Psychoanalytic theory - heavily influenced by Freud
Basic concepts
Social and cultural conditions, especially childhood, are largely responsible for shaping personality
Combat basic anxiety by adopting one of three fundamental styles of relating to others
Moving toward people
Moving against people
Moving away from people
Modern culture based on competition
Competitiveness and basic hostility spawn feelings of isolation
This leads to intensified needs for affection and overvaluing love
Biography
Went to university against the wishes of her father
“New Ways in Psychoanalysis” 1939
“Neurosis and Human Growth” 1950
Needed romantic relationships in her life
Depressed when out of relationships
First to recognize the impact of culture
Acknowledge genetic factors
Culture influences neurotic and normal personality development
Importance of Childhood Experiences
Neurotic conflict can stem from almost any developmental stage
Childhood is the age from which the vast majority of problems arise
Difficult childhood is primarily responsible for neurotic needs
Needs become powerful as they are the only means of gaining feelings of safety
Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
Each person begins life with the potential for healthy development
Need favorable conditions for growth
Love and warmth
 Not overly permissive
Genuine love
Healthy disciplineÂ
Basic Hostility
Result of parents not satisfying child’s needs for safety and satisfaction
Repressed and not aware of it
Leads to feelings of insecurity and vague sense of apprehension (Basic Anxiety)
Defenses Against Basic Anxiety
Affection
Does not always lead to authentic love. Some may try to purchase love with self-effacing compliance, material goods, or sexual favors
Submissiveness
Neurotics may submit themselves either to people or to institutions such as an organization or religion
Power
Defense against real or imagined hostility of others and takes the form of a tendency to dominate others
Withdrawal
Develop an independence from others or by becoming emotionally detached from them
Ten Neurotic Needs
Affection and approval
Powerful partner
Restric ones life within narrow borders
Power
To exploit others
Social recognition or prestige
Personal admiration
Ambition and personal achievement
Self-suffiency and independence
Perfection and unassailability
Grouped into three general categories, related to attitude toward self and others
Moving TOWARD people
Not always in a spirit of genuine love, need to protect oneself against feelings of helplessness
Moving AGAINST people
Inherently aggressive, everyone is hostile, compulsive
Moving AWAY from people
Solve basic conflict of isolation by being detached, intensified need to be strong and powerful
Neurotic Search for Glory
As neurotics come to believe in the reality of their idealized self, they begin to incorporate it into all aspects of their lives, their goals, their self-concepts, and their relations with others
Comprehensive drive toward actualizing the ideal selfÂ
Need for perfection
Drive to mold the whole personality into the idealized self, the tyranny of the shoulds
Neurotic ambition
Compulsive drive for superiority
Drive toward a vindictive triumph
Most destructive, disguised as drive for achievement, grows out of childhood desire to take revenge for real or imagined humiliations
Key Concepts
A person faces conflict and challenges in each stage
Modify personalities to adjust successfully to social environments
Begins in childhood
Child success in early stages depends largely on parents
Ongoing process
8 stages of psychosocial crisesÂ
Each stage has one question that must be answered
Stage | Ages | Basic Conflict/Question | Important Events | Summary |
Oral Sensory | Birth, 12-18 months | Trust vs. Mistrust | Feeding | Infant must form first loving/trusting relationship with caregiver or develops mistrust |
Muscular Anal | 18 months - 3 years | Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt | Toilet training | Childs energy is directed toward developing physical skills, learns control but develops shame and doubt if stage not handled well by parents |
Locomotor | 3 - 6 years | Initiative vs. Guilt | Independence | Child becomes more assertive, takes more initiative but may become too forceful which leads to guilt |
Latency | 6 - 12 years | Industry vs. Inferiority | Going to school | Deal with demands to learn new skills or risk a sense of inferiority, failure, and incompetence |
Adolesence | 12 - 18 years | Identity vs. Role Confusion | Peer relationships | Must achieve a sense of identity in occupation, sex roles, politics, and religion |
Young Adulthood | 19 - 40 years | Intimacy vs. Isolation | Love relationships | Young adult must develop emotionally intimate relationships or suffer isolation |
Middle Adulthood | 40 - 65 years | Generativity vs. Stagnations | Parenting | Individual must find ways to support next generation |
