PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES

FREUD: PSYCHOANALYSIS
Overview of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis has endured because it (1) postulated the primacy of
sex and aggression – two universally popular themes, (2) attracted a group of followers
who were dedicated to spreading psychoanalytic doctrine, and (3) advanced the notion
of unconscious motives, which permit varying explanations for the same observations.
Biography of Sigmund Freud
Born in the Czech Republic in 1856, Sigmund Freud spent most of his life in Vienna. In
his practice as a psychiatrist, he was more interested in learning about the unconscious
motives of patients than in curing neuroses. Early in his professional career, Freud
believed that hysteria was a result of being seduced during childhood by a sexually
mature person, often a parent or other relative.
According to Freud hysteria is behind every hysterical symptom, such as convulsions,
paralysis, blindness, epilepsy, amnesia or pain, lay a hidden trauma or series of traumas

Levels of Mental Life

Freud saw mental functioning as operating on three levels: unconscious, preconscious,
and conscious.
▪ Unconscious
The unconscious includes drives and instincts that are beyond awareness but that
motivate most human behaviors. Unconscious drives can become conscious only in
disguised or distorted form, such as dream images, slips of the tongue, or neurotic
symptoms. Unconscious processes originate from two sources: (1) repression, or the
blocking out of anxiety-filled experiences and (2) phylogenetic endowment, or inherited
experiences that lie beyond an individual’s personal experience.
▪ Preconscious
The preconscious contains images that are not in awareness but that can become
conscious either quite easily or with some level of difficulty.
▪ Conscious
Consciousness plays a relatively minor role in Freudian theory. Conscious ideas stem
from either the perception of external stimuli (our perceptual conscious system) or from
the unconscious and preconscious after they have evaded censorship.
Provinces of the Mind
Freud conceptualized three regions of the mind – the id, the ego, and the superego.
▪ The Id
The id, which is completely unconscious, serves the pleasure principle and contains our
basic instincts. It operates through the primary process.
▪ The Ego
The ego, or secondary process, is governed by the reality principle and is responsible for
reconciling the unrealistic demands of the id and the superego.
 ▪ The Superego
The superego, which serves the idealistic principle, has two subsystems – the conscience
and the ego-ideal. The conscience results from punishment for improper behavior
whereas the ego ideal stems from rewards for socially acceptable behavior.
Dynamics of Personality
Dynamics of personality refers to those forces that motivate people.
Instincts
Freud grouped all human drives or urges under two, primary instincts – sex (Eros or the
life instinct) and aggression (the death or destructive instinct). The aim of the sexual
instinct is pleasure, which can be gained through the erogenous zones, especially the
mouth, anus, and genitals. The object of the sexual instinct is any person or thing that
brings sexual pleasure. All infants possess primary narcissism, or self-centeredness, but
the secondary narcissism of adolescence and adulthood is not universal. Both sadism
(receiving sexual pleasure from inflicting pain on another) and masochism (receiving
sexual pleasure from painful experiences) satisfy both sexual and aggressive drives. The
destructive instinct aims to return a person to an inorganic state, but it is ordinarily directed
against other people and is called aggression.
Anxiety
Freud believed only the ego feels anxiety, but the id, superego, and outside world can
each be a source of anxiety. Neurotic anxiety stems from the ego’s relation with the id;
moral anxiety is similar to guilt and results from the ego’s relation with the superego; and
realistic anxiety, which is similar to fear, is produced by the ego’s relation with the real
world.
Defense Mechanisms
According to Freud, defense mechanisms operate to protect the ego against the pain of
anxiety.
Repression
Repression involves forcing unwanted, anxiety-loaded experiences into the unconscious.
It is the most basic of all defense mechanisms because it is an active process in each of
the others.
Undoing and Isolation
Undoing is the ego’s attempt to do away with unpleasant experiences and their
consequences, usually by means of repetitious ceremonial actions. Isolation, in contrast,
is marked by obsessive thoughts and involves the ego’s attempt to isolate an experience
by surrounding it with a blacked-out region of insensibility.
Reaction Formation
A reaction formation is marked by the repression of one impulse and the ostentatious
expression of its exact opposite.
Displacement
Displacement takes place when people redirect their unwanted urges onto other objects
or people in order to disguise the original impulse.
Fixation
Fixation develops when psychic energy is blocked at one stage of development, making
psychological change difficult.
 Regression
Regression occurs whenever a person reverts to earlier, more infantile modes of
behavior.
Projection
Projection is seeing in others those unacceptable feelings or behaviors that actually
reside in one’s own unconscious. When carried to extreme, projection can become
paranoia, which is characterized by delusions of persecution.
Introjection
Introjections take place when people incorporate positive qualities of another person into
their own ego to reduce feelings of inferiority.
Sublimation
Sublimation involves the elevation of the sexual instinct’s aim to a higher level, which
permits people to make contributions to society and culture.
Stages of Development
Freud saw psychosexual development as proceeding from birth to maturity though four
overlapping stages.
➢ Infantile Period
The infantile stage encompasses the first 4 to 5 years of life and is divided into three sub-
phases: oral, anal, and phallic. During the oral phase, an infant is primarily motivated to
receive pleasure through the mouth. During the second year of life, a child goes through
the anal phase. If parents are too punitive during the anal phase, the child may become
an anal character, with the anal trial of orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy. During the
phallic phase, boys and girls begin to have differing psychosexual development. At this
time, boys and girls experience the Oedipus complex in which they have sexual feelings
for one parent and hostile feelings for the other. The male castration complex, which takes
the form of castration anxiety, breaks up the male Oedipus complex and results in a well-
formed male superego. For girls, however, the castration complex, in the form of penis
envy, precedes the female Oedipus complex, a situation that leads to only a gradual and
incomplete shattering of the female Oedipus complex and a weaker, more flexible female
superego.
➢ Latency Period
Freud believed that psychosexual development goes through a latency stage – from
about age 5 until puberty – in which the sexual instinct is partially suppressed.
➢ Genital Period
The genital period begins with puberty, when adolescents experience a reawakening of
the genital aim of Eros. The term “genital period” should not be confused with “phallic
period.”
➢ Maturity
Freud hinted at a stage of psychological maturity in which the ego would be in control of
the id and superego and in which consciousness would play a more important role in
behavior.
 Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory’
Freud erected his theory on the dreams, free associations, slips of the tongue, and
neurotic symptoms of his patients during therapy. But he also gathered information from
history, literature, and works of art.
Freud’s Early Therapeutic Technique
During the 1890s, Freud used an aggressive therapeutic technique in which he strongly
suggested to patients that they had been sexually seduced as children.
He later dropped his technique and abandoned his belief that most patients had been
seduced during childhood.
Freud’s Later Therapeutic Technique
Beginning in the late 1980s, Freud adopted a much more passive type of psychotherapy,
one that relied heavily on free association, dream interpretation, and transference. The
goal of Freud’s later psychotherapy was to uncover repressed memories, and the
therapist uses dream analysis and free association to do so. With free association,
patients are required to say whatever comes to mind, no matter how irrelevant or
distasteful. Successful therapy rests on the patient’s transference of childhood sexual or
aggressive feelings onto the therapist and away from symptom formation. Patients’
resistance to change can be seen as progress because it indicates that therapy has
advanced beyond superficial conversation.
Dream Analysis
In interpreting dreams, Freud differentiated the manifest content (conscious description)
from the latent content (the unconscious meaning). Nearly all dreams are wish-
fulfillments, although the wish is usually unconscious and can be known only through
dream interpretation. To interpret dreams, Freud used both dream symbols and the
dreamer’s associations to the dream content.
Freudian Slips
Freud believed that parapraxes, or so called Freudian slips, are not chance accidents but
reveal a person’s true but unconscious intentions.

Related Research
Freudian theory has generated a large amount of related research, including studies on
defense mechanisms and oral fixation.
Defense Mechanisms
George Valliant has added to the list of Freudian defense mechanisms and has found
evidence that some of them are neurotic (reaction formation, idealization, and undoing),
some are immature and maladaptive (projection, isolation, denial, displacement, and
dissociation), and some are mature and adaptive (sublimation, suppression, humor, and
altruism). Valliant found that neurotic defense mechanisms are successful over the short
term; immature defenses are unsuccessful and have the highest degree of distortion;
whereas mature and adaptive defenses are successful over the long term, maximize
gratification, and have the least amount of distortion.
Oral Fixation
Some recent research has found that aggression is higher in people who bite their finger
nails that it is non-nail biters, especially in women. Other research found that people who
are orally fixated tend to see their parents more negatively than did people who were less
orally fixated.
 Critique of Freud
Freud regarded himself as a scientist, but many critics consider his methods to be
outdated, unscientific, and permeated with gender bias. On the six criteria of a useful
theory, psychoanalysis is rated high on its ability to generate research, very low on its
openness to falsification, and average on organizing data, guiding action, and being
parsimonious. Because it lacks operational definitions, it rates low on internal
consistency.
Concept of Humanity
Freud’s concept of humanity was deterministic and pessimistic. He emphasized causality
over teleology, unconscious determinants over conscious processes, and biology over
culture, but he took a middle position on the dimension of uniqueness versus similarities
among people.
JUNG: ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Overview of Jung’s Analytical Psychology Carl Jung believed that people are extremely
complex beings who possess a variety of opposing qualities, such as introversion and
extraversion, masculinity and femininity, and rational and irrational drives.
Biography of Carl Jung
Carl Jung was born in Switzerland in 1875, the oldest surviving child of an idealistic
Protestant minister and his wife. Jung’s early experience with parents (who were quite
opposite of each other) probably influenced his own theory of personality. Soon after
receiving his medical degree he became acquainted with Freud’s writings and eventually
with Freud himself. Not long after he traveled with Freud to the United States, Jung
became disenchanted with Freud’s pansexual theories, broke with Freud, and began his
own approach to theory and therapy, which he called analytical psychology. From a
critical midlife crisis, during which he nearly lost contact with reality, Jung emerged to
become one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century. He died in 1961 at age 85.
Psychic Energy: The Basis of Jung’s System
Jung did not believe that libido was primarily a sexual energy; he argued instead that it was a
broad, undifferentiated life energy.

Jung used the term libido in two ways: first, as a diffuse and general life energy, and second,
from a perspective similar to Freud’s, as a narrower psychic energy that fuels the work of the
personality, which he called the psyche. It is through psychic energy that psychological activities
such as perceiving, thinking, feeling, and wishing are carried out. When a person invests a great
deal of psychic energy in a particular idea or feeling, it is said to have a high psychic value and
can strongly influence the person’s life. For example, if you are highly motivated to achieve power,
then you will devote most of your psychic energy to devise ways of obtaining it.

Principles of Psychic Energy

Jung drew on ideas from physics to explain the functioning of psychic energy. He proposed three
basic principles: opposites, equivalence, and entropy (Jung, 1928).

The principle of opposites can be seen throughout Jung’s system. He noted the existence of
opposites or polarities in physical energy in the universe, such as heat versus cold, height versus
depth, creation versus decay. So it is with psychic energy, he argued. Every wish or feeling has
its opposite. This opposition—this conflict between polarities— is the primary motivator of
behavior and generator of energy. The sharper the conflict between polarities, the greater will be
the energy produced.

For his principle of equivalence, Jung applied the physical principle of the conservation of
energy to psychic events. He stated that energy expended in bringing about some condition is
not lost but rather is shifted to another part of the personality. Thus, if the psychic value in a
particular area weakens or disappears, that energy is transferred elsewhere in the psyche. For
example, if we lose interest in a person, a hobby, or a field of study, the psychic energy formerly
invested in that area is shifted to a new one. The psychic energy used for conscious activities
while we are awake is shifted to dreams when we are asleep.

