personality exam 2

3 Tenants of Interpersonal Theory: 1 tenant

• Interpersonal relationships are the heart of human existence

• Loneliness/ isolation worst thing that can happen

• Personality development= interpersonal interaction

3 tenants of interpersonal theory: 2 tenant

The way we feel about ourselves is a product of how others feel about us

• Self perception= how we think others see us

3 tenants of interpersonal theory: 3 tenant

The strongest motivating force in human life is the avoidance of anxiety

Anxiety as a social experience

• Arises from our feelings of acceptance from others

  • Barometer of how we are doing in the social world

• Anxiety= perceiving social rejection from others

  • Sociometer theory

The mothering one

• Anxiety is CONTAGIOUS especially for an infant

• The mothering one= primary caregiver

The gradient of anxiety

Mom anxiety=baby anxiety= baby has done something wrong

Personifications:

Result from interactions with the mothering one and anxiety, the way we are thinking about ourself and other people, internalized representations of self and others

Harry Stack Sullivan

3 tenants of interpersonal theory, Anxiety as a social experience, the mothering one, the gradient of anxiety, personifications

D. W. Winnicott

Primary material preoccupation, goal of development. emergence of self, experience of the child, the niffle, requirements of the mother, the moment of illusions, healthy narcissism, the good enough mother.

Primary material preoccupation:

women (not men) enter a state after birth, characterized by enhanced sensitivity to needs of child

Goal of development:

• to develop a self that is separate from others but also connected at the same time

emergence of self:

• All infants come into the world in a merger with their mothers

• Like Sullivan, no distinction between self and mother

requirements of the mother:

1. “Perfect” environment( m=”maternal instinct”), 2. Actualizing fantasies-, Infantile omnipotence

Requirements of the mother: actualizing fantasies

• -> fantasy= mental event

  • Infant must instantly get whatever it wants

  • Imagines breast feeding, the mother must instinctively breast feed

The moment of illusions

Mother meets those 3 requirements then…

• A child develops beliefs that cause things to appear just by wishing for them. 

• Later, mom serves as diplomat from reality visiting the king baby

  • Introduce reality to baby

  • Fantasies come to mirror reality

  • Desires more consistent with what we can expect from real world

healthy narcissism:

• Moment of illusion= basis of a healthy sense of self

• Still, must transfer from Emperor baby

• To a world that is scary

• To provide this experience the mother must be “good enough”

The good enough mother:

• 1. Actualize fantasies

• 2. Allow for times of “quiescence” (when the kid is quiet and needless)

  • Let the child drive the interaction

• 3. Respect transitional objects

  • Exist simultaneously in the fantasy world (symbolic) and the real world

  • Example: the child is in charge of it 

  • Cross from fantasy to reality

• 4. Lends child her ego boundaries: 

  • Example: lives through the child’s rages without retaliating

  • Provides stability and consistency

• 5. Survive destruction-> must allow herself to fail, and child must lose the idea that she is perfect

  • Surviving destruction

  • Child realizes not king of universe

  • Mom= queen, instead

  • Must accept the imperfect “real mom”

Heinz Kohut:

• The empathic understanding of the experience of other human beings is as basic an endowment of man as his vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell

How self-psychology differed from psychodynamics

• Rejected aspects of Freud’s drive structure model, instead focused on the self

• Relationships provide sustenance to the self through the support of  well being and self worth

• Thought  relationships  were more important than the drives, sex, aggression, internal conflicts, and fantasies that we associate with psychodynamic approaches

Empathy:

• The key to human existence

  • Infant born ready to bond socially

  • Psychopathology typically comes from lack of empathy from parents to child

Self objects

• Inhabitants of the child’s world who take on the tasks that the child will eventually perform for him/ herself. 