Maturity | 65 - Death | Ego Integrity vs. Dispair | Reflection and acceptance | Culmination of one’s self as one is, feeling fulfilled |
Trust vs. Mistrust
Develop trust
Respond quickly when the child cries
Hold
Cuddle
Play
Talk to child
love/care
Develop mistrust
Receive inconsistent care
Little love and attention
Fear and suspicion toward the world and everyone in it
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
AutonomyÂ
Child develops sense of independence
Develop minds of their own
Saying no
Allow children to practice new motor skills, want to do everything themselves
Let them practice life skills and make simple choices
Give a sense that they can control their own behavior and environment
Builds confidence
Look forward to meeting greater challenges
Shame and Doubts
Not allowing children to do things for themselves
Doubt abilities
Critizing children for not being perfect
Question worth and abilities to control themselves and world
View themselves and world with shame
Initiative vs. Guilt
Initiative
Initiate activities
Imagines what they want to do then thinks of ways to do it
Need to know their ideas, questions, and concepts matter to others
Chances to create play ideas and put them into action
Guilt
Scold instead of encourage
Play ideas not praised
Ridicule children
Punishing children for acting on ideas
No encouragement to be creative
Parent convey to children that their ideas are not valuable or worthwhile
Child feels less confident
Industry vs. Inferiority
Industry
Capacity to make productive effort
Encourage children to build or make projects
Stress importance of seeing a task through to completion
Praise and reward them for their efforts
Inferiority
Feel incapable of succeeding in their efforts
Discouraged from doing and making things on their own
Not praised, feel like they cannot do anything right
Passively accept failure or misbehave to compensate
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Identity
develops sense of self
Role confusion
who am i?
divided self image
inability to establish intimacy
time urgency
reject family or community
Young Adulthood
Intimacy
ability to fuse ones identity with that of another person without dear of losing it
achieved after formation of a stable ego
Isolation
incapacity to take chances with one’s identity by sharing true intimacy
Middle Adulthood
Generativity
Stagnation
Overview
modern-day people have been torn away from prehistoric union with nature and with one another
have the power of reasoning, foresight, and imagination
lack of animal instincts and presence of rational thought makes humans the freaks of the universe
Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Assumes that humanity’s separation from the natural world has produced feelings of loneliness and isolation (basic anxiety)
Biography
born in Frankfurt, Germany (1900)
social critic, psychotherapist, philosopher, biblical scholar, cultural anthropologist, psychobiographer
evolutionary view of humanity
Humans lost animal instincts but gained an increase in brain development
Basic Assumptions
individual personality can be understood only in light of human history
torn away from union with nature
no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world, instead acquired facility to reason (Human Dilemma)
ability to reason - blessing and curse
Existential Dichotomies
Life and Death - self awareness and reason tell us that we will die, but we try to negate this dichotomy by postulating life after death
Capable of conceptualizing the goal of complete self-realization - recognize that life is too short to reach those goals
We are ultimately alone yet we cannot tolerate isolation - aware that we are separate individuals but also believe that their happiness depends on uniting with their fellow human beings
Existential needs - prevent insanity, relate back to existential dichotomies
Relatedness
the drive for union with another person
three ways in which a person may relate to the world
submission
power
love
love is the only route by which a person can become united with the world, and also achieve individuality and integrity
Art of Loving (1956)
basic elements are common to all forms of genuine love:
identified care
responsibility
respect
knowledge
Transcendence
the urge to rise above a passive and accidental existence and into purposefulness and freedom
create means to be active and care about what you create
OR destroy it and rise above slain victims'
Malignant agression
kill for reasons other than survival
Rootedness
need to establish roots/feel at home in the world
evolution caused loss of home in the natural world
sought in productive or nonproductive strategies
fixation
seeking rootedness through a nonproductive strategy, tenacious reluctance to move beyond the security provided by mother
Sense of Identity
capacity to be aware of ourselves as a separate entity
cannot retain sanity without this
