THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

(FINALS REVIEWER) ● Assumes that existential need are innate

● Lack of animal instinct + presence of rational
thoughts = feeling of loneliness and isolation
ERICH FROMM’S HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS
(basic anxiety)
● Strive to be reunited with nature and other
I. OVERVIEW OF HUMANISTIC people
PSYCHOANALYSIS (Socialpsychological ● Human personality can only be understood in
approach to personality) the light of history.
● Humans have been torn away from their
Erich Fromm’s basic thesis is that modern-day prehistoric union with nature and left with no
powerful instincts to adapt to a changing world.
people have been torn away from their prehistoric
They have acquired the ability to reason, which
union with nature and with one another, yet they have means they can think about their isolated
the power of reasoning, foresight, and imagination. He condition. Fromm called this situation the
developed a theory of personality that emphasizes the human dilemma
influence of sociobiological factors, history, ● People experience this basic dilemma because
economics, and class structure. His humanistic they have become separate from nature and yet
have the capacity to be aware of themselves as
psychoanalysis assumes that humanity’s separation
isolated beings. The human ability to reason,
from the natural world has produced feelings of
therefore, is both a blessing and a curse.
loneliness and isolation, a condition called basic
anxiety. ● It forces them to attempt to solve basic
insoluble dichotomies (Existential Dichotomies)
According to Fromm, individual personality can be
understood only in the light of human history. “The ➢ Life & Death
discussion of the human situation must precede that ➢Goal of complete self-realization &
of personality, psychology must be based on an shortness of life to reach the goal
anthropologic- philosophical concept of human
existence”. ➢ Alone & cannot tolerate isolation
 ● his friendship with Karen Horney and became
II. FROMM’S SHORT BIOGRAPHY lovers and then separated
● He then married Henny Gurland, two years
Erich Fromm was born in Germany in 1900, the only
younger than him but died
child of orthodox Jewish parents. A thoughtful young
● He met Annis Freeman and got married again
man, Fromm was influenced by the bible, Freud, and
Marx, as well as by socialist ideology. After receiving ● He died in Switzerland in 1980.
his PhD, Fromm began studying psychoanalysis and
became an analyst by virtue of being analyzed by III.FROMM’S CONTRIBUTION TO PERSONALITY
Hanns Sachs, a student of Freud. In 1934, Fromm THEORY
moved to the United States and began a
psychoanalytic practice in New York, where he also
A. Escape from Freedom and Positive Freedom
resumed his friendship with Karen Horney. Much of
his later years were spent in Mexico and Switzerland.
He died in 1980. Fromm believed that we are free to be and do
whatever we please. Yet it is freedom that creates the
Summary: greatest problem for us. Once we emerge on our own,
● born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1900, the only we are faced with enormous personal responsibilities,
child of orthodox Jewish parents. we are isolated, we are alone. Freedom can be
● His humanistic philosophy grew out of an early frightening. As Fromm said, we feel an “unbearable
reading of the biblical prophets and an state of powerlessness and aloneness.” As we become
association with aware of our individuality, we become aware of all that
● several Talmudic scholars. we cannot control and come painfully face-to-face
● Fromm's first wife was Frieda with our insignificance. According to Fromm, we have
Fromm-Reichmann but divorced two types of responses to this situation:
● Fromm moved to the United States and began a escape from freedom or positive freedom.
psychoanalytic practice in New York, where he
resumed ● Humans are the freaks of the universe
 ● High freedom = High isolation from others ● Masochism stems from feelings of
● Freedom ->basic anxiety (a burden of being powerlessness and can be disguised as love or
alone) loyalty
● Sadism involves attempts to achieve unity
Mechanisms of Escape from Freedom through dominating, exploiting, or hurting
others. (power over weak, exploit others)
● To reduce the frightening sense of isolation and
aloneness, they form Mechanism of escape 2. Destructiveness- the individual attempts to
● To escape basic anxiety -> mechanism of escape overcome life’s threatening situations by
destroying them. For example, we may say that
we are fighting for love of country but in reality
The following are the three strategies people employ
we are neurotically striving to overcome the
in an attempt to overcome the feelings of
feelings of powerlessness and isolation that
powerlessness and anxiety that accompany freedom. threatens us all.

1. Authoritarianism- the tendency to “fuse one’s ● Feelings of isolation; an escape mechanism that
self with somebody or something outside of is aimed at doing away with other people or
oneself in order to acquire the strength which things. To restore feeling of power
the individual self is lacking”. Fromm describes
● Goal is to push other away to gain strength
these authoritarian characters as reflecting an
ironic combination of strivings for submission 3. Automaton Conformity- the individual simply
and strivings for domination, or, in Fromm’s has a blind acceptance of all of the
terms, masochism and sadism contradictions of life. If he can’t beat them, he
must join them. He totally lacks any spontaneity
and has no true experience of what is really his
● The tendency to give up one's independence
own life.
and to unite with a powerful partner
 ● surrendering of one's individuality in order to Nonproductive Orientations
meet the wishes of others. Those that fail to move people closer to positive
freedom and self-realization.
● Give up individuality and conform to society

1. Receptive characters (masochistic)- feel that the

Positive Freedom- it refers to spontaneous (achieved)
and full expression of both the rational and source of all good lies outside themselves and that
emotional potentialities. Spontaneous activity is the only way they can relate to the world is to receive
frequently seen in small children and in artists who things, including love, knowledge, and material
have little or no tendency to conform to whatever possessions.
others want them to be. They act according to their
basic natures and not according to conventional rules.
● Positive qualities include loyalty and trust;
● It is the successful solution to the human ● negative ones are passivity and submissiveness
dilemma of being part of the natural world and
yet separate from it. 2. Exploitative characters (sadistic) - aggressively
take what they desire rather than passively receive it.
B. Character Orientations ● Positive qualities of exploitative people include
According to Fromm, people relate to the world
pride and self-confidence;
in two ways- by acquiring and using things
● negative ones are arrogance and conceit.
(assimilation) and by relating to self and others
(socialization). In general terms, people can relate to
things and to people either productively or 3. Hoarding (destructive) - seeks to save that which
nonproductively. they have already obtained including their opinions,
feelings, and material possessions. People with this
Social Character orientation hold everything inside and do not let go of
The core of a character structure common to most anything.
people of a given culture
● Positive qualities include loyalty,
 ● Negative ones are obsessiveness and thinking is motivated by a concerned interest in
possessiveness. another person or object.

4. Marketing character (indifferent) - see themselves ● work toward positive freedom through
as commodities, with their personal value dependent productive work, love, and thoughts.
on ● Productive love necessitates a passionate love
their exchange value, that is, their ability to sell of all life and is called biophilia.
themselves.
● see themselves as commodities and value Productive Social Character
themselves against the criterion of their ability
to sell themselves. 1. Working (love and reason)
● They have fewer positive qualities than the 2. Cares for other
other orientations, because they are essentially 3. Values relationships
empty. 4. Responsibility, respect and knowledge
● They can be open-minded and adaptable, as
well as opportunistic and wasteful. C. Personality Disorders

Productive Orientations Fromm (1981) held that psychologically disturbed

The single productive orientation has three people are incapable of love and have failed to
dimensions- working, loving, and reasoning. Healthy establish union with others. He discussed three severe
people value work not as an end in itself, but as a personality disorders- necrophilia, malignant
means of creative self-expression. Productive love is narcissism, and incestuous symbiosis.
characterized by care, responsibility, respect, and
knowledge. In addition to these four characteristics, 1. Necrophilia- more generalized sense to denote any
healthy people possess biophilia: that is, a passionate attraction to death. It is an alternative character
love of life and all that is alive. Finally, productive
orientation to biophilia. Necrophilic personalities hate ● Extreme dependence on one's mother or
humanity, they are bullies, they love destruction, mother surrogate to the extent that one's
terror, and torture. personality is blended with that of the host
person
● The love of death and the hatred of all
humanity. ● Hitler, possessed all three of these disorders, a
● Their destructiveness is a reflection of a basic condition he termed the syndrome of decay.
character.
**Syndrome of
2. Malignant Narcissism- people with this disorder growth: love,
are preoccupied with themselves, but this concern is biophilia and
not limited to admiring themselves in a mirror. positive freedom
Preoccupation with one’s body often leads to
hypochondriasis, or an obsessive attention to one’s
health. D. Fromm’s Concept of LOVE

● Convinced that everything belonging to them is In the final analysis of

of great value and anything belonging to others man’s troubled existence, Fromm fervently feels that
is worthless. the answer to the problem is the capacity of man to
● Narcissistic people often suffer from moral love.
hypochondrias, or preoccupation with excessive According to him, love is an art, it requires the effort
guilt. and knowledge the other types of art demand. Love is
an
3. Incestuous Symbiosis- refers to an extreme active process in which we establish individuality. It is
dependence on the mother or mother surrogate. in genuine love, said Fromm, that we find the paradox
“two beings become one yet remain two”.
 respect, responsibility, and especially
In his popular book entitled “The Art of Loving” , knowledge.
Fromm identified care, responsibility, respect, and
knowledge as four basic elements common to all forms
of genuine love. He proposes five types of love. They E. Fromm’s Five Existential/ Human Needs
are described below:
Our human dilemma cannot be solved by satisfying
1. Brotherly love- the most fundamental, the our animal needs, but it can only be addressed by
strongest, and the most underlying kind of love. fulfilling our human needs, which would move us
It is a love between equals. toward a reunification with the natural world.

2. Motherly love- the love and care for the ● Needs that must be met for a meaningful
helpless, the wanting to make them strong and existence
independent. ● Inner being is developed

3. Erotic love- usually allied with sexual 1. Transcendence - to go above being just an
experience, a “craving for complete function,” animal, to improve and learn, to increase in
and is what most consider the only kind of love. material things
It is exclusive and inclined toward jealousy. (urge to rise above a passive and accidental
existence).
4. Self-love- care, responsibility, respect, and
knowledge of self. ● to transcend their nature by destroying
or creating people or things.
5. Love of God- has the highest value, is the ● Humans can destroy through malignant
most desirable good, and emphasizes care, aggression (killing for reasons other than
survival; not common to all humans) but
 they can also create and care about their 4. Frame of orientation-the need for a road map to
creations make their way through the world.

2. Sense of Identity-capacity to be aware of ourselves ● Expressed nonproductively as a striving for

as a separate entity (awareness of ourselves as a irrational goals
separate person) ● Express productively as movement toward
rational goals.
● The drive for a sense of identity is expressed
nonproductively as conformity to a group and 5. Relatedness- feeling of oneness with fellow men
productively as individuality. and with self (desire for union with another person/s)
Fromm postulated three basic ways in which a person
3. Rootedness-the need to establish roots or to feel at may relate to the world:
home again in the world.
1. submission - transcends separateness of his
● Like the other existential needs, rootedness can existence by becoming part of something bigger than
take either a productive or a nonproductive oneself
mode. 2. power - welcome submissive partners: symbiotic
● With the productive strategy, we grow beyond relationship
the security of our mother and establish ties 3. love - solve our basic human dilemma. It is the
with the outside world. ability to unite with another while retaining one's own
● With the nonproductive strategy, we become individuality and integrity.
“fixated” and afraid to move beyond the
security and safety of our mother or a mother Summary of Human Needs
substitute.
- People are highly motivated to satisfy the five
existential, or human, needs because if they are
 unsatisfied in these needs, they are driven to
insanity. Each of the needs has both a positive
and a negative component, but only the
satisfaction of positive needs leads to
psychological health.

IV. PSYCHOTHERAPY

Fromm believed that the aim of therapy is for

patients to come to know themselves. Without
knowledge of ourselves, we cannot know any other
person or thing. He believed that patients come to
therapy seeking satisfaction of their basic human
needs- relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a
sense of identity, and a frame of orientation. He asked
the patients to reveal their dreams, as well as fairy
tales and myths. Then, Fromm would ask for the
patient’s associations to the dream material.
ERIK H. ERIKSON’S EGO PSYCHOLOGY/ II. ERIKSON’S SHORT BIOGRAPHY
POST-FREUDIAN THEORY
Erik H. Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on
I. OVERVIEW OF ERIK ERIKSON’S EGO June 15, 1902. He was brought up by his mother and
PSYCHOLOGY/POST-FREUDIAN THEORY stepfather, but he remained uncertain of the true
identity of his biological father. To discover his niche
Erikson regarded his post-Freudian theory as an in life, Erikson ventured away from home during late
extension of psychoanalysis. Same with Freud, Erikson adolescence, adopting the life of a wandering artist
also believed that childhood experiences shape our and poet. After nearly 7 years of drifting and searching,
personality later in life but the latter holds that he returned home confused, exhausted, depressed,
personality is still flexible throughout the adult years. and unable to sketch or paint.
He states that failure at an early stage jeopardizes a
full development at a later stage but fulfillment in any Thirty years after coming to the United States in the
one stage does not automatically guarantee success. mid-1930’s, he became a naturalized citizen of the said
Each stage of specific psychosocial struggle country.
contributes to the formation of personality.
Erikson had never received a university degree, he
The theory was termed ego psychology since Erikson became friendly with the psychoanalysts and was later
held that ego is a positive force that creates a trained by them. After changing his name from
self-identity, a sense of “I.” As the center of our Homburger to Erikson, he became a practicing
personality, our ego helps us adapt to the various psychotherapist and a well- known personality
conflicts and crises of life and keeps us from losing our theorist.
individuality to the leveling forces of society.
This person who at the end of life was known as Erik
H. Erikson had previously been called Erik
Salomonsen, Erik Homburger, and Erik Homburger III. ERIKSON’S CONTRIBUTION TO PERSONALITY
Erikson. THEORY

Erikson as a personality theorist marked with 2

Although Erikson retained several Freudian ideas in his
important contributions- the first is his own concept
theory, his own contributions to the psychoanalytic
of Ego and by formulating the stages of psycho-social
were numerous. development.

Summary: A. THE EGO IN POST- FREUDIAN PSYCHOLOGY

● born in Germany in 1902: Erik Salomonsen.
● After his mother married Theodor Homberger, Erikson’s concept of the ego was much different from
Freud. In Freud’s term, ego is the mediator between id
Erik eventually took his stepfather's name.
impulses and superego demands but Erikson believed
● At age 18 he left home to pursue the life of a that the ego contains many important functions of a
wandering artist and to search for self-identity. constructive nature.
● Married Joan Serson and they had 4 children;
one had a down syndrome whom they sent to a Erikson viewed ego as a relatively powerful,
facility independent part of personality that works toward
such goals as establishing one’s identity and satisfying
● In mid-life, Erik Homberger moved to the
a need for mastery over the environment. For this
United States, changed his name to Erikson, and
reason, his theory was termed as ego psychology.
took a position at the Harvard Medical School.
● Later, he taught at Yale, the University of The principal function of the ego is to establish and
California at Berkeley, and several other maintain the sense of identity. The sense of identity is
universities. He died in 1994, a month short of a complex inner state that includes a sense of oneself
his 92nd birthday. as unique, yet also as a whole within oneself and
having continuity with the past and the future.

➢ emphasis on ego rather than id functions

 ➢ ego is the center of personality and is ● Pseudospecies = fictional notion that they are
responsible for a unified sense of self. superior to other cultures.
➢ Ego is the person’s ability to unify experiences
and actions in an adoptive manner Epigenetic Principle:
➢ Childhood: weak and fragile Erikson believed that the ego develops throughout the
➢ Adult: formation and strengthening various stages of life according to an epigenetic
principle, a term borrowed from embryology.
Erikson identified three interrelated aspects of ego: Epigenetic development implies a step-by-step
growth of fetal organs. In similar fashion, the ego
1. Body ego - refers to experiences with our body; a follows the path of epigenetic development, with each
way of seeing our physical self as different for other stage developing at its proper time. This development
people. is analogous to the physical development of children,
who crawl before they walk, walk before they run, and
2. Ego ideal - represents the image we have of run before they jump.
ourselves in comparison with an established ideal. ● it grows according to a genetically established
(image of ourselves vs an established ideal) rate and in a fixed sequence.
● A step-by-step growth
3. Ego identity - image we have of ourselves in the ● It does not replace the earlier stage
variety of social roles we play. (image of ourselves in ● “Epigenesis means that one characteristic
the social roles we play) develops on top of another in space and time”

Society's Influence:
● Society (cultural environment) shapes the ego
● influenced by child-rearing practices and other
cultural customs.
B. STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENTAL Table 2. Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial
STAGES Development

