Psych 203 Chapter 9
assessment from the psychosocial perspective
Places a greater emphasis than other approaches on assessing the person's orientation to relationships The object relations measure of Bell et al. (1986) is a good illustration of content assessed from this viewpoint. It has four scales. The alienation scale measures a lack of basic trust and an inability to be close. People high on this scale are suspicious, guarded, and isolated, convinced that others will fail them. This resembles avoidant attachment. Another scale measures insecure attachment, which resembles the ambivalent pattern—a sensitivity to rejection and concern about being liked and accepted. The third scale, egocentricity, assesses narcissism, a self-protective and exploitive attitude toward relationships and a tendency to view others only in relation to one's own needs and aims. The final scale measures social incompetence, or shyness and uncertainty about how to engage in even simple social interactions A different approach to assessment is an open-ended measure by Blatt et al. (1979), which uses a coding system to assess the maturity of people's perceptions of social relations. This measure asks you to describe your mother and father. If you're at a low level of maturity, you tend to focus on how your parents acted to satisfy your needs. If you're at a higher level, your descriptions focus more on your parents' values, thoughts, and feelings apart from your needs. At a very high level, the description takes into account internal contradictions in the parents and changes over time. This measure reflects a person's level of separation and individuation from the parent Play in assessment
Behavior change
Play therapy Relationships as the therapeutic process
Irrational strategies for coping with basic anxiety
Result from parental indifference
Erikson's 8 stages of psychosocial development
Retained first four stages of Freud's theory with slightly different names Expanded on the final four and drew them out instead of bumping them all together
Adult attachment styles
Secure attachment Insecure ambivalent Insecure avoidant
Margaret Mahler
She believed that newborns begin life in a state of psychological fusion with others In her view, personality development is a process of breaking down this fusion, of becoming an individual who's separate and distinct
Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
Sickly childhood Followed Freud at first 3rd of six children (2nd son) Lived in the shadow of his older brother, Sigmund -- He was everything Alfred wasn't
Epigenetic principle
Stages are revisited throughout life and can be mastered later Different than Freud's model
Stagnation
Stagnation is an inability or unwillingness to give of oneself to the future. These people are preoccupied with their own concerns. They have a self-centered or self-indulgent quality that keeps them from deeper involvement in the world around them. Such an absence of generativity is related to poorer psychological well-being
Attachment (consistent with Klein)
Stranger anxiety Separation anxiety
Moving against people
Striving for power, recognition and admiration Over-identified with ideal self
Is attachment style a personality variable?
Study by Robins, Caspi, Moffitt, 2002) Age 18 personality is going to be assessed Age 21 relationships are assessed Age 26 personality and relationship are assessed -- 30% had same partner; 70% had new partner Personality stability at ages 18 and 26 -- Personality is pretty stable regardless of whether you change romantic partners Relationship stability at ages 21 and 26 -- Relationship experience changes as a function of the person that you're with; Quality of our relationship depends a lot on the person we are with
Early childhood
The crisis of this stage concerns children's efforts to gain control over their actions. It's about creating a sense of autonomy in actions versus shame and doubt about being able to act independently acquiring control over bladder and bowels helps create feelings of autonomy (self-direction). Achieving control over these functions means you're not at the mercy of your body's impulses Feelings of autonomy and competence emerge when children interact effectively with others. If the efforts lead to failure, ridicule, or criticism—or if parents don't let children act on their own—the result is shame and self-doubt. Managing this conflict leads to the ego quality of will: a determination to exercise free choice children who had been securely attached a year and a half earlier explored more than those who had been less securely attached A sense of basic trust seems to promote more autonomy later on
Social interest
True "perfection" requires a genuine concern for others, and a desire to form intimate, interpersonal relationships Lack of social concern is the hallmark of neurosis: Ruling type - people who use others Leaning type - people who are overly dependent on others Avoiding type - people who avoid others
Adulthood
Typically lasts into the mid-60's Central conflict is generativity vs. stagnation If there's a positive balance of generativity, the ego quality that emerges is care. Care is a widening concern for whatever you've generated in your life
Identity crisis yes, identity commitment no
Where many college students are Haven't made a commitment, but working on resolving them
Moving away from people
Withdrawal of emotional investment from relationships to avoid being hurt Wanting to overcome despised self, but feeling inadequate to do so
Power envy
Women's sense of inferiority arises because they are socialized to believe they are inferior to men and need a man's love to be whole Womb envy
To assess infant attachment, Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues devised a procedure called the strange situation
