytic
social theory.
9. Evaluate psychoanalytic social theory against
the criteria of a useful theory.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Horney's Psychoanalytic
Social Theory
Karen Horney's psychoanalytic social theory,
assumes that social and cultural conditions,
especially during childhood, have a powerful
effect on later personality. Like Melanie
Klein, Horney accepted many of Freud's
observations, but she objected to most of his
interpretations, including his notions on
feminine psychology.
II. Biography of Karen Horney
Karen Horney, who was born in Germany in
1885, was one of the first women in that
country admitted to medical school. There,
she became acquainted with Freudian theory
and eventually became a psychoanalyst and a
psychiatrist. In her mid-40s, Horney left
Germany to settle in the United States, first in
Chicago and then in New York. She soon
abandoned orthodox psychoanalysis in favor
of a more socially oriented theory—one that
had a more positive view of feminine
development. She died in 1952 at age 67.
III. Introduction to Horney's Psychoanalytic
Social Theory
Although Horney's writings deal mostly with
what she called neuroses and neurotic
personalities, her theories are also appropriate
to normal development. She agreed with
Freud that early childhood traumas are
important, but she placed far more emphasis
on social factors.
A. Horney and Freud Compared
Horney criticized Freudian theory on at least
three accounts: (1) its rigidity toward new
ideas, (2) its skewed view of feminine
psychology, and (3) its overemphasis on
biology and the pleasure principle.
B. The Impact of Culture
Horney insisted that modern culture is too
competitive and that competition leads to
hostility and feelings of isolation. These
conditions lead to exaggerated needs for
affection and cause people to overvalue love.
C. The
Importance
of
Childhood
Experiences
Neurotic conflict stems largely from
childhood traumas, most of which are traced
to a lack of genuine love. Children who do
not receive genuine affection feel threatened
and adopt rigid behavioral patterns in an
attempt to gain love.
IV. Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
All children need feelings of safety and
security, but these can be gained only by love
from parents. Unfortunately, parents often
neglect, dominate, reject, or overindulge their
children, conditions that lead to the child's
feelings of basic hostility toward parents. If
children repress basic hostility, they will
develop feelings of insecurity and a pervasive
sense of apprehension called basic anxiety.
People can protect themselves from basic
anxiety by (1) affection, (2) submissiveness,
(3) power or prestige, and (4) withdrawal.
Normal people have the flexibility to use any
or all of these approaches, but neurotics are
compelled to rely rigidly on only one.
V. Compulsive Drives
Neurotic individuals are frequently trapped in
a vicious circle in which their compulsive
need to reduce basic anxiety leads to a variety
of self-defeating behaviors; these behaviors
then produce more basic anxiety, and the
circle continues.
A. Neurotic Needs
Horney identified 10 neurotic needs that
mark neurotic people in their attempt to
reduce basic anxiety. These include (1) needs
for affection and approval, (2) needs for a
partner (3) needs to restrict one's life within
narrow borders, (4) needs for power, (5)
needs to exploit others, (6) needs for social
recognition or prestige, (7) needs for personal
admiration, (8) needs for ambition and
personal achievement, (9) needs for self-
sufficiency and independence, and (10) needs
for perfection and unassailability.
B. Neurotic Trends
Later, Horney grouped these 10 neurotic
needs into three basic neurotic trends; (1)
moving toward people, (2) moving against
people, and (3) moving away from people.
Each of these trends can apply to both normal
and neurotic individuals in their attempt to
solve basic conflict. However, whereas
neurotic people are compelled to follow only
one neurotic trend, normal individuals are
sufficiently flexible to adopt all three. People
who move neurotically toward others adopt a
compliant attitude in order to protect
themselves against feelings of helplessness;
people who move against others do so
through aggressive behaviors that protect
them against perceived hostility from others;
and people who move away from others do so
in a detached manner that protects them
against feelings of isolation by appearing
arrogant and aloof.
VI. Intrapsychic Conflicts
People also experience inner tensions or
intrapsychic conflicts that become part of
their belief systems and take on lives of their
own, separate from the interpersonal conflicts
that created them.
A. The Idealized Self-Image
People who do not receive love and affection
during childhood are blocked in heir attempt
to acquire a stable sense of identity. Feeling
alienated from self, they create an idealized
self-image, or an extravagantly positive
picture of themselves. Horney recognized
three aspects of the idealized self-image:(1)
the neurotic search for glory, or a
comprehensive drive toward actualizing the
ideal self; (2) neurotic claims, or a belief that
they are entitled to special privileges; and (3)
neurotic pride, or a false pride based not on
reality but on a distorted and idealized view
of self.
B. Self-Hatred
Neurotic individuals dislike themselves
because reality always falls short of their
idealized view of self. Therefore, they learn
self-hatred, which can be expressed as: (1)
relentless demands on self, (2) merciless selfaccusation, (3) self-contempt, (4) selffrustration, (5) self-torment or self-torture,
and (6) self-destructive actions and impulses.
VII. Feminine Psychology
Horney
believed
that
psychological
differences between men and women are not
due to anatomy but to culture and social
expectations. Her view of the Oedipus
complex differed markedly from Freud's in
that she insisted that any sexual attraction or
hostility the child feels for the parent would
be the result of learning and not biology.
VIII. Psychotherapy
The goal of Horney's psychotherapy was to
help patients grow toward self-realization,
give up their idealized self-image, relinquish
their neurotic search for glory, and change
self-hatred to self-acceptance.
Horney
believed that successful therapy is built on
self-analysis and self-understanding.
IX. Related Research
Most research on neuroticism highlights its
negative side. Neuroticism is associated with
setting avoidance goals rather than approach
goals (Elliot & Thrash, 2002). Horney’s
view (1942) was that neurotics compulsively
protect themselves against anxiety, and this
defensive strategy traps them in a negative
cycle.
While the negative view of
neuroticism is understandable, recent
researchers have begun looking at some
benefits of neuroticism. A study by Michael
Robinson and colleagues asked how one
could be a “successful neurotic” (Robinson,
Ode, Wilkowski, & Amodio, 2007). They
found that for those predisposed toward
neuroticism, the ability to react adaptively to
errors while assessing threat was related to
less negative mood in daily life.
The
conclusion was that many neurotic people,
while they cannot change their personalities
and stop being neurotic, often develop great
skill at avoiding negative outcomes, and that
their successful avoidance of these outcomes
improves their mood, making them feel better
on a daily basis.
X. Critique of Horney
Although Horney painted a vivid portrait of
the neurotic personality, her theory rates very
low in generating research, low on its ability
to be falsified, to organize data, and to serve
as a useful guide to action. Her theory is
rated about average on internal consistency
and parsimony.
XI. Concept of Humanity
Horney's concept of humanity is rated very
high on social factors, high on free choice,
optimism, and unconscious influences, and
about average on causality versus teleology
and on the uniqueness of the individual.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Horney
believed
that
_______________________
factors,
not
anatomy, were responsible for psychic
differences between men and women.
2. Horney's writings are concerned mostly with
_________________ individuals.
3. By
training,
Horney
was
a
__________________ at a time when few
women in Germany were trained in this
profession.
4. Horney believed that modern culture
overvalues
___________________
and
undervalues cooperation.
5. Horney
questioned
Freud's
____________________ of his observations
rather than the observations themselves.
6
Horney believed that basic hostility and basic
__________________ underlie all neurotic
drives.
7. People
protect
themselves
against
_______________________
through
affection, submission, power, or withdrawal.
8. Horney's three neurotic ________________
include moving toward, against, and away
from people.
9. Neurotic
behavior
is
more
_____________________
than
normal
behavior, and this is a primary distinction
between normals and neurotics.
10. Neurotic trends are used to solve basic
___________________, which originates in
childhood when children are driven toward,
against, and away from people.
11. The outstanding characteristic of people who
adopt the strategy of moving toward other
people is ______________________ .
12. _____________________ people protect
themselves against the hostility of others by
moving against people.
13. Neurotics try to solve the basic conflict of
__________________ by moving away from
people in a detached manner.
14. The idealized _____________________ is an
attempt to solve conflicts by portraying a
godlike picture of oneself.
15. According to Horney, the drive to make the
whole personality into the idealized self is
called
the
need
for
_________________________ .
16. Self-contempt and self-torment are two modes
of ___________________.
True-False
_____ 1. According
to
Horney,
psychologically healthy people have a
strong drive to please other people.
_____2. When
depressed,
psychologically
healthy people seek an emotionally strong
person to tell their troubles.
_____3. Because Horney wrote mainly about
neurotic personalities, her theory is not
relevant
to
healthy
personality
development.
_____4. Horney's theory is basically pessimistic
in its outlook.
_____5. Horney believed that people are
governed by two great drives: sex and
aggression.
_____6. Psychologically mature individuals
enjoy seeing the achievements of their
friends.
_____7. Horney said that people with a strong
need for affection have overvalued love.
_____8. Modern society, Horney said, is based
on competition among people.
____9. Horney believed that neurotic people
enjoy their misery and suffering.
____10. Neither the compliant person nor the
aggressive person needs other people.
____11. Horney believed in the concept of a
universal Oedipus complex.
____12. The need for affection and approval are
two of Horney's 10 neurotic needs.
____13. Because they have deep feelings of
inferiority, many neurotic individuals move
toward other people.
____14. The normal analog to the neurotic trend
of moving toward people is survival in a
competitive society.
____15. Both Freudian and Horneyian therapists
use the techniques of dream interpretation
and free association.
____16. Horney's theory has generated a great
amount of research.
____17. Horney's theory avoids the problem of
falsifiability that plagues the theories of
Freud and Jung.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Which of these statements most
accurately reflects one of Horney's
neurotic needs?
a. "I need an emotionally strong person to tell
my troubles."
b. "it's okay with me if someone else is the
life of the party."
c. "I feel comfortable whenever I'm in an
emotionally close relationship."
d. "It's easy for me to accept my own
mistakes and personal flaws."
_____ 2. Horney believed that most neuroses are
the result of
a. unhealthy interpersonal relations.
b. an unresolved Oedipus complex.
c. unwise parenting.
d. underdeveloped ego strength.
_____3. The life of Horney has several parallels
to that of _____; for example, both were
the youngest children of older fathers, and
both had older siblings who were favored
by the parents.
a. Carl Jung
b. Alfred Adler
c. Margaret Mahler
d. Melanie Klein
______4.
Horney's early professional writings
were strongly influenced by
a. Freud.
b. Adler.
c. Jung.
d. Sullivan.
_____ 5. Horney criticized psychoanalysis for its
a. concept of feminine psychology.
b. overemphasis on clinical research.
c. underemphasis on clinical research.
d. concept of the three levels of mental life.
_____6. Horney believed that cultural conditions
are largely responsible for the development
of
a. basic trust.
b. basic mistrust.
c. basic anxiety.
d. basic psychoses.
______7.
According to Horney, people are
ruled by safety and
a. sex.
b. fear.
c. satisfaction.
d. anxiety.
______8.
Horney believed that a competitive
and hostile society encourages
a. hatred.
b. love.
c. isolation.
d. superiority and success.
_____9. Horney believed that people overvalue
love as a means of satisfying the need for
_____.
a. self-esteem
b. competence
c. superiority
d. affection
______10. According to Horney, most neurotic
individuals
a. are no longer motivated to find love.
b. seek love in a self-defeating fashion.
c. experience decreases in hostility.
d. develop enhanced self-esteem through
their search for love.
____11. Horney defined basic anxiety as a
feeling of being
a. separated from the mothering one.
b. isolated and helpless in a potentially
hostile world.
c. threatened by one's enemies.
d. incompetent in a world where others
appear to be competent.
____12. Horney believed that modern society is
too
a. liberal.
b. conservative.
c. dangerous.
d. competitive.
____13. According to Horney, neurotic behavior
is a protection against
a. feelings of inferiority.
b. basic anxiety.
c. public disgrace.
d. exaggerated guilt.
____14 Which of these is NOT one of Horney's
three neurotic trends?
a. moving against people
b. moving away from people
c. moving with people
d. moving toward people
____15. Children who feel isolated from others
are likely to develop the neurotic trend of
moving
a. away from others.
b. with others.
c. against others.
d. toward others.
____16. The compliant person is most likely to
adopt the neurotic trend of
a. moving toward people.
b. moving with people.
c. moving against people.
d. moving away from people.
____17. Each neurotic trend has a normal,
healthy analog. A friendly, loving person
has successfully solved the trend of
moving
a. against others.
b. toward others.
c. with others.
d. away from others.
____18. Horney regarded the idealized selfimage and self-hatred as
a. interpersonal conflicts.
b. psychosexual conflicts.
c. psychosocial conflicts.
d. intrapsychic conflicts.
e. principal ingredients in the syndrome of
decay.
____19. Contrary to Freud, Horney held that the
Oedipus complex is
a. universal.
b. found only in males.
c. found only in females.
d. the result of anatomy.
e. the result of cultural factors.
____20. The ultimate goal of Horneyian therapy
is
a. the elimination of basic anxiety.
b. the solution of basic conflicts.
c. the recovery of unconscious instincts.
d. growth toward self-realization.
e. the solution of day-to-day problems.
____21. Ashley feels alienated from her
femininity and wishes that she were a man.
Horney would say that Ashley's desires
originate from
a. her experiences with cultural privileges for
men.
b. penis envy.
c. oedipal strivings.
d. lack of a close relationship with her
mother.
Short Answer
1. List three of Horney's criticisms of Freudian
theory.
2. Name four protective mechanisms that people
use to defend themselves against basic hostility
and basic anxiety.
3. List Horney's 10 neurotic needs.
4. List and discuss Horney's three neurotic trends.
5. List six major ways in which self-hatred is
expressed.
6. Discuss Horney's concept of feminine
psychology, including her view of the Oedipus
complex.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
True-False
cultural (social) factors
neurotic
physician
competition
interpretations
basic anxiety
basic anxiety
trends
compulsive
conflict
compliance
Aggressive
isolation
self-image
perfection
self-hatred
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
F
F
F
F
F
F
T
T
F
F
F
T
T
F
T
F
F
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18
19.
20.
21.
a
a
d
a
a
c
c
c
d
b
b
d
b
c
a
a
b
d
e
d
a
Chapter 7
Fromm: Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 7, you should be able to:
1. List Fromm's
personality.
basic
assumptions
2. Describe the existential
identified by Fromm.
(human)
about
needs
3. Discuss Fromm's notion of the burden of
freedom and how people attempt to struggle
with that burden.
4. Explain what Fromm means by positive
freedom.
5. Describe Fromm's nonproductive character
orientations.
6. Discuss Fromm's views on the productive
orientation.
7. List and describe Fromm's three severe
personality disorders.
8. Describe Fromm's research methods.
9. Discuss Fromm's psychohistorical study of
Hitler.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview
of
Fromm's
Humanistic
Psychoanalysis
Erich Fromm's humanistic psychoanalysis
looks at people from the perspective of
psychology, history, and anthropology.
Influenced by Freud and Horney, Fromm
developed a more culturally oriented theory
than Freud and a much broader theory than
Horney.
II. Biography of Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm was born in Germany in 1900,
the only child of orthodox Jewish parents. A
thoughtful young man, Fromm was influenced
by the bible, Freud, and Marx, as well as by
socialist ideology. After receiving his PhD,
Fromm began studying psychoanalysis and
became an analyst by virtue of being analyzed
by Hanns Sachs, a student of Freud. In 1934,
Fromm moved to the United States and began
a psychoanalytic practice in New York, where
he also resumed his friendship with Karen
Horney. Much of his later years were spent in
Mexico and Switzerland. He died in 1980.
III. Fromm's Basic Assumptions
Fromm believed that humans have been torn
away from their prehistoric union with nature
and left with no powerful instincts to adapt to
a changing world. But because humans have
acquired the ability to reason, they can think
about their isolated condition—a situation
Fromm called the human dilemma.
IV. Human Needs
Our human dilemma cannot be solved by
satisfying our animal needs. It can only be
addressed by fulfilling our uniquely human
needs, an accomplishment that moves us
toward a reunion with the natural world.
Fromm identified five of these distinctively
human or existential needs.
A. Relatedness
First is relatedness, which can take the form of
(1) submission, (2) power, or (3) love. Love,
or the ability to unite with another while
retaining one's own individuality and integrity,
is the only relatedness need that can solve our
basic human dilemma.
B. Transcendence
Being thrown into the world without their
consent, humans have to transcend their nature
by destroying or creating people or things.
Humans can destroy through malignant
aggression, or killing for reasons other than
survival, but they can also create and care
about their creations.
C. Rootedness
Rootedness is the need to establish roots and to
feel at home again in the world. Productively,
rootedness enables us to grow beyond the
security of our mother and establish ties with
the outside world. With the nonproductive
strategy, we become fixated and afraid to
move beyond the security and safety of our
mother or a mother substitute.
D. Sense of Identity
The fourth human need is for a sense of
identity, or an awareness of ourselves as a
separate person. The drive for a sense of
identity is expressed nonproductively as
conformity to a group and productively as
individuality.
E. Frame of Orientation
By frame of orientation, Fromm meant a road
map or consistent philosophy by which we
find our way through the world. This need is
expressed nonproductively as a striving for
irrational goals and productively as movement
toward rational goals.
V. The Burden of Freedom
As the only animal possessing self-awareness,
humans are the freaks of the universe.
Historically, as people gained more political
freedom, they began to experience more
isolation from others and from the world and
to feel free from the security of a permanent
place in the world. As a result, freedom
becomes a burden, and people experience
basic anxiety, or a feeling of being alone in
the world.
A. Mechanisms of Escape
To reduce the frightening sense of isolation
and aloneness, people may adopt one of three
mechanisms of escape: (1) authoritarianism,
or the tendency to give up one's independence
and to unite with a powerful partner; (2)
destructiveness, an escape mechanism aimed
at doing away with other people or things; and
(3) conformity, or surrendering of one's
individuality in order to meet the wishes of
others.
B. Positive Freedom
The human dilemma can only be solved
through positive freedom, which is the
spontaneous activity of the whole, integrated
personality, and which is achieved when a
person becomes reunited with others.
Vi. Character Orientations
People relate to the world by acquiring and
using things (assimilation) and by relating to
self and others (socialization), and they can do
so either nonproductively or productively.
A. Nonproductive Orientations
Fromm
identified
four
nonproductive
strategies that fail to move people closer to
positive freedom and self-realization. People
with a receptive orientation believe that the
source of all good lies outside themselves and
that the only way they can relate to the world
is to receive things, including love,
knowledge, and material objects. People with
an exploitative orientation also believe that
the source of good lies outside themselves, but
they aggressively take what they want rather
than passively receiving it.
Hoarding
characters try to save what they have already
obtained, including their opinions, feelings,
and material possessions. People with a
marketing orientation see themselves as
commodities and value themselves against the
criterion of their ability to sell themselves.
They have fewer positive qualities than the
other orientations because they are essentially
empty.
B. The Productive Orientation
Psychologically healthy people work toward
positive freedom through productive work,
love. and reasoning.
Productive love
necessitates a passionate love of all life and is
called biophilia.
VII. Personality Disorders
Unhealthy people have nonproductive ways of
working, reasoning, and especially loving.
Fromm recognized three major personality
disorders: (1) necrophilia, or the love of death
and the hatred of all humanity; (2) malignant
narcissism, or a belief that everything
belonging to one's self is of great value and
anything belonging to others is worthless; and
incestuous symbiosis, or an extreme
dependence on one's mother or mother
surrogate.
VIII. Psychotherapy
The goal of Fromm's psychotherapy was to
work toward satisfaction of the basic human
needs
of
relatedness,
transcendence,
rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame of
orientation. The therapist tries to accomplish
this through shared communication in which
the therapist is simply a human being rather
than a scientist.
IX. Fromm's Methods of Investigation
Fromm's personality theory rests on data he
gathered from a variety of sources, including
psychotherapy, cultural anthropology, and
psychohistory.
A. Social Character in a Mexican Village
Fromm and his associates spent several years
investigating social character in an isolated
farming village in Mexico and found evidence
of all the character orientations except the
marketing one.
B. A Psychohistorical Study of Hitler
Fromm
applied
the
techniques
of
psychohistory to study several historical
people, including Adolf Hitler—the person
Fromm regarded as the world's most
conspicuous example of someone with the
syndrome of decay, that is, necrophilia,
malignant
narcissism,
and
incestuous
symbiosis.
X. Related Research
Although Fromm's writings are brilliant and
insightful, his theory ranks near the bottom of
personality theories with regard to stimulating
research. Reasons for this may be Fromm’s
broad approach, and that his ideas are more
sociological than psychological in many ways.
However, topics of interest to Fromm, such as
alienation from culture and nature in general,
can be studied psychologically at the
individual level and can have implications for
well-being. For example, Mark Bernard and
his colleagues found, as they predicted, that
perceived discrepancies between one’s values
and those of society lead to feelings of
estrangement, and that these feelings of
estrangement lead to anxiety and depression
(Bernard, Gebauer, & Maio, 2006). These
findings support Fromm’s ideas. Another area
of research influenced by Fromm’s ideas is
that of political beliefs.
Jack and Jeanne
Block (2006) made a longitudinal study, first
assessing the personality types of preschoolers,
then following up almost 20 years later on the
political beliefs of the participants, who were
now young adults. They found that children
described as easily offended, indecisive,
fearful, and rigid were more likely to be
politically conservative in their 20s, and those
described as self-reliant, energetic, somewhat
dominating, and relatively under-controlled
were more likely to be politically liberal in
their 20s. This research not only shows how
people deal differently with their “burden of
freedom,” but also how powerfully predictive
personality types are, even when measured at
very early ages.
XI. Critique of Psychoanalytic Social Theory
The strength of Fromm's theory is his lucid
writings on a broad range of human issues. As
a scientific theory, however, Fromm's theory
rates very low on its ability to generate
research and to lend itself to falsification; it
rates low on usefulness to the practitioner,
internal consistency, and parsimony. Because
it is quite broad in scope, Fromm's theory rates
high on organizing existing knowledge.
XII. Concept of Humanity
Fromm believed that humans are the "freaks of
nature," because they lack strong animal
instincts while possessing the ability to reason.
In brief, his view is rated average on free
choice, optimism, unconscious influences, and
uniqueness; low on causality; and high on
social influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Fromm
said
that
human,
or
_______________________, needs grow out
of attempts to find meaning in life.
2. Compared with Freud, Fromm put more
emphasis on _________________ influences.
3. The ______________ ___________ refers to
Fromm's notion that humans have acquired
the ability to reason yet lack strong animal
instincts.
4. To Fromm, ___________________ needs
represent our attempts to avoid insanity.
5. A sense of _________________ refers to our
capacity to be aware of ourselves as a separate
entity.
6. The need to feel at home again in the world is
called ________________________.
7. Fromm said that people have felt more
_______________ as they have gained more
economic and political freedom.
8. The human need of _____________is the
drive for union with another person.
9. Necrophilia
is
the
opposite
_________________________.
of
10. To Fromm, ____________is the most
common mechanism of escape in American
society.
11. Fromm believed that ________________ is
the successful solution to the human dilemma.
12. Fromm called _______________ the "freaks
of the universe."
13. To Fromm, the _______________ orientation
is a result of modern commerce.
14. Fromm called the sketching of a
psychological portrait of a prominent person
_______________________.
15. Fromm believed that _______ was the
epitome of a person suffering from the
syndrome of decay.
True-False
_____ 1. Fromm adopted a belligerent attitude
toward people while serving in battle
during World War I.
_____ 2. Compared with Freud, Fromm placed
more emphasis on biological determinants
of psychic conflict.
_____3. Fromm's social theories were influenced
by Karl Marx.
_____4. Although Fromm had some differences
with Freud, he remained a loyal follower of
Freud throughout his lifetime.
_____5. Fromm believed that a
relationship is the ideal
relatedness.
symbiotic
form of
_____6. Malignant aggression is unique to the
human species, according to Fromm.
_____7. People have developed existential needs
to keep from going insane.
_____8. To Fromm, depression stems from
feelings of malignant aggression.
_____9. Sadism is one attempt at decreasing
basic anxiety.
_____10.
The cycle of conformity and
powerlessness can be broken only by
achieving positive freedom.
_____11.
Fromm
believed
that
the
nonproductive orientation has both a
positive and a negative aspect.
_____12.
The exploitative character is an
outgrowth of modern capitalism.
_____13.
Fromm believed that a lack of
satisfaction of any of the five human needs
can result in insanity.
_____14.
Masochistic and sadistic tendencies
are strategies of uniting with another
person.
_____15.
Fromm believed that political and
economic freedom lead to feelings of
isolation and powerlessness.
_____16.
Psychologically disturbed people,
Fromm said, have failed to establish union
with other people.
_____17.
Exploitative characters believe that
the source of all good is outside
themselves.
_____18.
Fromm believed that symbiotic
attachment to the mother is based on the
need for security rather than on sex.
_____19.
In a study of a Mexican village,
Fromm found no evidence of the hoarding
personality.
_____20.
Fromm emphasized similarities
rather than differences between humans
and other animals.
_____21.
Fromm listed Winston Churchill as
20th century's most notable example of a
person with the syndrome of decay.
Multiple Choice
_____ 1. As an adolescent, Erich Fromm
a. aspired to be a famous general in the
German army.
b. assumed that people in his native land
were less belligerent than those in enemy
nations.
c. made two unsuccessful
commit suicide.
d. none of these.
attempts
to
_____ 2. Fromm believed that the rise of capitalism
has contributed to
a. the growth of personal freedom.
b. a greater degree of happiness among people.
c. feelings of anxiety, isolation, and
powerlessness.
d. higher levels of community cohesion.
_____3. Which of these people was NOT an
important influence on Fromm's thinking?
a. Sigmund Freud
b. Thomas More
c. Karl Marx
d. Johann J. Bachofen
e. Karen Horney
_____4. One of Fromm's basic assumptions is that
people have been torn away from a union
with nature, and lacking adequate animal
instincts, they must rely on reason. This
condition is called
a. the rational imperative.
b. the human dilemma.
c. manifest destiny.
d. transcendence.
_____5. According to Fromm, the four basic
elements in the process of love are
knowledge, care, respect, and
a. responsibility.
b. affection.
c. interest.
d. cooperation.
_____6. Transcendence is the need for humans to
a. seek self-realization in a basically sick
society.
b. rise above their passive and accidental
existence.
c. move beyond their human nature and into
the realm of superhumans.
d. feel restless and anxious with the realization
that they are constantly geographically
mobile.
____7. Rootedness is the need for humans to
a. remain fixed in the relationship with parents.
b. rise above their passive and accidental
existence.
c. feel at home again in the world.
d. return to their pre-human past.
e. feel restless and anxious with the realization
that they are forever geographically mobile.
_____8. Fromm believed that a frame of
orientation is necessary in order for people
to
a. achieve personal identity.
b. achieve group cohesiveness.
c. make their way through the world.
d. rise above their animal nature.
_____9. When existential needs are not satisfied,
people will
a. become motivated by human needs.
b. become motivated by essential needs.
c. develop extraordinary willpower.
d. none of these.
____10. According to Fromm, the freaks of the
universe are
a. people.
b. women.
c. planets.
d. snakes.
_____11.
In Fromm's view, people with basic
anxiety
a. suffer from the burden of freedom.
b. express their anxiety by moving toward
people.
c. eventually suffer a psychotic break.
d. represent a small minority of all people.
e. all of these.
_____12.
Authoritarianism may take these two
forms.
a. power and destruction
b. sadism and masochism
c. love and hate
d. effective and ineffective
_____13.
The spontaneous activity of a healthy
individual represents
a. positive freedom.
b. essential freedom.
c. existential chaos.
d. transcendence.
_____14.
The two components of positive
freedom are
a. work and love.
b. thought and action.
c. faith and hope.
d. desire and restraint.
_____15.
Freud's anal character is similar to
Fromm's ______ character.
a. hoarding
b. marketing
c. exploitative
d. receptive
_____16.
Which nonproductive character is a
product of modern commerce?
a. hoarding
b. exploitative
c. marketing
d. receptive
_____17.
Biophilia is
a. the psychic illness of the modern age.
b. a passionate love of life.
c. the principal component of the syndrome of
decay.
d. an erotic desire to hoard one's childhood
toys.
_____18.
Fromm
believed
psychopathology stems from
a. unconscious guilt.
b. modes of assimilation.
c. modes of socialization.
d. lack of rootedness.
that
_____19.
People who suffer from malignant
narcissism
a. tend to be sadistic in their relations with
others.
b. devalue that which belongs to others while
overvaluing that which they possess.
c. usually possess a strong mother fixation.
d. are characterized by necrophilia and the loss
of self-identity.
_____20.
A person with moral hypochondrias
a. is overly concerned with physical
symptoms.
b. is overly concerned with psychological
symptoms.
c. suffers from the syndrome of decay.
d. is preoccupied with guilt.
_____21.
Which of these is NOT part of
Fromm's syndrome of decay?
a. malignant narcissism.
b. moral hypochondrias.
c. incestuous symbiosis.
d. necrophilia.
_____22.
In his concept of humanity, Erich
Fromm emphasized
a. neuroses.
b. differences between humans and other
animals.
c. similarities between women and men.
d. the human need to achieve selfactualization.
Short Answer
1. Explain Fromm's
dichotomies.
concept
of
existential
2. List and discuss the five human needs as seen
by Fromm.
3. What did Fromm mean by "burden of
freedom"?
4. Discuss
Fromm's
four
nonproductive
orientations and one productive orientation.
5. Discuss Fromm's concept of the syndrome of
decay.
Answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Fill-in-the-Blanks
True-False
Multiple Choice
existential
social
human dilemma
existential
identity
rootedness
isolated
relatedness
biophilia
conformity
positive freedom
humans
marketing
psychohistory
Hitler
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
F
F
T
F
F
T
T
F
T
T
T
F
T
T
T
T
T
T
F
F
F
T
d
c
b
b
a
b
c
c
d
a
a
b
a
a
a
c
b
c
b
d
b
d
Chapter 8
Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 8, you should be able to:
1. Describe similarities and differences between
the personality theories of Erikson and Freud.
2. Write about the importance of the ego in
Erikson’s theory.
3. Discuss ways in which social and cultural
factors influence personality.
4. Compare and contrast Erikson's first four stages
of psychological development with Freud's
infantile and latency stages.
5. List Erikson's last four stages of psychosocial
development, their crises, basic strengths, and
core pathologies.
6. Explain Erikson's epigenetic principle.
7. Explain how identity confusion can have
positive effects on personality.
8. Discuss Erikson's use of psychohistory as a
research method.
9. Describe Erikson's anthropological studies.
10. Describe recent research on Erikson's concepts
of identity and generativity.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Erikson's Post-Freudian
Theory
Erikson
postulated
eight
stages
of
psychosocial development through which
people progress. Although he differed from
Freud in his emphasis on the ego and on social
influences, his theory is an extension, not a
repudiation of Freudian psychoanalysis.
II. Biography of Erik Erikson
When Erik Erikson was born in Germany in
1902 his name was Erik Salomonsen. After
his mother married Theodor Homberger, Erik
eventually took his stepfather's name. At age
18 he left home to pursue the life of a
wandering artist and to search for self-identity.
He gave up that life to teach young children in
Vienna where he met Anna Freud. Still
searching for his personal identity, he was
psychoanalyzed by Ms. Freud, an experience
that allowed him to become a psychoanalyst.
In mid-life, Erik Homberger moved to the
United States, changed his name to Erikson,
and took a position at the Harvard Medical
School.
Later, he taught at Yale, the
University of California at Berkeley, and
several other universities. He died in 1994, a
month short of his 92nd birthday.
III. The Ego in Post-Freudian Psychology
One of Erikson's chief contributions to
personality theory was his emphasis on ego
rather than id functions.
According to
Erikson, the ego is the center of personality
and is responsible for a unified sense of self.
It consists of three interrelated facets: the body
ego, the ego ideal, and ego identity.
