Psychology 213

Made by: Daryan Van der wath
WEEK ONE
CHAPTERS 1 & 2
Psychology 213
Introduction:
• We are all constantly engaged in Personology
• Psychology is shaped by the everyday context, culture, societal, political etc
• Psychology feeds back into our everyday lives and practices
• Depth psychology is probably the most widely known school of psychological
thought, both within and beyond the boundaries of psychology. The key feature
of this approach is the emphasis given by its followers to the ‘deep’,
unconscious aspects of the personality.
• The school that gave depth psychology its foundation and which is still its most
important branch is Freud’s psychoanalysis.
• A clear, scientific distinction between conscious and unconscious human
functioning was, however, made only much later in the work of the French
physician and philosopher, Jean Martin Charcot (1825–1893), and his student
Pierre Janet (1859–1924).
• Charcot and Janet were also the first to use hypnotism to uncover the
unconscious in the treatment of neuroses characterised by hysterical
phenomena.
• Hysteria is a disorder in which the person presents an organic symptom such as
paralysis of the limbs, hearing defects, loss of eyesight, difficulty in swallowing
and amnesia for which no organic cause can be found.
• Although there are many different ways one can compare approaches to
psychological personhood
o Body & Soul
o Conscious & Unconscious
o Self & Other
o Freedom & Captivity
o Meaning & Meaninglessness
o Normal & Pathological
Personology and everyday knowledge of human nature:

• Personology is also known as personality psychology and can be regarded as an
extension of our everyday knowledge of human nature
• Everyday knowledge of human nature - involves the ability to judge, understand,
explain and predict behaviour of one's fellow human beings
• Our ability to judge people depends on four sources of information: cultural
tradition, direct communications from others, observation of others' behaviour
and self-observation
• Personology - the branch of psychology which focuses on the study of the
individual's characteristics and of differences between people
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The reasons why there are so many different personality theories:

• The complexity of humans and their behaviour:
o Biological factors, diet, environmental circumstances and stimuli, social
factors and psychological and spiritual factors are all interdependent
factors in creating a complex human
• Practical and ethical problems in research:
o Research is limited to random studies that are restrictive in terms of size
and duration
• Complete knowledge of the person may not be possible or desirable:
o Debate about determinism (behaviour is determined by forces out of
your control) and freedom (behaviour is determined by free will)
• Assumptions concerning the person and scientific research:
o Pre-conceived ideas are difficult to change, especially when it is difficult
to find concrete evidence for anything
Definitions of key concepts

• Person - refers to an Individual human being who can act independently
o Physical existence as living organisms
o Psychological existence: conscious and unconscious feelings, needs,
desires, thought and fantasies
o Spiritual existence: values and goals
o Context: Relationship, family, community, culture, nationality,
western/non-western, developed world/developing world
• Personality - The constantly changing but relatively stable organisation of all the
physical, psychological, and spiritual characteristics of an individual, which
determine their behaviour in interaction within the context in which they find
themselves.
o Involves cognition (thinking), affectivity (feeling), interpersonal
functioning (relating), and impulse control (acting) combined to make an
enduring pattern of deeply embedded psychological characteristics that
are hard to eradicate and are expressed naturally and automatically
o Inflexible/flexible (depending on level of pathology) and pervasive across
situations
o Conscious and unconscious
o Intrinsic and pervasive
o Enduring qualities an individual shows in his/her ways of behaving in a
wide variety of situations
o Focus on overt behaviour, but underlying mental activity (motivation,
defences, attitudes, emotions play part.
• Character - refers to elements determined by socialisation and education
o Those aspects of personality involving a person's values
o The person's ability to behave in a manner that is consistent with those
Values
o Behaviour that is 'out of character' does not fit with the person's
personality
• Temperament/Nature - inherited, biological aspects of a person
o Both used to describe a person's emotions and how they express their
emotions

The ‘source’ of individual personhood?

• Personism
o Behaviour is influenced primarily by the personality (Psychic
Determinism)
o Individuals have fixed characteristics/behaviour tendencies
§ In the same situation, different people will behave differently
§ Psychometric testing
• Situationalism
o All people in the same situation would behave in the same way
(Environmental Determinism)
o All people are equal – the environment is what shapes individual
differences
• Interactionalism
o Acknowledges influence of individual differences as well as the situation
on behaviour
o Humans are part of a physical, social, and cultural environment and their
behaviour is the outcome of this entire system
Classification Systems
• Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (DM) classifies personality types in 3
categories:
o Intimacy, defensive patterns, and mental functioning
• In the 3 following categories, the traits range from one extreme at the first bullet
to another extreme at the last bullet
• Capacity for Relationships and Intimacy
o Deep, emotional capacity for intimacy, caring and empathy even when
experiencing intense feelings or stress
o Intimacy, care, and empathy are present but disrupted by strong
emotions and wishes such as anger or anxiety
o Superficial and need orientated, lacking intimacy and empathy
o Indifferent to others or aloof and withdrawn
• Defensive Patterns and Capacities
o Can experience a broad range of thoughts, affects, and relationships and
handles stresses with minimal use of defences that suppress or alter
feelings and ideas. Defences that are used support flexibility and healthy
emotional functioning. Common mechanisms: humour
o Uses defences to keep potentially threatening ideas, feelings, memories
or fears out of awareness without significant extortion of experiences.
Common mechanisms: rationalisation and displacement
o Extensive use of defences that distort experiences and limits
experiences of relationships in order to deal with internal and external
stressors to keep thoughts and feelings out of awareness. Common
mechanisms: Projection and splitting
o Generalised failure of defensive regulation leading to a pronounced
break with reality. Common mechanisms: Projection and psychotic
distortion
• Major Defects in Basic Mental Functions
o Major structural psychological defects and defects in mental functions
o Perception and regulation of affect

o Integration of affect and thought

o Reality testing and organisation of perception, thought, and capacity for
human affective engagement
o Major defects in basic physical, organic integrity of mental apparatus
• Categorical continuum: (Personality types)
o Each category should contain members that are identical
o Should be mutually exclusive
o Sharp boundaries necessary
• Dimensional continuum: (Personality traits)
o Continuous distribution of the amount of a variable
o Big 5: Extroversion, neuroticism, openness to experience,
conscientiousness, agreeability
o Novelty speaking, harm-avoidance, reward-dependence
Personality Theories
• Theory - system of ideas explaining something (especially based on general
principles independent of the facts)
• Psychological Theory - selects from the complexity of a life certain aspects or
dimensions which are thought to lie at the centre of human concerns colouring
much of seemingly diffuse and variegated aspects of the person's experience
• Personality Theory - The outcome of a purposeful, sustained effort to develop a
logically consistent conceptual system for describing, explaining, and/or
predicting human behaviour
• Personality theories usually include the following concepts:
o An underlying view of the person
o Structure of personality
o What motivates human behaviour
o A description and/or ideal about human development
o Nature and causes of psychopathology
o How human behaviour might be controlled
o How to study, measure and predict behaviour
Philosophical assumptions
• philosophical assumptions about the relationship between soul and body
• Monism: This philosophical assumption sees a single aspect or principle as
being absolute.
• Materialism: This is an example of a monistic point of view that recognises the
body as the only manifestation of human existence. In this view, all objects, and
events, including psychological processes such as thinking, willing and feeling,
are explained solely as observable physiological processes.
• Mentalism: This is also an example of a monistic view, which rests on the
philosophical hypothesis that all psychological phenomena, such as thought,
will and emotions, can be ascribed to higher, non-observable mental processes
and should be distinguished from physiological processes.
• Dualism: In contrast with monism, dualism acknowledges two principles or
aspects of human nature, namely the physical and the psychological or mental.

Dualism is reflected especially in the psychoanalytical and person- oriented

approaches in psychology.
• Mechanistic: According to this approach, all physical and/or psychological
phenomena can be explained in terms of the laws of cause and effect.The
conditioning paradigm that underlies behaviouristic theories is based upon
mechanistic assumptions. This kind of framework is usually associated with a
determinist orientation.
• Determinism: This proposes that any given psychological phenomenon is
determined by specific factors. Determinism contrasts with theoretical
approaches that prefer to attribute individual functioning and differences to the
operation of personal freedom and the human will.
Methodological approaches
• epistemology: a body of knowledge based on specific assumptions about the
true source of knowledge
• Empiricism: the philosophy of science based on the assumption that
observation through sensory perception is the only source of true knowledge
• Rationalism: the philosophy of science based on the assumption that human
reason is the only source of true knowledge
How Descartes and Bacon represent two different approaches to knowledge:
Francis Bacon:
• Empiricism grew out of Francis Bacon’s (1561–1626) resolve to find a new
method of acquiring knowledge.
• He believed that truly valid knowledge was attained chiefly by means of the
inductive method.
• Only when all pre- established a priori assumptions had been eliminated and
the scientist began to study human beings and their environments by means of
carefully controlled observation, would valid, scientific knowledge about the
nature of the human being be forthcoming.
• Generalisations could then be made on the basis of controlled observations,
which would preferably be quantified.
• Bacon thus emphasised empirical observation (a systematic inductive method)
as the starting point for any scientific investigation.
• This work laid the foundation for the study of psychological processes as part of
the natural sciences.
• In physiology, for example, it led to research into the relationship between the
nervous system and behaviour in an attempt to provide an empirically verified
basis for human functioning.
• In psychophysics it brought about a search for a quantitative basis of the
relationship between mind and body. It is this tradition, which is carried forward
in modern psychological and personality theories, that supports the objective–
quantitative approach.
Rene Descartes:
• The rationalism of René Descartes (1596–1650) arose from the attempt to throw
light on human nature and how knowledge is acquired.

• Descartes started with the subjective world. For him, subjective experience and
conscious knowledge of oneself were the basis of all knowledge – in the words
of his well-known dictum, ‘Cogito, ergo sum’ (‘I think, therefore I am’).
• He proposes subjective experience rather than the external world as an
essential precondition for knowledge because the existence of the external
world, according to him, cannot be proved.
• Descartes proposed that the existence of everything (including the external
world) was open to doubt.
• In his philosophical system, Descartes distinguishes two levels of existence in
the universe:
o There is the physical world consisting of observable matter that can be
explained and investigated in terms of mechanistic laws and that led to
the development of the natural sciences.
o There is the mental world made up of the non-material, non-observable
processes of consciousness that are characterised, in particular, by the
human faculty of reasoning and which led to the development of the
human sciences (‘Geisteswissenschaften’)
• Descartes applies this distinction to the relationship between body and mind.
• The mind (‘geist’) is the non-material, non-physical entity which, he says, is
easier to investigate than the body because it can become known through self-
reflection (subjective experience).
• The body is a physical, material entity common to both human beings and
animals, which responds to the external world according to mechanistic
physiological principles.
• According to Descartes, the study of body processes is the field of physiology,
while the study of mental processes is the field of psychology.
• He was the first modern thinker to demarcate and describe the object of
psychology as the study of human mental processes.
• This work of Descartes, in direct contrast with that of Bacon, laid down the
guidelines for psychology as an introspective (subjective) human science, which
had as its central concern the examination of the higher processes of human
consciousness.
In summary, empiricism and rationalism were of profound importance in the

development of psychological thinking. These systems of thought not only influenced
the final formulation of psychology as a science, but Cartesian dualism and the
founding of the empirical method were also partly instrumental in the development of
the ‘divided nature’ or ‘split personality’ of modern psychology. This dividedness can
be observed in the fact that psychology is practised as both a natural science and a
human science
Psychology as a science in its own right
The origin of psychology can be traced back conceptually to two fundamental starting
points:
• the traditional foundation provided by Wundt and structuralism within a
strong academic context

• the foundation laid by Freud and psychoanalysis within a practical medical

context.
Psychology as a natural science
• Arises from the work of Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) and represents a radical
break with the earlier philosophically-oriented metaphysical psychology that
had prevailed in Germany.
• structuralism: a scientific philosophical approach that aims to examine the
constituent structural elements of phenomena
• Defined psychology as the analytical examination of human consciousness
• They also developed an experimental method of investigation specific to
psychology – introspection (a method of self-observation under controlled
conditions)
• Lead to the development of functionalism (a scientific philosophical
approach that concentrates on the functions and dynamics of psychological
functions)
• Functionalism contrasts with structuralism in that it concentrates on the
functions and dynamics of psychological processes rather than on the study of
non- observable structural elements.
• This approach eventually culminated in behaviourism and is evidence of the
growth of the natural science orientation in psychology.
Psychology as a human science
• Franz Brentano (1838–1917) opposed structuralism on account of its

reductionist, atomistic nature (that is, its reduction of consciousness and all
that it entails into its component elements).
• Brentano held that psychology should be defined as the study of psychological
processes that originate with the human will.
• In view of the fact that the will, or intentionality, cannot be studied by means of
an experimental methodology, Brentano adapted the descriptive qualitative
method to the study of psychological phenomena.
• Intentionality: psychological processes can only be understood by focusing on
the will or ‘intention’ underlying the processes
• He is regarded as the founder of the phenomenological approach in psychology.
• Brentano’s work was particularly influential in the development of the Gestalt
movement and of what is known as the ‘Third Force’ in psychology.
• The ‘Third Force’ represents the person-oriented approach in America and the
existentialist approach in Europe, and reflects a human science orientation.

WEEK TWO
CHAPTER 3 & 4
Freud and Classical Psychoanalysis
Introduction
• Psychoanalysis developed outside of academic psychology, in the field of
medicine / psychiatry
• Charcot and Janet: used hypnosis to treat hysteria
• Freud and Breuer: Studies in Hysteria (1895)
• The ‘talking cure’ / catharsis
• Freud later breaks with Breuer, replaces hypnosis with ‘free association’ and
places increasing emphasis on the sexual sex as cause of psychoneuroses
• In 1990 he publishes The Interpretation of Dreams; followed by The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901) and Three Essays on the Theory of
Sexuality (1905)
• Reflect critically on how Freud is presented in the textbook…
• ‘… his over-emphasis on the role of sex in human functioning’ (p. 49)
• ‘… the fact that his pan-sexual ideas do not seem to be valid in a society where
the sexual taboos do not exist’ (p. 50)
• Biologically derived model: Freud is a biological determinist and mechanistic in
much of this thinking
• Centrality of instinctual processes: conflict between psychic drives and societal
norms
• Development: orderly progression of bodily preoccupations (oral, anal, phallic,
genital)
• Psychopathology
Postulates defining contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory

• Postulates:
o Most aspects of mental life are unconscious
o Mental processes operate in parallel, meaning that you can have
conflictual feelings towards a person or situation
o Stable personality patterns begin to form in childhood, and childhood
experiences play an important role in personality development
o Mental representations of self/others and of relationships guide our
interactions
o Personality development involves not only learning to regulate sexual
and aggressive feelings but also moving from an immature, socially
dependent state to a mature, inter-dependent one.
• Classical Freudian Psychoanalysis:
o Instinct theory
o Unconscious motivation
o Psychic determinism
o Personality structure
o Defence mechanisms
o Psychosexual stages
• Biologically derived model, centrality of instinctual processes, focused on
development

The view of the person underlying the system

• Psychosocial conflict
o constant conflict between drives of psyche and societal norms
o constantly tries to experience as much drive satisfaction and as few guilt
feelings as possible
• Biological and psychic determinism
o human drives are physiologically based › biological determinism
o behaviour Is determined by forces within the psyche > psychic
determinism
• Mechanistic assumption
o humans’ function in a specific way
Structure of the Personality