a series of events involving the infant's mother and a stranger. Of special relevance are two times when the mother returns after the infant has been left alone with the stranger Secure attachment was shown by normal distress when the mother left and happy enthusiasm when she returned Two types of insecure attachment were revealed the personality of the mother predicts how she interacts with the infant -- Not always the actions themselves that differ between groups but rather the timing These patterns remain fairly stable throughout a person's life and impacts how they relate to future peers and relationships
Infants attachment to its mother
an emotional connection - the need for such a connection is a basic part of the human experience
Isolation
feeling apart from others and unable to make commitments to them; can happen it conditions aren't right for intimacy or people can withdraw into isolation on their own
Foreclosure stage
identity crisis no, identity commitment yes Decided very early this is what I'm going to be
Identity achieved
identity crisis yes, identity commitment yes Resolved a crisis and come upon a commitment
Symbiosis
period when the infant is fused with its mother
Self psychology
relationships form the structure of the self; Heinz Kohut "Kohut began with the idea that people have an essential narcissism: a pattern of self-centered needs that must be satisfied through others coined the term selfobject to refer to someone who helps satisfy your needs. In early childhood, selfobjects (parents) are experienced as extensions of the self. Later, selfobject means any person as he or she is experienced within the structure of the self
Emotional isolation
the failure to have intimacy in your life; loneliness; less responsive, hard to get to know, ask fewer questions, seem less interested in what the other person is saying
Linking Erikson's theory to other psychosocial theories
the fundamental theme of each is the one reflected in the first crisis in Erikson's theory: basic trust versus basic mistrust. That's a big part of security in attachment. It seems implicit in object relations theories. This issue is also the core of Erikson's own theory, providing the foundation on which the rest of personality is built the fundamental theme of each is the one reflected in the first crisis in Erikson's theory: basic trust versus basic mistrust. That's a big part of security in attachment. It seems implicit in object relations theories. This issue is also the core of Erikson's own theory, providing the foundation on which the rest of personality is built
Epigenesis
the term used for the process by which a single cell turns into a complex organism. For this process to occur requires a "blueprint" at the start, with instructions for all the changes and their sequencing; Erikson applied this idea to his theory
Object relations
theories focus on one person's relations to others core theme of this view derives from Freud's idea that the ego develops bonds to external objects to release id energies effectively. Object relations theories focus on these bonds, but only for people as objects. In these theories, the point isn't to satisfy the id. Instead, the bond is a basic ego function Largely unconscious mental representations people form of themselves, significant others (i.e. love objects), and of themselves in relation to significant others Working models for future relationships Less focus on fantasy and more emphasis on actual interpersonal relationships More literal compared to Freud's theory
Two broad themes of object relations theories
they all emphasize that a person's pattern of relating to others is laid down in early childhood they all assume that these patterns tend to recur over and over throughout life
School age
this period also has a conflict, which he called industry versus inferiority industry reflects the fact that the child's life remains focused on doing things that have an impact -- Pressure to do things that others judge to be good and value Strong sense of industry -- tend to prefer reality-based activities over fantasy, and they are more able to distinguish the role of effort from that of ability in producing outcomes. These children get better grades, and they tend to agree more with statements that are socially desirable Danger at this stage is developing feelings of inferiority Managing the conflict between industry and inferiority results in the ego quality termed competence: the sense that one can do things that others value
Strange situation
14 month old infants come into a stimulus-rich laboratory with their mom -- A) does infant separate to play with toys and b) share them with mom? Stranger enters and mom suddenly leaves -- How distressed does infant become Mom returns -- Is infant easily consoled and warm toward mom?
Concept of self
Actual self -- Everything you really are (i.e., your personality) Despised self --Perceptions of inferiority and shortcomings Ideal self -- Idealized "too good to be true" self-perceptions; Unlike Adler, Horney described the ideal self as a "must" self
erikson's theory of psychosocial development
Adopted Freud's view that personality develops in a series of stages Life-span development = Personality evolves throughout life; no part of life is more important than any other Central theme of erikson's theory is ego identity and its development -- Ego identity is the consciously experienced sense of self, derived from transactions with social reality. A person's ego identity changes constantly in response to events in the social world
problems and prospects for the psychosocial perspective
Adult attachment patterns correspond well to genetically influenced traits. Avoidants are like introverts, secures like extraverts, and anxious-ambivalents like people high in neuroticism. Do these patterns result from parenting, or are they genetically determined?
