THEORIES OF PERSONALITY NOTES

Source: Feist & Feist, 7th Ed

What Is Personality?
- It originated from the word persona, referring to a
theatrical mask worn by Roman actors in Greek
dramas.
- Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent
traits and unique characteristics that give both
consistency and individuality to a persons
behavior.
- A theory of personality is an organized attempt
to describe and explain how personalities develop
and why personalities differ. (Plotnik, 2009)
- Traits contribute to individual differences in
behavior, consistency of behavior over time, and
stability of behavior across situations.
- Characteristics are unique qualities of an
individual that include such attributes as
temperature, physique, and intelligence.
A useful theory:
(1) generates research
(2) is falsifiable
(3) organizes data
(4) guides action
(5) is internally consistent
(6) is parsimonious
Dimensions for Concept of Humanity
(1) determinism vs. free choice - Are peoples
behaviors determined by forces over which they
have no control, or can people choose to be what
they wish to be?
(2) pessimism vs. optimism - Are people
doomed to live miserable, conflicted, and troubled
lives, or can they change and grow into
psychologically healthy, happy, fully functioning
human beings?
(3) causality vs. teleology - Briefly, causality
holds that behavior is a function of past
experiences, whereas teleology is an explanation
of behavior in terms of future goals or purposes.
(4) conscious vs. unconscious - Are people

ordinarily aware of what they are doing and why

they are doing it, or do unconscious forces
impinge on them and drive them to act without
awareness of these underlying forces?
(5) biological vs. social nature-nurture issue
(6) uniqueness vs. similarities Is the salient
feature of people their individuality, or their
common characteristics?

SIGMUND FREUD: Psychoanalysis

Hysteria - a disorder typically characterized by
paralysis or improper functioning of certain parts of
the body. (Jean Martin-Charcot)
Catharsis the process of removing hysterical
symptoms through talking them out (Josef
Breuer)
Free Association Technique & Hypnosis
principal therapeutic techniques used by Freud
Interpretation of Dreams Freuds greatest work
Phylogenetic Endowment a portion of our
unconscious originates from the experiences of
our early ancestors that have been passed on to
us through hundreds generations of repetition
Provinces of the Mind
(1) Id serves the pleasure principle. It has no
contact with the reality, it strives constantly to
reduce tension by satisfying basic desires.
(2) Ego governed by the reality principle. The
only region in the mind in contact with reality. It
reconciles the blind, irrational claims of the id.
(3) Superego guided by the moralistic
principle. Basically unrealistic in its demands for
perfection because it has no contact with reality.
- It has two subsystems:
(a) conscience results from experiences
with punishments for improper behavior
and tells us what we should not do
(b) ego-ideal develops from experiences
with rewards for proper behavior and tells
us what we should do
Guilt results when the ego acts contrary to the

moral standards of the superego. A function of

conscience.
Feelings of inferiority arise when the ego is
unable to meet the superegos standards of
perfection. A function of ego-ideal.
Dynamics of Personality
(1) Drive
- an internal stimulus that operates as a constant
motivational force
Sex Drive or Eros
- erogenous zones: genitals, mouth, and anus
Forms/Manifestations:
(a1) primary narcissism libido exclusively
invested on their own ego, a universal condition
(a2) secondary narcissism Not universal, but a
moderate degree of self-love is common to nearly
every one. Here narcissistic libido is transformed
into object libido
(b) love develops when people invest their libido
on an object or person other than themselves
(c) sadism is the need for sexual pleasure by
inflicting pain or humiliation on another person.
Considered sexual perversion extreme.
(d) masochism is the need for sexual pleasure
by suffering pain and humiliation inflicted by
themselves or by others.
(2) Aggression
- the aim of the destructive drive is to return the
organism to an inorganic state, which is death
(3) Anxiety
- the center of the Freudian dynamic theory
- a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by
a physical sensation
- it is ego-preserving and self-regulating
(a) neurotic anxiety defined as an
apprehension about an unknown danger. It results
from the dependence of the ego to the id.
(b) moral anxiety stems from the conflict
between the ego and superego
o.
(c) realistic anxiety It is closely related to fear. It
is defined as an unpleasant, nonspecific feeling
involving a possible danger.

Defense Mechanisms
- It helps the ego to avoid dealing directly with
sexual and aggressive impulses and to defend
itself against the anxiety that accompanies them
(1) Repression It is the most basic of the
defense mechanisms. When the ego is threatened
by undesirable id impulses, it forces threatening
feelings into the unconscious.
(2) Reaction Formation repressed impulse
becomes conscious by adopting a disguise that is
directly opposite to its original form
(3) Displacement unacceptable urges are
redirected onto a variety of people or objects so
that the original impulse is disguised or concealed
(4) Fixation when the prospect of taking the next
psychological stage becomes too anxiety
provoking, the ego may resort to the strategy of
remaining at the present, more comfortable
psychological stage. This is held universally and
demands a more or less permanent expenditure of
psychic energy.
(5) Regression a reversion in which during
times of stress and anxiety of a developmental
stage, the libido reverts back to an earlier stage.
Infantile and rigid in nature just like fixation, but is
usually temporary.
(6) Projection seeing in others unacceptable
feelings or tendencies that actually resides in ones
own unconscious. The ego may reduce the anxiety
by attributing the unwanted impulse to an external
object, usually another person. A severe variety of
it is called paranoia.
(7) Introjection - a defense mechanism whereby
people incorporate positive qualities of another
person into their own ego. People introject
characteristics that they see as valuable and that
will permit them to feel better about themselves.
(8) Sublimation is the repression of the genital
aim of Eros by substituting a cultural or social aim.
(9) Rationalization involves covering up the true
reasons for actions, thoughts, or feelings by
making up excuses and incorrect explanations
(10) Denial is refusing to recognize some