provides power motivation to do anything to acquire sense of identity
Authoritarianism
the tendency to give up the independence of ones own individual self and to fuse ones self with somebody or something outside of oneself in order to acquire the strength which the individual is lacking
Masochism
results from feelings of powerlessness, weakness, and inferiority
aimed at joining the self to a more powerful person or institution
Three Personality Disorders
psychologically disturbed people are incapable of love and have failed to establish union with others
Necrophilia
love of death and usually refers to sexual perversion in which a person desires sexual contact with a corpse
generalized sense to denote attraction to death
alternative character orientation to biophilia
hate humanity
racists, warmongers, love bloodshed and destruction
Malignant Narcissism
impedes the perception formality so that everything belonging to a narcissist is highly valued, others belongings are devalued
Moral Hypochondriasis
preoccupation with guilt about previous transgressions
defensive, dismissive, dominant
Incestuous Symbiosis
extreme dependence on the mother/mother surrogate
exaggerated form of benign mother fixation
inseparable from the host person that their personalities are blended with
other person and individuality/identities are lost
Holistic-Dynamic
aka: Humanistic, transpersonal, third force, fourth fource (personality), needs theory, self-actualization
theory investigates motivation
basic and complex behaviors
View of Motivation
holistic, whole person and not single part is motivated
motivation is complex and may spring from separate motives
motivated by needs
arranged in hierarchy
Hierarchy of Needs
conative needs- striving or motivational character
physiological needs
basic biological needs
food, water, oxygen
different in they can be completely satisfied
recur
safety needs
physical security, stability, dependency, freedom from threatening forces, protection from natural disasters and others
love and belongingness needs
desire for closeness with others
those who no not get enough love are motivated to seek it
no experience of love, cant give love
esteem needs
self-respect
confidence
competence
knowing that others hold them in high esteem
self actualization
not everyone gets here
can be met after esteem needs met
self fulfillment
realization of all of ones potential
desire to be creative
Criteria for self actualization
free from psychopathology
progression through hierarchy of needs
embracing B-values
14 B-values
truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness, aliveness/spontaneity, uniqueness, perfection, completion, justice, simplicity, richness/totality, effortlessness, playfulness, autonomy
full use of talents/capacities
qualities of self-actualized
more efficient perception of reality
peak experience
gemeinschaftsgefĂĽhl
profound interpersonal relations
democratic character structure
discrimination between means and ends
Overview
humanistic
developed humanistic theory that grew out of experience as a therapists
prolific researcher
called for empirical research to support
concepts went unchanged, but several name changes
non-directive, client-centered, person-centered
positive in nature
Basic Assumptions
formative tendency
tendency for all matter (organic and inorganic) to evolve from simpler to more complex forms
examples in nature
unorganized mass into galaxies, formless vapor into snowflakes, primitive unconsciousness into highly organized awareness (logic, reasoning, abstract thought)
actualizing tendency
tendency within all humans
only motive people possess
satisfy hunger drive, express emotions, accept one’s self
helps maintain and enhance ourselves
maintenance needs similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (lower levels)
The Self and Self-Actualization
concept of self begins in infancy with “I” or “me” experiences
tendency to actualize self begins to evolve when infants establish self-structure
self-actualization is subset of actualizing tendency (not synonymous)
actualization -
organismic experiences of the individual, refers to whole person (conscious and unconscious, physiological and cognitive)
self-actualization
tendency to actualize self as perceived in awareness
Self-Concept
includes aspect of ones being and experiences that are perceived in awareness
not always accurate
not identical with organismic self
established self-concept makes change difficult
change occurs in atmosphere of acceptance, which reduces anciety and threat to take ownership of previously rejected experiences
Ideal Self
second subsystem of the self
person’s view of how they wish to be
aspirational attributes
Characteristics of Actualized People
open to experience
trust themselves
internal source of evaluation
willingness to continue growing
Characteristics Required for Change
relationship with someone who is congruent
congruence
most important