The word equivalence implies that the new area to which energy has shifted must have an equal
psychic value; that is, it should be equally desirable, compelling, or fascinating. Otherwise, the
excess energy will flow into the unconscious. In whatever direction and manner energy flows, the
principle of equivalence dictates that energy is continually redistributed within the personality. In
physics, the principle of entropy refers to the equalization of energy differences. For example, if
a hot object and a cold object are placed in direct contact, heat will flow from the hotter object to
the colder object until they are in equilibrium at the same temperature. In effect, an exchange of
energy occurs, resulting in a kind of homeostatic balance between the objects.

Jung applied this law to psychic energy by proposing that there is a tendency toward maintaining
a balance or equilibrium in the personality. If two desires or beliefs differ greatly in intensity or
psychic value, energy will flow from the more strongly held to the weaker. Ideally, the personality
has an equal distribution of psychic energy over all its aspects, but this ideal state is never
achieved. If perfect balance or equilibrium were attained, then the personality would have no
psychic energy because, as we noted earlier, the opposition principle requires conflict for psychic
energy to be produced

Aspects of Personality

Jung believed that the total personality, or psyche, is composed of several distinct systems or
aspects that can influence one another.

The Ego

The ego is the center of consciousness, the part of the psyche concerned with perceiving,
thinking, feeling, and remembering. It is our awareness of ourselves and is responsible for
carrying out all the normal everyday activities of waking life. The ego acts in a selective way,
admitting into conscious awareness only a portion of the stimuli to which we are exposed.

The Attitudes: Extraversion and Introversion

Much of our conscious perception of our environment, and how we react to it, is determined by
the opposing mental attitudes of extraversion and introversion. Jung believed that psychic energy
could be channeled externally, toward the outside world, or internally, toward the self. Extraverts
are open, sociable, and socially assertive, oriented toward other people and the external world.
Introverts are withdrawn and often shy, and tend to focus on themselves, on their own thoughts
and feelings.

According to Jung, all of us have the capacity for both attitudes, but only one becomes dominant
in our personality. The dominant attitude then tends to direct our behavior and consciousness.
The nondominant attitude still remains influential, however, and becomes part of the personal
unconscious, where it can affect behavior. For example, in certain situations an introverted person
may display characteristics of extraversion, and wish to be more outgoing, or be attracted to an
extravert.

Dynamics of Personality
Jung believed that the dynamic principles that apply to physical energy also apply to
psychic energy. These forces include causality and teleology as well as progression and
regression.
o Causality and Teleology
Jung accepted a middle position between the philosophical issues of causality and
teleology. In other words, humans are motivated both by their past experiences and by
their expectations of the future.
o Progression and Regression
To achieve self-realization, people must adapt to both their external and internal worlds.
Progression involves adaptation to the outside world and the forward flow of psychic
energy, whereas regression refers to adaptation to the inner world and the backward flow
of psychic energy. Jung believed that the backward step is essential to a person’s forward
movement toward self-realization.
Psychological Functions
Jung came to recognize that there were different kinds of extraverts and introverts, he proposed
additional distinctions among people based on what he called the psychological functions. These
functions refer to different and opposing ways of perceiving both the external real world and our
subjective inner world. Jung posited four functions of the psyche: sensing, intuiting, thinking, and
feeling.

Sensing and intuiting are grouped together as nonrational functions because they do not use
the processes of reason. These functions accept experiences and do not evaluate them. Sensing
reproduces an experience through the senses the way a photograph copies an object. Intuiting
does not arise directly from an external stimulus. For example, if we believe someone else is with
us in a darkened room, our belief may be based on our intuition or a hunch rather than on actual
sensory experience.

The second pair of opposing functions, thinking and feeling, are rational functions that
involve making judgments and evaluations about our experiences. Although thinking and feeling
are opposites, both are concerned with organizing and categorizing experiences. The thinking
function involves a conscious judgment of whether an experience is true or false. The kind of
evaluation made by the feeling function is expressed in terms of like or dislike, pleasantness or
unpleasantness, stimulation or dullness.

Psychological Types

Psychological Types - Jung proposed eight psychological types, based on the interactions of
the two attitudes and four functions.

o The extraverted thinking types live strictly in accordance with society’s rules. These
people tend to repress feelings and emotions, to be objective in all aspects of life, and to
be dogmatic in thoughts and opinions. They may be perceived as rigid and cold. They
tend to make good scientists because their focus is on learning about the external world
and using logical rules to describe and understand it.

o The extraverted feeling types tend to repress the thinking mode and to be highly
emotional. They conform to the traditional values and moral codes they have been taught
and are unusually sensitive to the opinions and expectations of others. They are
emotionally responsive, make friends easily, and tend to be sociable and effervescent.
Jung believed this type was found more often among women than men.

o The extraverted sensing types focus on pleasure and happiness and on seeking new
experiences. They are strongly oriented toward the real world and are adaptable to
different kinds of people and changing situations. Not given to introspection, they tend to
be outgoing, with a high capacity for enjoying life.

o The extraverted intuiting types find success in business and politics because of a keen
ability to exploit opportunities. They are attracted to new ideas, tend to be creative, and
are able to inspire others to accomplish and achieve. They also tend to be changeable,
moving from one idea or venture to another, and to make decisions based more on
hunches than on reflection. Their decisions, however, are likely to be correct.

Extraverted thinking Logical, objective, dogmatic

Extraverted feeling Emotional, sensitive, sociable; more Extraverted feeling Emotional, sensitive, sociable; more
typical of women than men typical of women than men
Extraverted sensing Outgoing, pleasure seeking, Extraverted sensing Outgoing, pleasure seeking,
adaptable adaptable
Extraverted intuiting Creative, able to motivate others, Extraverted intuiting Creative, able to motivate others,
and to seize opportunities and to seize opportunities
 Introverted thinking More interested in ideas than in Introverted thinking More interested in ideas than in
people people
Introverted feeling Reserved, undemonstrative, yet Introverted feeling Reserved, undemonstrative, yet
capable of deep emotion capable of deep emotion
Introverted sensing Outwardly detached, expressing Introverted sensing Outwardly detached, expressing
themselves in aesthetic pursuits themselves in aesthetic pursuits
Introverted intuiting Concerned with the unconscious Introverted intuiting Concerned with the unconscious
more than everyday reality more than everyday reality

Levels of the Psyche

Jung saw the human psyche as being divided into a conscious and an unconscious level,
with the latter further subdivided into a personal and a collective unconscious.
o Conscious
Images sensed by the ego are said to be conscious. The ego thus represents the
conscious side of personality, and in the psychologically mature individual, the ego is
secondary to the self.
o Personal Unconscious
The unconscious refers to those psychic images not sensed by the ego. Some
unconscious processes flow from our personal experiences, but others stem from our
ancestors’ experiences with universal themes. Jung divided the unconscious into the
personal unconscious, which contains the complexes (emotionally toned groups of
related ideas) and the collective unconscious, or ideas that are beyond our personal
experiences and that originate from the repeated experiences of our ancestors.
o Collective Unconscious
Collective unconscious images are not inherited ideas, but rather they refer to our innate
tendency to react in a particular way whenever our personal experiences stimulate an
inherited predisposition toward action. Contents of the collective unconscious are called
archetypes.
Archetypes
Jung believed that archetypes originate through the repeated experiences of our
ancestors and that they are expressed in certain types of dreams, fantasies, delusions,
and hallucinations. Several archetypes acquire their own personality, and Jung identified
these by name. One is the persona – the side of our personality that we show to others.
Another is the shadow – the dark side of personality.
To reach full psychological maturity, Jung believed, we must first realize or accept our
shadow. A second hurdle in achieving maturity is for men to accept their anima, or
feminine side, and for women to embrace their animus, or masculine disposition.
Other archetypes include the great mother (the archetype of nourishment and
destruction); the wise old man (the archetype of wisdom and meaning); and the hero (the
image we have of a conqueror who vanquishes evil, but who has a single fatal flaw). The
most comprehensive archetype is the self; that is, the image we have of fulfillment,
completion, or perfection. The ultimate in psychological maturity is self-realization, which
is symbolized by the mandala, or perfect geometric figure.
Attitudes
Attitudes are predispositions to act or react in a characteristic manner. The two basic
attitudes are introversion, which refers to people’s subjective perceptions, and
extraversion, which indicates an orientation toward the objective world. Extraverts are
influenced more by the real world than by their subjective perception, whereas introverts
rely on their individualized view of things. Introverts and extraverts often mistrust and
misunderstand one another.
Functions
The two attitudes or extroversion and introversion can combine four basic functions to
form eight general personality types. The four functions are (1) thinking, or recognizing
the meaning of stimuli;(2) feeling, or placing a value on something; (3) sensation, or taking
in sensory stimuli; and (4) intuition, or perceiving elementary data that are beyond our
awareness. Jung referred to thinking and feeling as rational functions and to sensation
and intuition as irrational functions.
Development of Personality
Nearly unique among personality theorists was Jung’s emphasis on the second half of
life. Jung saw middle and old age as times when people may acquire the ability to attain
self-realization.
Stages of Development
Jung divided development into four broad stages: (1) childhood, which lasts from birth
until adolescence; (2) youth, the period from puberty until middle life, which is a time for
extraverted development and for being grounded to the real world of schooling,
occupation, courtship, marriage, and family; (3) middle life, which is a time from about 35
or 40 until old age when people should be adopting an introverted attitude; and (4) old
age, which is a time for psychological rebirth, self-realization, and preparation for death.
Self-Realization
Self-realization, or individuation, involves a psychological rebirth and an integration of
various parts of the psyche into a unified or whole individual. Self-realization represents
the highest level of human development.
Jung’s Methods of Investigation
Jung used the word association test, dreams, and active imagination during the process
of psychotherapy, and all these methods contributed to his theory of personality.
Word Association Test
Jung used the word association test early in his career to uncover complexes embedded
in the personal unconscious. The technique requires a patient to utter the first word that
comes to mind after the examiner reads a stimulus word. Unusual responses indicate a
complex.
Dream Analysis
Jung believed that dreams may have both a cause and a purpose and thus can be useful
in explaining past events and in making decisions about the future. “Big dreams” and
“typical dreams,” both of which come from the collective unconscious, have meaning that
lie beyond the experiences of a single individual.
Active Imagination
Jung also used active imagination to arrive at collective images. This technique requires
the patient to concentrate on a single image until that image begins to appear in a different
form. Eventually, the patient should see figures that represent archetypes and other
collective unconscious images.
 Psychotherapy
The goal of Jungian therapy is to help neurotic patients become healthy and to move
healthy people in the direction of self-realization. Jung was eclectic in his choice of
therapeutic techniques and treated old people differently than the young.
Related Research
Although Jungian psychology has not generated large volumes of research, some
investigators have used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to examine the idea of
psychological types. Some research suggests that extraverts and introverts have different
preferences in their choice of partners. Other researchers have reported that personality
type is related to academic performance and success.
Critique of Jung
Although Jung considered himself as a scientist, many of his writings have more of a
philosophical than a psychological flavor. As a scientific theory, it rates average on its
ability to generate research, but very low on its ability to withstand falsification. It is about
average on its ability to organize knowledge but low on each of the other criteria of a
useful theory.
Concept of Humanity
Jung saw people as extremely complex beings who are products of both conscious and
unconscious personal experiences. However, people are also motivated by inherited
remnants that spring from the collective experiences of their early ancestors. Because
Jungian theory is a psychology of opposites, it receives a moderate rating on the issues
of free will versus determinism, optimism versus pessimism, and causality versus.

