HARRY STACK SULLIVAN - INTERPERSONAL THEORY

Flashcards based on lecture notes about Harry Stack Sullivan's interpersonal theory.

Who was Harry Stack Sullivan?

Born in Norwich, New York on February 21, 1892, and died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Paris on January 14, 1949.

What is the main idea of Sullivan's interpersonal theory?

People develop their personality within a social context, and knowledge of human personality is gained through the scientific study of interpersonal relations.

What are the developmental stages emphasized by interpersonal theory?

Infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood.

What is crucial for healthy human development according to Sullivan?

Healthy human development depends on the ability to establish intimacy with another person, with preadolescence being a crucial stage.

What is tension, according to Sullivan?

A potentiality for action that may or may not be experienced in awareness; it transforms into covert or overt behaviors aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety.

What are the two types of tensions and how do they differ?

Needs result in productive actions and are brought on by biological imbalance, while anxiety leads to non-productive or disintegrative behaviors and is originated through empathy.

What are general needs and zonal needs?

General needs are concerned with overall well-being, and zonal needs arise from a particular area of the body.

What is dynamism?

A typical pattern of behavior that can relate to specific zones of the body or to tensions and how they interact with the environment.

What are the categories of dynamisms?

Disjunctive (destructive), isolating (unrelated to interpersonal relations), and conjunctive (related to interpersonal needs).

What are the main personifications described by Sullivan?

Bad mother, good mother, and me personifications (bad-me, good-me, and not-me).

What are eidetic personifications?

Unrealistic traits or imaginary friends that children invent to protect their self-esteem.

What are the levels of cognition according to Sullivan?

Prototaxic (earliest, primitive experiences), parataxic (prelogical, cause-and-effect assumptions), and syntaxic (consensually validated, symbolically communicated).

What are the stages of development according to Sullivan, and what interpersonal process is most important in preadolescence?

Infancy, childhood, juvenile, preadolescence, early adolescence, and late adolescence.

In infancy, what interpersonal process is most important and what concepts develop?

Tenderness from the mothering one leads to good-me/bad-me concepts.

What is the role of the therapist in interpersonal therapy?

The therapist establishes an interpersonal relationship with the patient to improve interpersonal relations and restore the ability to operate on a syntaxic level.