Harry Stack Sullivan's Interpersonal Personality Theory

Flashcards focusing on key concepts of Harry Stack Sullivan's interpersonal theory and personality development.

Harry Stack Sullivan

An American psychiatrist and the founder of interpersonal theory, emphasizing the role of interpersonal relationships in personality development.

Interpersonal Theory

The idea that personality cannot be studied apart from social contexts and exists only in relationships with others.

Personality as an 'illusion'

Sullivan's belief that personality does not exist independently outside of interpersonal relationships.

Anxiety

A purely interpersonal, destructive phenomenon that has no specific object and is transmitted from mother to infant through empathetic connections.

Needs vs. Anxiety

Needs promote productive activity and satisfaction, while anxiety is destructive and diminishes interpersonal relationships.

Energy Transformation

The process by which behavior is directed toward satisfying needs or reducing anxiety.

Self-system

The primary dynamism that protects the individual from anxiety and maintains self-esteem, filtering information into consciousness.

Personifications

Imagined representations of self and others that help reduce anxiety and can include the Good Me, Bad Me, and Not Me.

Psychological Development Stages

Key developmental phases in Sullivan's theory, including infancy, childhood, preadolescence, early adolescence, and adulthood.

Parataxic Thinking

A form of thinking characterized by erroneous cause-and-effect relationships and often associated with magical thinking.

Malevolence

A concept referring to a hostile attitude towards the world, often resulting from parental rejection.

Schizophrenia as Interpersonal Phenomenon

According to Sullivan, schizophrenia arises from interpersonal experiences rather than purely biological factors.