Criticisms of Erikson's model
Ambiguous terms and concepts Cross-cultural validity is not well-established Identity crisis may only apply to those affluent enough to explore identities
Two types of insecure attachment
An ambivalent (or resistant) infant was clingy and became very upset when the mother left. The response to the mother's return mixed approach with rejection and anger avoidant pattern, the infant stayed calm when the mother left and responded to her return by ignoring her
Usual findings of birth order
Birth order generally has small effects on personality Oldest children to be traditional, conservative, conscientious, "up-tight" and "like" their parents Youngest children are more adventurous, agreeable, laid-back, and unconventional
Identity crisis no, identity commitment no
Can't be bothered with thinking about the future
Basic anxiety (Horney's model)
Child's fear of being alone, helpless, and insecure Children react by repressing hostility and please their parents; never really get rid of that basic anxiety
Play in assessment
Children's play reveals their preoccupations; play lets them express their concerns in ways they can't do in words Projective Has two objective characteristics -- a behavioral record, which includes what the child says about the scene and a description of the scene and the steps taken to create it; the face value of the child's behavior receives more attention than is usual in projective tests
Preschool
Conflict at this stage concerns initiative vs. guilt Children who take the initiative are seeking to impose their newly developed sense of will on their surroundings. They express and act on their curiosity as they explore and manipulate their world and ask about things going on around them Because constantly exerting power does tend to produce some disapproval, initiative eventually must be tempered by restraint If this crisis is managed well, the child emerges with the ego quality of purpose: the courage to pursue valued goals without fear of punishment the sense of basic trust seems to provide groundwork for the sense of initiative and purpose
Karen Horney (1885-1952)
Decided at an early age that if "she couldn't be pretty, she'd be smart" --Perhaps this is Horney's self-image rather than a realistic appraisal of her attractiveness;Mother of German actress, Brigitte Horney Described her parents as cold and strict Suffered from depression, and once attempted suicide Mostly a theory of neurosis, not psychological health
Identity as life story -- Dan McAdams
Focuses on the idea that people construct their identities as narratives, or life stories; your story is not completed until the end of your life Of interest is how categories of narrative themes show up in many people's lives People with high generativity have commitment stories and contain redemption themes People who are low in generativity sometimes have stories involving contamination themes (good situation somehow turns bad)
Neo-freudian
Freud attracted a wide circle of colleagues and students to his Vienna Psychoanalytic Society He was very doctrinaire -- The way he outlined was the RIGHT way to think about behavior Those who disagreed with him were expelled from the society Became more like a cult
Attachment and depression
Idea that interpersonal rejection is an important cause of depression Research supports the idea that avoidant attachment is a risk factor of depression Parents may transfer to the next generation precisely the attachment qualities that made them unhappy themselves
Psychosocial view and relating to others
In this view, the pattern of relating to others that you develop in early childhood forms the core of your way of relating to others for the rest of your life. Indeed, this pattern forms the very core of your personality
Womb envy
Men are envious of women's ability to give birth and strive to compensate by creating a lifetime of achievements Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing (Normal Mailer)
Psychosocial stages of development according to Erikson
Personality develops through a series of eight psychosocial stages Each stage involves a conflict or crisis -- If the conflict is resolved successfully, a personal strength is acquired; If it is not resolved successfully, a weakness is acquired and the person continues to struggle with the issue throughout life Epigenetic principle
Contributions from Erikson's model
Personality develops throughout the lifetime Identity crisis in adolescence Impact of social, cultural, personal and situational forces in forming personality
Attachment patterns in adults
first study was done by Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver (1987). Participants classified themselves (from descriptions) as being secure, ambivalent, or avoidant. Then they described the most important romance of their life (past or current) on several scales ecure adults described their most important love relationship as more happy, friendly, and trusting, compared with adults in the other two groups. Their relationships also had lasted longer. Avoidant adults were less likely than the others to report accepting their lovers' imperfections. Ambivalent adults experienced love as an obsessive preoccupation, with a desire for reciprocation and union, extreme emotional highs and lows, and extremes of both attraction and jealousy. These people were also more likely than others to report that a relationship had been "love at first sight
Attachment theory