• The psychic system consists of three ‘parts’, the id, the ego and the superego,
which functions at ‘three levels of consciousness’:
o Conscious
§ contains thoughts, feelings, and experiences, of which the
individual is currently aware. Contents change all the time
o Preconscious
§ Information can be found and recalled to consciousness.
Consists mainly of memories of earlier experiences and
observations they are not focused on
o Unconscious
§ contains the 'forbidden' drives and forgotten, painful memories
• Id, ego, and superego are ‘goal directed’
o To ensure the survival of the individual
o To allow the individual to experience as much pleasure as possible
o To minimize the individual’s experience of guilt
• Id
o Innate, primitive part of the psyche
o Obtains energy for behavior from direct contact with body
o Energy is linked to the drives: Eros (ego drives & sexual drives) and
Thanatos (death drive)
o Id functions according to primary processes (not capable of thought,
self-reflection, planning) & the pleasure principle (seeks immediate
satisfaction of drives)
o Id has no contact with external reality; is selfish and unrealistic
o Not capable of finding appropriate objects in environment to satisfy
drives
o This means id is not geared to actual drive satisfaction; it can only
manage wish fulfilment: images of desired objects and fantasies of
fulfilment
• Ego
o But we have real needs; imagination and fantasy won’t feed us
o This requires a subsystem of the personality that is oriented towards
reality
o Ego is formed through contact with the external world
o Ego serves id needs by finding suitable objects for real drive satisfaction

o Ego functions according to secondary processes and the reality principle

o Secondary processes: reflects; plans; delayed gratification
o Reality principle: Takes physical and social reality into account by using
preconscious and conscious cognitive processes
o Instead of id’s futile attempts at drive satisfaction by means of fantasy
and wish fulfilment, ego uses:
§ Reality testing
§ Object choice
§ Object cathexis (cathexis: ego’s investment of psychic energy in
certain objects)
o Ego has to negotiate between id, physical reality and society’s moral
codes
o Its moral aspect becomes autonomous: Freud terms this the superego
o Id threatens ego with tension when drives are not satisfied; superego
threatens it with punishment and guilt – these conflicts produce psychic
difficulties
• Superego
o Moral principle
o It produces both guilt and holds up perfectionistic ideals for the ego
o Conscience (negative) and ego-ideal (‘positive’)
o Constant pressure on the ego; by means of energy it too obtains from the
id (aggression; death drive)
o Superego functions on all levels of consciousness; one can feel guilty
about something that is preconscious…
o For the superego, the conscious experience of a forbidden wish (even in
a dream) is as wrong as the action itself
o Superego pressurizes ego to keep forbidden drives and thoughts
unconscious
o Anticathexis: a moral taboo placed on an object
o We are all constantly subjected to simultaneous cathexis and
anticathexis of objects – the result is anxiety, and defense mechanisms
o Psychopathology, for Freud the neuroses, are based on these conflicts
Personality dynamics: Motivation

• Freud’s is a mechanistic theory: psyche functions with the help of energy
converted from physical-biological form to psychic form according to principle
of energy transformation
• Consists of 5 elements:
o biological source.
o a supply of energy derived therefrom (pressure)
o aim leading to discharge (aim)
o actual discharge (full discharge vs. partial discharge)
o object
• (Like steam pressure can be converted into electrical energy)
• Energy either urges us to act; or immobilizes us with guilt
• Individuals need to cope with a conflict between two forms of energy, drive
energy (forbidden wishes) vs moral energy (guilt)
• Principle of energy conservation: energy attached to wishes and guilt feelings
don’t just disappear

Drive (‘trieb’ and ‘libido’)

• Drives: psychological representations of energy derived from the body
• All human functioning originate in the drives; the conflictual nature of the drives
mark our particular human situation
• General characteristics:
o source (the body)
§ Every drive has its source in the body, but the various drives
obtain energy from different parts of the body.
§ The physical source of the sexual drives is usually referred to as
the erogenous zone.
o impetus (intensity)
§ Every drive has impetus or, in other words, a certain quantity of
energy or intensity.
§ This is affected by the condition of the energy source at a given
moment, and by the lapse of time since the last satisfaction of the
drive.
o goal (satisfaction)
§ Every drive has the goal of satisfaction.
§ Goals are experienced subjectively as desires to accomplish
something specific and the pressure of such a desire remains
operative until the drive is satisfied.
o object (cathexis; displacement)
§ Every drive requires an object, that is, something or a person
suitable for its satisfaction. Satisfaction is achieved by using the
energy of the drive with the help of an appropriate object to carry
out suitable actions.
§ An object for satisfaction is thus chosen by the ego and invested
with psychic energy. This process of object choice, which is also
known as cathexis, makes it possible for the individual to expend
or to reduce drive energy
§ An important aspect of object choice is that objects can be
substituted. The process of substitution, which is known as
displacement, occurs when an earlier object choice is no longer
available
Drives
• Two groups of drives: Eros and Thanatos
• Eros is divided into ego drives and sexual drives
o Ego drives
§ Individual survival: breathing, eating, drinking
§ Provide energy needed for the functioning of the ego
o Sexual drives
§ Main concern is survival of the species; however, they also
provide pleasure and cause discomfort
§ Sexual drives are present from birth; but start functioning in
service of reproduction and survival of species only much later
§ Sex is subjected to strict moral codes
§ The oral-sexual drive develops first; other parts of body later
provide energy for further sexual drive development

o Death drive
§ Freud holds that all behavior is caused by factors within the
personality (Personism – see chapter 1)
§ Thus, he needs to find an intrapsychic explanation for a
phenomenon like war
§ Death drive is in conflict with the life drives, already at the level of
the biological body
§ The conflict is projected outwards: aggression towards others and
things
§ Nirvana is achieved at death because “the goal of all life is death”
§ Freud ascribes all violence, aggression, destruction to the death
drive
§ Superego: aggression against the self
§ Sublimation: acceptable ways of channeling death drive
o The life drive – serves to preserve life and they therefore function in a
constructive manner
• Vicissitudes of Drives:
o Reversal into the opposite direction
o Turning round upon the subject’s own self (masochism)
o Repression
o Sublimation
Defense mechanisms
• Strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the conflict between repressed
drives and moral codes.
• Since the mechanisms are attempts to cope with unconscious psychic
contents, individuals are not conscious of the fact that they are using defence
mechanisms and are not aware of the deep-rooted reasons for their behaviour
• Repression and resistance
o Repression is the basic defence mechanism which transfers drives,
wishes or memories that are unacceptable to the superego to the
unconscious
o unconscious mechanism, different from suppression or avoidance
o needs to be maintained through a process of resistance
o resistance becomes operative when repressed desires threaten to
surface at the conscious level
o all other mechanism’s primary goal is to aid resistance
• Projection
o Projection is essentially an attempt to keep unconscious psychic
material unconscious by subjectively 'changing' the focus to the drives or
wishes of other people
o creates a real' external danger in the shape of other people who he
deems threatening to his moral values and whom he can therefore attack
• Reaction formation
o Reaction formation is a mechanism whereby the individual tries to keep a
forbidden desire unconscious by adopting a fanatical stance that gives
the impression that he or she experiences the opposite
o e.g. being homophobic if you are threatened by own homosexual desires

• Displacement and sublimation

o Displacement functions by finding a substitute for the object that
society's moral codes forbid and using the substitute object for drive
satisfaction, diverting emotions from the original source to a substitute
target
o Sublimation consists of finding displacement objects and actions which
are regarded as socially acceptable. Person expresses their
unacceptable base' drives in an acceptable and valuable way
• Rationalisation
o Rationalisation is a person's attempt to explain his or her behaviour, to
themselves or others, by providing reasons which sound rational, but
which are not in actual fact the real reasons for their behaviour. Usually
less threatening to blame others than ourselves
o rationalisation = unaware of motives
o lying = aware of motives, Intentional
• Fixation and regression
o Fixation occurs when an Individual's psychological development
becomes partly stuck at a particular stage, child behaves in a manner
more appropriate of a younger age and avoids facing the challenges of
the next developmental stage
o 3 causes:
1) specific developmental stage is too pleasurable to move on
2) frustration
3) perceived threat of next stage
o Regression is a reversion to immature patterns of behaviour
o Freud holds that anyone who regresses will regress to the stage at which
they were previously fixated
• Identification
o Identification is bolstering self-esteem by forming a real or imaginary
alliance with another person or group
o consists of the desire to be liked by somebody else
o Oedipus complex = identification with father
§ will imitate his father to earn affection from his mother
§ keeps his forbidden sexual wishes concerning his mother and his
aggressive wishes towards his mother unconscious
• Parapraxes
o Parapraxes are mistakes we normally regard as unimportant
• Freud believes these are not accidents but caused by unconscious fears and
desires and are a mild form of psychopathology
Development of the personality

• Focuses in particular on the development of the sex drive in the context of
societal norms
• Progression through the stages is seen as a result of changes in the sources of
sexual drive energy, name refers to source physiologically
• Determined by maturation. Differences in social circumstances cause
individual differences in the process of development and in the personality
attributes that emerge

• His theory is thus often referred to as a psychosexual theory of development

o Oral stage (first year of life)
§ Lips and mouth are main erogenous region
§ Sucking on breast satisfies sexual drive
§ Weaning leads to frustration and can be seen as punishment
§ Infant copes by using displacement
§ Death drive may cause biting
§ Infant acquires knowledge about external reality and learns that
certain objects are edible and feeding has specific times, this
structures the ego
§ Fixation leads to development of the 'oral personality' type which
has characteristics such as dependence, narcissism, optimism,
and envy
§ Could also lead to reaction formation and development of
opposite characteristics
o Anal stage (second year of life)
§ Anus and excretory canal constitute the most important
erogenous zone
§ Child enjoys sexual pleasure in excretion as well as retaining
excretion
§ Toilet-training has a profound effect on personality development
§ Aggressive drive = refuse to excrete or excrete at the wrong time in
order to punish parents
§ Hurt themselves by retaining excretion, sexual drive causes
masochism
§ Fixations lead to 'anal personality' type.
§ Develops characteristics such as neatness, thriftiness, obstinacy
or opposites in reaction formation
§ Sadism vs masochism = sexual pleasure by hurting others vs
oneself
o Phallic stage (3-6)
§ Development is gender specific
§ Involves deep, complex psychic wishes related to parents and
penis
§ Boys = develop Oedipus complex. Sexual desires for mother and
aggressive drives towards father. Tries to imitate father to earn
mother's love. This develops the superego
§ Girls = develop Electra complex. Involves penis envy. Desire for
father because girl wants to acquire penis. Identification with her
mother causes her to imitate her mother
§ Fixation leads to sexual adaptation problems, homosexuality, or
mental disorders
o Latent (6-12)
§ No new sources of sexual drive energy come to the fore
§ Learning gender roles and social skills, little interest in opposite
sex
o Genital stage (puberty onwards)
§ Physiological changes increase the amount of sexual drive energy
§ Source is the entire sexual apparatus
§ Displacement involves finding a partner similar to parent

§ Regression causes thumb-sucking, threatened by sexual feelings
Views on Psychopathology
• Views abnormal behaviour as an extreme due to an imbalance In
Id/ego/superego
• Fixation is a result of unsolved problems repressed in psyche
• Too weak an ego: insufficient rational skills and Ineffective use of defence
mechanism
• Too strict an ego: identification with strict parent
• Neuroses - develop because of the ego's inability to cope with the conflict
between the id and the superego
• Personality disorders - deeply-rooted disturbed ways of dealing with conflict
and the satisfaction of drives
• Psychoses - result of a complete inability to deal with anxiety on the part of the
ego, resulting in a total withdrawal and distortion of reality
Psychotherapy
• Purpose: to discover the causes of patient's problems through more
constructive ways of dealing with underlying conflicts
• Techniques:
o Free association
o Dream analysis
o Transference analysis
o Analysis of countertransference
o Analysis of resistance
o Play therapy
• Resistance - occurs when the patient refuses to free associate
• Free association - technique developed by Freud where stimulus words are
used to which the patient must respond by revealing everything that comes to
mind
• Transference - occurs when conflictual thoughts and feelings that constitute the
centre of the patient's difficulties are transferred to analyst
The Analytic Psychology of Carl Jung (1875-1961)
View of personhood
• Human beings are complex, dynamic organisms made up of opposing forces.
• These factors drive or draw them into action.
• Consciously or unconsciously
• The idea of opposing forces is very important in Jungian psychology:
o GOOD AND EVIL
o INTROVERTED AND EXTRAVERTED
o MASCULINE AND FEMININE
§ Unconscious is dominated by the opposite of what dominates at a
conscious level
• So, for Jung, like Freud and Adler, conflict is important…

• We strive to integrate these opposing tendencies into a harmonious whole, the

self
• A holistic theory: does not concentrate only on the structures, processes, and
content of the individual psyche, but also places the psyche in broad, inherited,
collective context – the collective unconscious
• Acknowledges a spiritual, religious dimension to the psyche: the attainment of
the self occurs at a spiritual plane beyond the mere physiological, social, and
psychic levels of existence
• Psyche: The totality of all conscious and unconscious psychic processes; a
comprehensive concept which encompasses universal human traits, not just
individual ‘personality’ traits
Which dimensions in human functioning are recognised by Jung?
• The physiological dimension involves all processes and drives that

are essential for physical survival, including the need to breathe, eat, drink and
have sex.
• The social dimension is concerned with interaction with other people.
• The psychic dimension refers to all those conscious processes, which can
logically be understood and explained by reason and which help a person adapt
to his or her reality.
• The spiritual or religious dimension refers to people’s dependence on and
subjection to irrational experiences; that is, experiences that cannot be
understood and explained by human reason.
Structure of personality
• Psyche is a dynamically structured totality.
• Psyche: refers to the totality of all conscious and unconscious psychic
processes of the individual
• A divisible and even divided entity that strives towards ‘wholeness’: THIS IS THE
MAIN PURPOSE OF LIFE
• Different components are related but often opposed:
o PERSONAL – IMPERSONAL
o CONSCIOUS – UNCONSCIOUS
o INTERNALISED – EXTERNALISED
o CONSTRUCTIVE – DESTRUCTIVE
o PUBLIC – PRIVATE
• The essence of the psyche is the self; and the self is an archetype: images and
dispositions that have been transmitted to humanity through generations
• According to Jung, ‘the self designates the whole range of psychic phenomena
in man. It expressed the unity of the personality as a whole.’
• The self is the potential of the psyche: teleology.
• Psyche functions on three levels of consciousness:
o The conscious
o The personal unconscious
o The collective unconscious
• The conscious
o Its essence is the ego

o All conscious aspects of functioning

o Ego functions both internally (self-awareness) and externally (awareness
of reality)
• Personal unconscious
o Its contents are generally available to consciousness.
o There is a continual interaction between personal unconscious and ego
o Most important content: complexes
o A complex is a transformed instinct; a composite of ideas or experiences
that becomes psychologically activated and carries emotional intensity
o It forms when an archetype or instinct is combined with a personal
experience
• The collective unconscious
o Inherited potential
o Not peculiar to the individual but universal to all human beings
o Forms the foundation of the human psyche
o Exists completely independently and is not influenced by conscious
experience or the personal unconscious
o Jung: ‘The collective unconscious comprises in itself the psychic life of
ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings… it exerts an influence
that comprises the freedom of consciousness in the highest degree since
it is continually striving to lead all conscious processes back into the old
paths.’
o It contains instincts and archetypes
o Archetypes are innate psychic predispositions that influences a person
to perceive in a certain way, to experience and form images
o ‘a treasure-house of mythological motifs’ (Jung)
o Archetypes are expressed through symbols – archetypes manifest in the
symbolic.
o There are a great variety of archetypes: birth, death, sun, darkness,
power, women, men, sex, water, mother, pain…
o But the most NB for his account of personhood are
§ The persona
§ The anima and animus
§ The shadow
§ The self
• Persona
o Public self: develops in relation to the role one has to play in society
o The persona is not the whole psyche
o When the persona becomes too important, psychopathology can
develop
• Anima and Animus
o A person possesses not only the physiological traits of both sexes, but
also the psychological traits of both sexes
o Anima: female archetype present in every male person
o Animus: male archetype present in every female person
o The persona is in a supplementary relationship with the anima or animus
• The shadow
o Represents the primitive animal instincts inherited by humanity in the
evolutionary process from the lower forms of life

o Contains the impulsive urges and emotions normally unacceptable to

society, and therefore repressed
o The more stringent societal norms, the longer the shadow cast
o A source of vital energy (like the id)
o Integrating ego and shadow leads to creative behavior; or action
orientation in a crisis
• The self
o Motivates an individual to integrate the various components of the
psyche into a harmonious whole
o Represents a person’s striving towards unity, wholeness, integration
o The self surfaces when the conscious and unconscious are no longer in
opposition to each other and accept each other to form a greater whole
o Transcendent function: religion is an instinct peculiar to human beings
with the main purpose of maintaining psychic balance
o Manifested in symbols like the mandala
The dynamics of the personality
• Basic assumptions
o For Jung, the individual’s behaviour is not only the outcome of past
forces, which drive him or her into action, but also the result of the
individual’s (psyche) striving for completeness and wholeness through
the attainment of the self.
o Jung added a third principle to the causal and goal-directed principles
underlying the dynamics of behaviour, namely synchronicity
o According to this principle, the causes of behaviour are not to be sought
in the past, nor in the future, but in a ‘meaningful concurrence’ between
events.
o synchronicity: refers to a relationship between events that is not causal
or teleological, but can only be described as a ‘meaningful concurrence’
between the events
§ Example: If a clock stops the moment its owner dies, or if a person thinks of a
friend the moment the telephone starts ringing and answers it to find that it is
that particular friend on the line, this does not mean that one event caused the
other. These events are merely synchronistic events (that is, events occurring
concurrently) that have a significant meaning for the people who experienced
them.
o Jung maintains that the significance of such events lies in their

simultaneous occurrence and that they should not be attributed to
coincidence or chance.
o Behavioural phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance and other para-
psychological phenomena can be understood and described, according
to Jung, only as a consequence of an acausal synchronistic relationship.
• The Human Being as an energy system

o Jung regards the human being as a complex energy system.

