Personality Psych Exam 2

Why does Erikson describe developmental crises as psychosocial?

Because they involve psychological needs of the individual which conflict with the needs of society.

According to Erikson, when does psychosocial/ego development occur?

Throughout the entire lifetime.

What is the infant's perspective on the world during the oral-sensory stage?

The infant is uncertain about the world and looks to their primary caregiver for stability and consistent care.

Autonomy and self-control takes place in the muscular-anal stage if...

if parents guide children's behavior gradually yet firmly. If to harsh and demanding, shame and doubt occurs.

What is the ego strength in this stage and how is it developed?

Ego strength: Competence.

If children are encouraged and reinforced for their initiative, they begin to feel industrious (competent) and feel confident in their ability to achieve goals.

What is identity in adolescence?

multifaceted concept that involves knowing who you are and where you are going, as well as what you are not and do not want to be, the unified sense of self as uniquely different from others.

What are the two identities involved in the adolescence stage?

Sexual identity and occupational identity.

What is something normal that occurs during the adolescence stage?

Identity crisis

Identity crisis is a ___________.

Moratorium: time of exploration during adolescence filled with role confusion as they actively consider life goals and alternatives in their attempts to arrive at decisions.

Experienced during the identity crisis.

What is the ego strength associated with the adolescence stage?

Fidelity: a sense of loyalty and commitment. According to Erikson, fidelity involves being able to commit oneself to others, on the basis of accepting others, even when there may be ideological differences.

The ability to sustain loyalties to friends and coworkers

freely pledged in spite of the inevitable contradictions

of value systems.

What can result from an unresolved identity crisis?

Negative identity; leading to scorn and hostility toward offered roles, loyalties to those who are destructive to themselves.

Erikson believed pressuring someone into an identity can result in what?

Can result in rebellion in the form of establishing a negative identity, and in addition to this feeling of unhappiness

What is the sixth stage of Erikson's psychosocial development?

Young adulthood: Intimacy versus isolation, ages 20 - 24.

What is the major conflict during young adulthood?

Forming intimate, loving relationships.

We explore relationships leading toward longer-term commitments with someone other than a family member.

What happens during the successful completion of Young Adulthood stage

result in happy relationships and a sense of commitment, safety, and care within a relationship.

Gain the Ego strength: Love

Without a healthy capacity for intimacy comes a sense of what?

isolation: the inability to take chances with one’s

identity by showing true intimacy. Involves a fear of

commitment which leads to loneliness, and sometimes

depression.

What is the seventh stage of Erikson's psychosocial development?

Middle adulthood: Generativity versus stagnation, ages 25 - 64.

What does generativity refer to?

Making your mark on the world through creating or nurturing things that will outlast an individual. It's the process of establishing and/or enhancing a creative and productive career and of being concerned with ensuring the well-being of the next generation.

During middle-age, individuals experience a need to what?

Need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often having mentees, or creating positive changes that will benefit other people.

What can lead to stagnation in middle adulthood?

Lack of productivity, boredom, and interpersonal impoverishment.

What is the ego strength associated with middle adulthood?

Care.

How do we give back to society and develop generativity?

We give back to society through raising our children, being productive at work, and becoming involved in community activities and organizations. Through generativity, we develop a sense of being part of the bigger picture.

What are the outcomes of success or failure in generativity?

Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world.

What happens to individuals who fail to find a way to contribute?

They become stagnant, feel unproductive, and may feel disconnected or uninvolved with their community and society as a whole.

What is the final stage of Erikson's psychosocial development?

Late adulthood: Ego Integrity versus despair, ages 65 to death.

What occurs during late adulthood?

It is during this time that we contemplate our accomplishments and can develop integrity if we see ourselves as leading a successful life.

- Intense reflection, reminiscence, and recollections.

What is ego integrity?

in the elderly, feeling their lives had positive meaning and have been worth living.

What is despair?

negative outcome involving fear of death, see lives as failures, unable to rectify mistakes do to lack of time remaining

What happens if individuals see their lives as unproductive according to Erikson?

feel guilt about our past, or feel that we did not accomplish our life goals, then we become dissatisfied with life and develop despair, often leading to depression and hopelessness.

What is ego strength in Erikson's theory?

Wisdom: detached concern with life itself in the face of death, life is put into perspective, with acceptance and a deeper insight into one’s own and other’s motives and behavior and having empathy, sympathy and compassion for others.

Wisdom enables a person to look back on their life with a sense of closure and completeness and accept death without fear.

How do wise people experience late life according to Erikson?

They experience both ego integrity and despair as alternating states that need to be balanced.

NO continuous state of ego integrity

What is a positive aspect of Erikson's perspective on personality development?

By extending personality development across the lifespan, Erikson provides a more realistic perspective of personality development.

How has psychology changed its view of middle and late adulthood because of Erikson?

Middle and late adulthood are now considered active and significant times of personal growth, rather than irrelevant periods.

What evidence supports the relevance of Erikson's theory?

Research shows that many people can relate to his theories about the stages of the life cycle through their own experiences.

What is one of the key strengths of Erikson's theory?

Its ability to connect important psychosocial development across the entire lifespan.

What is a criticism of Erikson's theory regarding the causes of development?

Erikson is vague about what kinds of experiences people need to successfully resolve psychosocial conflicts and move from one stage to another; the theory lacks a universal mechanism for crisis resolution.

What aspects of human development does Erikson's theory fail to cover?

It focuses mainly on attitudes toward others and life, but does not address cognitive or emotional development.

How was Erikson's theory influenced by his personal background?

His thinking was shaped by his own experiences and largely based on ethical principles rather than scientific data.

What are other common criticisms of Erikson's theory?

Critics point to ambiguous terminology, incomplete descriptions of psychosocial stages, and weakly supported claims of male-female personality differences based on biological factors.

Who refined and extended Erikson's work on psychosocial development?

James Marcia, who developed four Identity Statuses focusing mainly on adolescent development.

According to Marcia, what determines one's sense of identity?

Identity is largely determined by the choices and commitments made regarding personal and social traits.

What are the two key components of an adolescent's identity in Marcia's theory?

Crisis (a period of reevaluating values and choices) and commitment.

What conflict did Erikson identify as normal in adolescence?

The opposition between identity and role confusion.

How did Marcia expand on Erikson's idea of adolescent identity?

Marcia suggested that adolescence isn’t just identity resolution or confusion, but involves the extent to which one has explored and committed to an identity across life domains like politics, occupation, religion, relationships, friendships, and gender roles.

What did Marcia propose to describe psychological identity development?

Four stages, or Identity Statuses, of psychological identity development.

What are the four Identity Statuses proposed by James Marcia?

Identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achievement.

What does identity diffusion refer to?

A lack of firm commitments and not actively being in crisis.

What does foreclosure stage refer to?

Individuals have never experienced a crisis but have made firm commitments to goals, beliefs, and values.

What is the moratorium stage?

A state of crisis where individuals are actively considering alternatives to make decisions.

What does identity achievement entail?

Undergoing a period of crisis and as a result, developing firm commitments.

Who developed a model of Ethnic Identity based on Erikson and Marcia?

Jean Phinney, building on Erikson's theory of development and Marcia's ego-identity theory.

What is ethnic identity according to Jean Phinney?

a sense of belonging and commitment to a group because the individual shares a common heritage, knowledge, attitudes, and values with other members.

What is bicultural identity?

Having positive attitudes toward one's own ethnic group and the majority group.

What 3 major criteria did Jacob Orlofsky use to assess intimacy?

1. Does the person have close relationships with

male and female friends?

2. Does he or she have an enduring heterosexual

relationship?

3. Are the person's close relationships deep or

superficial? (Depth includes openness, affection,

respect, loyalty, a capacity to accept and resolve

differences, and mutuality.)

What are the six intimacy statuses identified by Orlofsky?

1. Intimate individuals:

2. Preintimate individuals:

3. Stereotyped individuals:

4. Pseudointimate individuals:

5. Isolated individuals:

6. Merger individuals:

What is the definition of intimate individuals?

Those with deep relationships with male and female friends and involved in enduring, committed heterosexual relationships.

What characterizes preintimate individuals?

Those with close emotional ties but ambivalent about committing to enduring love relationships.

What is the definition of stereotyped individuals?

Those that have many relationships, but superficial, lack closeness and commitment.

What is the definition of Pseudointimate individuals?

Those that have many relationships, relationships lack depth yet still in enduring heterosexual commitments.

What is the definition of isolated individuals?

those that are withdrawn from social situations and relationships with peers.

What is the definition of merger individuals?

Those that committed themselves to enduring relationships but become absorbed in their relationships at the expense of their own autonomy and sense of self. Enmeshment.

What techniques did Erikson use in assessment?

- Egalitarian and personal approaches

- disciplined subjectivity: sought to analyze and

understand the patient's problems through

empathy as well as by examining the historical

events that affected the patient's life.

- transference, free association, and dream analysis.

- Play-therapy techniques

How did Erikson interpret transference and dream analysis?

In psychosocial terms rather than sexual.

How did Erikson use psychohistorical analysis?

He pioneered psychohistorical analysis to better understand the lives of important historical figures.

Why did Erikson develop psychohistorical analysis?

He wanted to build a bridge between psychoanalysis and history.

Psychohistorical analysis

technique for analyzing the lives of historical figures on the basis of Erikson's theory of ego development.

Client-centered therapy:

starts and ends with the subjective experience (conscious self perceptions) of the individual, where their subjective reality serves as the basis for all the individual's judgments and behavior

therapist's interpretation is insignificant.

Part of Humanism:

Emphasizes people's potential for self-fulfillment.