A basic theme in attachment theory is that mothers (and others) who are responsive to the infant create a secure base and safe haven for the child. The infant needs to know that the major person in his or her life is dependable—is there when needed. This sense of security provides a place of comfort (a safe haven) when the child is threatened. It also gives the child a base from which to explore the world. Thus, temporary dependence on the caregiver fuels future exploration Attachment theory also holds that the child builds implicit mental "working models" of the self, others, and the nature of relationships. These working models are later used to relate to the world
Melanie Klein (1882-1960)
Every relationship has elements of satisfaction and frustration (love-hate) Awareness of this ambivalence creates anxiety -- Healthy individuals split their relationship objects into parts; Unhealthy individuals idealize their love objects and deny there is anything to be angry about
Inferiority according to Adler
Everyone suffers from feelings of inferiority Inferiority can come from three sources: Organ inferiority - an actual physical disability, Perceived person deficiency or character flaw, Natural inferiority of children
Marcia's model of identity status
Asks if you have made an identity commitment -- Occupational commitment, political/worldview ideology, sexual behavior/orientation/promiscuity Have either undergone and come to these commitments without going through an identity crisis or you have come to these commitments by going through an identity crisis
Stability and specificity
Attachment seems moderately stable over fairly long periods People have many patterns when relating to others one study had participants define each of their 10 closest relationships in terms of the three categories (secure, ambivalent, and avoidant). Across the 10 descriptions, almost everyone used at least two patterns and nearly half used all three There is likely a general orientation for approaching new relationships or a central tendency among the various orientations that a person takes
Moving toward people
Attempting to make others happy Over-identified with despised self
Attachment patterns and the five-factor model
Avoidants are introverted, secures are extraverted, and ambivalents are high in neuroticism Another question that might be raised is whether the correlated measures (attachment and "big five" scales) overlap in predicting outcomes or contribute separately. The answer appears to be that they make partially separate contributions to such experiences as relationship quality Even though there is overlap, the attachment dimensions don't seem identical with the "big five" traits There patterns could have both a social origin or have genetic influences
How many patterns?
Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) started with Bowlby's notion of working models, and focused on models of self and other. They argued for two dimensions: a positive-versus-negative model of the self (the self is lovable or not) and a positive-versus-negative model of others (others are trustworthy or not). The dimensions that result are termed anxiety and avoidance avoidants from that approach split into two separate groups in this approach, which are called dismissive and fearful, depending on whether attachment anxiety is also involved
Attachment bonds
Bowlby theorized that attachment bonds serve a paradoxical function Being securely attached allows infants to confidently explore the environment Orphans lacked a secure base and so they were afraid to maximize their potential
Old age
Crisis is ego integrity vs. despair If you emerge from this review feeling that your life has had order and meaning, accepting the choices you made and the things you did, a sense of ego integrity emerges. This is a sense of satisfaction—a feeling that you wouldn't change much about your life The opposite pole is despair—the feeling that your life was wasted. It's a sense of wishing you had done things differently but knowing it's too late. Instead of accepting your life's story as a valuable gift, there's bitterness that things turned out as they did People with greater generativity will have greater ego integrity Emerging from this life review with a sense of integrity creates the ego quality of wisdom - an active concern with life and continued personal growth, even as one confronts the impending reality of death
Separation anxiety
Distress over being separated from a primary caregiver Peaks around 12-16 months; disappears between 2-3 years of age
Stranger anxiety
Distress over contact with unfamiliar people Emerges about 7 months; ends by 18 months
To emerge from adolescence with a strong sense of identity requires the person to evolve in two ways
First, you must consolidate the self-views from previous stages, merging them in a way that's sensible Second, this integrated self-view must be integrated with the view of you that others hold
Other reflections of adult attachment
Hazan and Shaver studied link to people's orientations to work -- Recall that ambivalence involves a sense of insecurity. Consistent with this, ambivalents reported unhappiness with the recognition they got at work and their degree of job security. They were also most likely to say their work was motivated by a desire for others' approval. Avoidants reported a desire to keep busy with work, and they socialized less during leisure time. Hazan and Shaver suggested that avoidants use work as a way to escape from their lack of relationships Relates to comfort seeking and caregiving in stressful situations Seeking and supplying support Sense of attachment security makes people more compassionate and responsive to the needs of others in general Coping with stress People with insecure attachment patterns steer away from partners who would treat them as they were treated in infancy