o Jung uses the term libido to refer to physical as well as psychic energy.
o Psychic energy or ‘life energy’ is specifically the energy of the personality.
o Psychic energy is a hypothetical construct and therefore not directly
observable.
o Psychic energy is expressed in all psychic attitudes and functions, as well as
in the psyche’s attempt to achieve a balance between its various
subsystems.
o The psyche can also acquire further energy from outside through individual
experiences.
o The intensity of the psychic energy invested in a psychic activity is a psychic
value.
o The psychic value of a conscious activity can be inferred from the amount of
time and attention devoted to it.
o Two ways of establishing the strength of unconscious psychic values:
§ complex indicators & word-association test
• The Distribution of psychic energy
o There are two principles that determine how energy is distributed

throughout psychic functioning, that is, the principle of equality and the
principle of entropy
o These two principles are derived from thermodynamics.
(Thermodynamics is the science of the relationship of heat as a source of
energy to other sources of energy, and, in particular, the conversion of
heat into mechanical energy.)
o The principle of equality (or conservation of energy) postulates that the
psyche conserves energy and it never loses or adds to it. Energy lost in
one component of the system will simply reappear in another
component.
§ However, this energy is conserved and may be transferred to the

archetype of the shadow, thereby strengthening the ‘primitive’,
unacceptable part of the psyche.
§ The process of redistributing energy in the psyche takes place
continuously
o The principle of entropy (or balance) postulates that energy flows from a
stronger (or warmer) element to a weaker (or colder) element.
o The psyche therefore constantly tries to maintain a balance between the
different subsystems through the redistribution of energy from stronger
to weaker components.
• Attitudes of the Psyche
o Introversion is an inner directedness of psychic energy based on the

subjective experiences of the ego. An introvert sources energy from
within and is preoccupied with his or her own emotions and experiences
and often appears to be aloof and even asocial.

o Extraversion, by contrast, sources energy from the outside world and

from other people, and is directed towards external reality – people,
objects and events outside the ego – rather than individual experiences
or subjective perceptions. The extravert reveals a lively interest in the
world around him or her and appears highly sociable.
• Functions of the Psyche
o Irrational functions
§ Sensation refers to the way in which the psyche experiences

external impulses through the senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste
and touch.
§ Intuition is unconscious perception on a subliminal level. Through
this the psyche is elevated beyond the bodily confines of time and
space and what happens is an ‘immediate experience and
consciousness’, which cannot be achieved by any of the other
functions.
o Rational functions
§ Thinking is a logical and structuring function directed towards the

objective explanation and understanding of the world. It is
therefore the function that the psyche uses to interpret what has
been perceived.
§ Feeling is an evaluative function by which information is judged as
good or bad, right or wrong, positive or negative. It forms the basis
for the individual’s experience of subjective feelings of pleasure,
sadness, anger or love.
• Personality types that develop from combining and handling attitudes and
functions:
o Extravert–thinking type: This type of person perceives the world as

structured and lives according to fixed objective rules and all subjective
feelings are repressed. This type of person is generally cold and unfeeling
and is usually found among scientists and researchers.
o Extravert–feeling type: A person in this category is emotionally highly
labile and the emotions fluctuate as situations change. Such a person is
social and experiences intense relationships, but these relationships are
often of short duration. Actors are usually representative of this type.
o Extravert–sensing type: The individual here is characteristically highly
pragmatic and realistic and accepts life as it is without thinking too much
about it. Such a person is generally sensual and geared towards
experiencing pleasure. This type is found among businessmen and
businesswomen.
o Extravert–intuitive type: Such people are always looking for something
new and find it difficult to sustain anything – ideas, jobs or relationships.
This personality type includes impulsive inventors and creative

innovators, who have difficulty finding stability and concentrating on

anything for long.
o Introvert–thinking type: People with this type of personality are highly
intellectual and care little about their day-to-day existence. This group
includes people who are ascetic, philosophical, impractical, socially
inhibited and extremely private.
o Introvert–feeling type: People with this personality type are intensely
emotional and hypersensitive. They do not display the characteristics
outwardly but they manifest themselves in writing and works of art.
o Introvert–sensing type: The individual in this grouping takes life as it
comes without displaying great social involvement. People in this
category generally do not give much of themselves in interaction and can
be described as passive, calm and boring.
o Introvert–intuitive type: This personality type includes eccentric
thinkers and daydreamers who are known for brilliant theories and
creative ideas based mostly on intuition. They tend to be highly
impractical and asocial, and other people often do not understand them
correctly. However, sometimes their intuitive ideas can be implemented
successfully by others
The development of the personality
• Individuation
o Individuation is the process whereby the infant’s undifferentiated psyche
divides into subsystems. Each of the subsystems – ego, persona,
shadow, anima, animus, etcetera – strives to differentiate itself fully from
the infant-psyche and to develop into an integrated system on its own
o Individuation means becoming a single, homogenous being, and, in so
far as ‘individuality’ embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable
uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore
translate individuation as ‘becoming to selfhood’ or ‘self-realisation’
• Transcendent function
o Refers to how the person’s development of a synthesis between the
opposed differentiated systems of the psyche can be achieved in
attaining the self. This implies bringing the conscious and unconscious
together through the integration of opposing aspects of the personality
into a whole (self).

WEEK THREE
CHAPTER 9 & 10
Burrhus Frederic (BF) Skinner and Radical Behaviorism
Background to Skinner’s Radical Behaviourism
• One of the most influential theories of human functioning.

• Provides an explanation of behaviour from a completely different perspective to
that of conventional personality theories.
• Differs from depth personality theories - does not conceptualise personality as
something that occurs within the individual (mentalistic explanations) but still
an important ‘personality theory’ in that it attempts to explain human
functioning through environment oriented explanations.
• Can we see how this differs from Freudian notions of internal subconscious
drives motivating behaviour?
• Explains needs/drives as the period during which an individual is deprived of
something essential to their survival.
Philosophical and Historical Origins
Behaviourism rooted in specific philosophical and historical origins:
• Empiricism
o (John Locke) holds that at birth the human mind is without knowledge or
any other content, and that all knowledge is acquired by means of
sensory experience
• Environmental determinism
o holds that environmental influences account for all of an individual's
attributes and behaviour
• Positivism
o science can concern itself only with knowable matters. Behaviourists
therefore only study observable behaviour
• Elementalism
o holds that a phenomenon is explained by analysing it until its smallest,
simplest building blocks have been uncovered.
o The goal of positivist scientific practice is to predict and control relevant
events
• Evolutionism
o (Charles Darwin) states that human behaviour can be explained along
the same principles as lower animals, and it should be studied in the
same way Classical conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov
o John Watson is the father of behaviourism, which views psychology as a
purely experimental branch of natural science
The View of the Person
• Does not provide a view of the person, rather a view of humanity.

• Skinner’s view of humanity is based on the principles of evolutionism and
determinism:

o Regards observable behaviour as psychology’s sole object of study.

o Humans, like any other organism, are the outcome of evolution.
o No essential difference between humans and animals – except for the
complexity of the behaviour between the species.
o Regards it unnecessary to ascribe goal orientation and conscious
planning to any organism.
o Environment determines what behaviour will or will not be repeated in
future.
o Behaviours only survive because they are environmentally reinforced.
o All behaviour is understood as the lawful (can therefore be controlled or
manipulated) result of environmental factors.
o Hence behaviour can be manipulated by manipulating the
environment.
• Lundin (1974) defines personality in light of behaviourism as: “that organisation
of unique behaviour equipment an individual has acquired under the special
conditions of his development”.
• Describes the personality as a “black box” – internal structure and functioning
not accessible to scientific inquiry.
• Avoids the use of (although does not deny) subjective matters such as feelings,
consciousness, thoughts, needs, drives and objectives as explanations of
behaviour – can be explained in terms of environmental variables.
• To what extent are humans free to change their environment if all behaviour is
lawful and controlled by the environment?
• Hence we can conclude that humans are “unfree” – that humans have no
freedom of choice regarding their behaviour.
Structure of the Personality: Respondent and Operative

Behaviour
• Skinner does not use any structural concepts to describe the personality; he
regards behaviour as the central concept of the personality.
• Respondent and Operant behaviour two components of behaviour:
• Respondent Behaviour:
o Behaviour that is stimulated by something that has come before the
behaviour to which the organism then responds.
o The “something” that precedes and controls the behaviour is called
a stimulus
o A stimulus is any observable object or change in the environment which
results in a response.
o A response is any behaviour that follows the stimulus.
o Cause and effect = Stimulus à Response
• Operant Behaviour:
o Not preceded by any specific identifiable stimuli.
o Appears to be produced spontaneously by the organism – sometimes
called emergent behaviour.
o Has an effect on the environment and is controlled by this effect –
this effect on environment controls behaviour (respondent behaviour is
controlled by the stimuli preceding it).

o Example: If some organism behaves “accidentally” but persistence of

that behaviour is controlled by its effect on the environment (refer to
enrichment on p. 268).
o Behaviour à Effect on the environment (outcome).
The Dynamics of the Personality
• Skinner does not speculate on motivation; rather on learning through

behavioural control.
• Focuses on which environmental factors control behaviour – specifically how
behaviour is acquired (or learned) through concepts of behaviour and
reinforcement.
• The organism learns by producing behaviour randomly – may or may not be
repeated depending on the outcome.
• When behaviour is repeated, or its frequency increases, the behaviour has been
learnt or reinforced.
• Reinforcers usually associated with the organism’s survival – explanation for
why behaviour reinforced by some consequences and not by others.
Classical/Respondent Conditioning
• Skinner refers to Pavlov’s classical conditioning method as respondent

conditioning – teaches the organism to associate a familiar response with a new
stimulus:
o Unconditioned stimulus [US)] - a stimulus that produces a response
naturally(e.g., food) à results in an unconditioned (natural) response
[UR] (e.g., salivation)
o Neutral stimulus [NS] – a stimulus that is not associated with the
unconditioned response (e.g., a bell) does not lead to salivation.
o NS (bell) + US (food) à salivation
o Bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (through its association with the
US) leading to a conditioned response (salivation) even in the absence
of food.
Operant Conditioning
• Skinner claims operant conditioning can bring about the learning of new
responses.
• Operant Conditioning:
o Behaviour is controlled by the environmental stimuli (outcomes) that
come after the behaviour.
o Leads to an increase/repeat in behaviour – repeated because
behaviour satisfies a need/experienced as positive or pleasant.
o Behaviour increases under certain conditions due to environmental
reinforcement and not due to intrapsychic drives or motivations
o Example, employees who are rewarded with an increase for working
hard, may work harder due to the reward.

1. Concepts of Reinforcers:
• Reinforcer: Any environmental condition/stimulus increases the probability

that behaviour will be repeated when that condition/stimulus succeeds the
behaviour.
• Primary reinforcer: Anything of biological value to the organism such as food
and water.
• Secondary reinforcer: Stimulus which has acquired reinforcement value
because of its association with primary reinforcers, such as money.
2. Concepts of Reinforcement:
• Reinforcement: Behaviour is established, so it will be repeated in the future, or

its frequency will increase. Reinforcement can occur as a result of positive or
negative reinforcement (both types of reinforcement result in increasing
behaviour).
• Positive reinforcement: Positive/pleasant stimulus administered/added after
behaviour has been performed and likelihood of behaviour being repeated in
future increases.
• Negative reinforcement: Negative/unpleasant stimulus removed/taken away
after behaviour has been performed and likelihood of behaviour being repeated
in future increases.
3. Concepts of Punishment:
• Punishment: Aimed at decreasing the likelihood of a behaviour occurring in the

future
• Two types of punishment:
o Administration of an negative/unpleasant stimulus after an undesirable
behaviour has been performed in order to decrease the behaviour.
§ E.g., child receives a hiding after jumping on sofa with muddy feet.
o Removal of a positive/pleasant stimulus after undesirable behaviour has
been performed in order to decrease the behaviour.
§ E.g., child is banned from screens after jumping on sofa with
muddy feet.
4. Concepts of extinction:
• Extinction: When a specific type of behaviour decreases and eventually

disappears because stimulation is withheld or followed by neither positive nor
negative stimuli (it is no longer reinforced).
• Extinction burst: A behaviour will initially increase in frequency (due to a lack
of reinforcement) before it finally disappears (if reinforcement remains
withheld).
5. Shaping:
• Dividing final desired behaviour into smaller steps, where each step
approximates the final behaviour.

• According to Skinner, this is the primary manner in which human being acquire
complex behaviours.
• Generally used by animal trainers where it is easy to control/manipulate
sequence with conditioning.
Schedules of reinforcement divided into two broad types that effect the conditioning of
behaviour.
1. Continuous/Regular Reinforcement:
• A reinforcer follows immediately after each desired response.

• Behaviour learnt rapidly but easier to extinguish.
• Possible in lab experiments, more difficult to reinforce in everyday life.
• How does this relate to one of the main criticisms of radical behaviourism?
2. Intermittent/Partial Reinforcement:
• Desired behaviour is not always reinforced, only every now and then.
• Behaviour learnt slower but more difficult to extinguish.
• Common feature of everyday life.
• Reinforcer may be administered according to interval schedule (timetable)
or ratio schedule (once desired behaviour has been performed a certain
number of times).
• Intermittent schedules of reinforcement (interval/ratio) can follow a fixed or
variable pattern.
Different schedules have different effects on conditioning and extinction of

behaviour, as well as different response patterns:
1. Fixed Interval Reinforcement:
• Reinforcer presented at regular intervals

• Behavioural response increases just prior to reinforcement and then
decreases immediately after reinforcement – slowest response rate.
• E.g., When behaviour is reinforced every 60 seconds or when employees paid at
end of week

2. Variable Interval Reinforcement:
• Reinforcer presented at irregular intervals regardless of behaviour.

• E.g., When behaviour is reinforced every 60, 70, 20 seconds; or child is given
treats random points throughout the day)
3. Fixed Ratio Reinforcement:
• Reinforcer is presented after a fixed number of correct or desired responses.

