Advance Theories of Personality

1. Maria Jezza C. Ledesma 1
INTERPSYCHIC
THEORIES

2. The theories of Alfred Adler, and Harry Stack
Sullivan marked a shift from a stress on
intrapsychic (“within the psyche”) phenomena
to interpsychic (“interpersonal”) relations. The
human person emerged as a social and
cultural creature rather than a sexual one.
Chose the term individual psychology for his
conception of personality.
We are motivated by social interest, and our
primary life problems are social ones.
2

3. Interpersonal Psychiatry – theory
of Sullivan
Sullivan believed that the personality of an
individual could never be studied in isolation.
3

4. Alfred Adler
(1870-1937)
• Was born in Vienna on
February 17, 1870
4
• He was an average student but
rose to superior position
especially in mathematics
• He suffered from rickets and
developed a fear of death.

5. Alfred Adler
(1870-1937)
• Studied medicine at the
University of Vienna in 1895
(Freud’s alma mater)
5
• He was invited by Freud to
join the Vienna Psychoanalytic
Society in 1902 and became the president of
the society in 1911.

6. Alfred Adler
(1870-1937)
• After 9 years, Adler resigned
from the society.
6
• He and his followers formed
a group, formerly called as
Society of Free Psychoanalytic
Research but they settled on the term:
“Individual Psychology”.

7. Alfred Adler
(1870-1937)
• Died in 1937 due to a heart
attack while on a lecture tour in
Scotland.
7
He served the
Austrian army during
world War I.
He assisted the
government in
establishing
guidance clinics in
Vienna.

8. Alfred Adler
(1870-1937)
8
His weak physique and feelings of inferiority
during childhood were later to find expression
in his concepts of organic inferiority and the
striving for superiority.
His sensitivity about being the second son
was reflected in his interest in the family
constellation and ordinal position of birth.
His efforts to get along with others found
expression in his conviction that the human
being is a social and cultural animal in the
Adlerian concept of social interest.

9. Basic Concepts
9
A leading concept of Adler’s individual
psychology is his emphasis on the importance
of human culture and society.
Human society is crucial not simply for the
development of an individual’s personality,
but also for the orientation of each and
every behavior in a person’s life.

10. Basic Concepts
10
Human beings, like all living creatures are
driven by certain innate instincts, drives, or
needs, such as the impulses to maintain
life and reproduce.
Human beings have tamed their instincts
and at times, deny or disobey their natural
instincts because of their social relations.

11. A terrorist may
undergo a
suicide mission
on behalf of a
cause.
A young child may
refuse food if he
believes that such
tactic gives him an
advantage in a
power struggle with
his parents.
11
Examples how humans deny their
natural instincts….

12. • Refers to that urge in human
nature to adapt oneself to the
conditions of the social
environment.
• Social interest does not
automatically emerge, nor does
it invariably find constructive
expression. It must be nurtured
and cultivated.
Social
Interest
12
• Means that individuals are
oriented toward goals that guide
their behavior.
Finalism

13. • Vaihinger suggested that
people create fictions or
guiding ideas and then
behave “as if” their goals
were true.
• ‘Fictio’ latin word means to
invent, fashion or construct.
• Cannot be proven and are
judged by their usefulness.
Fictional
Finalism
13

14. • The desire to be competent and
effective in whatever one strives
to do.
• Inferiority feelings
• The normal condition of all
people; the source of all
human striving
• Inferiority feelings are
inescapable, but more
important, they are necessary
because they provide the
motivation to strive and grow
• Masculine protest
• The compensation for one’s
inferiorities.
Striving for
Superiority
14

15. • A unique character structure
or pattern of personal
behaviors and characteristics
by which each of us strives for
perfection.
Style of
Life
15
Three categories of Universal Problems
identified by Adler:
1. Problems involving our behavior
toward others
2. Problems of occupation
3. Problems of love

16. 1. Ruling
type
16
Four basic styles of life:
This type displays a dominant or
ruling attitude with little social
awareness. Such a person behaves
without regard for others. The more
extreme of this type attack others and
become sadists, delinquents and
sociopaths. The less virulent become
alcoholics, drug addicts, or suicides;
they believe they hurt others by
attacking themselves.

17. 2. Getting
type
17
To Adler, this type is the most
common human type. It
expects to receive satisfaction
from other people and so
becomes dependent on them.

18. 3. Avoiding
type
18
This type makes no attempt to
face life’s problems. By avoiding
difficulties, the person avoids any
possibility of failure.

19. 19
Ruling type
Getting type
Avoiding
type
These three types are not
prepared to cope with the
problems of everyday life. They
are unable to cooperate with
other people and the clash
between their style of life and
the real world results in
abnormal behavior., which is
manifested with neuroses and
psychoses. They lack Adler
what came to call social interest.

20. 4. Socially
useful type
20
This type cooperates with
others and acts in
accordance with their needs.
Such persons cope with
problems within a well
developed framework of
social interest.