ERIKSON: POST-FREUDIAN THEORY

Overview of Erikson’s Post-Freudian Theory
Erikson postulated eight stages of psychosocial development through which people
progress. Although he differed from Freud in his emphasis on the ego and on social
influences, his theory is an extension, not a repudiation of Freudian psychoanalysis.
Biography of Erik Erikson
When Erik Erikson was born in Germany in 1902 his name was Erik Salomonsen. After
his mother married Theodor Homburger, Erik eventually took his step-father's name. At
age 18 he left home to pursue the life of a wandering artist and to search for self-identity.
He gave up that life to teach young children in Vienna, where he met Anna Freud. Still
searching for his personal identity, he was psychoanalyzed by Ms. Freud, an experience
that allowed him to become a psychoanalyst. In mid-life, Erik Homburger moved to the
United States, changed his name to Erikson, and took a position at the Harvard Medical
School. Later, he taught at Yale, the University of California at Berkeley, and several other
universities. He died in 1994, a month short of his 92nd birthday.
The Ego in Post-Freudian Psychology One of Erikson's chief contributions to personality
theory was his emphasis on ego rather than id functions. According to Erikson, the ego
is the center of personality and is responsible for a unified sense of self. It consists of
three interrelated facets: the body ego, the ego ideal, and ego identity.
Society's Influence - The ego develops within a given society and is influenced by child-
rearing practices and other cultural customs. All cultures and nations develop a pseudo
species, or a fictional notion that they are superior to other cultures.
Epigenetic Principle - The ego develops according to the epigenetic principle; that is, it
grows according to a genetically established rate and in a fixed sequence.
 Stages of Psychosocial Development
Each of the eight stages of development is marked by a conflict between a syntonic
(harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive) element, which produces a basic
strength or ego quality. Also, from adolescence on, each stage is characterized by an
identity crisis or turning point, which may produce either adaptive or maladaptive
adjustment.
o Infancy
Erikson's view of infancy (the first year of life) was similar to Freud's concept of the oral
stage, except that Erikson expanded the notion of incorporation beyond the mouth to
include sense organs such as the eyes and ears. The psychosexual mode of infancy is
oral sensory, which is characterized by both receiving and accepting. The psycho social
crisis of infancy is basic trust versus basic mistrust. From the crisis between basic trust
and basic mistrust emerges hope, the basic strength of infancy. Infants who do not
develop hope retreat from the world, and this withdrawal is the core pathology of infancy.
o Early Childhood
The second to third year of life is early childhood, a period that compares to Freud's anal
stage, but also includes mastery of other body functions such as walking, urinating, and
holding. The psychosexual mode of early childhood is anal-urethral-muscular, and
children of this age behave both impulsively and compulsively. The psychosocial crisis of
early childhood is autonomy versus shame and doubt. The psychosocial crisis between
autonomy on the one hand and shame and doubt on the other produces will – the basic
strength of early childhood. The core pathology of early childhood is compulsion.
o Play Age
From about the third to the fifth year, children experience the play age, a period that
parallels Freud's phallic phase. Unlike Freud, however, Erikson saw the Oedipus complex
as an early model of lifelong playfulness and a drama played out in children's minds as
they attempt to understand the basic facts of life. The primary psychosexual mode of the
play age is genital locomotor, meaning that children have both an interest in genital
activity and an increasing ability to move around. The psychosocial crisis of the play age
is initiative versus guilt. The conflict between initiative and guilt helps children to act with
purpose and to set goals. But if children have too little purpose, they develop inhibition,
the core pathology of the play age.
o School Age
The period from about 6 to 12 or 13 years of age is called the school age, a time of
psychosexual latency, but it is also a time of psychosocial growth beyond the family.
Because sexual development is latent during the school age, children can use their
energies to learn the customs of their culture, including both formal and informal
education. The psychosocial crisis of this age is industry versus inferiority. Children need
to learn to work hard, but they also must develop some sense of inferiority. From the
conflict of industry and inferiority emerges competence, the basic strength of school age
children. Lack of industry leads to inertia, the core pathology of this stage.
o Adolescence
Adolescence begins with puberty and is marked by a person’s struggle to find ego identity.
It is a time of psychosexual growth, but it is also a period of psychosocial latency. The
psychosexual mode of adolescence is puberty or genital maturation. The psychosocial
crisis of adolescence is identity versus identity confusion. Psychologically healthy
individuals emerge from adolescence with a sense of who they are and what they believe;
but some identity confusion is normal. The conflict between identity and identity confusion
produces fidelity, or faith in some ideological view of the future. Lack of belief in one’s
own selfhood results in role repudiation or an inability to bring together one’s various self-
images.
o Young Adulthood
Young adulthood begins with the acquisition of intimacy at about age 18 and ends with
the development of generativity at about age 30. The psychosexual mode of young
adulthood is genitality, which is expressed as mutual trust between partners in a stable
sexual relationship. Its psychosocial crisis is intimacy versus isolation. Intimacy is the
ability to fuse one's identity with that of another without fear of losing it; whereas
isolation is the fear of losing one's identity in an intimate relationship. The crisis between
intimacy and isolation results in the capacity to love. The core pathology of young
adulthood is exclusivity, or inability to love.
o Adulthood
The period from about 31 to 60 years of age is adulthood, a time when people make
significant contributions to society. The psychosexual mode of adulthood is procreativity,
or the caring for one's children, the children of others, and the material products of one's
society. The psychosocial crisis of adulthood is generativity versus stagnation, and the
successful resolution of this crisis results in care. Erikson saw care as taking care of the
persons and products that one has learned to care for. The core pathology of adulthood
is rejectivity, or the rejection of certain individuals or groups that one is unwilling to take
care of.
o Old Age
The final stage of development is old age, from about age 60 until death. The
psychosexual mode of old age is generalized sensuality; that is, taking pleasure in a
variety of sensations and an appreciation of the traditional lifestyle of people of the other
gender. The psychosocial crisis of old age is the struggle between integrity (the
maintenance of ego-identity) and despair (the surrender of hope). The struggle between
integrity and despair may produce wisdom (the basic strength of old age), but it may also
lead to disdain (a core pathology marked by feelings of being finished or helpless).
Erikson’s Methods of Investigation Erikson relied mostly on anthropology, psychohistory,
and play construction to explain and describe human personality.
Anthropological Studies
Erikson's two most important anthropological studies were of the Sioux of South Dakota
and the Yurok tribe of northern California. Both studies demonstrated his notion that
culture and history help shape personality.

Psychohistory
Erikson combined the methods of psychoanalysis and historical research to study several
personalities, most notably Gandhi and Luther. In both cases, the central figure
experienced an identity crisis that produced a basic strength rather than a core
pathology.
Play Construction
Erikson's technique of play construction became controversial when he found that 10- to
12-year-old boys used toys to construct elongated objects and to produce themes of rising
and falling. In contrast, girls arranged toys in low and peaceful scenes. Erikson concluded
that anatomical differences between the sexes play a role in personality development.
Related Research
Erikson's theory has generated a moderately large body of research, must of it
investigating the concept of identity. In addition, some researchers have looked at
Erikson's concept of generativity.
Identity in Early Adulthood
A longitudinal study by Jennifer Pals and Ravenna Helson found that identity established
in early adulthood is associated with stable marriage and high levels of creativity.
Additional research by Helson and Pals found that women who had solid identity and high
creative potential at age 21 were more likely than other women to have had a challenging
and creative work experience at age 52.
Generativity in Midlife
People high in generativity should have a lifestyle marked by creating and passing on
knowledge, values, and ideals to a younger generation, and should benefit from a pattern
of helping younger people. Research by Dan McAdams and colleagues found that adults
at midlife who contributed to the well-being of young people had a clear sense of who
they were and what life had to offer them. Other research found that people high in
generativity are typically concerned with the well-being of others.
Critique of Erikson
Although Erikson's work is a logical extension of Freud's psychoanalysis, it offers a new
way of looking at human development. As a useful theory, it rates high on its ability to
generate research, and about average on its ability to be falsified, to organize knowledge,
and to guide the practitioner. It rates high on internal consistency and about average on
parsimony.
Concept of Humanity
Erikson saw humans as basically social animals who have limited free choice and who
are motivated by past experiences, which may be either conscious or unconscious. In
addition, Erikson is rated high on both optimism and uniqueness of individuals.

KAREN HORNEY: PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY

Overview of Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Karen Horney’s psychoanalytic social theory assumes that social and cultural conditions,
especially during childhood, have a powerful effect on later personality. Like Melanie
Klein, Horney accepted many of Freud’s observations, but she objected to most of his
interpretations, including his notions on feminine psychology.
Biography of Karen Horney
Karen Horney, who was born in Germany in 1885, was one of the first women in that
country admitted to medical school. There, she became acquainted with Freudian theory
and eventually became a psychoanalyst and a psychiatrist. In her mid-40s, Horney left
Germany to settle in the United States, first in Chicago and then in New York. She soon
abandoned orthodox psychoanalysis in favor of a more socially oriented theory – one that
had a more positive view of feminine development. She died in 1952 at age 67.
Introduction to Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Although Horney’s writings deal mostly with neuroses and neurotic personalities, her
theories also appropriate suggest much that is appropriate to normal development. She
agreed with Freud that early childhood traumas are important, but she placed far more
emphasis on social factors.
Horney and Freud Compared
Horney criticized Freudian theory on at least three accounts: (1) its rigidity toward new
ideas, (2) its skewed view of feminine psychology, and (3) its overemphasis on biology
and the pleasure principle.
The Impact of Culture
Horney insisted that modern culture is too competitive and that competition leads to
hostility and feelings of isolation. These conditions lead to exaggerated needs for affection
and cause people to overvalue love.
The Importance of Childhood Experiences
Neurotic conflict stems largely from childhood traumas, most of which are traced to a lack
of genuine love. Children who do not receive genuine affection feel threatened and adopt
rigid behavioral patterns in an attempt to gain love.
Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
All children need feeling of safety and security, but these can be gained only by love from
parents. Unfortunately, parents often neglect,
dominate, reject, or overindulge their children conditions that lead to the child’s feelings
of basic hostility toward parents. If children repress feelings of basic hostility, they will
develop feelings of insecurity and a pervasive sense of apprehension called basic anxiety.
People can protect themselves from basic anxiety through a number of protective
devices, including (1) affection, (2) submissiveness, (3) power, prestige, or possession,
and (4) withdrawal. Normal people have the flexibility to use any or all of these
approaches, but neurotics are compelled to rely rigidly on only one.
Compulsive Drives
Neurotics are frequently trapped in a vicious circle in which their compulsive need to
reduce basic anxiety leads to a variety of self-defeating behaviors; these behaviors then
produce more basic anxiety, and the cycle continues.
Neurotic Needs
Horney identified 10 categories of neurotic needs that mark neurotics in their attempt to
reduce basic anxiety. These include needs (1) for affection and approval (2) for a powerful
partner (3) to restrict one’s life within narrow borders (4) for power (5) to exploit others (6)
for social recognition or prestige (7) for personal admiration (8) for ambition and
personal achievement (9) for self-sufficiency and independence (10) for perfection
and unassailability.
Neurotic Trends
Later, Horney grouped these 10 neurotic needs into three basic neurotic trends, which
apply to both normal and neurotic individuals in their attempt to solve basic conflict. The
three neurotic trends are: (1) moving toward people, in which compliant people protect
themselves against feelings of helplessness by attaching themselves to other people; (2)
moving against people, in which aggressive people protect themselves against perceived
hostility of others by exploiting others; (3) moving away from people, in which detached
people protect themselves against feelings of isolation by appearing arrogant and aloof.
Intrapsychic Conflicts
People also experience inner tensions or intrapsychic conflicts that become part of their
belief system and take on a life of their own, separate from the interpersonal conflicts that
created them.
The Idealized Self-Image
People who do not receive love and affection during childhood are blocked in their attempt
to acquire a stable sense of identity. Feeling alienated from self, they create an idealized
self- image, or an extravagantly positive picture of themselves. Horney recognized three
aspects of the idealized self-image: (1) the neurotic search for glory, or a comprehensive
drive toward actualizing the ideal self; (2) neurotic claims, or a belief that they are entitled
to special privileges; (3) neurotic pride, or a false pride based not on reality but on a
distorted and idealized view of self.
Self-Hatred
Neurotics dislike themselves because reality always falls short of their idealized view of
self. Therefore, they learn self-hatred, which can be expressed as: (1) relentless demands
on the self (2) merciless self-accusation (3) self-contempt (4) self-frustration (5) self-
torment or self-torture (6) self-destructive actions and impulses.
Feminine Psychology
Horney believed that psychological differences between men and women are not due to
anatomy but to culture and social expectation. Her view of the Oedipus complex differed
markedly from Freud’s in that she insisted that any sexual attraction or hostility of child to
parent would be the result of learning and not biology.
Psychotherapy
The goal of Horney’s psychotherapy was to help patients grow toward self-realization,
give up their idealized self-image, relinquish their neurotic search for glory, and change
self-hatred to self-acceptance. Horney believed that successful therapy is built on self-
analysis and self-understanding.
Related Research
Horney’s concepts of morbid dependency and hyper competitiveness have both
stimulated some recent research.
Morbid Dependency
The current concept of codependency, which is based on Horney’s notion of morbid
dependency, has produced research showing that people with neurotic needs to move
toward others will go to great lengths to win the approval of other people. A study by Lyon
and Greenberg (1991) found that women with an alcoholic parent, compared with women
without an alcoholic parent, were much more nurturant toward a person they perceived
as exploitative that toward a person they perceived as nurturing.
Hyper competitiveness
Horney’s idea of moving against people relates to the concept of hyper competitiveness,
a topic that has received some recent research interest. Some of this research indicates
that, although hyper competitiveness is a negative personality trait, some types of
competitiveness can be positive. Other research has found that hypercompetitive
European American women frequently have some type of eating disorder.
Critique of Horney
Although Horney painted a vivid portrayal of the neurotic personality, her theory rates
very low in generating research and low on its ability to be falsified, to organize data, and
to serve as a useful guide to action. Her theory is rated about average on internal
consistency and parsimony.
Concept of Humanity
Horney’s concept of humanity is rated very high on social factors, high on free choice,
optimism, and unconscious influences, and about average on causality versus teleology
and on the uniqueness of the individual.