• Inhabitants=people

• Example parents regulate emotions for child

• Crying/ soothing

• Selfobjects become internalized and define the person's self

  • Without them, we are “empty” lack a sense of self

• Note that he did not define psychological health as rigid independence from others but as being connected 

• Malleable and relevant to personality throughout life

  • Much evidence that healthy romantic relationships lower neuroticism

Two essential types of selfobject relations

Grandiose selfobjects, Idealizing exhibitionistic

Grandiose selfobjects:

• I am perfect and you admire me

  • Typically mom (mirrors self worth)

Idealizing  exhibitionistic:

• You are perfect and I am part of you

  • Typically dad (identify with competence)

• Different people throughout life serve these selfobject relations (example, coach, teacher, friends, etc) 

Object relations today

• Not for severe psychological disorders

  • More biological explanations

• Large impact on attachment theory

• Gender development and moral reasoning

• Girls and boys development of the self and “ego boundaries”

• Girls: both female and mother views the girl as like her

• Girl remains in a close connection to mother, develops a sense of “self in relation” to the mother

• Her ego boundaries are penetrable, relates easily to others, prepared to share ego boundaries as a mother

• Boys: because of strict gender roles, boy gets “kicked out” of merger with mom

• Boy must develop sense of self that is different from her

• Expected to develop a sense of self with dad: often doesn't work out, ultimately develops very rigid ego boundaries. 

• “Self as separate” impenetrable ego boundaries

• Gilligan: Voice of rights vs voice of care

• Men:Voice of rights: reason based on responsibility and abstract principles: protecting rights/ upholding justice, based on laws and justice, the man should not have stolen the medicine

• Women: Voice of care: reason based on enduring interpersonal bonds and compassion for others, individual needs, the man should have stolen the medicine because his wife needed it, and it was the only way to save her

attachment theory

• Inspired by: Freud, in a non clinical context, transference can be thought of as applying patterns of behavior and emotion from previous relationships/ situations to new relationships/ situations.

How is attachment Theory related to object relations & psychodynamics?

• Object relations especially with the mother in early childhood are key to attachment theory

Bowlby & The roots of attachment theory in juvenile thieves and WHO work on orphans

• John Bowlby (1907-1990) founder of attachment theory

• Psychoanalyst, developmental psychology, and evolutionary theorist

• “I wouldn;t send a dog to boarding school at age 7”

• Trained under Melanie Kline

• Too much attention spoils kid

• Ostracized for his belief that issues with developmental are rooted in real life experiences, not internal mental fantasies

• “What cannot be communicated to the mother cannot be communicated to the self”

• After WWII, Bowlby recruited by who to work with orphaned children in Europe, Had all needs met, but showed disorder and failure to thrive

• Studied a group of 44 “delinquent” children at the Canterbury clinic, Found 17 of them had experienced prolonged separation from mother before age 5, applied this idea to explain developmental issues of those orphaned during WWII

Evolutionary perspective on attachment (how is it adaptive?)

• Attachment incorporates ethology: attachment arises from mothers satisfying instinctual need for food

• Developing attachment between mother and child was instinctual defence mechanism that would protect child from predators

• Human attachment about more than just food/ predators

• Caring relationships sets stage of developing sense of self

• Bowlby: being mothered (love, warmth, caring) was essential to psychological development

Mary Ainsworth RESPONSIBLE for turning attachment theory into a scientific theory

Worked with Bowlby and was crucial to development of attachment theory

Know what the hypothetico deductive model refers to

Correspondence between mathematical estimates vs. real-world constructs

• Real things in world dont equal measures/ operationalizations

• Operational definitions enable us to mathematically define constructs, however these are always imperfect, cant perfectly measure time, always measurement error

• Thus our mathematical estimates are never perfect representations of the thing in the real world

• Psychology: operational definition= scores on a self report scale 

• Tool to gather measurement: psychological scales/ questionnaires

• Almost all personality research is correlational

• What is the difference between correlational and experimental research?

• Having good measures/ operationalizations is super important

Carol Gilligan & gender differences in moral reasoning

developed a framework challenging traditional theories of moral development, specifically pointing out how earlier models failed to capture women's moral reasoning

How did object relations differ from psychodynamics?

