1 Alfred Adler 3 Erik Erikson

The Role of Genetics and the Environment

Compensation Conflicts and Crises
Inferiority complex Adaptive Coping
Basic Strengths
2 Carl jung Basic Weaknesses
Personal unconscious 4 Karen Horney
Collective unconscious The Childhood Need for Safety and Security
Archetypes Basic Anxiety
FOUR DIFFERET WAYS TO PROTECT OURSELVES
Attitude/Personality Types AGAINST BASIC ANXIETY
Neurotic Needs
NEO- Freudian
• Defination
“ neo- freudain referring to modification , extensions, revisions
of Freud’s original psychoanalytic theory, most commonly to
those that
Emphasize social,cultural,and interpersonal elements rather
than
Innate biological instincts such as sexuality and aggression.
Erik Erikson
The Role of Genetics and the Environment

•Erikson suggested that the developmental process was governed by

what he called the epigenetic principle of maturation.
•By this he meant that inherited forces are the determining
characteristics of the developmental stages.
•The prefix epi means "upon"; therefore,development depends on
genetic factors.
•However, it is the social and environmental forces to which we are
exposed that control the ways in which the genetically predetermined
stages of development are realized.
•Thus, our personality development is affected by both biological and
social factors.
 Conflicts and Crises
•Erikson's theory, human development involves a series of personal conflicts.Each
confrontation with our environment is called a crisis.

•Each developmental stage has its particular crisis or turning point that necessitates some
change in our behavior and personality. Only when we have resolved each conflict can
the personality continue its normal developmental sequence and acquire the strength to
confront the next stage's crisis.

•If the conflict at any stage remains unresolved, we are less likely to be able to adapt to
later problems.
 Adaptive Coping

• Erikson believed that the ego must incorporate both maladaptive as well as adaptive ways
of coping.

• For example, in infancy, the first stage of psychosocial development, we can respond to the
crisis of helplessness and dependency by developing a sense of trust or a sense of mistrust.
Trust, the more adaptive, desirable way of coping, is obviously the healthier psychological
attitude. Yet each of us must also develop some degree of mistrust as a form of protection.

• Ideally, at every stage of development the ego will consist primarily of the positive or
adaptive attitude but will be balanced by some portion of the negative attitude.
 Basic Strengths

• Erikson also proposed that each of the eight psychosocial stages provides an opportunity
to develop our basic strengths.

•These strengths, or virtues, emerge once the crisis has been resolved satisfactorily.

•He suggested that basic strengths are interdependent in that one strength cannot develop
until the strength associated with the previous stage has been confirmed
 Basic Weaknesses

•Similar to the way basic strengths arise at each stage of psychosocial development, so may
basic weaknesses.

•We saw earlier that the adaptive and maladaptive ways of coping with the crisis at each
stage of life are incorporated into the ego identity in a kind of creative balance.

•Although the ego should consist primarily of the adaptive attitude, it will also contain a
share of the negative attitude.
 Maladaptive and Malignant Conditions

•In an unbalanced development, the ego consists solely of one attitude, either the adaptive or the maladaptive one.
Erikson labeled this condition maldevelopment.

•When only the positive, adaptive, tendency is present in the ego, the condition issaid to be "maladaptive.“

•When only the negative tendency is present, the condition is called "malignant.“

•Maladaptions can lead to neuroses; malignancies can lead to psychoses.

•Erikson believed that both conditions could be corrected through psychotherapy.

•Maladaptions, which are the less severe disturbances, can also be relieved through a process of re-adaptation, aided
by environmental changes, supportive social relationships, or successful adaptation at a later developmental stage
 Intervention and Tools:
Play Therapy

•For work with emotionally disturbed children and in research on normal children and adolescents,
Erikson chose play therapy.

•He provided a variety of toys and observed how children interacted with them.

•The form and intensity of play revealed aspects of personality that might not be manifested verbally
because of a child's limited powers of verbal expression.
 CONT.
Psychohistorical Analysis

•Erikson's most unusual assessment technique is psychohistorical analysis.

• Erikson used the framework of his life-span theory of personality to describe the crises and the ways
of coping of significant political, religious, and literary figures, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther, and
George Bernard Shaw.

•Erikson's psychohistories typically focus on a significant crisis, an episode that represents a major
life theme uniting past, present, and future activities.