anxiety-provoking event or piece of information

that is clear to others
Stages of Development
For Freud, the first 4 or 5 years of life, or the
infantile stage, are the most crucial for personality
information. It is divided into three stages:
1 Oral Phase (early infancy, first 18 months of life)
- Pleasure-seeking activities include sucking,
chewing, and biting.
- If fixated at this stage, because oral wishes were
gratified too much or too little, oral gratification
continues in adulthood.
2 Anal Phase (late adulthood, 1 to 3 years)
- Infants pleasure seeking is centered on the anus
and its function of elimination.
- Fixation at this stage results to retention or
elimination.
- Anal retentive may take the form of being very
neat, stingy, or behaviourally rigid
- Anal expulsive may take the form of being
generous, messy, or very loose or carefree
- Anal triad: orderliness, stinginess, and obstinacy
3 Phallic Stage (early childhood, 3-6 years)
- Infants pleasure-seeking is centered on the
genitals.
- Oedipus complex occurs at this stage: a
process in which a child competes with the parent
of the same sex for the affections and pleasures of
the parent of the opposite sex. (Electra complex
for female)
- Castration anxiety may arise, the fear of losing
the penis, or penis envy for females
4 Latency Stage (6 to puberty)
- A time when the child represses sexual thoughts
and engages in nonsexual activities, such as
developing social and intellectual skills.
- dormant psychosexual development
5 Genital Stage
- puberty signals the reawakening of sexual
impulses
Dream Analysis
- to transform the manifest content of dreams to

the more important latent content

- the royal road to the knowledge of the
unconscious
- Manifest content of a dream refers to the
surface meaning or the conscious description
given by the dreamer
- Latent content refers to the unconscious
material
- For Freud, all dreams are wish fulfilments
- Dreams can work their way to consciousness in
two ways:
(1) Condensation refers to the fact that the
manifest dream content is not as extensive
as the latent level, indicating that the unconscious
material has been abbreviated or condensed
before appearing on the manifest level
(2) Displacement means that the dream is
replaced by some other idea remotely related to it
Freudian slips (parapraxes)
Critique of Freuds Psychoanalysis
- His theory of personality was strongly oriented
towards men, he lacked a complete understanding
of the feminine psyche.
- an area of criticism on Freud centers around his
status as a scientist

ALFRED ADLER: Individual Psychology

- Individual psychology rests heavily on the notion
of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness
with all humankind.
- People are motivated mostly by social influences
and by their striving for superiority or success.
- People are largely responsible for who they are
- Present behavior is shaped by the peoples view
of the future.
- an opposing theory to psychoanalysis
Striving for success or superiority
- 1st tenet: The one dynamic force behind
peoples behavior is the striving for success or
superiority
- He reduced all motivation to this single drive.

- Everyone begins with a life of physical

deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority.
- The striving force serves as a compensation for
feelings of inferiority.
- People, by their nature, possess an innate
tendency toward completion or wholeness.
Masculine protest implied will to power or a
domination of others. This term was used after
Adler rejected aggression as the single
motivational force.
Striving for superiority limited to those people
who strive personal superiority over others
Striving for success describes actions of
people who are motivated by highly developed
social interest.
- Each individual is guided by a final goal
regardless of the motivation for striving. It is
fictional and has no objective existence, a product
of creative power.
Creative Power it refers to the peoples ability to
freely shape their behavior and create their own
personality.
Inferiority Complex exaggerated feelings of
personal inferiority
Subjective Perceptions
- 2nd tenet: Peoples subjective perceptions
shape their behavior and personality.
Fictionalism. Striving superiority is shaped by
peoples perceptions of reality that is by their
fictions, or expectations of the future.
- Fictionalism is consistent with the teleology.
Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
- 3rd tenet: Personality is unified and selfconsistent.
- Each person is unique and indivisible.
Organ Dialect - The whole person strives in a selfconsistent fashion toward a single goal, and all
separate actions and functions can be understood
only as parts of this goal. The disturbance of one
part of the body cannot be viewed in isolation; it
affects the entire person.
- For Adler, conscious and unconscious are not

considered as a dichotomy, but two cooperating

parts of the same unified system. The conscious
thoughts are helpful for striving superiority while
unconscious is not helpful.
Social Interest
- 4th tenet: The value of all human activity must
be seen from the viewpoint of social interest.
- Social interest means a feeling of oneness with
all humanity; it implies membership in the social
community of all people. It can also be defined as
an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general
as well as the empathy for each member of the
community.
- Social interest was Adlers yardstick for
measuring psychological health and is thus the
sole criterion of human value.
Style of Life
- 5th tenet: The self-consistent personality
structure develops into a persons style of life.
Style of life is the term Adler used to refer to the
flavor of a persons life. It includes a persons goal,
self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude
toward the world. It is the product of the interaction
of heredity, environment, and a persons
creative power.
- Although the final goal is singular, style of life
need not be narrow or rigid.
- Three major problems of life: neighborly love,
sexual love, and occupation.
Creative Power
6th Tenet: Style of life is molded by peoples
creative power.
- Each person is empowered with the freedom to
create his or her own style of life. Ultimately,
people are responsible for who they are and how
they behave. It makes each person a free
individual.
- Each person uses heredity and environment as
the bricks and mortar to build personality, but the
architectural design reflects that persons own
style. The building materials of personality are

secondary. We are our own architect and can build

either a useful or useless style of life.
Abnormal Development
- For Adler, the one factor underlying all types of
maladjustments is underdeveloped social interest.
- Also neurotics tend to:
(1) set their goals too high
(2) live in their own private world
(3) have a rigid and dogmatic style of life
External Factors in Maladjustment
(1) Exaggerated physical deficiencies
(2) Pampered style of life
- the heart of most neuroses
(3) Neglected style of life
Safeguarding Tendencies
- People create patterns of behavior to protect their
exaggerated sense of self-esteem against public
disgrace.
- This protective devices enable people to hide
their inflated self-image and to maintain their
current style of life.
- These can be compared to Freuds defense
mechanisms, but are largely conscious to shield a
persons fragile self-esteem.
Three forms:
(1) Excuses commonly expressed in Yes, but or
If only format
(2) Aggression most common safeguarding
tendency
Depreciation. The tendency to undervalue
other peoples achievements and to overvalue
ones own (e.g. criticism and gossip).
Accusation. The tendency to blame others for
ones failures and to seek revenge.
Self-accusation. Marked by self-torture and
guilt (e.g. masochism, depression, suicide).
(3) Withdrawal Running away from difficulties or
referred to as safeguarding through distance
Four Modes:
Moving Backwards. The tendency to safeguard

ones fictional goal of superiority by psychologically

reverting to a more secure period of life. It is
designed to elicit sympathy.
Standing Still. They do not move in any direction,
thus, they avoid all responsibility by ensuring
themselves against any threats of failure.
Hesitating. In face of difficult problems, some
people hesitate or vacillate. (e.g. procrastination)
Constructing Obstacles. The least severe of the
withdrawal safeguarding tendencies.
Masculine Protest
- Psychic life of women is essentially the same as
that of men and that a male-dominated society is
not natural but rather an artificial product of
historical development.
- According to Adler, cultural and social practices
not anatomyinfluence many men and women to
overemphasize the importance of being manly.
Applications of Individual Psychology
(1) Family Constellation

