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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY PRELIM
1 INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY THEORY
PERSONALITY
● from Latin persona, a theatrical mask worn
to project a role or false appearance
➔ personality is more permanent, it persists
over time
● consists of the most outstanding or salient
impression of a person on others, both the
good and the bad
● pattern of traits and characteristics
TRAITS
● consistency of behavior over time
● may be unique, common to members of a
group, or shared by the entire species
● the pattern of these traits is different for
each individual
CHARACTERISTICS
● unique qualities of an individual
● can be inherited
● includes attributes such as temperament,
physique, and intelligence
THEORY
● set of related assumptions that allow
scientists to use logical deductive reasoning
to formulate testable hypotheses
● hypothesis or speculations that are not yet
definitely known
● never true or false
● set of conventions created by theorists
(what is dear to them, what’s applicable
during their time)
RELATIVE TERMINOLOGIES TO THEORY:
● Philosophy – love of wisdom; a broader
term than theory. Deals with what ought
to be or what should be, while theory
deals with broad sets of if-then
statements
● Epistemology – the nature of
knowledge; a branch of philosophy
concerned with the investigation of
what distinguishes justified belief from
opinion
● Science – branch of study concerned
with observation and classification of
data and with verification of general
laws though hypothesis testing
● Hypothesis – an educated guess or
prediction that can be tested through
the scientific method
● Taxonomy – classification of things
according to their natural relationships
WHY DIFFERENT THEORIES?
● there are different speculations from
different points of views.
PERSPECTIVES IN THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
1. Psychodynamic
- early childhood experiences shape the
personality
- unconscious mind is more important and more
powerful than conscious awareness
- resolving neurosis and mental illnesses lies on
the uncovering of what’s in the unconscious
2. Humanistic-Existential
- a.k.a. positive psychology
- people strive to live meaningful, happy lives
and are motivated by growth
- positive emotion fosters psychological health
- personality is shaped by freedom of choice,
response to anxiety, and awareness of death
3. Dispositional
- people are predisposed to behave in particular
ways, these dispositions are called traits
- traits are what makes certain behaviors more
likely in some people
- there are five trait dimensions in human
personality
4. Biological-Evolutionary
- the foundation for thought and behavior is
biological and genetic (brain structure and
neurochemicals)
- personality is shaped by evolutionary forces
(natural and sexual selection)
5. Learning-(Social) Cognitive
- personality is shaped by how we think and
perceive the world
- the only explanation for behavior is the
conditions that create it, not the unobservable
internal states such as thoughts or drives
- key terms: reinforcement, association,
modeling, conditioning

WHAT MAKES A THEORY USEFUL?
1. Generates research – will generate 1)
descriptive research and/or 2) hypothesis
testing (both will expand the theory)
2. Is falsifiable – a theory must be precise enough
to suggest research that may either support or
fail to support its major tenets
- the theory lends itself to confirmation or
disconfirmation
3. Organizes data – should be able to organize
research data that are not incompatible with
each other.
- without organization, research findings would
remain isolated and meaningless
- without an intelligible framework, scientists do
not have a clear direction to follow in pursuit of
further knowledge
4. Guides action – ability to guide the practitioner
over the rough course of day-to-day problems
- extent to which the theory stimulates thought
and action in other disciplines
5. Is internally consistent – the theory’s
components are logically compatible with each
other
- language usage is consistent; it does not use a
term to mean two different things, or use
different terms to mean the same concept
➔ Operational Definition – defines units in
terms of observable events or behaviors
that can be measured; how the term will be
used in your study
6. Is parsimonious – theory is simple and
straightforward but has great explanatory power
(if two theories have the same quality in terms of
the previous five attributes, the simpler one is
preferred.)
DIMENSIONS FOR A CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
1. Determinism vs. Free Choice
Determinism – behaviors are determined by
forces outside an individual’s control (ex.
biological forces)
Free Choice – people can choose what they wish
to be
2. Pessimism vs. Optimism
Pessimism – people are doomed to live
miserable, conflicted, and troubled lives
Optimism – people can change and grow into
psychologically healthy, happy, fully functioning
human beings
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3. Causality vs. Teleology
Causality – behavior is a function of past
experiences
Teleology – behavior is explained in terms of
future goals or purposes
4. Conscious vs. Unconscious determinants of
behavior
Conscious – people are ordinarily aware of what
they are doing and why they’re doing it
Unconscious – unconscious forces drive people
to act without awareness of these underlying
forces
5. Biological vs. Social influences on personality
- heredity vs. environment, nature vs. nurture
6. Uniqueness vs. Similarities
- should the study of personality concentrate on
traits that make people alike, or those that make
people different?
Uniqueness – individuality
Similarities – commonality
RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
RELIABILITY
● the extent to which an instrument yields
consistent results
VALIDITY
● the degree to which an instrument measures
what it is supposed to measure
Two Types of Validity:
● Construct Validity – extent to which an
instrument measures some
hypothetical construct (ex. extraversion,
intelligence, emotional stability)
➔ Convergent validity – scores on an
instrument correlate highly with scores on a
variety of valid measures of the same
construct
➔ Divergent validity – if the instrument has
low correlations with other inventories that
do not measure that construct
➔ Discriminant validity – the instrument
discriminates (differentiates) between two
groups of people known to be different
● Predictive Validity – the extent that a
test predicts some future behavior
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2 FREUD: PSYCHOANALYSIS
SUPEREGO
● birth of superego is at age 3-4, because that
BIOGRAPHY
is the age that a child is already exposed to
reward and punishment
● moralistic and idealistic
● controls the sexual and aggressive impulses
(of id) through repression
● has two subsystems:
➔ conscience - results from experiences
with punishment; tells us what we should
● Austrian, firstborn child of his parents, has 2 not do
older brothers from his father’s previous ➔ ego-ideal - from experiences with
marriage rewards; tells us what we should do
● Freud is a neurologist by profession
EGO
● Jean Martin Charcot - first mentor
● referee between id and superego; reconciles
- uses hypnosis in treating hysteria
the two
➔ hysteria - disorder characterized by ● reality principle
paralysis or improper functioning of ● decision making/executive branch of
certain parts of the body personality
- Freud is discontent with his technique
● Josef Breuer - Freud’s senior and close DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY
friend; practices catharsis ● motivational principle of personality
➔ catharsis - process of removing
DRIVES
hysterical symptoms through “talking
● impulses; operates as constant motivational
it out”
force
● based on this, Freud developed the free ● all drives can be categorized into two:
association technique ➔ Eros - sex
● Freud’s aim was to know the cause and cure ➔ Thanatos - aggression and destruction
of mental illnesses, and he believes this will ● every basic drive is characterized by an
be achieved through the uncovering of the impetus, a source, an aim, and an object
unconscious ➔ impetus - amount of force it exerts
➔ source - region of the body in a state of
tension
LEVELS OF MENTAL LIFE
➔ aim - to seek pleasure by
● structure of personality
removing/reducing the tension
➔ object - person or thing that serves as the
UNCONSCIOUS
means to satisfy the aim
● contains all drives, urges, or instincts beyond
our awareness
1. Sex
● motivates most of our words, feelings, and
● the aim of the sexual drive is pleasure (not
actions
limited to genital satisfaction)
● erogenous zones - areas of the body
PRECONSCIOUS
capable of producing sexual pleasure;
● not conscious but can be retrieved to
genitals, mouth, anus
become conscious quite readily
● can take many forms: narcissism, love,
sadism, and masochism
CONSCIOUS
● mental elements in awareness
2. Aggression
● what’s absorbed by the senses
● the destructive drive
● its aim is to return the organism to an
PROVINCES OF THE MIND
inorganic state (death)
● ultimate aim is self-destruction
ID
● manifested in gossip, sarcasm, humiliation,
● pleasure principle
humor, and enjoyment of other people’s
● unrealistic and illogical
suffering
● unconscious, primitive
● biological; such as hunger drives, it cannot
be suppressed