Coping with inferiority
Healthy people strive to overcome their perceived inferiority inferiority complex superiority complex Everyone feels inferior but it's the manner in which we cope with those feelings that characterizes out personality
Erikson's theory concerns competence and personal adequacy
If a stage is managed well, the person emerges with a sense of competence. If not, the person has feelings of inadequacy Desire for competence is a motivating force behind people's actions Erikson viewed development as a series of periods in which some issue is prominent. In his view, people experience a psychosocial crisis, or conflict, during each stage a crisis is a turning point: a period when the potential for growth is high but the person is also quite vulnerable Ego quality, ego strength, and virtue-- successful negotiation of a stage does imply that the balance is weighted more toward the positive value than the negative one. If this occurs, the person emerges from the crisis with a positive orientation toward future events concerning that conflict
Healthy personality vs. failures during mirroring
In a healthy personality, the grandiosity is modified and channeled into realistic activities. It turns into ambition and self-esteem. If there are severe failures of mirroring, though, the child never develops an adequate sense of self. Later in life, this child will have deeper narcissistic needs than other people, because his or her needs have been unmet. As a result, the child will continue relating to other people immaturely
Neurotic styles
Irrational strategies for coping with basic anxiety Moving toward people Moving against people Moving away from people
child acquires a self through interaction with parents
Kohut thought the child acquires a self through interaction with parents. Parents engage in mirroring: giving support to the child and responding in an empathic, accepting way. Mirroring gratifies the child's narcissistic needs, because it makes the child temporarily the center of the universe illusion of all importance must be sustained to some degree throughout development, to create a sense of self-importance to be carried into adulthood. It also must be tempered, though, so that the child can deal with difficulties and frustrations later in life
Later mirroring
Later mirroring involves transference from parents to other selfobjects. This use of the term means that you transfer the orientation you've developed to your parents to other people, using it as a frame of reference for them other people become parent substitutes, and you expect them to mirror you as your parents did
Ego psychologists
Less emphasis on sex and aggression as basic motivations Less emphasis on unconscious processes and more attention to conscious ones Longer developmental time frame Greater attention to "self" - who people think they are and who they want to be Greater attention to interpersonal relationships and cultural factors (rather than universal ones) -- It's the actual relationships we form that are formative to personality (according to ego psychologists) More positive outlook toward human functioning and existence
Early years
Often, the early years include some stresses—a sense of rejection from a parent or too much smothering fusion. If so, the stresses are carried by the child's internal object representations into later life. What matters isn't what happens in childhood but what the child experiences as happening. Because the internalization derives from infant experiences, there can be a lot of distortion
Birth order
Oldest children - power hungry traditionalists; maintain status quo; liked things the way they were Middle children - competitive and high achieving Youngest children - spoiled and lazy Strong connection between birth order and personality Adler thought
The epigenetic principle
One more issue to address about Erikson's theory is that a given conflict is presumed to exist outside the stage in which it's focal epigenesis Your orientation to a particular crisis is influenced by the outcomes of earlier ones In resolving the core crisis of any stage, you're preparing solutions for the ones to come Crises aren't resolved once and for all - your resolutions of previous conflicts are revisited and reshaped at each new stage of life
Narcissism as a disorder of personality
Pathological narcissism is a sense that everyone and everything is an extension of the self or exists to serve the self. It entails a grandiose sense of self-importance and need for constant attention. Narcissists show a sense of entitlement, of deserving others' adulation. As a result, they often exploit others Inadequate mirroring by parents frustrates the narcissistic needs and prevents formation of an adequate self-structure; arises from parental rejection More likely to inflate their judgments of their performances, agreeable at first, love to take credit for successes but get angry at failure or criticism
Final fictionalism
People are driven by a "picture" of themselves they strive to become (or fear becoming) These self-portraits motivate behavior and are revealed by studying a person's "style of life" Style of life is revealed in earliest childhood memory
Inferiority complex
People who are overwhelmed by their perceived inferiority suffer an inferiority complex and do not try to compensate Adler believed that people who are not neurotically bound to an inferiority complex spend their lives trying to meet their fictional finalism
Superiority complex
People who deny or cover up their inferiority develop a superiority complex Masculine protest - those who compensate by striving to be macho and powerful
Infancy
The conflict at this stage—the most fundamental crisis of life—is between a sense of basic trust versus basic mistrust. The infant is totally dependent on others to meet its most basic needs If the needs are met, the infant develops a sense of security and trust; infants feed easily, sleep well, and eliminate regularly Mistrust is reflected by fitful sleep, fussiness in feeding, constipation, and greater distress when the infant is left alone Trust is enhanced by interactions in which caregivers are attentive, affectionate, and responsive. A sense of mistrust is created by inconsistent treatment, emotional unavailability, or rejection
Young adulthood
The conflict here concerns the desire for intimacy versus isolation -- Intimacy is a close, warm relationship with someone, with a sense of commitment to that person; believed people are capable of intimacy only if they have a strong sense of identity; isolation People need a strong identity to be able to attain intimacy Emotional isolation
Adolescence
The crisis of this stage, then, is identity versus role confusion -- Identity reflects an integrated sense of self. It's the answer to the question: Who am I?; The phrase role confusion reflects the fact that every self has many facets that sometimes seem incompatible. The greater the incompatibility, the harder it is to pull the facets together, and the more confused you are Identity derives from a blending of private and social self-conceptions If the person fails to form a consolidated identity, the result is role confusion: an absence of direction in the sense of self, a self that is not well integrated. Role confusion is reflected in an inability to select a career (or a college major that will take you toward a career). Role confusion can also lead people to identify with popular heroes or groups (or even antiheroes) to try to fill the void The virtue associated with successful identity formation is fidelity. Fidelity means truthfulness
Striving for perfection
The desire to fulfill our potential, to overcome our deficiencies, and realize our "ideal self" Self actualization
Play therapy
These techniques give the child the opportunity to do as he or she wishes, without pressuring, intruding, prodding, or nagging. Under these conditions, children can have distance from others (if they're worried about being smothered by a too ever-present parent), or they can play out anger or the wish for closeness (if they're feeling rejected or unwanted). The playroom is the child's world. In it, the child has the chance to bring feelings to the surface, express them, and potentially change working models of relationships and the self in positive ways
Relationships as the therapeutic process
These therapy techniques can be seen as representing a way of restoring to the person's life a sense of connectedness to others. By modifying the representations of relationships that were built in the past, they permit the development of more satisfying relationships in the future
John Bowlby (1907-1990)
Trained by Melanie Klein, Bowlby was a British psychoanalyst with a wide range of scientific interests During WWII, he was in charge of England's orphanages He noted that even though orphans were well fed, safe, and cared for, they did not thrive as did other children
Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
Unusual childhood Troubled adolescence Psychoanalysis and emigration to America
Separation-individuation
child starts to become aware of its separate existence Involves gradual exploration away from mother The child has a built-in conflict between two pressures during this time. The first is a wish to be taken care of by mother and united with her. The second is a fear of being overwhelmed in a merger with her and a desire to establish its own selfhood. Thus, the child strives for individuation and separation but also wants the earlier sense of union. This conflict is important in adult behavior, as well If the mother is too present in the child's experience, the child won't be able to establish a separate existence. If the mother pushes too much toward individuation, the child will experience a sense of rejection and loss called separation anxiety Eventually (at about age 3), the child develops a stable mental representation of its mother. Now, mother will be with the child all the time symbolically. The object relation is internalized
Generativity
the desire to create things in the world that will outlive you (ex. Children); relates to having a view of the self as a role model and source of wisdom for one's children; highly generative persons express commitment to assisting the next generation Erikson believed that the desire for generativity reflects a shift in focus from a close relationship with one other person (intimacy) to a broader concern with society as a whole highly generative people tend to think of their lives in terms of a narrative in which they had advantages early in life, became sensitive to the suffering of other people, repeatedly transformed negative situations into positive outcomes, and pursued prosocial goals into the future