FROMM: HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS

Overview of Fromm’s Humanistic Psychoanalysis
Erich Fromm’s humanistic psychoanalysis looks at people from the perspective of
psychology, history and anthropology. Influenced by Freud and Horney, Fromm
developed a more culturally oriented theory than Freud’s and a much broader theory than
Horney’s.
Biography of Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm was born in Germany in 1900, the only child of orthodox Jewish parents. A
thoughtful young man, Fromm was influenced by the bible, Freud, and Marx, as well as
by socialist ideology. After receiving his Ph.D., Fromm began studying psychoanalysis
and became an analyst by being analyzed by Hanns Sachs, a student of Freud. In 1934,
Fromm moved to the United States and began a psychoanalytic practice in New York,
where he also resumed his friendship with Karen Horney, whom he had known in
Germany. Much of his later years were spent in Mexico and Switzerland. He died in 1980.
Fromm’s Basic Assumptions
Fromm believed that humans have been torn away from their prehistoric union with nature
and left with no powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world. But because humans
have acquired the ability to reason, they can think about their isolated condition – a
situation Fromm called the human dilemma.
Human Needs
According to Fromm, our human dilemma cannot be solved by satisfying our animal
needs. It can only be addressed by fulfilling our uniquely human needs, an
accomplishment that moves us toward a reunion with the natural world.
Fromm identified five of these distinctively human or existential needs.
o Relatedness
First is relatedness, which can take the form of (1) submission, (2) power, and (3) love.
Love, or the ability to unite with another while retaining one’s own individuality and
integrity, is the only relatedness need that can solve our basic human dilemma.
o Transcendence
Being thrown into the world without their consent, humans have to transcend their nature
by destroying or creating people or things. Humans can destroy through malignant
aggression, or killing for reasons other than survival, but they can also create and care
about their creations.
o Rootedness
Rootedness is the need to establish roots and to feel at home again in the world.
Productively, rootedness enables us to grow beyond the security of our mother and
establish ties with the outside world. With the nonproductive strategy, we become fixated
and afraid to move beyond the security and safety of our mother or a mother substitute.
Sense of Identity
The fourth human need is for a sense of identity, or an awareness of ourselves as a
separate person. The drive for a sense of identity is expressed nonproductively as
conformity to a group and productively as individuality.
Frame of Orientation
By frame of orientation, Fromm meant a road man or consistent philosophy by which we
find our way through the world. This need is expressed nonproductively as a striving
for irrational goals and productively as movement toward rational goals.
The Burden of Freedom
As the only animal possessing self-awareness, humans are what Fromm called the
“freaks of the universe.” Historically, as people gained more political freedom, they began
to experience more isolation from others and from the world and to feel free from the
security of a permanent place in the world. As a result, freedom becomes a burden, and
people experience basic anxiety, or a feeling of being alone in the world.
Mechanisms of Escape
To reduce the frightening sense of isolation and aloneness, people may adopt one of
three mechanisms of escape: (1) authoritarianism, or the tendency to give up one’s
independence and to unite with a powerful partner; (2) destructiveness, an escape
mechanism aimed at doing away with other people or things; and (3) conformity, or
surrendering of one’s individuality in order to meet the wishes of others.
Positive Freedom
The human dilemma can only be solved through positive freedom, which is he
spontaneous activity of the whole, integrated personality, and which is achieved when a
person becomes reunited with others.
Character Orientations
People relate to the world by acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by relating to
self and others (socialization), and they can do so either nonproductively or productively.
Nonproductive Orientations
Fromm identified four nonproductive strategies that fail to move people closer to positive
freedom and self-realization. People with a receptive orientation believe that the source
of all good lies outside themselves and that the only way they can relate to the world is to
receive things, including love, knowledge, and material objects. People with an
exploitative orientation also believe that the source of good lies outside themselves, but
they aggressively take what they want rather than passively receiving it. Hoarding
characters try to save what they have already obtained, including their opinions, feelings,
and material possessions. People with a marketing orientation see themselves as
commodities and value themselves against the criterion of their ability to sell themselves.
They have fewer positive qualities than the other orientations because they are essentially
empty.
The Productive Orientation
Psychologically healthy people work toward positive freedom through productive work,
love, and reasoning. Productive love necessitates a passionate love of all life and is called
biophilia.
Personality Disorders
Unhealthy people have nonproductive ways of working, reasoning, and especially loving.
Fromm recognized three major personality disorders: (1) necrophilia, or the love of death
and the hatred of all humanity; (2) malignant narcissism, or a belief that everything
belonging to one’s self is of great value and anything belonging to others is worthless;
and (3) incestuous symbiosis, or an extreme dependence on one’s mother or mother
surrogate.
Psychotherapy
The goal of Fromm’s psychotherapy was to work toward satisfaction of the basic human
needs of relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame of
orientation. The therapist tries to accomplish this through shared communication in which
the therapist is simply a human being rather than a scientist.
Fromm’s Methods of Investigation
Fromm’s personality theory rests on data he gathered from a variety of sources, including
psychotherapy, cultural anthropology, and psychohistory.
Social Character in a Mexican Village
Fromm and his associates spent several years investigating social character in an
isolated farming village in Mexico and found evidence of all the character orientations
except the marketing one. A Psycho-historical Study of Hitler Fromm applied the
techniques of psychohistory to the study of several historical people, including Adolf Hitler
– the person Fromm regarded as the world’s most conspicuous example of someone with
the syndrome of decay, that is, necrophilia, malignant narcissism, and incestuous
symbiosis.
Related Research
Fromm’s theory ranks near the bottom of personality theories with regard to stimulating
research. Recently, Shaun Saunders and Don Munro have developed the Saunders
Consumer Orientation Index (SCOI) to measure Fromm’s marketing character. To date,
much of their work has consisted in establishing the validity of this instrument. In general,
Saunders has found that people with a strong consumer orientation tend to place low
value on freedom, inner harmony, equality, self-respect, and community.
Critique of Fromm
The strength of Fromm’s theory is his lucid writings on a broad range of human issues.
As a scientific theory, however, Fromm’s theory rates very low on its ability to generate
research and to lend itself to falsification; it rates low on usefulness to the practitioner,
internal consistency, and parsimony. Because it is quite broad in scope, Fromm’s theory
rates high on organizing existing knowledge.
Concept of Humanity
Fromm believed that humans were “freaks of the universe” because they lacked strong
animal instincts while possessing the ability to reason. In brief, his view is rated average
on free choice, optimism, unconscious influences, and uniqueness; low on causality; and
high on social influences.