ANXIETY
● a felt, affective, unpleasant state
accompanied by a physical sensation that
warns the person against impending danger
● only the ego can produce anxiety, but the id,
superego, and external world are all involved
in one of the three kinds of anxiety
1. Neurotic anxiety
● originates from id impulses
● apprehension about unknown danger
2. Moral anxiety
● stems from the conflict between ego and
superego
● guilt
3. Realistic anxiety
● closely related to fear, but differs from it in
that realistic anxiety does not involve a
specific fearful object
● unpleasant, nonspecific feeling involving a
possible danger
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
● used by ego to defend itself against anxiety
● can lead to compulsive behavior when
carried to an extreme
REPRESSION
● most basic defense mechanism
● when ego is threatened by id impulses, it
forces those impulses into the unconscious
● manifests in dreams, slip of tongue, or one of
the other defense mechanisms
REACTION FORMATION
● doing the direct opposite of the repressed
impulse
DISPLACEMENT
● redirecting unacceptable urges into a variety
of people/objects so that the original
impulse is concealed
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FIXATION
● permanent attachment of libido on an earlier,
more primitive stage of development
REGRESSION
● reverting back to an earlier, more
comfortable developmental stage in times of
stress and anxiety
PROJECTION
● attributing your own impulses onto another
person
● paranoia - external type of projection
characterized by powerful delusions of
jealousy and persecution
INTROJECTION
● a person who lacks self-esteem may copy
positive qualities of another person to
himself (in order to feel better about himself)
SUBLIMATION
● represses genital aim by substituting for a
social aim
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
INFANTILE PERIOD
● first 4-5 years of life
● most crucial for personality formation
● characterized by auto-erotic or
pleasure-seeking behavior
● divided into three phases
1. Oral phase (12-18 mos)
● sucking instinct
● aim is to gain pleasure through the activity of
the mouth, especially sucking, eating, and
biting
● object-choice is the nipple
2. Anal phase (up to 2 yrs old)
● aim is to gain pleasure from excretory
function and by such related functions as
destroying/losing objects, stubbornness,
neatness, and miserliness
● anal triad - orderliness, stinginess, obstinacy

3. Phallic phase (3-4 yrs old)
● the genital area becomes the leading
erogenous zone (awakening of sexual aim)
● auto erotic
➔ male oedipus complex - when the boy
has incestuous feeling of love for the
mother and hostility toward the father
● castration anxiety - fear of losing the
penis; fear that the father will cut his
penis upon discovery of his desires
towards the mother
➔ female oedipus complex - the girl feels
hostility for the mother and sexual love
for the father
● penis envy - girls realizing that boys
have an extra appendage that they
don’t have
LATENCY PERIOD
● 5 yrs old to puberty
● characterized as a period of dormant
psychosexual development
● sexual drive is repressed because it is
substituted by other activities
GENITAL PERIOD
● puberty until adulthood, marked by full
sexual identity
● reawakening of the sexual aim
● sexual energy is directed toward another
person
MATURITY
● final psychosexual stage when a person has
passed through the earlier stages in an ideal
manner
● characterized by a strong ego in control of
the id, and superego expanding the realm of
consciousness
FREE ASSOCIATION
● therapeutic technique that requires the
patients to verbalize every thought
● its aim is to arrive at the unconscious;
starting from a present conscious thought
then following it through a train of
association to wherever it leads
TRANSFERENCE
● happens during free association
● strong sexual or aggressive feelings a
patient feels towards their analyst during the
course of treatment
➔ reflection of how the patient felt towards
his parents
● negative transference - analyst begins to
see himself through the eyes of the client
● resistance - variety of unconscious
responses used by the patients to block their
own progress in therapy
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DREAM ANALYSIS
● transform the manifest content of dreams to
the more important latent content
● manifest content - the surface meaning or
the conscious description given by the
dreamer
● latent content - the unconscious material;
analyst’s interpretation of the dream
FREUDIAN SLIPS
● a.k.a. parapraxes
● slips of the tongue, misreading, misplacing
of objects, etc.
● reveals the unconscious of the person
3 ADLER: INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
BIOGRAPHY
● Austrian medical doctor and
psychotherapist
● weak and sickly as a kid
● had a near-death experience at age 5 that
motivated him to become a physician
➔ that, and the death of his younger brother
➔ at age 5 he decided that his goal in life
would be to overcome death
● secondborn, had rivalry with his older
brother
● was an eye specialist before switching to
psychiatry and general medicine
● when he was the president of the Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society, he expressed his
opposition to Freud’s view on motivation
➔ he resigned his presidency and
membership when they finally realize they
have irreconcilable differences
➔ Adler never considered Freud as his
mentor
● married a Russian woman named Raissa
Epstein in 1897
● died of a heart attack at age 67
THEORY OVERVIEW
His primary idea was that people are born
with weak bodies, which leads to having feelings of
inferiority and dependence on others.
MAIN TENETS OF ADLERIAN THEORY
1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior
is the striving for success or superiority.
2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their
behavior and personality
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent

4. The value of all human activity must be seen
from the viewpoint of social interest
5. The self-consistent personality structure
develops into a person’s style of life
6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power
1 STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY
● human motivation is driven by desire for
success or superiority
➔ psychologically healthy individuals - strive
for success of all humanity
➔ psychologically unhealthy - for personal
superiority
THE FINAL GOAL
● people strive toward either personal
superiority or success of all humankind
● is fictional and has no objective existence
● reduces the pain of inferiority feelings
● points a person in the direction of either
superiority/success
● product of a person’s creative power
THE STRIVING FORCE AS COMPENSATION
● people strive for success/superiority as a
means of compensation for feelings of
inferiority or weakness
● the striving force is innate but it must be
developed; at birth it exists as potentiality,
not actuality
STRIVING FOR PERSONAL SUPERIORITY
● some people strive for superiority with little
or no concern for others
● their goals are personal, and their strivings
are motivated largely by exaggerated
feelings of personal inferiority (inferiority
complex)
STRIVING FOR SUCCESS
● there are people who are motivated by social
interest and the success of all humankind
➔ social interest - feeling of oneness with
all humankind
● their sense of personal worth is tied closely
to their contributions to human society
● social progress is more important than
personal credit
2 SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTIONS
● the manner in which people strive for
success/superiority is not shaped by reality
but by their subjective perceptions of reality,
a.k.a. their fictions
➔ fictions - expectations of the future
FICTIONALISM
● our subjective, fictional, final goal guides our
style of life and gives unity to our personality
● fictions are ideas that have no real existence,
yet they influence people as if they really
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existed
● fictions bestow a purpose on all of people’s
actions and are responsible for a consistent
pattern that runs throughout their life
● Adler’s emphasis on fictions is consistent
with his strongly held teleological view of
motivation
PHYSICAL INFERIORITIES
● because people begin life small and weak,
they develop a fiction/belief system about
how to overcome these physical deficiencies
● Adler believed that humanity is “blessed”
with organ inferiorities; these handicaps
have no importance by themselves but
become meaningful when they stimulate
striving towards perfection or completion
3 UNITY AND SELF CONSISTENCY
● each person is unique and indivisible
● inconsistent behavior does not exist; all
thoughts, feelings, and actions are directed
toward a single goal
ORGAN DIALECT
● one of the ways a person operates with unity
and self-consistency
● the body’s organs “speak a language which is
usually more expressive and discloses the
individual’s opinion more clearly than words
are able to do”
➔ the deficient organ expresses the
direction of the individual’s goal
● a disturbance in one part of the body cannot
be viewed in isolation, as it affects the whole
body
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
● two cooperating parts of a unified system
(Adler did not view these as one against the
other)
➔ conscious thoughts are those that are
understood and helpful for the individual
in striving for success
➔ unconscious thoughts are those that are
not helpful
4 SOCIAL INTEREST
● from German term Gemeinschaftsgefühl

● feeling of oneness with all humanity
● “social feeling” or “community feeling”
● not synonymous with charity or
unselfishness
ORIGINS OF SOCIAL INTEREST
● it is rooted as potentiality in everyone
● originates from the mother-child relationship
during the early months of infancy
● must be developed before it can contribute
to a useful style of life
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL INTEREST
● social interest is the yardstick for measuring
psychological health (the sole criterion of
human values)
● it is the only gauge to be used in judging the
worth of a person
5 STYLE OF LIFE
● refers to the flavor of a person’s life
● includes a person’s goal, self-concept,
feelings for others, and attitude toward the
world
6 CREATIVE POWER
● a person’s freedom to create his/her own
style of life
● places people in control of their own lives
● makes each person a free individual
ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
● according to Adler, one factor underlying all
types of maladjustments is underdeveloped
social interest
● besides lacking social interest, neurotics
tend to:
➔ set their goals too high
➔ live in their own private world
➔ have a rigid and dogmatic style of life
EXTERNAL FACTORS IN MALADJUSTMENT
1. Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies – people
with exaggerated physical deficiencies
sometimes develop exaggerated feelings of
inferiority because they overcompensate for
their inadequacy
2. Pampered Style of Life – pampered people have
weak social interest but a strong desire to
perpetuate the pampered, parasitic relationship
they originally had with their parents.
- They expect others to overprotect and satisfy
their needs.
- Oversensitive and indecisive, they see the
world in private vision and believe that they
are to be first in everything
3. Neglected Style of Life – abused and mistreated
children develop little social interest and tend to
create a neglected style of life.
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- They are distrustful and unable to cooperate
for common welfare
SAFEGUARDING TECHNIQUES
● patterns of behavior that people use to
protect their exaggerated sense of
self-esteem
● can be compared to Freud’s concept of
defense mechanisms
1. Excuses – “yes, but” or “If, only” format
2. Aggression – used to exaggerate superiority
complex
● Depreciation – tendency to undervalue
other people’s achievement and to overvalue
one’s own
● Accusation – tendency to blame others for
one’s failures and to seek revenge
● Self-Accusation – marked by self-torture
and guilt
3. Withdrawal – when people run away from
difficulties
● Moving Backward – people revert to a more
secure period of life
● Standing still – people simply do not move in
any direction, thus avoiding all responsibility
by ensuring themselves against any threat of
failure.
➔ Characterized by lack of action as a
means of avoiding failure
● Hesitating – characterized by vacillation or
procrastination designed to provide a person
with the excuse “it’s too late now”
● Constructing obstacles – people create a
barrier to their own success to show they
can knock it down. By overcoming the
obstacle, they protect their self-esteem and
prestige
MASCULINE PROTEST
● overemphasis on the importance of being
manly
● some women reject a feminine identity in
order to be valued and compensated in the
same manner as men
APPLICATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
FAMILY CONSTELLATION
● Adler’s hypotheses about birth order
1. Firstborn children
● Positive traits: nurturing and protective,
good organizer
● Negative traits: highly anxious, exaggerated
feelings of power, unconscious hostility,
fights for acceptance, highly critical of
others, always “right”, uncooperative
2. Second child
● Positive traits: highly motivated, cooperative,
moderately competitive

● Negative traits: highly competitive, easily
discouraged
3. Youngest child
● Positive traits: realistically ambitious
● Negative: pampered style of life, dependent,
wants to excel in everything
4. Only child
● Positive: socially mature
● Negative: exaggerated feelings of
superiority, low feelings of cooperation,
inflated sense of self, pampered style of life
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS
● always consistent with people’s present
style of life
● a person’s subjective account of these
experiences yields clues to understanding
both their final goal and their present style of
life
4 JUNG: ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
BIOGRAPHY
● his father was a minister, and his mother was
the daughter of a theologian
➔ religion and medicine were prevalent in
his family
● his early life was that of an only child
● at age 3 he was separated from his mother
because she was hospitalized
➔ because of this, he associated the word
“woman” = unreliable, and “father” =
reliable
● during his school years, he discovered two
aspects of his personality which he labeled
No. 1 and No. 2 personalities
➔ No. 1 - extraverted, in tune to the
objective world
➔ No. 2 - introverted, directed inward
towards his subjective world
● first choice of profession was archaeology
● had to switch majors so he chose natural
sciences, which led to him studying
medicine, and eventually psychiatry
● he became Eugene Bleuler’s psychiatric
assistant after completing his medical
degree
● studied for 6 months in Paris with Pierre
Janet, successor to Charcot
● became a professor of medical psychology
but had to resign after a year because of
poor health
● died of cardiovascular disease a few weeks
before his 86th birthday
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LEVELS OF THE PSYCHE
CONSCIOUS
● images that are sensed by the ego
● ego is the center of consciousness
PERSONAL UNCONSCIOUS
● formed by individual experiences and is
therefore unique to each person
● contains repressed, forgotten, or
subliminally perceived experiences of an
individual
● slightly different from Freud’s view of the
unconscious and preconscious combined
● Complexes - contents of the personal
unconscious; emotionally toned
conglomeration of associated ideas
➔ are largely personal but can also be
derived from humanity’s collective
experience
COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
● from the ancestral past of the entire species
● contents are more or less the same for
people in all cultures
● does not refer to inherited ideas but rather
to humans’ innate tendency to react in a
particular way whenever their experiences
stimulate a biologically inherited response
tendency
➔ biologically-based predispositions
● Jung’s most controversial and most distinct
concept
ARCHETYPES
● ancient or archaic images derived from the
collective unconscious
● psychic counterpart of an instinct
➔ Instinct - unconscious physical impulse
towards action; observable in animals
➔ therefore archetypes are psychic
patterns that a human repeats
spontaneously
PERSONA
● refers to the mask worn by actors in early
theater
● the side of personality we show to the world;
our public face
● overidentifying with the persona will make
us lose touch with our individuality and get
blocked from attaining self-realization
SHADOW
● archetype of darkness and repression
● qualities we do not wish to acknowledge but
attempt to hide from ourselves and others
ANIMA
● Jung believed that all humans are
psychologically bisexual and possess both a