- Analytical psychology is essentially a psychology

of opposites.
(2) Early Recollections
(3) Dreams
Golden rule of dream work in individual
psychology: Everything can be different.
(4) Psychotherapy
Adlerian theory postulates that psychopathology
results from lack of courage, exaggerated feelings
of inferiority, and underdeveloped social interest.
Thus, the chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy
is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of
inferiority, and encourage social interest.
Critique of Adler
- Like that of Freud, produced many concepts that
do not easily lend themselves to either verification
or falsification.
- It suffers from a lack of precise operational
definitions.
- Individual psychology is somewhat philosophical
even moralistic.
- The concept of creative power cannot be
scientifically studied.
- high on free choice and optimism, very low on
causality, moderate on unconscious influences,
and high on social factors and the uniqueness of
individual
________________________________________

CARL JUNG: Analytical Psychology

- It rests on the assumption that occult
phenomena can and do influence the lives of
everyone.
- Jung believed that each of us is motivated not
only by repressed experiences but also by
certainly emotionally toned experiences inherited
from our ancestors. These make up the collective
unconscious.
- Some elements of the collective unconscious
become highly developed and are called
archetypes.

Levels of the Psyche

- Jung strongly asserted that the most important
part of the unconscious springs not from personal
experiences of the individual but from distant past
of human existence, the collective unconscious. Of
lesser importance are conscious and personal
unconscious.
Conscious. Images that are sensed by the ego;
the center of consciousness. Ego is not the whole
personality, but must be completed by the self, the
center of the personality that is largely
unconscious.
- The consciousness plays a minor role in
analytical psychology, and an overemphasis on
expanding ones conscious psyche can lead to
psychological imbalance.
Personal Unconscious. It embraces all
repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived
experiences of one particular individual. It contains
repressed infantile memories and impulses,
forgotten events, and experiences originally
perceived below the threshold of our
consciousness. Our personal unconscious is
formed by our individual experiences and is
therefore unique to each of us.
Complexes are contents of the personal
unconscious. It is an emotionally toned
conglomeration of associated ideas. It is partly
conscious and may stem from both the personal
and collective unconscious.
- an individualized component of the personal
unconscious.
Collective Unconscious This has roots in the
ancestral past of the entire species. The physical
contents of the collective unconscious are
inherited and pass from one generation to the next
as a psychic potential.
- This refers to humans innate tendency to react in
a particular way whenever their experiences
stimulate a biologically inherited response
tendency.

- This does not lie dormant but are active and

influence a persons thoughts, emotions, and
actions.
- Countless repetition of these biologically based
predispositions have them part of the human
biological constitution which then begin to develop
some content and to emerge as a relatively
autonomous archetypes.
Archetypes
- are ancient or archaic images that derive from
the collective unconscious.
- These emotionally tones collection of associated
images are generalized components of the
collective unconscious.
- Archetypes cannot be directly represented, but
when activated it expresses itself through several
modes (e.g. dreams, fantasies, and delusions).
Persona
- the side of personality that people show to the
world
- If we over identify with our persona, we lose
touch with our inner self and remain dependent on
societys expectations of us.
Shadow
- the archetype of darkness and repression
represents those qualities we do not wish to
acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves
and others
Anima
- the feminine side of mens personality
- represents irrational moods and feelings
Animus
- the masculine side of womens personality
- symbolic of thinking and reasoning
Great Mother
- derivative of anima archetype
- represents both positive and negative feelings:
fertility and nourishment and on the one hand,
power and destruction
- Fertility and power combine to form the concept
of rebirth, which maybe a separate archetype.
Wise Old Man

- archetype of wisdom and meaning, symbolizes

humans pre-existing knowledge of the mysteries
of life.
Hero
- the conquering hero archetype represents victory
over the forces of darkness
Self
- the innate disposition possessed by each person
to move toward growth, perfection, and completion
- the most comprehensive of all archetypes
- the self is the archetype of archetypes because it
pulls together the other archetypes and unites
them in the process of self-realization
-its ultimate symbol is the mandala, representing
the strivings of the collective unconscious for unity,
balance and wholeness
Dynamics of Personality
Causality and Teleology
- He insisted that both causal and teleological
forces must be balanced.
Progression adaptation to the outside world
involving the forward flow of psychic energy
Regression - adaptation to the inner world
involving the backward flow of psychic energy
* Alone, neither progression nor regression leads
to development. Either can bring about too much
one-sidedness and failure in adaptation; but the
two, working together, can activate the process of
healthy personality development.
Psychological Types
Attitudes. Jung defined it as a predisposition to
act or react in a characteristic direction. He
insisted that each person has both an introverted
and an extraverted attitude, although one may be
conscious while the other is unconscious.
Intoversion
- is the turning inward of psychic energy with an
orientation toward the subjective. Introverts are
tuned in to their inner world with all its biases,
fantasies, dreams, and individualized perceptions.
Extraversion
- is the turning outward of psychic energy with an

orientation toward the objective.

4 Functions:
Sensing tells people that something exists
Extraverted sensing- people perceive external
stimuli objectively
Introverted sensing guided by their subjective
interpretation of sense stimuli
Thinking enables them to recognize its meaning
Extraverted thinking relying heavily on concrete
thoughts, objective
Introverted thinking interpretation of an event is
colored more by the internal meaning, subjective
Feeling tells them its value or worth
Extraverted feeling people use objective data to
make evaluations
Introverted feeling - people base their value
judgments primarily on subjective perceptions
Intuiting allows them to know without knowing
how they know
Extraverted intuitive people are oriented towards
facts in the external world
Introverted intuitive people are guided by
unconscious perceptions of facts that are basically
subjective and have no resemblance to external
stimuli
Development of Personality
Stages of Development: childhood, youth, middle
life, and old age
Childhood
Three Substages:
(1) Anarchic phase characterized by chaotic
and sporadic consciousness. Experiences of the
anarchic phase sometimes enter consciousness
as primitive images, incapable of being accurately
verbalized.
- Islands of consciousness may exist but there is
little or no connection among these islands.
(2) Monarchic phase characterized by the
development of ego and by the beginning of
logical and verbal thinking. During this time,
children refer to themselves in the third person.
- The islands of consciousness become larger,
more numerous and inhabited by a primitive ego.