SULLIVAN: INTERPERSONAL THEORY

Overview of Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory
Although Sullivan had a lonely and isolated childhood, he evolved a theory of personality
that emphasized the importance of interpersonal relations. He insisted that personality is
shaped almost entirely by the relationships we have with other people. Sullivan’s principal
contribution to personality theory was his conception of developmental stages.
Biography of Harry Stack Sullivan
Harry Stack Sullivan, the first American to develop a comprehensive personality theory,
was born in a small farming community in upstate New York in 1892. A socially immature
and isolated child, Sullivan nevertheless formed one close interpersonal relationship with
a boy five years older than himself. In his interpersonal theory, Sullivan believed that such
a relationship has the power to transform an immature preadolescent into a
psychologically healthy individual. Six years after becoming a physician, and with no
training in psychiatry, Sullivan gained a position at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington,
D.C., as a psychiatrist. There, his ability to work with schizophrenic patients won him a
reputation as a therapeutic wizard. However, despite achieving much respect from an
influential group of associates, Sullivan had few close interpersonal relations with any of
his peers. He died alone in Paris in 1949, at age 56.
Tensions
Sullivan conceptualized personality as an energy system, with energy existing either as
tension (potentiality for action) or as energy transformations (the actions themselves). He
further divided tensions into needs and anxiety.
Needs
Needs can relate either to the general well-being of a person or to specific zones such as
the mouth or genitals. General needs can be either physiological, such as food or oxygen,
or they can be interpersonal, such as tenderness and intimacy.
Anxiety
Unlike needs – which are conjunctive and call for specific actions to reduce them – anxiety
is disjunctive and calls for no consistent actions for its relief. All infants learn to be anxious
through the emphatic relationship that they have with their mothering one. Sullivan called
anxiety the chief disruptive force in interpersonal relations. A complete absence of anxiety
and other tensions is called euphoria.
Dynamisms
Sullivan used the term dynamism to refer to a typical pattern of behavior. Dynamisms
may relate either to specific zones of the body or to tensions.
Malevolence
The disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred is called malevolence, 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.
Intimacy
The conjunctive dynamism marked by a close personal relationship between two people
of equal status is called intimacy. Intimacy facilitates interpersonal development while
decreasing both anxiety and loneliness.
Lust
In contrast to both malevolence and intimacy, lust is an isolating dynamism. That is, lust
is a self-centered need that can be satisfied in the absence of an intimate interpersonal
relationship. In other words, although intimacy presupposes tenderness or love, lust is
based solely on sexual gratification and requires no other person for its satisfaction.
Self-System
The most inclusive of all dynamisms is the self-system, or that pattern of behaviors that
protects us against anxiety and maintains our interpersonal security. The self-system is
a conjunctive dynamism, but because its primary job is to protect the self from anxiety, it
tends to stifle personality chance. Experiences that are inconsistent with our self-system
threaten or security and necessitate our use of security operations, which consist of
behaviors designed to reduce interpersonal tensions. One such security operation is
dissociation, which includes all those experiences that we block from awareness. Another
is selective inattention, which involves blocking only certain experiences from
awareness.
Personifications
Sullivan believed that people acquire certain images of self and others throughout the
developmental stages, and he referred to these subjective perceptions as
personifications.
Bad-Mother, Good-Mother
The bad-mother personification grows out of infants’ experiences with a nipple that does
not satisfy their hunger needs. All infants experience the bad mother personification, even
though their real mothers may be loving and nurturing. Later, infants acquire a good
mother during personification as they become mature enough to recognize the tender
and cooperative behavior of their mothering one. Still later, these two personifications
combine to form a complex and contrasting image of the real mother.
Me Personifications
During infancy, children acquire three “me” personifications: 1) the bad-me, which grows
from experiences of punishment and disapproval, (2) the good-me, which results from
experiences with reward and approval, and (3) the not-me, which allows a person to
dissociate or selectively in attend the experiences related to anxiety.
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.
Levels of Cognition
Sullivan recognized three levels of cognition, or ways of perceiving things – prototaxic,
parataxic, and syntaxic.
o Prototaxic Level
Experiences that are impossible to put into words or to communicate to others are called
prototaxic. Newborn infants experience images mostly on a prototaxic level, but adults,
too, frequently have preverbal experiences that are momentary and incapable of being
communicated.
o Parataxic Level
Experiences that are prelogical and nearly impossible to accurately communicate to
others are called parataxic. Included in these are erroneous assumptions about cause
and effect, which Sullivan termed parataxic distortions.
o Syntaxic Level
Experiences that can be accurately communicated to others are called syntaxic. Children
become capable of syntaxic language at about 12 to 18 months of age when words begin
to have the same meaning for them that they do for others.
 Stages of Development
Sullivan saw interpersonal development as taking place over seven stages, from infancy
to mature adulthood. Personality changes can take place at any time but are more likely
to occur during transitions between stages.
❖ Infancy
The period from birth until the emergence of syntaxic language is called infancy, a time
when the child receives tenderness from the mothering one while also learning anxiety
through an empathic linkage with the mother. Anxiety may increase to the point of terror,
but such terror is controlled by the built-in protections of apathy and somnolent
detachment that allow the baby to go to sleep. During infancy children use autistic
language, which takes place on a prototaxic or parataxic level.
❖ Childhood
The stage that lasts from the beginning of syntaxic language until the need for playmates
of equal status is called childhood. The child’s primary interpersonal relationship
continues to be with the mother, who is now differentiated from other persons who nurture
the child.
❖ Juvenile Era
The juvenile stage begins with the need for peers of equal status and continues 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. These three abilities, as
well as an orientation toward living, help a child develop intimacy, the chief dynamism of
the next developmental stage.
❖ Preadolescence
Perhaps the most crucial stage is preadolescence, because mistakes made earlier can
be corrected during preadolescence, but errors made during preadolescence are nearly
impossible to overcome in later life. Preadolescence spans the time from the need for a
single best friend until puberty. Children who do not learn intimacy during preadolescence
have added difficulties relating to potential sexual partners during later stages.
❖ Early Adolescence
With puberty comes, the lust dynamism and the beginning of early adolescence.
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. However, if children have no preexisting capacity for intimacy, they may confuse
lust with love and develop sexual relationships that are devoid of true intimacy.
❖ Late Adolescence
Chronologically, late adolescence may start at any time after about age 16, but
psychologically, it begins when a person is able to feel both intimacy and lust toward the
same person. Late adolescence 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.
❖ Adulthood
Late adolescence flows into adulthood, a time when a person establishes a stable
relationship with a significant other person and develops a consistent pattern of viewing
the world.
Psychological Disorders
Sullivan believed that disordered behavior has an interpersonal origin, and can only be
understood with reference to a person’s social environment.
Psychotherapy
Sullivan pioneered the notion of the therapist as a participant observer, who establishes
an interpersonal relationship with the patient. He was primarily concerned with
understanding patients and helping them develop foresight, improve interpersonal
relations, and restore their ability to operate mostly on a syntaxic level.
Related Research
In recent years, a number of researchers have studied the impact of two-person
relationships, involving both therapy and non-therapy encounters.
Therapist-Patient Relationships
Hans Strupp, William Henry, and associates at Vanderbilt developed the Structural
Analysis of Social Behavior, an instrument for studying the dynamics between therapist
and patient. This group of researchers found that patients tended to have relatively stable
behaviors that were consistent with the way their therapists treated them. Later, these
researchers reported therapists' professional training was less important to successful
therapy than the therapists' own developmental history.
Intimate Relationship with Friends
Elizabeth Yaughn and Stephen Nowicki studied intimate interpersonal relationships in
same-gender dyads and found that women-but not men-had complementary
interpersonal styles with their close women friends. Also, women were more likely than
men to engage in a wide variety of activities with their intimate friend, a finding that
suggests that women develop deeper same-gender friendships than do men.
Imaginary Friends
Other researchers have studied Sullivan's notion of imaginary playmates and have found
that children who have identifiable eidetic playmates tend to be more socialized, less
aggressive, more intelligent, and to have a better sense of humor than children who do
not report having an imaginary playmate.
Critique of Sullivan
Despite Sullivan's insights into the importance of interpersonal relations, his theory of
personality and his approach to psychotherapy have lost popularity in recent years. In
summary, his theory rates very low in falsifiability, low in its ability to generate research,
and average in its capacity to organize knowledge and to guide action. In addition, it is
only average in self-consistency and low in parsimony.
Concept of Humanity
Because Sullivan saw human personality is being largely formed from interpersonal
relations, his theory rates very high on social influences and very low on biological ones.
In addition, it rates high on unconscious determinants, average on free choice, optimism,
and causality, and low on uniqueness.
KLEIN: OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
Overview of Object Relations Theory
Many personality theorists have accepted some of Freud’s basic assumptions while
rejecting others. One approach to extending psychoanalytic theory has been the object
relations theories of Melanie Klein and others. Unlike Jung and Adler, who came to reject
Freud’s ideas, Klein tried to validate Freud’s theories. In essence Klein extended Freud’s
developmental stages downward to the first 4 to 6 months after birth.
 Biography of Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein was born in Vienna in 1892, the youngest of four children. She had neither
a Ph.D. nor an M.D. degree but became an analyst by being psychoanalyzed. As an
analyst, she specialized in working with young children. In 1927, she moved to London
where she practiced until her death in 1960.
Introduction to Object Relations Theory Object relations theory differs from Freudian
theory in at least three ways: (1) it places more emphasis on interpersonal relationships,
(2) it stresses the infant’s relationship with the mother rather than the father, and (3) it
suggests that people are motivated primarily for human contact rather than for sexual
pleasure.
The term object in object relations theory refers to any person or part of a person that
infants introject, or take into their psychic structure and then later project onto other
people.
Psychic Life of the Infant
Klein believed that infants begin life with an inherited predisposition to reduce the anxiety
that they experience as a consequence of the clash between the life instinct and the death
instinct.
▪ Fantasies
Klein assumed that very young infants possess an active, unconscious fantasy
life. Their most basic fantasies are images of the “good” breast and the “bad” breast.
▪ Objects
Klein agreed with Freud that drives have an object, but she was more likely to emphasize
the child’s relationship with these objects (parents’ face, hands, breast, penis, etc.), which
she saw as having a life of their own within the child’s fantasy world.
▪ Positions
In their attempts to reduce the conflict produced by good and bad images, infants organize
their experience into positions, or ways of dealing with both internal and external objects.
▪ Paranoid-Schizoid Position
The struggles that infants experience with the good breast and the bad breast lead to two
separate and opposing feelings: a desire to harbor the breast and a desire to bite or
destroy it. To tolerate these two feelings, the ego splits itself by retaining parts of its life
and death instincts while projecting other parts onto the breast. It then has a relationship
with the ideal breast and the persecutory breast. To control his situations, infants adopt
the paranoid schizoid position, which is a tendency to see the world as having both
destructive and omnipotent qualities.
▪ Depressive Position
By depressive position, Klein meant the anxiety that infants experience around 6 months
of age over losing their mother and yet, at the same time, wanting to destroy her. The
depressive position is resolved when infants fantasize that they have made up for their
mother and also realize that their mother will not abandon them.
Psychic Defense Mechanisms
According to Klein, children adopt various psychic defense mechanisms to protect their
ego against anxiety aroused by their own destructive fantasies.
➢ Introjection
Klein defined introjection as the fantasy of taking into one’s own body the images that one
has of an external object, especially the mother’s breast. Infants usually introject good
objects as a protection against anxiety, but they also introject bad objects in order to gain
control of them.
➢ Projection
The fantasy that one’s own feelings and impulses reside within another person is called
projection. Children project both good and bad images, especially onto their parents.
➢ Splitting
Infants tolerate good and bad aspects of themselves and of external objects by splitting,
or mentally keeping apart, incompatible images. Splitting can be beneficial to both
children and adults, because it allows them to like themselves while still recognizing some
unlikable qualities.
➢ Projective Identification
Projective identification is the psychic defense mechanism whereby infants split off
unacceptable parts of themselves, project them onto another object, and finally introject
them in an altered form.
➢ Internalizations
After introjecting external objects, infants organize them into a psychologically meaningful
framework, a process that Klein called internalization.
Ego
Internalizations are aided by the early ego’s ability to feel anxiety, to use defense
mechanisms, and to form object relations in both fantasy and reality. However, a unified
ego emerges only after first splitting itself into two parts: those that deal with the life
instinct and those that relate to the death instinct.
Superego
Klein believed that the superego emerged much earlier than Freud has held. To her, the
superego preceded rather than followed the Oedipus complex. Klein also saw the
superego as being quite harsh and cruel.
Oedipus Complex
Klein believed that the Oedipus complex begins during the first few months of life then
reaches its zenith during the genital stage, at about 3 or 4 years of age, or the same time
that Freud had suggested it began. Klein also held that much of the Oedipus complex is
based on children’s fear that their parents will seek revenge against them for their fantasy
of emptying the parent’s body. For healthy development during the Oedipal years,
children should retain positive feelings for each parent. According to Klein, the little boy
adopts a “feminine” position very early in life and has no fear of being castrated as
punishment for his sexual feelings for his mother. Later, he projects his destructive drive
onto his father, whom he fears will bite or castrate him. The male Oedipus complex is
resolved when the boy establishes good relations with both parents. The little girl also
adopts a “feminine” position toward both parents quite early in life. She has a positive
feeling for both her mother’s breast and her father’s penis, which she believes will feed
her with babies. Sometimes the girl develops hostility toward her mother, whom she fears
will retaliate against her and rob her of her babies, but in most cases, the female Oedipus
complex is resolved without any jealousy toward the mother.
Psychotherapy
The goal of Kleinian therapy was to reduce depressive anxieties and persecutory fears
and to lessen the harshness of internalized objects. To do this, Klein encouraged patients
to experience early fantasies and pointed out the differences between conscious and
unconscious wishes.
Later Views on Object Relations
A number of other theorists have expanded and altered Klein’s theory of object relations.
Notable among them are Margaret Mahler, Otto Kernberg, Heinz Kohut, and John
Bowlby.
Margaret Mahler’s View
Mahler, a native of Hungary who practiced psychoanalysis in both Vienna and New York,
developed her theory of object relations from careful observations of infants as they
bonded with their mothers during their first 3 years of life. In their progress toward
achieving a sense of identity, children pass through a series of three major developmental
stages.
First is normal autism, which covers the first 3 to 4 weeks of life, a time when infants
satisfy their needs within the all-powerful protective orbit of their mother’s care.
Second is normal symbiosis, when infants behave as if they and their mother is an
omnipotent, symbiotic unit.
Third is separation individuation, from about 4 months until about 3 years, a time when
children are becoming psychologically separated from their mothers and achieving
individuation, or a sense of personal identity.