masculine and feminine side
● anima is the feminine side of men
● originates from early men’s experiences with
women (mother, sisters, lover) that form a
general picture of a woman
● represents moods and feelings
ANIMUS
● masculine side of women
● symbolizes thinking and reasoning
GREAT MOTHER
● a derivative of the anima
● pre existing concept of mother that is always
associated with both positive and negative
feelings
● represents two opposing forces:
➔ fertility and nourishment
➔ power and destruction
WISE OLD MAN
● archetype of wisdom and meaning
● symbolizes humans’ pre existing knowledge
of the mysteries of life
● unconscious and cannot be directly
experienced by an individual
HERO
● represented in mythology and legends as a
powerful person who fights against great
odds to conquer evil
SELF
● the archetype of archetypes, because it pulls
together the other archetypes and unites
them in the process of self-realization
➔ Self-realization - an inherited tendency
to move toward growth, perfection, and
completion
● symbolized by a person’s ideas of perfection,
completion, and wholeness
● Mandala - ultimate symbol of the self
DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY
CAUSALITY AND TELEOLOGY
● Causality - holds that present events have
their origin in previous experiences
● Teleology - holds that present events are
motivated by goals and aspirations for the
future that direct a person’s destiny
PROGRESSION AND REGRESSION
● Progression - adaptation to the outside
world that involves the forward flow of
psychic energy
➔ inclines a person to react consistently to a
given set of environmental conditions
● Regression - adaptation to the inner world
that involves the backward flow of psychic
energy
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➔ backward step in the successful
attainment of a goal
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
ATTITUDES
● predisposition to act or react in a
characteristic direction
● either introverted or extroverted
1. Introversion
● turning inward of psychic energy with an
orientation toward the subjective
● introverts are tuned into their inner world
with all its biases, fantasies, dreams, and
individualized perceptions
2. Extraversion
● attitude distinguished by the turning
outward of psychic energy so that the
person is oriented toward the objective and
away from the subjective
● extraverts are more influenced by their
surroundings than by their inner world
FUNCTIONS
● also known as orientation types and can be
combined with attitudes
1. Thinking
● logical intellectual activity that produces a
chain of ideas
● enables a person to recognize the meaning
of something
● Extraverted thinking - people rely heavily on
concrete thoughts, but they may also use
abstract ideas
● Introverted thinking - people react to
external stimuli, but their interpretation of an
event is colored by the internal meaning they
bring with them than by objective facts
2. Feeling
● process of evaluating an idea or event
● tells a person the value or worth of
something
● a.k.a. valuing
● Extraverted feeling - usage of objective
data and widely accepted standards of
judgment to make evaluations
● Introverted feeling - people base their value
judgments primarily on subjective
perceptions rather than objective facts
➔ ignores traditional opinions and beliefs
3. Sensing
● function that receives physical stimuli and
transmits them to perceptual consciousness
● an individual’s perception of sensory
impulses
● Extraverted sensing - perceive external
stimuli objectively, in much the same way

that these stimuli exist in reality
● Introverted sensing - guided by their
interpretation of sense stimuli rather than
the stimuli themselves
➔ gives subjective interpretation to
objective phenomena
4. Intuiting
● perception beyond the workings of
consciousness
● allows a person to know something without
knowing how they know
● Extraverted intuition - oriented toward facts
in the external world
➔ suppress many of their sensations and
are guided by hunches and guesses
● Introverted intuition - guided by
unconscious perception of facts that are
basically subjective and have little to no
resemblance to external reality
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
1. Childhood
● anarchic phase - characterized by chaotic
and sporadic consciousness
➔ islands of consciousness exist, but there
are little or no connection between these
islands
● monarchic phase - characterized by the
development of the ego and by the
beginning of logical and verbal thinking
➔ children perceive themselves objectively
and often refer to themselves in the third
person
➔ islands of consciousness become larger,
more numerous, and inhabited by a
primitive ego
● dualistic phase - the ego is divided into the
objective and the subjective
➔ children refer to themselves in first
person
➔ islands of consciousness become one
continuous land, inhabited by an
ego-complex that recognizes itself as
both object and subject
2. Youth
● period from puberty until middle life
● should be a period of increased activity,
maturing sexuality, growing consciousness,
and recognition that the problem-free era of
childhood is gone forever
➔ major difficulty in youth is to overcome
the natural tendency to cling to childhood
➔ conservative principle - the desire to live
in the past
3. Middle Life
● begins approx. at age 35 or 40
● middle age people has increasing anxieties
10
● period of tremendous potential
4. Old Age
● people experience a diminution (reduction in
size) of consciousness
● if people fear life in the early years, they
most likely will also fear death in the later
ones
➔ fear of death is natural, but Jung believed
death is the goal of life, and life can only
be fulfilling when death is viewed this way
SELF-REALIZATION
● psychological rebirth
● process of becoming an individual or whole
person
● analytical psych is a psychology of
opposites; self-realization is the process of
integrating the opposite poles into a single
homogeneous individual
● “coming to selfhood”
● extremely rare and achieved only by people
who are able to assimilate their unconscious
into their total personality
WORD ASSOCIATION TEST
● Jung was not the first to use this, but he can
be credited with helping develop and refine it
● original purpose in using the word assoc. test
was to demonstrate Freud’s hypothesis that
the unconscious operates as an autonomous
process
● the basic purpose of this test in Jungian
psychology today is to uncover
feeling-toned complexes
ACTIVE IMAGINATION
● method of investigation that requires a
person to begin with any impression, and to
concentrate until the impression begins to
“move”
● the person must follow these images to
wherever they lead then courageously face
these autonomous images and freely
communicate with them
● the purpose is to reveal archetypal images
emerging from the unconscious
5 SULLIVAN: INTERPERSONAL THEORY
BIOGRAPHY
● only surviving child of farmer parents (his
two elder brothers died before reaching the
age of 1)