Each of the eight stages of development is marked by a Stage Features Basic Core
conflict (an interaction of opposites ) between a Virtue Pathology
syntonic (harmonious) element and a dystonic (Strength
) Ego
(disruptive) element, which produces a basic strength
Strength
or ego quality (must have both experiences). Too little
basic strength at any one stage results in a core 1. Trust vs. Whether Hope Withdrawal
pathology for that stage. Also, from adolescence on, Mistrust children come to
(birth- 1 year) trust or mistrust
each stage is characterized by an identity crisis Infancy themselves and
or turning point, which may produce either adaptive -similar to oral other people
or maladaptive adjustment. stage (Freud) depends on the
social care and
● Favourable ratio : develop both poles but have
“Principal comfort the
stronger pull on positive pole psychosexual primary
● Psychological Crisis : must be resolved to move mode of caregiver has
on to next stage adapting” provided.
- Oral-Sensory - Infants are
● Failure = issues in life
Mode dependent on
characterized by others for food,
both receiving care and
and accepting affection.
- include sense - must be able to
organs such as trust their
the eyes and parents
ears.
- Trust: the If infants’ needs
mother provides are met, and are
food (or relates) shown genuine Freud's anal whether to
regularly affection they stage assert their will
- Mistrust: if no think the world Early childhood or not. When
correspondence is safe and (toddler) parents are
between their dependable. If patient,
needs and their care is “Principal accepting and
environment inadequate, psychosexual encouraging,
inconsistent or mode of children acquire
negative, he adapting/adjust a sense of
approaches the ment” independence
world with fear - Anal-urethral and competence.
and suspicion. -Muscular When children
children behave are not allowed
Positive both impulsively
such freedom
outcome and
and are
Needs are met by compulsively
over-protected,
responsive - includes
they may doubt
parent -> mastery of other
their ability to
develop secure body functions
deal with the
attachment and such as walking,
environment.
trust. urinating, and
- learn to do
holding.
things for
Negative
themselves
outcome - Autonomy:
- Self-control
Develop mistrust faith in
and self-
towards people themselves
confidence
- Shame &
2. Autonomy vs. During this Will Compulsion Positive
Doubt: self-
Shame and stage, society outcome
consciousness,
Doubt creates on Encourage
uncertainty
(2-3 years) children a new initiative ->
compares to conflict, that is develop
 confidence to ability to move their activities
cope around. are pointless and
a nuisance,
Negative - Oedipus children become
outcome complex as an passive
Disapproving early model of and feel guilty
parent -> child lifelong about doing
feel ashamed playfulness and things on their
and doubt a drama played own.
abilities out in children's
minds as they - Become more
attempt to engage in
3. Initiative vs. At this stage, Purpose Inhibition understand the external world
Guilt children gain basic facts of life - Learn to
(3-5 years) that greater freedom balance being
parallels Freud's in exploring their - Initiative: to adventurous and
phallic phase. environment and act with purpose responsive
Early childhood often attempt and set goals
Play age tasks that - Guilt: too little Positive
parents do not purpose outcome
“Principal approve. Parents Encourage
psychosexual who allow their involved parent
mode of children freedom -> child learns
adapting” to explore and to follow
- Genital- master new tasks
Locomotor are allowing Negative
Mode them to develop outcome
children have initiative. Parents Develop a sense
both an interest who curtail this of guilt when
in genital freedom and trying to be
activity and an make the independent
increasing children feel
4. Industry vs. This period Compete Inertia Have pleasure in
Inferiority reflects the nce intellectual
(6-12 years) determination of activities
School age children to productive ->
(elementary) master what they develop sense of
are doing so that competence
Latency they develop a
a time of successful sense Negative
psychosexual of modesty outcome
latency , but it is industry. Develop a sense
also a time of Parents, teachers of inferiority
psychosocial who
growth beyond support, reward
the family. and praise 5. Identity vs. As young adults, Fidelity Role
- learn the children are Identity they seek Repudiation
customs of their encouraging and Confusion independence
culture, help in (12-18 years) from parents, - role denial
including both developing Puberty and achieve physi
formal and children’s sense Adolescence cal maturity and
informal of industry. psychosexual are concerned
education. Those who growth & about what kind
- Industry: work ignore, rebuff, psychosocial of persons they
hard & finish the deride children’s latency. are becoming.
job effort are Seeking to find
- Inferiority: strengthening “Principal an identity,
work is not feelings of psychosexual adolescents try
sufficient to inferiority. mode of on many new
achieve goals - learning and adapting” roles. If they
acquiring skills - Genital experience
maturation continuity in
Positive - Identity their perception
outcome emerges from of self, identity
a) childhood develops.When fuse one’s
identifications a the adolescent “Principal identity with that
b) historical and fails to develop a psychosexual of others to
social context sense of identity, mode of develop intimate
- Identity: he/she adapting” relationship.
having a sense experiences role - Genitality Central to
of who they are confusion or a expressed as intimacy is the
- Identity ”negative mutual trust ability to share
confusion: identity.” between with and care for
divided self- - be able to partners in a others.Failure to
image resolve “who am stable sexual establish close
I? conflict relationship. and intimate
- Intimacy: relationship
Positive ability to fuse results to a
outcome one's identity feeling of
Develop strong with that of isolation.
identity, have another person - love
plans and goals without fear of relationship
for the future losing it - Intimacy
- Isolation: fear
Negative of losing one's Positive
outcome identity in an outcome
Fall into intimate Able to form
confusion and relationship. close
indecisive relationships
“Identity Crisis” achieve sense of
identity
6. Intimacy vs. Young adults Love Exclusivity
Isolation reach out and Negative
(19-30 years) make contact outcome
Young with other Fear
adulthood people and to commitment,
 feel isolated too self- - parenting =
“quarter life indulgent, too create legacy
crisis” much self-
absorption Positive
7. Generativity This stage Care Rejectivity outcome
vs. Stagnation involves having a Have and
(31-60 years) sense of nurtured
a time when productivity and children ->
people make creativity. contribute to
significant Generativity- next generation
contributions to has to do with
society parental Negative
responsibility, outcome
Adulthood interest in Remain Self-
(middle) producing, and centered and
“Principal guiding the next experience
psychosexual generation. stagnation
mode of Stagnation- “Mid-life crisis”
adapting” condition in
- Procreativity which individuals
procreativity, or are not able to 8. Integrity vs. The stage of Wisdom Disdain
the caring for find meaning Despair facing reality, - feelings of
one's children, and purpose in (60- death) recognizing and being
the children of life and have The Old age accepting other. finished or
others, and the little interest in (late adulthood) Individuals in helpless
material self-improvemen self-improvemen
products of t or in making “Principal t or in making
one's society. contributions to psychosexual contributions to
- Generativity: society. mode of society taking
guiding the next - ability to look adapting” stock of the
generation outside self and - Generalized years that have
- Stagnation: care for others Sensuality gone before.
generalized Some feel a Negative
sensuality; sense of outcome
taking pleasure satisfaction with Individual
in a variety of their life’s despairs and fear
sensations and accomplishment, death
an appreciation achieving a sense
of the traditional of integrity.
Note:
life style of Others
people of the experience As Erikson himself aged, he and his wife began to
other gender. despair, feeling describe a ninth stage—a period of very old age when
- Integrity: the that the time is physical and mental infirmities rob people of their
maintenance of too short for an
generative abilities and reduce them to waiting for
ego-identity attempt to start
(social roles) another life and death.
- Despair: the to try out
surrender of alternative roads Erikson’s Eight Basic Virtues/ Ego Strength
hope (originated to integrity.
The following are the 8 basic virtues in relation to the
from infancy) - reflect upon
one’s life 8 stages of psychosocial development:
- filled with
pleasure and 1. Hope is the enduring belief in the obtainability of
satisfaction or
fervent wishes, in spite of the dark urges and rages
disappointment
which mark the beginning of existence.
Positive
outcome 2. Will is the unbroken determination to exercise free
Sense of
choice as well as self-restraint, in spite of the
fulfilment ->
accept death unavoidable experience of shame and doubts.
with a sense of
integrity 3. Purpose is the courage to envisage and pursue
valued goals uninhibited by the defeat of infantile
fantasies, by guilt and by the foiling fear of IV. ERIKSON’S METHODS OF INVESTIGATION
punishment.
A. Anthropological Studies
4. Competence is the free exercise of dexterity and Erikson's two most important anthropological studies
intelligence in their completion of tasks, unimpaired were of the Sioux of South Dakota and the Yurok tribe
by of northern California. Both studies demonstrated his
infantile inferiority. notion that culture and history help shape personality.

5. Fidelity is the ability to sustain loyalties freely B. Psychohistory

pledged in spite of the inevitable contradictions of Erikson combined the methods of psychoanalysis and
value systems. historical research to study several personalities, most
notably Gandhi and Luther. In both cases, the central
6. Love is mutuality of devotion forever subduing that figure experienced an identity crisis that produced a
antagonism inherent in divided function. basic strength rather than a core pathology.

7. Care is the widening concern for what has been Criteria for Evaluating a Theory
generated by love, necessity, or accident; it overcomes Characteristics Theory
the ambivalence adhering to irreversible obligation.
Capacity to generate Higher than average
research
8. Wisdom is detached concern with life itself, in the
face of death itself. (Erikson, 1963) Falsifiability Average

Ability to Organize Data High only with regard to

developmental stage

Ability to Guide Action High especially after

adolescence
Internal Consistency High

Parsimony Moderate

Concept of Humanity
Determinism vs. Freedom Middle

Optimism vs. Pessimism Somewhat optimistic

Causality vs. Theology More Causal

Conscious vs. Unconscious Mixed

Biological vs. Social More Social

Influence

Uniqueness vs. Similarities Emphasis on Uniqueness

HARRY STACK SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL Freud’s concepts and his emphasis on the
THEORY interpersonal nature of personality places Sullivan’s
approach somewhere between that of the
I. OVERVIEW OF INTERPERSONAL THEORY psychoanalysis and that of the social learning
theorists.
Harry Stack Sullivan, the first American to construct a
comprehensive personality theory, believed that ● Focus on social aspect of personality and
people develop their personality within a social cognitive representation
context. Without other people, Sullivan contended, ● Personality: shape by social interaction with
humans would have no personality. “A personality can others
never be isolated from the complex of interpersonal ● Self-system: born out of well-being influenced
relations in which the person lives and has his being” by significant others
(Sullivan, 1953). ● Dynamisms – habits/complexes
● Energy system
Sullivan insisted that knowledge of human personality
can be gained only through the scientific study of II. SULLIVAN’S BIOGRAPHY
interpersonal relations. His interpersonal theory
emphasizes the importance of various developmental Unlike the other neo- Freudians theorists covered
stages-infancy, childhood, juvenile era, here, Harry Stack Sullivan was born and trained in
preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, America. He was born in the small farming town of
and adulthood. Norwich, New York on February 21, 1892, the sole
surviving child of poor Irish catholic parents.
In many ways, Sullivan’s theory is dramatically
different from Freud. In fact, some writers prefer to When Sullivan was 8 ½ years old, he formed a close
place Sullivan’s theory in a category other than relationship with a 13-year-old boy from neighboring
psychoanalytic approach. His rejection of many farm. This chum was Clarence Bellinger, who lived a
mile beyond Harry in another school district. Although who intensified his interest in psychiatry. Whatever
the two boys were not peers chronologically, they had the answer to Sullivan’s mysterious disappearance
much in common socially and intellectually. Both later from 1909 to 1911, his experiences seemed to have
became psychiatrists and neither ever married. The matured him academically and possibly sexually.
relationship had a transforming effect on Sullivan’s life.
It awakened in him the power of intimacy, that is, the In 1911, with only one very unsuccessful year of
ability to love another who was more or less like undergraduate work, Sullivan enrolled in the Chicago
himself. College of Medicine and Surgery, where his grades,
though only mediocre, were a great improvement over
A bright student, Sullivan graduated from high school those he earned at Cornell. He finished his medical
as valedictorian at age 16. He then entered Cornell studies in 1915 but did not receive his degree until 1917.
University intending to become a physicist, although Sullivan claimed that the delay was because he had not
he also had an interest in psychiatry. His academic yet paid his tuition in full, but Perry (1982) found
performance at Cornell was a disaster, however, and evidence that he had not completed all his academic
he was suspended after 1 year. The suspension may requirements by 1915 and needed, among other
not have been solely for academic deficiencies. He got requirements, an internship.
into trouble with the law at Cornell, possibly for mail
fraud. Sullivan served as a military officer, first for the
Federal Board for Vocational Education and then for
In any event, for the next 2 years Sullivan mysteriously the Public Health Service. In 1921, with no formal
disappeared from the scene. Perry (1982) reported training in psychiatry, he went to St. Elizabeth
he may have suffered a schizophrenic breakdown at Hospital in Washington, DC. He conducted intensive
this time and was confined to a mental hospital. studies on schizophrenic patients and concluded that
Alexander (1990), however, surmised that Sullivan their illness has interpersonal basis. He moved to New
spent this time under the guidance of an older male York City and opened a private practice.
model who helped him overcome his sexual panic and
On the personal side, Sullivan was not comfortable Although needs originally have a biological
with this sexuality and had ambivalent feelings toward component, many of them stem from the
marriage. As an adult, he brought into his home a interpersonal situation. For Sullivan, the most basic
15-year-old boy who was probably a former patient. interpersonal need is tenderness.
This young man-James Inscoe- remained with Sullivan
for 22 years, looking after his financial affairs, typing General needs - facilitate the overall well-being
manuscripts, and generally running the household. of a person which includes interpersonal and
Although Sullivan never officially adapted James, he physiological needs.
regarded him as a son and even had his legal name
changed to James I. Sullivan. Zonal needs - arise from a particular area of the
body which includes oral, genital, and manual.
III. SULLIVAN’S CONTRIBUTION TO PERSONALITY
THEORY Anxiety - it is the chief disruptive force blocking the
development of healthy interpersonal relations. Severe
Some of the important and interesting concepts anxiety makes people incapable of learning, impairs
proposed by Sullivan are discussed below: memory, narrows perception, and may even result in
complete amnesia. Because anxiety is painful, people
A. Tension - it refers to the potentiality have a natural tendency to avoid it, inherently
for action that may or may not be experienced in preferring the state of euphoria, or complete lack of
awareness. Thus, not all tensions are consciously felt. tension.
Sullivan recognized two types of tensions: needs and
anxiety. ➢ How does anxiety originate? Sullivan (1953b)
postulated that it is transferred from the parent
Needs - these are tensions brought on by biological to the infant through the process of empathy.
imbalance between a person and physiochemical Anxiety in the mothering one inevitably induces
environment, both inside and outside the organism. anxiety in the infant. Because all mothers have
 some amount of anxiety while caring for their 3. Lust - in contrast to both malevolence and intimacy,
babies, all infants will become anxious to some lust is an isolating dynamism. That is, lust is a
degree. self-centered need that can be satisfied in the absence
of an intimate interpersonal relationship. In other
words, although intimacy presupposes tenderness or
B. Energy Transformations - these are the tensions
love, lust is based solely on sexual gratification and
that are transformed into actions, either overt or requires no other person for its satisfaction.
covert. This somewhat awkward term simply refers to
our behaviors that are aimed at satisfying needs and 4. Self-System - the most inclusive of all dynamisms is
reducing anxiety - the two great tensions. the self-system, or that pattern of behaviors that
protects us against anxiety and maintains our
interpersonal security. The self system is a conjunctive
C. Dynamisms - refer to a typical pattern of behavior.
dynamism, but because its primary job is to protect
Dynamisms may relate either to specific zones of the
the self from anxiety, it tends to stifle personality
body or to tensions.
change. Experiences that are inconsistent with our
self-system threaten our security and necessitate our
1. Malevolence - the disjunctive dynamism of evil and
use of security operations, which consist of behaviors
hatred is called malevolence, defined by Sullivan as a
designed to reduce interpersonal tensions. One such
feeling of living among one’s enemies. Those children
security operation is dissociation, which includes all
who become malevolent have much difficulty giving
those experiences that we block from awareness.
and receiving tenderness or being intimate with other
Another is selective inattention, which involves
people.
blocking only certain experiences from awareness.
2. Intimacy - the conjunctive dynamism marked by a
close personal relationship between two people of D. Personifications – a mental image we have of other
equal status is called intimacy. Intimacy facilitates people and of ourselves. Personifications need not to
interpersonal development while decreasing both correspond to reality, for the importance of how they
anxiety and loneliness. Intimacy must not be confused influence our interactions with others lies in the
with sexual interest. In fact, it develops prior to individually different way in which we conceive of the
puberty.
other person.
 Sullivan believed that people acquire certain been rewarded in the past, and that are not associated
images of self and others throughout the with anxiety.
developmental stages, and he referred to these
subjective perceptions as personifications. Some of 2.2 The bad-me personification - reflects those parts
these personifications are the following: of our experiences that we would rather not think
about, that have not been rewarded, and that have
1. Bad-Mother, Good-Mother associated with anxiety.
The bad-mother personification grows out of
infant’s experiences with a nipple that does not satisfy 2.3 The not-me personification - represents those
their hunger needs. All infants experience the aspects of ourselves which are so threatening that we
bad-mother personification, even though their real dissociate them from the self- system and maintain
mothers may be loving and nurturing. Later, infants them in our unconscious. This process of dissociation
acquire a good-mother personification as they is similar to Freud’s concept of repression.
become mature enough to recognize the tender and
cooperative behavior of their mothering one. Still 3. Eidetic Personifications
later, these two personifications combine to form a One of Sullivan’s most interesting observations
complex and contrasting image of the real mother. was that people often create imaginary traits that they
project onto others. Included in these eidetic
2. Me Personifications personifications are the imaginary playmates
The most noteworthy of the personifications that preschool-aged children often have. These
are those related to the self. According to Sullivan, we imaginary friends enable children to have a safe,
all form images of ourselves, and these images fall into secure relationship with another person, even though
three basic categories: that person is imaginary.