Heinz Kohut (1913-1981)

Heinz Kohut was a 20th century psychoanalyst who expanded the field of self-
psychology.
PROFESSIONAL LIFE
Heinz Kohut was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 3, 1913. He was homeschooled until
1924, when he entered public school at the age of 11. He learned to speak French and
Greek and studied European literature and biology. He began his secondary education in
medicine at the University of Vienna, where he developed an interest in psychoanalysis.
He spent one year studying in Paris and graduated in 1938. Kohut fled the Nazis in Austria
in 1939, because his father was Jewish. He traveled to England and then to the United
States, where he worked at the University of Chicago hospitals. He gradually transitioned
to psychoanalysis, and he eventually became a lecturer in psychiatry at the university. He
served as president of the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1964 and vice
president of the International Psychoanalytic Association beginning in 1965. A staunch
defender of traditional psychoanalytic theory, Kohut often referred to himself as “Mr.
Psychoanalysis,” although later in his career he rejected Sigmund Freud's structural
theory and developed a new theory of the self.
Self-psychology
Kohut began to develop a view of the self with four basic components, beginning with the
nuclear self, a biological construct that infants are born with. The virtual self is an image
of the baby retained by her parents. The combination of the nuclear self and virtual self
should lead to the next component, a cohesive self, but trauma, abuse, and other
problems during development can prevent this. The grandiose self is the fourth
component, and is an egocentric form of the self that results from feelings of being the
center of the universe during early infancy.
 Kohut believed that a parent's failure to empathize with the child was at the heart of
nearly every psychological problem. Kohut's self psychology is built around this belief,
emphasizing that psychological problems and maladaptive coping strategies are the
result of unmet developmental needs.
For example, when a frightened child’s need to be comforted is not satisfied, he or she
could grow into an overly cautious or excessively risk-taking adult.
Empathy- is the most important therapeutic tool in self psychology because, according
to Kohut, it can help undo some of the damage caused by unmet developmental needs.
Kohut argues that empathy in itself can have healing effects, but also notes that empathy
can be used as an intellectual tool that gains the client's trust, thus allowing the therapist
to gain more useful information and develop effective therapeutic strategies.
SELF PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPTS
In self-psychology, the self is understood to be the center of an individual’s psychological
universe. If a child’s developmental environment is appropriate, a healthy sense of self
will typically develop, and generally the individual will be able to maintain consistent
patterns/experiences and self-regulate and self-soothe throughout life. When individuals
are not able to develop a healthy sense of self, they may tend to rely on others in order
to get needs met. These others are called self-objects (because they are outside the self).
Self-objects
A normal part of the developmental process, according to Kohut. Children need self-
objects because they are incapable of meeting all of their own needs, but over the course
of healthy development, self-objects become internalized as individuals develop the
ability to meet their own needs without relying on external others.
Optimal frustration
It is a form of tolerable frustration and disappointment. When a child needs access to a
self-object but one is not available, he or she might experience frustration. Optimal
frustration occurs when a person experiences frustration that can lead to the development
of new coping skills. For example, when a mother soothes a baby who can no longer
sleep with a pacifier, this enables the baby to develop the ability to function without the
pacifier.
The role of transference is also important to self-psychology.
In psychoanalysis, transference is understood as the process in which a person in
treatment redirects feelings and desires from childhood to a new object (usually the
analyst). Kohut formulated three specific types of transferences that reflect unmet self-
object needs:
1. Mirroring: In this type of transference, others serve as a mirror that reflects back a
sense of self-worth and value. Just as people use a mirror to check appearance, mirroring
transference involves use of the affirming and positive responses of others to see positive
traits within the self.
2. Idealizing: Kohut believed individuals need people who will make them feel calm and
comfortable. An example of this can be seen in children who run to a parent for comfort
after falling and being injured. The external other is idealized as somebody who is calm
and soothing when one cannot provide that on their own.
3. Twinship/Alter Ego: Kohut suggested that people need to feel a sense of likeness
with others. For example, children want to be similar to their parents and mimic the
behaviors they observe. Over the course of healthy development, a child becomes more
able to tolerate differences.
The Tripolar Self
The tripolar self is not associated with bipolar disorder, but is the sum of the three "poles"
of the body: 1. "grandiose-exhibitionistic needs" 2. "the need for an omnipotent idealized
figure" 3. "alter-ego needs" The tripolar self forms as a result of the needs of an individual
binding with the interactions of other significant persons within the life of that individual.
Kohut argued that 'reactivation of the grandiose self’ in analysis occurs in three forms:
1. The archaic merger transference through the extension of the grandiose self; in which
the patient strives for an omnipotent and tyrannical control over the analyst, who is
experienced as an extension of the self.
2. a less archaic form which will be called alter-ego transference or twinship; the other is
experienced as very similar to the grandiose self.
3. a still less archaic form–mirror transference; "in the narrower sense," the analyst is
experienced as a function serving the patient's needs. If the patient feels recognized, he
will experience sensations of well-being associated with the restoration of his narcissism.

Alternately, self psychologists 'divide the self-object transference into three groups:
1. those in which the damaged pole of ambitions attempts to elicit the confirming-
approving response of the selfobject (mirror transference)
2. those in which the damaged pole of ideals searches for a selfobject that will accept its
idealization (idealizing transference)
3. and those in which the damaged intermediate area of talents and skills seeks alter ego
transference.

THE ROLE OF HEALTHY NARCISSISM

Narcissism is a normal part of child development, according to self psychology theory.
Children may often fantasize that they have superpowers and/or see their parents as
omnipotent; Kohut believed such childhood experiences should be encouraged as over
time, children generally begin to recognize that their inflated perceptions of the self and
their parents are unrealistic. Children who are growing up in a supportive environment
are typically able to weather the resulting frustration and disappointment and develop a
healthy degree of narcissism, leading to a secure and resilient sense of self.
Insufficient parental empathy may contribute to the development of a narcissistic
personality, according to Kohut. Empathy may be insufficient when a parent cannot react
to or adequately nurture a child, is unable to meet the self-object needs of a child, or if
the dispositions of the parent and the child do not easily align. Any or all of these may
affect the child's ability to meet their own needs later in life.
Heinz Kohut’s View
Kohut emphasized the development of the self. In caring for their physical and
psychological needs, adults treat infants as if they had a sense of self. The parents’
behaviors and attitudes eventually help children form a sense of self that gives unity and
consistency to their experiences.
John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
Bowlby, a native of England, received training in child psychiatry from Melanie Klein. By
studying human and other primate infants, Bowlby observed three stages of separation
anxiety: (1) protest, (2) apathy and despair, and (3) emotional detachment from people,
including the primary caregiver. Children who reach the third stage lack warmth and
emotion in their later relationships.
 4 Phases of Attachment
Bowlby specified four phases which children develop attachment to their caretakers.
o Pre- Attachment Birth to 3 Months
From the time they’re born, infants show a preference for looking at human faces and
listening to human voices. The portfolio of interaction & attachment seeking even without
any personal experience, truly natural people pleaser. At this Phase they are also able to
exhibit signaling behaviors such as smiling, crying to attach and maintain attention.
o Attachment in the Making 3-6 Months
When infants are about 3 months old, they start to differentiate between people and they
begin to reserve their attachment behaviors for the people they prefer. While they’ll smile
and babble at the people they recognize, they won’t do more than stare at a stranger.
o Clear Cut Attachment 6 Months- 3 Years
At about 6 months, babies’ preference for a specific individual becomes more intense,
and when those individual leaves the room, the infants will have separation anxiety.
Starting at about 7 or 8 months old, babies will also start to fear strangers. This can
manifest itself as anything from a bit of extra caution in the presence of a stranger to
crying at the sight of someone new, especially in an unfamiliar situation.
o Goal Corrected Partnership 3 Years until Childhood Ends
3 years old, children start to comprehend that their caretakers have goals and plans of
their own. As a result, the child is less concerned when the caretaker leaves for a period
of time.
Internal Working Model
A sense of security, it is the essential foundation of attachments. This mental
representation influences how the child interacts and builds relationships with others as
they grow.
Maternal Deprivation
A situation in which the mother was either non- responsive or absent for a long span of
time during first 2 years of the child's life.
Characteristics of Attachment

Proximity Maintenance The desire to be near the people we are attached to

Safe Haven Returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety
in the face of fear and threat

Secure Base The attachment figure acts as a base of security from

which the child can explore the surrounding environment

Separation Distress Anxiety that occurs in the absence of the attachment figure

Bowlby observed 3 Stages of Separation Anxiety

Protest Stage When caregiver is first out of sight, infants will cry, resist soothing by other
people and search for their caregiver.
Despair Stage As separation continues, Infants become quiet, sad, passive and apathetic

Detachment Stage During this stage, Infants become emotionally detached from their caregiver, If,
their caregiver returns, Infants will disregard and avoid caregiver. Children who
become detached they are no longer upset when their mother leaves them. As
they become older, they play and interact with others with little emotion but
appear sociable, However, their interpersonal relation is superficial and lack of
warmth.

Related Research
Some research on attachment theory has found that children with secure attachment
have both better attention and better memory than do children with insecure attachment.
Other research suggests that securely attached young children grow up to become
adolescents who feel comfortable in friendship groups that allow new members to easily
become part of those groups. Still other studies have shown that 8- and 9-year-old
children who were securely attached during infancy produced family drawings that reflect
that security.
Concept of Humanity
Object relations theorists see personality as being a product of the early mother-child
relationship, and this they stress determinism over free choice. The powerful influence of
early childhood also gives these theories a low rating on uniqueness, a very high rating
on social influences, and high ratings on causality and unconscious forces. Klein and
other object relations theorists rate average on optimism versus pessimism.

ALLPORT: PSYCHOLOGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Overview of Allport's Psychology of the Individual
Gordon Allport, whose major emphasis was on the uniqueness of each individual, built a
theory of personality as a reaction against what he regarded as the non-humanistic
positions of both psychoanalysis and animal-based learning theory. However, Allport was
eclectic in his approach and accepted many of the ideas of other theorists.
Biography of Gordon Allport
Gordon W. Allport was born in Indiana in 1897. He received an undergraduate degree in
philosophy and economics from Harvard, and taught in Europe for a year. While in
Europe, he had a fortuitous meeting with Sigmund Freud in Vienna, which helped him
decide to complete a Ph.D. in psychology. After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard, Allport
spent two years studying under some of the great German psychologists, but he returned
to teach at Harvard. Two years later he took a position at Dartmouth, but after four years
at Dartmouth, he again returned to Harvard, where he remained until his death in 1967.
Allport's Approach to Personality
Allport believed that psychologically healthy humans are motivated by present mostly
conscious drives and they not only seek to reduce tensions but to establish new ones. He
also believed that people are capable of proactive behavior, which suggests that they can
consciously behave in new and creative ways that foster their own change and growth.
He called his study of the individual morphogenic science and contrasted it with traditional
nomothetic methods.
Personality Defined
Allport defined personality as "the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought."
Structure of Personality
According to Allport, the basic units of personality are personal dispositions and the
proprium.
Personal Dispositions
Allport distinguished between common traits, which permit inter-individual comparisons,
and personal dispositions, which are peculiar to the individual. He recognized three
overlapping levels of personal dispositions, the most general of which are cardinal
dispositions that are so obvious and dominating that they cannot be hidden from other
people. Not everyone has a cardinal disposition, but all people have 5 to 10 central
dispositions, or characteristics around which their lives revolve. In addition, everyone has
a great number of secondary dispositions, which are less reliable and less conspicuous
than central traits. Allport further divided personal dispositions into (1) motivational
dispositions, which are strong enough to initiate action and (2) stylistic dispositions, which
refer to the manner in which an individual behaves and which guide rather than initiate
action.
Proprium
The proprium refers to all those behaviors and characteristics that people regard as warm
and central in their lives. Allport preferred the term proprium over self or ego because the
latter terms could imply an object or thing within a person that controls behavior, whereas
proprium suggests the core of one's personhood.
Motivation
Allport insisted that an adequate theory of motivation must consider the notion that
motives change as people mature and also that people are motivated by present drives
and wants.
Reactive and Proactive Theories of Motivation
To Allport, people not only react to their environment, but they also shape their
environment and cause it to react to them. His proactive approach emphasized the idea
that people often seek additional tension and that they purposefully act on their
environment in a way that fosters growth toward psychological health.
Functional Autonomy
Allport's most distinctive and controversial concept is his theory of functional autonomy,
which holds that some (but not all) human motives are functionally independent from the
original motive responsible for a particular behavior. Allport recognized two levels of
functional autonomy: (1) perseverative functional autonomy, which is the tendency of
certain basic behaviors (such as addictive behaviors) to continue in the absence of
reinforcement, and (2) propriate functional autonomy, which refers to self-sustaining
motives (such as interests) that are related to the proprium.
Conscious and Unconscious Motivation
Although Allport emphasized conscious motivation more than any other personality
theorist, he did not completely overlook the possible influence of unconscious motives on
pathological behaviors. Most people, however, are aware of what they are doing and why
they are doing it.
The Psychologically Healthy Personality
Allport believed that people are motivated by both the need to adjust to their environment
and to grow toward psychological health; that is, people are both reactive and proactive.
Nevertheless, psychologically healthy persons are more likely to engage in proactive
behaviors. Allport listed six criteria for psychological health: (1) an extension of the sense
of self, (2) warm relationships with others, (3) emotional security or self-acceptance, (4)
a realistic view of the world, (5) insight and humor, and (6) a unifying philosophy of life.
The Study of the Individual
Allport strongly felt that psychology should develop and use research methods that study
the individual rather than groups.
Morphogenic Science
Traditional psychology relies on nomothetic science, which seeks general laws from a
study of groups of people, but Allport used idiographic or morphogenic procedures that
study the single case. Unlike many psychologists, Allport was willing to accept self-reports
at face value.
The Diaries of Marion Taylor
In the late 1930's, Allport and his wife became acquainted with diaries written by woman
they called Marion Taylor. These diaries-along with descriptions of Marion Taylor by her
mother, younger sister, favorite teacher, friends, and a neighbor provided the Allports with
a large quantity of material that could be studied using morphogenic methods. However,
Allport never published this material.
Related Research
Allport believed that a deep religious commitment was a mark of a mature person, but he
also saw that many regular churchgoers did not have a mature religious orientation and
were capable of deep racial and social prejudice. In other words, he saw a curvilinear
relationship between church attendance and prejudice.
The Religious Orientation Scale
This insight led Allport to develop and use the Religious Orientation Scale to assess both
an intrinsic orientation and an extrinsic orientation toward religion. Allport and Ross found
that people with an extrinsic orientation toward religion tend to be quite prejudiced,
whereas those with an intrinsic orientation tend to be low on racial and social prejudice.
Religious Orientation and Psychological Health Research has found that people who
score high on the intrinsic scale of the ROS tend to have overall better personal
functioning than those who score high on the Extrinsic scale. In general, these studies
have found that some highly religious people have strong psychological health whereas
others suffer from a variety of psychological disorders. The principal difference between
the two groups is one of intrinsic or extrinsic religious orientation; that is, people with an
intrinsic orientation tend to be psychologically healthy, but those with an extrinsic
orientation suffer from poor psychological health.
Critique of Allport
Allport has written eloquently about personality, but his views are based more on
philosophical speculation and common sense than on scientific studies. As a
consequence, his theory is very narrow, being limited mostly to a model of human
motivation. Thus, it rates low on its ability to organize psychological data and to be
falsified. It rates high on parsimony and internal consistency and about average on its
ability to generate research and to help the practitioner.
Concept of Humanity
Allport saw people as thinking, proactive, purposeful beings who are generally aware of
what they are doing and why. On the six dimensions for a concept of humanity, Allport
rates higher than any other theorist on conscious influences and on the uniqueness of the
individual. He rates high on free choice, optimism, and teleology, and about average on
social influence.
DISPOSITIONAL THEORIES