● not close with father, described his mother
as a “complainer”
● had 3 mothering figures (grandmother, mom,
aunt)
● was a Catholic in a Protestant community
● shy and awkward
● at age 8, he had an intimate relationship with
13 y/o boy Clarence Bellinger
● he was interested in Science, not farming
● valedictorian of his high school class, then
was suspended for academic failure
➔ rumored only; suspension might actually
be because of mail fraud
● mysteriously disappeared for 2 years
➔ there are various theories why:
● some said he was institutionalized
because of a schizophrenic breakdown
● others say he went to an older male
who mentored him in psychiatry and
helped with his sexuality
➔ whatever truly happened made him more
interested in psychiatry
● served as a military officer in WWII
● entered psychiatry at age 30
➔ he was mostly exposed to schizophrenic
patients
● opened a private clinic but it did not flourish
➔ his becoming the president and editor of
William Alanson White Psychiatric
Foundation led to the closing of this clinic
● informally adopted a 15 y/o boy named
James Incoe who stayed with him for 22
years
➔ became his protege and even used his
surname later in life
● he died in Paris due to cerebral hemorrhage
THEORY OVERVIEW
● personality is developed through
interpersonal relationships, social
interactions, and culture
● personality is an energy system existing as
either tension or energy transformation
TENSION
● the potentiality for action
TWO TYPES OF TENSION
1. Needs for Satisfaction
● General Needs - tenderness (provided by
the mothering figure), food, water, oxygen
● Zonal Needs - arises from a particular area
of the body; oral, anal, genital
2. Anxiety - originates from the mothering figure
to the infant through empathy
- operates against the satisfaction of needs
➔ if an infant reaches a certain threshold of
anxiety, the general needs will be
hindered
11
ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS
● the action itself
● refers to the behaviors that are aimed at
satisfying needs and reducing anxiety (the
two great tensions)
● become organized as typical behavior
patterns that characterize a person
throughout a lifetime
➔ these behavior patterns are called
dynamisms
DYNAMISM
● traits or habit patterns
● has two major classes:
➔ related to specific zones (mouth, anus,
genitals)
➔ related to tensions
● Disjunctive - destructive patterns of
behavior (malevolence)
● Isolating - behavior patterns that are
unrelated to interpersonal relations
(lust)
● Conjunctive - beneficial behavior
patterns; arises from interpersonal
situations (intimacy, self-system)
Disjunctive: MALEVOLENCE
● results from not satisfying the needs
● emerges when a child’s actions are rebuffed,
ignored, or met with anxiety and pain
Isolating: LUST
● manifests as auto-erotic behavior; isolating
because it doesn’t require another person
for its satisfaction
● hinders intimate relationships
Conjunctive: INTIMACY
● helps alleviate anxiety and loneliness
● close interpersonal relationship between
two people who are more or less of equal
status
Conjunctive: SELF-SYSTEM
● most complex and inclusive dynamism
● consistent pattern of behaviors that
maintains people’s interpersonal security by
protecting them from anxiety
● develops earlier than intimacy, at about
12-18 months
➔ children learn which behaviors increase or
decrease anxiety (warning device)
● the warning is both a blessing and a curse:
➔ blessing because it serves as a signal that
alerts people when anxiety increases, so
they can protect themselves
➔ curse because it makes the self resistant
to change by hindering the person from
confronting the anxiety-inducing

experience
SECURITY OPERATIONS
● means of which a person attempts to defend
themselves against interpersonal tensions
● reduce anxiety and/or insecurity resulting
from endangered self-esteem
DISSOCIATION
● impulses that a person refuses to allow into
awareness
● manifests in dreams, daydreams, or
unintentional activities outside awareness
SELECTIVE INATTENTION
● control of focal attention
● refusal to see things that we don’t wish to
see
● blocking out experiences that are not
consistent with our existing self-system
12
to alleviate anxiety and loneliness
● can also be found in adults: projecting
imaginary traits from previous relationships
onto other people
LEVELS OF COGNITION
● ways of perceiving, imagining, and
conceiving
PROTOTAXIC LEVEL
● beyond conscious recall, and therefore is
completely personal; cannot be shared with
others
● undifferentiated thought that is unable to
separate the whole into parts or to use
symbols

PERSONIFICATIONS
● image of self and others during infancy
● bad mother, good mother, and me
personifications
PARATAXIC LEVEL
BAD-MOTHER
● absence of logic
● infant’s perception of an anxious,
● person assumes a cause-and-effect
malevolent, mothering one
relationships between two coincidentally
● doesn’t satisfy the child’s needs
occurring events

GOOD-MOTHER
● calm, tender, cooperative behaviors of the
mothering one
SYNTAXIC LEVEL
● logical, mature, rational
● experiences that are consensually validated
and can be symbolically communicated

ME PERSONIFICATIONS
● acquired in mid infancy
● building blocks of the “self” personification
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
1. Bad-Me - fashioned from experiences of
● chief contribution of Sullivan
punishment and disapproval that infants receive
● he postulated 7 epochs of development
from the mothering one
● personality change most likely occurs during
2. Good-Me - experiences with reward and
the transition from one stage to the next
approval
3. Not-Me - formed by sudden severe anxiety
INFANCY (0-2 years)
➔ the infant denies the experiences that
● receives tenderness and anxiety from the
caused severe anxiety, making it a part of
mother
the not-me personification
● mother-infant relationship is a two-sided
coin (bad/good mother)
EIDETIC PERSONIFICATIONS
● unrealistic traits or imaginary playmates that
children invent to protect their self-esteem,
 13
CHILDHOOD (2-6 years) other person
● establishment of syntaxic language ● mature adults are perceptive of other
● rapid acculturation people’s needs, anxiety, and security
● good-me, bad-me, and not-me fuses into a ● operate predominantly on syntaxic level
single-self dynamism
● aside from parents, children develop another SUMMARY OF STAGES
significant relationship: imaginary playmate
● child learns dramatizations and
preoccupations
➔ Dramatizations - attempts to act like or
sound like significant authority figures,
like mother/father
➔ Preoccupations - busying oneself with an
activity proven to alleviate anxiety

JUVENILE ERA (6-8 years)

● period of socializing with other kids (need for
peers/playmates)
● learns to compete, compromise, and
cooperate

PREADOLESCENCE (8-13 years)

● time for intimacy with one particular person
(usually of same gender)
6 HORNEY: PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL THEORY
● stages before this are egocentric; this stage
makes the child able to take genuine interest BIOGRAPHY
in another person
● beginning of the capacity to love (*this is the
key point of this stage)
● critical stage for future development of
personality
➔ failing to learn intimacy here would stun
personality growth later

EARLY ADOLESCENCE (13-15 years) ● German, second child, only daughter

● starts from puberty, end with the need for
sexual love with one person
● intimacy is now accompanied by lust (a
separate need)
● lust bursts out whether or not the individual
is interpersonally ready (because it is a
biological dynamism)
● turning point in personality development
● lust, security, and intimacy is in fusion
LATE ADOLESCENCE (15+ years)
● person is able to feel both lust and intimacy
toward the same person
● period of self-discovery
● completely determined by interpersonal
relations
● progress of this stage depends on
successes or failures of the prerequisite
stages
ADULTHOOD
● not really a stage; it is the culmination of
development (comes after successful
completion of late adolescence)
● period when people can establish a love
relationship with at least one significant
➔ her father has four kids from a first family
● always being compared with her brother
● first woman in Germany to study medicine
● met her husband Oskar (a political student)
in University of Freiburg
● a year after marriage, she met her analyst
Karl Abraham
➔ for a person to become a psychoanalyst,
Freud would assign them an analyst to
train them
● left Germany for the Associate Director
position in Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute
● after 2 years, she left Chicago and went to
New York
● in NY, she joined the Zodiac group, where she
met Fromm, Fromm-Reichmann, and several
others
➔ eventually divorced with Oskar because
she had multiple affairs, including that
with Fromm
➔ during the Great Depression, her husband
lost his job while her career is flourishing
● renamed the Association for the
Advancement of Psychoanalysis to Karen
Horney Psychoanalytic Institute after Fromm
and others left