• E.g., An employee who is paid every time she completes ten items
4. Variable Ratio Reinforcement:
• Reinforcer is presented after an irregular number of desired responses.

• Most difficult behaviour to extinguish – organism cannot predict when
behaviour will be reinforced.
• Fastest response rate.
• E.g., A gambler who wins every now and then on average, every fifth time he or
she plays.
Elimination or weakening of behaviour

• Systematic desensitisation - eliminates reactions of fear by teaching the
individual to relax in the presence of the feared stimulus through reciprocal
inhibition
• Punishment and aversive counter-conditioning - ACC entails the arrangement of
a situation in which the client consistently experiences an aversive stimulus
whenever the response which they regard as undesirable occurs
• Removing or changing stimuli - when undesirable behaviour has been coupled
with specific discriminatory stimuli through conditioning, it can sometimes be
extinguished by removing the relevant stimuli
• Extinction - when behaviour is consistently not reinforced, it weakens and
eventually disappears completely
The Development of the Personality
• Skinner did not try to produce a developmental theory.

• Interested primarily in the effects of learning on the development of human
behaviour.
• Optimal development lies in learning to behave in a manner that one receives
primary and secondary reinforcers and avoids aversive reinforcers
(punishment).
• Individual does not have ability to contribute to own optimal development due
to environmental determinism.
• Contrarily Skinner argues individuals can make decisions to improve their
own and other people’s environments in ways that encourage optimal
development.

• Psychopathology is not a mental disturbance that should be explained as a

result of internal conflicts.
• Psychopathology is undesirable behaviour that is governed by the usual
learning principles.
• Difference between healthy and maladapted behaviour is that the latter have
learnt fewer effective behaviours that lave lead to positive/aversive
reinforcements in their environment.
Evaluation of the Theory
• Skinner’s theory is arguably one of the best known and controversial

psychological theories.
• Strong empirical support for his theory.
• Animal research rejected as an invalid basis for the study of human behaviour –
despite generally positive results when generalised to human subjects.
• It is a good theory of learning, but not as good a theory of the personality.
• Plagued by a fundamental contradiction:
o Skinner argues that humans have no freedom or dignity over their
behaviour – that it is wholly influenced by the environment.
o Skinner at the same time suggests that humans should use technology to
develop society and thereby alter their environment to reinforce
positive behaviours.
Social cognitive learning theory
Background
• Social cognitive learning theory, like behaviourist theory, says behaviour is

learned.
• Like behaviourists, cognitive learning theorists, focus on observable behaviour.
• The difference: whereas radical behaviourism rejects mentalistic reasoning,
cognitive learning theory is happy to refer to things like expectation and
thoughts.
• Social cognitive learning theory uses for instance concepts from cognitive
psychology (the branch of psychology that studies things like thinking, memory,
attention).
• And whereas behaviourist theory regard reinforcement as the key to learning,
social cognitive learning theory see observational learning as the most
important method of learning
• Whilst psychoanalytic theory was Freud’s baby, cognitive learning theory has
many fathers, and the chapter covers Albert Bandura, Walter Mischel and Julian
Rotter who regarded as having contributed the most to the theory.
• Albert Bandura
o most well-known of the social learning/social cognitive learning theorist

o reciprocal determinism
o Social cognitive learning theory - an individual's behaviour is the
outcome of a process of interaction between the person, the
environment and the behaviour itself
• Walter Mischel
o role of expectations
o self-control
o marshmallow test
o interactional approach - the assumption that behaviour is the result of
interplay between person and situation
o Not on measurable attributes as that varies from context to context
o Not a narrow focus on either person or context, but interaction of both
o Heavily criticised the personistic view (the assumption that behaviour is
determined by the personality attributes of the individual)
o Emphasis on role of expectations and self-control in human behaviour
o Cognitive-social person variables:
§ Encoding strategies - People have different ways of coding a
context. People develop characteristic ways of encoding
§ Expectancy - person's expectations regarding the outcomes of
their behaviour
§ Subjective values - two people can see the outcome having
different specific values to them
§ Self-regulation - includes plans, goals and thought patterns
§ Competencies - ability to deal with the environment
• Julian Rotter
o known for the concept of internal and external locus of control

o Behaviour is mainly learnt
o Salience given to expectations and values attached to outcome of
specific behaviour
o Behaviour acquired mainly in social situations and through the mediation
of other individuals
o Internal locus of control - people believe that they can exercise
considerable control over what happens to them
o External locus of control - people who believe that circumstances
beyond their control determine their fate
o Prediction formula BP = f (E, RV)
o Behaviour potential (BP) is a function of expectancy (E) and
reinforcement value (RV)
The view of the person
• Behaviour is the outcome of knowable, multiple causes (environmental and

within individual)
• Individual and situation con-determine behaviour
• Human can self-regulate in interaction with situation

• Interactional view is central to social cognitive learning theory – also called

reciprocal determinism.
• Behaviour is determined by interaction between individual, situation and
behaviour
• Human are not passive responders to environmental stimuli but rather active
participants who evaluate stimuli, plan, judge, and change their behaviour
• Theory of specificity: Behavior is determined but the interaction between the
characteristics of the individuals and those of a specific situation
• G=f(PXSXB) (Reciprocal determinism)
• Response repertoire
• Human life is more than simply about drive satisfaction
• What about biological needs in these theories?
• What role do biological characteristics in behaviour?
The structure of personality
• Cognitive learning theory puts emphasis on functioning and dynamics

• It does not regard personality as having fixed structure or parts
• Basic position: behaviour is the result of interaction between situational
variables and person variables like judgement and control
• The person variables are, in turn, the outcomes of interaction between the
person and environment
The dynamics of personality:
Motivation
• Motivation is not the result of drives but outcome of the interaction between and
learning
• Basic idea: individuals motivated by interaction between person and situation
• For example, Bandura rejects explanations of behavior by reference to things
like needs or the unconscious because such explanations are not logical and
not based on empirically grounded
• According to him, behavior is too complex to be explained with reference to a
few underlying drives; but environmentally deterministic explanations are also
inadequate
• He says complex behavior can only be explained by taking into account the
interaction between the environment and cognitive processes such as
interpretation of stimuli and expectations of future events
• Behaviour is motivated by its probable results or expectations of results of
behaviour
• People's expectations concerning the results of their behavior a sheep mainly by
two types of learning:
o 1. the experiences with the cut the results of their own behavior
o 2. the observations of the results of the behavior of others
o In addition to expectations concerning external results as a motivation,
behavior is also motivated by individual’s self-evaluation

Person variables
• While cognitive learning theorist agree about the basics of human functioning,
they use difference terms.
• Rotter:
o People's behavior is the result of joint influence of subjective preferences
about the possible rewards and expectations, expressed as BP = f(E,RV),
where BP his behavior potential, which is function of expectancy (E) a
reinforcement value (RV).
o The person variables (expectancies and reinforcement value) change
relative to the situation as perceived by the individual
o Individuals eventually develop setting generalized expectancies about
the results of their behavior and there are numerous individual
differences in this respect
o The most well-known expectancy style identified by rotor is what is
known as the locus of control, namely the extent to which people
perceive an internal or external point of control in their lives
o Some people generally believe they themselves control their lives
(internal locus of control); others generally believe that extraneous
influences beyond their control their fate (external locus of control)
o Locus of control is not an either-or proposition
• Bandura
o Individuals possess various capabilities that underlie the function:
o Symbolizing capability
§ Fundamental to all other capabilities and enables people to
communicate with one another
§ Enables human beings to conserve and manipulate experiences in
the form of cognitions
§ Makes it possible to reflect on experiences and use them in
planning future actions
o Forethought capability
§ Implies that people do not simply react only to the immediate
situation or tied to their pasts
§ They can devise plans and goals for the future
o Vicarious capability
§ The individual's ability to learn from the experience of others
§ This capability enables the individual to learn via observation of
others complex and dangerous behavior that could never be
acquired through direct experience
o Self-regulatory capability
§ People's ability to live by their own standards and thus be
independent of others control
o Self-reflective capability
§ Ability to have a self-image perfect on oneself and involved
oneself
§ Key to this is people self-efficacy perception to which Bandura
devoted considerable research
• Mischel
o Described a long list of personal variables which he calls cognitive-social
person variables

o The first-person variable he described is encoding strategies; differences

in the way people encode or symbolize
o People develop characteristics ways of encoding; e.g., they give selective
attention to certain things and ignore certain other things or group them
together
o Encoding strategies have an influence on individuals’ entire personalities
because they shape what individuals learn and how they will see and
evaluate themselves
o Mischel’s encoding strategies correspond to Bandura self-efficacy
perception
o A second person variable Mischel described is expectancy; this
corresponds to Rotter’s expectancy ; viz., the person’s expectations
regarding the outcome of his or her behavior
o He said the differences between people may be ascribed largely to their
expectancies
o A third variable is subjective values: the value individuals allocate to a
reward
o Another person variable is self-regulating systems and plans; or various
functions such as the standards person set for themselves or the way
they react to success or failure
o Finally, individuals differ according to their competencies meaning their
ability to deal with the environment
Learning
• All behaviour except reflexes are learned

• Persons are active participants in their learning – can influence their own
learning; in contrast to behaviorist view of persons as passive learners
• Learning through three routes:
o Direct experience
o Observation
o Self-regulation
• Reinforcement:
o Direct reinforcement
o Vicarious reinforcement
o Self-reinforcement
o In this form of learning, behaviour changes as a result of performing a
behaviour which is rewarded or punished by someone else
o Direct experience learning is defined differently from Skinner – cognitive
processes are seen to play a role even here
o The individual does not only react to stimuli but interprets it and makes
hypotheses
o Operant and respondent conditioning also linked to self-reinforcement
• Observational learning
o Learning by observing other people’s behavior is the most important form
of learning
o Many behaviors are complex, dangerous or far removed from the
individual’s innate reflexes that it is unlikely that they could be learned
without the mediation of others
o Terms related to observational learning:

§ Social learning: all learning phenomena where social cognitive

factor play a role
§ Model: the figure whose behavior is observed
§ Modeling: the behavior of the model
§ Observer: the person who observes someone else's behavior
§ Reinforcement agent: the person who rewards or punishes the
model's behavior
§ Imitation: the behavior of the observer
§ Counter-imitation: refers to cases where the observer do the
opposite of what they have observed in the model, which may
arise from negative attitude toward the model
o Observational learning is influenced by many factors three of which are:
§ Attention: The observer must pay attention to the behavior of the
model for learning to take place
§ Retention: the first to the extent to which the observer will
remember the behavior and depends on the observer's attention
o Factors influencing observational learning
§ the nature of the model behaviour
§ the characteristics of the model
§ the characteristics of the observer
§ the results of the model’s behaviour
§ self-efficacy
• Learning through self-regulation
o Self-regulation fest to the individual sub ability to regulate their own
behavior, particularly their learning processes
o It includes self-reinforcement and self-punishment
o 2 basic types of self-regulations are distinguished: internal and external
self-regulation
o internal self-regulation: people subjective evaluation of their own
behaviour, for instance when you say to yourself, ‘good job!’
o external self-regulation: an example is treating yourself by buying
yourself a new pair of sneakers for doing well on a task.
o Self-regulation is regarded is the most important form of learning
because it is fundamental to other types of learning
The development of personality
• Cognitive learning theorists maintain that the individual develops throughout

the entire lifespan and continuously learns new and modified behaviors
• Cognitive learning theories do not distinguish any developmental stages
• Development is simply an ongoing process of change resulting from the
interaction between genetic and environmental factors
Optimal learning
• Social cognitive learning theorists have not theorized about optimal

development

• As stated by Rotter, social cognitive theory is a ‘theory about learned behaviour

- not good behaviour or bad behaviour adjusted behaviour or maladjusted
behaviour
• The characteristics of the optimally developed person cannot be spelt out in
advance and absolute terms because depend on a specific situation
Views on psychopathology
• Psychopathological behaviour is learned behaviour

• Observational learning with regards for the presence and influence of models
play a role in pathology
• These theorists do not look for underlying causes of psychopathology and
ignore organically based disturbances
• With regards to undesirable behaviour, Bandura thinks that a lack of self-
efficacy is important in the development of undesirable behaviour
• Others see cognitive styles often coding strategies has linked with the
development of pathological behavior patterns for example Leonard
helplessness
Implications and applications
• Social cognitive learning theory is well equipped for practical application in a

variety of fields, such as teaching and education, psychotherapy, and
measurement and research
• Teaching and education
o Teachers play an important role as reinforcement agents are also as role
models
o Teachers as an example may have a profound impact on children purely
by virtue of the fact that children observe their behaviour
• Psychotherapy
o is the basic purpose of social cognitive learning therapy just to improve
clients functioning in the type of situation that they find problematic
o therapeutic techniques associated with social cognitive learning I usually
brief and the economical
o modeling is one form of Is one form of therapy in which a model
demonstrates the desired behavior of the client
o in covert modeling the client is encouraged to simply mention another
person performing the desired behavior
o Stress inoculation refers to where clients are taught various ways of
dealing with stress
o Social cognitive learning theorists develop a method whereby individuals
can become their own therapists – using the principle of self-regulation
o Another example of social cognitive learning therapy is the cognitive
therapy developed by beck for treating depression which rests on the
notion that depression is caused by negative thinking and assumptions
• Measurement and research

o Social cognitive learning views the far-reaching implications for the

measurement of personality characteristics and for research into any
aspect of human behavior
• Social cognitive learning theorists maintain that the results of a test are an
outcome of the interaction between the test-takers characteristics and the test
situation as they experience it
• Therefore, a test score cannot be used uncritically to predict behaviour in all
situations
• Interesting developments that followed from our social cognitive learning
theories think about measurement and research, including rejection of
psychological tests and using by graphical data, developing a type of test called
the situation test, and the use of trained observers who record the behaviour of
subjects in selected situations
The interpretation and handling of aggression
• Aggression is seen this behavior that develops from inborn and learned behavior
patterns in a lifelong process in which different kinds of learning play a part
• Potentially aggressive models of behavior part of the behavioral repertoire of
each individual
• Aggression will be repeated when it leads to rewarding consequences
• Aggressive responses can be learned particularly through observing aggressive
models
• Likelihood that aggression will be performed depends on a number of factors
and interactions, including expectancies, self-efficacy perceptions, one’s
interpretation of the situation, self-regulating strategies, and values
• Aggressive behavior can be provoked by unpleasant stimuli such as frustration
or can be due to expectation of rewarding outcomes
• Persistence in aggressive behavior is regulated by its results
Evaluation of the theory
• Social cognitive learning theory probably has more supporters among modern
academic psychology than any other theory of personality
• Its success lies in integrating the great traditions in academic psychology
• The volume of research produced by social cognitive learning theorists to this
point and the general positive results of this research are impressive and
promising
• It is contended that the nature of the basic assumption and conceptual
structure of this theory developed thus far can make competing personality
theories superfluous

WEEK FOUR
CHAPTER 5 & 6
Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology
Background
• Born: February 7, 1870, near Vienna

o Third child of seven
o Apparent physical comfort, but miserable in childhood
o Known for his efforts at outdoing his older brother
• Received a medical degree in 1895
• Married in 1897
o Eventually had four children
o Only son became a psychiatrist and continued Adler’s work
• Influenced by Marx’s philosophy
• Joined Freud’s discussion group in 1902
o Adler’s views were initially compatible with Freud’s
• Adler’s views changed and he began to criticize Freud’s theories
• In 1911, Adler and nine others broke away from Freud and formed “The Society
for Individual Psychology”
• Involvement in WWI helped develop the concept of social interest
• Died: May 28, 1937
Individual Psychology
• a single “drive” or motivating force lies behind all our behavior and experience:
• the striving for perfection
• Striving for perfection: the desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come
closer and closer to our ideal.
• Striving for perfection: similar to the idea of self-Actualization
• Striving for perfection was not the first phrase Adler used to refer to his single
motivating force.
• His earliest phrase was the aggression drive - the reaction we have when other
drives (e.g., the need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved)
are frustrated
• The aggression drive: might be better called the assertiveness drive
• Another word Adler used to refer to basic motivation was compensation or
striving to overcome.
• We all have problems, short-comings, inferiorities of one sort or another.
• NB: For Adler our personalities could be accounted for by the ways in which we
do - or do not - compensate or overcome those problems.
• Later, however, Adler rejected compensation as label for the basic motive,
because it makes it sound as if people’s problems cause them to be what they
are.
• Masculine Protest:
o One of Adler's earliest phrases was masculine protest.