A. Society's Influence
The ego develops within a given society and is
influenced by child-rearing practices and other
cultural customs. All cultures and nations
develop a pseudospecies, or a fictional notion
that they are superior to other cultures.
B. Epigenetic Principle
The ego develops according to the epigenetic
principle; that is, it grows according to a
genetically established rate and in a fixed
sequence.
IV. Stages of Psychosocial Development
Each of the eight stages of development is
marked by a conflict between a syntonic
(harmonious) element and a dystonic
(disruptive) element, which produces a basic
strength or ego quality.
Also, from
adolescence on, each stage is characterized by
an identity crisis or turning point, which may
produce either adaptive or maladaptive
adjustment.
A. Infancy
Erikson's view of infancy (the 1st year of life)
was similar to Freud's concept of the oral
stage, except that Erikson expanded the notion
of incorporation beyond the mouth to include
sense organs such as the eyes and ears. The
psychosexual mode of infancy is oral-sensory,
which is characterized by both receiving and
accepting. The psycho-social crisis of infancy
is basic trust versus basic mistrust. From the
crisis between basic trust and basic mistrust
emerges hope, the basic strength of infancy.
Infants who do not develop hope retreat from
the world, and this withdrawal is the core
pathology of infancy.
B. Early Childhood
The 2nd to 3rd year of life is early childhood,
a period that compares to Freud's anal stage,
but it also includes mastery of other body
functions such as walking, urinating, and
holding. The psychosexual mode of early
childhood is anal-urethral-muscular, and
children of this age behave both impulsively
and compulsively. The psychosocial crisis of
early childhood is autonomy versus shame
and doubt. The psychosocial crisis between
autonomy on the one hand and shame and
doubt on the other produces will, the basic
strength of early childhood.
The core
pathology of early childhood is compulsion.
C. Play Age
From about the 3rd to the 5th year, children
experience the play age, a period that parallels
Freud's phallic phase. Unlike Freud, however,
Erikson saw the Oedipus complex as an early
model of lifelong playfulness and a drama
played out in children's minds as they attempt
to understand the basic facts of life. The
primary psychosexual mode of the play age is
genital-locomotor, meaning that children
have both an interest in genital activity and an
increasing ability to move around. The
psychosocial crisis of the play age is initiative
versus guilt. The conflict between initiative
and guilt helps children to act with purpose
and to set goals. But if children have too little
purpose, they develop inhibition, the core
pathology of the play age.
D. School Age
The period from about 6 to 12 or 13 years of
age is called the school age, a time of
psychosexual latency, but it is also a time of
psychosocial growth beyond the family.
Because sexual development is latent during
the school age, children can use their energies
to learn the customs of their culture, including
both formal and informal education. The
psychosocial crisis of this age is industry
versus inferiority. Children need to learn to
work hard, but they also must develop some
sense of inferiority. From the conflict of
industry and inferiority emerges competence,
the basic strength of school age. A lack of
industry leads to inertia, the core pathology of
this stage.
E. Adolescence
Adolescence begins with puberty and is
marked by a person's struggle to find ego
identity. It is a time of psychosexual growth,
but it is also a period of psychosocial latency.
The psychosexual mode of adolescence is
puberty or genital maturation.
The
psychosocial crisis of adolescence is identity
versus identity confusion. Psychologically
healthy individuals emerge from adolescence
with a sense of who they are and what they
believe; but some identity confusion is normal.
The conflict between identity and identity
confusion produces fidelity, or faith in some
ideological view of the future. Lack of belief
in one's own selfhood results in role
repudiation, or an inability to bring together
one's various self-images.
F. Young Adulthood
Young adulthood begins with the acquisition
of intimacy at about age 18 and ends with the
development of generativity at about age 30.
The psychosexual mode of young adulthood is
genitality, which is expressed as mutual trust
between partners in a stable sexual
relationship. Its psychosocial crisis is intimacy
versus isolation. Intimacy is the ability to
fuse one's identity with that of another without
fear of losing it; whereas isolation is the fear
of losing one's identity in an intimate
relationship. The crisis between intimacy and
isolation results in the capacity to love. The
core pathology of young adulthood
exclusivity, or inability to love.
is
G. Adulthood
The period from about 31 to 60 years of age is
adulthood, a time when people make
significant contributions to society. The
psychosexual mode of adulthood is
procreativity, or the caring for one's children,
the children of others, and the material
products of one's society. The psychosocial
crisis of adulthood is generativity versus
stagnation, and the successful resolution of
this crisis results in care. Erikson saw care as
taking care of the persons and products that
one has learned to care for.
The core
pathology of adulthood is rejectivity, or the
rejection of certain individuals or groups that
one is unwilling to take care of.
H. Old Age
The final stage of development is old age,
from about age 60 until death. The
psychosexual mode of old age is generalized
sensuality; that is, taking pleasure in a variety
of sensations and an appreciation of the
traditional life style of people of the other
gender. The psychosocial crisis of old age is
the struggle between integrity (the
maintenance of ego-identity) and despair (the
surrender of hope). The struggle between
integrity and despair may produce wisdom
(the basic strength of old age), but it may also
lead to disdain (a core pathology marked by
feelings of being finished or helpless).
V. Erikson's Methods of Investigation
Erikson relied mostly on anthropology and
psychohistory to explain and describe human
personality.
A. Anthropological Studies
Erikson's two most important anthropological
studies were of the Sioux of South Dakota and
the Yurok tribe of northern California. Both
studies demonstrated his notion that culture
and history help shape personality.
B. Psychohistory
Erikson
combined
the
methods
of
psychoanalysis and historical research to study
several personalities, most notably Gandhi and
Luther. In both cases, the central figure
experienced an identity crisis that produced a
basic strength rather than a core pathology.
VI. Related Research
Erikson's theory has generated a moderately
large body of research, much of it
investigating the concepts of identity and
generativity. In this section, the authors
focused on (1) generativity and parenting and
(2) generativity vs. stagnation.
A. Generativity and Parenting
Dan McAdams and colleagues have developed
the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) to
measure generativity and to conduct research
on this concept. Researchers have used the
LGS to investigate the impact of parental
generativity on the development of children.
Bill Peterson (2006) tested his prediction that
parents with high generativity should produce
happy, well-adjusted offspring. His results
were supportive of the general notion that
having a sense of generativity is important to
effective parenting. Not only did children of
highly generative parents have more self-
confidence, a stronger sense of freedom, and
more general happiness with life; they also had
a stronger future time orientation (Peterson,
2006).
B. Generativity vs. Stagnation
Erikson generally considered stagnation and
generativity to be opposite ends of the same
continuum, so that an individual who is high
on generativity tends to be low on stagnation
and vice versa. But recently researchers have
been exploring stagnation and generativity as
somewhat independent constructs. Van Hiel
and colleagues, again using the LGS, found
that generativity and stagnation can operate
separately in adults. In addition, they found
that when measured separately, stagnation is
related to problems in emotional regulation,
while generativity is not. Moreover, they
discovered that some people measure high on
both generativity and stagnation, and that such
a personality profile is not mentally or
emotionally healthy, as it includes difficulties
both with emotional regulation and with
intimacy (van Hiel, Mervielde, De Fruyt,
2006).
In that this research preserves
Erikson’s two constructs of generativity and
stagnation, it is not a big departure from
Erikson; however, it does show that these two
constructs can, and sometimes do, function
independently in adult development.
VII. Critique of Erikson
Although Erikson's work is a logical extension
of Freud's psychoanalysis, it offers a new way
of looking at human development. As a useful
theory, it rates high on its ability to generate
research, about average on its ability to be
falsified, to organize knowledge, and to guide
the practitioner. It rates high on internal
consistency and about average on parsimony.
VIII. Concept of Humanity
Erikson saw humans as basically social
animals who have limited free choice and who
are motivated by past experiences, which may
be either conscious or unconscious.
In
addition, Erikson is rated high on both
optimism and uniqueness of individuals.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. In searching for his own identity, Erik Erikson
spent nearly a lifetime trying to learn the name of
his _________________________
2. Erikson received a training analysis from
______________________.
3. Basic trust is an example of a syntonic element,
whereas
basic
mistrust
is
a
_______________________ tendency.
4. The ego is a positive force that establishes
____________________, Erikson believed.
5. A basic ________________ emerges from the
conflict between dystonic and syntonic elements.
6. The
core
pathology
_________________.
of
infancy
is
7. The core pathology of early childhood is
__________________.
8. The basic strength of early childhood is
____________________.
9. The genital-___________________
psychosexual mode of the play age.
is
the
10. Erikson's _______________________ covers
about the same time as Freud's phallic stage—
approximately ages 3 to 5 years.
11. The core pathology of the play age is
____________________.
12. A child's ________________ begins to develop
during the play age, and Erikson calls this the
"cornerstone of morality."
13. Freud called this stage ____________________,
but Erikson referred to it as the school age.
14. The psychosocial crisis of the school age is
______________________ versus inferiority.
15. Regression, or _____________________, is the
core pathology of the school age.
16. The main crisis of adolescence is between
______________ and identity confusion.
17. The core pathology of young adulthood is
_______________.
18. ______________________ is the basic strength
of adolescence.
19. A person should learn ___________________ at
the beginning of young adulthood.
20. The basic strength of young adulthood is
_____________________.
21. __________________ is the core pathology of
adulthood.
22. Erikson's final stage of
______________________.
development
is
23. Erikson
believed
that
anatomy,
____________________, and personality are our
combined destiny.
True-False
_____ 1.
During the last year of her life, Erik
Erikson's mother revealed the name of her
son's biological father.
_____ 2.
Erikson began his professional career
as an artist.
_____3. According to Erikson, people experience
little personal growth after adolescence.
_____4. An identity crisis can emerge only after a
person experiences a catastrophe.
_____5. Erikson saw the ego as being capable of
adapting to changes throughout the life
cycle.
_____6. Erikson believed that anatomy, rather than
culture, has a strong influence on how the
ego will develop.
_____7. Healthy
psychological
development
depends on a conflict between harmonious
and disruptive elements, according to
Erikson.
_____8. Each of Erikson's stages has a
psychosexual mode, a psychosocial crisis, a
basic strength, and a core pathology.
_____9. Erikson's concept of the Oedipus complex
is nearly identical to that of Freud.
_____10.
A person's first serious identity crisis
is likely to occur during adolescence.
_____11.
To Erikson, adolescence is a time of
psychosocial latency.
_____12.
According to Erikson, puberty is less
important to adolescents than is their search
for identity.
_____13.
An identity crisis may either increase
or decrease ego strength.
_____14.
According to Erikson, love involves
both intimacy and isolation.
_____15.
A drive common in all societies is the
need to instruct others in the ways of
culture.
_____16.
Erikson believed that authors of
psychohistory must remain objective about
their subjects.
_____17.
Despite his belief in core pathologies
at each stage of development, Erikson's
viewpoint was basically optimistic.
_____18.
Erikson's theory is more biological
than social.
_____19.
Research suggests that at midlife men
are more likely than women to perform
housework.
Multiple Choice
_____ 1.
Throughout his adult life, Erik
Erikson identified with ____, a nation
where he lived for only a few months of his
life.
a. Germany
b. The United States
c. The United Kingdom
d. Norway
e. Denmark
_____ 2.
In contrast to Freud, Erikson
a. placed more emphasis on unconscious
motivation.
b. placed more emphasis on the ego.
c. de-emphasized social and historical
influences on personality.
d. all of these.
______3.
Erikson built on Freud's theory by
a. elevating social factors over biological
ones.
b. emphasizing the id as the key to personality
development.
c. accepting Jung's idea of a collective
unconscious.
d. none of these.
e. all of these.
______4.
According to Erikson, which of these
is the most important aspect of the ego?
a. self-conscious ego
b. perceived ego
c. ego identity
d. realistic ego
_____5. During childhood, Erikson said, the ego
a. develops from the superego.
b. is weak and flexible.
c. is dormant.
d. does not exist.
______6.
To Erikson, the ego develops
a. within a social structure.
b. independent of historical factors.
c. most rapidly during adulthood.
d. only after the id stops developing.
______7.
Some societies hold that they are
special and somehow more important than
a.
b.
c.
d.
other societies. Erikson referred to this
belief as
an ethnocentric imperative.
a Napoleonic complex.
a narcissistic illusion.
pseudospecies.
______8.
Erikson believed that healthy
development rests on
a. a conflict between syntonic and dystonic
tendencies.
b. a conflict between masculine and feminine
elements.
c. an unresolved Oedipus complex.
d. a resolved Oedipus complex.
e. a strong superego.
______9.
The epigenetic principle states that
a. some societies believe themselves to be
special.
b. the ego develops from the dying id.
c. the ego develops in a sequence, with each
stage emerging from and being built on a
previous stage.
d. central to individual development are those
traits and tendencies inherited from our
ancestral past.
_____10.
Erikson believed that ___ is the basic
strength of infancy
a. hope
b. faith
c. will
d. love
e. industry
_____11.
The psychosocial crisis of early
childhood is
a. basic trust versus basic mistrust.
b. intimacy versus isolation.
c. industry versus inferiority.
d. autonomy versus shame and doubt.
e. compromise versus cooperation.
_____12.
Erikson's early childhood stage
corresponds with which of Freud's stages?
a. oral
b. anal
c. phallic
d. genital
e. oedipal
_____13.
According to Erikson, ____ is a
feeling of self-consciousness and of being
looked at or exposed.
a. shame
b. guilt
c. doubt
d. threat
e. exhibitionism
_____14.
To Erikson, the original model for
human playfulness is
a. the mother-child bond.
b. the Oedipus complex.
c. thumb-sucking.
d. basic mistrust.
e. basic trust.
_____15.
The basic strength of the play age is
_____.
a. fidelity
b. purpose
c. care
d. autonomy
e. playfulness
_____16.
Will is the basic strength of
a. infancy.
b. early childhood.
c. the play age.
d. adolescence.
_____17.
Heidi is beginning to make new
friends of her age. For the first time in her
life, she has developed a relationship with
adults who are not in her family. Heidi is in
which of Erikson's stages?
a. early childhood
b. adolescence
c. infancy
d. genital period
e. school age
_____18.
The genital-locomotor psychosexual
mode marks this stage.
a. infancy
b. play age
c. adolescence
d. young adulthood
e. early childhood
_____19.
The psychosocial crisis of the school
age is
a. autonomy verses shame and doubt.
b. trust versus mistrust.
c. identity versus identity confusion.
d. industry versus inferiority.
_____20.
Generalized sensuality characterizes
the psychosexual stage of ______.
a. adolescence
b. young adulthood
c. adulthood
d. old age
e. preadolescence
Short Answer
1. List three differences between the theories of
Erikson and Freud.
2. List and explain three additions that Erikson
made to Freudian theory.
3. Define and
principle.
explain
Erikson's
epigenetic
4. Explain the difference between psychohistory
and a case history.
5. Briefly summarize Eriksonian research on
generativity in adulthood.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20
21.
22.
23.
biological father
Anna Freud
dystonic
identity
strength
withdrawal
compulsion
will
infantile
play age
inhibition
conscience
latency
industry
inertia
identity
exclusivity
Fidelity
intimacy
love
Rejectivity
old age
history
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
F
T
F
F
T
F
T
T
F
T
T
T
T
T
T
F
T
F
F
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
e
b
a
c
b
a
d
a
c
a
d
b
a
b
b
b
b
b
b
d
Chapter 9
Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 9, you should be able to:
1. List and explain Maslow's five assumptions
regarding motivation.
2. List and explain the five needs in Maslow's
hierarchy of needs.
3. Distinguish between conative,
cognitive, and neurotic needs.
aesthetic,
4. Define instinctoid needs.
5. Describe Maslow's criteria for identifying
self-actualizers.
6. List and describe the characteristics of selfactualizing people.
7. Describe the Jonah complex.
8. Discuss Maslow's philosophy of science.
9. Discuss Maslow's concept of humanity.
10. Explain the implications of Maslow's theory
for psychotherapy.
11. Summarize research on self-actualization.
I.
Overview of Maslow's Holistic-Dynamic
Theory
Maslow's holistic-dynamic theory assumes
that people are continually motivated by one
or more needs, and that under the proper
circumstances, they can reach a level of
psychological health called self-actualization.
II. Biography of Abraham H. Maslow
Abraham H. Maslow was born in New York
City in 1908, the oldest of seven children of
Russian Jewish immigrants. After 2 or 3
mediocre years as a college student, Maslow
improved in his academic work at about the
time he was married. He received both a
bachelor's degree and a PhD from the
University of Wisconsin, where he worked
with Harry Harlow conducting animal
studies. Most of his professional career was
spent at Brooklyn College and Brandeis
University. Poor health forced him to move
to California, where he died in 1970 at age
62.
III. Maslow's View of Motivation
Maslow's theory rests on five basic
assumptions about motivation: (1) the whole
organism is motivated at any one time; (2)
motivation is complex, and unconscious
motives often underlie behavior; (3) people
are continually motivated by one need or
another; (4) people in different cultures are
motivated by the same basic needs; and (5)
the basic needs can be arranged on a
hierarchy.
A. Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow held that lower level needs have
prepotency over higher level needs; that is,
lower needs must be satisfied before higher
needs become motivators.
Maslow's
hierarchy includes: (1) physiological needs,
such as oxygen, food, water, and so on; (2)
safety needs, which include physical
security, stability, dependency, protection,
and freedom from danger, and which result
in basic anxiety if not satisfied; (3) love and
belongingness needs, including the desire
for friendship, the wish for a mate and
children, and the need to belong; (4) esteem
needs, which result from the satisfaction of
love needs and which include self-confidence
and the recognition that we have a positive
reputation; and (5) self-actualization needs,
which are satisfied only by the
psychologically healthiest people. Unlike
other needs that automatically are activated
when lower needs are met, self-actualization
needs do not inevitably follow from the
satisfaction of esteem needs.
Only by
embracing such B-values as truth, beauty,
oneness, justice, etc., can people achieve
self-actualization.
The five needs on
Maslow's hierarchy are conative needs.
Other categories of needs include aesthetic
needs, cognitive needs, and neurotic needs.
B. Aesthetic Needs
Aesthetic needs include a desire for beauty
and order, and some people have much
stronger aesthetic needs than do others.
When people fail to meet their aesthetic
needs, they become sick.
C. Cognitive Needs
Cognitive needs include the desire to know,
to understand, and to be curious. Knowledge
is a prerequisite for each of the five conative
needs.
Also, people who are denied
knowledge and kept in ignorance become
sick, paranoid, and depressed.
D. Neurotic Needs
Neurotic needs include a desire to dominate,
to inflict pain, or to subject oneself to the will
of another person. With conative, aesthetic,
and cognitive needs, some type of illness
results when they are not satisfied. Neurotic
needs, however, lead to pathology whether or
not they are satisfied.
E. General Discussion of Needs
Maslow believed that most people satisfy
lower level needs to a greater extent than
they do higher needs, and that the greater the
satisfaction of one need, the more fully the
next highest need is likely to emerge. In
certain rare cases, the order of needs might
be reversed. For example, a starving mother
may be motivated by love needs to give up
food in order to feed her starving children.
However, if we understand the unconscious
motivation behind many apparent reversals,
we might see that they are not genuine
reversals at all. Thus, Maslow insisted that
much of our surface behaviors are actually
motivated by more basic and often
unconscious needs. Maslow also believed
that some expressive behaviors are
unmotivated, even though all behaviors have
a cause. Expressive behaviors have no aim or
goal but are merely a person's mode of
expression. In comparison, coping behaviors
deal with a person's attempt to cope with the
environment. The conative needs ordinarily
call forth coping behaviors. Deprivation of
any of the needs leads to pathology of some
sort. For example, people's inability to reach
self-actualization results in metapathology;
defined as an absence of values, a lack of
fulfillment, and a loss of meaning in life.
Maslow suggested that instinctoid needs are
innately determined even though they can be
modified by learning. Maslow also believed
that higher level needs (love, esteem, and
self-actualization) are later on the
evolutionary scale than lower level needs and
that they produce more genuine happiness
and more peak experiences.
IV. Self-Actualization
Maslow believed that a very small
percentage of people reach an ultimate level
of psychological health called selfactualization.
A. Values of Self-Actualizers
Maslow held that self-actualizing people are
metamotivated by such B-values as truth,
goodness, beauty, justice, and simplicity.
B. Definition and Description
Four criteria must be met before a person
achieves self-actualization: (1) absence of
psychopathology, (2) satisfaction of each of
the four lower level needs, (3) full realization
of one's potentials for growth, and (4)
acceptance of the B-values.
C. Characteristics of Self-Actualizing
People
Maslow listed 15 qualities that characterize
self-actualizing people, although not all selfactualizers
possess
each
of
these
characteristics to the same extent.
The characteristics of self-actualizing people
are:
(1) more efficient perception of reality;
they often have an almost uncanny ability to
detect phoniness in others, and they are not
fooled by sham;
(2) acceptance of self, others, and nature;
(3)
spontaneity,
simplicity,
and
naturalness; they have no need to appear
complex or sophisticated;
(4) problem-centered; they view age-old
problems from a solid philosophical position;
(5) the need for privacy, or a detachment
that allows them to be alone without being
lonely;
(6) autonomy; they have grown beyond
dependency on other people for their selfesteem;
(7) continued freshness of appreciation
and the ability to view everyday things with a
fresh vision and appreciation;
(8) frequent reports of peak experiences, or
those mystical experiences that give a person
a sense of transcendence and feelings of awe,
wonder, ecstasy, reverence, and humility;
(9) Gemeinschaftsgefühl, that is, social
interest or a deep feeling of oneness with all
humanity;
(10) profound interpersonal relations but
with no desperate need to have a multitude of
friends;
(11) the democratic character structure, or
the ability to disregard superficial differences
between people;
(12) discrimination between means and
ends, meaning that self-actualizing people
have a clear sense of right and wrong, and
they experience little conflict about basic
values;
(13) a philosophical sense of humor, or
humor that is spontaneous, unplanned, and
intrinsic to the situation;
(14) creativeness; they possess a keen
perception of truth, beauty, and reality;
(15) resistance to enculturation; they have
the ability to set personal standards and to
resist the mold set by the dominant culture.
D. Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization
Maslow compared D-love (deficiency love)
to B-love (love for being or essence of
another person). Self-actualizing people are
capable of B-love; that is, they have the
ability to love without expecting something
in return. B-love is mutually felt and shared
and not based on deficiencies within the
lovers.
V. Philosophy of Science
Maslow criticized traditional science as being
value-free, with a methodology that is sterile
and nonemotional. He argued for a Taoistic
attitude for psychology in which
psychologists are willing to resacralize their
science, that is, to instill it with human values
and to view participants with awe, joy,
wonder, rapture, and ritual.
VI. Measuring Self-Actualization
Maslow's methods for measuring selfactualization were consistent with his
philosophy of science. He began his study of
self-actualizing people with little evidence
that such a classification of people even
existed. He looked at healthy people, learned
what they had in common, and then
established a syndrome for psychological
health. Next, he refined the definition of
self-actualization, studied other people, and
changed the syndrome. He continued this
process until he was satisfied that he had a
clear definition of self-actualization. Other
researchers have developed personality
inventories for measuring self actualization.
The most widely used of these is Everett
Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory
(POI), a 150-forced-choice inventory that
assesses a variety of self-actualization facets.
VIII. The Jonah Complex
Because humans are born with a natural
tendency to move toward psychological
health, any failure to reach self-actualization
can be technically called abnormal
development. One such abnormal syndrome
is the Jonah complex, or fear of being or
doing one's best, a condition that all of us
have to some extent. Maslow believed that
many people allow false humility to stifle
their creativity and to fall short of selfactualization.
VIII. Psychotherapy
The hierarchy of needs concept has obvious
ramifications for psychotherapy.
Most
people who seek psychotherapy probably do
so because they have not adequately satisfied
their love and belongingness needs. This
suggests that much of therapy should involve
a productive human relationship and that he
job of a therapist is to help clients satisfy
love and belongingness needs.
IX. Related Research
Recent research in positive psychology has
reawakened an interest in humanistic
psychology including the work of Maslow,
Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, and other
person-centered personality theorists.
A. Hierarchy of Needs
Reiss & Havercamp (2006) measured need
fulfillment to test the idea in Maslow’s
theory that lower order needs must be met
early in life while higher order needs such as
self-actualization are fulfilled later in life.
Their results supported Maslow’s theory on
this point.
B. Positive Psychology
One area of positive psychology where
Maslow’s ideas have been especially
influential is in the role of positive
experiences in people’s lives. Burton &
King (2004) found support for their
hypothesis that writing about positive
experiences would be associated with better
physical health. Lyubomirsky, Sousa, and
Dickerhoof (2004) found additionally that
while simply thinking about past positive
experiences did not confer physical health
benefits, it did result in participants’
reporting greater well-being than those who
wrote about the positive experiences. This
recent research in positive psychology
supports Maslow’s prediction that peak
experiences often have a lasting impact on
people’s lives.
C. Personality Development, Growth, and
Goals
Implicit in Maslow's theory of selfactualization is the assumption that
psychologically healthy people become more
self-actualizing as they grow older.
Recently, Jack Bauer and Dan McAdams
(2004a) tested this hypothesis using college
students and middle-age and older
community volunteers. Their procedure
called for measuring two kinds of growth—
extrinsic and intrinsic. External growth
includes an interest in money, fame, and
physical appearance, whereas intrinsic
growth focuses on happiness and healthy
interpersonal relations. As hypothesized,
Bauer and McAdams found that older
participants had higher intrinsic goals,
whereas college students tended to report
needs for extrinsic goals.
X. Critique of Maslow
Maslow's theory has been popular in
psychology and other disciplines, such as
marketing, management, nursing, and
education. The hierarchy of needs concept
seems both elementary and logical, which
gives Maslow's theory the illusion of
simplicity. However, the theory is somewhat
complex, with four dimensions of needs and
the possibility of unconsciously motivated
behavior. As a scientific theory, Maslow's
model rates high in generating research but
low in falsifiability.
On its ability to
organize knowledge and guide action, the
theory rates quite high; on its simplicity and
internal consistency, it rates only average.
XI Concept of Humanity
Maslow believed that people are structured in
such a way that their activated needs are
exactly what they want most. Hungry people
desire food, frightened people look for
safety, and so forth. Although he was
generally optimistic and hopeful, Maslow
saw that people are capable of great evil and
destruction. He believed that, as a species,
humans are becoming more and more fully
human and motivated by higher level needs.
In summary, Maslow's view of humanity
rates high on free choice, optimism,
teleology, and uniqueness and about average
on social influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Maslow's ______________________ theory
assumes that people are continually motivated
by one need or another.
2. Maslow felt ________________ toward his
mother during his entire life.
3. The most basic needs of any person are
_____________________.
4. The highest need on Maslow's hierarchy is
__________________.
5. Maslow believed that motivation is usually
_________________, meaning that behavior
is often an expression of an unconscious or a
more basic need.
6. When ________________________ needs are
not met, a person suffers from basic anxiety.
7. _______________________
needs
are
nonproductive, and their satisfaction does not
foster health.
8. The two levels of esteem needs are
________________________ and self-esteem.
9. Self-actualizing
people
embrace
the
_______________________, a condition that
separates them from other people who have
met esteem needs but who do not achieve selfactualization.
10. Maslow
distinguished
between
_________________________
behavior,
which is often unmotivated, and coping
behavior, which is motivated.
11. People deprived of self-actualization suffer
from ___________________ in the same
sense that people deprived of food suffer from
malnutrition.
12. As people advanced through history, they
become
more
motivated
by
___________________ level needs.
13. Truth, goodness, and beauty are 3 of 14
____________________, all of which may
ultimately be one value.
14. Love between two self-actualizing people is
called ___________________ love.
15. Although self-actualizers are free from
____________________, they could suffer
some psychosomatic illnesses.
16. Self-actualizers
______________________-centered
than person-centered.
are
rather
17. Maslow found that self-actualizers have a
__________________ sense of humor.
18. Shostrom's Personal __________________
Inventory is an attempt to measure selfactualization.
19. The ___________________ complex is the
fear of being or doing one's best.
20. Maslow
advocated
a
______________________
attitude
for
psychology researchers, one that is
noninterfering, passive, and receptive.
21. Bauer and McAdams found that older people,
in contrast to younger people, were more
likely
to
be
motivated
by
____________________ rather than extrinsic
goals.
True-False
______1.
Like Harry Stack Sullivan, Maslow
was the most popular person in his high
school class.
_____ 2. As a child, Maslow was emotionally
closer to his mother than to his father.
______3.
Maslow assumed that people in
different cultures have basically different
needs.
______4.
People who have never experienced
love are most strongly motivated by love
and belongingness needs.
______5.
People who have been partially
loved are most strongly motivated by love
and belongingness needs.
______6.
When people have their esteem
needs met, they automatically cross the
threshold to self-actualization.
______7.
All people have a more or less equal
desire to satisfy aesthetic needs.
______8.
A person can satisfy only one need
at a time.
______9.
Maslow believed that people are
continually conscious of their motives.
_____10.
Needs on the hierarchy can
occasionally be reversed, according to
Maslow.
_____11.
Self-actualizing people strive hard
to maintain their self-actualization status.
_____12.
Self-actualizing people would most
likely agree with the saying "knowledge
for the sake of knowledge."
_____13.
According to Maslow, all behavior
is motivated.
_____14.
Expressive
unmotivated.
behavior
is
often
_____15.
One sure sign of self-actualization is
having a peak experience.
_____16.
By faking self-actualization, some
people actually become self-actualizing.
_____17.
Maslow believed that all people
have the potential for self-actualization,
but most people never achieve it.
_____18.
Most self-actualizing people do not
have their esteem needs met.
_____19.
A person who has never had love
and belongingness needs satisfied could
nevertheless become self-actualizing by
satisfying safety needs.
_____20.
Maslow's theory rates low on its
ability to organize knowledge.
Multiple Choice
______1.
As a young man, Maslow
experienced a fortuitous event that
changed his life. This event happened
when he
a. met Alfred Adler.
b. first kissed his cousin Bertha Goodman.
c. made the Dean's honor roll at Cornell.
d. converted from Judaism to Protestantism.
_____ 2. Maslow regarded his mother as
a. a very religious person.
b. a kind and genteel person.
c. a mystic who could forecast future events.
d. a self-actualizing person.
e. none of these.
______3.
During childhood and adolescence,
Maslow was
a. shy and socially backward.
b. pampered by his mother.
c. overly combative with his older brothers
d. more interested in sports than in books.
______4.
In his theory of motivation, Maslow
assumed that
a. people in different cultures have different
basic needs.
b. motivation is nearly always conscious.
c. people are motivated by one need at a
time.
d. people are continually motivated by one
need or another.
e. all of these are correct.
______5.
Maslow's concept of a hierarchy of
needs assumes that
a. higher needs have prepotency over lower
needs.
b. lower needs have prepotency over higher
needs.
c. love needs are more basic than
physiological needs.
d. cognitive needs must be satisfied before
aesthetic needs become motivators.
e. aesthetic needs are prepotent over
cognitive needs.
______6.
When safety needs are not satisfied,
a person will be motivated by these needs.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
physiological
safety
love and belongingness
neurotic
cognitive
_____ 7. During his early professional career,
Maslow was influenced mostly by
a. Erik Erikson.
b. Harry Harlow.
c. Sigmund Freud.
d. Carl Jung.
e. Carl Rogers.
______8.
Safety needs are usually strongest
for
a. children.
b. men.
c. women.
d. hungry people.
e. mountain climbers.
______9.
Maslow said that basic anxiety is
experienced when people
a. fail to satisfy physiological needs.
b. feel alienated from other people.
c. fail to satisfy safety needs.
d. develops a fear of being and doing their
best.
e. are motivated by metaneeds.
_____10.
A person who has never received
love is likely to
a. devalue it.
b. be strongly motivated to attain it.
c. experience basic anxiety.
d. be motivated by esteem needs.