Interpersonal Relationships vs. Internal Drives:, Relational Self vs. Separation/Autonomy:, Moral Reasoning (Voice of Care vs. Voice of Rights):

Allport

“Psychologists cannot tell us what normality, health, or maturity of personality mean. Yet every practical minded person, including psychologists and psychotherapists, would like to know.“ If you want to see how the average person behaves you need to study average people, not just the special cases of people. Founded psychology of religion. It makes no sense to study personality starting with people who are suffering from psychological disorders.

definition of personality (Allport)

The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to the environment 

The proprium

• The self

• Aspects of experience that are essential to who we are

  1. We cherish them

  2. They are unique to us

  3. Central to our identity

• This “sense of self” develops throughout life (lifelong process doesn't ever end) 

how the proprium develops

1. Sense of body (first 2 years of life) what counts as “me” vs not, physical

2. Self identity (first 2 years) mental, social, psychological

3. Self esteem (2-4) liking yourself

4. Self extension (4-6) investing in things outside yourself, objects-> people more interest in the person than the toy, and if you share with them you will make that person happy

5. Self image (4-6) how others see you matters

6. Rational coping (6-12) problem solving, we can use insights from past experience and apply them to new problems

7. Propriate striving (lifelong after 12) goals, life dreams, what you want to get out of life

Functional autonomy of acquired motives

• A system of motivation

• Reasons for behavior today are different from those that first caused that behavior

• Motives develops from infantile drives, but become independent of them (why do you brush your teeth) > takes what someone is doing now, and explains it now

• This perspective very new and different- takes what someone is doing now and it explains it now

• “Whatever drives, drives now” whatever is causing your behavior now is from now rather than from childhood experiences. 

functional autonomy of acquired motives implications

• human behavior is contemporary, motives drive behavior now, not childhood experiences.

•  Explained how we become the person we hope to be (fictional finalism). 

• Explains how motives can be learned just as skills can be learned (enjoying hard work) 

• Explains the drive that accompanies talent/ success, Especially when someone continues doing something they no longer need to

functional autonomy of acquired motives examples

• “Activities and objects that earlier in the game were means to an end, now become the ends in themselves.”

• Person who seeks to perfect a craft: In line with Adler, initially driven by perceived inferiority engrained in childhood

• Later becomes a need to excel/ enjoy the craft itself

• Functional autonomy explains: reading literature, fashion, use of cosmetics, strolls in public park, vacation, all may serve pursuit of pleasure, but every one of these may become an interest in itself, held for a lifetime long after erotic ends. 

• Example: old man who used to be a fisherman to make ends meet and acquired a love for the sea. Now he has a new higher paying job that destroys the original motive, yet his hunger for the sea still keeps going. 

• Explains: historical greats in their field who continue to do things past their prime.

1. Capacity for self extension

1. Interested in others well being

2. In world outside of personal interests

3. Invested in quality of the world

4. Able to care for others, risk failure, and be vulnerable

3. Emotional security and self acceptance

1. Not a drama queen 

2. Responds to emotional situations appropriately 

3. Not overwhelmed by life

4. Recognize strength and weaknesses in self

Definition of traits (Allport)

• “ neuropsychic structures” within the person that “ render different situations functionally equivalent” for the person

Neuropsychic structures

• both the mind and the nervous system (body) affect thoughts and behaviors, “Psychophysical” 

Functionally equivalent

• responding to different situations similarly

• Different situations are responded to the same way by the person because traits make us see different situations as “the same” 

How does the trait approach differ from psychodynamic approaches?

• Traits are not new

• Allport: personality should be studied in terms of traits

• Idea of traits/ stable dispositions/ individual differences is an old philosophical idea

• Quick detour to the ancient world 

Ancient personality

• First theory of personality in 400 BCE

• Personality is older than Christianity

Plato’s tripartite architecture of the mind/personality definition

• The logos: rational/ logical

• The thymos- spiritual/ emotional

• The eros- appetitive/ physical desires (pleasure)

• Personality= unique combinations of these in the person

• Utopia= social cast system based on these personality traits

• Rational/logical component of the person would live on past death

Galen’s personality theory

• Based theory of personality on Hippocrates theory of disease (four fluids within the body)

• High presence of a humor(body fluid) creates patterns of behavior

• Phlegm= phlegmatic= sluggish/ unemotional

• Blood= sanguine= cheerful

• Yellow bile= choleric= irritable

• Black bile= melancholic= depressed

Functional autonomy of acquired motives

( reason people doing things today were different from why we were doing them in the first place example brushing teeth)

functionally equivalent

(what personality traits are doing, behave similar in different situations)