- The ego is perceived as an object, not as a

perceiver.
(3) Dualistic phase The ego as perceiver arises
during this stage and divided into the subjective
and objective.
- Children now refer to themselves in the first
person and aware of their existence as separate
individuals.
- The islands of consciousness become
continuous land, inhabited by an ego-complex that
recognizes itself as both object and subject.
Youth
- the period from puberty until middle life
- Young people strive to gain psychic and physical
independence from their parents, find a mate,
raise a family, and make a place in the world.
- A period of increased activity, maturing sexuality,
and growing consciousness.
Middle Life
- approximately begins at age 35 or 40
- presents people with increasing anxiety, and a
period of tremendous potential
- If middle-aged people retain the social and moral
values of their early life, they become rigid and
fanatical in trying to hold on to their physical
attractiveness and agility.
Old Age
- people certainly fear death during this stage
Self-realization
- also called as psychological rebirth
- the process of becoming an individual or a whole
person
- the process of integrating the opposite poles into
a single homogenous individual
- this process of coming to selfhood means that a
person has all psychological components
functioning in unity, with no psychic process
atrophying
- The self-realized person must allow the
unconscious to be the core of personality.
Methods of Investigation
(1) Word Association Test

(2) Dream Analysis

- Jung objected to Freuds notion that nearly all
dreams are wish fulfilments and that most dream
symbols represent sexual urges; rather people
used symbols to represent a variety of concepts to
try to comprehend the innumerable things beyond
the range of human understanding.
- Dreams are our unconscious and spontaneous
attempt to know the unknowable.
- The purpose of Jungian dream interpretation is to
uncover elements from the personal and collective
unconscious and to integrate them into
consciousness in order to facilitate the process of
self-realization.
- Jung felt that certain dreams offered proof for the
existence of the collective unconscious. These
dreams included big dreams, which have special
meaning for all people; typical dreams, which are
common to most people; and earliest dreams
remembered.
(3) Active Imagination
- This method requires a person to begin with any
impressiona dream image, vision, picture, or
fantasyand to concentrate until the impressions
begins to move. The person must follow these
images and courageously face these autonomous
images and freely communicate with them.
- The purpose of active imagination is to reveal
archetypal images emerging from the
unconscious.
- Jung believed that active imagination has an
advantage over dream analysis in that its images
are produced during a conscious state of mind,
thus making them more clear and reproducible.
Variations:
- nonverbal manner (drawing, painting)
(4) Psychotherapy
- The first stage is the confession of a pathogenic
secret (adopted from Breuers cathartic method).
- The second stage involves interpretation,
explanation, and elucidation. This gives the
patients insight into the causes of their neuroses
but may still leave them incapable of solving social

problems (adopted from Freud).

- The third stage is the education of patients as
social beings (adopted from Adler).
- The fourth stage is transformation. By
transformation, he meant that the therapist must
first be transformed into a healthy human being,
preferably by undergoing psychotherapy. Only
after transformation and an established philosophy
of life is the therapist able to help patients move
toward individuation, wholeness, or self-realization.
- He adopted an eclectic approach in
psychotherapy. His treatment varied according to
the age, stage of development, and particular
problem of the patient.
- The ultimate purpose of Jungian therapy is to
help neurotic patients become healthy and to
encourage healthy people to work independently
toward self-realization.
Critique of Jung
- has a subjective and philosophical quality
- the collective unconscious remains a difficult
concept to test empirically
- the acceptance of Jungs archetype and
collective unconscious rests more on faith than on
empirical evidences
- Analytical psychology is unique because it adds
new dimension to personality theory dealing with
the occult, the mysterious, and the
parapsychological
- usefulness of most analytical psychology is
limited to those therapists who subscribe to basic
Jungian tenets
- his view of personality was neither pessimistic
nor optimistic, neither deterministic nor purposive
- people are motivated partly by conscious
thoughts, partly by images from their personal
unconscious.
- the theory leans strongly in the direction of
biology
- can be rated high on similarities among people
and low in individual differences
________________________________________

their psychic structure the external objects.

MELANIE KLEIN: Object Relations

Theory
- Klein stressed the importance of the first 4 to 6
months after birth.
- an offspring of Freuds instinct theory but differs
in three general ways:
(1) It places less emphasis on biologically based
drives and more importance on consistent patterns
of interpersonal relationships.
(2) It tends to be more maternal, stressing the
intimacy and nurturing of the mother, as opposed
to Freuds rather paternalistic theory that
emphasizes the power and control of the father.
(3) Object relations theorists generally see human
contact and relatedness not sexual pleasure as
the prime motive of human behavior.
Psychic Life of the Infant
- first 4-6 months of an infant is important
- To her, infants do not begin life with a blank slate
but with an inherited predisposition to reduce the
anxiety they experience as a result of the conflict
produced by the forces of the life instinct and the
power of the death instinct. The infants innate
readiness to act or react presupposes the
existence of phylogenetic endowment, a concept
that Freud also accepted.
Phantasies
- Infants, even at birth possesses an active
phantasy life.
- Phantasies are psychic representations of
unconscious id instincts
- It also springs from reality and universal
predispositions.
- Infants possess unconscious images of good
and bad (e.g. bad breast and good breast)
- As they mature, newer phantasies emerge
Objects
- Humans have innate drives or instincts, including
death instinct
- The earliest object relations are with the mothers
breast
- In their active fantasy, they introject, or take into