o In many cultures boys are often held in higher esteem than girls are

o In fact, males often have the power, the education and motivation
needed to do “great things,” and women do not.
o NB. For Adler, men’s assertiveness, and success in the world: not due to
some innate superiority
o Rather, boys are encouraged to be assertive, and girls are discouraged
o Both boys and girls begin life with the capacity for “protest!”
o People want, often desperately, to be thought of as strong, aggressive, in
control (“masculine”) and not weak, passive , or dependent (“feminine”).
= masculine protest.
• Another Adlerian personality concept: striving for superiority
• Although striving for superiority does refer to the desire to be better, it also
contains the idea that people want to be better than others, rather than better in
their own right
• Adler later tended to use striving for superiority more in reference to unhealthy
or neurotic striving
• Adler: we should see people as wholes rather than parts: “individual
psychology.”
• Adler did not want to talk about a person’s personality in the traditional sense of
internal traits, structures, dynamics, and conflicts
• Instead, Adler preferred to talk about
style of life – “lifestyle”
• Lifestyle: how people live life, how they handle problems and interpersonal
relations.
Human Motivation
• Motivation is about moving towards the future, rather than being driven,
mechanistically, by the past
• Humans are drawn towards goals, purposes, and ideals: teleology.
• Ultimate truth will always be beyond us, but for practical purposes we create
partial truths
• Adler called these partial truths fictions
• We use these fictions in day-to-day living.
• We behave as if we know the world will be here tomorrow, as if we are sure what
good and bad are all about, as if everything we see is as we see it, and so on:
fictional finalism
Social Interest
• Second in importance only to striving for perfection is the idea of social interest
• Adler felt that social concern was not simply inborn, nor just learned, but a
combination of both.
• Social interest is based on an innate disposition, but it has to be nurtured to
survive.
• Babies and small children often show sympathy for others without having been
taught to do so.
• One misunderstanding Adler wanted to avoid was the idea that social interest
was somehow another version of extraversion

• Adler meant social interest in the broad sense of caring for family, for
community, for society, for humanity, and even for life.
• Social interest is a matter of being useful to others
• “Social failures” are failures because they are lacking in social interest -
including neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children,
suicides, and perverts.
• Their goals involves personal superiority, and their triumphs have meaning only
to themselves.
• Social failures end up unfulfilled, imperfect, and far from self-actualized -
because they lack social interest and are too self-interested
Inferiority and Compensation
• What makes so many of us self-interested?

• Adler: it’s a matter of being overwhelmed by our feelings of inferiority
• Everyone suffers from psychological inferiority in one form or another.
• Many people respond to these psychological inferiorities with compensation
• People respond to psychological inferiorities with compensation.
• Some compensate by becoming good at what they feel inferior about.
• More compensate by becoming good at something else, but otherwise retaining
their sense of inferiority.
• And some just never develop any self-esteem at all.
• If people are overwhelmed by the forces of inferiority - whether it is their body
hurting, the people around them holding them in contempt, or just the general
difficulties of growing up - they develop an inferiority complex
• An inferiority complex is not just a minor problem - it is a neurosis, a
psychological problem.
Inferiority, Compensation, Superiority
• People can respond to inferiority by developing a superiority complex.

• A superiority complex involves covering up one’s inferiority by pretending to be
superior.
• Bullies, braggarts, and petty dictators everywhere are the prime example.
• Even more subtle: hiding feelings of worthlessness in the delusions of power
afforded by alcohol and drugs.
• Inferiority, Compensation, Superiority à Neurosis
o Adler: all neurosis is a matter of insufficient social interest

o Three types can be distinguished:
§ The ruling type
§ The getting type
§ The avoiding type

Neurosis: The Ruling Type
• From childhood on, they are characterized by a tendency to be aggressive and

dominant over others.
• The strength of their striving after personal power is so great that they tend to
push over anything or anybody who gets in their way.
• The most energetic of them are bullies and sadists; somewhat less energetic
ones hurt others by hurting themselves, and include alcoholics, drug addicts,
and suicides.
Neurosis: The Getting Type
• They are relatively passive – make little effort to solve their own problems
• Instead, they rely on others to take care of them
• Frequently use charm to persuade others to help them
Neurosis: The Avoiding Type
• These have the lowest levels of energy and only survive by essentially avoiding
life - especially other people.
• When pushed to the limits, they tend to become psychotic, retreating finally into
their own personal worlds.
Childhood
• Adler, like Freud, saw personality or lifestyle as something established quite

early in life.
• Adler felt that there were three basic childhood situations that most contribute
to a faulty lifestyle.
• 1st: childhood feelings of inferiority.
o If someone does not come along to draw their attention to others, these
children will remain focused on themselves.
o Most will go through life with a strong sense of inferiority; a few will
overcompensate with a superiority complex.
o Only with the encouragement of loved ones will some of these truly
compensate.
• 2nd: Pampering also contributes to a faulty lifestyle.
o Many children are taught, by the actions of others, that they can take
without giving.
o Their wishes are everyone else’s commands.
• Childhood Pampering
o The pampered child fails in two ways:

o First, they do not learn to do for themselves, and discover later that they
are truly inferior.
o And secondly, they do not learn any other way to deal with others than
the giving of commands
o And society responds to pampered people in only one way: hatred.
• 3rd: Neglect
o A child who is neglected or abused learns what the pampered child

learns, but learns it in a far more direct manner:
o They learn inferiority because they are told and shown every day that they
are of no value
o They learn selfishness because they are taught to trust no one.
o A neglectful childhood contributes to a faulty lifestyle:
§ If the neglected child has not known love, s/he often do not
develop a capacity for it later
§ The neglected child includes not only orphans and the victims of
abuse, but the children whose parents are never there, and the
ones raised in a rigid, authoritarian manner.
Birth Order
• Adler must be credited as the first theorist to include the child’s brothers and
sisters as an early influence on the child.
• Adler considered birth-order another one of those heuristic ideas - useful
fictions - that contribute to understanding people but must not be taken too
seriously.
• Only Child
o The only child is more likely than others to be pampered.
o Parents of the only child are more likely to take special care - sometimes
anxiety-filled care - of their first born.
o If the parents are abusive, on the other hand, the only child will have to
bear that abuse alone.
• First Born
o The first child begins life as an only child, with all the family attention to
themselves.
o However, the second child arrives and “dethrones” the first born.
o First born children often battle for their lost position.
o Some become disobedient and rebellious (“rebels”), others sullen and
withdrawn
o More positively, first children are often precocious
o They tend to be relatively solitary and more conservative than the other
children in the family.
• Second Born
o The second child: they tend to become quite competitive, constantly
trying to surpass the older child.
o They often succeed, but many feel as if the race is never done, and they
tend to dream of constant running without getting anywhere.

o Other “middle” children will tend to be similar to the second child,

although each may focus on a different “competitor.”
• Youngest child
o likely to be the most pampered in a family with other children.
o They are never dethroned!
o Youngest children are the 2nd most likely source of problem children
(just behind 1st).
o Youngest may also feel inferiority, with everyone older and “therefore”
superior.
o But the youngest can also be driven to exceed all of their older siblings.
Personality Assessment
• In order to help people to discover the “fictions” their lifestyle is based upon;
Adler would look at a great variety of things:
o birth-order position
o earliest childhood memory
o any childhood problems you may have had
o dreams and daydreams
o Adler would also pay attention to how people express themselves
CREATIVE STYLE OF FICTIONAL

FAMILY LIFE
SELF LIFE FINALISMS
Birth Order 4 Major Types Healthy – Social Interest

Family Constellation Ruling Neurotic – Overcompensation
Family Atmosphere Getting Inferiority/Superiority Complex
Avoiding
Socially Useful

Socially-oriented psychoanalytic theories
Introduction
• Socially-oriented psychoanalysis
• Pays attention to the social dimension of human existence: social and cultural
factors
• Consciousness is manifested in the concept of a self
• Individuals can strengthen the self – and not be swamped by society’s demands
for conformity
• Regarded more as philosophical theories than personality theories
Karen Horney
• Karen Horney (1885-1852)
• She initially followed the Freudian beliefs of psychoanalysis and biological
determinism
• “… her move to America made her realise that the biological determinism and
emphasis on sexuality of Freudian thinking was not appropriate to American
people of the depression years” (p. 155)
• Human behaviour shaped by culture; the interaction between person and
environment creates the conflicts from which problems arise
• Nuclear family as well as broader culture
• From intrapsychic to an interpersonal, even psychosocial foundation for
psychology – diverges from her earlier Freudian roots
• An optimistic view of humanity: personality tends towards development,
growth, realising of potentials and individuals are able to consciously change
and shape their personalities
• Neurotic people need to be liberated from that which block their growth
potential
Horney: Structure of Personality

• Horney does not elaborate in any detail on the structure or development of the
personality as she only focuses on structural elements that have a role in the
dynamics of personality
• Horney distinguishes between:
o The Idealised Self: The product of a feeling of inferiority; common in
societies that place high value on prestige and competition
o The Actual Self: How we consciously act in daily life; we often reject this
self because it does not meet the demands of the ideal self
o The Real Self: Emerges when the person has relinquished all the
techniques developed for dealing with anxiety and resolving conflict
Horney: Dynamics of Personality

• Growth principle:
o Replaces Freud’s id

o All energy is naturally channelled in such a way as to ensure that the

individual will develop her or his unique potential, unless it becomes
blocked by some ‘anti-natural’ influence… e.g., family, society
• Two crucial needs:
o Need for security – need to free from anxiety or threat
o Need for satisfaction – basic physiological needs
• Factors promoting /inhibiting growth:
o Parents act with real love and warmth à promotes growth
o Contrast: parental irresponsibility and ‘neuroticising cultural influences’
à inhibits growth
• Inhibited growth leads to:
o Basic hostility – the result of children’s conflicting experiences in
interaction with the environment
o Basic anxiety – a pervasive feeling of helplessness when a child is unable
to cope with the environment
o Both the above are repressed and unconscious; they manifest as
neurotic needs.
• Interpersonal styles – when needs become linked with a particular way of
relating to other
o People develop these styles as a means of coping with basic hostility and
anxiety
o Interpersonal reactions are irreconcilable and preclude one another
o Interpersonal styles underlie three basic personality types:
§ Movement towards others - (submissive) people acknowledge
their own helplessness and seek affection and support from
others
§ Movement against others - (aggressive) do not accept their
separateness and take it as axiomatic that hostility must be met
with hostility. People in this category have an expansionist
interpersonal style which is either narcissistic, perfectionist or
arrogant
§ Movement away from others - (detached) avoid being dependant
on others, but have no wish to be hostile towards them
Erich Fromm
• Erich Fromm (1900-1980)
• Humanistic psychoanalysis: a synthesis of the thought of Freud and (early)
Marx, revolves around the relationship between individual and society
• The struggle for freedom against society’s pressure to conform: Alienation
• Human being is dualistic: has animal as well as human nature
• Physiological needs: sex, hunger, thirst
• But people can transcend their purely instinctive animal nature by self-
consciousness, reason and conscience
• People have to confront the existential and historical dichotomies inherent in
human existence
• Existential dichotomies: insoluble conflict inherent in human existence (e.g.,
mortality)

• Historical dichotomies: conflicts that can be overcome (e.g., poverty, racism,

inequality)
Fromm: Structure of Personality

• The importance of self-consciousness; we are conscious of our
consciousness…
• Fromm regarded the human as ‘creation’s joke’ because it is self-
consciousness that makes people aware of their existential and historical
dichotomies
• Two fundamentally human processes: reason and conscience
o Reason: allows people to transcend animal nature and deal with the
dichotomies of their existence
o Conscience: the regulating agent of the personality; evaluates own
behaviour according to norms and values
• Fromm distinguishes two kinds of conscience:
o Authoritarian: voice of internalised external authority
o Humanistic: own inner voice
• Temperament – behavioural response that are constitutionally determined and
cannot be changed
• Character – behavioural component of the personality that is shaped by
personal experience and socialisation and can be changed
Fromm: Dynamics of Personality

• Human needs:
o Relatedness
§ Humans have a need to belong and a need for unity
§ Sadistic relationship - destructive unity through dominating other
people
§ Masochistic relationship - destructive unity through submitting to
other people
§ Unity is accomplished constructively through love
o Transcendence
§ Need to transcend natural, Instinctual existence by creating or
destroying
§ Benign aggression - phylogenetically programmed impulse geared
at self-protection
§ Malignant aggression - where aggression becomes an end in itself
o Rootedness
§ Need to be protected and to form part of a historical past
o Personal identity
§ Need to know themselves and determine their place in society as
free, unfettered individuals
o Frame of reference
§ Need for people to orientate themselves within the world and give
meaning to their lives within a specific frame of reference
§ Primitive systems - natural objects and the influence of the
ancestors give meaning to people's lives

§ Nontheistic systems - no specific concept of deity, but which do

involve a general philosophy of life
§ Monotheistic systems - involve a specific concept of God around
which people can orientate themselves and direct their lives
WEEK FIVE
CHAPTER 11 & 12
Introduction to Person-Oriented Approaches
Introduction
• Reject psychoanalytic view of the human being as a creature at the mercy of
internal and external forces
• Reject behaviourism’s reductionism: the person as no more than an animal
• Reject pessimistic view of the human being
• The person-oriented theorists endorse the following pricinples:
o The individual as a dignified human being: will, creativity, values,
humour, autonomy, growth, actualization, complex emotions
o The conscious processes of the individual
o The person as an active being (freedom…)
o Emphasis on psychological health
o The individual as an integrated whole
Humanistic psychology: A ‘third force’ in psychology

• Maslow: leader of a group of American psychologists who established
humanistic psychology
• Rogers: also, a representative of humanistic psychology
o Realizing potentials that reside in the self, not an impulse to something
higher than the self
• Frankl: existentialist approach – focuses also on a higher, spiritual dimension;
transcendence.
• Basic model in humanistic psychology:
o The responsible person who chooses freely between available
possibilities
o This is also a person who is in the process of ‘becoming’; not fully formed
Humanism
• Highlights the intergratedness of human beings
• Acknowledges the subjective experiential world of the individual
• Endeavors to restore dignity to the image of the human being
• Focuses on conscious processes and on the individual as an active participant
in the determination of behaviour
Historical background
Existentialism
• The human is a being who is becoming, not merely a conglomeration of static
contents, mechanisms or patterns

• We can be more than we are; we can transcend our genetic and environmental
limitations
o The experiencing person in a process of emerging
o The subjective world perceived by the experiencing human being
o Self-reflection and self-transcendence – goals and ideals
o Rising above circumstances
o Freedom of choice; architecture of own existence
o Authentic vs inauthentic life
Phenomenology
• Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) rejected the idea that perception is the result of
stimuli impinging from the outside
• People ‘reach out’ to their world and attach personal meanings to the things
they experience
• Intentionality of consciousness
• Psychology elaborated from the vantage point of subjective experience
• Holism
o Jan Smuts (South African statesman and philosopher
o Holism and Evolution (1926)
o Attempt to bridge the gaps between the physical, biological and
psychological
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Background of Abraham Maslow