therapist are real, genuine, integrated, and authentic
no false fronts
model human being
unconditional positive regard
communicate deep and genuine caring for client
caring is unconditional
non-judgemental
accurate empathic understanding
therapist should understand clients experience/feelings with sensitivity/accuracy as they are revealed in the moment
sense clients feelings as if their own without getting lost in those feelings
Barriers to Psychological Health
not everyone is psychologically healthy
most experience
conditions of worth (i am loved only if)
incongruence between self concept and ideal self
defensiveness (barriers against positive change)
disorganization (of thoughts)
Love and Will (book)
struggles with love and intimate relationships
principal American spokesman for European existential thinking in psychotherapy
philosophical approach
rejects deterministic view of human nature
Overview
rooted in philosophy of Kierkegarrd, Nietzche, Heidegger, and Satire
May evolved new way of looking at humans
based on clinical experience
people live in world of present experiences, responsible for who they become
many lack courage to face destiny, give up freedom in process from fleeing from destiny
concerned with trend of dehumanization
emphasized balance between freedom and responsibility
acquire freedom of action through expanding self awareness and assuming responsibility of actions
What is Existentialism
existence takes precedence over essence
opposes split between subject and object
search for meaning in life
people responsible for who they are
antitheoretical
Being in the World
phenomenological approach for understanding humanity
world best understood from our own perspective
alienation from self/world leads to anxiety and despair
alienation - illness that manifests in three areas
separation from nature
lack of meaningful interpersonal relations
alienation from one’s authentic self
Propositions
basic conditions according to existential approach
1: The Capacity for Self-Awareness
ability to reflect and make choices, capable of self-awareness
choose to expand/restrict consciousness
aim of all counseling is to increase self-awareness
become aware that:
we are finite
have potential to take action
meaning is product of searching
subject to loneliness
2: Freedom and Responsibility
free to choose among alternatives, shape our destiny
the manner in which we live is result of our choices
accept responsibility for directing our lives
avoid this reality by making excuses
3:
Striving for Identity and Relationship to Others
preserving uniqueness and centeredness
interest in going outside of self
sell out by becoming what others expect
The Courage to Be
courage to learn how to live from inside
clients fear discovering that there is no substance, merely reflections of expectations
The Experience of Aloneness
part of human condition
get strength from looking to ourselves and sensing our separation
The Experiences of Relatedness
depend on relationships
another’s presence is important in our world
therapy - help client distinguish between erotically dependent attachment and life-affirming relationships
Struggling with Identity
shy away from accepting aloneness and isolation
therapy - clients begin to examine ways that they lose touch with identity
4:
The Search for Meaning
struggle for purpose in life
therapy challenges client to find meaning
Meaninglessness
leads to emptiness, existential vacuum
Existential guilt (realization that one is not what one might have become)
5: Anxiety as Condition of Living
therapists help client come to terms with paradoxes of existence
recognize and deal with anxiety
6: Awareness of Death and Nonbeing
death not negative
awareness is basic human condition
death gives significance to living
fear death - fear life
Overview
emphasized uniqueness of individual
general terms rob people of individuality
trait theories rob uniqueness
used case studies for in depth study
study of the individual - morphogenic science
contrasted with nomothetic methods (study of groups)
advocated eclectic approach to theory building
Approach
49 definitions of personality
50th definition (1961) - “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical symptoms that determine his characteristic behavior and thought”
personality is integrated
organized and patterned
psychological and physical
personality is an action
characteristic implies individuality/uniqueness
personality is product and process (possess capability of change)
Role of Conscious Motivation
choice of change
healthy adults aware of their actions and reasons for actions
did NOT ignore existence/importance of unconscious processes
emphasized conscious motivation
Characteristics of a Healthy Person
proactive behavior
react to environment, cause environment to react to them
likely to be motivated by conscious processes
relatively trauma-free childhood
participate in outside events