21. • Birth order ..birth
order traits.png
1. Family
constellation
The quality of emotional relationships among
members of the family reflects the 2. family
atmosphere, which assists in determining
whether or not the child will react actively or
passively, constructively or destructively, in the
quest for superiority. pampered and
neglected.docx 21
Factors that leads to different
style of life:

22. • The ability to create an
appropriate style of life
• Adler believed that the individual
creates the style of life
• Consciousness as the central to
personality
• Adler insisted that our style of
life is not determined for us; we
are free to choose and create it
ourselves.
Creative
Self
22

23. 23
Adlerian Psychotherapy
• Aims at restoring the patient’s sense
of reality, examining and disclosing
the errors in goals and life-style, and
cultivating social interest.
• Entail unrealistic life goals or
fictional finalisms.
..Neuroses Adler.docx
Neuroses

24. 24
Inferiority Complex
• A condition that
develops when a
person is unable to
compensate for
normal inferiority
feelings. Inferiority
Complex.docx
Superiority Complex
• A condition that
develops when a
person
overcompensates for
normal inferiority
feelings. Superiority
Complex.docx

25. Goals of Adlerian
Therapy
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1. Establish contact and win confidence of patient
• Adler’s approach was more relaxed and
informal
• Adler and his patients sat in comfortable chairs
facing each other.
• The sessions were more like chats between
friends
• Adler also liked to use humor in his therapy,
sometimes teasing his patients in a light hearted,
friendly way.

26. Goals of Adlerian
Therapy
26
• Adler assessed the personalities of his patients by
observing everything about them: the way they
walked and sat, their manner of shaking hands,
even their choice of which chair to sit in.
2. Disclose errors in patient’s lifestyle and provide
insight into present condition. The patient is led
gently and gradually to recognize the errors in
personal goals, life-style, and attitude toward life.

27. • Early Recollections
• Dream analysis
• Birth order Primary
Assessment.docx
Primary
tools of
assessment
27
• Social Interest Scale
• Social Interest Index
• Basic Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal
Success

28. • theorized firstborns are more
intelligent because the
intellectual climate of a family
decreases as the number of
children increases.
Zajonc and
Markus
(1975)
• countered that, educational,
occupational and income
levels of the parents could be
the primary reason.
Greisers,
Grrenberg
and
Harrison
(1972)
28

29. Harry Stack Sullivan
29
• Ethnic and religious differences – primary
contributors to his feelings of isolation
• Personality difficulties created by his home life and
his own character were probably more important.
Was born in 1892 in Norwich, New York.
Sullivan bore the brunt of his mother’s laments, tales of
earlier family prominence and unrealistic dreams.
Sullivan wrote that close relationships between a
young child and an early-blossoming adolescent of the
same sex invariably lead to homosexuality.

30. He won a state scholarship to Cornell but unfortunately,
his grades fell and was suspended for academic
failure.
• “diploma mill”
• He never learned to write well, did not have a
solid formal training in scientific methodology and
research nor receive any formal training in
psychiatry.
He went to Chicago College of Medicine
and Surgery
He paid attention to the problems of African Americans
both in the south and north.
After Hiroshima, he was quick to recognize the
implication: Either world wars or human life must end.
30

31. • Sullivan defined personality as the
characteristic ways in which an
individual deals with other people.
• His definition of personality
stresses the empirical components
that we can directly observe rather
than intrapsychic structures.
Basic
Concepts
• Anxiety is any painful feeling or
emotion that may arise from
organic needs or social insecurity.
• In our relationship with others, we
are to some extent aware of what
we are doing and why we are
doing it, and to some extent
unaware of these things.
Anxiety and
Unawareness
31

32. Security
Operations
• Is an interpersonal device that a person
uses to minimize anxiety.
• Healthy – if they increase our security
without jeopardizing our competence in
interpersonal relations
• Unhealthy – if they provide security at the
expense of developing more effective
interpersonal skills.
Security
Operations and
Defense
Mechanisms
• Both are processes of which we are
unaware and means by which we reduce
anxiety.
• Primary difference – Sullivans stress on
what is observable and interpersonal.
32

33. • Is the expression and
discharge of uncomfortable
feelings in ways that are
interpersonally acceptable,
such as releasing anger
verbally rather than by hitting
or kicking the object of anger.
Sublimation
33

34. • The failure to observe some
factor in an interpersonal
relationship that might cause
anxiety such as not noticing
spouse’s flirtations because
those activities threaten
one’s own self-esteem.
Selective
inattention
34

35. • Means that we act out a
false but practical role.
• A person may act “as if” he
or she were stupid to fulfill
the expectations of othes,
when in actuality the
person is not stupid.
“As if”
behavior
35

36. Dynamism
• A pattern of energy transformation
that characterizes an individual’s
interpersonal relations.
• Results from experiences with
other people.
• Sullivan focused on the
transformation of energy as it
flows between people in
relationships. Dynamisms.docx
36

37. 37
Personification
• Is a group of feelings, attitudes and
thoughts that have arisen out of
one’s interpersonal experiences.
• Sullivan believed that people acquire
certain images of self and others
throughout the developmental
stages.