● died at age 65 because of cancer
THEORY OVERVIEW
● social and cultural influences, especially
childhood experiences, are primarily
responsible for shaping personality rather
than biological forces
● Basic hostility - develops from unsatisfied
needs for love and attention
➔ basic hostility will make a person suffer
with basic anxiety
FUNDAMENTAL STYLES OF RELATING TO
OTHERS
● defense against basic anxiety
1. moving toward people
2. moving against people
3. moving away from people
● the neurotic compulsive behavior generates
a basic intrapsychic conflict that may take
the form of either idealized self-image or
self-hatred
HORNEY AND FREUD COMPARED
● Horney has an optimistic view, believing that
cultural forces causing intrapsychic conflict
are changeable
Freud has a pessimistic view of humanity, his
explanation is based on innate instincts and
the stagnation of personality
● she disagreed with Freud’s ideas on feminine
psychology
IMPACT OF CULTURE
● modern culture is based on competitiveness
among individuals
COMPETITIVENESS
● creates basic hostility and spawns feelings
of isolation
14
➔ feelings of isolation > make you crave
more love > love is overvalued
➔ the obsession with getting love will trap a
person into a loop of low self-esteem and
seeking love
WESTERN CULTURE CONTRIBUTES TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF INTRAPSYCHIC CONFLICTS
1. Individualism drives a person to win or be
superior (aggressiveness)
2. Demands for success and achievement are
nearly endless
3. Western society tells its people that they’re free,
but freedom is restricted by genetics, social
position, and competitiveness of others
IMPORTANCE OF CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
● a difficult childhood is primarily responsible
for neurotic needs
➔ the satisfaction of neurotic needs are the
only means of the child of gaining feelings
of safety
BASIC HOSTILITY
● develops when parents do not satisfy the
child’s needs of safety and satisfaction
● this hostility towards parents is repressed
and the child has no awareness of it
➔ this repression leads to profound feelings
of insecurity, which is the condition called
basic anxiety
BASIC ANXIETY
● feeling of being isolated and helpless in a
world conceived as potentially hostile (1950)
● feeling of being small, insignificant, helpless,
deserted, endangered, in a world that is
about to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate,
betray, envy (1947)
WAYS PEOPLE PROTECT THEMSELVES AGAINST
ANXIETY
1. Affection
● strategy that doesn’t always lead to
authentic love
● in search for affection, some people may try
to purchase love with self-effacing
compliance, material goods, or sexual favors
2. Submissiveness
● neurotics may submit themselves either to
people or to institutions (ie. organizations,
religions)
● submitting oneself to another person to gain
affection
3. Power, prestige, possession
● Power - manifested as the tendency to
dominate others
● Prestige - expressed as a tendency to
humiliate others
● Possession - acts as a buffer against
destitution and poverty; manifested as a
 15
tendency to deprive others 10. Neurotic need for perfection and
unassailability
4. Withdrawal ● dread making mistakes and having flaws
● developing an independence from others ● desperately tries to hide their weaknesses
● becoming emotionally detached from others from others
● by psychologically withdrawing, neurotics
feel that they cannot be hurt by other people NEUROTIC TRENDS
● classification of the needs into three
COMPULSIVE DRIVES categories
● used to continually and compulsively protect
self from basic anxiety MOVING TOWARDS OTHER PEOPLE
● defensive strategy that traps a person in a ● The Compliant Personality
vicious circle to reduce basic anxiety, but will ➔ Affection and Approval
only result in more basic anxiety ➔ A dominant partner

NEUROTIC NEEDS MOVING AGAINST OTHER PEOPLE

● more specific than the four protective ● The Aggressive Personality
devices mentioned previously, but describes ➔ Power
the same basic defensive strategies ➔ Exploitation
➔ Prestige
1. Neurotic need for affection and approval ➔ Admiration
● try to live up to the expectations of others ➔ Achievement
● sensitive to rejection/criticism
2. Neurotic need for a powerful partner MOVING AWAY FROM OTHER PEOPLE
● attaching oneself to a powerful partner to ● The Detached Personality
compensate for their lack of self-confidence ➔ Self-sufficiency
● overvaluation of love ➔ Perfection
● extreme fear of being abandoned ➔ Narrow limits to life
3. Neurotic need to restrict one’s life within
narrow borders SUMMARY
● contented with very little, downgrade their
own abilities
● resigns to their situation without trying to
improve it
4. Neurotic need for power
● linked with Sullivan’s theory
● felt they were belittled as a child
● need to control others, to be high and mighty
5. Neurotic need to exploit others
● evaluating other people on the basis on how
they could be used
● fears being exploited by others
6. Neurotic need for social recognition INTRAPSYCHIC CONFLICTS
● attracting attention to their self ● inner conflicts that both normal and neurotic
● craves public recognition and acclaim individuals experience
● may not be receptive of criticism ➔ Idealized self-image
7. Neurotic need for personal admiration ➔ Self-hatred
● inflated self-esteem is fed by the admiration
of others 1 IDEALIZED SELF-IMAGE
● need to be admired for what they are, rather ● attempt to solve conflicts by painting a
than for what they possess godlike picture of oneself
8. Neurotic need for ambition and personal ● extravagantly positive view of self that exists
achievement only in the personal belief system
● strong drive to be the best ● neurotics glorify and worship themselves in
● need to defeat other people in order to different ways:
confirm their superiority ➔ Compliant people see themselves as
9. Neurotic need for self-sufficiency and good and saintly
independence ➔ Aggressive people build an idealized
● loner mentality image of themselves as strong, heroic,
● strong need to move away from people to and omnipotent
prove that they can survive without others ➔ Detached neurotics paint themselves as