Positions
- Infants attempt to deal with life instincts and
death instincts, and they attempt to organize these
experiences into positions, or ways of dealing
with both internal and external objects. The term
position was used to indicate that positions
alternate back and forth. They are not stages of
development through which a person passes.
(1) Paranoid-Schizoid Position (3-4mos.)
- a way of organizing experiences that includes
both paranoid feelings of being persecuted and a
splitting of internal and external objects into good
and bad.
- Paranoid-Schizoid position develops during
which the egos perception of the external world is
subjective and fantastic rather than objective and
real.
- The child alternately experiences feelings of
gratification and frustration. In order to tolerate
these feelings, the ego then splits itself, retaining
parts of the life and death instincts while deflecting
parts of both instincts onto the breast.
Persecutory breast
Ideal breast which provides love, comfort, and
gratification.
- Thus, the persecutory feelings are considered to
be paranoid; that is, they are not based on any real
or immediate danger from the outside world.
- In the young childs schizoid world, rage and
destructive feelings are directed toward the bad
breast, while feelings of love and comfort are
associated with the good breast.
- Language is not used to identify the good and
bad breast, they use a biological disposition.
(2) Depressive Position (5-6 mos.)
- An infant begins to view external objects as
whole and to see that good and bad exist in the
same person.
- The infant develops a more realistic picture of the
mother and recognizes that she is an independent
person who can be both good and bad.
- The ego is beginning to mature to the point at

which it can tolerate some of its own destructive

feelings rather than projecting them outward.
- The infant experiences feelings of guilt for its
previous destructive urges toward the mother.
- The feelings of anxiety over losing a loved object
coupled with a sense of guilt for wanting to destroy
the object constitute what Klein called the
depressive position.
- When the depressive position is resolved,
children close the split between the good and the
bad mother. They are able not only to experience
love from their mother, but also to display their own
love for her. However, an incomplete resolution of
the depressive position can result in lack of trust,
morbid mourning at the loss of a loved one, and a
variety of other psychic disorders.
Psychic Defense Mechanisms
Infants adopt several psychic defense
mechanisms to protect their ego against the
anxiety aroused by their own destructive fantasies.
(1) Introjection
- Infants fantasize taking into their body those
perceptions and experiences that have had with
the external object, originally the mothers breast.
- Introjected objects are not accurate
representations of the real objects but are colored
by childrens fantasies.
(2) Projection
- Projection is the fantasy that ones own feelings
and impulses actually reside in another person
and not within ones body.
- By projecting unmanageable destructive
impulses onto external objects, infants alleviate the
unbearable anxiety of being destroyed by
dangerous internal forces
(3) Splitting
- keeping part incompatible impulses, the good
and bad aspect of themselves and of external
objects
- In order to separate bad and good objects, the
ego must itself be split. Thus, infants develop a

picture of both the good me and the bad me

that enables them to deal with both pleasurable
and destructive impulses toward external objects.
- If splitting is not extreme and rigid, it has a
positive effect on the child. The child can see both
positive and negative aspects of their self. If
splitting is excessive an inflexible, it can lead to
pathological repression.
(4) Projective Identification
- A psychic defense mechanism in which infants
split off unacceptable part of themselves, project
them into another object, and finally introject them
back into themselves in a changed or distorted
form. Then they identify with the object.
- It exerts a powerful influence on adult
interpersonal relations.
Internalizations
- When object relations theorists speak of
internalizations, they mean that the person
takes in (introjects) aspects of the external world
and then organizes those introjections into a
psychologically meaningful framework.
(1) Ego
- Klein largely ignored the id, and that the ego
reaches maturity at a much earlier stage than
Freud had assumed.
- Egos has the early ability to sense both
destructive and loving forces and to manage them
through splitting, projection, and introjection.
- before a unified ego emerges, it must first
become split
(2) Superego
- Kleins conception of superego differs with Freud
in three important respects:
(a) emerges much earlier in life
(b) it is not an outgrowth of Oedipus complex
(c) it is much more harsh and cruel
- Early superego not produces guilt but terror
(3) Oedipus Complex
- merely an extension not a refutation to Freuds
ideas
(a) begins at much earlier stage, overlaps with oral

and anal stage and reaches its climax during the

genital stage at around age 3-4
(b) A significant part of the Oedipus complex is
childrens fear of retaliation from their parent for
their fantasy of emptying the parents body.
(c) stressed the importance of children retaining
positive feelings toward both parents during the
Oedipal years
(d) Fourth, she hypothesized that during its early
stages, the Oedipus complex serves the same
need for both genders, that is, to establish a
positive attitude with the good or gratifying object
(breast or penis) and to avoid the bad or terrifying
object (breast or penis). In this position, children of
either gender can direct their love either alternately
or simultaneously toward each parent.
Female Oedipal Development
1st month the little girl sees her mothers breast
as both good and bad.
6 months she begins to the view the breast as
more positive than negative
- She sees her mother as full of good things (this
leads to her imagining of how babies are made).
- She y by fantasizes that the fathers penis feeds
her mother with riches, including babies (she
fantasizes that the father will her with babies).
- If the Oedipal stage flows smoothly, the little girl
adopts a feminine position and has a positive
relationship with both parents.
- Under less ideal circumstances, the little girl will
see her mother as a rival and will fantasize robbing
her mother of her fathers penis and stealing her
mothers babies. The little girls wish to rob her
mother produces a paranoid fear that her mother
will retaliate against her by injuring her or taking
away her babies.
- This anxiety will only be alleviated when she later
gives birth to a healthy baby.
- Penis envy stems from the little girls wish to
internalize her fathers penis and to receive a baby
from him. This precedes the desire to have an
external penis.
Male Oedipal Development
- The little boy sees his mothers breast as both

good and bad

- During the early months; the boy shifts some of
his oral desires from his mothers breast to his
fathers penis. The little boy is in his feminine
position, a positive homosexual attitude toward his
father.
- Next, he moves to a heterosexual relationship
with the mother.
- As the boy matures, the boy develops oralsadistic impulses toward his father and want to bite
off his penis and to murder him. This feeling
arouses penis castration, which resolves the boys
Oedipus complex.
* For both girls and boys, a healthy resolution

of the Oedipus complex depends on their

ability to allow their mother and father to
come together and to have sexual intercourse
with each other. No remnant of rivalry
remains. Childrens positive feelings toward
both parents later serve to enhance their adult
sexual relations.
Later Views on Object Relations

MARGARET MAHLER
- Psychological birth begins during the first
weeks of postnatal life and continues for the next 3
years or so. It meant that the child becomes an
individual separate from his or her primary
caregiver, an accomplishment that leads ultimately
to a sense of identity.
- The child proceeds through a series of three
major developmental stages and four substages to
achieve psychological birth and individuation:
First Stage: Normal Autism
- spans from birth until about age 3 or 4 weeks
- Newborn infant satisfies various needs within the
all-powerful protective orbit of a mothers care.
- This stage is a period of absolute primary
narcissism in which an infant is unaware of any
other person unlike Klein who conceptualized a
newborn infant as being terrified.
- An objectless stage when an infant naturally
searches for the mothers breast.