2.1 The good-me personification - consists of those

aspects of ourselves that we feel good about, that have
E. Levels of Cognition in Interpersonal Theory 1. Infancy (0-2 years)
Sullivan recognized three levels of cognition, or The period from birth until the emergence of
ways of perceiving things - prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic language, usually at about age 18-24 months -
syntaxic.
a time when the child receives tenderness from the
mothering one while also learning anxiety through an
1. Prototaxic Level. Experiences that are impossible to
put into words or to communicate to others are called empathic linkage with the mother. Anxiety may
prototaxic. Newborn infants experience images mostly increase to the point of terror, but such terror is
on a prototaxic level, but adults, too, frequently have controlled by the built-in protections of apathy and
preverbal experiences that are momentary and somnolent detachment that allow the baby to go to
incapable of being communicated. sleep. During infancy children use autistic language,
that is, private language that makes little or no sense
2. Parataxic Level. Experiences that are prelogical and
nearly impossible to accurately communicate to to other people.
others are called parataxic. Included in these are ● Feeling about “good” and “Bad” caregivers
erroneous assumptions about cause and effect, which ● Age 0-2 years
Sullivan termed parataxic distortions. ● Significant others: Mother/caregiver
● Interpersonal Process: Tenderness
3. Syntaxic Level. Experiences that can be accurately
● Important learning: dual personification of
communicated to others are called syntaxic. Children
mother
become capable of syntaxic language at about 12 to 18
months of age when words begin to have the same
meaning for them that they do for others. 2. Childhood (2-6 years)
The stage that lasts from the beginning of
F. Stages of Development in Interpersonal Theory syntaxic language until the need for playmates of equal
status is called childhood. The child’s primary
Sullivan saw interpersonal development as
interpersonal relationship continues to be with the
taking place over seven stages, from infancy to mature
mother, who is now differentiated from other persons
adulthood. Personality changes are most likely during who nurture the child. Besides their parents,
transitions between stages.
preschool-aged children often have one other 4. Preadolescence (8 ½-13 years)
significant relationship - an imaginary playmate. Perhaps the most crucial stage is
preadolescence, because mistakes made earlier can be
● Learning Applicable to Social Habits corrected during preadolescence, but errors made
● Age: 2-6 years during preadolescence are nearly impossible to
● Significance other: Parent overcome in later life. Preadolescence spans the time
● Interpersonal process: Protect security through from the need for a single best friend (chum) until
imaginary playmates puberty. A preadolescent’s intimate relationship
● Important learning: Learn what is “proper” and ordinarily involves another person of the same gender
use language as a tool in social world or social status. Children who do not learn intimacy
during preadolescence have added difficulties relating
3. Juvenile Era (6-8 ½ years) to potential sexual partners during later stages.
The juvenile stage begins with the need for
peers of equal status and ends until the child develops ● Collaborating with a friend
a need for an intimate relationship with a chum. At ● Age: 8.5-13 years
this time children should learn how to compete, to ● Significance other: Single/best friend
compromise, and to cooperate. These three abilities, ● Interpersonal process: intimacy with a person of
as well as an orientation toward living, help a child the same age and gender
develop intimacy, the chief dynamism of the next ● Important learning: learn importance of
developmental stage. affection and respect from peers
● This is the start of the capacity to love
● Find playmates and questioning parents
● Age: 6-8.5 years 5. Early Adolescence (13-15 years)
● Significance other: Playmates of equal status Begins with puberty and ends with the need for
● Interpersonal process: Orientation towards sexual love with one person. Development during this
living in the world of peers stage is ordinarily marked by a coexistence of intimacy
● Important learning: learn to complete, with a single friend of the same gender and sexual
compromise, and cooperate with other children interest in many persons of the opposite gender.
● The child recognizes new authority figures However, if children have no preexisting capacity for
intimacy, they may confuse lust with love and develop
sexual relationships that are devoid of true intimacy. 7. Adulthood (18 onwards)
Late adolescence flows into adulthood, a time when a
● Experiencing lust towards a sexual partner person establishes a stable relationship with a
● Age: 8.5-15 years significant other person and develops a consistent
● Significance other: Several partners pattern of viewing the world.
● Interpersonal process: intimacy and lust
towards different persons. ● Completion of the Personality
● Important learning: learn to balance lust, ● Significance other: Lover/life partner
intimacy and security operations ● Interpersonal process: Maturity/high intimacy.
● This stage is the basis for adult relationship ● Important learning: Perceptive of other’s
anxiety, needs, and security
6. Late Adolescence (15-18 years)
It begins when a person is able to feel both G. Psychological Disorders
intimacy and lust toward the same person. Late Sullivan believed that all psychological disorders
adolescence is characterized by a stable pattern of have an interpersonal origin and can be understood
sexual activity and the growth of the syntaxic mode, as only with reference to the patient’s social
young people learn how to live in the adult world. environment. Most of Sullivan’s early therapeutic work
was with schizophrenic patients, and many of his
● Establishing adult love relationship subsequent lectures and writing dealt with
● Age: 15 to adulthood schizophrenia. Sullivan (1962) distinguished two broad
● Significance other: Several partners classes of schizophrenia. The first included all those
● Interpersonal process: Fusion of intimacy and symptoms that originate from organic causes and are
lust. therefore beyond the study of interpersonal
● Important learning: Establishes a mature psychiatry. The second class included all
repertory of interpersonal relationships schizophrenic disorders grounded in situational
● Opposite sex are no longer desired as sex factors. These disorders were the only ones of
objects but as people who are capable of being concern to Sullivan because they are the only ones
loved. amenable to change through interpersonal psychiatry.
IV. SULLIVAN’S PSYCHOTHERAPY Concept of Humanity

Because he believed that psychic disorders grow out Determinism vs. Freedom Middle
of interpersonal difficulties, Sullivan based his
therapeutic procedures on an effort to improve a Optimism vs. Pessimism Middle
patient’s relationship with others. To facilitate this
Causality vs. Theology Middle
process, the therapist serves as a participant observer,
becoming part of an interpersonal, face-to-face Conscious vs. Unconscious Middle
relationship with the patient and providing the patient
an opportunity to establish syntaxic communication Biological vs. Social High on Social
with another human being. Influence

Uniqueness vs. Similarities Low on Uniqueness

Criteria for Evaluating a Theory

Characteristics Theory

Capacity to generate Low ABRAHAM MASLOW

Research
ABRAHAM MASLOW’S HOLISTIC-DYNAMIC
Falsifiability Low
THEORY
Ability to Organize Data Moderate
I. OVERVIEW OF MASLOW’S HOLISTIC-DYNAMIC
Ability to Guide Action Low
THEORY
Internal Consistency High
Maslow termed his theory as holistic-dynamic
Parsimony Low
theory because it assumes that the whole person is
constantly being motivated by one need or another
and that people have the potential to grow toward
psychological health which is self-actualization.
Abraham Maslow, like Rogers, had infinite faith in the ● Had the most lonely and miserable childhood
human capacity for growth. (shy, inferior, depressed)
● Oldest of the seven children
- Assumes that personality is formed by how we ● He never overcame the intense hatred he had
towards his mother. He refused to attend her
exercise our free will
funeral.
- Talks about human potential but in the context ● After 2 or 3 mediocre years as a college student,
of finding one’s meaning Maslow's academic work improved at about the
time he was married.
II. SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF ABRAHAM MASLOW ● He married his first cousin, Bertha Goodman
● He received both a bachelor's degree and a PhD
Abraham H. Maslow was born in New York City from the University of Wisconsin, where he
in 1908, the oldest of seven children of Russian Jewish worked with Harry Harlow conducting animal
studies (monkeys).
immigrants. After 2 or 3 mediocre years as a college
● Poor health forced him to move to California,
student, Maslow improved in his academic work at
where he died in 1970 at age 62.
about the time he was married. He received both a
bachelor's degree and a PhD from the University of III. MASLOW’S CONTRIBUTION TO PERSONALITY
Wisconsin, where he worked with Harry Harlow THEORY
conducting animal studies. Most of his professional
career was spent at Brooklyn College and Brandeis Maslow’s View of Motivation
University. Poor health forced him to move to
The following are the several basic assumptions of
California, where he died at age 62. Maslow in his theory of motivation:

1. holistic approach to motivation; (the whole organism

Summary: is motivated at any one time)
born in New York City in 1908, the oldest of seven 2. motivation is usually complex; (and unconscious
children of Russian Jewish immigrants. motives often underlie behavior)
3. people are continually motivated by one need or
another;

4. all people everywhere are motivated by the same

basic needs; (people in different cultures are
motivated by the same basic needs)

5. needs can be arranged on a hierarchy.

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs concept assumes

that lower level needs (deficiency needs: physiological
and safety) must be satisfied or at least relatively
satisfied before higher level needs (growth needs: The following are the list of needs which are
social, esteem and self-actualization) become arranged from lowest (basic) to the highest (complex)
motivators. form.
● Lower level needs have prepotency over higher
level needs; that is, lower needs must be a. Physiological needs. These are the basic life needs
satisfied before higher needs become which are necessary for our survival. Examples of
motivators. these needs are food, water, air, sleep, sex etc.
● Called CONATIVE needs: have a striving or
motivational character b. Security/ Safety needs. These are the needs to be
● As long as the need is not yet satisfied, the free of physical danger and of the fear of losing a
person will continue to strive to satisfy it job, property or shelter. It also includes protection
(almost doing anything to obtain it) against any emotional harm. Specific examples are
protection, security, order, law, limits, stability,
freedom from fear, etc.
c. Social Belongingness and love needs. Since men are ● satisfaction of love needs and which include
social beings, they need to belong and be accepted self-esteem and the recognition that we have a
by others. This need includes the search and desire for positive reputation
friends, affection or intimate relationship, family,
work group, etc. e. Self- actualization. The highest level or form of
needs according to Maslow is self- actualization. This
● desire for friendship, the wish for a mate and can be defined as the man’s ability to realize and
children, and the need to belong achieve his full potential. To be specific this needs
include growth and self- fulfillment, accepting your
1st group: need fully satisfied; feels accepted and will strength and limitations, accepting other people for
not feel devastated if rejected. whom and what they are. Example; morality, creativity,
spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice
2nd group: never experienced love; thus, incapable of acceptance of facts.
giving love
● self-fulfillment, realization of one’s own
3rd group: received the need in small doses; strongest potential
motivation to seek love ● they become independent of the lower needs
● should embrace the B-values as truth, beauty,
● Children: straightforward and direct oneness, justice, etc
● Adults: disguise; self-defeating behaviors
*Other categories of needs include aesthetic needs,
d. Esteem needs. Maslow stressed that if man begins cognitive needs, and neurotic needs.
to satisfy the social belongingness needs, he will then
seek to gain the respect and recognition of others Criteria for Self-Actualization (Fulfilled the need to
through his achievements. Specifically, this includes grow, to develop, and to increasingly become what
the need for achievements, status, good reputation theY were capable of becoming)
that could lead to self- respect.
1. Free from psychopathology/mental illness
2. Progress through the hierarchy of needs ● desire for beauty and order, and some people
have much stronger aesthetic needs than do
3. Embraced the B-values; truth, goodness, beauty, others.
wholeness or the transcendence of dichotomies, ● Will get sick if not met
aliveness or spontaneity, uniqueness, perfection, ● people with strong aesthetic needs do not
completion, justice and order, simplicity. Richness or automatically reach self-actualization
totality, effortlessness, playfulness and humor, and ● Not universal
self-sufficiency
b. Cognitive- the desire to know, to understand, and
to be curious.
These needs can be arranged on a hierarchy or
staircase, with each ascending step representing a ● desire to know, to understand, and to be
higher need but one less basic to survival. Lower level curious.
needs have prepotency over higher level needs; that is, ● Knowledge is a prerequisite for each of the five
they must be satisfied or mostly satisfied before conative needs. (only for those who have this
higher level needs become activated.
need)
● People who are denied knowledge and kept in
The abovementioned needs are called conative
ignorance become sick, paranoid, and
needs which mean that they have a striving or
depressed.
motivational
character. Aside from the conative needs, Maslow also ● People who have satisfied cognitive needs do
identified three other categories of needs as follows: not necessarily become self-actualized.

c. Neurotic- a desire to dominate, to inflict pain, or to

a. Aesthetic needs- the desire for beauty and order,
subject oneself to the will of another person.
and some people have much stronger aesthetic needs
than others.
● Desire to dominate, to inflict pain, or to subject
oneself to the will of another person.
 ● lead to pathology whether or not they are For example, a starving mother may be
satisfied motivated by love and needs to give up food in order
to feed her starving children. However, if we
Later, he added TRANSCENDENCE which is the need understand the unconscious motivation behind many
to help other people to achieve self-actualization it apparent reversals, we might see that they are not
desire to go beyond the human potential. (spirituality) genuine reversals at all.
General Discussion of Needs Unmotivated Behavior
Maslow believed that most people satisfy lower Maslow believed that even though all behaviors
level needs to a greater extent than they do higher have a cause, some behaviors are not motivated. In
needs, and that the greater the satisfaction of one other words, not all determinants are motives. Some
need, the more fully the next highest need is likely to behavior is not caused by needs but by other factors
emerge. such as conditioned reflexes, maturation, or drugs.
Reversed Order of Needs ● Some behaviors are not motivated even though
all behaviors have a cause
In certain rare cases, the order of needs might
● Conditioned reflexes, maturation, or drugs
be reversed. For some people, the drive for creativity
(a self-actualization need) may take precedence over Expressive and Coping Behavior
safety and physiological needs. However, if we
understand the unconscious motivation behind many Maslow (1970) distinguished between expressive
apparent reversals, we might see that they are not behavior (which is often unmotivated) and coping
genuine reversals at all. behavior (which is always motivated and aimed at
satisfying a need).
● Maslow insisted that much of our surface
behaviors are actually motivated by more basic ● have no aim or goal but are merely a person's
and often unconscious needs. mode of expression
 ● deal with a person's attempt to cope with the produce more genuine happiness and more
environment peak experiences.
● Seems like these needs follow a development
*Deprivation of Needs course

● leads to pathology of some sort IV. SELF-ACTUALIZATION

Instinctoid Nature of Needs Maslow believed that a very small percentage of
people reach an ultimate level of psychological health
Maslow (1970) hypothesizes that some human
called self-actualization.
needs are innately determined even though they can
be modified by learning. He called these needs Criteria for Self-Actualization
instinctoid needs. Sex, for example, is a basic
physiological need, but the manner in which it is Four criteria must be met before a person achieves
expressed depends on learning. self-actualization:

● Innately determined needs that can be modified (1) absence of psychopathology,

by learning
● Thwarting of instinctoid needs produces (2) satisfaction of each of the four lower level needs,
pathology whereas the frustration of
(3) full realization of one's potentials for growth, and
noninstinctoid needs does not
● Specie-specific (4) acceptance of the B-values.

Comparison of Higher and Lower Needs Values of Self-Actualizers

● higher level needs (love, esteem, and Maslow (1971) held that self-actualizing people
self-actualization) are later on the evolutionary are motivated by the “eternal verities,” what he called
scale than lower level needs and that they
B-values. These “Being” values are indicators of (3) spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness; they have
psychological health. Maslow termed B-values no need to appear complex or sophisticated;
“metaneeds” to indicate that they are the ultimate
level of needs. He distinguished between ordinary (4) problem-centered; they view age-old problems
need motivation and the motives of self-actualizing from a solid philosophical position;
people, which he called metamotivation.
(5) the need for privacy, or a detachment that allows
● Self-actualizing people are metamotivated by them to be alone without being lonely;
such B-values as truth, goodness, beauty,
(6) autonomy; they have grown beyond dependency on
justice, and simplicity.
other people for their self-esteem;
● If people’s metaneeds are not met they
experience existential illness (7) continued freshness of appreciation and the ability
to view everyday things with a fresh vision and
appreciation;

(8) frequent reports of peak experiences, or those

mystical experiences that give a person a sense of
transcendence and feelings of awe, wonder, ecstasy ,
Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People reverence, and humility;

*not all self-actualizers possess each of these (9) Gemeinschaftsgefühl, that is, social interest or a
characteristics to the same extent. deep feeling of oneness with all humanity;

(1) more efficient perception of reality; they often have (10) profound interpersonal relations but with no
an almost uncanny ability to detect phoniness in desperate need to have a multitude of friends;
others, and they are not fooled by sham;
(11) the democratic character structure; or the ability
(2) acceptance of self, others, and nature; to disregard superficial differences between people;
(12) discrimination between means and ends, meaning Everett L. Shostrom (1974) developed the
that self-actualizing people have a clear sense of right Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) in an attempt to
and wrong, and they experience little conflict about measure the values and behaviors of self-actualizing
basic values; people. This inventory consists of 150 forced-choice
items, such as (a) “I can feel comfortable with less than
(13) a philosophical sense of humor; or humor that is a perfect performance” versus (b) “I feel uncomfortable
spontaneous, unplanned, and intrinsic to the situation; with anything less than a perfect performance.
(14) creativeness; they possess a keen perception of The Jonah Complex- the fear of being one’s
truth, beauty, and reality; best. This complex is characterized by attempts to run
away from one’s destiny, represents a fear of success, a
(15) resistance to enculturation; they have the ability
fear of being one’s best, and a feeling of awesomeness
to set personal standards and to resist the mold set by
in the presence of beauty and perfection.
the dominate culture.
1. fear of being or doing one's best, a condition
Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization
that all of us have to some extent.
● Maslow compared D-love (deficiency love) to 2. False humility that stifle creativity and that fall
B-love (love for the being or essence of another short of self-actualization, therefore they
person). prevent themselves from becoming
● Self-actualizing people are capable of B-love; self-actualizing
that is, they have the ability to love without
V. Maslow’s Psychotherapy
expecting something in return.
● B-love is mutually felt and shared and not based To Maslow (1970), the aim of therapy would be
on deficiencies within the lovers. for clients to embrace the B-values, that is, to value
truth, justice, goodness, simplicity, and so forth. To
Measuring Self-Actualization
accomplish this aim, clients must be free from their
dependency on others so that their natural impulse VICTOR FRANKL MAN’S SEARCH FOR
toward growth and self-actualization could become MEANING
active.
Freedom and responsibility (existential point of view)
The therapy is largely an interpersonal process.
Through a warm, loving, interpersonal relationship Man is essentially free, and he must accept the
with the therapist, the client gains satisfaction of love responsibility for directing his own life. Although
and belongingness needs and thereby acquires man’s freedom is basically bound by certain
feelings of confidence and self-worth. A healthy limitations, because he is not free from circumstances
interpersonal relationship between client and and conditions. However, man’s freedom consists in
therapist is therefore the best psychological medicine. taking a stand against such restriction

The Will to Meaning

The striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the

primary motivational force of man. Man is basically
concerned with the struggle for a sense of significance
and purpose in life.

Existential Vacuum

When a man experiences a loss of meaning in

life, he remains in a state of experiential crisis.