warm relating of self to others
emotional security or self-acceptance
realistic perception of environment
insight and humor
unifying philosophy of life
Structure of Personality
dispositions
distinguished between common and individual traits
common traits - many people hold, good for studies
personal dispositions - singular individual
stable such as sociable or introverted
states (temporary) such as angry or sad
levels of personal dispositions
Cardinal Dispositions
ruling passion that dominates life
obvious, cannot be hidden, actions revolve around them
Secondary Dispositions
less obvious
greater in number than cardinal
occur with regularity
responsible for specific behaviors
Proprium
disposition close to core of personality
“That is me”, “This is Mine”
warm, central, and important in life
behaviors
basic drives
tribal customs (wearing clothes, saying hello, driving on right side)
habitual behaviors (smoking, brushing teeth), performed automatically and not crucial to sense of self
Research Focus
understanding and reducing racial prejudice
important component was contact
Contact Hypothesis
optimal conditions - 1) equal status between two groups, 2) common goals, 3) cooperation between groups, 4) support of authority
intrinsic and religious orientation
religious commitment is mark of mature individual
Religious Orientation Scale
consists of 20 items (11 extrinsic, 9 intrinsic)
influenced by trait theorists using research method called factor analysis
Raymond Cattell
factor analysis research
16 personality traits
Beyondism
eugenics, competition between racial groups, white nationalism
voluntary eugenics, natural genocide
Basics
includes Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN)
based on factor analysis
complicated statistical technique
scores of sub-factors are correlated (factor loading)
can be unipolar or bipolar
big five factors are bipolar
search for big five began in 30s but prominent in 70s and 80s
Description of Five Factors
bipolar and follow bell shaped distribution
Neuroticism and Extraversion are strongest traits
behavior predicted by two central components and three peripheral ones
central = neuroticism and extraversion, peripheral = other three
NEO-PI-3
five basic personality traits
bipolar scales
each trait has 4-5 sub-traits/facets
T>55 = (HIGH SCORING)
T<45 = (LOW SCORING)
Interpretation
Neuroticism
N1 - Anxiety
jittery, anxious, worry
N2 - Angry Hostility
easily angered, hotheaded
N3 - Depression
deep sense of guilt/sinfulness, sad
N4 - Self Consciousness
easily embarrassed, feel inferior
N5 - Impulsiveness
difficulty resisting, give into impulse and regret
N6 - Vulnerability
fragile self esteem, susceptible to emotional injury
Extraversion
E1 - Warmth
friendly, enjoy talking to people
E2 - Gregariousness
like to be surrounded by people
E3 - Assertiveness
dominant, forceful, leader types
E4 - Activity
active, fast-paced life
E5 - Excitement Seeking
crave excitement, thrill
E6 - Positive Emotions
cheerful, high-spirited
Openness
O1 - Fantasy
active imagination, daydreamer
O2 - Aesthetics
enjoy art and nature
O3 - Feeling
wide range of emotions/feelings
O4 - Actions
like to learn, develop new hobbies
O5 - Ideas
enjoys theories/abstract ideas, problem solving
O6 - Values
broad minded, tolerant
Agreeableness
A1 - trust
believe that others are honest/trustworthy
A2- Straightforwardness
not craft/sly, could not deceive
A3 - Altruism
help others
A4 - Compliance
cooperate over compete
A5 - Modesty
humble
A6 - Tender Mindedness
all worthy of respect
Conscientiusness
C1 - Competence
problem solvers, common sense
C2 - Order
organized
C3 - Dutifulness
get things done
C4 - Achievement Striving
clear goals, work hard
C5 - Self-Discipline
productive
C6 - Deliberation
think things through
derived three (rather than five) dimensions of personality
extraversion/introversion
neuroticism/stability
psychoticism/superego function
Biography
born in Berlin, lived in England (nazi escape)
Dimensions of Personality (1947)
controversial
Factor Theory
criteria for identifying factors
psychometric evidence
heritability
make sense theoretically
social relevance
called factors “Superfactors” (genetic)
E (extraversion)
social, optimistic, impulsive, quick wit, rewarded sociability
quiet, passive, pessimistic
difference = cortical arousal
extraverts low (not as easily overstimulated)
introverts high
N (neuroticism)
overreact emotionally, difficulty calming down after emotional event
genetic or physiological predisposition to vulnerability that can be activated by stress
P (psychoticism)
egocentric, cold, nonconforming, impulsive, hostile, psychopathic, antisocial
rooted in Darwin theory
artificial selection
breeding that occurs when humans select particular desirable traits in a breeding species
natural selection
more general form of artificial selection in which nature rather than people select traits
Principles
Why is the human mind designed the way it is?
How is the human mind designed?
What function do the parts of the mind have?
How do the evolved mind and current environment interact to shape human behavior?
attempts to explain
the grand view of human nature “big picture theory”
personality origin
function
structure
personality differences - byproducts of evolved adapted strategies or “noise”
Adaptive Problems and Solutions
Mechanisms
adaptive solutions to problems of survival
dozens to hundreds
can be complex
Physical Mechanisms
physiological organs/systems
Psychological Mechanisms
cognitive, motivational, and personality systems that solve survival and reproductive problems
Evolved Mechanisms
internal processes
goals, drives motives
emotions
personality traits
power
intimacy
Personality Traits as Evolved Mechanisms
similar to big five
surgency/extraversion/dominance
disposition to experience positive emotional stability to be social learning and self-confident
agreeableness
willingness to help the group
conscientiousness
emotional stability
response to danger and threat (fight or flight)
openness/intellect
neo-behaviorism
operant conditioning - learning process by which a particular action is followed by something desired (repeat) or unwanted (less likely to repeat)
aka instrumental conditioning
built on Pavlov with experiments
Basics
reinforcement - when a behavior is followed by something desired, such as food for a hungry animal or welcoming smile for a lonely person
shaping - consists of the reinforcement of close and closer approximations of a desired response
extinction - the gradual weakening and disappearance of a reasponse because the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer
favorable outcome is more likely to strengthen response if outcome follows immediately
types of reinforcers
primary reinforcer - events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs, ex. food or drink
secondary reinforcer - events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers, ex. money to buy food
schedule of reinforcement
determines which occurrences of a specific response result in the presentation of a reinforcer
continuous - occurs when every instance of a designated response is reinforced (getting reward every time task is completed)
intermittent - occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time
Fixed Ratio - the reinforcer is given after a fixed number of non-reinforced responses
Variable Ratio - the reinforcer is given after a variable number of non reinforced responses
Fixed Interval - the reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed
Variable Interval - the reinforcer is given for the first response after a variable time interval has elapsed
positive reinforcement - occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a reward
negative reinforcement - response strengthened by the removal of an adverse stimulus
punishment - decreases behavior; must be applied swiftly, severe enough, consistent, explained
Overview
chance encounters taken seriously
Basic Assumptions
humans have flexibility to learn in a variety of situations
triadic reciprocal causation model: capacity to regulate life
made possible by chance encounters and fortuitous events
agentic perspective: humans can exercise control over their lives
conduct regulated through external and internal factors
EXTERNAL: physical and social environements, INTERNAL: self observation, judgemental process, self reaction
regulate behavior through moral agency in morally ambiguous situations
Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model
self efficacy
confidence to perform behaviors that will produce a desired outcome in a particular situation
not the expectations of action’s outcomes
mastery of experiences, social modeling, social persuasion, physical and emotional states contribute to self efficacy
Observational Learning
observation allows people to learn without performing any behavior
more efficient than learning through direct experiences
modeling - core of observational learning
involves adding and subtracting from observed behavior and generalizing one observation to another
several factors determine if someone can learn form modeling
people who lack status, skill, power are most likely to model
high status people make better models
have to focus on behavior to model it
verbal coding increases speed of modeled behavior
rehearsal enhances performance of modeled response