CATTEL AND EYSENCK: TRAIT AND FACTOR THEORIES

Overview of Factor Analytic Theory Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck have each
used factor analysis to identify traits (that is, relatively permanent dispositions of people).
Cattell has identified a large number of personality traits, whereas Eysenck has extracted
only three general factors.
Biography of Raymond B. Cattell Raymond B. Cattell was born in England in 1905,
educated at the University of London, but spent most of his professional career in the
United States. He held positions at Columbia University, Clark University, Harvard
University, and the University of Illinois, where he spent most of his active career. During
the last 20 years of his life, he was associated with the Hawaii School of Professional
Psychology. He died in 1998, a few weeks short of his 93rd birthday.
Basics of Factor Analysis
Factor analysis is a mathematical procedure for reducing a large number of scores to a
few more general variables or factors. Correlations of the original, specific scores with the
factors are called factor loadings. Traits generated through factor analysis may be either
unipolar (scaled from zero to some large amount) or bipolar (having two opposing poles,
such as introversion and extraversion). For factors to have psychological meaning, the
analyst must rotate the axes on which the scores are plotted. Eysenck used an orthogonal
rotation whereas Cattell favored an oblique rotation.
The oblique rotation procedure ordinarily results in more traits than the orthogonal
method.
Introduction to Cattell's Trait Theory
Cattell used an inductive approach to identify traits; that is, he began with a large body of
data that he collected with no preconceived hypothesis or theory.
P Technique
Cattell's P technique is a correlational procedure that uses measures collected from one
person on many different occasions and is his attempt to measure individual or unique,
rather than common, traits. Cattell also used the R (differential R) technique, which
correlates the scores of a large number of people on many variables obtained at two
different occasions. By combining these two techniques, Cattell has measured both states
(temporary conditions within an individual) and traits (relatively permanent dispositions of
an individual).
Media of Observation
Cattell used three different sources of data that enter the correlation matrix: (1) L data, or
a person's life record that comes from observations made by others; (2) Q data, which
are based on questionnaires; and (3) T data, or information obtained from objective tests.
Source Traits
Source traits refer to the underlying factor or factors responsible for the intercorrelation
among surface traits. They can be distinguished from trait indicators, or surface traits.
Personality Traits
Personality traits include both common traits (shared by many people) and unique traits
(peculiar to one individual). Personality traits can also be classified into temperament,
motivation (dynamic), and ability.
Temperament Traits
Temperament traits are concerned with how a person behaves. Of the 35 primary or first-
order traits Cattell has identified, all but one (intelligence) is basically a temperament trait.
Of the 23 normal traits, 16 were obtained through Q media and compose Cattell's famous
16 PF scale. The additional seven factors that make up the 23 normal traits were originally
identified only through L data. Cattell believed that pathological people have the same 23
normal traits as other people, but, in addition, they exhibit one or more of 12 abnormal
traits. Also, a person's pathology may simply be due to a normal trait that is carried to an
extreme.
Second-Order Traits - The 35 primary source traits tend to cluster together, forming
eight clearly identifiable second-order traits. The two strongest of the second-order traits
might be called extraversion/introversion and anxiety.
Dynamic Traits
In addition to temperament traits, Cattell recognized motivational or dynamic traits, which
include attitudes, ergs, and sems.
Attitudes
An attitude refers to a specific course of action, or desire to act, in response to a given
situation. Motivation is usually quite complex, so that a network of motives, or dynamic
lattice, is ordinarily involved with an attitude. In addition, a subsidiation chain, or a complex
set of subgoals, underlies motivation.
Ergs
Ergs are innate drives or motives, such as sex, hunger, loneliness, pity, fear, curiosity,
pride, sensuousness, anger, and greed that humans share with other primates.
Sems
Sems are learned or acquired dynamic traits that can satisfy several ergs at the same
time. The self-sentiment is the most important sem in that it integrates the other sems.
The Dynamic Lattice
The dynamic lattice is a complex network of attitudes, ergs, and sems underlying a
person's motivational structure.
Genetic Basis of Traits
Cattell and his colleagues provided estimates of heritability of the various source traits.
Heritability is an estimate of the extent to which the variance of a given trait is due to
heredity. Cattell has found relatively high heritability values for both fluid intelligence
(the ability to adapt to new material) and crystallized intelligence (which depends on
prior learning), suggesting that intelligence is due more to heredity than to environment.
Introduction to Eysenck's Factor Theory Compared to Cattell, Eysenck (1) was more likely
to theorize before collecting and factor analyzing data; (2) extracted fewer factors; and
(3) used a wider variety of approaches to gather data.
 Biography of Hans J. Eysenck
Hans J. Eysenck was born in Berlin in 1916, but as a teenager, he moved to England to
escape Nazi tyranny and made London his home for more than 60 years. Eysenck was
trained in the psychometrically oriented psychology department of the University of
London, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1938 and a Ph.D. in 1940.
Eysenck was perhaps the most prolific writer of any psychologist in the world, and his
books and articles often caused world-wide controversy. He died in September of 1997.
Measuring Personality
Eysenck believed that genetic factors were far more important than environmental ones
in shaping personality and that personal traits could be measured by standardized
personality inventories.
Criteria for Identifying Factors
Eysenck insisted that personality factors must: (1) be based on strong psychometric
evidence, (2) must possess heritability and fit an acceptable genetic model, (3) make
sense theoretically, and (4) possess social relevance.
Hierarchy of Measures
Eysenck recognized a four-level hierarchy of behavior organization: (1) specific acts or
cognitions; (2) habitual acts or cognitions; (3) traits, or personal dispositions; and (4)
types or superfactors.
Dimensions of Personality
Eysenck's methods of measuring personality limited the number of personality types to a
relatively small number. Although many traits exist, Eysenck identified only three major
types.
What Are the Major Personality Factors?
Eysenck's theory revolves around only three general bipolar types:
o extraversion/introversion
o neuroticism/stability,
o psychoticism/superego function.

All three have a strong genetic component. Extraverts are characterized by sociability,
impulsiveness, jocularity, liveliness, optimism, and quick wittedness, whereas introverts
are quiet, passive, unsociable, careful, reserved, thoughtful, pessimistic, peaceful, sober,
and controlled. Eysenck, however, believes that the principal difference between
extraverts and introverts is one of cortical arousal level. Neurotic traits include anxiety,
hysteria, and obsessive compulsive disorders. Both normal and abnormal individuals may
score high on the neuroticism scale of the Eysenck's various personality inventories.
People who score high on the psychoticism scale are egocentric, cold, nonconforming,
aggressive, impulsive, hostile, suspicious, and antisocial. Men tend to score higher than
women on psychoticism.
Measuring Superfactors - Eysenck and his colleagues developed four personality
inventories to measure superfactors or types. The two most frequently used by current
researchers are the Eysenck Personality Inventory (which measures only E and N) and
the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (which also measures P).
Biological Bases of Personality
Eysenck believed that P, E, and N all have a powerful biological component, and he cited
as evidence the existence of these three types in a wide variety of nations and languages.
Personality and Behavior
Eysenck argued that different combinations of P, E and N relate to a large number of
behaviors and processes, such as academic performance, creativity, and antisocial
behavior. He cautioned that psychologists can be misled if they do not consider the
various combinations of personality dimensions.
Personality and Disease
For many years, Eysenck researched the relationship between personality factors and
disease. He teamed with Ronald Grossarth Maticek to study the connection between
characteristics and both cancer and cardiovascular disease and found that people with a
helpless/hopeless attitude were more likely to die from cancer, whereas people who
reacted to frustration with anger and emotional arousal were much more likely to die from
cardiovascular disease.
Related Research
The theories of both Cattell and Eysenck have been highly productive in terms of
research, due in part to Cattell's 16 PF Questionnaire and Eysenck's various personality
inventories. Some of this research has looked at personality factors and the creativity of
scientists and artists. In addition, some of Eysenck's research attempted to show a
biological basis of personality.
Personalities of Creative Scientists and Artists
Early research using the 16 PF found that creative scientists compared with either the
general population or less creative scientists, were more intelligent, outgoing,
adventurous, sensitive, self-sufficient, dominant, and driven. Other research found that
female scientists, compared to other women, were more dominant, confident, intelligent,
radical, and adventurous. Research on the personality of artists found that writers and
artists were more intelligent, dominant, adventurous, emotionally sensitive, radical, and
self-sufficient than other people. Later research found that creative artists scored high on
Eysenck's neuroticism and psychoticism scales, indicating that they were more anxious,
sensitive, obsessive, impulsive, hostile, and willing to take risks than other people.
Biology and Personality
If personality has a strong biological foundation, then researchers should find very similar
personality types in various cultures around the world. Studies in 24 countries found a
high degree of similarity among these different cultures. Eysenck's later work investigated
personality factors across 35 European, Asian, African, and American cultures and found
that personality factors are quite universal, thus supporting the biological nature of
personality. Critique of Trait and Factor Theories Cattell and Eysenck's theories rate high
on parsimony, on their ability to generate research, and on their usefulness in organizing
data; they are about average on falsifiability, usefulness to the practitioner, and internal
consistency.
Concept of Humanity
Cattell and Eysenck believe that human personality is largely the product of genetics and
not the environment. Thus, both are rated very high on biological influences and very low
on social factors. In addition, both rate about average on conscious versus unconscious
influences and high on the uniqueness of individuals. The concepts of free choice,
optimism versus pessimism, and causality versus teleology do not apply to Cattell and
Eysenck.
 McCrae and Costa’s Five Factor Trait Theory
1. Overview of Factor and Trait Theories
McCrae, Costa and others have used factor analysis to identify traits, that is, relatively
permanent dispositions of people. Robert McCrae and Paul Costa have insisted that the
proper number of personality factors is five—no more and no fewer.
1. The Pioneering Work of Raymond B. Cattell
In Chapter 13, we saw that Gordon Allport used common sense to identify both common
and unique personality traits. In comparison, Raymond Cattell used factor analysis to
identify a large number of traits, including personality traits. Included in personality traits
were temperament traits, which are concerned with how a person behaves.
Temperament traits include both normal and abnormal traits. Of the 23 normal traits, 16
are measured by Cattell’s famous PF scale.
III. Basics of Factor Analysis
Factor analysis is a mathematical procedure for reducing a large number of scores to a
few more general variables or factors. Correlations of the original, specific scores with the
factors are called factor loadings. Traits generated through factor analysis may be either
unipolar (scaled from zero to some large amount) or bipolar (having two opposing poles,
such as introversion and extraversion). For factors to have psychological meaning, the
analyst must rotate the axes on which the scores are plotted. Eysenck used an
orthogonal rotation whereas Cattell favored an oblique rotation. The oblique rotation
procedure ordinarily results in more traits than the orthogonal method
Biographies of Robert McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr.
Robert Roger McCrae was born April 28, 1949 in Maryville, Missouri, the youngest of
three children. After completing an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Michigan
State University, he earned a PhD in psychology from Boston University. Following the
lead of Raymond Cattell, he began using factor analysis as a means of measuring the
structure of human traits. After completing his academic work, McCrae began working
with Paul Costa at the National Institute of Health, where he is still employed. Paul T.
Costa Jr. was born September16 in Franklin, New Hampshire. He earned his
undergraduate degree in psychology from Clark University and a PhD from the University
of Chicago. In 1978 he began working with Robert McCrae at the National Institute of
Aging, where he continues to conduct research on human development and aging. The
collaboration between Costa and McCrae has been unusually fruitful, with well over 200
co-authored research articles and chapters, and several books.
In Search of the Big Five
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Costa and McCrae, like most other factor researchers,
were building elaborate taxonomies of personality traits, which they were using to
examine the stability and structure of personality. As with many other factor theorists,
they quickly discovered the traits of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), and openness to
experience (O).
Five Factors Found
As late as 1983, McCrae and Costa were arguing for a three-factor model of personality,
but by 1985 they begin to report work on the five factors of personality, having added
agreeableness (A) and conscientiousness (C). Costa and McCrae did not fully develop
the A and C scales until the revised NEO-PI personality inventory appeared in 1992.
Recently, the five factors have been found across a variety of cultures and using a number
of languages. In addition, the five factors show some permanence with age; that is, adults
tend to maintain a consistent personality structure as they grow older.
Description of the Five Factors
McCrae and Costa agreed with Eysenck that personality traits are basically bipolar, with
some people scoring high on one factor and low on its counterpart. For example, people
who score high on N tend to be anxious, temperamental, self-pitying, self-conscious,
emotional, and vulnerable to stress-related disorders, whereas people with low scores on
N tend to have opposite characteristics. People who score high on E tend to be
affectionate, jovial, talkative, a joiner, and fun-loving, whereas low E scorers tend to have
opposing traits. High O scorers prefer variety in their life and are contrasted to low O
scorers who have a need for closure and who gain comfort in their association with
familiar people and things. People who score high on A tend to be trusting, generous,
yielding, acceptant, and good natured. Low A scorers are generally suspicious, stingy,
unfriendly, irritable, and critical of other people. Finally, people high on the C scale tend
to be ordered, controlled, organized, ambitious, achievement-focused, and self-
disciplined. Together these dimensions make up the personality traits of the five factor
model, often referred to as the “Big-Five.”VII.
Evolution of the Five-Factor Theory
Originally, the five factors were simply a taxonomy, a classification of personality traits.
By the late 1980s, Costa and McCrae were confident that they had found a stable
structure of personality. In shaping a theory from the remnants of a taxonomy, McCrae
and Costa were insisting that their personality structure was able to incorporate change
and growth into its tenets and to stimulate empirical research as well as organize research
findings. In other words, their Five-Factor taxonomy was being transformed into a Five-
Factor Theory (FFT).
Units of the Five-Factor Theory
McCrae and Costa predict behavior through an understanding of three central or core
components and three peripheral ones. The three core components include: (1) basic
Tendencies, (2) characteristic adaptations, and (3) self-concept. Basic tendencies are the
universal raw material of personality. Characteristic adaptations are acquired personality
structures that develop as people adapt to their environment. Self-concept refers to
knowledge and attitudes about oneself. Peripheral components include (1) biological
bases, which are the sole cause of basic tendencies; (2) objective biography, which is
everything a person does or thinks over a lifetime; and (3) external influence, or
knowledge, views, and evaluations of the self.
Basic Postulates
The two most important core postulates are basic tendencies and characteristic
adaptations. Basic tendencies have four postulates—individuality, origin, development,
and structure. The individuality postulate stipulates that every adult has a unique pattern
of traits. The origin postulate assumes that all personality traits originate solely from
biological factors, such as genetics, hormones, and brain structures. The development
postulate assumes that traits develop and change through childhood, adolescence, and
mid-adulthood. The structure postulate states that traits are organized hierarchically from
narrow and specific to broad and general.
VIII. Related Research
The five-trait theory of McCrae and Costa has drawn a considerable amount of research,
and is very popular in the field of personality. Costa and McCrae have developed a widely
used personality inventory.
Personality and Culture
The two most important core postulates are basic tendencies and characteristic
adaptations. Basic tendencies have four postulates—individuality, origin, development,
and structure. The individuality postulate stipulates that every adult has a unique pattern
of traits. The origin postulate assumes that all personality traits originate solely from
biological factors, such as genetics, hormones, and brain structures. The development
postulate assumes that traits develop and change through childhood, adolescence, and
mid-adulthood. The structure postulate states that traits are organized hierarchically from
narrow and specific to broad and general. Our biological makeup influences our
personalities on similar dimensions such as extraversion or neuroticism; how and when
traits are expressed are influenced by cultural and social context. In short, personality is
shaped by both nature and nurture.
Critique of Trait and Factor Theories
The factor theories of Eysenck and of McCrae and Costa rate high on parsimony, on their
ability to generate research, and on their usefulness in organizing data; they are about
average on falsifiability, usefulness to the practitioner, and internal consistency.
Concept of Humanity
Factor theories generally assume that human personality is largely the product of genetics
and not the environment. Thus, we rate these two theories very high on biological
influences and very low on social factors. In addition, we rate both about average on
conscious versus unconscious influences and high on the uniqueness of individuals. The
concepts of free choice, optimism versus pessimism, and causality versus teleology are
not clearly addressed by these theories.

Henrey Murray: Personology

Principles of Personology
The id
Murray suggested that the id is the repository of all innate impulsive tendencies. As such,
it provides energy and direction to behavior and is concerned with motivation. The id
contains the primitive, amoral, and lustful impulses Freud described. However, in
Murray’s personology system the id also encompasses innate impulses that society
considers acceptable and desirable.
Superego
Murray defined the superego as the internalization of the culture’s values and norms, by
which rules we come to evaluate and judge our behavior and that of others. The
substance of the superego is imposed on children at an early age by their parents and
other authority figures.
Ego
The ego is the rational governor of the personality; it tries to modify or delay the id’s
unacceptable impulses. Murray extended Freud’s formulation of the ego by proposing
that the ego is the central organizer of behavior. It consciously reasons, decides, and wills
the direction of behavior. Thus, the ego is more active in determining behavior than Freud
believed.
Needs: The Motivation of Behavior
Murray’s most important contribution to theory and research in personality is his use of
the concept of needs to explain the motivation and direction of behavior. A need involves
a physicochemical force in the brain that organizes and directs intellectual and perceptual
abilities. Murray's research led him to formulated a list of 20 needs.
Types Of Needs
Primary and Secondary Needs
Primary needs are a survival and related needs arising from internal bodily processes.
Secondary needs are an emotional and psychological needs, such as achievement and
affiliation.
Reactive and Proactive Needs
Reactive needs are needs that involve a response to a specific object. Proactive needs
are Needs that arise spontaneously.
Characteristics of Needs
Needs differ in terms of the urgency with which they impel behavior, a characteristic
Murray called a need’s prepotency. Some needs are complementary and can be satisfied
by one behavior or a set of behaviors.
Subsidation - A situation in which one need is activated to aid the satisfaction of another
need. Press- the influence of the environment and past events on the current activation
of a need.
Thema - A combination of press(environment) and the need(personality) that brings
order to our behavior.
Personality Development in Childhood
Drawing on Freud’s work, Murray divided childhood into five stages, each characterized
by a pleasurable condition that is inevitably terminated by society’s demands. Each stage
leaves its mark on our personality in the form of an unconscious 'complex' that directs our
later development.
Complex - A normal pattern of childhood development that influences the adult
personality; childhood developmental stages include the claustral, oral, anal, urethral,
and genital complexes.
Stages of Development
The Claustral Stage- the fetus in the womb is secure, serene, and dependent, conditions
we may all occasionally wish to reinstate. The simple claustral complex is experienced as
a desire to be in small, warm, dark places that are safe and secluded. The anti-claustral
or egression form of the claustral complex is based on a need to escape from restraining
womblike conditions.
The Oral Stage- The oral succorance complex features a combination of mouth activities,
passive tendencies, and the need to be supported and protected. (The oral agression
complex and the oral rejection complex.)
The Anal Stage- In the anal rejection complex, there is a preoccupation with defecation,
anal humor, and feces-like material. Persons with this complex may be dirty. (The Anal
Retention Complex)
The Urethral Stage- Unique to Murray’s system, the urethral complex is associated with
excessive ambition, a distorted sense of self-esteem, exhibitionism, bedwetting, sexual
cravings, and self-love.
The Genital or The Castration Stage - He interpreted the castration complex in narrower
and more literal fashion as a boy’s fantasy that his penis might be cut off. Murray believed
such a fear grows out of childhood masturbation and the parental punishment that may
have accompanied.
 Questions About Human Nature
Murray’s view of human nature was optimistic. He criticized a psychology that projected
a negative and demeaning image of human beings. He argued that, with our vast powers
of creativity, imagination, and reason, we are capable of solving any problem we face.
Assessment of Murray's Theory
o The OSS Assessment Program
o It is a series of personality tests, primarily of the situational type, devised for the
selection of candidates for strategic missions during World War II.
o The Thematic Apperception Test
The TAT is a widely used projective test for the assessment of children and adults. It is
designed to reveal an individual's perception of interpersonal relationships.
Research on Murray's Theory
Murray’s original research program involved the intensive study of the personalities of 51
male undergraduate students undertaken by a staff of psychiatrists, psychologists, and
anthropologists. Thus, specialists with different training observed each subject using
various techniques, in much the same way a complex medical diagnosis is prepared.
Each observer presented his or her diagnosis to the Diagnostic Council, a committee of
the five most experienced staff members. The council met with each subject for 45
minutes and rated the subject on several variables. As the data accumulated, the council
reassessed its ratings, reviewed the information, and arrived at a final determination.
Proceeding- a time period in which an important behavior pattern occurs from beginning
to end.
Serial- A succession of proceedings related to the same function or purpose.
The Need of Affiliation- is strong in many people, particularly in stressful situations. need
for affiliation and seek out the company of other people.
The Need for Achievement- defined as the need to overcome obstacles, to excel, and
to live up to a high standard.