wise, self-sufficient, and independent
● rather than growing toward self-realization,
they move toward actualizing their ideal self
● three aspects of the idealized self-image:
➔ neurotic search for glory
➔ neurotic claims
➔ neurotic pride
NEUROTIC SEARCH FOR GLORY
● comprehensive drive toward actualizing the
ideal self
● in addition to self-idealization, the neurotic
search for glory includes three other
elements:
➔ The need for perfection - drive to mold
the whole personality into the idealized
self
● Tyranny of the should - complex set of
“shoulds” or “should nots”; “forget
about the disgraceful creature you
actually are, this is how you should be”
➔ Neurotic ambition - compulsive drive to
superiority
➔ Drive toward a vindictive triumph - most
destructive element; may be disguised as
a drive for achievement/success, but its
chief aim is to put others to shame
through one’s own success
NEUROTIC CLAIMS
● neurotics build a fantasy world that is out of
sync with the real world
● neurotics proclaim that they are special and
therefore entitled to be treated in
accordance with their idealized view of
themselves
NEUROTIC PRIDE
● false pride based on a spurious image of the
idealized self instead of the true self
● different from healthy pride and realistic
self-esteem, which are based on realistic
attributes and accomplishments
2 SELF-HATRED
● irrational and powerful tendency to despise
one’s real self
● people with neurotic search for glory can
never be happy with themselves because
they realize their real self does not match
their idealized self
WAYS OF EXPRESSING SELF-HATRED
1. Relentless demands on the self - tyranny of
the should; people make demands on
themselves that don’t stop even when they
achieve a measure of success
2. Merciless self-accusation - self-criticism;
16
constantly berating themselves
3. Self-contempt - belittling oneself; this
prevents people from striving for
achievement
4. Self-frustration - shackled by taboos
against enjoyment; doesn’t allow oneself
enjoyment or better things
5. Self-torment - inflicting harm/suffering on
themselves
6. Self-destructive actions and impulses - self
sabotage; can be carried out in action or
enacted only in imagination
FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY
● psychic differences between men and
women are due to cultural and social
expectations, not anatomy
● neurotic competitiveness
➔ men who subdue and rule women
➔ women who degrade and envy men
● basic anxiety is at the core of men’s need to
subjugate women and women’s wish to
humiliate men
● saw no evidence for a universal Oedipus
complex
➔ found only in some people
➔ expression of neurotic need for love
● child’s main goal is security, not sexual
intercourse
● found the concept of penis envy less tenable
➔ no anatomical reason why girls should be
envious of the penis
● many women possess a masculine protest
➔ neurotic desire to be a man
7 FROMM: HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
BIOGRAPHY
● only child, Jewish
● described parents and self as neurotic
● became interested with Freud because of
the Oedipus complex concept
● Sociology major
● trained to become a psychoanalyst because
his first wife trained him (Freida Reichmann,
10 years his senior)
● met Horney in the US and had an affair with
her
● 2nd wife: Henny Gurland, 3rd wife: Annis
Freeman
THEORY OVERVIEW
● humanity’s separation from the natural world
has produced feelings of loneliness and

isolation, a condition called basic anxiety
● individual personality can only be
understood in the light of human history
● human dilemma - experienced by people
because they have become separated from
nature and yet have the capacity to be aware
of themselves as isolated beings
➔ regarded as both a blessing and a curse
● existential dichotomies
➔ life vs. death
➔ conceptualizing the goal of
self-realization vs. being aware that life is
too short to achieve that goal
HUMAN NEEDS
● distinctive human needs aside from our
physiological needs
1. Relatedness
● drive for union with another person
● three ways in which people relate to the
world:
➔ submission - dependence on a partner
due to a desperate need for relatedness
➔ power
➔ love - only route by which a person can
become united with the world and
achieve individuality at the same time
2. Transcendence
● urge to rise from just being animals, to rise
from passive existence to the realm of
purposefulness and freedom
● what are you going to do with the rational
thinking that you have?
● can be achieved by either destroying or
creating life
● only humans have the capacity to transcend
➔ malignant aggression - killing for reasons
other than survival; humans are the only
species doing this
3. Rootedness
● the need to establish roots or to feel at home
again in the world
● we are a separate entity but we are still part
of the world
➔ fixation - a nonproductive strategy of
seeking rootedness; the tenacious
reluctance to move beyond the protective
security provided by one’s mother
4. Sense of Identity
● capacity to be aware of ourselves as a
separate identity
● the need to form a concept of our self
5. Frame of Orientation
● the need for a road map to make their way
through the world
● values and principles that we hold on to
17
● we need a goal or an object of devotion
BURDEN OF FREEDOM
● as children become more independent from
their, they become more free to express
their individuality, to move around, to choose
their friends, clothes, and so on
● but they also experience the burden of
freedom which is being free from the
security of being one with the mother
● this burden of freedom results in basic
anxiety, which is the feeling of being alone in
the world
MECHANISMS OF ESCAPE
● we have basic anxiety and frightening sense
of isolation from realizing that we are
separate from our mother, so we use this to
escape from those feelings
● these are the driving forces in normal
people, both individually and collectively
AUTHORITARIANISM
● attaching oneself to a more powerful person
to acquire the strength that they lack
● have two forms:
➔ masochism - feelings of powerlessness,
weakness, and inferiority
➔ sadism - more neurotic and more socially
harmful
● tendency to make others dependent on
oneself and to gain power over the
weak
● compulsion to exploit others and take
advantage of them
● desire to see others suffer physically or
psychologically
DESTRUCTIVENESS
● like authoritarianism, is rooted in the feelings
of aloneness, isolation and powerlessness
● seeks to do away with other people
● attempts to restore lost feelings of power by
destroying people and objects, a person or
nation
● eliminates most of the outside world and
therefore acquires a type of perverted
isolation
CONFORMITY
● trying to escape from a sense of aloneness
and isolation by giving up their individuality
and becoming whatever other people desire
them to be
POSITIVE FREEDOM
● spontaneous and full expression of both
their rational and their emotional
potentialities
● independent yet still an integral part of
mankind
 18
CHARACTER ORIENTATIONS revolves around death, destruction, disease,
● a person’s relatively permanent way of and decay
relating to people and things
● character - the relatively permanent system
of all non instinctual strivings through which
man relates himself to the human and
natural world
● people relate to the world in two ways:
➔ assimilation - acquiring and using things
➔ socialization - relating to self and others
MALIGNANT NARCISSISM
NONPRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS
● impeded perception of reality so that
1. Receptive
everything belonging to the narcissistic
● believe that the source of all good lies
person is highly valued, and everything
outside themselves
belonging to another is devalued
● the only way they can relate to the world is to
receive things
INCESTOUS SYMBIOSIS
● more concerned with receiving than giving
● extreme dependence on the mother or
mother surrogate
2. Exploitative
● more exaggerated form of mother fixation
● also believes that the source of all good is
outside themselves
SYNDROME OF DECAY
● they aggressively take what they desire
● possessing a combination of necrophilia,
rather than passively receive it
malignant narcissism, and incestuous
symbiosis
3. Hoarding
● demonstrated example is Adolf Hitler
● seeks to save that which they have already
obtained rather than valuing things outside
themselves 8 ERIKSON: POST-FREUDIAN THEORY
● hold everything inside and don’t let go of
anything (material things, feelings, and BIOGRAPHY
thought)