Noogenic Neurosis

Neurosis due to meaningless in life

Logotherapy 2. Pain – to find meaning in suffering (willingness to
suffer for a purpose)
Therapy that aids an individual to find a meaning in life
3. Death – makes us realize that we must live each day
First Triad (Composition of Logotherapy) as if it is the last
1. Freedom of will – man has freedom inspite of ROLLO MAY’S EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY
limitations
I. OVERVIEW OF EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY
2. Will to Meaning – find purpose of life
Shortly after World War II, a new psychology-
3. Meaning of life – understand life from moment to existential psychology- began to spread from Europe
moment to the United States. Existential psychology is rooted
in the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich
Second Triad (Composition of the meaning of life)
Nietzche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and
1. Creative Values – finding beauty in even the simplest other European philosophers. The first existential
activity psychologists and psychiatrists were also Europeans,
and these included Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss,
2. Experiential values – celebrating human experiences Victor Frankl, and others.

3. Attitudinal Values – to choose our fate inspite of For nearly 50 years, the foremost spokesperson
hopelessness for existential psychology in the United States was
Rollo May. During his years as a psychotherapist, May
Third Triad (Composition of Attitudinal Values)
evolved a new way of looking at human beings. His
1. Guilt – we have the right to feel guilt and also the approach was not based on any controlled scientific
also the responsibility to overcome it research but rather on clinical experience. He saw
people as living in the world of present experiences and
ultimately being responsible for who they become.
II. BIOGRAPHY OF ROLLO MAY - He then served for 2 years as a pastor, but quit in
order to pursue a career in psychology.
Rollo May was born in Ohio in 1909, but grew up
in Michigan. After graduating from Oberlin College in - He received a PhD in clinical psychology from
1930, he spent 3 years as an itinerant artist roaming Columbia in 1949 at the relatively advanced age of 40.
throughout eastern and southern Europe. When he
returned to the United States, he entered the Union - During his professional career, he served as lecturer
Theological Seminary, from which he received a or visiting professor at a number of universities,
Master of Divinity degree. He then served for 2 years conducted a private practice as a psychotherapist, and
as a pastor, but quit in order to pursue a career in wrote a number of popular books on the human
psychology. He received a PhD in clinical psychology condition.
from Columbia in 1949 at the relatively advanced age
- May died in 1994 at age 85.
of 40. During his professional career, he served as
lecturer or visiting professor at a number of III. BACKGROUND OF EXISTENTIALISM
universities, conducted a private practice as a
psychotherapist, and wrote a number of popular books Modern existential psychology has roots in the
on the human condition. May died in 1994 at age 85. writings of SOREN KIERKEGAARD, a Danish
philosopher and theologian. He was concerned with
Summary the increasing trend in postindustrial societies toward
the dehumanization of people. He opposed any
- born in Ohio in 1909, but grew up in Michigan
attempt to see people merely as objects. Kierkegaard
- he spent 3 years as an itinerant artist roaming regards people as thinking, active, and willing beings.
throughout eastern and southern Europe. Like later existentialists, Kierkegaard emphasized a
balance between freedom and responsibility.
- he entered the Union Theological Seminary, from
which he received a Master of Divinity degree.
 ● People acquire freedom of action by expanding 5. Existentialists are basically antitheoretical. Believing
their self-awareness and by assuming that theories tend to objectify people.
responsibility for their actions.
● However, this acquisition of freedom and Basic Concepts of Existentialism
responsibility is achieved at the expense of
1. Being-in-the-world- the basic unity of person and
anxiety and dread.
environment. It is expressed in the German word
What is existentialism? Dasein, meaning to exist there. The hypens in this
term imply a oneness of subject and object, of person
Although philosophers and psychologists and world. Many people suffer from anxiety and
interpret existentialism in a variety of ways, some despair brought on by their alienation from
common elements are found among most existential themselves or from their world.
thinkers. The following are the tenets of
existentialism. ● a phenomenological approach that intends to
understand people from their own perspective
1. Existence takes precedence over essence. Meaning
that process and growth are more important than 3 Modes of being-in-the-world or Dasein,
product and stagnation.
a. Umwelt- the environment around us
2. Existentialism opposes the split between subject
b. Mitwelt- our relationships with other people
and object.
c. Eigenwelt- our relationships with our self
3. Existentialists stress people's search for meaning in
their lives 2. Nonbeing- nothingness like death. “Death is the one
fact of my life which is not relative but absolute, and
4. Existentialists hold that ultimately each of us is
my awareness of this gives my existence and what I do
responsible for who we are and what we become.
each hour an absolute quality” (May, 1958).
 ● People are both aware of themselves as living ● People experience anxiety when they become
beings and also aware of the possibility of aware that their existence or something
nonbeing or nothingness. identified with it might be destroyed. The
● Death is the most obvious form of nonbeing, acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to
which can also be experienced as retreat from anxiety, which can be either pleasurable and
life's experiences. constructive or painful and destructive.
● Other forms: addictions, promiscuous sexual
activity, other compulsive behaviors, blind Normal Anxiety and Neurotic Anxiety
conformity to society’s expectations
● May defined normal anxiety as that “which is
May’s Concept of Anxiety proportionate to the threat, does not involve
repression, and can be confronted
May defined anxiety as the subjective state of the constructively on the conscious level.”
individual’s becoming aware that his or her existence ● Neurotic anxiety is a reaction which is
can be destroyed, that he can become nothing. May disproportionate to the threat, involves
called anxiety a threat to some important value. repression and other forms of intrapsychic
Anxiety exists when one confronts the issue of conflict, and is managed by various kinds of
fulfilling one’s potential. This confrontation can lead to blocking-off of activity and awareness.
stagnation and decay, but it can also result in growth
and change.

Kierkegaard states that “anxiety is the dizziness of 1. a reaction that is disproportionate to the threat
freedom.” Anxiety, like dizziness, can be either and that leads to repression and defensive
pleasurable or painful, constructive or destructive. behaviors.
Moreover, anxiety can be either normal or neurotic. 2. It is felt whenever one's values are transformed
into dogma. Neurotic anxiety blocks growth and
productive action.
Guilt — Love is a delight in the presence of the other
person and an affirmation of value and development as
Guilt arises when people deny their potentialities, fail much as one’s own.
to accurately perceive the needs of fellow humans, or
remain oblivious to their dependence on the natural — Will is the capacity to organize one’s self so that
world. Both anxiety and guilt are ontological; that is, movement in a certain direction or toward a certain
they refer to the nature of being and not to feelings goal may take place. Care is also an important
arising from specific situations. Forms of guilt ingredient in will, defined as a conscious commitment
correspond to the 3 modes of being-in-the world to action.
which includes umwelt, mitwelt, and eigenwelt.
*Union of Love and Will
Intentionality
● May believed that our modern society has lost
Intentionality is the structure that gives meaning to sight of the true nature of love and will,
experience and allows people to make decisions about equating love with sex and will with will power.
the future. Action implies intentionality, just as He further held that psychologically healthy
intentionality implies action; the two are inseparable. people are able to combine love and will
because both imply care, choice, action, and
● permits people to overcome the dichotomy responsibility.
between subject and object because it enables
them to see that their intentions are a function Forms of Love
of both themselves and their environment
1. Sex- a biological function that can be satisfied
Care, Love, and Will through sexual intercourse or some other release of
sexual tension.
● — Care is a state in which something does
matter, or is an active process that suggests that 2. Eros- psychological desire that seeks procreation or
things matter. creation through an enduring union with a loved one.
It may include sex, but it is built on care and Freedom- it refers to the individual’s capacity to know
tenderness. that he is the determined one. It entails being able to
harbor different possibilities in one’s mind even
3. Philia- intimate nonsexual friendship between two though it is not clear at the moment which may one
people, takes time to develop and does not depend on must act.
the actions of the other person. This can also lead to
erotic relationships. ● Freedom comes from an understanding of our
destiny . We are free when we recognize that
4. Agape- esteem for the other, the concern for the death is a possibility at any moment and when
other’s welfare beyond any gain that one can get out of we are willing to experience changes even in
it; disinterested love. It is also an altruistic or spiritual the face of not knowing what those changes will
love that carries with it the risk of playing God. Agape bring.
is
Forms of Freedom
Freedom and Destiny
Existential freedom- it is the freedom to act on the
A blend of the four forms of love requires both choices that one makes. (freedom of doing, or freedom
self-assertion and an affirmation of the other person. of action)
It also requires an assertion of one’s freedom and a
confrontation with one’s destiny. Healthy individuals Essential freedom- it is the freedom of being.
are able both to assume their freedom and to face (freedom of being, or an inner freedom)
their destiny.
Destiny- the design of the universe speaking through
● Psychologically healthy individuals are the design of each one of us.
comfortable with freedom, able to assume
responsibility for their choices, and willing to ● In other words, our destiny includes the
face their destiny. limitations of our environment and our personal
qualities, including our mortality, gender, and
 genetic predispositions. Freedom and destiny our time. People have become alienated from
constitute a paradox because freedom gains the natural world (Umwelt), from other people
vitality from destiny, and destiny gains (Mitwelt) and from themselves (Eigenwelt) .
significance from freedom. Psychopathology is a lack of connectedness and
an inability to fulfill one's destiny.
The Power of Myth
May’s Psychotherapy
May was concerned with the powerful effects of
According to May, the purpose of
myths on individuals and cultures. Myths are not
psychotherapy is to set people free. He suggested that
falsehoods; rather, they are conscious and
psychotherapy should make people more human: that
unconscious belief systems that provide explanations
is, help them expand their consciousness so that they
for personal and social problems. May (1991) compared will be in a better position to make choices. These
myths to the support beams in a house—not visible choices, then, lead to the simultaneous growth of
from the outside, but they hold the house together freedom and responsibility.
and make it habitable.
Basic to Rogers and May’s notion is that therapy
May’s Concept of Psychopathology is a human encounter; that is, an I-thou relationship
with the potential to facilitate growth within both the
According to May, apathy and emptiness are the therapist and the patient.
malaise of modern times. When people deny their
destiny or abandon their myths, they lose their Another technique May used was the suggestion
purpose for being; they become directionless. Without that the patient must hold a fantasy conversation with
some goal or destination, people become sick and his dead mother. In this conversation, the patient must
engage in a variety of self-defeating and speak for himself and his mother.
self-destructive behaviors.
● The goal of May's psychotherapy was not to
● May saw apathy and emptiness—not anxiety or cure patients of any specific disorder, but rather
depression—as the chief existential disorders of to make them more fully human. May said that
the purpose of psychotherapy is to set people
free, that is to allow them to make choices and
to assume responsibility for those choices.
CARL ROGERS: PERSON-CENTERED THEORY in general)” - a stance termed by Rogers as
conditional positive regard. Thus, innately good
I. OVERVIEW OF PERSON-CENTERED THEORY feelings about the self gradually diminish as children
grow up, since constraints and negative feedback
Although Carl Rogers is best known as the founder of continue even during their adult lives. Trying to live up
client-centered therapy, he also developed an to societal standards can lead to conflict, just as
important theory of personality that underscores his simply conforming may suggest a devaluing of one’s
approach to therapy. Rogers carefully crafted his true self. In certain cases, it can also lead to a
person-centered theory of personality to meet his complete loss of the sense of self.
own demands for a structural model that could explain
and predict outcomes of client-centered therapy. That people need to be accepted by others, regardless
However, the theory has implications far beyond the of what they do, was realized by Rogers who stressed
therapeutic setting. that we need to recognize each other’s worth and
dignity as persons, giving each other unconditional
When Carl Rogers started out, he was, like Freud, positive regard. We should be emphatic listeners in
working with troubled people. Seeing the kind of trying to understand another’s true feelings, and
environment these individuals had gave Rogers insight should be genuine and open with our feelings in our
into what was stopping them from reaching their full human relations as well. Rogers believed strongly in
potential. He hypothesized that all persons start out in the human potential to resiliently adapt, develop, and
life with positive feelings about themselves, but these become fully functioning individuals despite the
feelings may continually be eroded by the significant constraints set by the environment.
persons (parents, teachers, siblings, and friends) in
their respective worlds. For instance, the adults in a The theory of Rogers is stated in an if then framework.
child’s life often make the giving of their love An example of an if-then construction is: If certain
conditional- “I will (love) you only if you conform to conditions exist, then a process will occur; if this
our standards (authority figures in particular, society
process occurs, then certain outcomes can be ● When he graduated from the University of
expected. Wisconsin, Rogers intended to become a
● “Humans are innately good” minister, but he gave up that notion and
completed a PhD in psychology from Columbia
University in 1931.
II. SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF CARL ROGERS
● In 1940, after nearly a dozen years working as a
clinician, he took a position at Ohio State
Carl Rogers was born into a devoutly religious family University. Later, he held positions at the
in a Chicago suburb in 1902. After the family moved to University of Chicago and the University of
a nearby farm, Carl became interested in scientific Wisconsin.
farming and learned to appreciate the scientific ● In 1964, he moved to California where he helped
found the Center for Studies of the Person.
method. When he graduated from the University of
● His personal life was marked by change and
Wisconsin, Rogers intended to become a minister, but openness to experience
he gave up that notion and completed a PhD in ● He was shy and socially inept but he got
psychology from Columbia University in 1931. In 1940, married to Helen Elliott and had 2 children
after nearly a dozen years away from an academic life ● He died in 1987 at age 85.
working as a clinician, he took a position at Ohio State
University. Later, he held positions at the University of III. ROGERS CONTRIBUTION TO PERSONALITY
Chicago and the University of Wisconsin. In 1964, he THEORY
moved to California, where he helped found the
Center for Studies of the Person. He died in 1987 at age Here and Now (ahistorical)
85. In order for us to understand why a person
behaves in such a way, we do not need to dig into his
Summary: or her past intead we must understand the person’s
● born into a devoutly religious family in a relationship to the environment as he now exists and
Chicago suburb in 1902. perceive it
● Carl became interested in scientific farming and
learned to appreciate the scientific method.
A. Basic Assumptions of the Person-Centered Theory ● It is the basic force of life – we are always trying
to better ourselves in some way
Life’s Master motive: the Actualizing Tendency ● relationship with another person who is
The primary motive in people’s live is to genuine, or congruent, and who demonstrates
actualize, maintain, or enhance themselves-to become complete acceptance and empathy for that
the best self that their inherited natures will allow person. Lead people to become actualized
them to be.
B. The Self and Self-Actualization
*Organismic Valuing Process – monitoring system of
individuals to distinguish experiences that promotes The Self-Concept
or hinders actualization.
*the Self–concept is composed of the real self and
Person-centered theory rests on two basic ideal self and our goal is to narrow the gap between
assumptions: the two (actualization)
(1) the formative tendency that states that all matter,
both organic and inorganic, tends to evolve from Genuineness and Authenticity – being true to
simpler to more complex forms and yourself and others by being aware of owns feelings
(2) an actualizing tendency, which suggests that all rather than presenting an outward facade
living things, including humans, tend to move toward
completion, or fulfillment of potentials. A sense of self or personal identity begins to emerge
during infancy. The self has two subsystems:
● Maintenance = of needs
● Enhancement = willingness to face pain because 1. the self-concept, which includes all those aspects of
of the biological tendency to fulfill basic nature one's identity that are perceived in awareness, and
wc is actualization
2. the ideal self, or our view of our self as we would C. Awareness
like to be or aspire to be.
Roger’s Phenomenological Position
*Once formed, the self-concept tends to resist change,
* a Phenomenological perspective holds that what
and gaps between it and the ideal self result in
is real to an individual is that which exists within that
incongruence and various levels of psychopathology. person’s frame of reference, or subjective world,
including everything in his awareness at any point of
Once the self is established, it allows a person to strive time. A person’s senses do not directly mirror the
toward self-actualization, which is a subsystem of the world by reality;instead effective reality is reality as it
actualization tendency and refers to the tendency to is observed and interpreted by the reacting organism
actualize the self as perceived in awareness.
People are aware of both their self-concept and their
ideal self, although awareness need not be accurate.
The actualization tendency the tendency within all
humans (and other animals and plants) to move toward For example, people may have an inflated view of their
completion or fulfillment of potentials (Rogers, 1959, ideal self but only a vague sense of their self-concept.
1980); that is, it refers to the whole person—conscious People are aware of both their self-concept and their
ideal self, although awareness need not be accurate.
and unconscious, physiological and cognitive. On the
other hand, self-actualization is the tendency to
- Any experience not consistent with the self-concept
actualize the self as perceived in awareness. — even positive experiences — will be distorted or
denied.
● Organismic self. Portions of the organismic self
may be beyond a person’s awareness or simply ● Person distrusts the giver
not owned by that person. For example, the ● Recipient does not feel deserving of them
● Compliment carries an implied threat
stomach is part of the organismic self, but
unless it malfunctions and causes concern, it is
not likely to be part of one’s self-concept.
Rogers (1959) defined awareness as “the symbolic D. Needs
representation (not necessarily in verbal symbols) of
some portion of our experience.” The two basic human needs are maintenance and
enhancement, but people also need positive regard
Three Levels of Awareness
and self-regard. Maintenance needs include those for
food, air, and safety, but they also include our
(1) those that are symbolized below the threshold of
tendency to resist change and to maintain our
awareness and are ignored, denied, or not allowed into
self-concept as it is. Enhancement needs include
the self-concept;
needs to grow and to realize one's full human
(2) those that are distorted or reshaped to fit it into an
potential.
existing self-concept; and
(3) those that are consistent with the self-concept and
According to Rogers, the first process in becoming a
thus are accurately symbolized and freely admitted to
person is to make contact with another person- either
the self-structure. Any experience not consistent with
positive or negative. As children (or adults) become
the self-concept—even positive experiences—will be
aware that another person has some measure of
distorted or denied.
regard for them, they begin to value positive regard
and devalue negative regard. That is, the person
● Denial of Positive Experiences
develops a need to be loved, liked, or accepted by
Our example of the gifted pianist illustrates that it is
another person, a need that Rogers (1959) referred to
not only the negative or derogatory experiences that
as positive regard.
are distorted or denied to awareness; many people
have difficulty accepting genuine compliments and
Positive regard is a prerequisite for positive
positive feedback, even when deserved.
self-regard, defined as the experience of prizing or
valuing one’s self. Rogers (1959) believed that receiving
positive regard from others is necessary for positive
self-regard, but once positive self-regard is
established, it becomes independent of the continual 1. Conditions of worth - when the positive regard of a
need to be loved. significant other is conditional.

● not unconditionally accepted

● As awareness of self emerges, an infant begins
● they feel that they are loved and accepted only
to receive positive regard from another person,
when and if they meet the conditions set by
that is, to be loved or accepted. others.
● Incongruence: experienced when basic ● External evaluations: our perceptions of other
organismic needs are denied or distorted in people’s view of us that do not foster
favor of needs to be loved or accepted. psychological health
● Self-regard: people acquire only after they
2. Incongruence - the result of the wide gap between
perceive that someone else cares for them and
the self-concept and ideal self. The greater the
values them incongruence, the more vulnerable we are. Rogers
● Once established, however, self-regard becomes (1959) believed that people are vulnerable when they
autonomous and no longer dependent on are unaware of the discrepancy between their
another person's continuous positive organismic self and their significant experience.
evaluation. Vulnerable people often behave in ways that are
incomprehensible not only to others but also to
● Contact (with another person) -> Positive
themselves.
regard (from others) -> positive self-regard
On one hand, when we become dimly aware that the
E. Barriers to Psychological Health (Psychological discrepancy between our organismic experience and
Stagnation) our self-concept may become conscious, we feel
anxious. Rogers (1959) defined anxiety as ―a state of
Not everyone becomes a psychologically healthy uneasiness or tension whose cause is unknown‖ . As
person. Rather, most people experience conditions of we become more aware of the incongruence between
worth, incongruence, defensiveness, and our organismic experience and our perception of self,
disorganization. our anxiety begins to evolve into threat: that is, an
awareness that our self is no longer whole or 4. Disorganization - people sometimes behave
congruent. consistently with their organismic experience, and
sometimes in accordance with their shattered
➢ Organismic experience versus self-experiences self-concept.
➢ The greater the incongruence between
self-concept and the organismic experience, the IV. PSYCHOTHERAPY
more vulnerable that person becomes.
➢ Anxiety exists whenever the person becomes Client-centered therapy is developed by Rogers in
dimly aware of the discrepancy
which the therapists do not attempt to change their
➢ threat is experienced whenever the person
becomes more clearly aware of this clients, but rather to provide an atmosphere within
incongruence which clients are able to help themselves. It assumes
that each of us will grow and develop in a positive,
3. Defensiveness - the protection of the self-concept self-actualizing fashion unless our progress is in some
against anxiety and threat by the denial or distortion way impeded. After the therapy, clients should be
of experiences inconsistent with it. more open to personal experience, more able to
accept all parts of themselves.
Distortion - misinterpreting an experience in order
to fit it into some aspect of the self-concept. We
perceive the experience in awareness, but we fail to Like person-centered theory, the client-centered
understand its true meaning. counseling approach can be stated in an if-then
fashion. If the conditions of therapist congruence,
Denial - refuse to perceive an experience in unconditional positive regard, and empathic listening
awareness, or at least we keep some aspect of it from
are present in a client-counselor relationship, then the
reaching symbolization.
Process of therapy will transpire. If the process of
● it prevent incongruence
● When people's defenses fail to operate properly, therapy takes place, then certain outcomes can be
their behavior becomes disorganized or predicted. Rogerian therapy, therefore, can be viewed
psychotic in terms of conditions, process, and outcomes.
For client-centered psychotherapy to be effective, six 3. Finally, the contact between client and therapist
conditions are necessary: must be of some duration.
(1) A vulnerable or anxious client must
(2) have contact of some duration Although the aforementioned conditions are required,
(3) with a congruent counselor there are more specifically crucial to client-centered
(4) who demonstrates unconditional positive regard therapy. Rogers called these core conditions the
(5) and who listens with empathy to a client necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic
(6) who perceives the congruence, unconditional growth.
positive regard, and empathy.
● If these conditions are present, then the Conditions for Psychological/ Therapeutic Growth
process of therapy will take place and certain
predictable outcomes will result. 1. Counselor Congruence - to be congruent means to
be real or genuine, to be whole or integrated, to be
A. Conditions what one truly is. (counselor congruence, or a
therapist whose organismic experiences are matched
Rogers (1959) postulated that in order for therapeutic by awareness and by the ability and willingness to
growth to take place, the following conditions are openly express these feelings.)
necessary and sufficient.
2. Unconditional positive regards - exists when the
1. First, an anxious or vulnerable client must come into therapist accepts and prizes the client without
contact with a congruent therapist who also possesses conditions or qualifications.
empathy and unconditional positive regard for that
client. 3. Empathic Listening - exists when therapists
accurately sense the feelings of their clients and are
2. Next, the client must perceive these characteristics able to communicate these perceptions so that clients
in the therapist.
know that another person has entered their world of
feelings without prejudice, projection, or evaluation. experience, and more realistic. The gap between their
ideal self and their true self narrows and as a
B. Process consequence, clients experience less physiological and
psychological tension. Finally, clients' interpersonal
If the conditions of therapist congruence, relationships improve because they are more
unconditional positive regard, and empathy are accepting of self and others.
present, then the process of therapeutic change will
be set in motion. Rogers saw the process of therapeutic (1) become more congruent, less defensive, more open
change as taking place in seven stages: to experience, and more realistic;
(2) experience a narrowing of the gap between ideal
(1) clients are unwilling to communicate anything self and true self;
about themselves; (3) experience less physiological and psychological
(2) they discuss only external events and other people; tension;
(3) they begin to talk about themselves, but still as an (4) improve their interpersonal relationships: and
object; (5) become more accepting of self and others.
(4) they discuss strong emotions that they have felt in
the past; V. The Person of Tomorrow/ Fully functioning
(5) they begin to express present feelings; Person
(6) they freely allow into awareness those experiences
If people receive the three necessary and sufficient
that were previously denied or distorted; and
conditions for psychological health person, then they
(7) they experience irreversible change and growth.
will grow toward becoming the "fully functioning
person" or the "person of tomorrow." Rogers listed
C. Outcomes seven characteristics of the person of tomorrow.
When client-centered therapy is successful, clients
become more congruent, less defensive, more open to 1. Persons of tomorrow would be more adaptable and
more flexible in their thinking.
2. They would be open to their experiences, accurately 7. They would enjoy a greater richness in life than do
symbolizing them in awareness rather than denying or other people. open to all their experiences. They
distorting them. Would listen to themselves and hear would live in the present and thus participate more
their joy, anger, discouragement, fear, and tenderness. richly in the ongoing moment.

3. Tendency to live fully in the moment, experiencing a *Other sources

constant state of fluidity and change. They would see Fully functioning Person (going towards
each experience with a new freshness and appreciate actualization)
it fully in the present moment; tendency to live in the
moment as existential living.
1. Openness to experiences – open to possibilities;
4. Persons of tomorrow would remain confident of embraces human experiences such as love, pain,
their own ability to experience harmonious relations suffering, forgiveness, compassion, etc
with others. They would feel no need to be liked or
loved by everyone, because they would know that they 2. Existential living – every experience is a new
are unconditionally prized and accepted by someone. experience and giving your best anytime (living the
day as if it is your last)
5. They would be more integrated, more whole, with
no artificial boundary between conscious processes
and unconscious ones. Because they would be able to 3. Organismic trusting – doing what you feel is right,
accurately symbolize all their experiences in not what is right or what society thinks right?
awareness, they would see clearly the difference
between what is and what should be 4. Experiential freedom – capacity to choose and to be
free
6. Persons of tomorrow would have a basic trust of
human nature. They would experience anger,
frustration, depression, and other negative emotions, 5. Creative – productive (to self and culture)
but they would be able to express rather than repress
these feelings.
6. Accurate Empathy (unconditional positive regard) – Criteria for Evaluating a Theory
the only way to have accurate empathy is to accept Characteristics Theory
the other person without judgement.
Capacity to generate Moderate
research
*additional Information:
True self: who you are today Falsifiability High
Ideal self: who you want to become
Ability to Organize Data High

Development of the Self-concept Ability to Guide Action High

● No timetable, instead focused on the ways in Internal Consistency Very high
which evaluations of a person by others tend to
promote the development of a positive or Parsimony High
negative self-image
● The Need for positive Regard – universal Concept of Humanity
● Positive Self-regard – the self becomes the Determinism vs. Freedom High on Freedom
“significant social other”
Optimism vs. Pessimism Optimism
● Conditional Positive Regard – I will love,
respect, accept you only if you are kind of Causality vs. Theology Teleological
person I expect you to be.
Conscious vs. Unconscious More conscious
● Unconditional Positive Regard – I will love,
respect, accept you for what you are, noifs, Biological vs. Social Social
ands, or but. Influence

Uniqueness vs. Similarities High uniqueness

RAYMOND B. CATTEL’S THEORY ● Cattell divided traits into common traits (shared
by many) and unique traits (peculiar to one
● Like Allport, Cattell is an academic researcher individual).
who considers traits to be the basic m elements ● Cattell further classified traits into
of personality. Cattell also noted the distinction temperament, motivation, and ability. Traits of
between traits common to most people in a temperament are concerned with how a person
culture and those that are relatively unique to behaves, motivation deals with why one
the individual. behaves, and ability refers to how far or how fast
● Cattell has conducted his research with a one can perform.
slightly different goal in mind: to discover and
identify the basic elements of the human Personality
personality. “that which permits prediction of what a person will
● Cattell did not begin with insightful notions do in a given situation.”
about the make-up of human nature and then
set out to measure those features. Surface traits (common traits)
● He argues that we must use empirical methods Cluster of overt behaviour responses that appear to go
to determine the make-up of personality, together, such as integrity, honesty, self-discipline,
instead of relying on intuition. and manifestation
● Cattell employs a sophisticated statistical
technique called factor analysis. Source Trait (indicators)
The underlying variables that seem to determine the
The Pioneering Work of Raymond B. Cattell surface manifestation, in this case, ego strength
● Cattell used an inductive method of gathering
data; that is, he began with no preconceived
bias concerning the number or name of traits or
types
16 Basic Source traits highly correlated with each other, but not with
The building blocks of personality. Some are indicative the other five tests.
of an outgoing temperament; other indicate more
reserved disposition. Group A Group B
aspiration cooperativeness
Factor analysis determination friendliness
● It refers to statistical data reduction and endurance kindliness
analysis technique that strives to explain persistence openness
correlations among multiple outcomes as the productivity tenderness
result of one or more underlying explanations,
or factors. This technique is developed by
● Although you originally measured ten traits, you
psychologist Charles Spearman.
● Suppose you had tests to measure the following might conclude that you were actually
ten traits: aspiration, cooperativeness, measuring two larger personality dimensions
determination, endurance, friendliness, –achievement and warmth.
kindliness, openness, persistence, productivity,
and tenderness. Cattell’s three types of data (sources of data)
● You could give these tests to a group of subjects
and obtain ten scores per person.
● Then use correlation coefficients to examine 1. L- Data (life record data). These are personality
how scores on one test compare with the scores assessments from actual behavior throughout a
on the other nine tests. person’s lifetime- report cards, ratings by friends or
● For example, friendliness and tenderness scores employers, military conduct reports, etc. (derived
were highly correlated- if a person scored high from observations made by other people)
on one of these tests you could predict with
some confidence that the person would also
2. Q- Data (questionnaire data). These data are
score high on the other test.
● You might discover that the tests tend to cluster obtained from personality questionnaires.
into two groups. That is, five of the tests are
(obtained from questionnaires and other techniques Factor C (Emotional Ability): Emotionally Stable
designed to allow people to make subjective versus Reactive. This factor largely concerns feelings
descriptions of themselves) about coping with day-to-day life and its challenges.
High scores in this factor tend to take life in stride and
3. T- Data (objective test data). Subjects are observed manage events and emotions in a balance, adaptive
in settings that resemble real-life situations. way while low scorers feel a certain lack of control
Information obtained in this way is not contaminated over life (Russell & Karol, 1994).
by deception.(objective tests , which measure
performance such as intelligence, speed of Factor E (Dominance): Dominant versus Deferential.
responding, and other such activities designed to This factor involves the tendency to exert one’s will
challenge people’s maximum performance) over others. High Scorers in this factor tend to be
forceful, vocal in expressing their wishes while low
Cattel’s 16PF Source Traits scorers tend to be more accommodating to other’s
Factor A (Warmth): Warm versus Reserved. This wishes (Russell & Karol, 1994).
factor addresses the tendency to be warmly involved
with people versus the tendency to be more reserved Factor F (Liveliness): Lively versus Serious. This
socially and interpersonally; both poles are normal. factor is compared to the natural self-expression and
spontaneity exhibited by children before they learn
Factor B (Reasoning): Abstract versus Concrete. The self-control. High scorers are enthusiastic,
Factor B scale is composed of 15 items concerning the spontaneous, and attention-seeking; lively and drawn
ability to solve problems using reasoning. In the 16PF to stimulating situations. Low scorers tend to take life
literature, Factor B is described as a brief measure of seriously. They are quieter, more cautious, and less
reasoning or, intelligence, although it is not intended playful (Russell & Karol, 1994).
as replacement for more reliable, full-length measures
of mental ability. Factor G (Rule-Consciousness): Rule-Conscious
versus Expedient. This factor addresses the extent to
which cultural standards of right and wrong are advantage of, and they experience themselves as
internalized and used to govern behavior. High scorers separate from other people. Low scorers tend to
tend to perceive themselves as strict followers of expect fair treatment, loyalty, and good intentions
rules, principles, and manners. In contrast, low scorers from others (Russell & Karol, 1994).
tend to eschew rules and regulations (Russell & Karol,
1994). Factor M (Abstractedness): Abstracted versus
Grounded. This factor addresses the type of things to
Factor H (Social Boldness): Socially Bold versus Shy. which people give thought and attention. Abstracted
In this factor, high scorers consider themselves to be people are more oriented to internal mental processes
bold and adventurous in social groups, and show little and ideas rather than to practicalities. Grounded
fear of social situations. Low scorers tend to be people focus on their senses, observable data, and the
socially timid, cautions, and shy; they find speaking in outer realities of their environment in forming their
front of a group to be a difficult experience (Russell & perceptions (Russell & Karol, 1994).
Karol, 1994).
Factor N (Privateness): Private versus Forthright.
Factor I (Sensitivity): Sensitivity versus Utilitarian. This factor addresses the tendency to be Forthright
The content of the Factor I scale focuses on people’s and personally open versus being Private and
sensitiveness and sensibilities; that is, high scorers nondisclosing. Low scorers tend to talk about
tend to base judgment on personal tastes and themselves readily; they are genuine, self-revealing,
aesthetic values, whereas lower scorers tend to have a and forthright. High scorers, on the other hand, tend
more utilitarian focus (Russell & Karol, 1994). to be personally guarded (Russell & Karol, 1994).

Factor L (Vigilance): Vigilant versus Trusting. This Factor O (Apprehension): Apprehensive versus
factor relates to the tendency to trust versus being Self-Assured. In this factor, high scorers tend to worry
vigilant about others’ motives and intentions. High about things and to feel apprehensive and insecure. In
scorers expect to be misunderstood or taken contrast, low scorers tend to be more self-assured,
neither prone to apprehensiveness nor troubled about Factor Q4 (Tension): Tense versus Relaxed. This scale
their sense of adequacy (Russell & Karol, 1994). is associated with nervous tension. High scores tend
to have a restless energy and to be fidgety when made
Factor Q1 (Openness to Change): Open to Change to wait. While a certain amount of tension can be
versus Traditional. In Factor Q1, high scorer tends to made focused effectively and can motivate action,
think of ways to improve things and to enjoy extremely high tension can lead to impatience and
experimenting while low scorers tend to prefer irritability, as seen in the item content (Russell &
traditional ways of looking at things (Russell & Karol, Karol, 1994).
1994).
HENRY ALEXANDER MURRAY’S THEORY
Factor Q2 (Self-Reliance): Self-Reliant versus
Group-Oriented. This factor tends to be about ● Unlike many trait theories, the point of view of
maintaining contract with or proximity to others. High Henry Murray has psychoanalytic flavor
scorers are self-reliant; they enjoy time alone and because of his early- career contact with Carl
prefer to make decisions for themselves. Low scorers Jung who had a tremendous influence on him.
are Group-Oriented; they prefer to be around people ● His major contribution to the field of
and like to do things with others (Russell & Karol, personality is the Thematic Apperception Test
1994). which is a projective technique like many
psychoanalytic tests.
Factor Q3 (Perfectionism): Perfectionistic versus
Tolerates Disorder. In this factor, high scorers want to Murray describes the elements of the personality as
do things right. They tend to be organized, to keep needs. He identified five different types of needs:
things in their proper places, and to plan ahead. Low
scorers leave more things to chance and tend to be 1. Primary and Secondary needs - the primary needs
more comfortable in a disorganized setting (Russell & of man or sometimes called the Viscerogenic needs are
Karol, 1994).
the need for food and water or the man’s basic or A Press can be:
physiological needs. On the other hand, the secondary a. Alpha press - real environment
needs are also called Psychogenic needs - potentiality b. Beta press - perceived environment
or readiness to respond in a certain way under certain
given conditions. These are similar to the traits Example:
described by other trait theories. If people at a party are friendly and
approachable, my Affiliation need might interact with
● Murray postulated that these needs are largely that alpha press to create social behavior. If I
unconscious and he eventually arrived at a list misperceive those people as cold and unfriendly, that
of 21 psychogenic needs. beta press won’t interact with my Affiliation need, and
● He said that each of us can be described in I won’t act sociable.
terms of a personal hierarchy of needs. For
example, the person who needs a lot of close Conflicting press
friends has relatively a high need for Affiliation. ● Suppose you have a big test, but your friends
are having a party the night before. If your
Therefore, this need appears toward the top of
Achievement need is higher on your personal
that person’s personal hierarchy.
need hierarchy than your need for Affiliation or
● Murray recognized that simple need hierarchy Play, you will probably stay with your books. If
would be insufficient to predict behavior. your Achievement need is lower than these
● He introduced the concept of press, the other needs, your test score will probably suffer.
environmental forces that interact with needs ● Thematic Apperception Test or TAT -
to determine behavior. assessment tool to measure psychogenic needs
by analyzing the stories people give to
● For example, need for Order would not affect
ambiguous pictures.
behavior without an appropriate press such as a
messy room:
Murray’s psychogenic needs by restriving and retaliating. To select
Need Description the hardest tasks. To defend one’s
honor in action.
Abasement To surrender. To comply and accept
punishment. To apologize, confess, Defendance To defend oneself against blame or
atone (reconcile). Self- depreciation. belittlement. To justify one’s actions.
Masochism To offer extenuations, explanations,
excuses. To resist “probing”.
Achievement To overcome obstacles, to exercise
power, to strive to do something Deference To admire and willingly follow a
difficult as well as quickly as possible superior allied other. To cooperate
with a leader. To serve gladly.
Affiliation To form friendships and associations.
To greet, join, and live with others. To Dominance To influence or control others. To
cooperate and converse sociably with persuade, prohibit, dictate. To lead
others. To love. To join groups. and direct. To restrain. To organize
the behavior of a group.
Aggression To assault or injure other. To murder.
To belittle, harm, blame, accuse, or Exhibition To attract attention to one’s person.
maliciously ridicule a person. To To excite, amuse, stir, shock, thrill
punish severely. Sadism others. Self-dramatization.

Autonomy To resist influence or coercion. To Harmavoidance To avoid pain, physical injury, illness,
defy an authority or seek freedom in a and death. To escape from a
new place. To strive for dangerous situation. To take
independence. precautionary measures.

Blamavoidance To avoid blame, ostracism, or Inflavoidance To avoid failure, shame, humiliation,

punishment by inhibiting asocial ridicule. To refrain from attempting to
or unconventional impulses. To be do something that is beyond one’s
well-behaved and obey the law. powers. To conceal a disfigurement.

Counteraction Proudly to refuse admission of defeat Nurturance To nourish, aid, or protect a helpless
 other. To express sympathy. To 2. Proactive and reactive needs. Proactive need
“mother” a child. means the one that originates within the person, the
reactive need the one that originates outside the
Order To arrange, organize, put away person.
objects. To be tidy and clean. To be
scrupulously precise. 3. Overt and covert needs. The needs that are openly
Play To relax, amuse oneself, seek
expressed are called overt needs while those that are
diversion and entertainment. To “have hidden are called covert needs.
fun,” to play games. To laugh, joke,
and be merry. To avoid serious 4. Focal and diffuse needs. Needs that can only be met
tension. by only one object, or, in a few cases, by very few
objects are called focal needs while diffuse needs
Rejection To snub, ignore, or exclude another. are those that spread out.
To remain aloof and indifferent. To be
discriminating.
5. Effect and modal needs. An effect need is one that
Sentience To seek and enjoy sensuous leads to a direct and identifiable goal object while the
impressions mode of operation in which we satisfy need is called
modal need.
Sex To form and further an erotic
relationship. To have sexual
As man is motivated by these needs, he uses them in
intercourse.
accordance with certain methods, some of which are
Succorance To seek aid, protection, or sympathy. discussed below:
To cry for help. To plead for mercy. To
adhere to an affectionate, nurturant
parent. To be dependent. Prepotency - when two or more needs demand
satisfaction at the same time by the same person, a
Understanding To analyze experience, to abstract, to priority for action must occur.
discriminate among concepts, to
define relations, to synthesize ideas.
Fusion - needs which are complementary becomes
fused as motivating devices. Although the needs
themselves are not identical, they may be satisfied by a
single course of action. Items for the scales were selected empirically.
For example, items were selected for the depression
scale if depressed subjects answered “true” (or “false,”
Subsidiation - some needs may be met only through
depending on the wording) more frequently than
meeting the demands of lesser but necessary way
“normal subjects.”
needs. For example, to the need for achievement one
may first have to satisfy the need for deference. Survey conducted in 1984 found the MMPI
second only to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Assessment in Trait Approach (WAIS) in its frequency of use.

2. The California Psychological Inventory (CPI) –

Self-report Inventories
about half of the items in this inventory are taken from
Because they rely heavily upon empirical data the MMPI, the eighteen scales that make up the
collection, trait psychologists are concerned with inventory are quite different from those on the MMPI.
developing reliable and valid instruments for Testers obtain scores for such traits as
measuring personality traits. Although a variety of responsibility, tolerance, self-acceptance, flexibility,
assessment procedures are used, the most popular and self-control. Scores for these scales can be used
to help clients select occupations or learn to get along
instrument is the self-report inventory, typically a
better with
paper-and-pencil test that asks subjects to respond to
others.
questions about themselves.
3. The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS)
Some Frequently Used Self-report Inventories – this inventory measures fifteen of Murray’s
psychogenic needs. Consistent with Murray’s theory,
1. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory the test is constructed so that the fifteen needs can be
(MMPI) - contains over 500 true-false items which is arranged hierarchically. Tester can thus readily see
designed to assess psychopathology. In this which needs are most likely to influence behavior
self-report inventory, several scale scores are when competing press from the environment are
combined to form an overall profile of the individual.
presents (for example, a messy room and friend’s call factors or types: extraversion/introversion,
to go out). neuroticism/stability, and psychoticism/superego.

The test is also used by counselors, particularly

The personality theory of Hans Eysenck has strong
when matching client’s needs with the demands of a
psychometric and biological components. However,
certain job or professional school. A person with a
high affiliation need and a low achievement need, for Eysenck (1977a, 1997a) contended that psychometric
example, might not be well suited for graduate school. sophistication alone is not sufficient to measure the
structure of human personality and that personality
4. The Self-Monitoring Scale - this is used primarily in dimensions arrived at through factor analytic methods
academic research on self-monitoring behavior. The are sterile and meaningless unless they have been
twenty-five-item scale is designed to measure the
shown to possess a biological existence.
self-monitoring trait- the extent to which people
observe and control their self-presentations and
expressive behavior. High self-monitors, who are very ● He conducted research on topics ranging from
concerned with what others think of them, continually the usefulness of psychotherapy to the causes
try to create the impression on others that they want of smoking to the relationship between genetics
them to have. and intelligence.
● Eysenck an entire book entitled The Biological
EYSENCK’S BIOLOGICALLY BASED FACTOR THEORY
Basis of Personality, proposing that some laws
of behavior have a complete biological basis.
I. Overview of Eysenck’s Biologically Based Factor
● His most important contribution to the area of
Theory
personality psychology is his work on the
identification of traits and what he calls types,
Hans Eysenck and others have used factor analysis
or supertraits.
to identify traits, that is, relatively permanent
● Like Cattell, Eysenck also used factor analysis to
dispositions of people. Eysenck extracted only three
determine the basic structure of human
general factors, which yielded three general bipolar
personality.
 ● Unlike Cattell, Eysenck’’s conclusion after 3 A. Criteria for Identifying Factors
years of research is that all traits can be
subsumed within three basic personality Eysenck insisted that personality factors must (1) be
based on strong psychometric evidence, (2) possess
dimensions.
heritability or fit an acceptable genetic model, (3) make
sense from a theoretical view. Eysenck employed the
1. Extraversion-introversion deductive method of investigation and (4) possess social
2. Neuroticism relevance.
3. Psychoticism
B. Hierarchy of Behavior Organization
II. Biography of Hans J. Eysenck
Eysenck recognized a four-level hierarchy of behavior
Hans J. Eysenck was born in Berlin in 1916, but as a organization: (1) specific behaviors or cognitions; (2)
teenager, he moved to London to escape Nazi tyranny. habitual acts or cognitions; (3) traits, or personal
Eysenck was trained in the psychometrically oriented dispositions, and (4) types or superfactors.
psychology department of the University of London,
from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1938 Eysenck’s hierarchical model of personality
and a PhD in 1940. Eysenck was perhaps the most
prolific writer of any psychologist in the world, and his 1. Specific Response Level - the basic structure in the
books and articles often stirred worldwide scheme which consists of specific behaviors, such as
controversy. He died in September of 1997. an afternoon talking and laughing with friends.

III. Eysenck’s Contribution to Personality Theory

2. Habitual Response Level - when a person engages
Eysenck's Factor Theory in the specific behavior frequently like frequent talking
The personality theory of Hans Eysenck has strong and laughing with friends every afternoon.
psychometric and biological components.
3. Trait Level - when habitual styles of responding
found across time & across situations. For example,
the person who spends afternoons talking with friends between extraverts and introverts is one of cortical
also spends weekends and most evenings this way and arousal level.
enjoys social gatherings, parties, and the like.
● Extraverts are outgoing, impulsive &
● Eysenck defined traits as “important
uninhibited, having many social contacts and
semi-permanent personality dispositions”
frequently taking part in group activities. They
are sociable, like parties, has many friends,
4. Supertrait - larger dimension of personality. That is needs to have people to talk to, and does not
people who are sociable also tend to be impulsive, like reading or studying by himself.
active, and excitable. All these traits are part of the ● Introverts are quiet, retiring sort of person,
supertrait Eysenck calls extraversion. introspective, fond of books rather than people;
he is reserved and distant except to intimate
friends
IV. Dimensions of Personality
● The degree to which a person is outgoing and
participative in relating to other people.
Although many triads exist, Eysenck's methods of
measuring personality limited the number bipolar
B. Neuroticism/(emotional)stability
personality types to only three—
extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability, and
Like extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability
psychoticism/superego function. Each of three bipolar
is largely influenced by genetic factors. People high in
factors has a strong genetic component.
neuroticism have such traits as anxiety, hysteria, and
obsessive-compulsive disorders. They frequently have
A. Extraversion/ Introversion
a tendency to overreact emotionally and to have
difficulty returning to a normal state after emotional
Extraverts are characterized by sociability,
arousal. They often complain of physical symptoms
impulsiveness, jocularity, liveliness, optimism, and
such as headache and backache, but they also may be
quick-wittedness, whereas introverts are quiet,
free from psychological symptoms.
passive, unsociable, careful, reserved, thoughtful,
pessimistic, peaceful, sober, and controlled. Eysenck,
Eysenck accepted the diathesis-stress model of
however, believed that the principal difference
psychiatric illness, which suggests that some people
are vulnerable to illness because they have either a ● Involving the loss or distortion of reality and the
genetic or anacquired weakness that predisposes inability to distinguish it.
them to an illness.
V. Measuring Personality
● Persons high in this dimension are “indicative of
emotional lability and overreactivity”. Eysenck and his colleagues developed four personality
● They tend to be emotionally overresponsive and inventory to measure superfactors, or types The two
to have difficulties in returning to a normal most frequently used by current researchers is the
state after emotional experiences. This Eysenck Personality Inventory (which measures only E
dimension is sometimes referred to as stable- and N) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
unstable. (which also measures all three factors).
● Involving an individual’s adjustment to the
environment and the stability of his or her VI. Biological Bases of Personality
behaviour over time.
Eysenck believed that P, E, and N all have a powerful
C. Psychoticism/superego function (strength) biological components, and he cited as evidence the
existence of these three types in a wide variety of
The latest and weakest of Eysenck's personality cultures and languages.
factors is psychoticism/superego. High P scorers are
often egocentric, cold, nonconforming, impulsive, VII. Personality as a Predictor
hostile, aggressive, suspicious, psychopathic, and
antisocial. Eysenck's complex model of personality suggests that
the psychometric traits of P, E, and N can combine
● People who score high on this dimension are with one another and with genetic determinants,
described as “egocentric, aggressive, biological intermediates, and experimental studies to
impersonal, cold, lacking in empathy, impulsive, predict a variety of social behaviors, including those
lacking in concern for others, and generally that contribute to disease.
unconcerned about the rights and welfare of
other people”
A. Personality and Behavior THE FIVE FACTOR TRAIT THEORY OF McCRAE &
COSTA
According to Eysenck's model, P, E, and N should The Big Five: Taxonomy or Theory?
predict both proximal and distal consequences, and he
and his colleagues cited studies that predicted
I. OVERVIEW OF FIVE FACTOR TRAIT THEORY
behavior in both laboratory studies and studies of
social behavior. They found a relationship between
superfactors and a large number of behaviors and In the previous lecture, we defined a taxonomy as a
processes, such as academic performance, creativity, classification of things according to their natural
antisocial behavior, as well as behaviors that may lead relationships. We also discussed that taxonomies are
to disease. an essential starting point for the advance of science,
but that they are not theories. Whereas theories
B. Personality and Disease
generate research, taxonomies merely supply a
For many years, Eysenck researched the relationship classification system.
between personality factors and disease.
He teamed with Ronald Grossarth-Maticek to study In the following discussion of McCrae and Costa’s
the connection between personality characteristics Five-Factor Model (FFM), we will see that their work
and both cancer and cardiovascular disease. According
began as an attempt to identify basic personality traits
to this research, people with a helpless/hopeless
as revealed by factor analysis. This work soon evolved
attitude are more likely to die from cancer, whereas
people who react to frustration with anger and into a taxonomy and the Five-Factor Model. After
emotional arousal are more much more likely to die much additional work, this model became a theory,
from cardiovascular disease. one that can both predict and explain behavior.

II. BIOGRAPHIES OF McCRAE & COSTA

Robert Roger McCrae was born April 28, 1949 in

Maryville, Missouri, the youngest of three children.
 III. McCRAE & COSTA’S CONTRIBUTION TO
After completing an undergraduate degree in PERSONALITY THEORY
philosophy from Michigan State University, he earned
a PhD in psychology from Boston University. Following In Search of the Big Five
the lead of Raymond Cattell, he began using factor
analysis as a means of measuring the structure of In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Costa and McCrae,
human traits. After completing his academic work, like most other factor researchers, were building
McCrae began working with Paul Costa at the National elaborate taxonomies of personality traits, which they
Institute of Health, where he is still employed. were using to examine the stability and structure of
personality. As with many other factor theorists, they
Paul T. Costa Jr. was born September 16 in Franklin, quickly discovered the traits of extraversion (E),
New Hampshire. He earned his undergraduate degree neuroticism (N), and openness to experience (O).
in psychology from Clark University and a PhD from
the University of Chicago. In 1978 he began working A. Five Factors Found
with Robert McCrae at the National Institute of Aging,
where he continues to conduct research on human As late as 1983, McCrae and Costa were arguing for a
development and aging. The collaboration between three-factor model of personality, but by 1985 they
Costa and McCrae has been unusually fruitful, with begin to report work on the five factors of personality,
well over 200 co-authored research articles and having added agreeableness (A) and conscientiousness
chapters, and several books. (C). Costa and McCrae did not fully develop the A and
C scales until the revised NEO-PI personality
inventory appeared in 1992. Recently, the five factors
have been found across a variety of cultures and using
a number of languages. In addition, the five factors
show some permanence with age; that is, adults tend
to maintain a consistent personality structure as they Openness High Scores Low Scores
grow older.
imaginative down-to-earth
creative uncreative
B. Description of the Five Factors original conventional
prefers variety prefers routine
McCrae and Costa agreed with Eysenck that curious uncurious
personality traits are basically bipolar, with some liberal conservative

people scoring high on one factor and low on its Agreeableness High Scores Low Scores
counterpart. Below are the descriptions of the Big 5.
softhearted ruthless
trusting suspicious
The Five- Factor Model of Personality (OCEAN) generous stingy
acquiescent antagonistic
lenient critical
Neuroticism High Scores Low Scores
good-natured irritable
anxious calm
Conscientiousness High Scores Low Scores
temperamental even-tempered
self-pitying self-satisfied
conscientious negligent
self-conscious comfortable
hardworking lazy
emotional unemotional
well-organized disorganized
vulnerable hardy
punctual late
ambitious aimless
Extraversion High Scores Low Scores
persevering quitting
affectionate reserved
joiner loner
Units of the Five-Factor Theory
talkative quiet
fun loving sober
active passive McCrae and Costa predict behavior through an
passionate unfeeling understanding of three central or core components
and three peripheral ones. The three core components
include: (1) basic tendencies, (2) characteristic postulate states that traits are organized hierarchically
adaptations, and (3) self-concept. Basic tendencies from narrow and specific to broad and general.
are the universal raw material of personality.
Characteristic adaptations are acquired personality On the other hand, the following are the postulates of
structures that develop as people adapt to their characteristic adaptations:
environment. Self-concept refers to knowledge and
attitudes about oneself. Peripheral components 1. Over time, people adapt to their environment.
include (1) biological bases, which are the sole cause of 2. Maladjustment— suggests that our responses are
basic tendencies; (2) objective biography, which is not always consistent with personal goals or cultural
everything a person does or thinks over a lifetime; and values.
(3) external influence, or knowledge, views, and 3. Basic traits may “change over time in response to
evaluations of the self. biological maturation, changes in the environment, or
deliberate interventions”
Basic Postulates
Key Terms and Concepts
The two most important core postulates are • Trait and factor theories of personality are based on
basic tendencies and characteristic adaptations. factor analysis a procedure that assumes that human
Basic tendencies have four postulates— individuality, traits can be measured by correlational studies.
origin, development, and structure. The individuality • Eysenck used a hypothetico-deductive approach to
postulate stipulates that every adult has a unique extract three bipolar factors—
pattern of traits. The origin postulate assumes that all extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability, and
personality traits originate solely from biological psychoticism/superego.
factors, such as genetics, hormones, and brain • Extraverts are characterized by sociability and
structures. The development postulate assumes that impulsiveness; introverts, by passivity and
traits develop and change through childhood, thoughtfulness. High scores on the neuroticism scale
adolescence, and mid-adulthood. The structure
may indicate anxiety, hysteria, obsessive-compulsive Ability to Guide Action Useful to research mostly
disorders, or criminality; low scores tend to predict
emotional stability. Internal Consistency High

• High scores on psychoticism indicate hostility, Parsimony Excellent

self-centeredness, suspicion, nonconformity, and
antisocial behavior; low scores indicate a strong
Concept of Humanity
superego, empathy, and cooperation.
Determinism vs. Freedom None
• Eysenck insisted that, to be useful, personality must
predict behavior, and he presented ample evidence to Optimism vs. Pessimism None
support his three-factor theory.
Causality vs. Theology None
• McCrae and Costa, like Eysenck, placed heavy
emphasis on biological components of personality. Conscious vs. Unconscious Conscious
• The Five-Factor Theory has been used to assess
Biological vs. Social Biological
personality traits in cultures throughout the world. Influence
• The NEO-PI-R shows a high level of stability in
Uniqueness vs. Similarities Uniqueness
personality factor as people advance from about 30
years old to old age.
ALLPORT’S PSYCHOLOGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL
Criteria for Evaluating a Theory
I. Overview of Allport’s Psychology of the Individual
Characteristics Theory

Capacity to generate Very High More than any other personality theorist, Gordon
research Allport emphasized the uniqueness of the individual.
Falsifiability Moderate to high He believed that attempts to describe people in terms
of general traits rob them of their unique individuality.
Ability to Organize Data High
For this reason, Allport objected to trait and factor
theories that tend to reduce individual behaviors to
common traits. of the great German psychologists, but he returned to
teach at Harvard. Two years later he took a position at
Consistent with Allport’s emphasis on each person’s Dartmouth, but after 4 years at Dartmouth, he
uniqueness was his willingness to study in depth a returned to Harvard, where he remained until his
single individual. He called the study of the individual death in 1967.
morphogenic science and contrasted it with the
nomothetic methods used by most other Summary:
psychologists. Morphogenic methods are those that - born in Indiana in 1897, the son of a physician and
gather data on a single individual, former school teacher.
whereas nomothetic methods gather data on groups - He received an undergraduate degree in philosophy
of people. and economics and a PhD from Harvard,
- spent 2 years studying under some of the great
Allport also advocated an eclectic approach to theory German psychologists, but he returned from Europe
building.He accepted some of the contributions of to teach at Harvard.
Freud, Maslow, Rogers, Eysenck, Skinner, and others; - Two years later he took a position at Dartmouth, but
but he believed that no one of these theorists is able to after 4 years at Dartmouth, he returned to Harvard,
adequately explain the total growing and unique where he remained until his death in 1967.
personality. - Gordon published “Personality Traits: Their
Classification and Measurement” along with his
II. Biography of Gordon Allport brother Floyd. This is the 1st recognized worked on
traits by a psychologist.
Gordon W. Allport was born in Indiana in 1897. He - He taught what is believed to be the first college
received an undergraduate degree in philosophy and course on personality in the United States, in 1924.
economics from Harvard. After receiving a PhD from
Harvard, Allport spent 2 years studying under some
III. Allport’s Contribution to Personality Theory
2. Psychophysical systems: meaning that man is both
Allport's Approach to Personality Theory brain and body. (importance of both psychological and
physical aspects of personality).
A. What Is Personality?
3. Determine: meaning that “Personality is something
Allport defined personality as "the dynamic and does something” of and by for itself, which
organization within the individual of those removes personality from being a mere ploy of others.
psychophysical systems that determine [the
(not merely the mask we wear but the person behind
person's] behavior and thought.” This definition
includes both physical and psychological properties that)
and both stability and flexibility. Also, personality not
only is 4. Unique: meaning that every human being is unique
something but it does something; that is, it includes in time, place, person, and adjustment quality, and is
both behavior and thinking. unlike any others in these characteristics. (uniqueness
of the individual)
● "the dynamic organization within the individual
of those psychophysical systems that determine
[the person's] behavior and thought. 5. Adjustments to his environment: meaning that
“Personality is a mode of survival”
The key phrases in Allport’s definition are important
for an understanding of his conception of the term ● Behavior and thinking: anything the person does
personality. (external or internal)

1. Dynamic organization: meaning that man’s

Allport’s Description of Personality
personality is more than a loose collection of
behaviors, that it is organized, and further that this
organized human is constantly evolving and changing In his Personality: A Psychological Interpretation
in motivation and self- regulation. (patterned yet (1937), Allport wove an interesting history of the
subject to change) word personality out of the original Greek word
persona. He used the writings of the Roman statesman, self-esteem, anxiety, intelligence,
orator, and author, Cicero, who found four distinct self-consciousness, and so on, because nearly
meanings of persona: all people can be described along these
dimensions.

1. The external appearance but not the true self.

● Idiographic approach - this approach stresses
2. The character or role someone plays in life. the uniqueness of the individual. The focus is on
3. The collection of highly individual qualities that understanding which traits best describe a
enables one to live an adequate life. particular person.
4. The distinction and dignity with which one fulfills
his role in life. Continuity Theory – suggests that development of
personality is essentially the accumulation of skill,
habits, and discrimination, without anything really
From these four definitions of Cicero, Allport searched new appearing in the person’s make up.
out fifty definitions for the word personality, ending
the list with his own, which is one of the most copied Discontinuity Theory - Suggests that in the course of
and discussed of all definitions: Personality is the development an organism experiences genuine
dynamic within the individual of those transformations or changes and consequently reaches
successively higher levels of organization.
psychophysical systems that determine his unique
adjustments to his environment.
B. What is the Role of Conscious Motivation?

Nomothetic vs. Idiographic approaches to More than any other personality theorist, Allport
personality recognized the importance of conscious motivation.
● Nomothetic approach - in this approach, His emphasis of conscious motivation probably began
investigators examine what Allport called with his short-lived discussion with Freud, when
common traits, “those aspects of personality in Allport had not yet selected a career in psychology.
respect to which most people within a given Rather than viewing Freud's comments as an
culture can be profitably compared”. expression of an unconscious motive, Allport believed
Researchers compare people on measures of that Freud missed the point of Allport's story. Whereas
Freud would attribute an unconscious desire in the 4. Realistic perception: problem oriented
story of the young boy on the tram car, Allport saw the 5. Insight & humor: no need to attribute their
story as an expression of a conscious motive. own mistakes and weakness to others; can
laugh at themselves; see themselves objectively
● began with his short-lived discussion with 6. Unifying philosophy of life: have a clear view
Freud, when Allport had not yet selected a of the purpose of life (not necessarily religious)
career in psychology.
● Whereas Freud would attribute an unconscious Structure of Personality
desire in the story of the young boy on the tram
car, Allport saw the story as an expression of a To Allport, the most important structures of
conscious motive.
personality are those that permit description of the
● He was inclined to accept self-reports at face
value individual in terms of individual characteristics, and
he called these individual structures
C. What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person? personal dispositions.

● Proactive behavior: not only reacting to external A. Personal Dispositions

stimuli but causing their environment to react
to them
Allport distinguished between common traits, which
● Motivated by conscious process: flexible and
autonomous are general characteristics held in common by many
● Relatively trauma-free childhood people, and personal dispositions, which are peculiar
● Identified six criteria for the mature personality: to the individual. Allport (1961) defined a personal
1. Extension of the sense of self: not disposition as “a generalized neuropsychic structure
self-centered; social interest are important to (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to render
them
many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate
2. Warm relating of self to others: intimate and
and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive
compassionate; love other unselfishy
3. Emotional security or self-acceptance: not and stylistic behavior”
overly upset when things do not go as planned
 ● “common traits” which permit inter-individual describe behavior in terms of the present or ongoing
comparisons (hypothetical construct that behavior. Genotypical personal dispositions
permits us to compare individuals within a are of much the deeper nature. It is the genotypical
given culture). with which the psychoanalyst wishes to deal. Because
● “personal dispositions” which are unusual to the the genotypical personal disposition is so difficult to
individual. (a general determining characteristic, get at, it is possible that the therapist is dealing with
but it is unique to the individual who has it. pseudo traits.
● Interpersonal comparisons are inappropriate to
personal dispositions and any attempt of Allport’s Trait (Disposition) Description
comparison transforms it to a common trait
● He acknowledged that behavior is influenced by
Personal Dispositions a variety of environmental factors, and that it is
virtually impossible to use traits to predict
This term seems much more comfortable to Allport specific behaviors.
than the term individual traits. A personal disposition ● Allport distinguished traits from habits in that
or PD, is defined as “a generalized neuropsychic habits are narrower than traits. For example,
structure (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity brushing our teeth every morning is a habit, but
to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to brushing our teeth, washing our hands, keeping
initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of our clothes clean are part of a wider system of
adaptive and stylistic behavior.” habits “a trait of personal cleanliness”.
● Trait is different from attitudes, in that the
Borrowing the terms phenotypical and genotypical latter have specific referents and are either
from Lewin, Allport found them convenient in favorable or unfavorable. “I like that candidate”
distinguishing between personal dispositions. or “I do not care for that philosophy” are
Phenotypical personal dispositions attempt to expression of attitudes. However, behind those
 attitudes lie more generalized traits, such as 2. Stylistic dispositions - which refer to the manner in
authoritarianism or kindliness. which an individual behaves and which guide rather
than initiate action. Or, the manner in which an
Levels of Personal Dispositions individual behaves and which guide action (does not
really have an exact drive or instinct that causes the
1. Cardinal dispositions is a single trait which behavior)
dominates the personality and behavior of a person.
Or, characteristics that are so obvious and dominating Proprium
that they cannot be hidden from other people. Not
everyone have this (if a personal disposition is so Proprium refers to those behaviors and characteristics
pervasive that almost every behaviour of the individual that people regard as warm, central, and important in
appears to be influence by it). their lives. They are characteristics that an individual
refers to in such terms as “That is me” or “This is
2. Central dispositions are the five to ten traits that mine.” All characteristics that are “peculiarly mine”
most influence a person’s behavior. Or all people have belong to the proprium.
5 to 10 central dispositions, or characteristics around
which their lives revolve (highly characteristics ● self/ego could imply an object or thing within a
tendencies of individuals, it is the building block of person that controls behavior,
personality). ● whereas proprium suggests the core of one's
personhood (values/conscience)
3. Secondary dispositions are those traits that are not
in the central traits but influenced our behavior in Allport’s Concept of Motivation
smaller role. Or, are less reliable and less conspicuous
than central traits. Occur with some regularity Allport insisted that an adequate theory of motivation
must consider the notion that motives change as
Motivational and Stylistic Dispositions people mature and also that people are motivated by
Allport further divided personal dispositions into: present drives and wants.

1. Motivational dispositions - which are strong enough ● Peripheral motives are those that reduce a need
to initiate action.
 ● Propriate strivings seek to maintain tension ● a behavior is functionally autonomous to the
and disequilibrium. extent that it seeks new goals, as when a need
(eating) turns into an interest (cooking).
To Allport, people not only react to their environment,
but they also shape their environment and cause it to Proprium has become uniquely an Allport word,
react to them. His proactive approach emphasized the meaning “the aspects of personality which together
idea that people often seek additional tension and seem singularly one’s own.” These aspects taken
that they purposefully act on their environment in a together make for individuality and inward unity. In
way that fosters growth toward psychological health. other words, one seeks goals to develop what he wants
to be and does not necessarily wait on circumstances
Functional Autonomy to develop goals for him. The personality creates and
seeks conditions in life which are favorable to its own
Allport's most distinctive and controversial concept is purposes.
his theory of functional autonomy, which holds that
some (but not all) human motives are functionally The proprium includes all the collected aspects of an
independent from the original motive responsible for a individual’s personality that are uniquely his own.
particular behavior. Allport recognized two levels of These are what make him different from all other
functional autonomy: individuals and give him some inward unity. The
proprium includes bodily sense, rational thinking,
1. perseverative functional autonomy - which is the propriate striving, and the concepts of self-image,
tendency of certain basic behaviors (such as addictive self-identity, self-extension, and self-esteem. The
behaviors) to perseverate or continue in the absence proprium does not develop automatically, nor does it
of reinforcement: and develop very quickly.

2. propriate functional autonomy - which refers to Not all behaviors are functionally autonomous:
self-sustaining motives (such as interests) that are ➢ biological drives = eating, breathing, and
related to the proprium. sleeping
➢ reflex actions such as an eye blink
➢ physique, intelligence, and temperament
➢ habits in the process of being formed;
 ➢ patterns of behavior that require primary self; relate warmly to others; accept themselves for
reinforcement who they are; have a realistic perception of the world;
➢ sublimations that can be tied to childhood and possess insight, humor, and a unifying philosophy
sexual desires
of life.
➢ some neurotic or pathological symptoms.
• Allport advocated a proactive position, one that
Functional autonomy emphasized the notion that people have a large
measure of conscious control over their lives.
Children who read frequently because their parents • Common traits are general characteristics held in
insist on it and reward the behavior may become avid common by many people. They may be useful for
readers. The behavior that was once means to an end comparing one group of people with another.
(pleasing the parents) has become functionally
• Individual traits (personal dispositions) are peculiar
autonomous. That is, it is enjoyable for its own sake.
Similarly, people may work hard when first employed to the individual and have the capacity to render
to make sure they aren’t fired, because they need their different stimuli functionally equivalent and to initiate
paycheck to survive. After years of hard work, these and guide behavior.
people are in a secure position with a comfortable • Three levels of personal dispositions are (1) cardinal
salary, yet they may continue to work hard. The dispositions, which only a few people possess and
behavior that was once motivated by a need for money
which are so conspicuous that they cannot be hidden;
continues without that motivation.
(2) central dispositions, the 5 to 10 individual traits that
Key Terms and Concepts make a person unique; and (3) secondary dispositions,
• Allport was eclectic in his acceptance of ideas from a which are less distinguishable but far more numerous
variety of sources. than central dispositions.
• He defined personality as the dynamic organization • Personal dispositions that initiate actions are called
within the individual of those psychophysical systems motivational traits.
that determine a person’s behavior and thought. • Personal dispositions that guide actions are called
• Psychologically healthy people are motivated largely stylistic traits.
by conscious processes; have an extended sense of
• The proprium refers to those behaviors and personal Parsimony High
dispositions that are warm and central to our lives and
that we regard as peculiarly our own.
Concept of Humanity
• Functional autonomy refers to motives that are
self-sustaining and independent from the motives that Determinism vs. Freedom Limited Freedom
were originally responsible for a behavior. Optimism vs. Pessimism Optimistic
• Perseverative functional autonomy refers to those
Causality vs. Theology Teleological
habits and behaviors that are not part of one’s
proprium. Conscious vs. Unconscious Conscious
• Propriate functional autonomy includes all those
Biological vs. Social Moderate social
self-sustaining motivations that are related to the Influence
proprium.
• Allport used morphogenic procedures, such as diaries Uniqueness vs. Similarities More on uniqueness

and letters, which stress patterns of behavior within a

single individual.

SKINNER’S BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS

Criteria for Evaluating a Theory
Characteristics Theory I. Overview of Skinner's Behavioral Analysis

Capacity to generate Moderate During the early years of the 20th century while
research Freud, Jung, and Adler were relying on clinical practice
Falsifiability Low and before Eysenck and Costa and McCrae were using
psychometrics to build theories of human personality,
Ability to Organize Data Low
an approach called behaviorism emerged from
Ability to Guide Action Moderate laboratory studies of animals and humans. Two of the
early pioneers of behaviorism were E. L. Thorndike
Internal Consistency High
and John Watson, but the person most often returning to Harvard, where he remained until his
associated with the behaviorist position is B. F. death in 1990.
Skinner, whose behavioral analysis is a clear
departure from the highly speculative psychodynamic III. SKINNER’S CONTRIBUTION TO PERSONALITY
theories. THEORY