38. 38
Bad-Mother, Good-Mother
• The bad-mother personification grows out of
infants’ experiences with a nipple that does
not satisfy their hunger needs. All infants
experience the bad-mother personification,
even though their real mothers may be
loving and nurturing. Later, infants acquire a
good-mother personification as they become
mature enough to recognize the tender and
cooperative behavior of their mothering one.
Still later, these two personifications
combine to form a complex and contrasting
image of the real mother.

39. • Which results from experiences
with reward and approval.Good-me self
• Which grows from experiences of
punishment and disapproval.Bad-me self
• Which allows a person to
dissociate or selectively not
attend to the experiences related
to anxiety.
Not-me self
39
“Me” Personifications:

40. Eidetic Personifications
• One of Sullivan’s most interesting
observations was that people often
create imaginary traits that they
project onto others.
–Imaginary playmates or friends that
preschool-aged children often have.
40

41. Stages of
Development
• He thought that the stages
themselves were determined
socially rather than biologically, and
he saw the period of adolescence
as crucial, warranting three stages.
41
Infancy (Age birth to 1 year)
• From birth to about age one, the child
begins the process of developing, but
Sullivan did not emphasize the younger
years to near the importance as Freud.

42. 42
Childhood (Ages 1 to 5)
• The development of speech and improved
communication is key in this stage of development.
Juvenile (Ages 6 to 8)
• The main focus as a juvenile is the need for
playmates and the beginning of healthy socialization
Preadolescence (Ages 9 to 12)
• During this stage, the child's ability to form a close
relationship with a peer is the major focus. This
relationship will later assist the child in feeling worthy
and likable. Without this ability, forming the intimate
relationships in late adolescence and adulthood will
be difficult.

43. 43
Early Adolescence (Ages 13 to 17)
• The onset of puberty changes this need for friendship
to a need for sexual expression. Self worth will often
become synonymous with sexual attractiveness and
acceptance by opposite sex peers.
Late Adolescence (Ages 18 to 22 or 23)
• The need for friendship and need for sexual expression
get combined during late adolescence. In this stage a
long term relationship becomes the primary
focus. Conflicts between parental control and self-
expression are commonplace and the overuse of
selective inattention in previous stages can result in a
skewed perception of the self and the world.

44. 44
Adulthood (Ages 23 onwards)
• The struggles of adulthood include
financial security, career, and
family. With success during previous
stages, especially those in the adolescent
years, adult relationships and much
needed socialization become more easy
to attain. Without a solid background,
interpersonal conflicts that result in
anxiety become more commonplace.

45. Cognitive Processes
• Sullivan describes three cognitive
processes by which we experience
the world and relate to others in the
course of personality development.
–Prototaxic Experiences
–Parataxic Experiences
–Syntaxic Experiences
45

46. 46
Prototaxic Experiences
• occur at the lowest level as infants. It
includes sensations, thoughts, feelings but
no inferences or conclusions are drawn from
these experiences.
Parataxic Experiences
• occur as a young child when one begin to
perceive causal relations between events
that happen together. It Include making
generalization about experiences on the
bases of proximity.

47. 47
Example:
• Infants who cry brings his or her
mother to nurse assumes the crying
has produced the milk.
Syntaxic Experiences
• is the highest level of cognitive
thinking. We use symbols and relies
on consensual validation, or
agreement among persons.

48. Psychotherapy, Assessment
and Research
• Sullivan viewed psychotherapy as an
interpersonal process in which one person
assists another in resolving problems of
living.
• He used the concept of participant
observation to define the nature of
psychiatric inquiry and treatment of
problems.
48

49. WHAT IS PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION?
• Participant observation refers to the fact that the
therapist is also a participant in any event being
observed.
• While observing what is going on, the
psychiatrist invariably affects the relationship
and alters the other persons behavior. Sullivan
suggests that it is absurd to imagine that a
psychiatrist could obtain from his or her patient
data and/or behaviors that are uninfluenced by
the therapists own behavior in the relationship. 49

50. 50
Inception: (patient introduces the problem)
Reconnaisance: (therapist raise questions in order
to develop case history)
Detailed inquiry (therapists tests his hypothesis by
observing patient behavior and response to probing)
Termination: (structured ending during which the
therapist summarizes what has been learned.

51. Sullivan’s Theory
• Sullivan’s theory veers toward a greater
stress on science and empirical validation.
• The personality of an individual could
never be studied in isolation.
• His theory was grounded in empirical data
and observation, and tried to avoid
formulating imaginary concepts that could
not be tested.
51

52. • In his concept of dynamism as energy
transformation, Sullivan is in tune with
contemporary physics.
• Techniques of interviewing and
therapeutic process.
52

53. FAMILY THERAPY
• Adler and Sullivans work influenced
contemporary family therapy, which treats
psychological problems in the context of
the family. Mapping, a technique
developed by Sal Minuchin suggests that
family and therapist map out a family tree
indicating patterns of connection, distance,
anger, and so forth among members of the
family to clarify relationships. 53

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