- She disagreed with Kleins notion that the infants

incorporate the good breast and other objects into
their ego.
Second Stage: Normal Symbiosis
- This stage occurs as infants gradually realize
they cannot satisfy their own needs, and they
begin to recognize their primary caregiver and to
seek a symbiotic relationship with her.
- begins around 4th or 5th week of age but reaches
its zenith during the 4th or 5th month
- The symbiosis is characterized by a mutual cuing
of infant and mother.
- objects relations have not yet begun mothers
and others are still preobjects
Third Stage: Separation-Individuation
- spans the period from about the 4th or 5th month
of age until about the 30th or 36th month.
- Children become psychologically separated from
their mothers, achieve a sense of individuation,
and begin to develop feelings of personal identity.
- they no longer experience a dual unity with their
mother, they must surrender their delusion of
omnipotence and face their vulnerability to external
threats
Overlapping Substages of SeparationIndividuation
First Substage: Differentiation
- lasts from about the 5th month until the 7th to 10th
month of age
- marked by a bodily breaking away from the
mother-infant symbiotic orbit
- Psychologically healthy infants who expand their
world beyond the mother will be curious about
strangers and will inspect them; unhealthy infants
will fear strangers and recoil from them.
Second Substage: Practicing
- a period from about 7th to 10th month of age to
about the 15th or 16th month
- an autonomous ego begin to develop, a specific
bond with the mother is established, and the
children easily distinguish their body from their
mothers
- during the early stages, they do not like to lose

sight of their mother

- later, they begin to walk and to take in the outside
world.
Third Substage: Rapprochement
- about 16 to 25 months of age
- they desire to bring back their mother and
themselves back together, both physically and
physiologically
- their increased cognitive skills make them more
aware of their separateness and make various
ploys to regain the desired unity
Fourth Substage: Libidinal Object Constancy
-approximates the 3rd year of life
- children will continue to depend on their mothers
physical presence for their own security if they do
not develop a constant inner representation of their
mother.
- children must also learn to consolidate their
individuality, that is they must learn to function
without their mother and to develop other object
relations
*The strength of Mahlers theory is its elegant
description of psychological birth based on
empirical observations of mother-child interactions.
Although many of her tenets rely on inferences
gleaned from reactions of preverbal infants, her
ideas can easily be extended to adults.

the infant takes in the selfobjects responses as

pride, guilt, shame, or envyall attitudes that
eventually form the building blocks of the self.
- He believed that infants are naturally narcissistic
and self-centered. The self is crystallized around
two basic narcissistic needs:
(1) the need to exhibit the grandiose of self
- The grandiose exhibitionistic self is established
when the infant relates to a mirroring selfobject
who reflects approval of its behavior. The infant
thus forms a rudimentary self-image from
messages such as If others see me as perfect,
then I am perfect.
(2) the need to acquire an idealized image of
one or both parents
- The idealized parent image is opposed to the
grandiose self because it implies that someone
else is perfect. Nevertheless, it too satisfies a
narcissistic need because the infant adopts the
attitude You are perfect, but I am part of you.
*Both narcissistic self-images are necessary for
healthy personality development. Both, however,
must change as the child grows older. If they
remain unaltered, they result in a pathologically
narcissistic adult personality.
- Grandiosity must changed into a realistic view of
self. The idealized parent image must grow into a
realistic picture of the parents.

HEINZ KOHUT
- He emphasized the process by which the self
evolves from a vague and undifferentiated image
to a clear and precise sense of individual identity.
- He defined the self as the center of the
individuals psychological universe and the
center of initiative and recipient of impressions.
- He also focused on early mother-child
relationship as the key to later development just
like other object relations theorists.
- Infants require adult caregivers not only to gratify
physical needs but also to satisfy psychological
needs. The adults or selfobjects must treat infants
as if they had a sense of self.
- Through the process of empathic interaction,

JOHN BOWLBY: Attachment Theory

- He realized that object relations theory could be
integrated with an evolutionary perspective. But
this he believed that he can correct the empirical
shortcomings of the theory end extend it into a
new direction.
- Attachment theory also departed from
psychoanalytic thinking by taking childhood as
starting point and then extrapolating toward
adulthood.
- Bowlby firmly believed that the attachments
formed during childhood have an important impact
on adulthood. Childhood attachments are crucial
to later development.

- Humans just like primate infants go through a

clear sequence of reactions when separated from
their primary caregivers.
Three Stages of Separation Anxiety
(1) protest When the caregiver is first out of
sight, infants will cry, resist soothing by other
people, and search for their caregiver.
(2) despair As separation continues, infants
become quiet, sad, passive, listless, and apathetic.
(3) detachment The last stage the only one
unique to humans. During this stage, infants
become emotionally detached from other people
including their caregiver. If their caregiver returns,
infants will disregard and avoid her. As they
become older, their interpersonal relations are
superficial and lack warmth.
Bowlbys theory rests on two fundamental
assumptions:
(a) A responsive and accessible caregiver must
create a secure base for the child. If this
dependability is present, the child is better able to
develop confidence and security in exploring the
world.
(b) A bonding relationship (or lack thereof)
becomes internalized and serves as a mental
working model on which future friendships and
love relationships are built.
* Attachment style is a relationship between two
people and not a trait given to the infant by the
caregiver. It is a two-way streetthe infant and the
caregiver must be responsive to each other and
each must influence the others behavior.

MARY AINSWORTH: Strange Situation

- influenced by Bowlbys theory
- Ainsworth and her associates developed a
technique for measuring the type of attachment
style that exists between caregiver and infant,
known as the Strange Situation.
Three attachment styles:

(1) secure attachment Infants are confident in

the accessibility and responsiveness of their
caregiver.
(2) anxious-resistant attachment Infants are
ambivalent. They seek contact with their mother,
while on the other hand, and reject attempts at
being soothed.
(3) anxious-avoidant attachment - With this
style, infants stay calm when their mother leaves;
they accept the stranger, and when their mother
returns, they ignore and avoid her.
Psychotherapy
- Klein insisted that negative transference was an
essential step toward successful treatment.
- She substituted play therapy for Freudian dream
analysis and free association.
- The aim of Kleinian therapy is to reduce
depressive anxieties and persecutory fears and to
mitigate the harshness of internalized objects.
Object Relations and Eating Disorders
- As applied to eating disorders, when these
individuals feel anxious, they look for comfort in
external sources; and food is a primary means of
soothing and regulating their anxiety.
- Bulimia is associated with overseparation
(detachment) from parents, whereas anorexia was
associated with high levels of guilt and conflict
over separation from parents.
Attachment Theory and Adult Relationships
- People who had early secure attachments with
their caregivers would experience more trust,
closeness, and positive emotions.
- Avoidant adults would fear closeness and lack
trust, whereas anxious-ambivalent adults would be
preoccupied with and obsessed by their
relationships.
- Attachment is also related to the type of
information people seek or avoid regarding their
relationship and romantic partner. Avoidant
individuals strive to maintain emotional
independence, so they would not seek out
additional information about their partners intimate
feelings and dreams. While anxious individuals

tend to be chronically worried about the state of

relationship so they express a strong desire to gain
more information about their romantic partner.
Attachment Style and Leadership
- Leaders with a secure attachment style (neither
anxious nor avoidant) are more effective than
insecurely attached (anxious or avoidant) leaders.
Critique of Object Relations Theory
- low on its ability to generate research
- Since it grew out of the orthodox psychoanalytic
theory, it suffers from some of the falsifications that
confront Freuds theory.
- Klein used needlessly complex phrases and
concepts to express her theory.
- It has the ability to organize information about the
behavior of infants. Objects relations theory has
speculated on how humans gradually come to a
sense of identity.
- It is built on careful observations of the motherchild relationship.
- Parents of young infants can learn the
importance of a warm, accepting, and nurturing
caregiver.
- high on determinism, low on free choice
- can either be pessimistic or optimistic
- tends to be more causal, expectations of the
future play a very minor role
- high on unconscious determinants of behavior
- biology as more important than environment in
shaping personality in terms of the concept of
phylogenetic endowment and death instinct
- the biologically based infantile stages lean more
toward social determinants of personality
- it tends toward similarities
________________________________________

KAREN HORNEY: Psychoanalytic Social

Theory
Overview
- Culture, especially childhood experiences, plays
a leading role in shaping human personality, either

neurotic or healthy.
- Social rather than biological forces are
paramount in personality development.
- Horney criticized Freud on several accounts:
(1) strict adherence to orthodox psychoanalysis
would lead to stagnation in both theoretical and
therapeutic practice.
(2) She objected to Freuds ideas on feminine
psychology
(3) psychoanalysis should move beyond instinct
theory emphasize the importance of cultural
influences in shaping personality
The Impact of Culture
- Modern culture is based on competition among
individuals.
- Competitiveness and the basic hostility it
spawns result in feelings of isolation. These
feelings of being alone in a potentially hostile world
lead to intensified needs for affection, which in
turn, causes people to overvalue love.
- They see love and affection as solution to their
problems. Desperate need for love can lead to the
development of neuroses.
The Importance of Childhood Experiences
- Childhood is the age from which the vast majority
of problems arise.
- Horney hypothesized that a difficult childhood is
primarily responsible for neurotic needs. These
needs become powerful because they are the
childs only means of gaining feelings of safety.
- But it should be the sum total of childhood
experiences, no single early experience is
responsible for later personality.
Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
- Each person begins life with the potential for
healthy development, but favorable conditions for
growth are needed conditions that provide feelings
of safety and satisfaction and permit them to
grow in accordance with their real self.
- If parents do not satisfy the childs need for safety
and satisfaction, the child develops feelings of
basic hostility toward the parents.
- This hostility is often repressed and takes the

form as a basic anxiety, the profound feelings of

insecurity and vague sense of apprehension. It is
further defined as a feeling of being isolated and
helpless in a world conceived as potentially hostile.
- Hostile impulses are the principal source of basic
anxiety, but basic anxiety can also contribute to
feelings of hostility.
Protective mechanisms from feelings of isolation
(1) affection
(2) submissiveness
(3) striving for power, prestige or possession
(4) withdrawal
- Everyone uses these various protective devices
to guard against the rejection, hostility, and
competitiveness of others. People become
unhealthy when people feel compelled to rely on
them.
Compulsive Drives
- Compulsion is the salient characteristic of all
neurotic drives.
Neurotic Needs
(1) The neurotic need for affection and
approval. In their quest for affection and
approval, neurotics attempt indiscriminately to
please others. They try to live up to the
expectations of others, tend to dread selfassertion, and are quite uncomfortable with the
hostility of others as well as the hostile feelings
within themselves.
(2) The neurotic need for a powerful partner.
Lacking self-confidence, neurotics try to attach
themselves to a powerful partner. This need
includes an overvaluation of love and a dread of
being alone or deserted.
(3) The neurotic need to restrict ones life
within narrow borders. Neurotics frequently
strive to remain inconspicuous, to take second
place, and to be content with very little. They
downgrade their own abilities and dread making
demands on others.
(4) The neurotic need for power. Power and

affection are perhaps the two greatest neurotic

needs. The need for power is usually combined
with the needs for prestige and possession and
manifests itself as the need to control others and
to avoid feelings of weakness or stupidity.
(5) The neurotic need to exploit others.
Neurotics frequently evaluate others on the basis
of how they can be used or exploited, but at the
same time, they fear being exploited by others.
(6) The neurotic need for social recognition or
prestige. Some people combat basic anxiety by
trying to be first, to be important, or to attract
attention to themselves.
(7) The neurotic need for personal admiration.
Neurotics have a need to be admired for what they
are rather than for what they possess. Their
inflated self-esteem must be continually fed by the
admiration and approval of others.
(8) The neurotic need for ambition and
personal achievement. Neurotics often have a
strong drive to be the best. They must defeat other
people in order to confirm their superiority.
(9) The neurotic need for self-sufficiency and
independence. Many neurotics have a strong
need to move away from people, thereby proving
that they can get along without others.
(10) The neurotic need for perfection and
unassailability. By striving relentlessly for
perfection, neurotics receive proof of their selfesteem and personal superiority. They dread
making mistakes and having personal flaws, and
they desperately attempt to hide their weaknesses
from others.
Neurotic Trends
- The 10 neurotic needs can be grouped into three
categories, each relating to a persons basic
attitude toward self and others (also referred as
basic conflict).
(1) moving toward people
(2) moving against people
(3) moving away from people

Normal Defenses (Spontaneous Movement)

Toward people
(friendly, loving personality)
Against people
(a survivor in a competitive society)
Away from people
(autonomous, serene personality)
Neurotic Defenses (Compulsive Movement)
Toward people (1-3)
(compliant personality)
Against people (4-8)
(aggressive personality)
Away from people (9-10)
(detached personality)
- Neurotics are limited to the use of a single trend,
whereas normals can choose a variety of
strategies.
- Neurotics are unaware of their basic attitude and
they are forced to act.
Moving Toward People
- refers to the neurotic need to protect oneself
against feelings of helplessness through
compliance
- complaint people comply either or both of the first
two neurotic needs: (1) they desperately strive for
affection and approval of others (2) they seek a
powerful partner who will take responsibility of their
lives
- Horney referred to this need as morbid
dependency
Moving Against People
- they move against others by appearing tough or
ruthless to resolve feelings of hostility
- they are motivated by the strong need to exploit
others and to use them for their own benefit
- compulsively driven to appear perfect, powerful,
and superior
- Neurotic needs incorporated include: (1) the
need to be powerful, (2) to exploit others, (3) to
receive recognition and prestige, (4) to be

admired, and (5) to achieve.