4. Marketing
● see themselves as commodities, with their
personal value dependent on their exchange
value
● adjusts themselves to what is currently
demanded; “I am as you desire me”
● have no permanent principles or values
THE PRODUCTIVE ORIENTATION
● work toward positive freedom and a
continuing realization of their potential
● only through this can an individual solve the
basic human dilemma: to unite with the
world while maintaining individuality
● has three dimensions:
➔ work - valued not as an end in itself, but
as a means of creative self-expression
➔ love - biophilia; have the desire to further
all life
➔ thinking - motivated by a concerned
interest in another person or object
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
NECROPHILIA
● attraction to death (not necessarily sexual);
the opposite of biophilia
● entire lifestyle of a necrophilous person
● Jewish
● never knew his biological father
➔ raised by his mother, his stepfather was
initially introduced as his biological father,
but he eventually noticed the difference
in their features
➔ his most difficult problem was searching
for his father
● he had no formal training in psychoanalysis;
Anna Freud became his employer and
psychoanalyst
● had four children, one of which had down
syndrome (Neil)
➔ they hid him in an institution and kept his
identity and existence from the other
three children
➔ first to know the truth was the firstborn,
Kai
➔ the other two, Sue and Jon, only knew
about Neil when they were tasked to
handle his funeral arrangements

THEORY OVERVIEW
● a.k.a. the Psychosocial Theory of
Development
● extended Freud’s infantile developmental
stages into adolescence, adulthood, and old
age
● each stage has a specific psychosocial
struggle that contributes to the formation of
personality
● stressed the importance of social
interactions in development, as opposed to
Freud’s emphasis on the psychosexual
process
THE EGO IN POST-FREUDIAN THEORY
● a.k.a. Ego Psychology
● in contrast to Freud’s concept
➔ Freud: ego is the self; it is regarded as the
weakest
➔ Erikson: ego is the strongest
EGO (Erikson definition)
● the positive force that creates self identity
● weak and fragile during childhood, will gain
strength in adolescence
● the “I”
● has three aspects:
➔ body ego - experiences with our body;
way of seeing our physical self as
different from other people
➔ ego ideal - the aim or ideal self;
comparison of our self-image to an
established ideal
➔ ego identity - self-image of what we are
now (our roles)
SOCIETY’S INFLUENCE
● ego exists as a potential at birth, but it must
emerge from within a cultural environment
for it to develop
● “getting out of comfort zone”
● pseudospecies - illusion by a particular
society that it is chosen to be the human
species
EPIGENETIC PRINCIPLE
● term borrowed from embryology
● belief that the ego develops through stages,
a step-by-step growth
● the development occurs according to a
predetermined rate and in a fixed sequence
● success of a stage is reliant on the success
of the stages before it
SEVEN BASIC POINTS OF PSYCHOSOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
● must be understood to comprehend
Erikson’s stages of development
1. growth takes place according to the epigenetic
principle
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2. in every stage of life there is an interaction of
opposites; conflict between syntonic and
dystonic element
➔ syntonic - harmonious element
➔ dystonic - disruptive element
3. the conflict between syntonic and dystonic
elements produces an ego quality which he
called the basic strength
4. too little basic strength at any stage results in a
core pathology
5. even though his theory is called psychosocial,
Erikson did not disregard the biological aspect of
human development
6. ego identity is shaped by multiplicity of
conflicts and events
7. each stage (especially from adolescence
onwards) is characterized by an identity crisis
➔ identity crisis - a turning point ; a crucial
period of increased vulnerability and
heightened potential
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
INFANCY (0-1 yrs)
● parallel to oral stage
● time of incorporation, infants “take in” not
only through mouth but in all senses
● oral-sensory mode - receiving and
accepting what is given
➔ receiving - can be done in absence of
other people; ex. taking in air through
lungs
➔ accepting - in a social context; infants
must not only get, they must also have
someone to give
EARLY CHILDHOOD (2-3 yrs)
● parallel to anal stage
● mastering other body functions such as
urinating, walking, throwing, holding, etc.
● focused on developing a personal control
over physical skills and a sense of
independence
● anal-urethral muscular mode - children
learn to control their body, especially in

relation to cleanliness and mobility
● children may display stubborn tendencies
such as:
➔ retaining feces or eliminating them at will
➔ snuggling up to the mother or suddenly
push her away
➔ delight in hoarding objects or ruthlessly
discard them
● in this stage, the ratio between the two
elements should favor the syntonic quality
(autonomy)
PLAY AGE (3-5 yrs)
● parallel to phallic phase
● develops locomotion, language skills,
curiosity, imagination, and ability to set goals
● Oedipus complex - prototype “of lifelong
power of human playfulness”
➔ drama played out in the child’s
imagination and includes the budding
understanding of such basic concepts as
reproduction, future, and death
● genital-locomotor mode - play is an
expression not only of the genital mode but
also of the child’s rapidly developing
locomotor abilities
● in this stage, the ratio between the two
elements should favor the syntonic quality
(initiative)
20
SCHOOL AGE (6-12 yrs)
● parallel to latency phase
● social world of children expands beyond
family to include peers, teachers, and other
adult models
● the wish to know becomes strong and is tied
to the basic striving for competence
● does not necessarily mean formalized
schooling
● Latency - Erikson agreed with Freud that
school age is a period of psychosexual
latency
➔ important because it allows children to
divert their energies to learning the
technology of their culture and the
strategies of their social interactions
ADOLESCENCE (12-18 yrs)
● period from puberty to young adulthood
● one of the most crucial developmental
stages because a person must gain a firm
sense of identity by the end of this
● searching for a sense of self and personal
identity
● characterized by intense exploration of
personal values, beliefs, and goals
● puberty - genital maturation; plays a minor
role in Erikson’s concept of adolescence
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YOUNG ADULTHOOD (19-30 yrs)

● major conflict centers on forming intimate,
loving relationships with other people
● development of mature genitality
➔ much of the sexual activity during
adolescence is an expression of one’s search
for identity and is basically self-serving
➔ (true) genitality - distinguished by mutual
trust and a stable sharing of sexual
satisfactions with a loved person; can only
develop during young adulthood OLD AGE (60 yrs - death)
● contemplation of our accomplishments
● time of joy, playfulness, and wonder; but also
a time of senility, depression, and despair
● generalized sensuality - taking pleasure in a
variety of physical sensations such as sighs,
sounds, tastes, odors etc.
➔ may also include a greater appreciation
for the traditional lifestyle of the opposite
sex
● men become more nurturant and
become more acceptant of the
pleasures of nonsexual relationships
● women become more interested and
involved in politics, finance, and world
affairs
➔ dependent on one’s ability to maintain
● although love includes intimacy, it also integrity in the face of despair
contains some degree of isolation because
each partner is permitted to retain a
separate identity
● too much togetherness can diminish a
person’s sense of identity which will lead to
psychosocial regression

ADULTHOOD (31-60 yrs)

● time when people begin to take their place in
society
● focused on building lives primarily through
careers, families, and contributions to
society
● procreativity - assuming responsibility for
the care of offspring that results from sexual
contact
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SUMMARY OF STAGES

METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES
● study of human society, culture, and
development

PSYCHOHISTORY
● the study of individual and collective life with
the combined methods of psychoanalysis
and history

PAPASA KA! GOOD LUCK! 💙

PREPARED AND ARRANGED BY:

DAFCIL F. LIWANAGAN

PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OLFU-QC,

EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE