Module 9 Harry Stack Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory (pt1)

Interpersonal Theory

The theory of personality developed by Harry Stack Sullivan, which based on the belief that people's interactions with other people, especially significant others; determine their sense of security, sense of self, and the dynamisms that motivate their behavior.

social context

Sullivan believed that people develop their personality within ____. Without other people, Sullivan contended, humans would have no personality.

Tension

This refers to the potentiality for action that may or may not be experienced in awareness. Thus, not all of these are consciously felt.

needs and anxiety

Sullivan recognized two types of tensions: ___ and ___.

Needs

these are tensions brought on by biological imbalance between a person and the physiochemical environment, both inside and outside the organism.

tenderness

For Sullivan, the most basic interpersonal need is ___.

Tenderness

the most basic interpersonal need. Touching, fondling, or holding are needs for ??? that satisfied through the use of infant's mouth and the mother's hands.'

(types of needs)

General needs

this facilitate the overall wellbeing of a person which includes interpersonal and physiological needs. Example, Oxygen, water, and food are needs.

(types of needs)

Zonal needs

these arise from a specific body part which includes oral, genital, etc.

(types of needs)

Anxiety

it is the chief disruptive force blocking the development of healthy interpersonal relations accdg. to sullivan. This is more diffuse and vague, and calls forth no consistent actions for its relief.

Energy transformations

These are tension that are transformed into actions, either over or covert. Behavior aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety- two great tensions.

Dynamisms

it refers to a term that means about the same as traits or habit patterns

(1) specific zones of the body, including mouth, anus, and genitals

(2) related to tensions

Two-major classes of dynamism:

disjunctive

include those destructive patterns of behavior

(second class of dynamism is composed of 3 categories:)

isolating

include behavior pattern such as Lust that are unrelated to interpersonal relations

(second class of dynamism is composed of 3 categories:)

conjunctive

such as intimacy and self-system

(second class of dynamism is composed of 3 categories:)

Tenderness

the most basic interpersonal need. Touching, fondling, or holding are needs for ??? that satisfied through the use of infant's mouth and the mother's hands.'

Malevolence

the disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred is called ___, defined by Sullivan as a feeling of living among one's enemies. Those children who become malevolent have much difficulty giving and receiving tenderness or being intimate with other people.

(DYNAMISMS)

Intimacy

the conjunctive dynamism marked by a close personal relationship between two people of equal status is called ___. This facilitates interpersonal development while decreasing both anxiety and loneliness. Because this helps us avoid anxiety and loneliness, it is a rewarding experience that most healthy people desire.

(DYNAMISMS)

Lust

in contrast to both malevolence and intimacy, it is an isolating dynamism requiring no other person for its satisfaction. That is, it is a self-centered need that can be satisfied in the absence of an intimate interpersonal relationship.

(DYNAMISMS)

Self-System

the most inclusive of all dynamisms is this, or that pattern of behaviors that protects us against anxiety and maintains our interpersonal security. This is a conjunctive dynamism, but because its primary job is to protect the self from anxiety, it tends to stifle personality change.

(DYNAMISMS)

security operations

Experiences that are inconsistent with our self-system threaten our security and necessitate our use of ___, which consist of behaviors designed to reduce interpersonal tensions.

security operations

It is "a powerful brake on personal and human progress"

Dissociation

includes those experiences, impulses desires and needs, that a person refuses to allow into awareness or block from awareness

ex. daydreaming, highway hypnosis or "getting lost" in a book or movie

(Two important security operations)

Selective attention

is a refusal to see those things that we do not wish to see. It involves blocking only certain experiences from awareness

(Two important security operations)

Personifications

these are mental images we have of other people and of ourselves. It does need not to correspond to reality, for the importance of how they influence our interactions with others lies in the individually different way in which we conceive of the other person.

personifications

Sullivan believed that people acquire certain images of self and others throughout the developmental stages, and he referred to these subjective perceptions as ____

bad-mother personification

This grows out of infant's experiences with a nipple that does not satisfy their hunger needs. All infants experience this, even though their real mothers may be loving and nurturing.

(PERSONIFICATIONS)

good-mother personification

Later, infants acquire this as they become mature enough to recognize the tender and cooperative behavior of their mothering one.

(PERSONIFICATIONS)

good- me personification

This consists of those aspects of ourselves that we feel good about, that have been rewarded in the past, and that are not associated with anxiety.

The bad-me personification

This reflects those parts of our experiences that we would rather not think about, that have not been rewarded, and that have associated with anxiety.

The not-me personification

It represents those aspects of ourselves which are so threatening that we dissociate them from the self- system and maintain them in our unconscious. This process of dissociation is similar to Freud's concept of repression.

Eidetic Personifications

One of Sullivan's most interesting observations was that people often create imaginary traits that they project onto others. Included in these eidetic personifications are the imaginary playmates that preschool-aged children often have. These imaginary friends enable children to have a safe, secure relationship with another person, even though that person is imaginary, also to protect self-esteem.

Prototaxic Level

Experiences that are impossible to put into words or to communicate to others are called ___. Newborn infants experience images mostly on this level, but adults, too, frequently have preverbal experiences that are momentary and incapable of being communicated.

(three levels of cognition)

Parataxic Level, parataxic distortions

Experiences that are prelogical and nearly impossible to accurately communicate to others are called this. Included in these are erroneous assumptions about cause and effect, which Sullivan termed

(three levels of cognition)

parataxic distortions

For example, if a child is mistreated by his or her father, the child may not only attach the fear and anger towards the father but will also relate this fear and anger to other men that look, talk or act like the father

(three levels of cognition)

Syntaxic Level

Experiences that can be accurately communicated to others are called this. Children become capable of this language at about 12 to 18 months of age when words begin to have the same meaning for them that they do for others.

(three levels of cognition)

Infancy

The period from birth until the emergence of syntaxic language, usually at about age 18-24 months- a time when the child receives tenderness from the mothering one while also learning anxiety through an empathic linkage with the mother.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

apathy and somnolent detachment

Anxiety may increase to the point of terror, but such terror is controlled by the built-in protections of ___ and ___ that allow the baby to go to sleep.

(INFANCY)

somnolent detachment

an infant's drowsiness, putatively reacting to anxiety in the mother

(INFANCY)

childhood

The stage that lasts from the beginning of syntaxic language until the need for playmates of equal status is called ___.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

childhood

The child's primary interpersonal relationship continues to be with the mother, who is now differentiated from other persons who nurture the child. Besides their parents, preschool-aged children often have one other significant relationship- an imaginary playmate.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

juvenile era

This begins with the need for peers of equal status and ends until the child develops a need for an intimate relationship with a chum. At this time children should learn how to compete, to compromise, and to cooperate

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

to compete, to compromise, and to cooperate

These three abilities, as well as an orientation toward living, help a child develop intimacy, the chief dynamism of the next developmental stage

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

preadolescence

Perhaps the most crucial stage is ___, because mistakes made earlier can be corrected during this stage, but errors made during this are nearly impossible to overcome in later life. It spans the time from the need for a single best friend (chum) until puberty.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

intimacy

A preadolescent's relationship ordinarily involves another person of the same gender or social status. Children who do not learn ___ during preadolescence have added difficulties relating to potential sexual partners during later stages.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

Early Adolescence

Begins with puberty and ends with the need for sexual love with one person. Development during this stage is ordinarily marked by a coexistence of intimacy with a single friend of the same gender and sexual interest in many persons of the opposite gender.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

Late adolescence

It begins when a person is able to feel both intimacy and lust toward the same person. This is characterized by a stable pattern of sexual activity and the growth of the syntaxic mode, as young people learn how to live in the adult world.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

adulthood

Late adolescence flows into this stage, a time when a person establishes a stable relationship with a significant other person and develops a consistent pattern of viewing the world.

(SULLIVANS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT)

organic causes

The first of the two broad classes of schizophrenia included all those symptoms that originate from ___ and are therefore beyond the study of interpersonal psychiatry

situational factors

The second class of schizophrenia included all schizophrenic disorders grounded in ___. These disorders were the only ones of concern to Sullivan because they are the only ones amenable to change through interpersonal psychiatry.

an interpersonal process in which one person assists another in resolving problems of living

Sullivan viewed psychotherapy as

Participation Observation

the therapist serves as a participant observer, becoming part of an interpersonal, face-to-face relationship with the patient and providing patient an opportunity to establish a syntaxic communication with another human being.

Family Therapy

treat psychological problems in the context of family has its roots in the work of Adler and Sullivan

Sullivan's concept of humanity

"everyone is much more simply human than otherwise"

interviewing

Sullivan is best known for his research on the therapeutic process and, on the techniques of

chum

Sullivan believed that a "____" relationship is the beginning of genuine human relationships.