* Moving towards others and moving against
people are polar opposites. The compliant
person needs affection from others while the
aggressive person sees everyone as a potential
enemy.
* For both types, the center of gravity lies outside
the person.
Moving Away From People
- To resolve basic conflict of isolation, people
behave in a detached manner and adopt a
neurotic need.
- an expression of needs for privacy,
independence, and self-sufficiency
- this needs become neurotic when people try to
satisfy each of these needs by compulsively
putting emotional distance between themselves
and other people
- they want to attain autonomy and separateness
Intrapsychic Conflicts
- Horney did not neglect the impact of intrapsychic
factors in the development of personality.
The two important intrapsychic conflicts are:
the idealized self-image and self-hatred
The Idealized Self-Image
- If given an environment of discipline and warmth,
people will develop feelings of security and selfconfidence and a tendency toward selfrealization. Yet, early negative influences often
impede peoples natural toward self-realization,
growing sense of alienation from themselves.
- This dilemma can only be solved by acquiring a
stable sense of identity, an extravagantly positive
view of themselves that exists only in their
personal belief system.
- The idealized self-image is not a global
construction. As it becomes solidified, they lose
touch with their real self and use the idealized self
as the standard for self-evaluation. Rather than
growing toward self-realization, they move toward
actualizing their idealized self.
- Horney recognized three aspects of the idealized
self.

(1) The Neurotic Search for Glory

- As neurotics come to believe in the reality of their
idealized self, they begin to incorporate it into all
aspects of their livestheir goals, their selfconcept, and their relations with others.
- It includes three other elements:
(a) the need for perfection Refers to the drive to
mold the whole personality in to the idealized self.
They try to achieve perfection by erecting a
complex set of shoulds and should nots, referred
as the tyranny of the should.
(b) neurotic ambition Refers to the compulsive
drive toward superiority.
(c) the drive toward a vindictive triumph The
most destructive element of all. It may be
disguised as a drive for achievement or success
but its chief aim is to put others to shame or defeat
them through ones very success, to attain power. .
. to inflict suffering on themmostly of a humiliating
kind.
(2) Neurotic Claims
- In their search for glory, neurotics build a fantasy
world a world that is out of sync with the real
world.
- They proclaim that they are special and therefore
entitled to be treated in accordance with their
idealized view of themselves.
- Neurotic claims grow out of normal needs and
wishes, however when neurotic claims are not
met, neurotics become indignant, bewildered, and
unable to comprehend why others have not
granted their claims.
(3) Neurotic Pride
- A false pride based not on a realistic view of the
true self but on a spurious image of the idealized
self.
- It is qualitatively different from healthy pride or
realistic self-esteem.
- Genuine self-esteem is based on realistic
attributes and accomplishments and is generally
expressed with quiet dignity. Neurotic pride on the
other hand, is based on an idealized image of self
and is usually loudly proclaimed in order to protect
and support a glorified view of ones self.

Self-Hatred
People with a neurotic search for glory can never
be happy with themselves because when they
realize that their real self does not match the
insatiable demands of their idealized self, they will
begin to hate and despise themselves.
- Horney recognized six ways in which people
express self-hatred:
(1) relentless demands on the self
(2) merciless self-accusation
(3) self-contempt
(4) self-frustration
(5) self-torment or self-torture
(6) self-destructive actions and impulses
Feminine Psychology
* Psychic differences between men and women
are not the result of anatomy but rather of cultural
and social expectations
- Oedipus complex is not universal, instead is
found only in some people and is an expression for
the neurotic need for love.
- A child may passionately cling to one parent and
express (neurotic need for love) and express
jealousy toward the other, as means of alleviating
basic anxiety and not manifestations of an
anatomically based Oedipus complex.
- The childs main goal is security not sexual
intercourse.
- Horney agreed with Adler that women possess a

masculine protest (men are superior than women)

that leads to the neurotic desire to be a man, not
an expression of penis envy.

the ability to recognize threats in the environment

and would be related to decreased negative mood.

Psychotherapy
-The general goal of Horneyian therapy is to help
patients gradually grow in the direction of selfrealization. More specifically, the aim is to have
patients give up their idealized self-image,
relinquish their neurotic search for glory, and
change selfhatred to an acceptance of the real
self.
- Self-understanding is the key to positive change.
- Successful therapy is built on patients selfanalysis (idealized self-image vs. real self).
- In terms of techniques, Freudian dream
interpretation and free association are employed.
Horney saw dreams as attempts to solve conflicts.
- When therapy is successful, patients gradually
develop confidence in their ability to assume
responsibility for their psychological development,
they move toward self-realization.

Critique of Horney
- The strength of Horneys theory is her lucid
portrayal of the neurotic personality. Her
comprehensive descriptions of neurotic
personalities provide an excellent framework for
understanding unhealthy people.
- A serious limitation to her theory is that her
references to the normal or healthy people are
general and not well-explicated. There was no
clear picture of what self-realization would be.

Related Research
- The Neurotic Compulsion to Avoid the Negative.
Neuroticism is associated with setting avoidance
goals rather than approach goals. High levels of
neuroticism is also associated with experiencing
more negative emotion and being more likely to
develop generalized anxiety disorder.
- Neuroticism can also be seen in a positive light.
For those people high in neuroticism, they have

-deterministic for neurotic individuals, but a healthy

person would have a large element of free choice
- somewhat more optimistic than pessimistic,
people possess inherent curative powers that lead
toward self-realization.
- a middle position on causality vs. teleology:
childhood experiences can block the movement
toward self-realization
- most people have limited awareness of their
motives
- strongly emphasized social influences more than
biological ones
- it highlights similarities among people more than
uniqueness