Critique on Sullivan

1. a useful theory is its ability to generate research. Currently, few researchers are actively
investigating hypotheses specifically drawn from Sullivan’s theory.
-Sullivan’s close association with psychiatry, his isolation from any university setting, and the relative
lack of organization in his writings and speeches.
2. a useful theory must be falsififiable; that is, it must be specifific enough to suggest research that
may either support or fail to support its major assumptions.
- importance of interpersonal relations for psychological health has received a moderate amount of
indirect support
3. how well does Sullivanian theory provide an organization for all that is known about human
personality.
- a moderate rating on its ability to organize knowledge
4. The relative lack of testing of Sullivan’s theory diminishes its usefulness as a practical guide for
parents, teachers, psychotherapists, and others concerned with the care of children and adolescents.
5. Sullivan’s ideas suffer from his inability to write well, but the theory itself is logically conceptualized
and holds together as a unifified entity.
- his theory is consistent, but
it lacks the organization he might have achieved if he had committed more of his ideas to the printed
page
6. is the theory parsimonious, or simple
- His penchant for creating his own terms and the awkwardness of his writing add needless bulk to a
theory that, if streamlined, would be far more useful.

Critics note the abstract nature of his concepts and the resultant lack of empirical testing • The role of
interpersonal factors in his theory may be overextended

Harry Stack Sullivan’s theory focused on interpersonal processes that could be observed but he did
not disregard the philosophical concepts of personality. His goal was to present an empirical
explanation on personality that could generate research. He also believed that knowledge of people’s
personality can be gained through “scientific study of interpersonal relations”(Feist, 2009)

 Psychologist have been investigating about the potential harmful effects of social support in
children. Suggesting that friends can be a bad thing, especially when co-rumination occurs in the
context of a friendship, which is excessively discussing personal problems within a relationship. It
involves dwelling on the negative even when there is no solution to be found and no good that
can come of it co-rumination did increase negative feelings although it is also a sign of a good
friendship since disclosing your feelings to friends make you closer. Co-rumination was
associated with increased depression and anxiety but also with better friendships.

Differences
 Sullivan believed that the mind contains nothing except what was put there through
interpersonal experiences. People are not motivated by instincts but by those environmental
influences that come through interpersonal relationships. Just like Horney emphasized
that environments are an influential factor in the development of personality.  Environments
shape how people view these ideas and how they are applied to one's life.

 Freud’s developmental stages from the Oral (Id), Anal (Ego), Phallic (Superego), Latency to
Genital Phases are focused on sexual energy (libido) that is expressed in different ways and
through different parts of the body. Similarly, Sullivan has developmental stages as well but he
linked it to Personality and changes are most likely to occur during transitions between stages.
Sullivan hypothesized that, “as one passes over one of these more-or-less determinable thresholds
of a developmental era, everything that has gone before becomes reasonably open to influence”
his stages are Infancy, Childhood, Juvenile, Preadolescence, Early Adolescence and Late
Adolescence stages and are also capable of impacting individual’s mental health.
 Freud opined that anxiety in individuals with psychiatric originated internally as a result of
personal distress. Sullivan, on the other hand, linked anxiety to problems with social interaction
and other interpersonal issues.

 Sullivan minimize the importance of individual differences and devote his theoretical attention to
those phenomena that humans have in common. He defined Personality as to be a temporal
phenomenon which is shaped by the relationships that are shared with other people. Unlike
Fromm who believe that although history and culture impinge heavily on personality, people can
retain some degree of uniqueness. Humans are one species sharing the same human needs but
interpersonal experiences throughout peoples lives give them some measure of uniqueness. He
talks about sense of identity as the capacity of a person to be aware of themselves as a separate
entity.
Interpersonal Theory Sullivan believed that childhood experiences determine, to a large degree, the adult personality and throughout our childhood, the mother
plays the most significant role.

Intimacy (an integrating experience marked by a close personal relationship

with another person who is more or less of equal status)