_____11.
Feelings of self-worth, confidence,
and competence were considered by
Maslow to be
a. unnecessary for self-actualization.
b. esteem needs.
c. self-actualization needs.
d. love and belongingness needs.
_____12.
According to Maslow, neurotic
needs are activated
a. only when satisfied.
b. only when frustrated.
c. whether or not they are satisfied.
d. when love and belongingness needs are
frustrated.
_____13.
With regard to needs, which of these
statements would Maslow endorse?
a. Safety needs must be satisfied more fully
than physiological needs.
b. People are usually conscious of their
underlying needs.
c. The order of needs may be reversed in
certain cases.
d. One need must be completely satisfied
before another can become a motivator.
e. If people cannot satisfy their love needs,
then they can skip to the level of esteem
needs.
_____14.
According to Maslow,
a. some behavior is not motivated.
b. all behavior has a cause.
c. both of these.
d. neither of these.
_____15.
Maslow believed that people who
fail to satisfy self-actualization needs
a. embrace the M-values.
b. suffer from metapathology.
c. become neurotic.
d. embrace the B-values.
_____16.
It is NOT true that instinctoid needs
a. spring from a modern industrialized
society.
b. result in pathology when frustrated.
c. are unique to humans.
d. can be modified by learning.
e. are persistent rather than temporary.
_____17.
According
to
Maslow,
metamotivation
a. is characterized by coping rather than
expressive behavior.
b. is the need for peak experiences.
c. represents the motives of self-actualizing
people.
d. is associated with D-values.
e. represents the motives of neurotic people.
_____18.
Which of the following was NOT
listed by Maslow as a characteristic of
self-actualizing people?
a. social interest
b.
c.
d.
e.
autonomy
need for privacy
acceptance of self, others, and nature
people-centered
_____19.
Maslow said that self-actualizing
people
a. feel lonely when they are alone.
b. experience anxiety when faced with the
unknown.
c. desire to inform, convert, and instruct
others.
d. experience a more efficient perception of
reality.
_____20.
Maslow called B-love
a. brotherly love.
b. love for the essence of another person.
c. motivated by love and belongingness
needs.
d. motivated by the peak experience.
e. burdensome love.
_____21.
The fear of being one's best is
a. the Jonah complex.
b. the fear of failure.
c. the Moses complex.
d. metapathology.
e. desacralization.
_____22.
Maslow insisted that scientists
should
a. be unbiased.
b. discover truth.
c. be willing to desacralize science.
d. be willing to resacralize science.
_____ 23. Bauer and McAdams found that
older participants, compared with college
students, tended to report needs of
a. safety.
b. extrinsic goals.
c. love and belongingness.
d. intrinsic goals
Short Answer
1. List five assumptions Maslow made concerning
motivation.
2. Name two characteristics that make
physiological needs different from other needs.
3. Explain the difference between reputation and
self-esteem.
4. Explain the differences between expressive and
coping behavior.
5. Explain the difference between instinctoid and
noninstinctoid needs.
6. List three criteria used to identify selfactualizing people.
7. According to Maslow, why might a person
have a Jonah complex?
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
holistic-dynamic
hatred
physiological
self-actualization
complex
safety
Neurotic
reputation
B-values
expressive
metapathology
earlier
B-values
B-love
psychopathology
problem
philosophical
Orientation
Jonah
Taoistic
intrinsic
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
T
F
T
F
T
F
F
T
F
F
F
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
b
e
a
d
b
b
b
a
c
a
b
c
c
c
b
e
c
e
d
b
a
d
d
Chapter 10
Rogers: Person-Centered Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter10, you should be able to:
1. Identify the
tendencies.
formative
and
actualizing
2. Discuss Rogers' concept of self and its
development.
3. State the basic needs of individuals according
to person-centered theory.
4. Distinguish among self, self-actualization, selfconcept, and ideal self.
5. List and describe Rogers' necessary and
sufficient conditions for psychological growth.
6. Discuss the concept of the person of tomorrow
and its implications for future humanity.
7. Discuss Rogers' philosophy of science.
8. Discuss the methods, procedures, and results of
Rogers' research on the effectiveness of clientcentered therapy.
9. Discuss research on Rogers' facilitative
conditions in situations outside the therapeutic
relationship.
10. Critique Rogers' person-centered theory on the
six criteria of a useful theory.
I.
Overview of Rogers's Person-Centered
Theory
Although Carl Rogers is best known as the
founder of client-centered therapy, he also
developed an important theory of personality
that underscores his approach to therapy.
II. Biography of Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers was born into a devoutly religious
family in a Chicago suburb in 1902. After the
family moved to a nearby farm, Carl became
interested in scientific farming and learned to
appreciate the scientific method. When he
graduated from the University of Wisconsin,
Rogers intended to become a minister, but he
gave up that notion and completed a PhD in
psychology from Columbia University in
1931. In 1940, after nearly a dozen years
away from an academic life working as a
clinician, he took a position at Ohio State
University. Later, he held positions at the
University of Chicago and the University of
Wisconsin. In 1964, he moved to California,
where he helped found the Center for Studies
of the Person. He died in 1987 at age 85.
III. Person-Centered Theory
Rogers carefully crafted his person-centered
theory of personality to meet his own demands
for a structural model that could explain and
predict outcomes of client-centered therapy.
However, the theory has implications far
beyond the therapeutic setting.
A. Basic Assumptions
Person-centered theory rests on two basic
assumptions: (1) the formative tendency that
states that all matter, both organic and
inorganic, tends to evolve from simpler to
more complex forms and (2) an actualizing
tendency, which suggests that all living things,
including humans, tend to move toward
completion, or fulfillment of potentials.
However, in order for people (or plants and
animals) to become actualized, certain
identifiable conditions must be present. For a
person, these conditions include a relationship
with another person who is genuine, or
congruent, and who demonstrates complete
acceptance and empathy for that person.
B. The Self and Self-Actualization
A sense of self or personal identity begins to
emerge during infancy, and once established,
it allows a person to strive toward selfactualization, which is a subsystem of the
actualization tendency and refers to the
tendency to actualize the self as perceived in
awareness. The self has two subsystems: (1)
the self-concept, which includes all those
aspects of one's identity that are perceived in
awareness, and (2) the ideal self, or our view
of our self as we would like to be or aspire to
be. Once formed, the self concept tends to
resist change, and gaps between it and the
ideal self result in incongruence and various
levels of psychopathology.
C. Awareness
People are aware of both their self-concept
and their ideal self, although awareness need
not be accurate. For example, people may
have an inflated view of their ideal self but
only a vague sense of their self-concept.
Rogers saw people as having experiences on
three levels of awareness: (1) those that are
symbolized below the threshold of awareness
and are ignored, denied, or not allowed into
the self-concept; (2) those that are distorted or
reshaped to fit it into an existing self-concept;
and (3) those that are consistent with the selfconcept and thus are accurately symbolized
and freely admitted to the self-structure. Any
experience not consistent with the selfconcept—even positive experiences—will be
distorted or denied.
D. Needs
The two basic human needs are maintenance
and enhancement, but people also need
positive regard and self-regard. Maintenance
needs include those for food, air, and safety,
but they also include our tendency to resist
change and to maintain our self-concept as it
is. Enhancement needs include needs to grow
and to realize one's full human potential. As
awareness of self emerges, an infant begins to
receive positive regard from another person,
that is, to be loved or accepted. People
naturally value those experiences that satisfy
their needs for positive regard, but
unfortunately, this value sometimes becomes
more powerful than the reward they receive
for meeting their organismic needs. This sets
up the condition of incongruence, which is
experienced when basic organismic needs are
denied or distorted in favor of needs to be
loved or accepted. As a result of experiences
with positive regard, people develop the need
for self-regard which they acquire only after
they perceive that someone else cares for them
and values them. Once established, however,
self-regard becomes autonomous and no
longer dependent on another person's
continuous positive evaluation.
E. Conditions of Worth
Most people are not unconditionally accepted.
Instead, they receive conditions of worth; that
is, they feel that they are loved and accepted
only when and if they meet the conditions set
by others.
F. Psychological Stagnation
When the organismic self and the self-concept
are at variance with one another, a person may
experience incongruence, anxiety, threat,
defensiveness, and even disorganization. The
greater the incongruence between self-concept
and the organismic experience, the more
vulnerable that person becomes. Anxiety
exists whenever the person becomes dimly
aware of the discrepancy between organismic
experience and self-concept, whereas threat is
experienced whenever the person becomes
more clearly aware of this incongruence. To
prevent incongruence, people react with
defensiveness, typically in the forms of
distortion and denial. With distortion, people
misinterpret an experience so that it fits into
their self-concept; with denial, people refuse
to allow the experience into awareness. When
people's defenses fail to operate properly, their
behavior becomes disorganized or psychotic.
With disorganization, people sometimes
behave consistently with their organismic
experience, and sometimes in accordance with
their shattered self-concept.
IV. Psychotherapy
For client-centered psychotherapy to be
effective, six conditions are necessary: (1) A
vulnerable client must (2) have contact of
some duration with a counselor who is (3)
congruent and who demonstrates (4)
unconditional positive regard and who (5)
listens with empathy to a client. In addition,
the client must (6) perceives the congruence,
unconditional positive regard, and empathy. If
these conditions are present, then the process
of therapy will take place and certain
predictable outcomes will result.
A. Conditions
Three of these conditions are crucial to clientcentered therapy, and Rogers called them the
necessary and sufficient conditions for
therapeutic growth. The first is counselor
congruence, or a therapist whose organismic
experiences are matched by an awareness and
by the ability and willingness to openly
express these feelings. Congruence is more
basic than the other two conditions because it
is a relatively stable characteristic of the
therapist, whereas the other two conditions are
limited to a specific therapeutic relationship.
Unconditional positive regard exists when the
therapist accepts and prizes the client without
conditions or qualifications.
Empathic
listening is the ability of the therapist to sense
the feeling of a client and also to communicate
these perceptions so that the client knows that
another person has entered into his or her
world of feelings without prejudice,
projection, or evaluation.
B. Process
Rogers saw the process of therapeutic change
as taking place in seven stages: (1) clients are
unwilling to communicate anything about
themselves; (2) they discuss only external
events and other people; (3) they begin to talk
about themselves, but still as an object; (4)
they discuss strong emotions that they have
felt in the past; (5) they begin to express
present feelings; (6) they freely allow into
awareness those experiences that were
previously denied or distorted; and (7) they
experience irreversible change and growth.
C. Outcomes
When client-centered therapy is successful,
clients become more congruent, less
defensive, more open to experience, and more
realistic. The gap between their ideal self and
their true self narrows and as a consequence,
clients experience less physiological and
psychological tension.
Finally, clients'
interpersonal relationships improve because
they are more accepting of self and others.
V. The Person of Tomorrow
If people receive the three necessary and
sufficient conditions for psychological health
person, then they will grow toward becoming
the "fully functioning person" or the "person
of tomorrow."
Rogers listed seven
characteristics of the person of tomorrow.
First, persons of tomorrow would be more
adaptable and more flexible in their thinking.
Second, they would be open to their
experiences, accurately symbolizing them in
awareness rather than denying or distorting
them. Persons of tomorrow would listen to
themselves and hear their joy, anger,
discouragement, fear, and tenderness. A third
characteristic would be a tendency to live fully
in the moment, experiencing a constant state
of fluidity and change. They would see each
experience with a new freshness and
appreciate it fully in the present moment.
Rogers (1961) referred to this tendency to live
in the moment as existential living. Fourth,
persons of tomorrow would remain confident
of their own ability to experience harmonious
relations with others. They would feel no
need to be liked or loved by everyone, because
they would know that they are unconditionally
prized and accepted by someone. Fifth, they
would be more integrated, more whole, with
no artificial boundary between conscious
processes and unconscious ones. Because
they would be able to accurately symbolize all
their experiences in awareness, they would see
clearly the difference between what is and
what should be. Sixth, persons of tomorrow
would have a basic trust of human nature.
They would experience anger, frustration,
depression, and other negative emotions, but
they would be able to express rather than
repress these feelings.
Finally, because
persons of tomorrow are open to all their
experiences, they would enjoy a greater
richness in life than do other people. They
would live in the present and thus participate
more richly in the ongoing moment.
VI. Philosophy of Science
Rogers agreed with Maslow that scientists
must care about the phenomena they study and
that psychologists should limit their
objectivity and precision to their methodology,
not to the creation of hypotheses or to the
communication of research findings.
VII. The Chicago Studies
When he taught at the University of Chicago
and again at the University of Wisconsin,
Rogers along with colleagues and graduate
students
conducted
an
experimental
investigation on the effectiveness of
psychotherapy. These studies, though now
old, remain as some of the best designed and
most sophisticated of all such investigations.
A. Hypotheses
This study at the University of Chicago tested
four broad hypotheses. As a consequence of
therapy (1) clients will become more aware of
their feelings and experiences, (2) the gap
between the real self and the ideal self will
lessen; (3) clients' behavior will become more
socialized; and (4) clients will become both
more self-accepting and more accepting of
others.
B. Method
Participants were adults who sought therapy at
the University of Chicago counseling center.
Experimenters asked half of them to wait 60
days before receiving therapy while beginning
therapy with the other half. In addition, they
tested a control group of "normals" who were
matched with the therapy group. This control
group was also divided into a wait group and a
non-wait group.
C. Findings
Rogers and his associates found that the
therapy group—but not the wait group—
showed a lessening of the gap between real
self and ideal self. They also found that
clients who improved during therapy showed
changes in social behavior, as reported by
their friends.
D. Summary of Results
Although
client-centered
therapy
was
successful in changing clients, it was not
successful in bringing them to the level of the
fully functioning persons or even to the level
of "normal" psychological health.
VIII. Related Research
More recently, other researchers have
investigated Rogers' facilitative conditions
both outside therapy and within therapy.
A. Self-Ideal, Congruence, and Mental
Health: Self-Discrepancy Theory
In the 1980s, E. Tory Higgins developed a
version of Rogers' model called selfdiscrepancy theory. Higgins hypothesized
that individuals with high levels of selfdiscrepancy were most likely to experience
high levels of negative affect in their lives,
such as anxiety and depression. Ann Phillips
and Paul Silvia (2005) predicted that the
negative emotion experienced from either
real-ideal or real-ought discrepancies would
be greatest when people are more self-aware
or self-focused.
Their hypothesis was
supported by their findings when they
compared participants completing their
questionnaires in front of a mirror to
participants without a mirror.
Other researchers have found that college
students with a high discrepancy between real
and ideal self-perceptions tended to drink
more alcohol in a controlled setting (Wolfe &
Maisto, 2000). Others applied Higgins’ selfdiscrepancy theory to eating disorders (Veale,
Kinderman, Riley, & Lambrou, 2003), and to
general mental health (Liao & Fan, 2003). In
general, these results supported Rogers' notion
that people whose ideal self is at variance
with their real self may turn to unhealthy
behaviors as a means of coping with this
discrepancy.
B. Motivation and Pursuit of Goals
Rogers proposed (1951) that we all have an
organismic valuing process (OVP), or a
natural instinct guiding us toward the most
fulfilling pursuits.
Ken Sheldon and
colleagues (2003) explored the existence of an
OVP in college students. Their hypothesis
that if people have an OVP, over time they
will rate more inherently fulfilling goals as
more desirable than materialistic goals, was
supported by their findings. Schwartz and
Waterman found from their longitudinal study
(2006) that the more self-realizing
experiences people have, the more intrinsic
motivation they are likely to experience, just
as Carl Rogers would have predicted.
IX. Critique of Rogers
Rogers' person-centered theory is one of the
most carefully constructed of all personality
theories, and it meets quite well each of the
six criteria of a useful theory. It rates very
high on internal consistency and parsimony,
high on its ability to be falsified and to
generate research, and high average on its
ability to organize knowledge and to serve as
a guide to the practitioner.
X. Concept of Humanity
Rogers believed that humans have the capacity
to change and grow—provided that certain
necessary and sufficient conditions are
present. Therefore, his theory rates very high
on optimism. In addition, it rates high on free
choice, teleology, conscious motivation, social
influences, and the uniqueness of the
individual.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Rogers
wanted
to
be
a
______________________ after he graduated
from the University of Wisconsin, but he
switched to psychology when he went to
Columbia University.
2. Rogers's system of therapy is called
______________________, and his theory of
personality can be called person-centered.
3. The
______________________
tendency
suggests that all matter tends to evolve from
simpler to more complex forms.
4. The
______________________
tendency
suggests that people tend to move toward
completion or fulfillment of potentials.
5. A state of ________________________ exists
when the organismic self, the perceived self,
and the ideal self are in harmony.
6. To Rogers, the real self
__________________ self are
concept.
and the
the same
7. Rogers believed that each of us has an
_____________________ self, that is, a picture
of our self as we would wish to be.
8. Discrepancies
between
_________________________
and
organismic self results in incongruence.
the
the
9. A discrepancy between self-concept and
organismic
experiences
is
called
____________________.
10. People often deny or ____________________
both positive and negative experiences because
these experiences threaten an established selfconcept.
11. All of us, Rogers said, have a need for
______________________, that is, a feeling of
self-confidence and self-worth.
12. We experience ______________________ of
worth whenever a significant other accepts only
our positive behaviors and traits.
13. The need for _______________________
would include the need for food, sleep, and the
tendency to resist change.
14. The need for ________________________
includes the need to grow, to develop, and to
become a more fully-functioning person.
15. The first condition for therapeutic growth is
that a _____________________ client comes
into contact with a congruent therapist.
16. A _____________________ person is one
whose organismic experiences are matched by
an awareness of them and a willingness to
communicate them honestly.
17. Unconditional
____________________________ exists when
the therapist prizes the client regardless of the
client's behavior.
18. A state of ______________________ exists
when therapists accurately sense the feelings of
their clients and are able to communicate these
perceptions so that the clients know that
another person is on their wavelength.
19. According
to
_____________________
living
tendency to live in the moment.
Rogers,
is the
20. The issues of freedom and control of human
behavior were at the heart of a series of debates
between
Rogers
and
________________________.
True-False
______1. Carl Rogers' parents were teachers, and
they encouraged him to become a teacher.
_____ 2. Rogers's theory of personality grew out of
his experiences as a psychotherapist.
______3.
Rogers' approach to psychotherapy is
most accurately called nondirective.
______4.
As a schoolboy, Rogers became
interested in scientific farming, an interest
that contributed to his later research
abilities.
______5.
After receiving his PhD, Rogers
spent more than 10 years in clinical
practice, mostly isolated from the academic
community, and this isolation helped him
develop an approach to therapy that was
unique.
______6.
According to Rogers, all living
organisms possess the actualizing tendency.
______7.
Once the self-concept is formed,
change becomes difficult.
______8.
Self-actualization is a subsystem of
the actualizing tendency.
______9.
In Rogerian theory, the actualizing
tendency refers to the person's organismic
or physiological experiences.
_____10.
Rogers believed that healthy people
adjust their organismic self in order to make
it congruent with their ideal self.
_____11.
Receiving praise or compliments can
be threatening to a person's self-concept.
_____12.
Maintenance needs include the need
to resist change.
_____13.
After people have established
unconditional positive self-regard, they no
longer depend on others for unconditional
positive regard.
_____14.
Rogers held that healthy people
evaluate their experience from the
viewpoint of significant others.
_____15.
According to Rogers, people with
low self-worth who receive positive
external evaluations will assimilate these
evaluations into their self-concept, and thus
will grow toward psychological health.
_____16.
According to Rogers, a vulnerable
person is unaware of the discrepancy
between self and experience.
_____17.
Rogers was more interested in
building a theory than in conducting
psychotherapy.
_____18.
The three necessary conditions for
therapeutic growth, Rogers believed, are
counselor
congruence,
unconditional
positive regard, and empathic listening.
_____19.
Rogers believed that when clientcentered therapy is successful, clients
become their own therapists.
_____20.
A strong criticism of Rogers' theory
is that it has not produced any research.
Multiple Choice
_____ 1. At the height of his career, Rogers
engaged in a series of debates with
a. George Kelly.
b. Carl Jung.
c. B.F. Skinner.
d. Albert Bandura.
______2.
As a young boy, Rogers
a was shy and frequently teased by his older
brothers and sisters.
b. spent 2 years in a detention home for
wayward boys.
c. wanted to be a physician.
d. held deep-seated animosity toward his
mother.
______3.
Rogers described the formative
tendency as the tendency for
a. humans to form intimate interpersonal
relationships.
b. matter to evolve from simpler to more
complex form.
c. people to strive toward self-actualization.
d. people to return to an inorganic state.
______4.
Rogers believed that all behavior
relates to one's
a. enhancement needs.
b. ideal self.
c. safety needs.
d. actualizing tendency.
______5.
Healthy people evaluate their
experiences as good or bad according to
this criterion.
a. the self-concept
b. perceived self
c. reflected appraisal of others
d. the actualizing tendency
______6.
In Rogerian theory, the actualization
tendency
a. is synonymous with the formative
tendency.
b. has the same or nearly the same meaning as
self-actualization.
c. refers to the person's organismic
experiences.
d. refers to the tendency to actualize the
perceived self.
______7.
Inner tension arises, Rogers said,
when a conflict exists between the
a. self-actualization
tendency
and
the
organismic self.
b. emotion and cognition.
c. the values of others and one's own values.
d. the
formative
tendency
and
the
actualization tendency.
______8.
A discrepancy between the selfconcept and the ideal self results in
a.
b.
c.
d.
ego defense mechanisms.
safe-guarding tendencies.
the person of tomorrow.
incongruence.
_____9. Taylor's parents praise her whenever her
behavior meets with their standards.
However, they punish Taylor when her
behavior fails to meet with their approval.
From this information it appears that Taylor
is experiencing
a. low self-esteem.
b. conditions of worth.
c. disorganization.
d. high self-esteem.
_____10.
Tyler has a negative view of himself.
To increase his self-concept, his parents and
teachers continually praise and compliment
him. Rogers believed that such praise and
compliments are most likely to
a. enhance Tyler's self-esteem.
b. reinforce Tyler's negative behavior.
c. be easily accepted into Tyler's self-concept.
d. be distorted by Tyler.
_____11.
According to Rogers, the two basic
human needs are
a. sex and safety.
b. self-actualization and self-enhancement.
c. power and submission.
d. maintenance and enhancement.
_____12.
Rogers
believed
that,
for
psychologically healthy individuals,
a. the self and experience are congruent.
b. denial of organismic functioning is
essential.
c. the ideal self replaces the real self.
d. an incongruence exists between their
organismic self and their ideal self.
_____13.
Which statement is consistent with
Rogers' theory?
a. Self-regard is originally dependent on selfconcept.
b. Once achieved, self-regard can exist
independently of others' opinions and
attitudes.
c. Self-regard is symptomatic of malignant
egoism.
d. Self-regard stems from the
appraisals received from others.
negative
_____14.
An unawareness of a discrepancy
between self and experience leads to
a. psychological health.
b. anxiety.
c. threat.
d. vulnerability.
e. guilt.
_____15.
According to Rogers, the two
primary defensive strategies are ______.
a. repression and denial
b. repression and reaction formation
c. denial and distortion
d. repression and regression
_____16.
Rogers believed that a person with a
disorganized personality may at times
behave consistently with organismic
experience and at other times consistently
with
a. the ideal self.
b. others' expectations.
c. the shattered self-concept.
d. the actualizing tendency.
_____17.
Rogers hypothesized that empathy,
unconditional
positive
regard,
and
congruence are
a. necessary and sufficient conditions for
therapy.
b. necessary but not sufficient conditions for
therapy.
c. sufficient but not necessary conditions for
therapy.
d. neither necessary nor sufficient for therapy.
_____18.
In the Chicago studies,
a. clients who received no therapy
experienced the same level of growth as
did the clients in the therapy group.
b. clients who received no therapy received no
psychological growth.
c. Carl Rogers was the sole therapist.
d. all the therapist were graduate students.
_____19.
Clients are better able to listen to
themselves when the therapist possesses
a. sympathy for them.
b. empathy for them.
c. conditions of worth toward them.
d. a professional attitude toward them.
_____20.
Rogers hypothesized that persons of
tomorrow would
a. mistrust others.
b. be free of psychological conflict.
c. be open to their experience.
d. reach a high-level stage where continued
change was unnecessary.
_____21.
In the Chicago studies, Rogers and
his associates found that
a. clients who received client-centered therapy
became fully functioning.
b. empathy, unconditional positive regard, and
congruence were neither necessary nor
sufficient.
c. clients who received client-centered therapy
improved, but they did not reach an
"average"
level
of
psychological
functioning.
d. clients who received cognitive behavior
therapy showed no gain.
_____ 22. Which statement is most consistent
with Rogers' concept of humanity?
a. People have a natural tendency to move
toward actualization.
b. People
move
inevitably
toward
actualization.
c. People move inevitably toward selfactualization.
d. People are free to become what they will.
Short Answer
1. Compare Rogers' concepts of the formative
tendency and the actualizing tendency.
2. Discuss Rogers' concept of self-actualization.
3. Define conditions of worth.
4. List and briefly explain the "necessary and
sufficient" conditions for psychological growth.
5. Define incongruence and discuss how a person
might become incongruent.
6. Discuss implications for the future if Rogers'
view of the person of tomorrow is realized.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
minister
2.
client-centered
3.
formative
4.
actualization
5.
congruence
6.
organismic
7.
ideal
8.
self-concept
9.
incongruence
10. distort
11. self-regard
12. conditions
13. maintenance
14. enhancement
15. vulnerable
16. congruent
17. positive regard
18. empathy
19. existential
20. control (freedom)
True-False
1.
F
2.
T
3.
F
4.
T
5.
T
6.
T
7.
T
8.
T
9.
T
10. F
11. T
12. T
13. T
14. F
15. F
16. T
17. F
18. T
19. T
20. F
Multiple Choice
1.
c
2.
a
3.
b
4.
d
5.
d
6.
c
7.
a
8.
d
9.
b
10. d
11. d
12. a
13. b
14. d
15. c
16. c
17. a
18. b
19. b
20. c
21. c
22. a
Chapter 11
May: Existential Psychology
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 11, you should be able to:
1. List the common assumptions found among
most existential thinkers.
2. Define being-in-the-world and nonbeing.
3. Distinguish between normal and neurotic
anxiety.
4. Discuss the interrelationship between care, love,
and will.
5. List and give examples of the four forms of
love.
6. Discuss May's concept of myth and explain why
the Oedipal myth is important in today's world.
7. Describe the relationship between freedom and
destiny.
8. Define existential
freedom.
freedom
and
essential
9. Discuss research on terror management theory
and explain how it relates to Rollo May's
concept of anxiety.
10. Explain how physical fitness can be a defense
against mortality awareness.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of May's Existential Theory
Existential psychology began in Europe shortly
after World War II and spread to the United
States, where Rollo May played a large part in
popularizing it. A clinical psychologist by
training, May took the view that modern
people frequently run away both from making
choices and from assuming responsibility.
II. Biography of Rollo May
Rollo May was born in Ohio in 1909, but grew
up in Michigan. After graduating from Oberlin
College in 1930, he spent 3 years as an
itinerant artist roaming throughout eastern and
southern Europe. When he returned to the
United States, he entered the Union
Theological Seminary, from which he received
a Master of Divinity degree. He then served
for 2 years as a pastor, but quit in order to
pursue a career in psychology. He received a
PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia in
1949 at the relatively advanced age of 40.
During his professional career, he served as
lecturer or visiting professor at a number of
universities, conducted a private practice as a
psychotherapist, and wrote a number of
popular books on the human condition. May
died in 1994 at age 85.
III. Background of Existentialism
Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and
theologian, is usually considered to be the
founder of modern existentialism. Like later
existentialists, he emphasized a balance
between freedom and responsibility. People
acquire freedom of action by expanding their
self-awareness and by assuming responsibility
for their actions. However, this acquisition of
freedom and responsibility is achieved at the
expense of anxiety and dread.
A. What Is Existentialism?
The first tenet of existentialism is that
existence takes precedence over essence,
meaning that process and growth are more
important than product and stagnation.
Second, existentialists oppose the artificial
split between subject and object. Third, they
stress people's search for meaning in their
lives. Fourth, they insist that each of us is
responsible for who we are and what we will
become. Fifth, most existentialists take an
antitheoretical position, believing that theories
tend to objectify people.
B. Basic Concepts
According to existentialists, a basic unity
exists between people and their environments,
a unity expressed by the term Dasein, or
being-in-the-world.
Three
simultaneous
modes of the world characterize us in our
Dasein: Umwelt, or the environment around
us; Mitwelt, or our world with other people;
and Eigenwelt, or our relationship with our
self. People are both aware of themselves as
living beings and also aware of the possibility
of nonbeing or nothingness. Death is the
most obvious form of nonbeing, which can
also be experienced as retreat from life's
experiences.
IV. The Case of Philip
Rollo May helped illustrate his concepts of
existential theory and therapy by the case of
Philip, a successful architect in his mid-50s.
Despite his apparent success, Philip
experienced severe anxiety when his
relationship with Nicole (a writer in her mid40s) took a puzzling turn. Uncertain of his
future and suffering from low self-esteem,
Philip went into therapy with Rollo May.
Eventually, Philip was able to understand that
his difficulties with women were related to his
early experiences with a mother who was
unpredictable and an older sister who suffered
from severe mental disorders. However, he
began to recover only after he accepted that his
"need" to take care of unpredictable Nicole
was merely part of his personal history with
unstable women.
V. Anxiety
People experience anxiety when they become
aware that their existence or something
identified with it might be destroyed. The
acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to
anxiety, which can be either pleasurable and
constructive or painful and destructive.
A. Normal Anxiety
Growth produces normal anxiety, defined as
that which is proportionate to the threat, does
not involve repression, and can be handled on
a conscious level.
B. Neurotic Anxiety
Neurotic anxiety is a reaction that is
disproportionate to the threat and that leads to
repression and defensive behaviors. It is felt
whenever one's values are transformed into
dogma. Neurotic anxiety blocks growth and
productive action.
VI. Guilt
Guilt arises whenever people deny their
potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the
needs of others, or remain blind 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.
VII. Intentionality
The structure that gives meaning to experience
and allows people to make decisions about the
future is called intentionality. May believed
that intentionality permits people to overcome
the dichotomy between subject and object
because it enables them to see that their
intentions are a function of both themselves
and their environment.
VIII. Care, Love, and Will
Care is an active process that suggests that
things matter. Love means to care, to delight
in the presence of another person, and to affirm
that person's value as much as one's own. Care
is also an important ingredient in will, defined
as a conscious commitment to action.
A. Union of Love and Will
May believe that our modern society has lost
sight of the true nature of love and will,
equating love with sex and will with will
power. He further held that psychologically
healthy people are able to combine love and
will because both imply care, choice, action,
and responsibility.
B. Forms of Love
May identified four kinds of love in Western
tradition—sex, eros, philia, and agape. He
believed that Americans no longer view sex as
a natural biological function, but have become
preoccupied with it to the point of
trivialization. Eros is a psychological desire
that seeks an enduring union with a loved one.
It may include sex, but it is built on care and
tenderness. Philia, an intimate nonsexual
friendship between two people, takes time to
develop and does not depend on the actions of
the other person. Agape is an altruistic or
spiritual love that carries with it the risk of
playing God.
Agape is undeserved and
unconditional.
IX Freedom and Destiny
Psychologically healthy individuals are
comfortable with freedom, able to assume
responsibility for their choices, and willing to
face their destiny.
A. Freedom Defined
Freedom comes from an understanding of our
destiny. We are free when we recognize that
death is a possibility at any moment and when
we are willing to experience changes even in
the face of not knowing what those changes
will bring.
B. Forms of Freedom
May recognized two forms of freedom: (1)
freedom of doing or freedom of action, which
he called existential freedom, and (2) freedom
of being or an inner freedom, which he called
essential freedom.
C. Destiny Defined
May defined destiny as "the design of the
universe speaking through the design of each
one of us." In other words, our destiny
includes the limitations of our environment and
our personal qualities, including our mortality,
gender, and genetic predispositions. Freedom
and destiny constitute a paradox because
freedom gains vitality from destiny, and
destiny gains significance from freedom.
D. Philip's Destiny
After some time in therapy, Philip was able to
stop blaming his mother for not doing what he
thought she should have done. The objective
facts of his childhood had not changed, but
Philip's subjective perceptions had. As he
came to terms with his destiny, Philip began to
be able to express his anger, to feel less trapped
in his relationship with Nicole, and to become
more aware of his possibilities. In other words,
he gained his freedom of being.
X. The Power of Myth
According to May, the people of contemporary
Western civilization have an urgent need for
myths. Because they have lost many of their
traditional myths, they turn to religious cults,
drugs, and popular culture to fill the vacuum.
The Oedipus myth has had a powerful effect
on our culture because it deals with such
common existential crises as birth, separation
from parents, sexual union with one parent and
hostility toward the other, independence in
one's search for identity, and finally death.
XI. Psychopathology
May saw apathy and emptiness—not anxiety
or depression—as the chief existential
disorders of our time. People have become
alienated from the natural world (Umwelt),
from other people (Mitwelt) and from
themselves (Eigenwelt). Psychopathology is a
lack of connectedness and an inability to fulfill
one's destiny.
XII. Psychotherapy
The goal of May's psychotherapy was not to
cure patients of any specific disorder, but
rather to make them more fully human. May
said that the purpose of psychotherapy is to set
people free, that is, to allow them to make
choices and to assume responsibility for those
choices.
XIII. Related Research
May's theory of personality does not easily
lend itself to direct empirical research.
Nevertheless, some researchers have
investigated
the
concept
of
terror
management, which is based on more readily
testable hypotheses. Rollo May's existential
theory has not generated much objective,
scientific research, a situation that May
would have approved. Nevertheless, one
existential topic to receive some empirical
attention has been existential anxiety and
terror management.
Ernest Becker, an
American
psychiatrist
inspired
by
Kierkegaard and Otto Rank, has presented
research that has been a major source of
inspiration for terror management theorists.
A. Mortality Salience and Denial of Our
Animal Nature
Also, Jamie Goldenberg and colleagues
found that cultural worldviews (religion,
politics, and social norms) and self-esteem
function to defend people against thoughts of
death, so that when death becomes salient
through disasters, death of a loved one, or
images of death, people respond by clinging
more closely to cultural worldviews and
bolstering their self-esteem. They predicted
that mortality salience would increase
feelings of disgust, and their experiment
found this prediction to be true. Goldenberg
and colleagues found that their results
supported the basic terror management
assumption that people distance themselves
from animals because animals remind us of
our own physical mortality. Cathy Cox and
colleagues recently extended Goldenberg’s
findings by investigating disgust reactions to
breast feeding (Cox, Greenberg, Arndt, &
Pyszczynski, 2007; Cox, Goldenberg,
Pyszczynski, & Weise, 2007). Their findings
supported the conclusions of a growing body
of research that when mortality is made more
salient, people are increasingly disgusted by
human features that remind us of our animal
nature. This body of work points to the
general conclusion that disgust serves the
function of defending us against the
existential threat posed by our inevitable
death.
B. Fitness as a Defense against Mortality
Awareness
If thoughts of death are highly anxiety
provoking, then people should protect
themselves against thoughts of death
(terror-management) by doing things that
can decrease their likelihood of dying,
such as exercising and performing other
healthy behaviors.
Jamie Arndt and
colleagues investigated this issue and
found support for the hypothesis that, for
people who value health and fitness,
thoughts of death are related to greater
interest in health-related behaviors. They
also confirmed the importance of
distinguishing between proximal or
conscious and distal or unconscious
defenses against death. In summary, terror
management seems to be a powerful force
behind much of human behavior.
XIV. Critique of May
May's psychology has been legitimately
criticized as being antitheoretical and unjustly
criticized as being anti-intellectual. May's
antitheoretical approach calls for a new kind of
science—one that considers uniqueness and
personal freedom as crucial concepts.
However, according to the criteria of present
science, May's theory rates low on most
standards. More specifically, we give it a very
low rating on its ability to generate research, to
be falsified, and to guide action; low on
internal consistency (because it lacks
operationally defined terms), average on
parsimony, and high on its organizational
powers, due to its consideration of a broad
scope of the human condition.
XV. Concept of Humanity
May viewed people as complex beings,
capable of both tremendous good and immense
evil. People have become alienated from the
world, from other people, and, most of all,
from themselves. On the dimensions of a
concept of humanity, May rates high on free
choice, teleology, social influences, and
uniqueness. On the issue of conscious or
unconscious forces, his theory takes a middle
position.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. The Danish philosopher and theologian
____________________ is usually credited
with being the first modern existentialist.
2. Existentialists hold that existence precedes
____________________.
3. Rollo May spent part of his youth as a
wandering ___________________, traveling
through Europe, just as Erik Erikson had done a
few years earlier.
4. Existentialists emphasize the balance between
_________________ and responsibility.
5. Being-in-the-world,
or
______________________, means to exist in
the world or to be at one with the world.
6. Our relation with the world of things and
objects is called _____________________.
7. The
most
obvious
avenue
_____________________ is death.
of
8. Eigenwelt refers to our relationship with
______________________.
9. Our relationship to the world of people is
termed ________________.
10. People experience _____________________
when they become aware that their existence
might be destroyed.
11. Guilt
and
anxiety
are
__________________________ in the sense
that they refer to the nature of being and not to
specific situations.
12. Intentionality and _____________________ are
inseparable.
13. May defined ______________________ as "a
state in which something does matter."
14. May suggested a union between love and
______________________.
15. ___________________ is a nonsexual love
between two people, for example, a sister and
brother.
16. Healthy people are able to face their
________________________ and to assume
their freedom.
17. May defined _______________________ as
"the individual's capacity to know that he [she]
is the determined one."
18. Freedom comes from understanding
______________________.
our
19. May believed that _______________________
are conscious and unconscious belief systems
that provide explanations for personal and social
problems.
20. According
to
May,
apathy
and
______________________ are the spiritual
illnesses of our time.
True-False
______1.
Existentialism began with the work of
A. H. Maslow.
______2.
Rollo May had an unpredictable
mother and an older sister who experienced
a psychotic breakdown.
______3.
During his lifetime, Kierkegaard's
ideas had little effect on philosophical
thought.
______4.
Existentialists advocate
between subject and object.
a
split
______5.
Most existentialists suggest that
people be studied from an objective frame
of reference.
______6.
The acquisition of freedom should be
matched by the acquisition of responsibility.
______7.
Neurotic anxiety, May said, is
disproportionate to the threat and involves
intrapsychic conflict.
______8.
Ontological guilt associated with
Mitwelt arises from our separation from the
natural world.
______9.
For May, intentionality is always
conscious.
_____10.
Care is the source of love and will.
_____11.
Rollo May believed that love and will
should be separate.
_____12.
May considered sex to be the
salvation of eros.
_____13.
May believed
destiny was death.
that
our
ultimate
_____14.
May
suggested
that
healthy
relationships blend all four forms of love.
_____15.
Eros is a psychological desire to seek
creation through an enduring union with a
loved one.
_____16.
Agape is an altruistic love that does
not depend on the behavior of the loved
person.
_____17.
According to May, anxiety and guilt
are the malaise of our time.
_____18.
The goal of May's therapy is to set
people free.
_____19.
May believed that the Oedipus story
lost its power when psychoanalysts
popularized it and thus trivialized it.
_____20.
May believed that humans are capable
of doing both tremendous good and
immense evil.
_____21.
May's existential psychology has
generated extensive research.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Although Rollo May's writings were
somewhat philosophical in tone, his views
originated from his experience as a
a. lawyer.
b. physician.
c. scientific researcher.
d. soldier in World War II.
e. psychotherapist.
______2.
May said that healthy people
a. retreat from their destiny.
b. deny their freedom.
c. challenge their destiny.
d. deny death.
______3.
Kierkegaard, like most existentialists,
suggested a balance between
a. life and death.
b. freedom and responsibility.
c. hope and despair.
d. consciousness and unconsciousness.
e. Yin and Yang.
______4.
May believed that people acquire
freedom of action, in part, by
a. expanding their self-awareness.
b. relying on other people.
c. using the tools and technology of modern
society.
d. denying nonbeing.
e. becoming self-actualizing.
______5.
May would accept the statement that
a. essence precedes existence.
b. subject and object operate as a single entity.
c. responsibility precedes freedom.
d. freedom
takes
precedence
over
responsibility.
_____ 6. The term Dasein expresses
a. the ultimate form of love.
b. the world of things or objects.
c. the essential unity of person
environment.
d. nonbeing.
and
______7.
The terms Umwelt, Mitwelt, and
Eigenwelt refer to
a. existential dread.
b. mechanisms of escaping from freedom.
c. mechanism of escaping from responsibility.
d. a person's being-in-the-world.
______8.
The personality theories of Sullivan,
Maslow, Rogers, and others that emphasize
interpersonal relations deal mostly with
______.
a. Umwelt
b. Mitwelt
c. Eigenwelt
d. Dasein
______9.
Our relationship to self and our ability
to grasp who we are best describes ______.
a. Umwelt
b. Mitwelt
c. Eigenwelt
d. nonbeing
_____10.
Various compulsive behaviors and
addictions can be seen as manifestations of
a. Mitwelt.
b. nonbeing.
c. normal anxiety.
d. neurotic anxiety.
e. destiny.
_____11.
May defined anxiety as
a. a feeling of separation from the natural
world.
b. an awareness that our existence or some
value identified with it may be destroyed.
c. the imaginative playing with the possibility
of some act or state occurring.
d. a fear of nonbeing and an attraction to
nothingness or death.
_____12.
The guilt that arises from our inability
to accurately perceive the world of others is
associated with ______.
a. Umwelt
b. Mitwelt
c. Eigenwelt
d. neurotic anxiety
e. intentionality
_____13.
May defined intentionality as
a. the desire to achieve self-fulfillment.
b. the feeling of threat that leads to a
realization of Dasein.
c. the acceptance of ontological guilt.
d. the structure that gives meaning to our
experience and allows us to make decisions
about the future.
_____14.
May regarded care as the source of
a. love and will.
d. eros and philia.
c. philia and agape.
d. Dasein and nothingness.
_____15.
May defined love as:
a. "a delight in the presence of the other
person and an affirmation of his value and
development as much as one's own"
b. "the capacity to organize oneself toward a
prized partner"
c. "the imaginative playing with the idea that
another is an object of affection"
d. "agape minus eros"
e. "philia minus eros"
_____16.
According to May, an authentic
person must unite love with
a. sex.
b. imagination.
c. wish.
d. agape.
e. will.
_____17.
Philia is defined as
a. love without care.
b. care without love.
c. will without wish.
d. an intimate, nonsexual friendship.
e. a sexual, nonintimate relationship.
_____18.
May believed that freedom grows
from an understanding of one's
a. authenticity.
b. will.
c. intentionality.
d. responsibility.
e. destiny.
_____19.
According to May, a denial of destiny
leads to
a. nonbeing.
b. psychopathology.
c. freedom.
d. freedom and responsibility.
e. guilt and shame.
_____20.
May contended that contemporary
people of Western civilization have an
urgent need for
a. religion.
b. peace.
c. unity.
d. individuality.
e. myths.
_____21.
People use myths to
a. transcend the immediate situation.
b. expand self-awareness.
c. search for identity.
d. all of these.
_____22.
In The Cry for Myth, May suggested
that one myth is powerful today because it
contains elements of existential crises
common to all of us. This is the story of
______.
a. Oedipus
b. Moses
c. Hercules
d. Job
e. Jonah
Short Answer
1. List five common elements of existentialism.
2. Distinguish between normal anxiety and neurotic
anxiety, as described by May.
3. Explain May's concept of three forms of guilt.
4. List and define four kinds of love.
5. Differentiate between existential freedom and
essential freedom.
6. Discuss May's concept of destiny.
7. Trace May's discussion of the Oedipus myth.
8. Summarize the findings of terror management
theorists, and explain how these findings relate to
Rollo May's existential theory of personality.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
Kierkegaard
2.
essence
3.
artist
4.
freedom
5.
Dasein
6.
Umwelt
7.
nonbeing
8.
self
9.
Mitwelt
10. anxiety
11. ontological
12. action
13. care
14. will
15. Philia
16. destiny
17. freedom
18. destiny
19. myths
20. emptiness
True-False
1.
F
2.
T
3.
T
4.
F
5.
F
6.
T
7.
T
8.
F
9.
F
10. T
11. F
12. F
13. T
14. T
15. T
16. T
17. F
18. T
19. F
20. T
21. F
Multiple Choice
1.
e
2.
c
3.
b
4.
a
5.
b
6.
c
7.
d
8.
b
9.
c
10. b
11. b
12. b
13. d
14. a
15. a
16. e
17. d
18. e
19. b
20. e
21. d
22. a
Chapter 12
Allport: Psychology of the Individual
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter12, you should be able to:
1. Discuss how Allport's meeting with Freud
affected his choice of a career.
2. Discuss Allport's definition of personality.
3. List and discuss Allport's characteristics of
the psychologically healthy personality.
4. Discuss Allport's concept of personal
dispositions, including how they differ from
traits.
5. Explain the distinction between motivational
and stylistic dispositions.
6. Define proprium and give reasons why
Allport chose this term rather than "self."
7. List and illustrate the three levels of personal
dispositions.
8. Differentiate between reactive and proactive
theories of motivation.
9. Explain and give examples of Allport's
concept of functional autonomy.
10. Explain the rationale and results of the
analysis of Letters from Jenny.
11. Summarize research
Orientation Scale.
on
the
Religious
12. Discuss how religion and prayer may be
related to health.
I.
Overview of Allport's Psychology of the
Individual
As a 22-year-old student, Gordon Allport
had a short but pertinent visit with Freud in
Vienna, a meeting that changed Allport's
life and altered the course of personality
psychology in the United States.
In
Allport's mature theory, his major emphasis
was on the uniqueness of each individual.
Allport built a theory of personality as a
reaction against what he regarded as the
non-humanistic
positions
of
both
psychoanalysis and animal-based learning
theory. However, Allport was eclectic in
his approach and accepted many of the
ideas of other theorists.
II. Biography of Gordon Allport
Gordon W. Allport was born in Indiana in
1897. He received an undergraduate degree
in philosophy and economics from Harvard.
After receiving a PhD from Harvard,
Allport spent 2 years studying under some
of the great German psychologists, but he
returned to teach at Harvard. Two years
later he took a position at Dartmouth, but
after 4 years at Dartmouth, he returned to
Harvard, where he remained until his death
in 1967.
III. Allport's Approach to Personality Theory
Answers to three questions reveal Allport's
view of personality theory. (1) What is
personality? What is the role of conscious
motivation? (3) What are the characteristics
of the psychologically healthy person?
A. What Is Personality?
Allport defined personality as "the dynamic
organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine [the
person's] behavior and thought.”
This
definition includes both physical and
psychological properties and both stability
and flexibility. Also, personality not only is
something but it does something; that is, it
includes both behavior and thinking.
B. What is the Role of Conscious
Motivation?
More than any other personality theorist,
Allport recognized the importance of
conscious motivation. His emphasis of
conscious motivation probably began with
his short-lived discussion with Freud, when
Allport had not yet selected a career in
psychology. Rather than viewing Freud's
comments as an expression of an
unconscious motive, Allport believed that
Freud missed the point of Allport's story.
Whereas Freud would attribute an
unconscious desire in the story of the young
boy on the tram car, Allport saw the story as
an expression of a conscious motive.
C. What Are the Characteristics of a
Healthy Person?
Several
years
before
Maslow
conceptualized
the
self-actualizing
personality, Allport listed six criteria for
psychological health. These include
(1) an extension of the sense of self,
(2) warm relationships with others,
(3) emotional security or self-acceptance,
(4) a realistic view of the world.
IV. Structure of Personality
To Allport, the most important structures of
personality are those that permit description
of the individual in terms of individual
characteristics, and he called these
individual structures personal dispositions.
A. Personal Dispositions
Allport distinguished between common
traits, which permit inter-individual
comparisons, and personal dispositions,
which are peculiar to the individual. He
recognized three overlapping levels of
personal dispositions, the most general of
which are cardinal dispositions that are so
obvious and dominating that they can not be
hidden from other people. Not everyone
has a cardinal disposition, but all people
have 5 to 10 central dispositions, or
characteristics around which their lives
revolve. In addition, everyone has a great
number of secondary dispositions, which
are less reliable and less conspicuous than
central traits.
B. Motivational and Stylistic Dispositions
Allport further divided personal dispositions
into (1) motivational dispositions, which are
strong enough to initiate action and (2)
stylistic dispositions, which refer to the
manner in which an individual behaves and
which guide rather than initiate action.
C. Proprium
The proprium refers to all those behaviors
and characteristics that people regard as
warm and central in their lives. Allport
preferred the term proprium over self or
ego, because the latter terms could imply an
object or thing within a person that controls
behavior, whereas proprium suggests the
core of one's personhood.
V. Motivation
Allport insisted that an adequate theory of
motivation must consider the notion that
motives change as people mature and also
that people are motivated by present drives
and wants.
A. A Theory of Motivation
To Allport, people not only react to their
environment, but they also shape their
environment and cause it to react to them.
His proactive approach emphasized the idea
that people often seek additional tension and
that they purposefully act on their
environment in a way that fosters growth
toward psychological health.
B. Functional Autonomy
Allport's most distinctive and controversial
concept is his theory of functional
autonomy, which holds that some (but not
all) human motives are functionally
independent from the original motive
responsible for a particular behavior. Allport
recognized two levels of functional
autonomy: (1) perseverative functional
autonomy, which is the tendency of certain
basic behaviors (such as addictive
behaviors) to perseverate or continue in the
absence of reinforcement: and (2) propriate
functional autonomy, which refers to selfsustaining motives (such as interests) that
are related to the proprium. According to
Allport, a behavior is functionally
autonomous to the extent that it seeks new
goals, as when a need (eating) turns into an
interest (cooking). Not all behaviors are
functionally autonomous, and Allport listed
eight such processes: (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 such
as 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.
VI. The Study of the Individual
Allport strongly felt that psychologists
should develop and use research methods
that study the individual rather than groups.
A. Morphogenic Science
Allport favored morphogenic procedures
over nomothetic ones.
Morphogenic
investigations study only one person at a
time person and are opposed to nomothetic
methods that study large numbers of people.
Presently, nearly all psychology studies
investigate groups of people. Allport's two
most famous morphogenic reports were the
diaries of Marion Taylor and the letters
from Jenny.
B. The Diaries of Marion Taylor
In the late 1930's, Allport and his wife
became acquainted with diaries written by a
woman they called Marion Taylor. These
diaries, along with descriptions on Marion
Taylor by her mother, younger sister,
favorite teacher, friends, and a neighbor
provided the Allports with a large quantity
of material that could be studied using
morphogenic methods.
However, the
Allports never published this material.
C. Letters From Jenny
Even though Allport never published data
from Marion Taylor's dairies, he did publish
a second case study—that of Jenny Gove
Masterson, whose son had been Gordon
Allport's college roommate. During the last
11 1/2 years of her life, Jenny wrote a series
of 301 letters to Gordon and Ada Allport
(although Allport tried to hide the identity
of the young couple who had received these
letters). Two of Gordon Allport's students,
Alfred Baldwin and Jeffrey Paige, used a
personal structure analysis and factor
analysis respectively, while Allport used a
common-sense approach to discern Jenny's
personality structure as revealed by her
letters. All three approaches yielded similar
results, suggesting that morphogenic studies
can be reliable.
VII. Related Research
Allport believed that a deep religious
commitment was a mark of a mature person,
but he also saw that many regular churchgoers did not have a mature religious
orientation and were capable of deep racial
and social prejudice. In other words, he saw
a curvilinear relationship between church
attendance and prejudice. That is, people
who score high on the Intrinsic scale of the
Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) tend to
have overall better personal functioning
than those who score high on the Extrinsic
scale. Early studies found that some highly
religious people had high levels of
psychological health, whereas others
suffered from a variety of psychological
disorders. The principal difference between
the two church-going groups is one of
intrinsic
versus
extrinsic
religious
orientation; that is, people with an intrinsic
orientation tend to be psychologically
healthy, but those with an extrinsic
orientation suffer from poor psychological
health.
A. The Religious Orientation Scale
This insight led Allport to develop and use
the Religious Orientation Scale to assess
both an intrinsic orientation and an extrinsic
orientation toward religion. Allport and
Michael Ross (1967) found that people with
an extrinsic orientation toward religion tend
to be quite prejudiced, whereas those with
an intrinsic orientation tend to be low on
racial and social prejudice.
B. Religion, Prayer, and Health
Recent research has fond a consistent
relationship between religious involvement
and health. Attending church regularly
tends to be associated with feeling better
and living longer (Powell, Shahabi, &
Thoresen, 2003). Kevin Masters and his
colleagues
(2005)
studied
religious
orientation and cardiovascular health. They
found that, as they predicted, those with an
intrinsic religious orientation did not have
the same increases of blood pressure in
reaction to moderate stress as those with an
extrinsic orientation did. These results
demonstrated that an intrinsic religious
orientation serves as a buffer against the
stressors of everyday life. Timothy Smith
and colleagues (2003) reviewed all the
research on religion and depression to see
whether religion could also serve as a buffer
against depression. Their findings generally
supported Allport’s view that there are good
and bad ways to be religious: The more
intrinsically oriented toward religion a
person is, the less likely the person is to
experience
depression;
the
more
extrinsically oriented, the more likely a
person is to be depressed. The conclusion is
that while religion can be good for one’s
health, it is important to be religious for the
right reasons in order to derive health
benefits.
C. Prejudice Reduction: Optimal Contact
Allport conducted some research himself on
the topic of reducing prejudice, and he
proposed the contact hypothesis, stating that
more contact under optimal conditions was
one of the most important components to
reducing prejudice (Allport, 1954). Thomas
Pettigrew, one of Allport’s students, has
continued the work on prejudice that Allport
began (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; Tropp &
Pettigrew, 2005). Pettigrew and Linda
Tropp reviewed more than 500 studies
testing Allport’s contact hypothesis. They
found that the four specific criteria
originally outlined by Allport are indeed
essential to reduction of prejudice. They
also found that while the concept of optimal
contact was originally a way to reduce racial
prejudice, it also works to reduce prejudice
toward the elderly and the mentally ill
(Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). While Allport’s
ideas continue to enrich research in
personality psychology, his methods for
prejudice reduction additionally have
enriched the lives of people who have
benefited, perhaps without knowing it, from
his deep commitment to reducing prejudice
in our society.
VIII. Critique of Allport
Allport wrote eloquently about personality,
but his views are based more on
philosophical speculation and common
sense than on scientific studies. As a
consequence, his theory rates low on its
ability to organize psychological data and to
be falsified. It rates high on parsimony and
internal consistency and about average on
its ability to generate research and to help
the practitioner.
IX. Concept of Humanity
Allport saw people as thinking, proactive,
purposeful beings who are generally aware
of what they are doing and why. On the six
dimensions for a concept of humanity,
Allport rates higher than any other theorist
on conscious influences and on the
uniqueness of the individual. He rates high
on free choice, optimism, and teleology and
about average on social influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. After teaching a year in Turkey, Allport had
a
memorable
visit
with
____________________ .
2. Allport's major interest was in the
_____________________ of personality,
rather than the commonalties.
3. Allport emphasized
_____________________ behavior rather
than reactive behavior.
4. Allport was ______________________ in
his approach to personality study, meaning
that he was willing to use ideas from
psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and other
theoretical models.
5. Allport defined personality as "the
________________ organization within the
individual of those psychophysical systems
that determine his characteristic behavior and
thought."
6. More than any other personality theorists,
Allport emphasized ____________________
motivation.
7. To Allport, psychologically mature people
are ______________ of their behavior and
the reasons for their behavior.
8. Allport's healthy individual would possess a
_______________ philosophy of life.
9. Allport believed that the average person has
about 5 to 10 ___________________ traits.
10. Traits shared by many people are called
______________ traits.
11. Allport would say that the Marquis de Sade
had a ____________ disposition, because his
entire adult life revolved around a single
motive.
12. Allport would agree with Adler and Maslow
that psychologically healthy people would
have high levels of __________________.
13. The manner in which people behave refers to
their ______ traits.
14. Motivational traits ___________ action,
whereas stylistic traits guide action.
15. The
___________includes
all
those
behaviors and characteristics that we regard
as peculiarly our own.
16. Allport recognized two levels of functional
autonomy: ________ and perseverative.
17. A motive is functionally autonomous to the
extent
that
it
seeks
new
_________________.
18. Nonothetic approaches to science seek
general
laws,
whereas
_______________________ procedures refer
to the single case.
19. Allport
recognized
a
____________
relationship between church attendance and
prejudice.
20. People with an _________________
orientation toward religion see religion as a
means to some end, for example, a good way
of meeting new people.
True-False
______1.
Allport's principal concern was
with the uniqueness of the individual.
______2.
As a young man, Allport had a
memorable meeting with Carl Jung.
______3.
Allport questioned the reliability
and validity of self-reports such as diaries
and letters.
______4.
Allport
psychoanalysis
believed
that
and
animal-based
learning theories were basically reactive
theories.
______5.
Allport made no apologies for his
eclecticism.
______6.
Allport's personality theory was
unique in its emphasis on conscious
motivation.
______7.
Allport regarded himself as a trait
psychologist.
______8.
Common traits are shared by
several people.
______9.
Common traits are also called
personal dispositions.
_____10.
Each person has about four or five
cardinal dispositions.
_____11.
Motivational dispositions initiate
action.
_____12.
In the United States, driving on the
right side of the road would be a
peripheral aspect of personality.
_____13.
Allport's most famous study of a
single individual was of Marion Taylor,
which he published in 1953.
_____14.
Allport's most distinctive and
controversial concept is that of functional
autonomy.
_____15.
Allport's
emphasizes
hypothesis.
theory
the
of motivation
drive-reduction
_____16.
Functional autonomous behaviors
do not need constant reinforcement in
order to maintain themselves.
_____17.
Allport's theory of personality is
based mostly on his clinical experiences
as a therapist.
_____18.
Allport and Ross found a positive
and direct correlation between church
attendance and prejudice.
_____19.
People who endorse both intrinsic
and extrinsic items on the Religious
Orientation
Scale
are
called
indiscriminately proreligious.
_____20.
Allport's concept of personality is
basically optimistic and hopeful.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Allport's personality theory
marked chiefly by its emphasis on
a. unconscious motivation.
b. personality types.
c. early childhood experiences.
d. uniqueness of the individual.
is
______2.
This term best describes Allport's
approach to the study of personality.
a. eclectic
b. theoretical
c. trait and factor
d. behavioristic
______3.
In his study of personality, Allport
emphasized
a. cultural influences.
b. the normal healthy person.
c. group characteristics.
d. factor analytic techniques.
______4.
According to Allport, people are
motivated by
a. a variety of drives.
b. the need for self-actualization.
c. the need to reduce tension and seek
pleasure.
d. the need for relatedness with others.
______5.
Allport insisted that the basic units
of personality are
a. common traits.
b. cardinal traits.
c. types.
d. personal dispositions.
_____6. According
to
Allport,
the
psychologically mature person would
a. have a unifying philosophy of life.
b. lack a sense of humor.
c. be motivated mostly by unconscious
needs.
d. none of these.
e. all of these.
______7.
Allport recognized these two kinds
of traits:
a. primary and secondary
b. source and surface
c. common and individual
d. proactive and reactive
_____8. Personal dispositions
a. are also referred to as common traits.
b. make various stimuli functionally equal.
c. initiate and guide the behavior of
individuals.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
_____9. Cardinal dispositions
a. are found in everyone.
b. cannot be hidden.
c. are also called central personal
dispositions.
d. are common traits.
e. have been extensively studied in the
psychology literature.
____10. Secondary dispositions
a. cannot be hidden.
b. are not central to the person yet occur
with some regularity.
c. are those 5 to 10 personal dispositions
that characterize most people.
d. are common traits.
e. are too weak to initiate action.
_____11.
This term is LEAST descriptive of
Allport's approach to personality.
a. personal disposition
b. morphogenic
c. types
d. functional autonomy
_____12.
Stylistic traits
a. are intensely felt.
b. guide action.
c. are usually cardinal traits.
d. are common traits.
_____13.
The proprium is Allport's term for
a. those behaviors and characteristics that
people regard as central to their lives.
b. the conscious portion of the ego.
c. the unconscious portion of the ego.
d. those behaviors and characteristics that
people regard as belonging to the
periphery of their lives.
_____14.
According to Allport, people are
motivated mostly by
a. unconscious forces originating in
childhood.
b. the need for competence and superiority.
c. both the need to adjust and the need to
grow.
d. both sex and aggression.
_____15.
When motives change to selfsustaining interests, Allport would say
that they have become
a. extinct.
b. needs.
c. habituated.
d. functionally autonomous.
e. secondary drives.
_____16.
Which of these did Allport NOT
recognize as a criterion for an adequate
theory of motivation?
a. the contemporaneity of motives
b. the pluralistic nature of motives
c. a single master motive that unifies all
behavior
d. the cognitive processes of planning and
attention
_____17.
Propriate functional autonomy is
Allport's
a. master system of motivation.
b. concept of unconscious motivation.
c. explanation for pathological behaviors.
d. term for self-actualization.
e. concept of factor analysis.
_____18.
Allport assumed that people who
attend church regularly may have
a. an extrinsic religious orientation.
b. an intrinsic religious orientation.
c. both of these.
d. neither of these.
_____19.
Research has suggested that people
who score high on the Extrinsic scale of
the Religious Orientation Scale
a. are more prejudiced than those who score
high on the Intrinsic scale.
b. have less anxiety and better personal
functioning than people who score high
on the Intrinsic scale.
c. do not attend church regularly.
d. attend church more regularly than people
who score high on the Intrinsic scale.
_____20.
Allport's theory of personality is
basically
a. optimistic.
b. reactive.
c. causal.
d. trait-oriented.
Short Answers
1 Explain the difference between a trait and a
personal disposition.
2. Discuss Allport's concept of a psychologically
healthy person.
3. Explain the difference between motivational
and stylistic personal dispositions.
4. Discuss Allport's idea of a proprium and
explain why he used that term instead of "self."
5. From Allport's point of view, explain the
difference between a functionally autonomous
motive and a habit in the process of becoming
extinct.
6. Explain Allport and Ross's Religious
Orientation Scale (ROS).
What does it
measure? What personal characteristics are
associated with high scores on the ROS?
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Freud
uniqueness
proactive
eclectic
dynamic
conscious
conscious (aware)
unifying
central
common
cardinal
social interest
stylistic
initiate
proprium
propriate
goals
morphogenic
curvilinear
extrinsic
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
T.
F
F
T
T
T
F
T
F
F
T
T
F
T
F
T
F
F
T
T
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
d
a
b
a
d
a
c
b
b
b
c
b
a
c
d
c
a
c
a
a
Chapter 13
McCrae and Costa’s Five Factor Trait
Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 13, you should be able
to:
1. Explain the basics of factor analytic
procedures.
2. Explain the importance of R. B. Cattell's
pioneering work.
3. Distinguish between the Big Five as a
taxonomy and as a theory.
4. List and briefly describe each of the Big
Five factors.
5. Discuss the evolution of the five-factor
theory.6. List and briefly describe McCrae
and Costa's three core components of
personality.
6. List and briefly describe McCrae and
Costa's three peripheral components of
personality.
7. Briefly describe some of the cross-cultural
research on McCrae and Costa's Big Five
factors.
8. Critique the pros and cons of McCrae and
Costa’s factor and trait theories.
9. Discuss the relationship of parsimony to
factor and trait theories.
I. Overview of Factor and Trait Theories
McCrae, Costa and others have used factor
analysis to identify traits, that is, relatively
permanent dispositions of people. Robert
McCrae and Paul Costa have insisted that
the proper number of personality factors is
five—no more and no fewer.
II. The Pioneering Work of Raymond B.
Cattell
In Chapter 13, we saw that Gordon Allport
used common sense to identify both
common and unique personality traits. In
comparison, Raymond Cattell used factor
analysis to identify a large number of traits,
including personality traits. Included in
personality traits were temperament traits,
which are concerned with how a person
behaves. Temperament traits include both
normal and abnormal traits. Of the 23
normal traits, 16 are measured by Cattell's
famous PF scale.
III. Basics of Factor Analysis
Factor analysis is a mathematical procedure
for reducing a large number of scores to a
few more general variables or factors.
Correlations of the original, specific scores
with the factors are called factor loadings.
Traits generated through factor analysis
may be either unipolar (scaled from zero to
some large amount) or bipolar (having two
opposing poles, such as introversion and
extraversion).
For factors to have
psychological meaning, the analyst must
rotate the axes on which the scores are
plotted.
Eysenck used an orthogonal
rotation whereas Cattell favored an
oblique rotation. The oblique rotation
procedure ordinarily results in more traits
than the orthogonal method.
IV. The Big Five: Taxonomy or Theory?
A large number of researchers, including
Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, Jr., have
insisted that all personality structure can be
subsumed under five, and only five, major
factors.
V. Biographies of Robert McCrae and Paul
T. Costa, Jr.
Robert Roger McCrae was born April 28,
1949 in Maryville, Missouri, the youngest
of three children. After completing an
undergraduate degree in philosophy from
Michigan State University, he earned a PhD
in psychology from Boston University.
Following the lead of Raymond Cattell, he
began using factor analysis as a means of
measuring the structure of human traits.
After completing his academic work,
McCrae began working with Paul Costa at
the National Institute of Health, where he is
still employed. Paul T. Costa Jr. was born
September 16 in Franklin, New Hampshire.
He earned his undergraduate degree in
psychology from Clark University and a
PhD from the University of Chicago. In
1978 he began working with Robert
McCrae at the National Institute of Aging,
where he continues to conduct research on
human development and aging. The
collaboration between Costa and McCrae
has been unusually fruitful, with well over
200 co-authored research articles and
chapters, and several books.
VI. In Search of the Big Five
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Costa
and McCrae, like most other factor
researchers, were building elaborate
taxonomies of personality traits, which they
were using to examine the stability and
structure of personality. As with many
other factor theorists, they quickly
discovered the traits of extraversion (E),
neuroticism (N),
experience (O).
and
openness
to
A. Five Factors Found
As late as 1983, McCrae and Costa were
arguing for a three-factor model of
personality, but by 1985 they begin to
report work on the five factors of
personality, having added agreeableness
(A) and conscientiousness (C). Costa and
McCrae did not fully develop the A and C
scales until the revised NEO-PI personality
inventory appeared in 1992. Recently, the
five factors have been found across a
variety of cultures and using a number of
languages. In addition, the five factors
show some permanence with age; that is,
adults tend to maintain a consistent
personality structure as they grow older.
B. Description of the Five Factors
McCrae and Costa agreed with Eysenck
that personality traits are basically bipolar,
with some people scoring high on one
factor and low on its counterpart. For
example, people who score high on N tend
to be anxious, temperamental, self-pitying,
self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable to
stress-related disorders, whereas people
with low scores on N tend to have opposite
characteristics. People who score high on E
tend to be affectionate, jovial, talkative, a
joiner, and fun-loving, whereas low E
scorers tend to have opposing traits. High
O scorers prefer variety in their life and are
contrasted to low O scorers who have a
need for closure and who gain comfort in
their association with familiar people and
things. People who score high on A tend to
be trusting, generous, yielding, acceptant,
and good natured. Low A scorers are
generally suspicious, stingy, unfriendly,
irritable, and critical of other people.
Finally, people high on the C scale tend to
be
ordered,
controlled,
organized,
ambitious, achievement-focused, and selfdisciplined. Together these dimensions
make up the personality traits of the five
factor model, often referred to as the "BigFive."
VII.
Evolution of the Five-Factor Theory
Originally, the five factors were simply a
taxonomy, a classification of personality
traits. By the late 1980s, Costa and McCrae
were confident that they had found a stable
structure of personality. In shaping a
theory from the remnants of a taxonomy,
McCrae and Costa were insisting that their
personality structure was able to
incorporate change and growth into its
tenets and to stimulate empirical research as
well as organize research findings. In other
words, their Five-Factor taxonomy was
being transformed into a Five-Factor
Theory (FFT).
A. Units of the Five-Factor Theory
McCrae and Costa predict behavior through
an understanding of three central or core
components and three peripheral ones. The
three core components include: (1) basic
tendencies, (2) characteristic adaptations,
and (3) self-concept. Basic tendencies are
the universal raw material of personality.
Characteristic adaptations are acquired
personality structures that develop as
people adapt to their environment. Self-
concept refers to knowledge and attitudes
about oneself.
Peripheral components
include (1) biological bases, which are the
sole cause of basic tendencies; (2) objective
biography, which is everything a person
does or thinks over a lifetime; and (3)
external influence, or knowledge, views,
and evaluations of the self.
B. Basic Postulates
The two most important core postulates are
basic
tendencies
and
characteristic
adaptations. Basic tendencies have four
postulates—individuality,
origin,
development, and structure.
The
individuality postulate stipulates that every
adult has a unique pattern of traits. The
origin postulate assumes that all personality
traits originate solely from biological
factors, such as genetics, hormones, and
brain structures.
The development
postulate assumes that traits develop and
change through childhood, adolescence,
and mid-adulthood. The structure postulate
states that traits are organized hierarchically
from narrow and specific to broad and
general.
VIII. Related Research
The five-trait theory of McCrae and Costa
has drawn a considerable amount of
research, and isvery popular in the field of
personality.
Costa and McCrae have
developed a widely used personality
inventory: the NEO-PI (Costa & McCrae,
1985, 1992). Traits have been linked to
vital outcomes such as physical health
(Martin, Friedman, & Schwartz, 2007),
well-being (Costa & McCrae, 1980), and
academic success (Noftle & Robins, 2007;
Zyphur, Islam, & Landis, 2007). Traits
have also been linked to more everyday
outcomes such as mood (McNiel &
Fleeson, 2006).
A. Personality and Culture
If personality has a strong biological bases,
then the structure of personality should not
differ much from culture to culture. The
major traits do appear consistent in most
countries of the world (McCrae, 2002;
Poortinga, Van de Vijver, & van Hemert,
2000). Our biological makeup influences
our personalities on similar dimensions
such as extraversion or neuroticism; how
and when traits are expressed are
influenced by cultural and social context.
In short, personality is shaped by both
nature and nurture.
B. Traits and Academics
Erik Noftle and Richard Robins (2007)
studied the relationship of traits and
academic performance. They found that
conscientiousness was the most important
trait for predicting GPAs in high school and
college, but not for SAT scores. The “Big
5” factors were not strong predictors of
SAT math scores, but openness was related
to SAT verbal scores. These differences are
attributed to differences between aptitude
and achievement measured by SATs versus
GPAs. Michael Zyphur and colleagues
(2007) studied the relationship between
neuroticism and retaking the SAT. Their
findings are important in that high scores
on neuroticism are often viewed negatively,
but the anxious tendencies of those high on
neuroticism were very adaptive in this
study, because these tendencies led them to
retake the SAT and score higher each time
they did.
C. Traits and Emotion
Though the relation between traits and
moods has been clear in terms of positivity
vs. negativity to early researchers, what has
not been clear is causality: Does the trait
cause the experience of a positive or
negative mood, or does the experience of
that mood and its emotions cause people to
behave in ways concordant with the traits?
And similarly, does the mood cause the
behavior, or does the behavior cause the
mood?
Murray McNiel and William
Fleeson (2006) studied the direction of
causality for the relationships between
extraversion and positive mood, and
neuroticism and negative mood. They
wanted to know if behaving in an
extraverted manner causes people to have
positive feelings and behaving in a neurotic
manner causes them to have negative
feelings. Their results showed that when
people act in a certain way, their behavior
does indeed influence their mood to fit the
behavior. On the other hand, Michael
Robinson and Gerald Clore (2007) have
found recently that individual differences in
the speed of processing information can
influence
the
relationship
between
neuroticism and negative mood, such that
not everybody who scores high on
neuroticism experiences more negative
emotion. They discovered that people who
process environmental stimuli faster do not
need to rely on neuroticism to interpret
events and interpret their environment
objectively, whereas slower processors are
more subjective in their evaluations by
relying on trait dispositions to interpret
events. So those high on neuroticism but
fast at processing did not report any more
negative emotion than those low on
neuroticism. These results show that the
early research findings that extraversion is
related to positive mood and neuroticism to
negative mood, while not inaccurate, do not
give the full picture of the complex
relationship between traits and emotions.
In sum, even though your traits predispose
you to certain types of behavior, your
actions can override those dispositions.
IX.
Critique of Trait and Factor Theories
The factor theories of Eysenck and of
McCrae and Costa rate high on parsimony,
on their ability to generate research, and on
their usefulness in organizing data; they are
about average on falsifiability, usefulness to
the practitioner, and internal consistency.
X.
Concept of Humanity
Factor theories generally assume that
human personality is largely the product of
genetics and not the environment. Thus, we
rate these two theories very high on
biological influences and very low on social
factors. In addition, we rate both about
average on conscious versus unconscious
influences and high on the uniqueness of
individuals. The concepts of free choice,
optimism versus pessimism, and causality
versus teleology are not clearly addressed
by these theories.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Social psychologists explain behavior by the
situation,
whereas:
personality
psychologists attribute behavior to enduring
______.
2. The five major dimensions of personality are
extraversion,
agreeableness,
conscientiousness, ________, and openness
to experience.
3. “Big Five” traits of personality and their
widespread adoption and acceptance owes
much to the research and theory of Robert
McCrae and________
4. Presently, most researchers who study
personality traits agree that _____, and only
_____, and no fewer than _____ dominant
traits continue to emerge from factor
analytic techniques.
5. Hans J. Eysenck insisted that only _____
major factors can be discerned by a factor
analytic approach.
6. Allport’s major contribution to trait theory
may have been his identification of nearly
______ trait names in an unabridged
English language dictionary.
7. The
Five-Factor
Theory
(often
called_______) includes neuroticism and
extraversion; but it adds openness to
experience,
agreeableness,
and
conscientiousness.
8. Cattell and McCrae and Costa both used an
_______ of gathering data; that is, they
began with no preconceived bias
concerning the number or name of traits or
types.
9. The largest and most frequently studied of
the normal traits are the __ personality
factors found on Cattell’s (1949) ____
Personality Factors Questionnaire (__ PF
Scale).
10. Factor analysis is largely the collection and
quantifying of observations, and then
demonstrating ________.
11. Traits generated through factor analysis
may be either _______ or bipolar.
12. The advocates of the Five-Factor Theory
favor the ________ rotation.
13. The
Big
Five
began
as
___________________ ; that is,
classification system.
a
a
14. Costa and McCrae's first two factors were
neuroticism and ____________________.
15. Costa and McCrae's A factor represents
__________________
16. Characteristic adaptations are among the
________________
components
of
personality.
17. Everything a person does across the
lifespan
is
an
objective
________________.
18. McCrae and Costa’s Five-Factor Model
(FFM) can both predict and ______
behavior.
19. Research suggests that the traits of the Big
Five are ____________________ over time
and consistent across cultures.
20. According to McCrae and Costa,
personality traits are fairly consistent after
the age of _____________.
True-False
_____1. Personality psychologists are more
likely to attribute behavior to situational
traits.
_____2. Historically psychologists concur on a
unique set of personality traits that target
the major dimensions of personality.
_____3. There are ten major dimensions of
personality that have been widely accepted
by personality psychologists.
_____4. Hans J. Eysenck insisted that only
seven major factors can be discerned by a
factor analytic approach.
_____5. The Five-Factor Theory (often called
the Big Five) includes neuroticism and
extraversion; but it adds openness to
experience,
agreeableness,
and
conscientiousness.
_____6. Traits are more stable than states.
_____7. Cattell and McCrae and Costa both
used an deductive method of gathering data.
_____8. Cattell used three different media of
observation to examine people called X
data, Y data, and Z data.
_____9. Cattell
classified
traits
temperament, motivation, and ability.
into
_____10. The largest and most frequently
studied of Cattell’s normal traits are the 16
personality factors found on Cattell’s
(1949)
Sixteen
Personality
Factors
Questionnaire (16 PF Scale).
_____11. Factor anaylsis is based solely
upon the observations of people’s
behaviors.
_____12. The advocates of the Five-Factor
Theory favor the orthogonal rotation to
demonstrate fewer, meaningful traits.
_____13. McCrae and Costa are currently
the only researchers seriously investigating
the Big Five factors.
_____14. McCrae and Costa do not consider
the Big Five to be a theory.
_____15. According to McCrae and Costa,
the Five Factor Model and the Five Factor
Theory are terms that can be used
interchangeably.
_____16. Although they have published
much together, Robert McCrae and Paul
Costa live nearly 3,000 miles apart.
_____17. The A factor in the Big Five
theory represents anxiety.
_____18. People in the United States score
considerably higher on measures of
extraversion than do people in Spain.
_____ 19. According to McCrae and Costa,
the ultimate source of human behavior is
childhood experience.
_____ 20. McCrae and Costa believe that
personality traits are nearly completely
determined by early adolescence.
Multiple Choice
______1. Personality psychologists are more
likely to attribute behavior to_________.
a. day to minute situation
b. enduring traits
c. cognitive displacement
d. overt emotionalism
______2. A trait is best described as
a. a cluster of surface factors.
b. a temporary attitude toward a person or
event.
c. a relatively permanent disposition of a
person.
d. an
environmentally
determined
hypothetical construct that shapes an
individual's behavior and thought.
_____3. Mathematically, the technique of
reducing a number of variables to a smaller
number is called
a. induction.
b. the experimental method.
c. variance.
d. factor analysis.
_____4. Today most researchers who study
personality traits agree that __, and only __,
and no fewer than __ dominant traits
continue to emerge from factor analytic
techniques.
a. 3
b. 5
c. 7
d. 16
_____5. Which of the following statements is
true?
a. Traits are of two kinds—dispositional
and hypothetical.
b. Traits are more permanent than states.
c. Traits represent a broader concept than
factors.
d. Traits cannot be extracted through the
use of factor analysis.
______6. Hans J. Eysenck insisted that only
__ major factors can be discerned by a
factor analytic approach.
a. 3
b. 5
c. 16
d. 18,000
______7. Cattell and McCrae and Costa both
used an (a) _________ of gathering data.
a. deductive method
b. comparison method
c. intuition method
d. inductive method
______8. Cattell’s famous personality scale
is called the _______.
a. NEO-Personality Inventory
b.
c.
d.
FIRO-B
MBTI
16 PF Scale
______9. The advocates of the Five-Factor
Theory favor the _______ rotation of factor
analysis.
a. orthogonal
b. triangulated
c. oblique
d. hexagonal
_____10. McCrae and Costa’s Five-Factor
Model (FFM) can both ______ and _____
behavior.
a. forecast, foretell
b. predict, explain
c. identify, analyze
d. measure, hypothesize
_____11. The Five Factors have been found
across cultures and show some permanence
with _____.
a. race
b. age
c. gender
d.
sexual orientation
_____12. The fifth factor of the Big Five is
_______ and describes people who are
ordered, controlled, organized, ambitious,
achievement focused, and self-disciplined.
a. conscientiousness
b. agreeableness
c. neuroticism
d. extraversion
_____13. The A in McCrae and Costa's
theory stands for
a. anxiety.
b. aggression.
c. agreeableness.
d. activity.
_____14. Currently, the Big Five can most
accurately be called
a. a model.
b. an armchair speculation.
c. a taxonomy.
d. a theory.
_____15. Factor C in the Five-Factor theory
is
a. consistency.
b. cooperation.
c. conscientiousness.
d. compromise.
_____16. People who score low on
______________ tend to be quiet and
reserved.
a. intelligence
b. psychoticism
c. compromise
d. extraversion
_____17. According to McCrae and Costa,
the ultimate contributor to personality is
a. biology.
b. self-concept.
c. childhood experience..
d. the ability to adapt to new experiences.
_____18. A person's view of what he or she
is like is called _____.
a. self-concept.
b. objective biology.
c.
d.
external influences.
characteristic adaptations.
_____19. According to McCrae and Costa,
the Big Five factors comprise a person's
a. characteristic adaptations.
b. objective biography.
c. basic tendencies.
d. external influences.
____20. The theories of McCrae and Costa
and of Eysenck rate
a. high on biological determinants of
personality.
b. high on teleology.
c. low on their ability to generate
research.
d. high on free will vs. determinism.
Short Answer
1. Define a unipolar trait.
2. List and elaborate on McCrae and Costa's
five factors.
3. Explain the difference between the Five
Factor Model and the Five-Factor Theory.
4. Explain the difference between the selfconcept and objective biography.
5. List and discuss McCrae and Costa’s
predicting of behavior by an understanding
of three central or core components and the
three peripheral ones.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
traits
neuroticism
Paul Costa
five
three
18,000
the Big Five
inductive method
16
correlations
unipolar
orthogonal
taxonomy
extraversion
agreeableness
core
biography
explain
stable
30
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
F
F
F
F
T
T
F
F
T
T
F
T
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
b
c
d
b
b
a
d
d
a
b
b
a
c
d
c
d
a
a
c
a
Chapter 14
Eysenck’s Biologically Based Factor Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 14, you should be able
to:
1. Explain the basics of factor analytic
procedures.
2. Describe Eysenck's approach to the
measurement of personality.
3. Name and explain Eysenck’s criteria for
identifying factors.
4. Name and describe Eysenck's three general
types, or superfactors.
5.. Describe how Eysenck's three superfactors
relate to and predict behavior.
6. List and describe the three bipolar
dimensions of Eysenck’s type theory.
7. Explain how Eysenck's
personality relates to disease.
theory
of
8. Briefly define the characteristics of
someone who is high on extraversion or
high on introversion.
9. Describe the three basic dimensions of
Eysenck’s type theory and his view of how
biology can influence personality.
Chapter 14 Outline
I. Overview of Factor and Trait Theories
Hans Eysenck and others have used factor
analysis to identify traits, that is, relatively
permanent dispositions of people. Eysenck
extracted only three general factors,which
yielded three general bipolar factors or
types:
extraversion/introversion,
neuroticism/stability,
and
psychoticism/superego.
II. Biography of Hans J. Eysenck
Hans J. Eysenck was born in Berlin in
1916, but as a teenager, he moved to
London to escape Nazi tyranny. Eysenck
was trained in the psychometrically
oriented psychology department of the
University of London, from which he
received a bachelor's degree in 1938 and a
PhD in 1940. Eysenck was perhaps the
most prolific writer of any psychologist in
the world, and his books and articles often
stirred worldwide controversy. He died in
September of 1997.
III. Eysenck's Factor Theory
The personality theory of Hans Eysenck has
strong psychometric and biological
components. Hans Eysenck (1) was more
likely to theorize before collecting and
analyzing data; (2) extracted fewer factors;
(3) used a wider variety of approaches to
gather data.
A. Criteria for Identifying Factors
Eysenck insisted that personality factors
must (1) be based on strong psychometric
evidence, (2) fit an acceptable genetic
model, (3) make sense theoretically, and (4)
possess social relevance.
B. Hierarchy of Behavior Organization
Eysenck recognized a four-level hierarchy
of behavior organization: (1) specific
behaviors or cognitions; (2) habitual acts or
cognitions; (3) traits, or personal
dispositions, and (4) types or superfactors.
IV. Dimensions of Personality
Although many triads exist, Eysenck's
methods of measuring personality limited
the number bipolar personality types to only
three—extraversion/introversion,
neuroticism/stability,
and
psychoticism/superego function. Each of
three bipolar factors has a strong genetic
component.
A. Extraversion
Extraverts are characterized by sociability,
impulsiveness,
jocularity,
liveliness,
optimism, and quick-wittedness, whereas
introverts are quiet, passive, unsociable,
careful, reserved, thoughtful, pessimistic,
peaceful, sober, and controlled. Eysenck,
however, believed that the principal
difference between extraverts and introverts
is one of cortical arousal level.
B. Neuroticism
Like
extraversion/introversion,
neuroticism/stability is largely influenced
by genetic factors.
People high in
neuroticism have such traits as anxiety,
hysteria,
and
obsessive-compulsive
disorders. They frequently have a tendency
to overreact emotionally and to have
difficulty returning to a normal state after
emotional arousal. They often complain of
physical symptoms such as headache and
backache, but they also may be free from
psychological symptoms.
C. Psychoticism
The latest and weakest of Eysenck's
personality
factors
is
psychoticism/superego.
High psychotic
scores may indicate anxiety, hysteria,
egocentricism,
nonconformance,
aggression, impulsiveness, hostility, and
obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Both
normal and abnormal individuals may score
high on the neuroticism scale.
V. Measuring Personality
Eysenck and his colleagues developed four
personality
inventory
to
measure
superfactors, or types
The two most
frequently used by current researchers is the
Eysenck Personality Inventory (which
measures only E and N) and the Eysenck
Personality Questionnaire (which also
measures all three factors).
VI. Biological Bases of Personality
Eysenck believed that P, E, and N all have a
powerful biological components, and he
cited as evidence the existence of these
three types in a wide variety of cultures and
languages.
VII. Personality as a Predictor
Eysenck's complex model of personality
suggests that the psychometric traits of P,
E, and N can combine with one another and
with genetic determinants, biological
intermediates, and experimental studies to
predict a variety of social behaviors,
including those that contribute to disease.
A. Personality and Behavior
According to Eysenck's model, P, E, and N
should predict both proximal and distal
consequences (see Figure 14.7), and he and
his colleagues cited studies that predicted
behavior in both laboratory studies and
studies of social behavior. They found a
relationship between superfactors and a
large number of behaviors and processes,
such as academic performance, creativity,
antisocial behavior, as well as behaviors
that may lead to disease.
B. Personality and Disease
For many years, Eysenck researched the
relationship between personality factors and
disease. He teamed with Ronald GrossarthMaticek to study the connection between
personality characteristics and both cancer
and cardiovascular disease. According to
this
research,
people
with
a
helpless/hopeless attitude are more likely to
die from cancer, whereas people who react
to frustration with anger and emotional
arousal are more much more likely to die
from cardiovascular disease.
VIII. Related Research
The three-factor theory of Eysenck has
drawn a considerable amount of research,
and is very popular in the field of
personality.
Eysenck developed the
Eysenck Personality Inventory and its
offshoots (Eysenck, 1959; Eysenck &
Eysenck, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1993)
Biology and Personality
Eysenck assumed that personality springs
from genetic and neurophysiological bases.
If
this
assumption
has
validity,
neurophysiological differences should exist
between people high on one end of a
dimension (for instance, introversion) and
those high on the other end of that
dimension (extraverts). Second, the basic
personality dimensions should be universal
and not limited to a given culture. Over the
last 30 years, a substantial amount of
research
has
shown
physiological
differences
between
extraverts
and
introverts, thus supporting Eysenck's
biology-based theory (Beauducel, Brocke,
& Leue, 2006; Eysenck, 1990; Stelmack,
1990, 1997). Interestingly, one study found
that extraverts may move faster, but they do
not think faster than introverts (Doucet &
Stelmack, 2000). Another of Eysenck’s
hypotheses that has generated some
research is optimal level of arousal.
Eysenck theorized that introverts should
work best with lower levels of sensory
stimulation and extraverts with higher
levels (Dornic & Ekehammer, 1990).
Russell Geen studied this (1984), and his
findings supported Eysenck’s theory.
IX.
Critique of Factor Theories
The factor theories of Eysenck and others
rate high on parsimony, on their ability to
generate research, and on their usefulness in
organizing data; they are about average on
falsifiability, usefulness to the practitioner,
and internal consistency.
X.
Concept of Humanity
Factor theories generally assume that
human personality is largely the product of
genetics and not the environment. Thus, we
rate these two theories very high on
biological influences and very low on social
factors. In addition, we rate both about
average on conscious versus unconscious
influences and high on the uniqueness of
individuals. The concepts of free choice,
optimism versus pessimism, and causality
versus teleology are not clearly addressed
by these theories.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Eysenck was a native of Germany, but he
lived
most
of
his
life
in
___________________.
2. Eysenck
used
__________________
analysis to identify personality variables.
3. Factor
analysis
is
based
on
______________________ coefficients.
4. Introversion versus extraversion would be a
________________ trait.
5. Eysenck advocated a ______________-level
hierarchy of behavior organization.
6. Several habitual responses
__________________.
form
a
7. Several
interrelated
traits
_____________________.
form
a
8. Eysenck believed that differences in
____________________
arousal
are
primarily responsible for differences in the
behavior of extraverts and introverts.
9. In Eysenck's theory, psychoticism is on one
pole and _________________ on the other.
10. Eysenck's
N
factor
stands
________________________ .
for
11. Eysenck insisted that personality has a
___________________ basis.
12. The
_____________________
model
assumes that some people are more
vulnerable to disease than other people.
13. Eysenck’s encounter with the fascist right
and his later battles with the radical left
suggested to him that the trait of
_______________, was equally prevalent
in both extremes of the political spectrum.
14. Hans J. Eysenck’s early theoretical ideas
led to the publication of his first book,
_______________________.
15. The personality theory of Hans Eysenck has
strong psychometric and _________
components.
16. Eysenck’s final criterion for the existence
of a factor is that it must possess
____________________.
17. Eysenck’s original theory of personality
was based on only two personality
dimensions extraversion and ___________.
18. According to Eysenck, extraverts have a
________________ threshold of arousal
than do introverts.
19. Eysenck Personality Inventory, or EPI
contains a ______ scale to detect faking,
but more importantly, it measures
extraversion
and
neuroticism
independently.
20. The first domain to test Eysenck’s
biological model of personality is in
___________.
True-False
_____1. Most psychologists regard Eysenck as
a follower of Cattell.
_____2. As a schoolboy in Germany, Eysenck
expressed a passion for psychology.
_____3. The orthogonal rotation method tends
to result in a greater number of traits than
does the oblique rotation method.
_____4. Correlations of scores with factors are
called unipolar traits.
_____5. Eysenck proposed that personality can
be explained by three major types.
_____6. Traits are more stable than states.
_____7. Eysenck would say that his relationship
with his parents, as well as other childhood
experiences, played a significant role in
shaping his personality.
____8. Eysenck's theory is based mainly on
trait level factors.
____9. Eysenck believed that the main
differences between extraversion and
introversion are not behavioral but
biological and genetic in nature.
____10. People who score high on Eysenck's P
scale are likely to be warm, affectionate,
conforming, and sociable.
____11. Eysenck's P type is a bipolar factor
consisting of psychoticism and superego.
____12. In Eysenck's theory, P, E, and N are
basically unrelated to each other.
____13. The personality theory of Hans
Eysenck
is
lacking
in
sufficient
psychometric and biological components.
____14. Eysenck listed four criteria for
identifying a factor of which the fourth
criterion is psychometric evidence.
____15. Eysenck recognized a seven-level
hierarchy of behavior organization.
____16. Neuroticism and psychoticism are
always limited to pathological individuals.
____17. Intraversion and neuroticism (or
anxiety) are basic factors in nearly all factor
analytic studies of human personality.
18. People who score high on neuroticism often
have a tendency to be highly cognitive
functioning people.
19. Eysenck’s original theory of personality
was based on only two personality
dimensions—extraversion
and
emotionalism.
20. The 16PF is the famous Personality
Inventory Assessment developed by
Eysenck.
Multiple Choice
______1. Eysenck identified traits through
the use of
a. twin studies.
b. factor analysis.
c. intuition.
d. ability tests.
______2. A trait is best described as
a. a cluster of surface factors.
b. a temporary attitude toward a person or
event.
c. a relatively permanent disposition of a
person.
d. an
environmentally
determined
hypothetical construct that shapes an
individual's behavior and thought.
_____3. Mathematically, the technique of
reducing a number of variables to a smaller
number is called
a.
b.
c.
d.
induction.
the experimental method.
variance.
factor analysis.
_____4. Which of the following would be a
bipolar trait?
a. height
b. extraversion/introversion
c. general intelligence
d. artistic interest
_____5. Which of the following statements is
true?
a. Traits are of two kinds—dispositional
and hypothetical.
b. Traits are more permanent than states.
c. Traits represent a broader concept than
factors.
d. Traits cannot be extracted through the
use of factor analysis.
_____6. Which label best fits Hans Eysenck?
a. psychologist
b. psychoanalyst
c. physician
d.
sociologist
_____7. In Eysenck's theory, superfactors are
also called
a. source traits.
b. personal dispositions.
c. states.
d. types.
_____8. According to Eysenck, introverts and
extraverts are different in many respects.
The most important difference is
a. psychological
health
versus
psychological disturbance.
b. subjectivity versus objectivity.
c. their way of viewing the world.
d. level of cortical arousal.
_____9. People who score high on the
psychoticism (P) scale are
a. egocentric, aggressive, and hostile.
b. empathetic, caring, and cooperative.
c. obsessive-compulsive, hysterical, and
suggestible.
d. introverted, quiet, and thoughtful.
_____10. People who score high on the
neuroticism (N) scale are
a. egocentric, aggressive, and hostile.
b. emotionally overreactive.
c. suffering from a psychological
disorder.
d. vulnerable to illness even when they
experience little stress.
_____11. According to research reported by
Eysenck, sick people who react to their
illness with anger and aggression are most
likely to die from
a. cancer.
b. heart disease.
c. AIDS.
d. unintentional injuries (accidents).
_____12. Eysenck's P factor stands for
a. psychoticism.
b. personality.
c. proactive.
d. probability.
_____13. The key for Eysenck was that the
individual
differences
in
people’s
personalities were due to _________.
a. ethnicity
b. environment
c. biology
d. nurture
_____14. Eysenck’s encounter with the
fascist right and his later battles with the
radical left suggested to him that the trait
of__________, was equally prevalent in
both extremes of the political spectrum. a.
egomania
b. narcissism
c. greed
d. authoritarianism
_____15. Eysenck’s second wife, Sybil
Rostal, was a _________.
a. great homemaker
b. superb secretary
c. beautiful quantitative psychologist
d. excellent accountant
_____16. People who score low on
______________ tend to be quiet and
reserved.
a. intelligence
b. psychoticism
c. compromise
d. extraversion
_____17. Which of the following is not one
of Eysenck’s criteria for identifying
factors?
a. inductive method of investigation
b. social relevance
c. psychometric evidence
d. heritability
_____18. Which is not one of the four levels
of
hierarchy
behavior
organization
recognized by Eysenck?
a. spontaneous acts
b. specific acts
c. habitual acts
d. types
_____19. Which one of the following is not
one of Eysenck’s superfactors?
a. extraversion
b. neuroticism
c. introversion
d. psychoticism
_____20. Which of the following is not one
of the personality assessments created and
developed by Eysenck?
a. MMPI
b. MPI
c. EPI
d. EPQ
Short Answer
1. Define a unipolar trait.
2. List Eysenck's four criteria for identifying
factors.
3. List and briefly describe Eysenck's three
types, or superfactors.
4. Discuss Eysenck's research on personality
and disease.
5. Discuss Eysenck's research on personality
and behavior.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
True-False
England.
1.
factor
2.
correlation
3.
bipolar
4.
four
5.
trait
6.
type
7.
cortical
8.
stability
9.
neuroticism
10.
biological
11
diathesis-stress
12.
authoritarianism
13.
Dimensions of Personality
biological
15.
social relevance
16.
neuroticism
17.
lower
18.
lie (L)
19.
neurophysiology
20.
F
F
F
F
T
T
F
F
T
T
F
T
F
14.
F
F
F
F
F
F
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
F
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
b
c
d
b
b
a
d
d
a
b
b
a
c
14. d
c
d
a
a
c
a
Chapter 15
Buss: Evolutionary Theory of Personality
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 15, you should be able
to:
1. List and discuss Darwin’s key components
to evolutionary theory.
2. Describe
the
evolutionary
theory
foundational background to Buss’s work.
3. Discuss
the
term
“evolutionary
psychology” and the four basic questions
that focus on the evolutionary perspective.
4. Explain the relationship of evolutionary
theory to personality theory.
5. Describe Buss’s model of personality and
its relationship to McCrae and Costa’s Big
Five Model.
6. Discuss Buss’s “origins of individual
differences” and the four sources of
difference.
7. List and describe Buss’s key five
personality dimensions.
8. Compare and contrast some of the current
pros and cons to Buss’s theory.
9. Describe the three general topics in Buss’s
related research.
10 Discuss and critique evolutionary theory in
relationship to a concept of humanity.
Lecture Outline
I. Overview of Evolutionary Theory of
Personality
Charles Darwin (1859) laid the foundation
for modern theory of evolution, even
though the theory itself has been around
since the ancient Greeks. Darwin’s major
contribution was not the theory of evolution
but rather an explanation for how evolution
works, namely through selection (natural
and sexual) and chance. Chance occurs
mostly through random genetic mutation
and we won’t have much to say about
chance. Instead, we focus on selection of
three different kinds: artificial selection,
natural selection, and sexual selection. The
evolutionary process (natural and sexual
selection and chance) results in three
distinct outcomes: adaptations, by-products
and noise.
II. Biography of David Buss
David Buss was born April 14, 1953 in
Indianapolis Indiana to Arnold H. Buss, Sr.
and Edith Nolte. Arnold H. Buss Sr. earned
his PhD in Psychology from Indiana
University in the early 1950s and was a
professor of psychology at the University of
Pittsburgh, Rutgers, and finally the
University of Texas, where he is currently
Professor Emeritus. Arnold Buss’ research
focused on aggression, psychopathology,
self-consciousness, and social anxiety.
III.
Principles of Evolutionary Psychology
Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer were
the first thinkers to argue for an
evolutionary perspective of psychological
thought
and
behavior.
The
term
evolutionary psychology can be defined as
the scientific study of human thought and
behavior from an evolutionary perspective
and focuses on four big questions (Buss,
1999):
1. Why is the human mind designed the
way it is and how did it come to take its
current form?
2. How is the human mind designed, that is,
what are its parts and current structure?
3. What function do the parts of the mind
have and what is it designed to do?
4. How do the evolved mind and current
environment interact to shape human
behavior?
IV. Evolutionary Theory of Personality
Most personality theories, as you have seen
in Sections I to III, assume that personality
is caused by environmental events alone
and seldom mention a biological
component. Evolutionary theory, however,
assumes that the true origins of personality
traits reach far back in ancestral times. The
true origin of personality is evolution,
meaning that it is caused by an interaction
between an ever changing environment and
a changing body and brain. Evolutionary
theory is one of the few recent theories of
personality that attempts once again to
explain the grand view of human
personality—its ultimate origins as well as
its overall function and structure.
The field of evolutionary personality
psychology itself has been divided by
psychologists arguing for two solutions:
personality differences were either “noise”
or they were perhaps “by-products” of
evolved adaptive strategies. More recently,
however, other theorists have made the case
for personality traits being something more
than noise or byproducts, namely
adaptations. David Buss was the first and
most prominent theorist to take up the
cause of developing an evolutionary theory
of personality. The essence of Buss’s theory
of personality revolves around adaptive
problems and their solutions or mechanism,
with a foundational understanding of the
nature and nurture of personality.
V. Common
Misunderstanding
in
Evolutionary Theory
When evolutionary theory first became
popular in the 1980s it caused quite a bit of
controversy. There was a lot of resistance
both from inside and outside university
settings against applying evolutionary ideas
to human thought and behavior. Evolution
is all about the body changing due to
changes in the environment. In this sense it
is inherently a “nature and nurture”
interaction perspective. Evolution occurs
from the interaction between adaptations
and input from the environment that
triggers the adaptations. More generally, the
discovery of epigenetics is an even more
powerful example of how genetic influence
is not set in stone at the moment of
conception and interacts with input from
the environment. Epigenetics is change in
gene function that does not involve changes
in DNA.
VI. Related Research
The evolutionary model of personality
cannot be tested directly in so far as we
cannot conduct studies over hundreds of
generations. And yet, just like in biology,
there is much support for the evolutionary
basis of human personality, which can be
divided into at least three general topics:
temperament,
genetics,
and
animal
personality. All three lines of evidence
support the view that personality has a
biological basis and that these biological
systems have evolved.
VII. Critique of Evolutionary Theory of
Personality
Evolutionary psychology in general and
evolutionary personality psychology in
particular have stimulated a lot of
controversy but also a relatively large body
of empirical research. The field has its own
scientific society (Human Behavior and
Evolutionary Society, HBES), and its own
scientific journal Evolution and Human
Behavior. The discipline also rests upon
other scientific disciplines, such as
evolutionary biology, ethology, behavioral
genetics, and neuroscience, so there is a
solid empirical foundation to the field.
VIII. Concept of Humanity
It is difficult to say on which side of the
optimism-pessimism debate evolutionary
theory would fall. It is mostly descriptive
and, in that sense, tends to be somewhat
neutral about describing human nature.
Evolutionary psychology has a complex
view on the question of determinism versus
free-will. A common assumption of
evolutionary theory by critics is that it is
harshly deterministic in that it explains
behavior in terms of an evolved past and
genetic influence. Indeed, evolutionary
psychology is often criticized for condoning
traditional sex-roles (e.g., women are
attracted to high status men and men are
attracted to physically attractive women).
Buss and other evolutionary theorists make
clear,
however,
that
evolutionary
psychology is a theory of how these traits
began, not how they should be. On the
question of causality versus teleology it is
clear that evolutionary theory comes down
heavily on the causality side of the
equation. Evolutionary theory sides more
with the unconscious influences on thought,
behavior, and personality than on conscious
ones. The concept of humanity that will be
most surprising to many people will be
evolutionary psychology’s stance on
biological versus social influence. Clearly
there is a strong emphasis on biological
influences,
from
brain
systems,
neurochemicals, and genetics. Evolutionary
theory is also balanced on the question of
the uniqueness of the individual compared
to general commonality among all people.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. David Buss ‘s interest in learning and
understanding was sparked by the concept
of ___________________.
2. __________________ laid the foundation
for the modern theory of evolution.
3. The evolutionary process (natural and sexual
selection and chance) results in three
distinct outcomes: adaptations, by-products
and ______________________.
4. __________________.are evolved strategies
that solve important survival and/or
reproductive problems.
5. ______________. are traits that happen as a
result of adaptations but are not part of the
functional design
6. __________________,.also
known
as
“random effects,” occurs when evolution
produces random changes in design that do
not affect function.
7. David Buss is a professor of psychology at
the_____________, where he is currently
Professor Emeritus.
8. The ____________________.perspective of
psychological thought and behavior was
first introduced by Charles Darwin and
Herbert Spencer.
9. The merger of evolution and psychology
began with the thinking of E.O. Wilson
when he argued for a merger of the
biological and social sciences and dubbed
his movement ________________ .
10. The
term
________________________.was coined
in 1973 by biologist Michael Ghiselin
(1973), and later popularized by the
anthropologist
John
Tooby
and
psychologist Leda Cosmides
11. Evolutionary psychology can be defined as
the scientific study of human thought and
behavior from an evolutionary perspective
and focuses on ___________________ .
12. The essence of Buss’s theory of personality
revolves around ______________ and their
solutions or mechanisms.
13. The process of evolution by natural
selection has produced solutions to the two
basic problems of life and they are called
___________________ .
14. Two goals and motives that act as evolved
mechanisms
are
_________
and
___________.
15. ______________ involves the disposition
to experience positive emotional states and
to engage in one’s environment and to be
sociable and self-confident.
16. A second dimension of personality,
_______________, is marked by a person’s
willingness and capacity to cooperate and
help the group on the one hand or to be
hostile and aggressive on the other.
17. One’s capacity and commitment to work is
the
core
characteristic
of
________________.
18. The evolved strategy of __________
involves one’s propensity for innovation
and ability to solve problems.
19. ________________ hypothesized there
have been costs and benefits of each of the
Big Five dimensions of personality during
ancestral periods of evolution
20. _____________. is change in gene function
that does not involve changes in DNA.
True-False
_____1. David Buss graduated sum cum laude
from his High School .
_____2. David Buss’s father was a crab
fisherman who spent most of his time in
Alaska.
_____3. Sigmund Freud laid the foundation for
the modern theory of evolution and
personality.
_____4. Natural selection (otherwise known as
“breeding”) occurs when humans select
particular desirable traits in a breeding
species.
_____5. Sexual selection operates when
members of the opposite sex find certain
traits more appealing and attractive than
others and thereby produce offspring with
those traits.
_____6. Adaptations are evolved strategies that
solve
important
survival
and/or
reproductive problems.
_____7. By-products also known as “random
effects,” occurs when evolution produces
random changes in design that do not affect
function.
____8. Carl Jung argued for a merger of the
biological and social sciences and dubbed
this movement “sociobiology.”
____9. The term evolutionary psychology can
be defined as the scientific study of human
thought and behavior from an evolutionary
perspective.
____10. Evolutionary theory is one of the few
recent theories of personality that attempts
once again to explain the grand view of
human personality.
____11. Eysenck was the first and most
prominent theorist to take up the cause of
developing an evolutionary theory of
personality.
____12. From Darwin’s perspective all life
forms are confronted with two fundamental
problems of adaptation, namely survival
(food, danger, predation, etc.) and
reproduction.
_____13. Two goals and motives that act as
evolved mechanisms are natural selection
and mate selection.
_____14. Buss’s model of personality argues
against the Big Five trait approach of
McCrae and Costa.
_____15. Agreeableness/hostility.
the disposition to experience
emotional states and to engage
environment and to be sociable
confident.
involves
positive
in one’s
and self-
_____16. Surgency is marked by a person’s
willingness and capacity to cooperate and
help the group on the one hand or to be
hostile and aggressive on the other.
_____17. Buss (1991) argues that of the five
personality dimensions, openness is the
most important trait because it most directly
provides answers to a host of adaptive
problems.
_____18. Evolutionary
psychology
in
general and evolutionary personality
psychology in particular has stimulated a
lot of interest but no definitive empirical
research.
_____ 19. Evolutionary theory of personality
scores low on the criterion of parsimony.
_____ 20. Evolutionary psychology has a
simplistic view on the question of
determinism versus free-will.
Multiple Choice
______1. Which of following theorist laid
the foundation for the modern theory of
evolution?
a. Sigmund Freud
b. Charles Darwin
c. Hans Eysenck
d. Carl Rogers
______2. Which one of the following is not
one of the types of selection focused on by
evolutionary theorists?
a. artificial selection
b. natural selection
c. seminal selection
d. sexual selection
_____3. The evolutionary process of natural
and sexual selection and chance results in
____ distinct outcomes.
a. two
b. five
c. six
d. three
_____4. Who were the first thinkers to argue for
an
evolutionary
perspective
of
psychological thought and behavior?
a. Freud and Jung
b. Darwin and Spencer
c. Aristotle and Plato
d. Tooby and Cosmides
_____5. The essence of Buss’s theory of
personality revolves around adaptive
problems and their_____________.
a. fundamental attribution errors
b. solutions or mechanisms
c. functional dynamics
d. fundamental situational errors
_____6. The term ___________ refers to the
process of evolution by natural selection
has produced solutions to the two basic
problems of life keyed on by Darwin and
Buss.
a. mechanisms
b. artificial selection
c. surgency
d. natural selection
_____7. ___________ mechanisms are internal
and specific cognitive, motivational, and
personality systems that solve specific
survival and reproduction problems.
a. Survival
b. Adaptive
c. Physical
d. Psychological
_____8. In Buss’s theory there are ____ specific
main classes of mechanisms.
a. five
b. four
c. three
d. two
_____9. Psychological mechanisms relevant to
personality can be grouped into _______
main categories.
a. three
b. two
c. four
d. five
_____10. Psychological
mechanisms
relevant to personality can be grouped into
all the following categories, except:
a. goals/drives/motives.
b. nature/nurture.
c. emotions.
d. traits.
_____11. Two goals and motives that act as
evolved mechanisms are a. survival-ability and dominance.
b. power and intimacy.
c. politics and economics.
d. belongingness and social-ability.
_____12. Buss (1991) starts with the
assumption that motivation, emotion, and
personality are adaptive in that they solve
problems of _______________.
a. survival and reproduction
b. introversion and extroversion.
c. psychoticism and neuroticism.
d. narcissism and frotteurism.
_____13. Buss argues that the five main
dimensions of personality (Big Five) can be
best thought of as a way of summarizing
the ____________.
a. human dynamic
b. strategies of personhood
c. social landscape
d. need of belongingness
_____14. Buss argues for essentially the
same five personality dimensions (Big
Five)
but
with
slightly
different
terminology. Which is not one of Buss’s
categories?
a. surgency/extraversion/dominance
b. conscientiousness
c. agreeableness
d.
neuroticism/psychoticism
_____15. __________
involves
the
disposition to experience positive emotional
states and to engage in one’s environment
and to be sociable and self-confident.
a. Agreeableness
b. Conscientiousness
c. Surgency
d. Openness
_____16. A
second
dimension
of
personality, ______________, is marked by
a person’s willingness and capacity to
cooperate and help the group on the one
hand or to be hostile and aggressive on the
other.
a. conscientiousness
b. openness/intellect.
c. emotional stability
d. agreeableness/hostility
_____17. The third adaptive personality
system revolves around response to danger
and threat and is referred to as
____________.
a.
b.
c.
d.
emotional stability/neuroticism
agreeableness/hostility
conscientiousness
surgency
_____18. The fourth adaptive personality
system revolves around one’s capacity and
commitment to work and is the core
characteristic of _______________.
a. conscientiousness
b. emotional stability
c. agreeableness
d. openness
_____19. The fifth adaptive personality
system is the evolved strategy of
____________ involves one’s propensity
for innovation and ability to solve
problems.
a. agreeableness
b. conscientiousness
c. openness
d. emotional stability
____20. Which statement is most true for the
evolutionary theory of personality as it
relates as a guide for practitioners in
psychology:
a. The theory is more abstract and
pure than concrete and applied.
b. The theory is more concrete and
applied than abstract and pure.
c. The theory is more abstract and
concrete than pure and applied.
d. The theory is more pure and
concrete than abstract and applied.
Short Answer
1. Define, explain and discuss
artificial, and sexual selection.
natural,
2. List and discuss Buss’s three distinct
outcomes of the evolutionary process.
3. Define evolutionary psychology and list the
four big questions.
4. Discuss the nature and nurture of
personality
from
the
evolutionary
perspective.
5. Define and discuss Buss's two different
forms of mechanisms.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
True-False
evolution
1.
Charles Darwin
2.
noise
3.
Adaptations
4.
By-products
5.
Noise
6.
University of Texas 7.
evolutionary
8.
sociobiology
9.
evolutionary psychology
four big questions
11
adaptive problems
12.
mechanisms
13.
power , intimacy
14.
Surgency
15.
agreeableness/hostility
conscientiousness
17.
openness
18.
Nettle
19.
Epigenetics
20.
F
F
F
F
T
T
F
F
T
10.
F
T
F
F
F
16.
F
F
F
F
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
T
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
F
17.
18.
19.
20.
b
c
d
b
b
a
d
d
a
10. b
b
a
c
d
c
16. d
a
a
c
a
Chapter 16
Skinner: Behavioral Analysis
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 16, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the contributions of E. L. Thorndike
and J. B. Watson to Skinner's learning theory.
2. Explain Skinner's philosophy of science.
3. Discuss the effects on behavior of positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and
punishment.
4. Explain the differences between operant and
classical conditioning.
5. Describe the process of shaping and give
examples of how complex behaviors can be
shaped.
6. Identify and give examples of four different
schedules of reinforcement.
7. Distinguish
between
generalized reinforcers.
conditioned
and
8. Discuss ways in which natural selection
influences personality.
9. Discuss Skinner's views on inner states and
complex behavior.
10. List the methods of social control and selfcontrol, according to Skinner.
11. Explain Skinner's approach to understanding
the unhealthy personality.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Skinner's Behavioral Analysis
During the 1920s and 1930s, while Freud,
Adler, and Jung were relying on clinical
practice and before Eysenck and McCrae and
Costa were using psychometric procedures to
build personality theories, a number of
behaviorists were constructing models based
on laboratory studies of human and nonhuman
animals. Early behaviorists included E. L.
Thorndike and J. B. Watson, but the most
influential of the later theorists was B. F.
Skinner. Behavioral models of personality
avoided speculations about hypothetical
constructs
and
concentrated
almost
exclusively on observable behavior. Skinner
rejected the notion of free will and
emphasized the primacy of environmental
influences on behavior.
II. Biography of B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner was born in Susquehanna,
Pennsylvania in 1904, the older of two
brothers. While in college, Skinner wanted
to be a writer, but after having little success
in this endeavor, he turned to psychology.
After earning a PhD from Harvard, he
taught at the Universities of Minnesota and
Indiana before returning to Harvard, where
he remained until his death in 1990.
III. Precursors
to
Skinner's
Scientific
Behaviorism
Modern learning theory has roots in the work
of Edward L. Thorndike and his experiments
with animals during the last part of the 19th
century. Thorndike's law of effect stated that
responses followed by a satisfier tend to be
learned, a concept that anticipated Skinner's
use of positive reinforcement to shape
behavior. Skinner was even more influenced
by John Watson who argued that psychology
must deal with the control and prediction of
behavior and that behavior—not introspection,
consciousness, or the mind—is the basic data
of scientific psychology.
IV. Scientific Behaviorism
Skinner believed that human behavior, like
any other natural phenomena, is subject to the
laws of science, and that psychologists should
not attribute inner motivations to it. Although
he rejected internal states (thoughts, emotions,
desires, etc.) as being outside the realm of
science, Skinner did not deny their existence.
He simply insisted that they should not be
used to explain behavior.
A. Philosophy of Science
Because the purpose of science is to predict
and control, Skinner argued that psychologists
should be concerned with determining the
conditions under which human behavior
occurs. By discovering these conditions,
psychologists can predict and control human
behavior.
B. Characteristics of Science
Skinner held that science has three principal
characteristics: (1) its findings are cumulative,
(2) it rests on an attitude that values empirical
observation, and (3) it searches for order and
reliable relationships.
V. Conditioning
Skinner recognized two kinds of conditioning:
classical and operant.
A. Classical Conditioning
In classical conditioning, a conditioned
stimulus is paired with an unconditioned
stimulus until it is capable of bringing about a
previously unconditioned response.
For
example, Watson and Rainier conditioned a
young boy to fear a white rat (the conditioned
stimulus) by associating it to a loud sudden
noise
(an
unconditioned
stimulus).
Eventually, through
the process of
generalization, the boy learned to fear stimuli
that resembled the white rat.
B. Operant Conditioning
With operant conditioning, reinforcement is
used to increase the probability that a given
behavior will recur. Three factors are essential
in operant conditioning: (1) the antecedent, or
environment in which behavior takes place;
(2) the behavior, or response; and (3) the
consequence that follows the behavior.
Psychologists and others use shaping to mold
complex human behavior. Different histories
of
reinforcement
result
in
operant
discrimination, meaning that different
organisms will respond differently to the same
environmental contingencies. People may
also
respond
similarly
to
different
environmental stimuli, a process Skinner
called stimulus generalization.
Anything
within the environment that strengthens a
behavior is a reinforcer.
Positive
reinforcement is any stimulus that when added
to a situation increases the probability that a
given behavior will occur.
Negative
reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior
through the removal of an aversive stimulus.
Both positive and negative reinforcement
strengthen behavior. Any event that decreases
a behavior either by presenting an aversive
stimulus or by removing a positive one is
called punishment. The effects of punishment
are much less predictable than those of
reward. Both punishment and reinforcement
can result from either natural consequences or
from human imposition.
Conditioned
reinforcers are those stimuli that are not by
nature satisfying (e.g., money), but that can
become so when they are associated with a
primary
reinforcers,
such
as
food.
Generalized reinforcers are conditioned
reinforcers that have become associated with
several primary reinforcers. Reinforcement
can follow behavior on either a continuous
schedule or on an intermittent schedule.
There are four basic intermittent schedules:
(1) fixed-ratio, on which the organism is
reinforced intermittently according to the
number of responses it makes; (2) variableratio, on which the organism is reinforced
after an average of a predetermined number
of responses; (3) fixed-interval, on which the
organism is reinforced for the first response
following a designated period of time; and (4)
variable interval, on which the organism is
reinforced after the lapse of various periods of
time. The tendency of a previously acquired
response to become progressively weakened
upon nonreinforcement is called extinction.
Such elimination or weakening of a response
is called classical extinction in a classical
conditioning model and operant extinction
when the response is acquired through operant
conditioning.
VI. The Human Organism
Skinner believed that human behavior is
shaped by three forces: (1) natural selection,
(2) the evolution of cultures, and (3) the
individual's personal history of reinforcement,
which we discussed above.
A. Natural Selection
As a species, our behavior is shaped by the
contingencies of survival; that is, those
behaviors (e.g., sex and aggression) that were
beneficial to the human species tended to
survive, whereas those that did not tended to
drop out.
B. Cultural Evolution
Those societies that evolved certain cultural
practices (e.g. tool making and language)
tended to survive. Currently, the lives of
nearly all people are shaped, in part, by
modern tools (computers, media, various
modes of transportation, etc.) and by their use
of language. However, humans do not make
cooperative decisions to do what is best for
their society, but those societies whose
members behave in a cooperative manner
tended to survive.
C. Inner States
Skinner recognized the existence of such inner
states as drives and self-awareness, but he
rejected the notion that they can explain
behavior. To Skinner, drives refer to the
effects of deprivation and satiation and thus
are related to the probability of certain
behaviors, but they are not the causes of
behavior. Skinner believed that emotions can
be accounted for by the contingencies of
survival
and
the
contingencies
of
reinforcement; but like drives, they do not
cause behavior.
Similarly, purpose and
intention are not causes of behavior, although
they are felt sensations and exist within the
skin.
D. Complex Behavior
Human behavior is subject to the same
principles of operant conditioning as simple
animal behavior, but it is much more complex
and difficult to predict or control. Skinner
explained creativity as the result of random or
accidental behaviors that happen to be
rewarded. Skinner believed that most of our
behavior is unconscious or automatic and that
not thinking about certain experiences is
reinforcing. Skinner viewed dreams as covert
and symbolic forms of behavior that are
subject to the same contingencies of
reinforcement as any other behavior.
E. Control of Human Behavior
Ultimately, all of a person's behavior is
controlled by the environment. Societies
exercise control over their members through
laws, rules, and customs that transcend any
one person's means of countercontrol. There
are four basic methods of social control: (1)
operant conditioning, including positive and
negative reinforcement and punishment; (2)
describing contingencies, or using language to
inform people of the consequence of their
behaviors; (3) deprivation and satiation,
techniques that increase the likelihood that
people will behave in a certain way; and (4)
physical restraint, including the jailing of
criminals.
Although Skinner denied the
existence of free will, he did recognize that
people manipulate variables within their own
environment and thus exercise some measure
of self-control, which has several techniques:
(1) physical restraint, (2) physical aids, such
as tools; (3) changing environmental stimuli;
(4) arranging the environment to allow escape
from aversive stimuli; (5) drugs; and (6) doing
something else.
VII. The Unhealthy Personality
Social control and self-control sometimes
produce
counteracting
strategies
and
inappropriate behaviors.
A. Counteracting Strategies
People can counteract excessive social control
by (1) escaping from it, (2) revolting against
it, or (3) passively resisting it.
B. Inappropriate Behaviors
Inappropriate behaviors follow from selfdefeating techniques of counteracting social
control or from unsuccessful attempts at selfcontrol.
VIII. Psychotherapy
Skinner was not a psychotherapist, and he
even criticized psychotherapy as being one of
the major obstacles to a scientific study of
human behavior. Nevertheless, others have
used operant conditioning principles to shape
behavior in a therapeutic setting. Behavior
therapists play an active role in the treatment
process,
using
behavior
modification
techniques and pointing out the positive
consequences of some behaviors and the
aversive effects of others.
IX. Related Research
Skinner's theory has generated more research
than any other personality theory. Much of
this research can be divided into two
questions: (1) How does operant conditioning
affect personality? and (2) How does
personality affect conditioning? In addition to
these two questions, a recent development in
research, due to technological advances, has
been the study of reinforcement as related to
brain activation.
A. How Conditioning Affects Personality
A plethora of studies have demonstrated that
operant conditioning can change personality,
that is, behavior. For example, a study by
Tidey et al. found that, when given a choice,
smokers would choose a cigarette rather than
money.
B. How Personality Affects Conditioning
Research has also found that different
personalities may react differently to the same
environmental stimuli. This means that the
same reinforcement strategies will not have
the same effect on all people. For example,
Alan Pickering and Jeffrey Gray have
developed and tested reinforcement sensitivity
theory, which suggests that impulsivity,
anxiety, and introversion/extraversion relate to
ways people respond to environmental
reinforcers. More recently, researchers have
begun to explore the association between
reinforcement
sensitivities
and
other
personality dimensions. Philip Corr (2002)
conducted one of the first studies to examine
differences in anxiety and impulsivity and
their association to response sensitivities.
Corr also reformulated the reinforcement
sensitivity theory (RST) of Pickering and
Gray: originally the personality dimensions
should operate independently, while in Corr’s
reformulation they can operate somewhat
jointly and interdependently. His results
supported his joint subsystem hypothesis and
contradicted
the
separable
subsystem
hypothesis.
For highly anxious people,
impulsivity acts as a buffer to responsiveness
to negative stimuli. Again, the main point was
also reinforced by this study: People vary in
their responses to reinforcers depending on
their personalities.
C. Reinforcement and the Brain
Recent advances in imaging have allowed
researchers to analyze individual differences
in brain activation as responses to stimuli such
as food (Beaver et al, 2006). Using functional
magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, John
Beaver and his colleagues gave the behavioral
activation scale (BAS) self-report to
participants to measure how actively they tend
to pursue rewards. They then measured the
subjects’ brain activation upon exposure to
pictures of rewarding foods versus bland
foods. They found that people who scored
higher on the personality variable of
behavioral activation also had greater
activation to pictures of rewarding foods in
five specific areas of the brain. These results
supported the general conclusion that
personality is related to differences in how we
biologically respond to rewards. This research
holds future promise, for possibly helping to
alter health outcomes such as obesity, and for
understanding what people find rewarding and
why.
X. Critique of Skinner
On the six criteria of a useful theory, Skinner's
approach rates very high on its ability to
generate research and to guide action, high on
its ability to be falsified, and about average on
its ability to organize knowledge. In addition,
it rates very high on internal consistency and
high on simplicity.
XI. Concept of Humanity
Skinner's concept of humanity was a
completely deterministic and causal one that
emphasized unconscious behavior and the
uniqueness of each person's history of
reinforcement within a mostly social
environment.
Unlike many determinists,
Skinner is quite optimistic in his view of
humanity.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Thorndike's
________________________
states that responses to stimuli that are followed
by a satisfier tend to be learned.
2, _______________________, not B. F. Skinner,
was the first behaviorist to insist that
psychology should be limited to a study of
observable behavior.
3. Psychology must be restricted to the study of
_________________ behavior, according to
Skinner.
4. While still in college. Skinner desired to
become a ___________.
5. Human behavior is subject to the laws of
_________________, according to Skinner.
6. Pavlovian conditioning is
___________ conditioning.
also
called
7. In operant conditioning, the experimenter first
rewards gross approximations of the target
behavior and gradually rewards responses
closer to the final target. Such a procedure is
called _____________________, or successive
approximations.
8. An event that strengthens behavior is called a
_______________.
9. A _____________________ reinforcer is any
stimulus that, when added to a situation,
increases the probability that a given behavior
will recur.
10. Like positive reinforcers, negative reinforcers
_________________ behavior.
11. The effects of punishment are less ________
than those of reward.
12. Many conditioned reinforcers are not by nature
satisfying, but they become so because they are
associated
with
________________
reinforcers.
13. The least efficient schedule
_________________ schedule.
is
the
14. Nonreinforcement of a response leads to
___________________.
15. Skinner rejected the notion of unconscious
___________________ but accepted the idea
of unconscious behavior.
16 Skinner
believed
that
the
_________________________, not free will,
is responsible for behavior.
17. Two opposite factors in controlling behavior
are satiation and _________________.
18. To Skinner, behavior is shaped by natural
selection,
___________,
and
cultural
evolution.
19. The
________________
responsible for self-control.
is
ultimately
20. Skinner believed that ___________is one of
the chief obstacles blocking psychology's
attempt to become scientific.
True-False
_____1. Thorndike's amended law of effect
minimized the effects of satisfiers and
emphasized the importance of annoyers.
_____2. John Watson believed that the goal of
psychology is prediction and control of
behavior.
_____3. Skinner had no use for hypothetical
constructs such as id, archetypes, or
motives.
_____4. Skinner decided to be a behaviorist even
before he entered graduate school.
_____5. Skinner contended that human behavior
follows principles that are basically the
same as those that apply to animal behavior.
_____6. Skinner's theory tries to interpret and
explain human behavior.
_____7. With operant conditioning, behavior is
elicited; that is, it is drawn out of the
organism.
_____8. Operant discrimination seems to be an
innate ability.
_____9. Watson and Rayner's experiment with
Little Albert was an example of classical
conditioning.
____10. Both negative and positive reinforcers
strengthen behavior.
____11. Punishment strengthens a response, just
as negative reinforcement does.
____12. Skinner believed that more behavior is
shaped by natural selection than by
reinforcement.
____13. Although emotions are real, Skinner
argued that scientists should not attribute
behavior to them.
____14. Skinner held that self-control is achieved
by developing strong willpower.
____15. Skinner agreed with Freud that dreams
can be wish-fulfillments.
____16. Skinner believed that psychotherapy
offers the best hope for an improvement of
the human species.
____17. Recent research has found that
punishment tends to improve learning for
people low in anxiety.
____18. Skinner's concept of humanity is both
deterministic and pessimistic.
____19. Skinner's theory rates very high on
causality.
____20. Skinner recognized the existence of
internal states such as thinking and feeling.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Which term best describes B. F.
Skinner?
a. determinist
b. psychotherapist
c. cognitive psychologist
d. sociologist
______2.
While in college, Skinner aspired to
become a
a. professional baseball player.
b. writer.
c. psychologist.
d. lawyer.
_____3. Thorndike's law of effect states that
responses to stimuli that are followed by a
satisfier tend to be
a. ignored.
b. stamped in.
c. stamped out.
d. extinguished.
_____4. John Watson argued that the goal of
psychology is
a. to determine the drives that motivate
behavior.
b. to study sensation, perception, and imagery.
c. to study behavior subjectively; that is,
through introspection.
d. to study behavior objectively.
______5.
According to Skinner, internal mental
states such as thinking, foresight, and
reasoning
a. do not exist.
b. exist, but should not be used to explain
behavior.
c. exist and should be used to explain
behavior.
d. do not exist, but nevertheless can be used to
explain human behavior.
e. are solely responsible for human behavior.
______6.
After Skinner's younger brother died,
his parents
a. blamed Skinner for the child's death.
b. separated and later divorced.
c. did not want to let Skinner go.
d. insisted that Skinner return to Harvard and
work toward a PhD.
______7.
Skinner believed the most crucial
aspect of science is
a. measurement.
b. hypothesis testing.
c. explanations of natural phenomena.
d. valuing empirical observation.
______8.
Shaping complex behavior through
operant conditioning usually includes this
procedure.
a. classical conditioning
b. punishment
c. cognitive mediation
d. successive approximation
______9.
Any aversive condition that when
removed from a situation increases the
probability that a given behavior will occur
is a
a. negative reinforcer.
b. positive reinforcer.
c. reward.
d. negative punishment.
e. positive punishment.
_____10.
Skinner favored reward over
punishment largely because
a. reward is more humane than punishment.
b. punishment is more expensive.
c. the effects of punishment are less
predictable.
d. the effects of reward are less predictable.
_____11.
Allyson rubs her knee to reduce pain.
This behavior is most likely an example of
a. classical conditioning.
b. social control of behavior.
c. punishment.
d. positive reinforcement.
e. negative reinforcement.
_____12.
A bricklayer is paid a given amount
of money for every brick laid. This
procedure most closely approximates which
schedule of reinforcement?
a. fixed-ratio
b. variable-ratio
c. fixed-interval
d. variable-interval
_____13.
Extinction of a response will occur
earliest when learning occurs under this
schedule of reinforcement.
a. continuous
b. variable-ratio
c. fixed-interval
d. variable-interval
_____14.
Which of these would be the best
example of a conditioned reinforcer?
a. sleep
b. relief from a headache
c. praise
d. oxygen
_____15.
A slot machine pays off on this
schedule.
a. continuous
b. fixed-ratio
c. fixed-interval
d. variable-interval
e. none of these
_____16.
According to Skinner,
personality is partially shaped by
human
a.
b.
c.
d.
natural selection.
unconscious motivation.
our expectation of future goals.
basic needs such as hunger, safety, and sex.
_____17.
A unified repertoire of responses is
Skinner's definition of
a. operant conditioning.
b. classical conditioning.
c. human personality.
d. the perceived self.
_____18.
Which of these concepts would
Skinner see as an explanatory fiction?
a. drive
b. ego
c. self-realization
d. all of the above
_____19.
Skinner saw creative behavior as
resulting from
a. mutations.
b. genetic intelligence.
c. sublimations.
d. uniquely human qualities of perseverance.
_____20.
According to Skinner, the act of
blocking out unpleasant thoughts is an
example of
a. repression.
b. suppression.
c. negative reinforcement.
d. extinction.
_____21.
According to Skinner, unhealthy
behavior
a. can be traced to congenital deficiencies.
b. does not exist.
c. is a means of coping with excessive social
control.
d. is the result of permissive training during
childhood.
_____22.
In his philosophy of science, Skinner
a. opposed hypothetical-deductive methods.
b. favored a Taoistic approach.
c. opposed scientific research.
d. favored the use of large groups of subjects.
e. advocated longitudinal studies.
Short Answer
1. Explain the difference between classical and
operant conditioning.
2. Explain three essential components of operant
conditioning.
3. Explain how behavior can be shaped from
undifferentiated into highly complex behavior.
4. Name two effects of reinforcement.
5. Explain three undesirable effects of punishment.
6. List three forces that shape human behavior,
according to Skinner.
7. Name three reasons why people might remain in
a group that abuses them.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
1.
2.
3.
4.
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8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Law of Effect
John Watson
observable
writer
science
classical
shaping
reinforcer
positive
strengthen
predictable
primary
continuous
extinction
motivation
environment
deprivation
reinforcement
environment
psychotherapy
F
T
T
T
T
F
F
F
T
T
F
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T
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F
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T
T
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
a
b
b
d
b
c
d
d
a
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e
a
a
c
e
a
c
d
a
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b
c
Chapter 17
Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 17, you should be able to:
1. Define and give examples of observational
learning.
2. List and define the processes governing
observational learning.
3. Define Bandura's concept of triadic reciprocal
causation.
4. Explain and give at least one example of the
effect that chance encounters and fortuitous
events may have on a person's life path.
5. Define and discuss Bandura's concept of human
agency.
6. Define and give examples of self-efficacy.
7. Describe the sources of self-efficacy.
8. Define and give examples of proxy agency.
9. Define and give examples of collective
efficacy.
10. Discuss Bandura's concept of self-regulation
through moral agency.
11. Discuss ways in which people justify their own
actions through disengagement of internal
control.
12. Describe Bandura's approach to understanding
dysfunctional behavior.
13. Briefly describe some of the recent research
generated by Bandura's theory.
Summary Outline
1.
Overview of Bandura's Social Cognitive
Theory
Bandura's social cognitive theory takes an
agentic perspective, meaning that humans
have some limited ability to control their lives.
In contrast to Skinner, Bandura (1) recognizes
that chance encounters and fortuitous events
often shape one's behavior; (2) places more
emphasis on observational learning; (3)
stresses the importance of cognitive factors in
learning; (4) suggests that human activity is a
function of behavior and person variables, as
well as the environment; and (5) believes that
reinforcement is mediated by cognition.
II. Biography of Albert Bandura
Albert Bandura was born in Canada in 1925,
but he has spent his entire professional life in
the United States. He completed a PhD in
clinical psychology at the University of Iowa
in 1951 and since then has worked almost
entirely at Stanford University, where he
continues to be an active researcher and
speaker.
III. Learning
Bandura takes a broad view of learning,
believing that people learn through observing
others and by attending to the consequences of
their own actions. Although he believes that
reinforcement aids learning, he contends that
people can learn in the absence of
reinforcement and even of a response.
A. Observational Learning
The heart of observational learning is
modeling, which is more than simple
imitation, because it involves adding and
subtracting from observed behavior. At least
three principles influence modeling: (1)
people are most likely to model high-status
people, (2) people who lack skill or status are
most likely to model, and (3) people tend to
model behavior that they see as being
rewarding to the model. Bandura recognized
four processes that govern observational
learning: (1) attention, or noticing what a
model
does;
(2)
representation,
or
symbolically representing new response
patterns in memory; (3) behavior production,
or producing the behavior that one observes;
and (4) motivation; that is, the observer must
be motivated to perform the observed
behavior.
B. Enactive Learning
All behavior is followed by some
consequence, but whether that consequence
reinforces the behavior depends on the
person's cognitive evaluation of the situation.
V. Triadic Reciprocal Causation
Social cognitive theory holds that human
functioning is molded by the reciprocal
interaction of (1) behavior; (2) personal
factors, including cognition; and (3)
environmental events—a model Bandura calls
triadic reciprocal causation.
A. Differential Contributions
Bandura does not suggest that the three factors
in the triadic reciprocal causation model make
equal contributions to behavior. The relative
influence of behavior, environment, and
person depends on which factor is strongest at
any particular moment.
B. Chance Encounters and Fortuitous
Events
The lives of many people have been
fundamentally changed by a chance meeting
with another person or by a fortuitous,
unexpected event. Chance encounters and
fortuitous events enter the triadic reciprocal
causation paradigm at the environment point,
after which they influence behavior in much
the same way as do planned events.
VI.
Human Agency
Bandura believes that human agency is the
essence of humanness; that is, humans are
defined by their ability to organize, regulate,
and enact behaviors that they believe will
produce desirable consequences.
A. Core Features of Human Agency
Human agency has four core features: (1)
intentionality, or a proactive commitment to
actions that may bring about desired outcomes:
(2) foresight, or the ability to set goals; (3) selfreactiveness, which includes monitoring their
progress toward fulfilling their choices; and (4)
self-reflectiveness, which allows people can
think about and evaluate their motives, values,
and life goals.
B. Self-Efficacy
How people behave in a particular situation
depends in part on their self-efficacy, that is,
their beliefs that they can or cannot exercise
those behaviors necessary to bring about a
desired consequence. Efficacy expectations
differ from outcome expectations, which refer
to people's prediction of the likely
consequences of their behavior. Self-efficacy
combines with environmental variables,
previous behaviors, and other personal
variables to predict behavior. It is acquired,
enhanced, or decreased by any one or
combination of four sources: (1) mastery
experiences or performance, (2) social
modeling, or observing someone of equal
ability succeed or fail at a task; (3) social
persuasion or listening to a trusted person's
encouraging words; and (4) physical and
emotional states, such as anxiety or fear,
which usually lowers self-efficacy. High selfefficacy and a responsive environment are the
best predictors of successful outcomes.
C. Proxy Agency
Bandura also recognizes the influence of
proxy agency through which people exercise
some partial control over everyday living.
Successful living in the 21st century requires
people to seek proxies to supply their food,
deliver information, provide transportation,
etc. Without the use of proxies, modern
people would be forced to spend most of their
time securing the necessities of survival.
D. Collective Efficacy
Collective efficacy is the level of confidence
that people have that their combined efforts
will produce social change. At least four
factors can lower collective efficacy. First,
events in other parts of the world can leave
people with a sense of helplessness; second,
complex technology can decrease people's
perceptions of control over their environment;
third, entrenched bureaucracies discourage
people from attempting to bring about social
change; and fourth, the size and scope of
worldwide problems contribute to people's
sense of powerlessness.
VII. Self-Regulation
By using reflective thought, humans can
manipulate their environments and produce
consequences of their actions, giving them
some ability to regulate their own behavior.
Bandura believes that behavior stems from a
reciprocal influence of external and internal
factors.
A. External Factors in Self-Regulation
Two external factors contribute to selfregulation: (1) standards of evaluation, and (2)
external reinforcement. External factors affect
self-regulation by providing people with
standards for evaluating their own behavior.
B. Internal Factors in Self-Regulation
Internal requirements for self-regulation
include: (1) self-observation of performance;
(2) judging or evaluating performance; (3) and
self reaction, including self-reinforcement or
self-punishment.
C. Self-Regulation through Moral Agency
Internalized self-sanctions prevent people
from violating their own moral standards
either through selective activation or
disengagement of internal control. Selective
activation refers to the notion that selfregulatory influences are not automatic but
operate only if activated. It also means that
people react differently in different situations,
depending on their evaluation of the situation.
Disengagement of internal control means
that people are capable of separating
themselves from the negative consequences of
their behavior. People in ambiguous moral
situations—who are uncertain that their
behavior is consistent with their own social
and moral standards of conduct—may
separate their conduct from its injurious
consequences through four general techniques
of disengagement of internal standards or
selective activation. The first is redefining
behavior, or justifying otherwise reprehensible
actions by cognitively restructuring them.
People can use redefinition of behavior to
disengage themselves from reprehensible
conduct by: (1) justifying otherwise culpable
behavior on moral grounds; (2) making
advantageous comparisons between their
behavior and the even more reprehensible
behavior of others; (3) using euphemistic
labels to change the moral tone of their
behavior. Second, people can disengage their
behavior from its consequences by displacing
or diffusing responsibility. A third set of
disengagement
procedures
involves
dehumanizing or blaming the victims. A
fourth method is to distort or obscure the
relationship between behavior and its injurious
consequences.
People can do this by
minimizing, disregarding, or distorting the
consequences of their behavior.
VIII. Dysfunctional Behavior
Dysfunction behavior is learned through the
mutual interaction of the person (including
cognitive and neurophysiological processes),
the environment (including interpersonal
relations), and behavioral factors (especially
previous experiences with reinforcement).
A. Depression
People who develop depressive reactions often
(1) underestimate their successes and
overestimate their failures, (2) set personal
standards too high, or (3) treat themselves
badly for their faults.
B. Phobias
Phobias are learned by (1) direct contact, (2)
inappropriate
generalization,
and
(3)
observational experiences. Once learned they
are maintained by negative reinforcement, as
the person is reinforced for avoiding fearproducing situations.
C. Aggression
When carried to extreme, aggressive
behaviors can become dysfunctional. In a
study of children observing live and filmed
models being aggressive, Bandura and his
associates found that aggression tends to
foster more aggression.
IX. Therapy
The goal of social cognitive therapy is selfregulation. Bandura noted three levels of
treatment: (1) induction of change, (2)
generalization of change to other appropriate
situations, and (3) maintenance of newly
acquired functional behaviors.
Social
cognitive therapists sometimes use systematic
desensitization, a technique aimed at
diminishing phobias through relaxation.
X. Related Research
Bandura's concept of self-efficacy has
generated a great deal of research
demonstrating that people's beliefs are related
to their ability to perform in a wide variety of
situations, including coping with the threat of
terrorism and managing Type 2 diabetes.
A. Self-Efficacy and Terrorism
Psychologists have always been interested
(even before 9/11/01) in both how people are
drawn into terrorist culture, and how innocent
people cope with the constant threat of
terrorism (Ben-Zur & Zeidner, 1995;
Moghaddam & Marsella, 2004; Zeidner,
2007). After 2001, this interest in terrorism
increased exponentially, and some researchers
began to consider how self-efficacy might
help people cope with terrorism. People
report feeling less personal security following
a terrorist attack (Gallup, 2002). An increased
sense of self-efficacy may help to offset this
insecurity and negativity. Peter Fischer and
colleagues wanted to investigate relationships
among self-efficacy, religion, and coping with
the threat of terrorism (Fischer, Greitemeyer,
Kastenmuller, Jonas, & Frey, 2006). They
used Allport’s Religious Orientation Scale
(ROS; see Chapter 13). Previous research had
found that using prayer as a coping
mechanism is related to an increased feeling
of internal control over events (Ai, Peterson,
Rodgers, & Tice, 2005), so Fischer and
colleagues predicted that intrinsically religious
people would experience greater self-efficacy.
The results of their study found that the
intrinsically religious did report greater
feelings of self-efficacy, and better moods due
to the increased sense of self-efficacy, but
only when the salience of terrorism was high.
When salience of terrorism was low,
religiosity caused no difference among test
subjects. The conclusion is that in the face of
a threat, self-efficacy is crucial to decreasing
the threat’s harmful effects.
B. Self-Efficacy and Diabetes
Bandura himself has written about the
usefulness of his theory for encouraging
people to engage in healthy behaviors that can
increase overall well-being and longevity
(Bandura, 1998). Recently, William Sacco
and colleagues (2007) studied self-efficacy
related to diabetes. Since depression is twice
as prevalent in diabetics as in the general
population (Anderson, Freeland, Clouse, &
Lustman, 2001), and a hallmark of depression
is lack of motivation, the strict adherence to
diet and exercise plans required of Type 2
diabetes
management
is
especially
problematic. Sacco and his colleagues (2007)
thus wanted to explore the role of self-efficacy
in raising adherence to disease management
plans, and in lowering negative physical and
mental health symptoms. The results clearly
showed that self-efficacy is important to
managing chronic disease: Higher levels of
self-efficacy were related to lower levels of
depression, lower BMI, lower incidence and
severity of diabetes symptoms, and higher
levels of adherence to doctors’ orders. BMI
was positively correlated with depression, and
adhering to doctors’ orders was negatively
correlated with depression. Self-efficacy was
directly responsible for the relationships of
depression to both BMI and adherence. Of the
many parts of social-cognitive theory that
have influenced psychological research, these
studies on terrorism and diabetes show the farreaching implications of the construct of selfefficacy.
Bandura’s theory continues to
generate an impressive amount of research.
XI Critique of Bandura
Bandura's theory receives the highest marks of
any in the text largely because it was
constructed through a careful balance of
innovative speculation and data from rigorous
research. In summary, the theory rates very
high on its ability to generate research and on
its internal consistency. In addition, it rates
high on parsimony and on its ability to be
falsified, organize knowledge, and guide the
practitioner.
XII. Concept of Humanity
Bandura sees humans as being relatively fluid
and flexible.
People can store past
experiences and then use this information to
chart future actions. Bandura's theory rates
near the middle on teleology versus causality
and high on free choice, optimism, conscious
influences, and uniqueness. As a social
cognitive theory, it rates very high on social
determinants of personality.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Bandura's
_______________________
reciprocal causation determinism model
assumes that personality is shaped by an
interaction of person, behavior, and
environment.
2. A ___________________ encounter is an
unintended meeting of persons unfamiliar to
each other.
3. A ____________________ event is an
environmental experience that is unexpected
and unintended.
4. If behavior were completely a function of the
_________________, Bandura believes that it
would be much more varied and less consistent.
5. The core of observational
________________________.
6. Adolescents are most likely
__________________ people.
learning
to
is
model
7. The first process governing observational
learning is _____________________.
8. Bandura believes that ___________________
factors, such as memory and foresight, give
some unity to personality.
9. Self-____________________ refers to our
beliefs about our capabilities to exercise control
over events that affect our lives.
10. Those expectations that refer to the likely
consequences of our behavior are called
__________________ expectations.
11. Ordinarily,
_____________________,
or
mastery, provides the strongest source of selfefficacy.
12. Self-efficacy is increased when we observe
people of _____________________ ability
performing an activity.
13. Social _________________________ increases
self-efficacy when a trusted individual
convinces us that we have the ability to
perform an activity.
14. High
efficacy
and
a
responsive
_______________________ are the best
predictors of a successful outcome.
15. With __________________ agency, we rely on
the work of other people to control those social
conditions that affect everyday living.
16. __________________ efficacy is the level of
confidence people have that their combined
efforts will produce social change.
17. _________________________ of internal
control is used to justify to oneself a behavior
that would normally be morally unacceptable.
18. One form of disengagement is to blame the
__________________.
19. When a terrorist blows up a government
building, kills many adults and children, and
refers to the deaths of the children as "collateral
damage," he is using ____________________
labeling to disengage himself from the moral
consequences of his actions.
True-False
_____1. Bandura's social cognitive theory
assumes that people have the capability to
exercise some control over their lives.
_____2. Compared with Skinner, Bandura has
developed a much more cognitive theory.
_____3. Bandura believes that chance plays a role
in people's environment and behavior.
_____4. Basic to Bandura's social cognitive
theory is the assumption that consistency
of
behavior
is
the
outstanding
characteristic of humans.
_____5. Compared to Skinner, Bandura places
more emphasis on observational learning.
_____6. Bandura's triadic reciprocal causation
notion assumes that behavior is the
product of two variables—heredity and
environment.
_____7. Most of our chance encounters have a
significant and permanent impact on our
personality.
_____8. Bandura believes that personality is
mostly the product of heredity.
____9. In Bandura's triadic reciprocal causation
hypothesis, all three factors typically
make equal or nearly equal contributions
to action.
____10. Chance encounters and fortuitous events
enter the triadic reciprocal causation
model at the point of behavior.
____11. The self-system makes personality
extremely consistent and resistant to
change.
____12. Bandura believes that all human
behavior is ultimately the product of an
aggressive drive.
____13. People's belief that they can or cannot
execute those behaviors necessary to
produce desired outcomes is Bandura's
definition of disengagement.
____14. It is possible to have high efficacy and
yet have low confidence that one's actions
will produce the desired results.
____15. Ordinarily, the strongest source of selfefficacy is mastery experiences.
____l6. The type of efficacy that involves
indirect control over the social conditions
that affect a person's life is called selfefficacy.
____17. Bandura believes that collective efficacy
is inherited from one's ancestors.
____18. Bandura
believes
that
although
reinforcement facilitates learning, it is not
a necessary condition for learning.
____19. Bandura suggests that responses need not
occur in order to be learned.
____20. High levels of anxiety generally increase
self-efficacy.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Bandura believes that human
functioning is a product of the mutual
interaction of environment, person, and
a. heredity.
b. learning.
c. cognition.
d. behavior.
______2.
Bandura's social cognitive theory
takes _____ perspective.
a. a behavioral
b. a learning theory
c. an existential
d. an agentic
______3.
Bandura first became interested in
clinical psychology when he
a. entered graduate school at Stanford
University.
b. worked on the Alaska highway after
graduation from high school.
c. met Skinner at the 1972 APA convention.
d. entered graduate school at the University
of Iowa.
_____4. Bandura believes that learning
a. can occur in the absence of a response.
b. is facilitated by the unconscious mind.
c. and performance are identical.
d. is not facilitated by reinforcement.
_____5. According to Bandura, there are two
major types of learning—observational
and
a. modeling.
b. instinctive.
c. developmental.
d. enactive.
e. conditioning.
____6. Modeling is enhanced when the person
being modeled is
a. a low-status person.
b. attractive.
c. speaking a foreign language.
d. a social isolate.
e. a child.
_____7. According to Bandura, reinforcement
a. is necessary for learning.
b. is cognitively mediated.
c. is environmentally determined.
d. has extrinsic value.
______8. According to Bandura, the essence of
humanness is
a. human agency.
b. imitation
c. aggression.
d. memory.
______9.
The
primary
Bandura's P factor is
a. cognition.
b. probability.
c. performance.
d. environment.
component
of
______10. Chance encounters enter the triadic
reciprocal causation paradigm at this point.
a. environment
b. behavior
c. person
d. any or all of these
_____11.
According to Bandura, if behavior
were completely controlled by the
environment, it would be
a. solely the result of chance.
b. less consistent and more varied.
c. rigid and stilted.
d. solely the result of imitation.
_____12.
People's expectations that they are
capable of performing a behavior that will
produce desired outcomes in any particular
situation is called
a. outcome expectancy
b. self-efficacy
c. distortion of consequences
d. the self-system
_____13.
Which technique is LEAST likely to
increase a person's self-efficacy?
a. verbal persuasion
b. increased emotional arousal
c. vicarious experiences
d. performance accomplishments
_____14.
Carlos has great confidence in
himself as a hairdresser. However, the
economy in his city has recently turned
downward, and few people can afford a
hairdresser. When Carlos applies for a job
at Mr. Dan's Hair Salon, he will likely
have high _______ and low _______.
a. self-efficacy; outcome expectations
b. self-efficacy; self-confidence
c. reward expectancy; self-efficacy
d. anxiety; motivation
_____15.
Which of these is MOST likely to
increase self-efficacy?
a. verbal persuasion
b. increased emotional arousal
c. decreased emotional arousal
d. performance accomplishments
_____16.
Low
self-efficacy
and
an
unresponsive environment are MOST
likely to result in
a. a high level of performance.
b. apathy and feelings of helplessness.
c. decreased locus of control.
d. increased optimism and self-confidence.
_____17.
The personal efficacy of many
people working together to bring about
social change is called
a. collective efficacy.
b. disengagement of internal control.
c. disengagement of external control.
d. outcome expectations.
______18. Taylor, like most people, relies on
auto
mechanics,
air
conditioning
repairmen, network news, and hundreds of
other people who enhance her lifestyle. In
so doing, Taylor is making use of
a. collective efficacy.
b. proxy efficacy.
c. self-efficacy.
d. self-regulation.
______19. A set of cognitive structures used to
evaluate behavior describes Bandura's
concept of
a. observational learning.
b. modeling.
c. the self system.
d. the ego.
e. the superego.
______20. According to Bandura, the first
requirement for self-regulation is
a. self-observation.
b. modeling.
c. a responsive environment.
d. motor production.
e. reinforcement.
_____21.
Which of the following would be an
example of disengagement of internal
control?
a. A student skips class, and then tells the
instructor that she had to attend her
grandmother's funeral.
b. A child is punished for playing with his
genitals and consequently represses the
experience.
c. A conscientious doctor performs an illegal
operation, but justifies her actions to
herself by saying the surgery was
necessary to save a life.
d. A store clerk shoplifts merchandise, feels
guilty, and returns it before anyone
notices.
_____22.
Bandura believes that personal
conduct is controlled by
a. an autonomous internal agent called the
ego.
b. environmental stimuli.
c. reinforcement.
d. the triadic reciprocal causation paradigm.
_____23.
The study by Bandura, Ross, and
Ross involving young children and a Bobo
doll found that
a. children exposed to an aggressive cartoon
character were more aggressive than
children not subjected to an aggressive
model.
b. children exposed to an aggressive live
model were more aggressive than children
not subjected to an aggressive live model.
c. both of these was true.
d. neither of these was true.
______24. The ultimate goal of social-cognitive
therapy is
a. self-regulation.
b. self-actualization.
c. an increase in self-efficacy.
d. uncovering hidden conflicts.
______25. Which statement is most consistent
with Bandura's concept of humanity?
a. People are most strongly motivated to
increase self-efficacy.
b. Human personality is formed mostly by
the forces of biology.
c. People must successfully navigate the
stages of development in order to become
psychologically healthy.
d. Humans have the capacity to become
many things, within the limits set by
biology.
Short Answer
1. List three differences between Skinner's and
Bandura's theories.
2. Discuss the processes governing observational
learning.
3. Explain the differences between efficacy
expectations and outcome expectations.
4. Name four sources of self-efficacy.
5. Explain Bandura's concept of
efficacy and give four examples.
collective
6. Name and explain four ways a person can
justify reprehensible behavior.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12,
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
triadic
chance
fortuitous
environment
modeling
high-status
attention
cognitive
efficacy
outcome
performance
equal
persuasion
environment
proxy
Collective
Disengagement
victim
euphemistic
True-False
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
T
T
T
F
T
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
T
T
F
F
T
T
F
1.
2.
3.
4
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
d
d
b
a
d
b
b
a
a
a
b
b
b
a
d
b
a
b
c
a
c
d
c
a
d
Chapter 18
Rotter and Mischel: Cognitive Social Learning
Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 18, you should be able to:
1. List Rotter's four variables of prediction and
briefly explain each.
2. Discuss Rotter's basic prediction formula and its
uses.
3. List and give examples of Rotter's categories of
needs.
4. Discuss Rotter's generalized expectancies and
their measurement.
5. Explain the difference between internal and
external control and list several misconceptions
regarding internal and external control of
reinforcement.
6. Discuss Mischel's conditional view of personal
dispositions.
7. Critique Mischel's notion of the consistency
paradox.
8. Discuss Mischel and Shoda's
affective view of personality.
cognitive-
9. List and discuss Mischel and Shoda's cognitiveaffective units.
10. Discuss research on Rotter's locus of control
model.
1.
Overview of Cognitive Social Learning
Theory
Both Julian Rotter and Walter Mischel believe
that cognitive factors, more than immediate
reinforcements, determine how people will
react to environmental forces. Both theorists
suggest that our expectations of future events
are major determinants of performance.
II. Biography of Julian Rotter
Julian Rotter was born in Brooklyn, New York
in 1916. As a high school student, he became
familiar with some of the writings of Freud
and Adler, but he majored in chemistry rather
than psychology at Brooklyn College. In
1941, he received a PhD in clinical psychology
from Indiana University. After World War II,
he took a position at Ohio State, where one of
his students was Walter Mischel. In 1963, he
moved to the University of Connecticut and
has remained there since retirement.
III. Introduction to Rotter's Social Learning
Theory
Rotter's interactionist theory is based on five
basic hypotheses.
First, it assumes that
humans interact with their meaningful
environments: that is, human behavior stems
from the interaction of environmental and
personal factors (Rotter). Second, human
personality is learned, which suggests it can be
changed or modified as long as people are
capable of learning. Third, personality has a
basic unity, suggesting that personality has
some basic stability. Fourth, motivation is goal
directed, and fifth, people are capable of
anticipating events, and thus they are capable
of changing their environments and their
personalities.
IV. Predicting Specific Behaviors
Rotter suggested four variables that must be
analyzed in order to make accurate predictions
in any specific situation. These variables are
behavior potential, expectancy, reinforcement
value, and the psychological situation.
A. Behavior Potential
Behavior potential is the possibility that a
particular response will occur at a given time
and place in relation to its likely reinforcement.
B. Expectancy
People's expectancy in any given situation is
their confidence that a particular reinforcement
will follow a specific behavior in a specific
situation or situations. Expectancies can be
either general or specific, and the overall
likelihood of success is a function of both
generalized and specific expectancies.
C. Reinforcement Value
Reinforcement value is a person's preference
for any particular reinforcement over other
reinforcements if all are equally likely to
occur. Internal reinforcement is the
individual's perception of an event, whereas
external reinforcement refers to society's
evaluation of an event.
Reinforcementreinforcement sequences suggest that the
value of an event is a function of one's
expectation that a particular reinforcement will
lead to future reinforcements.
D. Psychological Situation
The psychological situation is that part of the
external and internal world to which a person
is responding. Behavior is a function of the
interaction of people with their meaningful
environment.
E. Basic Prediction Formula
Hypothetically, in any specific situation,
behavior can be predicted by the basic
prediction formula, which states that the
potential for a behavior to occur in a particular
situation in relation to a given reinforcement is
a function of people's expectancy that their
behavior will be followed by that
reinforcement in that situation.
V. Predicting General Behaviors
The basic prediction is too specific to give
clues about how a person will generally
behave.
A. Generalized Expectancies
To make more general predictions of behavior,
one must know people's generalized
expectancies, or their expectations based on
similar past experiences that a given behavior
will be reinforced. Generalized expectancies
include people's needs, that is, behaviors that
move them toward a goal.
B. Needs
Needs refer to functionally related categories
of behaviors. Rotter listed six broad categories
of needs, with each need being related to
behaviors that lead to the same or similar
reinforcements: (1) recognition-status refers
to the need to excel, to achieve, and to have
others recognize one's worth; (2) dominance
is the need to control the behavior of others, to
be in charge, or to gain power over others; (3)
independence is the need to be free from the
domination of others; (4) protectiondependence is the need to have others take
care of us and to protect us from harm; (5)
love and affection are needs to be warmly
accepted by others and to be held in friendly
regard; and (6) physical comfort includes
those behaviors aimed at securing food, good
health, and physical security. Three need
components are: (1) need potential, or the
possible occurrences of a set of functionally
related behaviors directed toward the
satisfaction of similar goals; (2) freedom of
movement, or a person's overall expectation
of being reinforced for performing those
behaviors that are directed toward satisfying
some general need; and (3) need value, or the
extent to which people prefer one set of
reinforcements to another. Need components
are analogous to the more specific concepts of
behavior
potential,
expectancy,
and
reinforcement value.
C. General Prediction Formula
The general prediction formula states that need
potential is a function of freedom of
movement and need value. Rotter's two most
famous scales for measuring generalized
expectancies are the Internal-External Control
Scale and the Interpersonal Trust Scale.
D. Internal and External Control of
Reinforcement
The Internal-External Control Scale (popularly
called "locus of control scale") attempts to
measure the degree to which people perceive a
causal relationship between their own efforts
and environmental consequences.
E.
Interpersonal Trust Scale
The Interpersonal Trust Scale measures the
extent to which a person expects the word or
promise of another person to be true.
VI. Maladaptive Behavior
Rotter defined maladaptive behavior as any
persistent behavior that fails to move a person
closer to a desired goal. It is usually the result
of unrealistically high goals in combination
with low ability to achieve them.
VII. Psychotherapy
In general, the goal of Rotter's therapy is to
achieve harmony between a client's freedom of
movement and need value. The therapist is
actively involved in trying to (1) change the
client's goals and (2) eliminate the client’s low
expectancies for success.
A. Changing Goals
Maladaptive behaviors follow from three
categories of inappropriate goals: (1) conflict
between goals, (2) destructive goals, and (3)
unrealistically lofty goals.
B. Eliminating Low Expectancies
In helping clients change low expectancies of
success, Rotter uses a variety of approaches,
including reinforcing positive behaviors,
ignoring inappropriate behaviors, giving
advice, modeling appropriate behaviors, and
pointing out the long-range consequences of
both positive and negative behaviors.
VIII. Introduction to Mischel's Personality
System
Like Bandura and Rotter, Mischel believes
that cognitive factors, such as expectancies,
subjective perceptions, values, goals, and
personal standards are important in shaping
personality. In his early theory, Mischel
seriously questioned the consistency of
personality, but more recently, he and Yuichi
Shoda have advanced the notion that behavior
is also a function of relatively stable cognitiveaffective units.
IX. Biography of Walter Mischel
Walter Mischel was born in Vienna in 1930,
the second son of upper-middle-class parents.
When the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938, his
family moved to the United States and
eventually settled in Brooklyn.
Mischel
received an MA from City College of New
York and a PhD from Ohio State, where he
was influenced by Julian Rotter. He is
currently a professor at Columbia University.
X. Background of the Cognitive-Affective
Personality System
Mischel originally believed that human
behavior was mostly a function of the
situation, but more lately he has recognized the
importance of relatively permanent cognitiveaffective units. Nevertheless, Mischel's theory
continues to recognize the apparent
inconsistency of some behaviors.
A. The Consistency Paradox
The consistency paradox refers to the
observation that, although both lay people and
professionals tend to believe that behavior is
quite consistent, research suggests that it is
not. Mischel recognizes that, indeed, some
traits are consistent over time, but he contends
that there is little evidence to suggest they are
consistent from one situation to another.
B. Person-Situation Interaction
Mischel believes that behavior is best
predicted from an understanding of the person,
the situation, and the interaction between
person and situation. Thus, behavior is not the
result of some global personality trait, but
rather of people's perceptions of themselves in
a particular situation.
XI. Cognitive-Affective Personality System
However, Mischel does not believe that
inconsistencies in behavior are due solely to
the situation; he recognizes that inconsistent
behaviors reflect stable patterns of variation
within a person. He and Shoda see these
stable variations in behavior in the following
framework: If A, then X; but if B, then Y.
People's pattern of variability is their
behavioral signature, or their unique and
stable pattern of behaving differently in
different situations.
A. Behavior Prediction
Mischel's basic theoretical position for
predicting and explaining behavior is as
follows: If personality is a stable system that
processes information about the situation, then
as people encounter different situations, they
should behave differently as those situations
vary. Therefore, Mischel believes that, even
though people's behavior may reflect some
stability over time, it tends to vary as
situations vary.
B. Situation Variables
Situation variables include all those stimuli
that people attend to in a given situation.
C. Cognitive-Affective Units
Cognitive-affective units include all those
psychological, social, and physiological
aspects of people that permit them to interact
with their environment with some stability in
their behavior. Mischel identified five such
units.
First are encoding strategies, or
people's individualized manner of categorizing
information they receive from external stimuli.
Second are the competencies and selfregulatory strategies. One of the most
important of
these competencies
is
intelligence, which Mischel argues is
responsible for the apparent consistency of
other traits. In addition, people use selfregulatory strategies to control their own
behavior through self-formulated goals and
self-produced consequences.
The third
cognitive-affective units are expectancies and
beliefs, or people's guesses about the
consequences of each of the different
behavioral possibilities. The fourth cognitiveaffective unit includes people's subjective
goals and values, which tend to render
behavior fairly consistent. Mischel's fifth
cognitive-affective unit includes affective
responses, including emotions, feelings, and
the affect that accompanies physiological
reactions.
XII. Related Research
The theories of both Rotter and Mischel have
sparked an abundance of related research, with
Rotter's locus of control being one of the most
frequently researched areas in psychology, and
Mischel's notion of delay of gratification, and
Mischel and Shoda's cognitive-affective
personality system also receiving wide
attention.
A. Locus of Control, Depression, and
Suicide
During the genocide of 6 million Jews by the
Nazis during World War II, only one half of
one percent of people in Nazi-occupied
territory helped Jewish neighbors whose lives
were in peril (Oliner & Oliner, 1988), in part
because the peril to their own lives equaled the
danger to the lives of those they assisted.
Elizabeth Midlarsky and her colleagues
wanted to use personality variables to predict
who was a Holocaust hero and who was a
bystander during World War II (Midlarsky,
Fagin Jones, & Corley, 2005). One of the
personality variables they selected was locus
of control, along with autonomy, risk taking,
social
responsibility,
authoritarianism,
empathy, and altruistic moral reasoning. They
found that internal locus of control was
positively related to more autonomy, risk
taking, sense of social responsibility,
tolerance, empathy, and altruistic moral
reasoning, and to less authoritarianism.
Statistical analysis supported the researchers’
hypothesis that personality would predict who
was a hero and who was not, being correct
93% of the time. A higher sense of internal
control was associated with heroism in this
study.
B. Person-Situation Interaction
Mischel and associates have reported hundreds
of studies influenced by his cognitive-affective
personality system. These studies—which are
based on the statement, "If I am in situation A,
then I do X; but If I am in situation B, then I
do Y."
These studies have generally
supported Mischel and Shoda's conception of
the conditional nature of human behavior.
One of Mischel’s students, Lara Kammrath,
and her colleagues recently conducted an
elegant study (2005) illustrating the
“If…then…”
framework
very
clearly
(Kammrath, Mendoza-Denton, & Mischel,
2005).
This study showed that people
understand the if-then framework and use it
when judging others; in other words, the
average person understands that people behave
differently in different situations, and
depending on their personality, people adjust
their behavior to match the situation. Mischel
and colleagues conducted further studies on
the conditional nature of dispositions
(Mendoza-Denton, Ayduck, Mischel, Shoda,
&Testa, 2001), and found that conditional and
interactionist self-evaluations tend to buffer
negative reactions to failure. They concluded
that their conceptualization of the personsituation environment as social-cognitive and
interactionist
is
more
applicable
to
understanding human behavior than the
traditional, “decontextualized” views of
personality, in which people behave in a given
way regardless of the context.
XIII. Critique of Cognitive Social Learning
Theory
Cognitive social learning theory combines the
rigors of learning theory with the speculative
assumption that people are forward-looking
beings. It rates high on generating research,
internal consistency; it rates about average on
its ability to be falsified, to organize data, and
to guide action.
XIV. Concept of Humanity
Rotter and Mischel see people as goaldirected, cognitive animals whose perceptions
of events are more crucial than the events
themselves. Cognitive social learning theory
rates very high on social influences, and high
on uniqueness of the individual, free choice,
teleology, and conscious processes. On the
dimension of optimism versus pessimism,
Rotter's view is slightly more optimistic,
whereas Mischel's is about in the middle.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. The theories of Rotter and Mischel are
________________-directed, meaning that they
see people as being guided by their expectations
of the future.
2. As an interactionist, Rotter believes that a
combination
of
environmental
and
__________________ variables are responsible
for behavior.
3. Any condition that moves a person toward a
___________________
defines
Rotter's
empirical law of effect.
4. Behavior _________________ refers to the
likelihood that a given behavior will occur in a
particular situation.
5. People's expectation of being reinforced is called
their ____________________________.
6. Behavior potential is a function of both
___________________ value and expectancy.
7. External
____________________
includes
events, conditions, or actions that our culture
values.
8. Rotter sees people as ________________
animals whose perceptions of events are more
important than the events themselves.
9. The need to be free of the domination of others is
called ______________________.
10. Need _________________________ refers to
the possible occurrence of a set of functionally
related behaviors directed toward the satisfaction
of the same or similar goals.
11. Internal control of reinforcement
____________________ expectancy.
is
a
12. Rotter
sees
_______________________
behavior as those actions that fail to move a
person closer to a desired goal.
13. Mischel proposed a _______________________
view of personal dispositions that suggests that
behavior is caused by people's perception of
themselves in a particular situation.
14. The ______________________ paradox refers
to the observation that many people believe that
behavior is stable from one situation to another
despite evidence that it is not.
15. Mischel
and
Shoda's
cognitive____________________ personality system
suggests that behavior reflects stable patterns of
variation.
16. Intelligence is a ________________________
variable and may be one reason why traits are as
consistent as they are.
17. Our ____________________ strategies enable
us to categorize information from external
stimuli.
18. Mischel's cognitive-affective personality system
suggests that behavior is largely shaped by an
interaction of _________________ personality
traits and the situation.
19. Behavior _____________________ expectancies
refer to people's guesses about the results of their
behavior.
20. Rotter's concept of ________________ of
control is one of the most frequently researched
areas in psychology.
True-False
_____1. Rotter's theory is future-oriented; that is, it
allows for a person's expectations of future
events.
_____2. Rotter believes that personality is shaped
solely by one's environment.
_____3. Rotter believes the individual is solely
responsible for behavior.
_____4. Rotter assumes that motivation is goaldirected.
_____5. While still an adolescent, Rotter was
influenced by the writings of Alfred Adler.
_____6. Behavior potential and expectancy are
variables used in predicting general
behaviors.
_____7. Freedom of movement is analogous to the
concept of expectancy.
_____8. According
to
Rotter,
people's
psychological situation is more important
than their physical environment.
_____9. One of the components of Rotter's general
prediction formula is freedom of movement.
____10. Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale
classifies people into two distinct groups.
____11. Interpersonal trust refers to the belief that
people are naturally good.
____12. A person who scores high on the
Interpersonal Trust Scale is likely to believe
that most people can be counted on to do
what they say they will do.
____13. Rotter believes that maladaptive behavior
inevitably arises from the combination of
high need value and low freedom of
movement.
____14. The personality theory of Mischel and
Shoda is called behavioral social learning
theory.
____15. Mischel's theory of personality shows the
influence of both Bandura and Rotter.
____16. Mischel was born in Vienna, at a time
when Carl Jung was living there.
____17. Mischel believes that behavior is much
more consistent than most psychologists
assume.
____18. During the late 1920s, Hartshorne and
May found that school children who were
honest in one situation were also honest in
other situations.
____19. Mischel holds that people have no
consistent traits or dispositions.
____20. Mischel
and
Shoda
argue
that
inconsistencies in a person's behavior are due
solely to the situation.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Rotter's theory assumes that
a. most human motivation is unconscious.
b. motivation is goal directed.
c. natural selection determines behavior.
d. people are primarily motivated to reduce
tension.
______2.
An event or condition that moves a
person toward a goal would express Rotter's
concept of
a. the purposive postulate.
b. empirical determinism.
c. metamotivation.
d. dynamic dualism.
e. the empirical law of effect.
______3.
Which of these is NOT one of
Rotter's four variables of prediction?
a. expectancy
b. locus of control
c. the psychological situation
d. reinforcement value
e. behavior potential
______4.
Behavior potential in any situation is
a function of reinforcement value and
a. interpersonal trust.
b. need value.
c. expectancy.
d. internal locus of control.
______5.
Behavioral potential can be predicted
when reinforcement value is held constant
and
a. expectancy is also held constant.
b. expectancy varies.
c. drive strength is held constant.
d. drive strength varies.
______6.
Rotter called a person's subjective
perception of the value of an event
a. the empirical law of effect
b. generalized expectancy
c. external reinforcement
d. internal reinforcement
e. negative reinforcement
______7.
Rotter's basic prediction formula
states that behavior potential is a function of
a person's expectancy that behavior will be
followed by reinforcement in a particular
situation and by
a. one's physical comfort.
b. need potential.
c. reinforcement value.
d. freedom of movement.
______8.
The basic prediction formula is most
useful for making specific predictions. To
make more generalized predictions, Rotter
introduced the concept of
a. needs.
b. cognition.
c. goals.
d. reinforcement value.
_____9. Which of these is NOT included among
Rotter's list of needs?
a. physical comfort
b. dominance
c. esteem
d. love and affection
e. independence
_____10.
The specific concept of expectancy is
analogous to this term in the general
prediction formula.
a. need potential
b. need value
c. freedom of movement
d. reinforcement value
_____11.
The extent to which a person prefers
one set of reinforcements to another is
called ______.
a. need potential
b. the law of effect
c. need value
d. interpersonal trust
_____12.
In the general prediction formula,
need potential is a function of freedom of
movement and
a. expectancy.
b. reinforcement value.
c. interpersonal trust.
d. need value.
_____13.
The Internal-External Control Scale
measures
a. interpersonal trust.
b. generalized expectancies.
c. two types of people.
d. freedom of movement and need value.
_____ 14. The Interpersonal Trust Scale measures
a. belief that people are naturally good.
b. belief that we live in the best of all possible
worlds.
c. belief in behavior-outcome expectancies.
d. belief that one can rely on other people.
_____15.
Low freedom of movement and high
need value are most likely to produce
a. a favorable outcome.
b. guilt.
c. conflict.
d. performance accomplishments.
e. shame.
_____16.
Compared with Bandura and Rotter,
Walter Mischel placed more emphasis on
a. unconscious motivation.
b. self-efficacy.
c. generalized expectancies.
d. interpersonal trust.
e. delay of gratification.
_____17.
Mischel's consistency paradox states
that
a. human behavior is quite consistent from
childhood to old age.
b. human behavior is much less consistent
than most people realize.
c. most people regard behavior as relatively
variable whereas empirical evidence
suggests that it is quite consistent.
d. most people regard behavior as relatively
consistent, whereas empirical evidence
suggests that it is quite variable.
_____18.
Mischel assumed that behavior
a. is consistent from one situation to another.
b. is shaped by the interaction of person
variables and situations variables.
c. is determined by genetic factors and
personal variables.
d. is a hypothetical construct and thus is
beyond scientific analysis.
_____19.
Mischel and Shoda's system that
accounts for variability across situations as
well as stability of behavior within the
person is called a
a. consistency paradox system.
b. cognitive-affective personality system.
c. trait and factor system.
d. variable disposition system.
_____20.
Mischel and Shoda use the term
behavioral signature of personality to refer
to
a. a person's pattern of variability of behavior.
b. personality as revealed by graphology.
c. a set of stylistic traits that guide behavior.
d. a set of motivational traits that generate
behavior.
_____21.
Which of these is NOT one of
Mischel's person variables?
a. locus of control
b. competencies
c. expectancies
d. encoding strategies
_____22.
Mischel and Moore found that
children who were encouraged to imagine
real rewards while viewing pictures of
rewards
a. were able to wait the entire test time for
their rewards.
b. could not wait as long for the rewards as
children who were exposed to pictures of
rewards.
c. could not wait as long for the rewards as
children who were exposed to the actual
rewards.
d. could not wait as long as children who were
exposed to no rewards.
_____23.
Rotter's concept of humanity assumes
that people
a. are motivated by their view of events more
than by the events themselves.
b. are motivated by unconscious needs.
c. react to events rather than interacting with
their meaningful environments.
d. have unlimited free will.
e. are motivated primarily by past experiences.
_____24.
Mischel's cognitive-active personality
system conceptualizes humans as
a. being motivated mostly by personal
dispositions.
b. being goal-directed and active, not
passively reactive.
c. primarily motivated by past experiences
with rewards.
d. shaped largely by an interaction of variable
personality traits and the situation.
Short Answer
1. Explain the difference between Rotter's concepts
of need potential and behavior potential.
2. Name and briefly discuss Rotter's two most
famous scales for measuring generalized
expectancies.
3. State Rotter's goal of therapy and name two ways
of achieving this goal.
4. Name and briefly define the five cognitiveaffective units suggested by Mischel.
5. Define the consistency paradox.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
goal
personal
goal
potential
expectancy
reinforcement
reinforcement
cognitive
independence
potential
generalized
maladaptive
conditional
consistency
affective
competency
encoding
stable
outcome
locus
True-False
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
T
F
F
T
T
F
F
T
T
F
F
T
F
F
T
F
F
F
F
F
T
T
Multiple Choice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
b
e
b
c
b
d
c
a
c
c
c
d
b
d
c
e
d
b
b
a
a
b
a
b
Chapter 19
Kelly: Psychology of Personal Constructs
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 19, you should be able to:
1. State Kelly's philosophical position of
constructive alternativism.
2. Discuss the fundamental postulate of Kelly's
theory.
3. List and explain the 11 supporting
corollaries to the
fundamental postulate of personal construct
theory.
4. Define Kelly's concept of role, including
core role and peripheral role.
5. Define threat from Kelly's point of view.
6. Define anxiety from Kelly's point of view.
7. Discuss Kelly's
development.
8. Describe
therapy.
the
view
of
abnormal
procedure
for
fixed-role
9. Explain the use of the Rep Test in
personality assessment.
10. Discuss recent research using the Rep Test.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Kelly's Personal Construct
Theory
Kelly's theory of personal constructs can be
seen as a metatheory, or a theory about
theories. It holds that people anticipate
events by the meanings or interpretations
that they place on those events. Kelly
called these interpretations personal
constructs.
His philosophical position,
called constructive alternativism, assumes
that alternative interpretations are always
available to people.
II. Biography of George Kelly
George Kelly was born on a farm in Kansas
in 1905. During his school years and his
early professional career, he dabbled in a
wide variety of jobs, but he eventually
received a PhD in psychology from the
University of Iowa. He began his academic
career at Fort Hays State College in Kansas;
then after World War II, he took a position
at Ohio State. He remained there until 1965
when he joined the faculty at Brandeis
University. He died 2 years later at age 61.
III. Kelly's Philosophical Position
Kelly believed that people construe events
according to their personal constructs,
rather than reality.
A. Person as Scientist
People generally attempt to solve everyday
problems in much the same fashion as do
scientists; that is, they observe, ask
questions, formulate hypotheses, infer
conclusions, and predict future events.
B. Scientist as Person
Because scientists are people, their
pronouncements should be regarded with
the same skepticism as any other data.
Every scientific theory can be viewed from
an alternate angle, and every competent
scientist should be open to changing his or
her theory.
C. Constructive Alternativism
Kelly believed that all our interpretations of
the world are subject to revision or
replacement, an assumption he called
constructive alternativism. He further
stressed that, because people can construe
their world from different angles,
observations that are valid at one time may
be false at a later time.
IV. Personal Constructs
Kelly believed that people look at their
world through templates that they create
and then attempt to fit over the realities of
the world. He called these templates, or
transparent patterns, personal constructs,
which he believed shape behavior.
A. Basic Postulate
Kelly expressed his theory in one basic
postulate and 11 supporting corollaries.
The basic postulate assumes that human
behavior is shaped by the way people
anticipate the future.
B. Supporting Corollaries
The 11 supporting corollaries can all be
inferred from this basic postulate. (1)
Although no two events are exactly alike,
we construe similar events as if they were
the same, and this is Kelly's construction
corollary. (2) The individuality corollary
states that because people have different
experiences, they can construe the same
event in different ways. (3) The
organizational corollary assumes that
people organize their personal constructs in
a hierarchical system, with some constructs
in a superordinate position and other
subordinate to them. (4) The dichotomy
corollary assumes that people construe
events in an either/or manner, e.g., good or
bad. (5) Kelly's choice corollary assumes
that people tend to choose the alternative in
a dichotomized construct that they see as
extending the range of their future choices.
(6) The range corollary states that
constructs are limited to a particular range
of convenience; that is, they are not
relevant to all situations.
(7) Kelly's
experience corollary suggests that people
continually revise their personal constructs
as the result of their experiences. (8) The
modulation corollary assumes that only
permeable constructs lead to change;
concrete constructs resist modification
through
experience.
(9)
The
fragmentation corollary states that
people's behavior can be inconsistent
because their construct systems can readily
admit incompatible elements. (10) The
commonality corollary suggests that our
personal constructs tend to be similar to the
construction systems of other people to the
extent that we share experiences with them.
(11) The sociality corollary states that
people are able to communicate with other
people because they can construe those
people's constructions. With the sociality
corollary, Kelly introduced the concept of
role, which refers to a pattern of behavior
that stems from people's understanding of
the constructs of others. Each of us has a
core role and numerous peripheral roles. A
core role gives us a sense of identity
whereas peripheral roles are less central to
our self-concept.
V. Applications of Personal Construct
Theory
Kelly's many years of clinical experience
enabled him to evolve concepts of
abnormal development and psychotherapy,
and to develop a Role Construct Repertory
(Rep) Test.
A. Abnormal Development
Kelly saw normal people as analogous to
competent scientists who test reasonable
hypotheses, objectively view the results,
and willingly change their theories when
the data warrant it. Similarly, unhealthy
people are like incompetent scientists who
test unreasonable hypotheses, reject or
distort legitimate results, and refuse to
amend outdated theories. Kelly identified
four common elements in most human
disturbances: (1) threat, or the perception
that one's basic constructs may be
drastically changed; (2) fear, which
requires an incidental rather than a
comprehensive, restructuring of one's
construct system; (3) anxiety, or the
recognition that one cannot adequately deal
with a new situation; and (4) guilt, defined
as "the sense of having lost one's core role
structure."
B. Psychotherapy
Kelly insisted that clients should set their
own goals for therapy and that they should
be active participants in the therapeutic
process. He sometimes used a procedure
called fixed-role therapy, in which clients
act out a predetermined role for several
weeks. By playing the part of a
psychologically healthy person, clients may
discover previously hidden aspects of
themselves.
C. The Rep Test
The purpose of the Rep Test is to discover
ways in which clients construe significant
people in their lives. Clients place names
of people they know on a repertory grid in
order to identify both similarities and
differences among these people.
VI. Related Research
Kelly's personal construct theory and his
Rep Test have generated a substantial
amount of empirical research in both the
United States and the United Kingdom.
Although many researchers in the field of
social
cognition
use
conventional
questionnaires, some have followed Kelly’s
lead and use phenomenological or
idiographic measures, such as the Rep test
or some modified version of it (Neimeyer &
Neimeyer, 1995). More recent applications
of the Rep test methodology have analyzed
the different construct systems of sexually
abused versus non-abused individuals
(Lewis-Harter, Erbes, & Hart, 2004).
A. Gender As a Personal Construct
In 2003, Marcel Harper and Wilhelm
Schoeman reported on a study of college
students in South Africa that had used the
REP test to detect individual differences in
the degree to which people internalize
cultural views of gender. The authors found
that the less information someone has about
a person, the more likely they will use
stereotypic gender schemas to evaluate that
person; that is, participants who used gender
stereotypes in perceiving strangers tended to
have limited perceptions of other people.
B. Smoking and Self-Concept
Previous research on self-concept and
adolescent smoking has tended to find
relatively negative self-concepts of smokers
compared with non-smokers. Specifically,
smokers have more disparity between real
and ideal self-concepts, as well as lower
self-esteem (Burton, Sussman, Hansen,
Johnson, & Flay, 1989; Webster, Hunger, &
Keats, 1994). But since people smoke for
different reasons, an idiographic approach
such as the Rep test was thought to be better
than conventional measures for these
differences. Peter Weiss, Neill Watson, and
Howard Mcguire (2003) used the REP test
to investigate the hypothesis that smokers
would identify with and rate their own
personalities more similar to the personality
descriptions they have of other smokers than
of non-smokers. They also predicted a lower
self-concept for smokers than non-smokers.
As predicted, both smokers and nonsmokers identified with and valued more
highly the traits of non-smokers (such as
quiet, studious, etc.) than of smokers.
However, the prediction that smokers would
have lower self-esteem (greater real versus
ideal self disparity) did not hold. Weiss et al
concluded that not only is the Rep test
useful for assessing self-concept, but it also
may be a more valid and individualized tool
than standard questionnaires.
C. Personal Constructs and the Big Five
While recently researchers have been
exploring connections between Kelly’s
personal constructs and the Big Five
personality
traits,
some
personality
psychologists disagree with the fact that
Kelly’s constructs have not received as
much attention as the Big Five. James Grice
and colleagues directly compared the two
approaches (Grice, 2004; Grice, Jackson, &
McDaniel, 2006). They found only about
50% overlap; i.e., the repertory grid
captured aspects the Big Five did not, and
the Big Five captured aspects the repertory
grid did not. So while both approaches are
important, and the Big Five framework has
provided common descriptors that have
facilitated a great deal of research, Kelly’s
personal construct theory emphasizes the
uniqueness of individuals, which is
invaluable to the study of individual
differences
central
to
personality
psychology.
VIII. Critique of Kelly
Kelly's theory probably is most applicable to
relatively normal, intelligent people.
Unfortunately, it pays scant attention to
problems of motivation, development, and
cultural influences. On the six criteria of a
useful theory, it rates very high on
parsimony and internal consistency and
about average on its ability to generate
research. However it rates low on its ability
to be falsified, to guide the practitioner, and
to organize knowledge.
IX. Concept of Humanity
Kelly saw people as anticipating the future
and living their lives in accordance with
those anticipations.
His concept of
elaborative choice suggests that people
increase their range of future choices by the
present choices they freely make. Thus,
Kelly's theory rates very high in teleology
and high in choice and optimism. In
addition, it receives high ratings for
conscious influences and for its emphasis
on the uniqueness of the individual.
Finally, personal construct theory is about
average on social influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Kelly's
theory
can
be
called
_____________________ because it
mostly a theory about theories.
a
is
2. Kelly
regarded
people
as
____________________, because they asks
questions, formulates hypotheses, and looks
for evidence.
3. The
Psychology
of
______________________ Constructs is
Kelly's best known book.
4. Personal ____________________ are our
way of interpreting events.
5. To Kelly, present constructs are subject to
________________ or replacement.
6. Kelly
believed
that
personal
____________________, not the facts, holds
the key to an individual's future.
7 If a construct is to exist, there must be both a
__________ and a contrast.
8. Kelly's basic postulate assumes that people's
processes are directed by the ways in which
they _______________________ events.
9. Constructive
_______________________
refers to Kelly's assumption that all of our
present interpretations are subject to revision
or replacement.
10. The ______________________ corollary
states that people anticipate events by
construing their replications.
11. The organization corollary emphasizes the
relationships
among
_____________________.
12. The ____________________ corollary
assumes that personal constructs are finite
and not relevant to everything.
13. Kelly's ___________________ corollary
assumes that the extent to which we revise
our constructs is related to the degree of
permeability of our existing constructs.
14. In
spite
of
repeated
________________________,
unhealthy
people hold on to their personal constructs.
15. People
experience
________________________ when they see
that the stability of their basic constructs is
likely to be shaken.
16. Kelly defined ___________________ as
"the sense of having lost one's role
structure."
17. Kelly
believed
________________________
is
specific and incidental than threat.
that
more
18. Pathological
__________________________ exists when
people realize that their incompatible
constructs can no longer be tolerated.
19. Kelly used ____________________ therapy
to help clients change their outlook on life
by acting out a predetermined role.
20. Kelly's concept of ____________________
choice explains how present choices expand
the range of our future choices.
True-False
______1.
George Kelly's theory is a theory
about theories.
______2.
Kelly's theory allows for change
even in its own basic assumptions.
______3.
Kelly insisted that behavior is
shaped by a person's environment.
______4.
Kelly realized that his theory was
a set of half-truths.
______5.
Kelly
accepted
phenomenological position that
perceptions are our only reality.
the
our
______6.
Like Adler, Kelly thought that our
interpretation of events is more
important than the events themselves.
______7.
Kelly assumed that the universe
really existed.
______8.
It is virtually impossible for
incompatible constructs to exist within a
person.
______9.
Personal construct theory attempts
to explain nature.
_____10.
A person's construction system
exists only in the present.
_____11.
Kelly believed that psychological
disorders were a result of childhood
experiences.
_____12.
People who have never developed
a core role do not feel guilty.
_____13.
The personal construction systems
of people who have psychological
disorders is much narrower than the
construction systems of psychologically
healthy individuals.
_____14.
Kelly believed that people belong
to the same cultural group mostly
because they construe their experience in
the same manner.
_____15.
The purpose of fixed-role therapy
is to help clients change their outlook on
life by having them act out a
predetermined role.
_____16.
Kelly had a basically pessimistic
view of human nature.
_____17.
Personal construct theory is more
teleological than causal.
_____18.
Harper and Schoeman (2003)
found that people who rely heavily on
gender stereotypes tend to have few
basic prejudices.
_____19.
Although
Kelly's
personality
theory was quite unique, his practice of
psychotherapy
remained
strongly
psychoanalytic.
_____20.
Kelly's theory addressed such
basic psychological concepts
as
motivation,
learning,
and
development.
Multiple Choice
______1.
Kelly's college education may
have influenced his later writings, which
are sprinkled with
a. agricultural references.
b. show business references.
c. biblical references.
d. musical references.
e. classical mythology.
______2.
Kelly's personal construct theory
should be viewed as
a. a metatheory.
b.
c.
d.
e.
a psychoanalytic theory.
an existential theory.
a behavioral theory.
a factor analytic theory.
______3.
Kelly compared a person's
attempts to interpret and explain events
to those of
a. a scientist.
b. a psychotherapist.
c. an animal.
d. an engineer.
______4.
Kelly believed that his theory, like
all others,
a. is a metatheory.
b. should explain unconscious motivation.
c. is subject to change and revision.
d. should be limited to "normal" behavior.
e. should be based on nomothetic research
methods.
______5.
Kelly's assumption that present
interpretations are subject to revision and
change is called
a. scientific determinism.
b.
c.
d.
e.
constructive alternativism.
theoretical empiricism.
alternative constructivism.
empirical constructivism.
______6.
Kelly explicitly assumed that
a. the universe exists.
b. all reality is subjective.
c. the universe is beyond human
understanding.
d. all people are motivated to rise above
their peers.
______7.
Facts, according to Kelly,
a. are immutable.
b. determine our perceptions.
c. carry meaning for us to discover.
d. are discovered by scientists and
disseminated to nonscientists.
e. are discovered by scientists and then
disseminated to other scientists.
______8.
Personal constructs are best
defined as
a. subjective opinions held without
substantiating evidence.
b. events that are shaped by personal
biases.
c. alternative ways of looking at the world.
d. transparent templates or patterns that
help people make sense out of the world.
______9.
All personal constructs, Kelly said,
have at least
a. one comparison and one contrast.
b. two comparisons and one contrast.
c. one comparison and two contrasts.
d. two comparisons and two contrasts.
_____10.
Kelly's fundamental postulate
assumes that
a. present behavior is guided by past
experiences.
b. people guide their actions by the ways
they predict the future.
c. all behavior, without exception, is
completely determined by and pertinent
to one's phenomenal field.
d. personal constructs are convenient for an
infinite range of events.
_____11.
Kelly's construction corollary
assumes that people
a. construe similar events in an identical
fashion.
b. construe similar events in very different
ways.
c. interpret past events by their recurrent
themes.
d. may do any of these depending on the
situation.
_____12.
The notion that people differ from
one another in their construction of
events best describes Kelly's _____
corollary.
a. choice
b. experience
c. organization
d. individuality
e. dichotomy
_____13.
Which of Kelly's corollaries
explicitly
assumes
an
ordinal
relationship among constructs?
a. organization
b. dichotomy
c. fragmentation
d. construction
e. individuality
_____14.
The assumption that personal
constructs are limited to a finite number
of events reflects this corollary.
a. choice
b. commonality
c. fragmentation
d. range
e. organization
_____15.
Permeable constructs
a. hold no information.
b. permit change.
c. restrict adaptation.
d. cannot be anticipated.
_____16.
Which of Kelly's corollaries
assumes that people can hold seemingly
incompatible beliefs?
a. choice
b. organization
c. fragmentation
d. dichotomy
e. individuality
_____17.
Kelly defined a role as
a. a facade we erect to prevent others from
seeing who we really are.
b. a pattern of behavior resulting from our
understanding of the constructs of others.
c. the extent to which we accurately
construe the constructions of others.
d. an invalid personal construct in need of
the validation of another.
_____18.
Kelly compared psychologically
unhealthy people to
a. incompetent scientists.
b. bankrupt businesses.
c. a dry riverbed.
d. physically unhealthy people.
e. used Christmas trees.
_____19.
Kelly defined threat as
a. any incidental modification of a personal
construct.
b. the awareness of an immediate and basic
change to the core structure.
c. any action or behavior inconsistent with
one's core role experience.
d. failure to develop a core role.
_____20.
In order to facilitate clients'
discovery of hidden aspects of
themselves, Kelly used
a. hypnosis.
b. dream interpretation.
c. fixed-role therapy.
d. early recollections.
Short Answer
1. Explain the difference between a concept and
a construct.
2. List Kelly's four elements that result in
psychological disturbance.
3. Explain the difference between threat and
fear.
4. Explain the purpose of fixed-role therapy.
5. List two criticisms of the Rep Test.
6. Discuss at least two research reports that have
used the Rep Test.
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
metatheory
2.
scientists
3.
Personal
4.
constructs
5.
revision (change)
6.
constructs
7.
comparison
8.
anticipate
9.
alternativism
10. construction
11. constructs
12. range
13. modulation
14. invalidation
15. threat
16. guilt
17. fear
18. anxiety
19. fixed-role
20. elaborative
True-False
1.
T
2.
T
3.
F
4.
T
5.
F
6.
T
7.
T
8.
F
9.
F
10. T
11. F
12. T
13. T
14. T
15. T
16. F
17. T
18. F
19. F
20. F
Multiple Choice
1. c
2. a
3. a
4. c
5. b
6. a
7. c
8. d
9. a
10. b
11. a
12. d
13. a
14. d
15. b
16. c
17. b
18. a
19. b
20. c