• Born in Brooklyn, New York from poor Russian Jewish parents who emigrated to
the U.S.
• Isolated boy who immersed himself in books; received warmth, caring and love
from Cousin Bertha Goodman who he married at 20; a turning point in his life
• Enrolled at City College for law, but changed after two weeks and went to study
psychology at Uni of Wisconsin
• Studied PhD under radical behaviourist Harry Harlow – sexual and dominance
characteristics of baboons
• Birth of his first child diminished his attraction to behaviorism
• Maslow founded the 'third force' of psychology the humanistic movement -
originated in America in 1955
• Maslow was initially a behaviourist, but Pearl Harbour left a deep impression on
him and encouraged him to rethink his views on human nature
• Maslow emphasises the actualisation of human potential and possibility of
humans to influence their own behaviour by choice
• Focuses on understanding why some people are exceptional (self-actualisers)
rather than pathology
• Healthy functioning forms the basis of his theory
• People needed good societies to realise their growth potential

• Maslow's view of the person is essentially optimistic as it acknowledges the
positive aspects of human nature

• Acknowledges person's dignity, their active will to develop, and their functioning
as an integrated whole
• Tendency towards self-actualization is the motive that underlies all behaviour;
an individual's ultimate goal is to achieve their full potential
• Lies within every individual and requires no change in a person's basic nature
• Behaviour can be explained in terms of need gratification:
o Humans are yearning beings who are seldom satisfied
o Need gratification is the basis for growth and self-actualisation
o Basic human needs are arranged in a hierarchy
o Person depends strongly on the environment for need gratification
The Structure of the Personality

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
o Completed from bottom to the top
o See https://goo.gl/images/IXfIr for the pyramid visualised

• Needs are arranged hierarchically as development progresses through
successive stages of need gratification towards the goal of self-actualisation
• The lower the need is on the hierarchy, the more urgent it is
• Lower needs generally need to be regularly gratified first, before needs at a
higher level begin to present themselves
• Needs not always gratified in strict accordance with the hierarchy.
• Higher needs may sometimes motivate behaviour when lower needs have not
been gratified yet
• Deficiency motives - the first four levels are related to basic needs for survival.
Gratification brings about a decrease in tension, objective of meeting these
needs merely to evade unpleasant circumstances and to survive
• Growth motives -self-actualization needs
1. Physiological Needs:
• Have to do with survival e.g. hunger, thirst, need for oxygen, sleep, activity, sex
and sensory stimulation
• These are the most basic needs and need regular gratification otherwise they
dominate all other needs
• Usually homeostatic, gratification restores equilibrium in the body
• A hungry person because of lack of food is normally not interested in meta-
needs; utopia is place with plenty of food
2. Safety Needs:
• Manifest themselves once physiological needs are regularly gratified.
• Achieving security, stability, protection, structure
• Safety needs especially dominant in young children (dependent on adults for
survival) hence children feel safe in environments with some kind of structure,
with set limits and boundaries
• After and illness, divorce, or death in the family a child may experience the
world as unsafe and show insecurities

• But adults too prefer measure of order and predictability

• Religion is one source that provides people with a sense of safety
• Measured rather than unbounded freedom seems to be ideal for gratifying the
needs for safety
• Unfulfilled security needs could lead to obsessive-compulsive neurosis - world
arranged in a precise manner to reduce possibility of insecurity
• In a crisis people who are functioning at this tier will identify more easily with a
‘big man’ leader type because they are seeking some kind of protective figure
3. Need for Affiliation and Love:

• Become more apparent once physiological and safety needs are regularly
gratified
• Become aware of the need to belong somewhere, to belong with someone, to
receive and give love
• Rebel youth groups and gangs may be formed as a result of the need to belong
• Psychologists record unfulfilled needs for love is the root of psychopathology
• Important to feel a sense of identification with a home or a neighbourhood
• Always a reason behind the formation of groups
• Unfulfilled needs for love are often the cause of mental disturbance
• The textbook says in South Africa it is difficult to satisfy their affiliation needs
because families have been separated because of migrant labor and live-in
domestic servants
4. Need for Self-esteem:

• Self-esteem is the need to evaluate oneself positively
• Personal achievements: related to a sense of efficiency, capability,
achievement, confidence, personal strength, and independence
• The esteem of others: includes social standing, honour, importance, dignity,
appreciation and the need to be recognised by others as competent
• If satisfied: Feel confident, competent, useful, and needed
• If unsatisfied: Feel inferior, weak, helpless
• Deserved respect from others is the healthiest basis for self-esteem - must be
based on one's actual worth and not on external factors
5. Need for Self-actualisation:

• Once deficiency motives are regularly satisfied than the growth motives appear.
• Self-actualisation is an umbrella concept which includes 17 growth motivations
known as meta-needs or B-values
• These meta-needs are also innate and need to be fulfilled for maximum growth
• Need to know and understand, need for truth, justice, and meaningfulness,
need for beauty and perfection, need for wholeness, aliveness, autonomy etc
• Self-actualization is the process of achieving one's maximum potential as a
human being
• Achieving a state of self-actualization will differ from person to person
• A person not doing what they are capable of becomes restless
• It is here that the major differences between individuals manifests.


• Development generally proceeds in accordance with the needs hierarchy
• The higher in the hierarchy the level of motivation, the higher the individual's
development and the healthier their functioning
• Highest level of development is someone functioning on level of self-
actualisation
• There are no specific stages of development, the gratification of each set of
needs is one step closer to self-actualisation
• Gratification of each basic need does not automatically ensure self-
actualisation
• Levels of development could be depicted as a ladder as individuals can ascend
or descend (for example after death, divorce or rape)
• Someone who has already functioned on a higher level can make a temporary
return to a lower level
• Person's behaviour not necessarily motivated by needs on only one level
• The are many paths towards healthy development (some people reach for
higher values despite having basic needs unmet)
• Acknowledges there may be other paths to healthy development, apart from
needs hierarchy
• Why self-actualisation is not always attained:
o Lack of self-knowledge and self-insight - being unaware of own needs
and relying on others for direction in life
o Obstructions/obstacles - that prevent the gratification of important basic
needs - retarding influence of ungratified safety needs
o Jonah complex - running away from one's talents and responsibility due
to feeling inferior. Results in the individual not showing true capabilities
o Being afraid of overestimating our abilities - suspect we have a
superiority complex. Integration of humility and pride
o Lack of integration of seemingly opposing needs within individual - leads
to unfulfilled potential (e.g. being 'manly' and being able to show
sympathy, tenderness etc.)
Optimal Development
• Ideal functioning characterised by the achievement of self-actualisation which
this requires that all four lower-level needs are regularly gratified
• Overcome the environment and can regularly meet the deficiency needs
• Acceptance of responsibility of self-actualisation and being the best one can be
15 characteristics that describe self-actualisers based on Maslow' study of 49
well known people, considered to be self-actualisers
1. Accurate observation of reality

• Ability to see reality for what it is and can observe humanity, culture, science
and politics with accuracy
• Their views are not affected by stereotypes, own desires or anxieties
• Do not fear reality or unknown. Prepared to take risks in the search for truth and
are not handicapped by safety needs

2. Self-acceptance, accepting others and human nature

• Recognise human nature for what it is rather than what they would prefer for it
to be. Accept themselves and human nature unconditionally
• On a biological level, they enjoy their food, sleep well and enjoy sex
• Accept natural bodily processes, as well as illness and death more readily
3. Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness

• Are not superficial or pretentious in their behaviour
• Reveal their thoughts in an often unconventional and spontaneous way
• They do not let rules and regulations stop them from achieving their goals
• Ethical code might contradict that of community
4. Task involvement
• Involved in a career or task that is not aimed primarily at self-satisfaction but
rather for a greater good
• They are not egocentric, rather immersed in philosophical and ethical
• matters that concern humankind and avoid petty matters
5. Exclusiveness: The need for privacy

• Enjoy isolation and privacy
• Less dependent on the support, warmth and reassurance of others
• Handle uncomfortable situations calmly, objectively and with dignity - can make
them seem cold/stand-offish or even antagonistic
6. Autonomy: Being independent of culture and environment

• Function independently of physical and social environment
• Development and continued growth does not depend on external rewards such
as popularity or prestige
7. Consistent renewal of appreciation

• Always enjoy the simple, basic enjoyments of lite (as in nature and family)
• Continue to enjoy them with delight, surprise and ecstasy throughout life
8. Peak experience
• Often experience moments of intense excitement, tension, peace, bliss, and
serenity
• Often the result of love, sexual climax, bursts of creativity, insight, etc.
• Mare prevalent among creative self-actualisers
9. Social feeling
• Not concerned with deficiencies of humankind - more concerned about them
10. Interpersonal relationships

• Deep, meaningful interpersonal relationships and are more intense with
committed partnerships.
• Small circle of close friends
• May acquire admirers or disciples

11. Democratic character structure

• Does not discriminate on grounds of race, gender or class, qualifications,
beliefs or orientations
• Willing to learn from anyone who is their superior in a given field
12. Discrimination between means and goals, good and evil

• Distinguish clearly between a goal and the means by which it may be achieved
• Regard means as inferior to the goal they wish to achieve - but still derive as
much enjoyment from a journey as the moment of arrival at destination
• Generally not religious in orthodox sense, but strong ethical and moral codes,
no uncertainties about right or wrong
13. Philosophical, benevolent sense of humour

• Enjoys humour that provokes a smile rather than a hearty laugh. May find
amusement in absurdities. Enjoy subtle humour with a message
14. Creativity
• Possess a certain kind of originality or ingenuity
• Naive and child-like sense of relating to the world
15. Resistance against enculturation

• Live by their own rules rather than that of the broader community
• Live in harmony with community but also detach themselves from it
• They resist convention when it is really important to them
• Oppose useless, ineffectual rebellion - would rather operate from within the
system to bring about social change than launch attacks from the outside
• Maslow speaks of human limitation rather than neurosis
• Anyone who has not yet achieved self-actualisation is functioning on a limited
level - limitation manifests in various forms and degrees
• High priority placed on the gratification of basic needs, and failure of
environment to provide for these needs is important for level of development
individual achieves
• Pathology develops when needs are left ungratified or are over gratified
• For example, a person whose needs for love are unfulfilled can become
obsessed with love to the point of pathologically dependency
• Unfulfilled meta needs can lead to pathological conditions - meta-pathologies
• Over-gratification of meta-needs can lead to boredom
• A person can be overexposed too much beauty and become blessed
• another person can become too used to their wealth, but they experience
deprivation or threat
• Maslow says that the meaning of the individual gives to the fulfillment of needs
has a bearing on malfunctioning
• For example, unfulfilled sexual needs will become pathological only if one
interprets not having a boyfriend of girlfriend as being a loser or worthless

Implications and applications

• Maslow's theory many implications and applications across several fields
• The basic idea is that deficiency needs must be fulfilled but also that
opportunities for growth as we meet available is now common across many
industries and sectors
• In industry Maslow advocated what he called Eupsychian working conditions,
which means that not only basic needs must be fulfilled by a person’s higher
values should be recognized
• For Maslow, education should not merely aim at conveying knowledge but must
involve internal education so that the person can get to know themselves,
develop a set of values and discover their potential
• Maslow would put art, music, dance at the center of the curriculum so that the
child can learn to appreciate beauty and meaning of the subject such as
mathematics
• In therapy Maslow said that the therapist acts as a facilitator in creating a
therapeutic relationship in which their client’s basic needs for security, love,
and regard will be met so that they may discover and realize their true potential
• The therapist is not a doctor trying to cure a sick person but a facilitator of a
growth process
Interpretation and handling of aggression

• Maslow acknowledges the existence of a destructive side to human beings,
however he does not pay explicit attention to aggression
• He might say that people can use violence or aggressive behavior to satisfy
needs at any level of the hierarchy
• For example a person who is hungry might behave violently in order to obtain
money to buy food of food itself; or a person who experiences lack of security
could be aggressive in an attempt to gain a feeling of control and overcome
insecurity
• Can we assume that self actualizers are not aggressive for violence? No, self-
actualizers is can also become hostile and in pursuit of an ideal may resort to
aggression
• According to Maslow, the path to self acceptance is difficult for most people
and only a few actually achieve self-actualization
• An environment that permits the satisfaction of basic needs plays an important
role in curbing violence

• Maslow’s is known for the hierarchy of needs, which is very popular still
• But it seems Maslow developed his thinking beyond the theory of needs
hierarchy; a wider view of his thinking is needed to appreciate the value of his
ideas
• But theory inadequately explains certain things, like people who would die for
justice or suffer to reach their goals

Carl Rogers
Background
• Carl Rogers’ theory is based on three central assumptions:
o The individual has constructive potential
o The nature of the individual is goal-directed
o The individual is capable of change
• Rogers emphasizes the importance of people’s subject experience of
themselves (their self-concept) and its influence on personality.
• Humans strive to achieve their full potential through actualization
• Only achieved in an environment in which the individual experiences
unconditional acceptance for who they are
• Rogers theory originated mainly from his experience with people in clinical
therapeutic situation and from his own personal life experiences

• Humanistic-phenomenological view of the person
o Humanistic: emphasizes the individual be studied as a whole and that
the individual plays an active role in actualizing their inherent potential
o Phenomenological: emphasizes the importance of the individual’s
subjective experience of their world and how this influences their self-
concept
• Emphasis on human freedom and the positive/constructive element of human
nature – we are the architects of our lives
• Individuals can be trusted to follow the best course in order to become the best
they can be
• Environment only plays a facilitating or inhibiting role in the realization of the
individual’s potential
• Ideal environment allows individuals to see themselves exactly as they are – in
which all potential can be realized.
• Individuals not unconditionally accepted – environment lays down certain
conditions for accepting the individual (conditional acceptance)
• Individuals then often act in accordance with the conditions set down by others
(to gain their acceptance), instead of their potential – this has a negative
influence on the individual’s self-concept
• Appear to be endowed with freedom but individual freedom is constrained by
the conditions set by the environment
• Given the individual’s freedom to change, the individual can overcome
environmental constraints to achieve their full potential – this will require the
experience of unconditional acceptance

• The propositions underlying Rogers theory:
o All individuals exist in a continually changing world of experience of
which they are the centre
o The organism reacts to the field as experienced and perceived. This is
perceptual is “reality” for the individual

o The organism reacts as an organised whole to the phenomenal field

o A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated
as the self
o As a result of interaction with the environment and environmental
interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed – an organised,
fluid, but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics
and relationships of the “I” together with values attached to these
concepts
• 3 structural elements: the organism, the phenomenal field, and the self-
concept
First element: The Organism

• The total individual (including physical and psychological functions)
• The central figure in constant (and dynamic) interaction with an ever-changing
world
• The organism’s behaviour is influenced by their subjective perception of his/her
world
Second Element: The Phenomenal Field

• The totality of a person’ perceptions and experiences
• Includes perceptions of objects or events outside the person (and the
meanings attached to these) and inner experiences (and the meanings
attached to these) that relate to the organism
Third Element: The Self Concept

• A separate/differentiated part of the phenomenal field that concerns the person
themselves
• Develops through accumulated perceptions of the characteristics that relate to
the ‘I’ or the ‘Me’
• Refers to the ‘mental picture’ that individuals have of themselves and the value
they attach to themselves (strongly influenced by the conditions of worth
imposed by others – our perceptions of relationships with others)
• An individual’s conscious experience of themselves – not a “little man in the
head”
• Though it is relatively stable pattern of perceptions, it is flexible and open to
change – change in one part of the self-concept results in change in the self-
concept as a whole
• The ideal self: the self-concept the individual would most like to have
• Psychologically healthy: the self-concept closely resembles the ideal self –
ideal self provides valuable guidelines for growth and development as it reveals
what we strive for (congruent)
• Psychologically unhealthy: the self-concept does not at all resemble the ideal
self – ideal self represents extreme forms of ideals set by others for the person –
not in tune with person’s real potential (incongruent)
• Therapy is aimed at bringing the self-concept closer towards the ideal self

The Dynamics of the Personality:

• The propositions underlying Rogers’ theory:
o Organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain
and enhance the experiencing organism
o Best vantage point for understanding behaviour is from the internal frame
of reference of the individual
o Behaviour is the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its
needs as experienced, in the field as perceived
o Emotion accompanies and facilitates such goal-directed behaviour, the
kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the
behaviour for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism
o The values attached to experiences, and the values that are part of the
self-structure are either values experienced directly by the organism or
values taken over from others
o As experiences occur in life, they are symbolized, perceived, and
organized into some relationship with the self
o Most of the ways which are adopted by the organism are those which are
consistent with the self-concept
o Behaviour may be brought about by organic experiences and needs
which have not been symbolized
Congruence and Incongruence

• The actualizing tendency (general actualizing tendency) - basic motive that
underlies all behaviour
• All strive for utmost development of the organisms’ potential, regardless of their
environment – it is an inherent tendency
• In humans this tendency is called the actualizing tendency – the tendency to
maintain ourselves and continue growing to become the best we can be – to
become the self which one truly is (natural tendency)
• Therapist aims to lead their clients towards discovering their own potential and
helping them to develop that potential as fully as possible
• Additionally, two other needs that underlie and direct behaviour:
• Need for positive regard from others
o Basic need for approval, love and respect and validation from others
o To fill need individual may adopt the values and wishes of others or
behave in certain way to earn esteem and to receive their acceptance,
respect, love etc. (conditions of worth)
• 2. Need for positive self-regard
o People require esteem from others in order for them to earn esteem and
feel good about themselves
o The need for positive regard (especially from others) can inhibit the
actualizing tendency (overriding motive) - quest for appreciation from
others is in conflict with organisms’ potential
o Individuals strive to achieve their full potential, and they generally know
what behaviour is required to actualize their potential – capacity to be
aware of all relevant experiences and attributes

• Congruence
o When there is no difference between the person’s experience
(experiential world) of the world around them (including feedback from
others) and their view of themselves
o The ideal in which individual is open to and conscious of all experiences
and can incorporate them in self concept
o Congruent people see themselves as they truly are
o The individual’s self-concept corresponds with their actual potential
o When we behave in a way which maintains and enhances self-concept –
harmony with attaining self-actualization
o Congruence obstructed due to conditions of worth set out by the values
of others – become incorporated into our own self concepts
• Incongruence
o When experiences contrary to the self-concept form part of the
phenomenal field
o Have experiences that are in conflict with the self-concept
o Individuals then exclude these incongruent experiences from their
consciousness (by denying them or distorting them)
o Congruence versus incongruence of the organismic experience and the
self-concept is central to Rogers’ theory
• There are three ways in which people deal with experiences (specific needs of
the self-concept determine which possibility is most appropriate). Experiences
can be:
o Ignored – irrelevant to person’s needs
o Symbolised – allowed into consciousness as they correspond with the
individual’s needs
o Denied or distorted – not allowed into consciousness as they are
contrary to the self-concept
The Role of the Self Concept in Experience

• 3 ways in which people deal with experiences (specific needs of the self-
concept determine which possibility is most appropriate):
o Experiences can be ignored (perhaps they are irrelevant to the person’s
needs in that moment)
o Experiences can be symbolized (or internalized; if they correspond with
the person’s needs) – such experiences are allowed into the
consciousness
o Experiences can be denied or distorted (if they contradict the person’s
self-concept) – such experiences are not allowed into the consciousness
• Actualizing organismic potential is the basic motive for behaviour BUT most of
what a person actually does will correspond with the self-concept (so the self-
concept strongly influences our behaviour)
• Problems arise when an individual’s needs do not match their self-concept and
these needs are then denied:
o Denied needs can result in behaviour that directly satisfy these needs in
a distorted way, but the individual is not willing to ‘own’ their behaviour
afterwards

• Psychologically healthy when the self-concept is congruent with an individual’s

needs and feelings – behaviour then corresponds with self-concept and reflects
needs and feelings

• Most important area of human functioning are the interaction between a
person’s subjective experience of reality and their self-concept
• The primary focus of personality development for Rogers is the formation of the
self-concept and its crucial role in behaviour
• Infancy: no distinction between the baby and their environment (baby does not
distinguish between “him/her” AND not-“him/her”) – phenomenal field is
undifferentiated
• With increasing interactions with the environment, the individual begins to
distinguish themselves as separate from their environment (positive and
negative biological needs)
• Gradually, this leads to the development of the self-concept
The Development of the Self Concept

• Individuals attach specific personal meanings to experiences which involve
them, and these are incorporated in the self-concept
• Meanings and values which are not based on people’s own experiences are also
included incorporated into the self-concept
• Need for positive regard and actualizing tendency fundamental to functioning of
all organisms
• People closely connected to individual (significant others who help satisfy need
for positive regard) play an important role in the development of the individual’s
self-concept
• Two important factors that influence the development of the self-concept:
unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard
• Unconditional positive regard
o Experience unconditional acceptance by others, accepted for what they
are, just as they are
o Do not feel the need to fulfill particular requirements to receive esteem
from others – able to acknowledge all needs and express all feelings
o Self-concept is free to include all experiences
o Congruence between individual potential and the self-concept
o Ideal environment that can lead to the actualization of potential
o Distinction between unconditional acceptance of the person and
unconditional acceptance of the person’s behaviour
• Conditional positive regard
o Rarely experience complete unconditional positive regard
o Often experience non-acceptance from significant others – will only feel
worthy when certain conditions laid down for them have been fulfilled
o Conditions of worth: the values (based on the values of others) that a
person includes in their self-concept
o The greater the conditional positive regard experienced, the more
conditions of worth are included in the self-concept, leading to greater

incongruence (a lack of congruence between the self-concept and

subjective experiences)
o Limits the ability to achieve actualization and impairs development
The Optimal Development of the Personality

• Propositions underlying Rogers’ theory:
o Psychological adjustment occurs when the self-concept is such that all
of the individuals experiences are, or can be, assimilated at a symbolic
level in relation to the self-concept
• Psychological adjustment: all experiences are allowed into the self-concept
• Individual sees themselves as they truly are
• Congruent people whose self-concepts accord with their actual potential
• Wider spectrum of experience available to people, and the more integrated
experiences are in the self-concept, the better they know themselves, and the
better they are able to use abilities and talents to achieve full potential – fully
functioning people
• The “good life” is not a static nirvana in which we experience happiness – it is a
process, not a static state; a direction, not a destination – organisms constantly
strive to actualize potential
• Fully functioning people display the following characteristics:
• A Growing Openness to Experience
o Person moves away from defensiveness and is increasingly open to
experience – can experience all experiences consciously as part of
themselves and their world
• An Increasingly Existential Lifestyle
o Able to live fully in the moment without distorting experiences
o Person can approach experience without a preconceived structure –
each moment is new; person does not know what he or she will be or
how they will respond in the next moment
o Self-concept and personality emanate from experience, experience is
not distorted and remodeled to fit the self-concept
• Increasing organismic trust
o Greater trust in the self for choosing appropriate behaviour than in relying
on social codes/norms, or the judgement of others
• Freedom of choice
o Feel responsible for their choices and determining own behaviour
o Feel free to exercise any choice based on the organismic evaluation
• Creativity
o Stems from being open to a wide range of experiences, the freedom to
make choices and the ability to live fully in the moment
o Ability to adjust to changing environments relatively easy and in a
creative way
• Basic reliability and constructiveness
o Individual can be trusted to act positively and constructively
o Able to admit and accept all needs and maintain a realistic balance
between them
o Fully functioning person can give full recognition to rationality – capable
of controlling different needs and living in harmony with others

• A rich, full life

o Lives are rich and full and exciting and that they experience joy and pain,
love and heartbreak, fear and courage intensely
o Can see experiences as “enriching, exciting, rewarding, challenging and
meaningful” = the good life
• Incongruent person who is always on defensive and cannot be open to all
experiences can never function ideally and may malfunction
• Incongruence can lead to tension: large parts of subjective experience is denied
inclusion into the self-concept
• Anxiety is the emotional response when the self-concept is threatened
• Threat to the self-concept and accompanying anxiety triggers defence
mechanisms:
o Freud: defence mechanisms ensure the survival of the individual
o Rogers: defence mechanisms protect the self-concept from incongruent
experiences
o Rogers: Ideal would be for individual to be aware of all experiences and
to assimilate them into self-concept so that defence mechanisms
become unnecessary - ideal never attained, defence mechanisms
preserve self-concept
o Distortion - incongruent experiences are distorted to fit the self-concept
so that it can remain intact in the face of the incongruent experience
o Denial - incongruent experiences are ignored and excluded from the
consciousness
• Malfunctioning:
o Defensive behaviour lowers person's consciousness of threat
o Leads to a complex network of misconceptions about the self and
increases the possibility of threatening experiences
o Incongruence leads to greater perception of threat, which leads to
greater defensiveness, which leads to a more rigid structure of the self-
concept
o Certain degrees of malfunctioning could be distinguished
o Eventually defence mechanisms may no longer be able to fully protect
self-concept from incongruent experiences, resulting in psychosis
Implications and Applications

• Psychotherapy:
o Person-centred Therapy - provide clients with the opportunity to get to
know themselves better and to reveal their full potential in an
environment where the therapist accepts the client unconditionally
o Emphasis on the quality of the client-therapist relationship in the therapy
setting
o Criticised for doing no more than reflecting the feelings of his clients
• The therapeutic process:
o Client is central and must take responsibility for their own change
o Therapist acts as a facilitator who creates a climate of unconditional
positive regard, warmth and empathy
o Focus on empowering the client with the freedom of choice

o The task of a therapist is to create a growth-facilitating climate

o The therapeutic climate is characterised by:
§ Sincerity/Congruences of the therapist - the therapist does not
hold up a façade in client-therapist relationship
§ Unconditional acceptance - of the client
§ Empathy - therapist is able to put themselves into the shoes of the
client - the therapist is able to observe the world from the client's
frame of reference, putting aside external observations
§ Spiritual dimension - moment when you are closest to your inner,
intuitive self and the therapist-client relationship transcends itself

• Rogers’ theory has made a valuable contribution to the approach to therapy
• His focus on the subjective experience makes a valuable contribution after the
emphasis on unconscious processes by psychoanalysts and the emphasis on
the influence of the external environment by behaviourist
• Questionable just how free individuals are to make their own choices in their
pursuit of unconditional positive regard (we are all subject to conditional
positive regard in one way or another) – can his theory be realistically applied in
everyday life?
• Rogers’ basic assumption that humans are inherently good does not address
the negative, hostile human tendencies sufficiently
• Difficult to define concepts such as ‘potential’ operationally (for research
purposes)
WEEK SIX
CHAPTER 14 & 17
The Existential theory of Viktor Frankl
Background
• Frankl’s existential theory was strongly influenced by his experiences as a
Jewish prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps during WWII
• Frankl opposes efforts to reduce human functioning to the level of machines
(e.g., Behaviourism) or animals (e.g., Psychoanalysis)
• The human being seeks more in life than pleasure (Freud’s need-satisfaction)
and power (Adler’s self-esteem needs)
• Frankl believes that human beings are primarily motivated by the desire to find
meaning in their lives
• Theoretical position linked with humanism – but not a straightforward humanist
– transcendent view is existentialist
1. Humans have the freedom to be responsible:

• Humans are not simply highly developed animals shaped by their genes and
their environment
• Humans are primarily spiritual beings that have freedom and responsibility –
this makes humans unique

• Constantly face choices and we have the freedom to choose amongst these
choices – we are not compelled (forced) to behave in a particular way
• Therefore, cannot blame our behaviour on conditioning or to a drive – we must
take responsibility for our behaviours (due to our free will)
• This freedom to choose represents the spiritual or noögenic dimension of the
human being – it is what makes us human
2. A level of being beyond animal existence

• The central issue for humans is not the struggle to survive, but rather the
struggle to find and experience meaning in life
• True fulfillment is not possible without a sense of purpose (spiritual direction) in
life
• This meaning can be found in the challenges, tasks or duties posed by every
situation in our personal lives
• Psychoanalysts and behaviourist provide an incomplete portrayal (sub-human
level of being) of what it means to be human by ignoring our will to meaning
(property not shared with animals)
• Humans can be distinguished from animals because we are capable of self-
transcendence – we are capable of rising above conditions in being able to
think about them and do something about them
3. The transhuman dimension

• Frankl’s view that humans strive for meaning is embedded within his philosophy
that life itself has inherent meaning – an objective meaning that can be found
• Meaning is not something that we create or invent, meaning is found
• Objective existence of meaning of life is phenomenologically proved through the
conscience which calls upon us to act responsibly
• The conscience is the vehicle through which we detect meaning – it gives us the
ability to know what the one right thing is to do in a particular situation
• So, the conscience has transcendent qualities (helps us identify meaning) – as
opposed to being punitive (as argued by Freud in his definition of the Superego)
4. A personalized way of being

• The meaning of life cannot be incorporated by any one or a specific religious
dogma
• Each person must find and experience life’s meaning for themselves – meaning
cannot be prescribed by others (it is personal)
• We have the inalienable right and freedom to decide before what or whom we
feel accountable, whether to society, humanity, our own conscience, or to God
• Life holds meaning under all circumstances and that meaning can be
experienced by anyone at anytime and anywhere

• Three levels/dimensions of existence: physical, psychological, and spiritual
(of which Frankl emphasizes the spiritual dimension)
o Neither the physical (machine) or the psychological dimensions (animal)
provide any indication of freedom of will – represents incomplete picture
of humanity

o We are more than our body and psyche - It is our spiritual capacities that
provide us with freedom of will
o As spiritual beings we are free to direct our behaviour – we can use our
body and psyche to achieve the ends that we ourselves have determined
• According to Frankl, our spiritual dimension (our freedom of will and our will to
meaning) constitutes the core of the personality

• Frankl speaks of the noödynamics (spiritual dynamics) of being human
• The dynamics of the personality are based on:
o the freedom of will
o the will to meaning
o the meaning of life
• The freedom of will
o We continually face choices that we have to make, but each individual
experiences their will as free (that, ultimately, it is they that have to make
a choice)
o Even a decision to do nothing, to let circumstances take their course, but
to simply allow events to shape our lives is a decision which represents a
specific approach to life
o We are, however, not absolutely free – our freedom is contained in how
we will deal with and transcend the constraints imposed on us by our
environments
o Do we have the power to change our circumstances or are we the victims
of fate?
• The Will to Meaning
o The desire (will) to find and experience meaning in our lives is the
deepest and most powerful of all human motivations
o Because our wills are free, because we can think and make decisions,
we want to know why, for whom and for what we exist
o Frankl makes four observations to provide proof of this underlying human
motivation (to find meaning in life)
§ The will to meaning is manifested in circumstances of destitution
as well as circumstances of plenty
o People who have terrible living conditions but continue to
have the will to live do so because it is the most pressing
need
o Even rich and successful people can experience
depression when they lose the will to live, It is the strongest
motivator of human behaviour
§ Satisfying physical and psychological needs provides the means
to be free and strive towards achieving spiritual goals
o In Maslow's hierarchy of needs we only aim to satisfy lower
level needs so that we can focus on achieving self-
actualisation
o The will to meaning can break through or take over the
attainment of lower-level needs
o Frank believes a person's primary need is the search for
meaning in life

§ Happiness is the outcome of attaining meaning, and not an end in

itself
o Happiness, joy, or pleasure is a by-product of having
completed a task or having experienced something of value
- if we seek happiness as a goal in itself, it will evade us
o So too are a clear conscience and self-actualisation
§ When the will to pleasure and the will to power are dominant it
suggests we are frustrated in our will to meaning.
o The will to pleasure or power is a sign of spiritual
emptiness - an existential vacuum
• The meaning of life can be found in 3 principal ways
o Creative values
§ Values we experience through what we contribute to life
§ E.g., when work is a creative expression of responsibility, then we
have found meaning in our work
o Experiential values
§ The blessings we receive from life (e.g., Love)
§ Manifested in what is good, beautiful, and true
§ Love is the greatest experiential value – love fills us with limitless
devotion and arouses feelings of deep caring and responsibility
o Attitudinal values
§ Values which we experience through the right attitudes we have
towards life, especially towards inescapable suffering
§ 3 inevitable facts confronting us at all time: pain, guilt, and death
– the tragic triad of human existence
§ Suffering is suffering precisely because it is inevitable
§ “To live is to suffer, to find meaning in life is to find meaning in
suffering. If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a
purpose in suffering and in dying”
o Suffering does not deprive of us of our freedom to decide how we will
deal with suffering, that is, what attitude we adopt to suffering
o To find meaning in suffering is, according to Frankl, to find the ultimate
meaning in life
o When suffering has a reason, it loses its unbearable quality and
becomes another one of life’s tasks – because it asks so much of us it
offers us the opportunity to achieve moral greatness
o “We who have lived in concentration camps can remember the men who
walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of
bread. …. they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a
man but one thing…. the [freedom to] choose one’s attitude in any given
set of circumstances”

• Frankl does not provide a detailed developmental theory
• The core of the spiritual nucleus of the personality is present at birth
• The personality develops over the entire lifespan – we are continually in the
process of ‘becoming’
• At birth, life is given to us as an open possibility and all we have is potential

• We are the force behind what we become in spite of genetics and the
environment – we are self-determining
• Only in maturity are we fully developed, and it is then that our uniquely human
characteristics manifest à person is seen as a “time-Gestalt”
• If we continue to search for pleasure and power as adults, then we can
justifiably be called childish or immature. We have been frustrated in our search
for meaning
The Optimal Development of the Personality

• We achieve optimal development when we function on the spiritual level –
when we exercise our freedom of will (we take responsibility for our choices),
and we find and experience meaning in our lives
• Very few people achieve this optimal development because it takes courage
and boldness to be optimally human
• Optimal development is characterized by the following:
o Self-determining action
§ Individuals take responsibility for themselves and their
circumstances and freely decide what they should do
§ Realize that they cannot attribute to their fate to intrinsic factors
o Realistic perception
§ Ability to separate and distance oneself from what is happening -
to view matters objectively and critically
§ Can perceive themselves and their circumstances realistically
o Humour
§ Able to laugh at oneself
o Self-transcendence
§ People are outward-looking rather than turned in on oneself –
involved in activities that give their life meaning
§ Feel that they have a calling in life
§ The healthy human is dedicated to values and ideals
§ Satisfaction and happiness is the outcome of meaning fulfillment
(incidental side effects)
o Future directedness
§ Have goals and a vision for the future – do not live a day-to-day
existence
§ They have goals and a vision for the future
§ Every day is a unique opportunity to find meaning
§ Do not fear death – it is the meaningful conclusion of their lives
o Work as a vocation
§ Work is an opportunity to make a worthwhile contribution to life
o Appreciation of goodness, beauty, and truth
§ Receptive to experiences of the good, the beautiful and the
genuine
§ An openness to each new moment in life
o Respect and appreciation for the uniqueness of others
§ Will not make people objects for their own satisfaction or use
others to achieve their own selfish ends
§ They strive for meaningful encounters with others
§ Free from prejudice and discrimination

o Meaning in suffering
§ Have accepted tragic faculties of life – deepens their belief in the
meaning of life
§ Meaning can be found in guilt, suffering and death
§ Reached highest potential of development
• The noögenic neurosis
o Most people do not achieve optimal development because they lack the
courage to respond to the challenge of life to exercise their freedom of
responsibility
o Responsibility is avoided or passed on to others and this leads to a
frustration of the will to meaning (struggle to find own unique meaning in
their life - noögenic neurosis)
o Noögenic neurosis is characterized by:
§ An unplanned day-to-day existence
§ A fatalistic attitude towards life – helpless victims of
circumstance
§ Conformism – in an effort to avoid stress of authenticity
§ Totalitarianism – suits those who prefer to be blind followers
• Frankl reinstated the humanity of the mental patient
• An incurably psychotic individual may lose their usefulness but yet retain the
dignity of a human being
Implications and Applications: Interpretation and handling of

Aggression
• Frankl acknowledges the Freudian idea of inherent destructive tendencies in
human nature and that these are shaped by the society we live in
• Ultimately, we have the freedom to choose whether to give in to these
aggressive or destructive tendencies or whether to overcome them
Logotherapy
• Logotherapy - a psychotherapeutic approach that not only recognises man's
spirit, but actually starts from It
• Logotherapy means 'therapy through meaning'
• The essence of logotherapy is to challenge people to become aware of things
which require them to be responsible and which demand their love, care or
involvement
• Socratic dialogue - technique evoking critical and creative thought where
people come up with their own answers
• Logotherapy is not problem-centred but meaning-centred and on the patient's
freedom to deal with their problems
• Paradoxical intention - a logotherapeutic technique designed to break the
vicious cycle of hyper-intention by encouraging the person to wish or intend,
with much humour, what the person fears, thereby deflating or defusing the fear

• Dereflection - a logotherapeutic technique designed to shift the attention of a

person away from obsessive hyper-reflection and to focus on something
meaningful instead
Feminist Critical Psychology in South Africa
Feminist View of the Person

• Personality is gendered.
• Psychology is gendered
• Theories of the person are gendered.
Feminism is Thought and Action

• Feminism is not only an academic pursuit where feminist (women) debate
issues of gender and women’s oppression
• Feminist is action, practice or behaviour aimed at changing those constructs
and relations see as reinforcing women’s subordination to men
• Feminist study gender – that also implies the role of gender in personality
• Gender - social or cultural or psychological differences between men and
women
• Feminists do not all agree about the exact causes of gender inequality
• Feminists differ on the causes of women’s oppression and means by which
women’s oppression can be undone
• There are plural feminisms
Feminist schools of thought

• Liberal feminism
o women’s oppression is outcome of denial of opportunity/legal
constraints
• Marxist feminism
o capitalist system/private property is cause of women’s oppression
• Radical feminism
o patriarchy is the cause of women’s oppression
• Psychoanalytic feminism
o Freudian inspiration, inequality is rooted in early childhood experiences
resulting in men’s women’s perceptions of themselves
• Post-structuralist feminism
o Discourse and language key to understanding how gender works
• Black feminism
o Address race, gender and class, etc and their intersections to under
women’s experiences
• Womanism
o Similar to black feminism, interested in self-naming as it explores any
marginalised woman’s identity and experience
• African feminism
o Seeks to construct anti-imperialist, anti-colonial knowledge which
focuses on ‘Third World/black women’

Critical psychology and feminist practice

• A critical psychology agenda is both cognizant and critical of the different uses
and abuses of psychology and the ways in which these have been complicit in
the perpetuation of oppressive social relations
• Psychology exercises power through both its method and its forms of
knowledge
• Psychologists at called to be critical of their knowledge and practice
• A critical psychology resists the temptation to speak for all groups as it
recognizes that the philosophical underpinnings of psychology are not universal
• A critical approach seeks to redress the exclusion much more like voices that
have traditionally been excluded from generating psychological knowledge
• A critical approach challenges the notion off any sensile individual self
• Essence: true nature of objects people
• In psychology the notion of identity is understood as a singular, individual
subject That is largely unchanging and universal
• Feminist psychologists have shown that women's gender identities may be
expressed differently depending on their location
• identity is something that can be changed and adopted depending on the
situation we find ourselves in
• Feminism is necessarily political – it therefore is able to address a key tenet
which is that psychological practice has been put to political use, employed to
serve specific power interests
• Feminists are interest in challenging patriarchy
• Patriarchy refers to the personal, physical and institutional power that men
exert over women
• While patriarchy is universal, it takes many forms
• It is important to recognize the cultural, social and political diversity between
patriarchies
• The ways in which women experience patriarchy is far from homogenous and
any universalization of women’s experience inevitably means the exclusion or
marginalization of some women’s experiences
• Critical feminist practice constantly seeks to interrogate its own forms of
knowledge production
• Whilst gender relations may be discursively constituted, these relations have
concrete material reality
Questioning research
• Whereas previous gender research tended to construct a universal, essentialist
gender identity, feminist criticism have questioned bias in research
• Feminist criticisms of positive psychology have focused on the methodological
limitations of the notion of a value-free science that can be objective in its
approach to understanding gender issues
• Positive social science/psychology refers to the belief that social
science/psychology should be interested in what is objectively observed and
measurable (think Skinner, but also many others who don’t call themselves
behaviourist)

• A positivist approach in psychological studies is seen by some feminist

researchers as downplaying the workings of socio-political factors in a given
context
• Positivist psychology also criticized by black feminists in how it studies minority
women’s experiences
• Positive psychology was/is contested by interpretive approaches
• Interpretivist psychology focuses more on subjectivity/subjective experience
• Interpretivist feminist psychologists interested in the ways in which women
gender and sustain meaning
• For some feminist psychologists this approach is welcome because it is not
afraid of value-laden research and a shift from positivist value-free psychology
• Interpretive research also allowed for more alternative approaches to doing
research with women – e.g., interviews/autoethographic work/memory work
• But interpretive approach is also seen by some feminists as problematic in
disregarding the political context within which women may generate and sustain
meaning
• This paved the way for feminists with critical agendas who see the task as
challenging illusions and false beliefs that hide gender power relations
Liberal tradition in psychology

• Liberal approach in gender research is most influential
• It has helped to deradicalize feminist interventions
• Liberal approach opposed traditional research that represented gender as a
variance or sex-difference and a natural category
• Liberal approaches help to move psychology from reductionist approaches of
gender to more than egalitarian ways of doing general research
• Psychologists with the liberal agenda 10/2 move from theorizing gender as
difference to highlight in gender as similarity
• The purpose of liberal approach to gender research was to redress
representation of women as deficient when compared to men by avoiding the
discourse of difference so as to argue for equality
• But liberal conceptions of gender tended to universalize the gender experience;
women were/are seen as sharing the same experiences of oppression and
gender by virtue of being women
• Such theoretical practice is not only misleading, but also serves to further
silence many women already marginalized by their race, and/or class, and/or
sexuality
Feminism in an African context

• Women do not constitute a homogeneous group
• Class, language, race, ethnicity, rural/urban divisions, sexuality and other social
identity markers make a difference
• Acc to African feminists, feminism is modeled upon western and eurocentric
philosophy and thus problematic for African contexts
• An African feminist agenda seeks to address and explore the gender related
experiences of women, acknowledging the fact that many women’s experiences

of gender and identity development have not been fully represented in

psychological research and theory
• African feminism considers the political, economic and social context to be
crucial to researching, theorizing and exploring gender identity development
• Critical African feminist psychology seeks to explore and deconstruct those
features of society and culture that functions to the detriment and
subordination of women
• At the same time, a critical African feminist psych seeks to strengthen and
adapt values that promote and enhance African women’s empowerment
• Some of the issues for a South African feminist psychology include HIV/Aids,
virginity testing, violence against women, links between race, gender and class,
sexuality, and rape
African Perspectives
Introduction and Background

• Various aspects of Western psychology resonate with Africans but some
theories are overly Western in their orientations, assumptions and focus
• Indigenous psychology - the way people in other societies and from other
cultures make sense of themselves and their relationships and make sense of
psychic distress
• Scientific racism - the use of science to provide justification for racist ideas
• Western culture has become the cultural norm
• Scientific colonialism refers to the ethnocentric nature of psychology both in
terms of who produces it and where it is produced
• African perspectives function to critique existing psychology and as an
alternative psychology responsive to Africans
• A paradigm based on indigenous African concepts does not yet exist
• Impetus for the quest to Africanise psychology:
o Psychology collaborated in the oppression of American blacks and
Africans through the comparison between 'primitive' and 'modern*
o Psychology has had little relevance to the problems facing the blacks
and the poor
o Psychologies imported to Africa do not accurately portrav African life and
mentality

• Anthropocentric ontology - implies that humans form the point of departure as
well as the centre of the universe
• There are three cosmic orders of reality that can be distinguished, namely the
macro, meso- and micro- cosmos
• Macro-cosmos - the domain of God and religion
• Maso-cosmos - a kind of no man's land where coincidence, the ancestors and
the forces of malignant sprits and sorcerers hold sway
• Micro-cosmos - the domain of the Individual person in their everyday collective
existence

• Ubuntu - a code of ethics governing one's Interaction with others, implying that
a person is only a person because of other people
Augustine Nwoye's Account of the Fabric of the African Self

• Nwoye strives to develop a psychology that is developed from the perspective of
and in relation to the culture and worldview of Africans relevant to their lives
• For Nwoye, the Western notion of the self is incompatible with the African view
and that it is not an inclusive and extensive as the African view
• African self is an extensive entity - projects itself with varying degrees of
intensity into other realms of human existence
• Synoptic theory - a theory that aggregates rather than isolates constituent
factors, and thus functions as a holistic rather than a reductionist account
• African self is a synoptic aggregate and made up of eight complementary
dimensions
The 8 personality dimensions

1. Embodied self - the aspect of self that is open and visible to others
2. Generative self - the agentic and enterprising characteristics of a person and
contains self's ambitions and plans
3. Communal self - the relational and inclusive character of the African self
4. Melioristic self - assists the individual in finding meaning in life
5. Narratological self - reflects the sediments and influence of the cultural
memory of the people on the modern African imagination
6. Structural self - the inner seat of an Individual's thinking, feeling and will
7. Liminal self - the part of the self that is in a state of transition
8. Spiritual self - the sacred dimension of everyday life

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Psychology 213

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Made by: Daryan Van der wath

Personology and everyday knowledge of human nature:

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The reasons why there are so many different personality theories:

Definitions of key concepts

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The ‘source’ of individual personhood?

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o Integration of affect and thought

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Dualism is reflected especially in the psychoanalytical and person- oriented

How Descartes and Bacon represent two different approaches to knowledge:

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In summary, empiricism and rationalism were of profound importance in the

Psychology as a science in its own right

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• the foundation laid by Freud and psychoanalysis within a practical medical

Psychology as a natural science

Psychology as a human science

• Franz Brentano (1838–1917) opposed structuralism on account of its

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Freud and Classical Psychoanalysis

Postulates defining contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory

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The view of the person underlying the system

Structure of the Personality

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o Ego functions according to secondary processes and the reality principle

Personality dynamics: Motivation

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Drive (‘trieb’ and ‘libido’)

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• Displacement and sublimation

Development of the personality

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• His theory is thus often referred to as a psychosexual theory of development

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§ Regression causes thumb-sucking, threatened by sexual feelings

The Analytic Psychology of Carl Jung (1875-1961)

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• We strive to integrate these opposing tendencies into a harmonious whole, the

Which dimensions in human functioning are recognised by Jung?

• The physiological dimension involves all processes and drives that

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o All conscious aspects of functioning

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o Contains the impulsive urges and emotions normally unacceptable to

The dynamics of the personality

o Jung maintains that the significance of such events lies in their

• The Human Being as an energy system

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o Jung regards the human being as a complex energy system.

§ complex indicators & word-association test

• The Distribution of psychic energy

o There are two principles that determine how energy is distributed

§ However, this energy is conserved and may be transferred to the

• Attitudes of the Psyche

o Introversion is an inner directedness of psychic energy based on the

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o Extraversion, by contrast, sources energy from the outside world and

• Functions of the Psyche

§ Sensation refers to the way in which the psyche experiences

§ Thinking is a logical and structuring function directed towards the