What are some humanistic therapies?

- focus on the present and future, not the past

-focus on feelings as they occur rather than

childhood origins

- focus on the conscious rather than the unconscious

- focus on taking immediate responsibility for one's

feelings or actions rather than uncovering hidden

issues

- focus on promoting growth instead of curing illness

- changed the term from "patients" to "clients"

Self-actualizing tendency:

an active, controlling drive toward fulfillment of our potentials that enables us to maintain and enhance ourselves.

Rogers believes this tendency was both biological and

psychological.

Personality Development

Believes self-actualization begins in infancy.

Organismic valuing process

When individuals utilize their actualization tendency as a criterion in making judgments about the worth of a given experience.

The Fully functioning person

Individuals who are utilizing their potentials to the maximum degree, are engaged in self-realization or self-actualization.

Characteristics of the fully functioning person has the following characteristics:

1. They are open to experience.

2. They are characterized by existential living.

3. They trust their organisms.

4. They are creative.

5. They live richer lives than do other people.

Emerging persons

people whose interpersonal relationships are characterized by honesty, cooperation, and concern for others, avoid facades and hypocrisy, welcome change, and opt for growth even when difficult.

the emerging person has the following characteristics

1. They are honest and open.

2. They are indifferent to material comforts and

rewards.

3. They are caring persons.

4. They have a deep distrust of cognitively based

science and technology that uses science to

exploit and harm nature and people.

5. They have a trust in their own experience and

profound distrust of all external authority.

Social self

an organized set of characteristics that the individual perceives as being unique to themselves and is primarily acquired through contact with others.

True self

is one's self-concept based on our actual feelings about our experiences.

What did Rogers believe about the formation of a healthy

self-concept?

That it was an ongoing process shaped by a person's life experiences.

People with a stable sense of self tend to have what?

greater confidence and cope more effectively with life's challenges.

One's self-concept can be affected by the:

Need for positive regard: learned or innate tendency to see and need approval from others.

As a result for our need for positive regard, we live our life based on:

Conditions of worth: experiences and behaviors are acceptable only if they meet with approval from others.

What did Rogers believe the ultimate goal of his person

(client)-centered approach was?

to change the person's self-concept.

According to Rogers, the ideal condition for development of a healthy self-concept is

Unconditional positive regard: a total caring or prizing of the person for what and who one is, without any reservations or conditions of worth.

When did Rogers suggest that self-concept begins to develop?

during childhood and is heavily influenced by parenting. Parents who offer their children unconditional love and regard are more likely to foster a healthy self-concept. Children who feel that they have to "earn" their parents' love may end up with low self-esteem and feelings of unworthiness.

When our self-image does not line up with our ideal self =

we are in a state of incongruence.

Rogers believed that by receiving unconditional positive regard and pursuing self-actualization =

= A Fully Functioning Person

-> people can come close to reaching a state of congruence.

What also plays a critical role in the development of full functioning?

unconditional positive regard

- Those who receive nonjudgmental support and love can develop the self-esteem and confidence to be the best person they can be and live up to their full potential.

What is the assessment type that Rogers uses?

Q-sort: measures the discrepancies between the

actual and ideal selves.

3 essential ingredients provided by the therapist in order to facilitate the therapeutic relationship (Rogers):

1. Therapist must be genuine.

2. Therapist must be empathetic.

3. Therapist must feel unconditional positive regard for the client.

What are the active listening skills Rogers says therapists need to use?

1. Paraphrase

2. Invite clarification

3. Reflect feelings

What was Carl Rogers emphasis on? What does he have an influence on?

Huge emphasis on human potential. He has an enormous influence on both psychology and education.

What is the theory of Maslow's self-actualization?

process whereby the healthy development of people's abilities enables them to fulfill their own true natures.

The Hierarchy of Human Needs

Self-Actualization and Growth Needs (at the top of the pyramid)

Esteem Needs

Belongingness and Love Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs (at the bottom of the pyramid)

What are the 2 basic sets of needs rooted in our biology?

1. Deficiency needs AKA basic needs

2. Growth needs AKA meta needs

Deficiency needs

AKA basic needs.

- include physiological drives, safety needs, belongingness and love needs and esteem needs.

Growth needs

AKA meta needs.

- the need for self-actualization and cognitive understanding..

Basic needs

AKA deficiency needs.

Basic needs include:

Physiological needs: include hunger, thirst and sex.

Basic needs is what you need to survive. Hence, when people are hungry, you will think of nothing else. Which is why few poor people have a quest for self- actualization.

Safety needs

need for security, protection, structure, law, order, limits and freedom from fear, anxiety and chaos.

Both children and adults have safety needs but could vary greatly.

Need for belongingness and love:

Belongingness: need to feel wanted and

accepted by others.

Love: begins selfishly with seeking love from

others, referred to as D-love (deficiency love).

Once capable of loving others, B-love (being

love).