•Using what he called "disciplined subjectivity," Erikson adopted the subject's viewpoint as his own to
assess life events through that person's eyes.
 Psychological Tests

•Although Erikson did not use psychological tests for personality assessment, several instruments
were developed later based on his formulations.

•The Ego-Identity Scale is designed to measure the development of ego identity during adolescence.

•The Ego Identity Process Questionnaire, also for adolescents, contains 32 items to measure the
dimensions of exploration and commitment.

•The Loyola Generativity Scale is a 20- item self-report inventory to measure the level of
generativity or stagnation in adulthood.
Karen Horney
The Childhood Need for Safety and Security

•Horney agreed with Freud on one major point—the importance of the early years of childhood in shaping the adult
personality.

•However, she differed from him on the specifics of how personality is formed. Horney believed that social forces in
childhood, not biological forces, influence personality development.

•Instead, the social relationship between children and their parents is the key factor.

•Horney believed that childhood was dominated by the safety need, by which she meant the need for security and freedom
from fear.

•Whether infants experience a feeling of security and an absence of fear is decisive in determining the normality of their
personality development. A child's security depends entirely on how the parents treat the child.

•The major way parents weaken or prevent security is by displaying a lack of warmth and affection.
 Basic Anxiety: The Foundation of Neurosis

•Horney defined basic anxiety as an "insidiously increasing, all-pervading feeling of being lonely and
helpless in a hostile world”.

•It is the foundation on which all later neuroses develop, and it is inseparably tied to feelings of hostility,
helplessness, and fear. Regardless of how we express basic anxiety, the feeling is similar for all of us.

•In Horney's words, we feel "small, insignificant, helpless, deserted, endangered, in a world that is out to
abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray“.

•In childhood we try to protect ourselves against basic anxiety in four quite different ways: securing
affection and love, being submissive, attaining power, or withdrawing.
 FOUR DIFFERET WAYS TO PROTECT OURSELVES AGAINST BASIC
ANXIETY

SECURING AFFECTION

•By securing affection and love from other people, the person is saying, in effect, "If you
love me, you will not hurt me.“

•There are several ways by which we may gain affection, such as trying to do whatever
the other person wants, trying to bribe others, or threatening others into providing the
desired affection.
 CONT.
BEING SUBMISSIVE

•Being submissive as a means of self-protection involves complying with the wishes of either one
particular person or of everyone in our social environment.

•Submissive people avoid doing anything that might antagonize others.

•They dare not criticize or give offense in any way. They must repress their personal desires and
cannot defend against abuse for fear that such defensiveness will antagonize the abuser.Most
people who act submissive believe they are unselfish and self-sacrificing.

•Such persons seem to be saying,"If I give in, I will not be hurt."

.
 CONT.
ATTAINING POWER

•By attaining power over others, a person can compensate for helplessness and
achieve security through success or through a sense of superiority.

•Such people seem to believe that if they have power, no one will harm them.

•These three self-protective devices have something in common—by engaging in

any of them the person is attempting to cope with basic anxiety by interacting with
other people.
WITHDRAWING CONT.

•The fourth way of protecting oneself against basic anxiety involves withdrawing from other
people, not physically but psychologically.

•Such a person attempts to become independent of others, not relying on anyone else for the
satisfaction of internal or external needs.

•The withdrawn person achieves independence with regard to internal or psychological needs
by becoming aloof from others, no longer seeking them out to satisfy emotional needs. The
process involves a blunting, or minimizing, of emotional needs.

•By renouncing these needs, the withdrawn person guards against being hurt by other people.
 Neurotic Needs

• Neurotic needs are irrational solutions to one's problems.

• Horney argued that the self-protective mechanisms could become so permanent that it
assumes the characteristics of a drive or need in determining an individual's behavior.
• She listed 10 such needs, which she termed neurotic needs.
 10 Neurotic Needs
1. Affection and approval
2. A dominant partner
3. Power
4. Exploitation
5. Prestige
6. Admiration
7. Achievement or ambition
8. Self-sufficiency
9. Perfection
10. Narrow limits to life
Neurotic Trends
• In her later writings, she reformulated the list of needs.

• From her work with patients, she concluded that the needs could be presented in three groups,
each indicating a person’s attitudes toward the self and others. She called these three categories of
directional movement the neurotic trends.

• The neurotic trends are:

• Movement toward other people—the compliant personality,
• Movement against other people—the aggressive personality, and
• Movement away from other people—the detached personality.