Skinner’s strict adherence to observable Scientific Behaviorism

behavior earned his approach the label radical
Skinner believed that human behavior, like any other
behaviorism, a doctrine that avoids all hypothetical
natural phenomena, is subject to the laws of science,
constructs, such as ego, traits, drives, needs, hunger,
and that psychologists should not attribute inner
and so forth. In addition to being a radical behaviorist,
motivations to it. Although he rejected internal states
Skinner can rightfully be regarded as a determinist
(thoughts, emotions, desires, etc.) as being outside the
and an environmentalist. As a determinist, he rejected
realm of science, Skinner did not deny their existence.
the notion of volition or free will. As an
He simply insisted that they should not be used to
environmentalist, Skinner held that psychology must
explain behavior.
not explain behavior on the basis of the physiological
or constitutional components of the organism but A. Philosophy of Science. Because the purpose
rather on the basis of environmental stimuli. of science is to predict and control, Skinner argued
that psychologists should be concerned with
II. Biography of B. F. Skinner
determining the conditions under which human
B. F. Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in behavior occurs. By discovering these conditions,
1904, the older of two brothers. While in college, psychologists can predict and control human behavior.
Skinner wanted to be a writer, but after having little
B. Characteristics of Science. Skinner held that
success in this endeavor, he turned to psychology.
science has three principal characteristics: (1) its
After earning a PhD from Harvard, he taught at the
findings are cumulative, (2) it rests on an attitude that
Universities of Minnesota and Indiana before
values empirical observation, and (3) it searches for The experiment shows that the rat learned to
order and reliable relationships. push the button because of the food pellets coming
from the food dispenser. Therefore, the behavior of
● Stimulus - An agent that rouses or excites a the rat was formed or modified because of a specific
response. consequence/ reinforcement. For better
● Classical Conditioning - A form of learning in understanding of this theory, let us discuss the four
which a response becomes associated with a procedures of operant conditioning.
previously neutral stimulus.
Four Procedures of Operant Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
1. Positive reinforcement- it occurs when the
It is the use of consequence/s to form or behavior is followed by a favorable stimulus. Or
modify the occurrence of behavior. To illustrate the Anything that serves to increase the frequency of
theory of Skinner, he conducted an experiment using response (if you do it right, I will reward you).
rat as a subject.
2. Negative reinforcement- it occurs when the
● The process by which an operant response behavior is followed by the removal of aversive/
becomes associated with reinforcement unfavorable stimulus. Or Unpleasant or aversive
through learning stimuli that can be changed or avoided by certain
behavior (if you do it right, I will not punish you).
Below is the narration of his experiment
● Punishment - An undesirable consequence that
B.F. Skinner devised a box which is called “SKINNER’S BOX”. In the box,
there is a push button and food pellets inside a food dispenser. Then, follows a behavior and is designed to stop or
he put the hungry rat inside the box and since it was hungry-the rat change it (if you do something wrong I will
was restless and was moving around the box. Accidentally, the rat
pushed the button, then a food pellet appeared from the food punish you).
dispenser. And since, the rat was hungry he repeatedly push the
button to get food pellets. 3. Positive punishment- it occurs when the behavior
is followed by unfavorable/ aversive stimulus.
4. Negative punishment- it occurs when the behavior PhP20.00 for every 12 shirt collars sewed. Thus, he or
is followed by the removal of favorable stimulus. she is paid on FR12 schedule (Dela Cruz & Lee-Chua,
2008).
Effects of punishment:
2. Variable Ratio - the number of responses
● Suppress behavior. determines the delivery of reinforcement; but the
● conditioning of a negative feeling ratio changes from reinforcement to reinforcement.
● spread of its effects. Slot machines are set to pay-off according to a
variable-ratio schedule. A variable-ratio schedule
Schedules of Reinforcement
keeps people coming back and guessing the next
A reinforcement schedule is simply a rule that pay-off will be.
states under what conditions a reinforcer will be
3. Fixed Interval - in this schedule, the reinforcement
delivered or A program for increasing or decreasing
will be delivered after a specified passage of time. For
the likelihood of a particular response to be repeated
example, salaried employees who receive their
There are two major schedules of reinforcement.
paycheck every week are reinforced on an FI schedule.
A. Continuous (CRF)- occurs when reinforcement is
4.Variable Interval- in this schedule, the length of time
given after every single desired behavior.
is varied or unspecified before the delivery of the
B. Intermittent (INT)- occurs when reinforcement is reinforcement. For example, you are waiting for the
given after some behavior but never after each one. bus to arrive. After 5 minutes the bus does arrive.
Then another bus arrives after 10 minutes, then the
The following are the schedules of reinforcement next after 15 minutes.
under INT.
Shaping
1.Fixed Ratio - in this schedule, a fixed number of
responses must be made before the reward is One of the problems encountered when working with
administered. For example, a factory worker is paid operant conditioning is that the desired behavior must
be emitted before it can be reinforced. A psychologist recognized five important generalized reinforcers that
could wait a long time for a rat to press a bar by sustain much of human behavior: attention, approval,
chance, and just as long again for that rat, even after affection, submission of others, and tokens (money).
being reinforced, to do it again. The psychologist in
this case would probably use a technique called Extinction
shaping, in which successive approximations of the
Once learned, responses can be lost for at least
desired behavior are reinforced.
four reasons. First, they can simply be forgotten
● Each of us has a history of being reinforced by during the passage of time. Second, and more likely,
reacting to some elements in our environment they can be lost dueto the interference of preceding or
but not to others. This history of differential subsequent learning. Third, they can disappear due to
reinforcement results in operant discrimination. punishment. A fourth cause of lost learning is
Skinner claimed that discrimination is not an extinction, defined as the tendency of a previously
ability that we possess but a consequence of our acquired response to become progressively weakened
reinforcement history. upon nonreinforcement.

Conditioned and Generalized Reinforcers Forces Shaping Human Behavior

Conditioned reinforcers (sometimes called Skinner believed that human behavior is shaped
secondary reinforcers) are those environmental by three forces: (1) natural selection, (2) the evolution
stimuli that are not by nature satisfying but become so of cultures, and (3) the individual's personal history of
because they are associated with such unlearned or reinforcement.
primary reinforcers as food, water, sex, or physical
A. Natural Selection. As a species, our behavior is
comfort.
shaped by the contingencies of survival; that is, those
Generalized reinforcers are those associated Individual behavior that is reinforcing tends to be
with more than one primary reinforcer. Skinner (1953) repeated; that which is not tends to drop out.
B. Cultural Evolution. Those societies that evolved and intention are not causes of behavior, although
certain cultural practices (e.g. tool making and they are felt sensations and exist within the skin.
language) tended to survive. Currently, the lives of
nearly all people are shaped, in part, by modern tools Complex Behavior
(computers, media, various modes of transportation,
Human behavior is subject to the same
etc.) and by their use of language. However, humans
principles of operant conditioning as simple animal
do not make cooperative decisions to do what is best
behavior, but it is much more complex and difficult to
for their society, but those societies whose members
predict or control. Skinner explained creativity as the
behave in a cooperative manner tend to survive.
result of random or accidental behaviors that happen
C. Individual's Personal history of reinforcement. The to be rewarded. Skinner believed that most of our
reinforcement which strengthens the behavior and behavior is unconscious or automatic and that not
rewards the person. thinking about certain experiences is reinforcing.
Skinner viewed dreams as covert and symbolic forms
Skinner’s View on Inner States of behavior that are subject to the same contingencies
of reinforcement as any other behavior.
Skinner recognized the existence of such inner
states as drives, self-awareness, emotions, and Control of Human Behavior
purpose but he rejected the notion that they can
explain behavior. To Skinner, drives refer to the effects Ultimately, all of a person's behavior is
of deprivation and satiation and thus are related to the controlled by the environment. Societies exercise
probability of certain behaviors, but they are not the control over their members through laws, rules, and
causes of behavior. Skinner believed that emotions customs that transcend any one person's means of
can be accounted for by the contingencies of survival countercontrol. There are four basic methods of social
and the contingencies of reinforcement; but like control:
drives, they do not cause behavior. Similarly, purpose
(1) operant conditioning, including positive and
negative reinforcement and punishment;
(2) describing contingencies, or using language to When social control is excessive, people can use
inform people of the consequence of their behaviors; three basic strategies for counteracting it- they can
escape, revolt, or use passive resistance (Skinner,
(3) deprivation and satiation, techniques that increase 1953).
the likelihood that people will behave in a certain way;
and Scape - people withdraw from the controlling agent
either physically or psychologically. People who
(4) physical restraint, including the jailing of criminals. counteract by escape find it difficult to become
involved in intimate personal relationships, tend to be
Although Skinner denied the existence of free
mistrustful of people and prefer to live lonely lives of
will, he did recognize that people manipulate variables
noninvolvement.
within their own environment and thus exercise some
measure of self-control, which has several techniques: Revolt - people using this strategy behave more
(1) physical restraint, (2) physical aids, such as tools; (3) actively, counter attacking the controlling agent. They
changing environmental stimuli; (4) arranging the can rebel through vandalizing public property,
environment to allow escape from aversive stimuli; (5) tormenting teachers, verbally abusing other people,
drugs; and (6) doing something else. and the like.
SKINNER’S VIEW OF THE UNHEALTHY Passive resistance - the conspicuous feature of this
PERSONALITY strategy is stubbornness. For example, a child with
homework to do finds a dozen excuses why it cannot
Unfortunately, the techniques of social control
be finished; an employee slows down progress by
and self-control sometimes produce detrimental
undermining the work of others.
effects, which result in inappropriate behavior and
unhealthy personality development. Inappropriate Behaviors
Counteracting Strategies Inappropriate behaviors follow from self-defeating
techniques of counteracting social control or from
unsuccessful attempts at self-control, especially when
either of these failures is accompanied by strong
emotions. These behaviors include excessively
vigorous behavior, which makes no sense in terms of
the contemporary situation, but might be reasonable
in terms of past history; and excessively restrained
behavior, which people use as a means of avoiding the
aversive stimuli associated with punishment. Another
type of inappropriate behavior is blocking out reality
by simply paying no attention to aversive stimuli.
JULIAN ROTTER’S COGNITIVE SOCIAL LEARNING
IV. Psychotherapy THEORY

Skinner was not a psychotherapist, and he even I. Overview of Cognitive Social Learning Theory
criticized psychotherapy as being one of the major
obstacles to a scientific study of human behavior. Both Julian Rotter and Walter Mischel believe
Nevertheless, others have used operant conditioning that cognitive factors, more than immediate
principles to shape behavior in a therapeutic setting. reinforcements, determine how people will react to
Behavior therapists play an active role in the environmental forces. Both theorists suggest that our
treatment process, using behavior modification expectations of future events are major
techniques and pointing out the positive determinants of performance.
consequences of some behaviors and the aversive
II. Short Biography of Julian Rotter
effects of others
Julian Rotter was born in Brooklyn, New York in
1916. As a high school student, he became familiar with
some of the writings of Freud and Adler, but he
majored in chemistry rather than psychology at
Brooklyn College. In 1941, he received a PhD in clinical 3. Personality has a basic unity, suggesting that
psychology from Indiana University. After World War personality has some basic stability.
II, he took a position at Ohio State, where one of his
students was Walter Mischel. In 1963, he moved to the 4. Motivation is goal directed
University of Connecticut and has remained there
5. People are capable of anticipating events, and thus
since retirement.
they are capable of changing their environment and
III. Rotter’s Contribution to Personality Theory their personality.

Like any behaviorist model of personality, Predicting Specific Behaviors

Rotter’s social learning theory predicts responses to
Rotter suggested four variables that must be
particular situations. Unlike Skinner, however, Rotter
analyzed in order to make accurate predictions in
includes cognitive variables in his model.
any specific situation. These variables are behavior
This theory rests on the following five basic potential, expectancy, reinforcement value, and the
assumptions: psychological situation.

1. Humans interact with their meaningful A. Behavior Potential

environments. Assumes that humans interact with
Behavior potential is the possibility that a particular
their meaningful environments: that is, human
response will occur at a given time and place in
behavior stems from the interaction of environmental
relation to its likely reinforcement.
and personal factors.
● Possibility that a particular response will occur
2. Human personality is learned, Which suggests that
at a given time and place in relation to its likely
it can be changed or modified as long as people are
reinforcement.
capable of learning.
B. Expectancy responding. Behavior is a function of the interaction of
people with their meaningful environment.
People's expectancy in any given situation is their
confidence that a particular reinforcement will follow Basic Prediction Formula
a specific behavior in a specific situation or situations.
Expectancies can be either general or specific, and the Hypothetically, in any specific situation,
overall likelihood of success is a function of both behavior can be predicted by the basic prediction
generalized and specific expectancies. formula, which states that the potential for a behavior
to occur in a particular situation in relation to a given
C. Reinforcement Value reinforcement is a function of people's expectancy
that their behavior will be followed by that
Reinforcement value is a person's preference for any reinforcement in that situation.
particular reinforcement over other reinforcements if
all are equally likely to occur. Predicting General Behaviors

● Internal reinforcement is the individual's The basic prediction is too specific to give clues
perception of an event, whereas external about how a person will generally behave.
reinforcement refers to society's evaluation of
an event. Reinforcement-reinforcement A. Generalized Expectancies
sequences suggest that the value of an event is a
To make more general predictions of behavior,
function of one's expectation that a particular
one must know people's generalized expectancies, or
reinforcement will lead to future
their expectations based on similar past experiences
reinforcements.
that a given behavior will be reinforced. Generalized
D. Psychological Situation expectancies include people's needs, that is, behaviors
that move them toward a goal.
The psychological situation is that part of the
external and internal world to which a person is
Rotter’s Concept of Needs Three need components are:

Needs refer to functionally related categories of (1) need potential, or the possible occurrences of a set
behaviors. Rotter listed six broad categories of needs, of functionally related behaviors directed toward the
with each need being related to behaviors that lead to satisfaction of similar goals;
the same or similar reinforcements:
(2) freedom of movement, or a person's overall
1. Recognition - status refers to the need to excel, to expectation of being reinforced for performing those
achieve, and to have others recognize one's worth; behaviors that are directed toward satisfying some
general need; and
2. Dominance - is the need to control the behavior of
others, to be in charge, or to gain power over others; (3) need value, or the extent to which people prefer
one set of reinforcements to another. Need
3. Independence - is the need to be free from the components are analogous to the more specific
domination of others; concepts of behavior potential, expectancy, and
reinforcement value.
4. Protection - dependence is the need to have others
take care of us and to protect us. General Prediction Formula
5. love and affection - are needs to be warmly The general prediction formula states that need
accepted by others and to be held in friendly regard; potential is a function of freedom of movement and
and need value. Rotter's two most famous scales for
measuring generalized expectancies are the
6. physical comfort includes those behaviors aimed at
Internal-External Control Scale and the Interpersonal
securing food, good health, and physical security.
Trust Scale.
 promise, oral or written statement of another
individual or group can be relied on. Rotter (1980)
Rotters’ Internal-External Control Scale summarized results of studies that indicate that
people who score high in interpersonal trust, as
This I-E scale attempts to measure the degree
opposed to those who score low, are:
to which people perceive a causal relationship
between their own efforts and environmental 1. less likely to lie
consequence. People who score high on internal
control generally believe that the source of control 2. probably less likely to cheat or steal
resides within themselves and that they exercise a
high level of personal control in most situations. On 3. more likely to give others a second chance
the other hand, people who score high on external
4. more likely to respect the rights of others
control generally believe that their life is largely
controlled by forces outside themselves, such as 5. less likely to be unhappy, conflicted or maladjusted
chance, destiny, or the behavior of other people.
6. somewhat more likable and popular
● The Internal-External Control Scale (popularly
called "locus of control scale") attempts to 7. more trustworthy
measure the degree to which people perceive a
8. neither more nor less gullible
causal relationship between their own efforts
and environmental 9. neither more nor less intelligence

consequences. ● The Interpersonal Trust Scale measures the

extent to which a person expects the word or
Rotter’s Interpersonal Trust Scale
promise of another person to be true.
Interpersonal trust is defined as a generalized
expectancy held by an individual that the word,
Rotter’s Concept of Maladaptive Behavior I. Overview Mischel's Personality System

According to Rotter, maladaptive behavior is any Like Bandura and Rotter, Mischel believes that
persistent behavior that fails to move a person closer cognitive factors, such as expectancies, subjective
to a desired goal. It frequently arises from the perceptions, values, goals, and personal standards are
combination of high need value and low freedom of important in shaping personality. In his early theory,
movement: that is, from goals that are unrealistically Mischel seriously questioned the consistency of
high in relation to one’s ability to achieve them. personality, but more recently, he and Yuichi Shoda
have advanced the notion that behavior is also a
For example, the need for love and affection is function of relatively stable cognitive-affective units.
realistic, but some people unrealistically set a goal to
be loved by everyone. Hence, their need value will II. Biography of Walter Mischel
nearly certainly exceed their freedom of movement,
resulting in behavior that is likely to be defensive or Walter Mischel was born in Vienna in 1930, the
maladaptive. second son of upper-middle-class parents. When the
Nazis invaded Austria in 1938, his family moved to the
Psychotherapy United States and eventually settled in Brooklyn.
Mischel received an MA from City College of New York
In general, the goal of Rotter’s psychotherapy is and a PhD from Ohio State, where he was influenced
to bring freedom of movement and need value into by Julian Rotter. He is currently a professor at
harmony, thus reducing defensive and avoidance Columbia University.
behaviors. The therapist assumes an active role as a
teacher and attempts to accomplish the therapeutic III. Background of the Cognitive-Affective
goal in two basic ways : (1) changing goals and (2) Personality System
eliminating unrealistically low expectancies for
success. Mischel originally believed that human behavior
was mostly a function of the situation, but more lately
MISCHEL’S PERSONALITY SYSTEM he has recognized the importance of relatively
permanent cognitive-affective units. Nevertheless, does not believe that inconsistencies in behavior are
Mischel's theory continues to recognize the apparent due solely to the situation; he recognizes that
inconsistency of some behaviors. inconsistent behaviors reflect stable patterns of
variation within a person. He and Shoda see these
A. The Consistency Paradox stable variations in behavior in the following
framework: If A, then X; but if B, then Y. People's
The consistency paradox refers to the
pattern of variability is their behavioral signature, or
observation that, although both lay people and
their unique and stable pattern of behaving differently
professionals tend to believe that behavior is quite
in different situations.
consistent, research suggests that it is not. Mischel
recognizes that, indeed, some traits are consistent A. Behavior Prediction
over time, but he contends that there is little evidence
to suggest they are consistent from one situation to Mischel's basic theoretical position for
another. predicting and explaining behavior is as follows: If
personality is a stable system that processes
B. Person-Situation Interaction information about the situation, then as people
encounter different situations, they should behave
Mischel believes that behavior is best predicted
differently as those situations vary. Therefore, Mischel
from an understanding of the person, the situation,
believes that, even though people's behavior may
and the interaction between person and situation.
reflect some stability over time, it tends to vary as
Thus, behavior is not the result of some global
situations vary.
personality trait, but rather of people's perceptions of
themselves in a particular situation. B. Situation Variables
Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS) Situation variables include all those stimuli that people
attend to in a given situation.
CAPS accounts for variability across situations
as well as stability of behavior within a person. Mischel
C. Cognitive-Affective Units 5. affective responses, including emotions, feelings,
and the effect that accompanies physiological
Cognitive-affective units include all those reactions.
psychological, social, and physiological aspects of
people that permit them to interact with their
environment with some stability in their behavior.

Mischel identified five such units.

1. encoding strategies - people's individualized

manner of categorizing information they receive from
external stimuli.

2. competencies and self-regulatory strategies. One

of the most important of these competencies is
intelligence, which Mischel argues is responsible for Key Terms and Concepts
the apparent consistency of other traits. In addition,
people use self-regulatory strategies to control their • The cognitive social learning theories of both Rotter
own behavior through self-formulated goals and and Mischel attempt to synthesize the strengths of
self-produced consequences. reinforcement theory with those of cognitive theory.

3. expectancies and beliefs, or people's guesses about • According to Rotter, people’s behavior in a specific
the consequences of each of the different behavioral situation is a function of their expectations of
possibilities. reinforcements and the strength of the needs
satisfied by those reinforcements.
4. subjective goals and values, which tend to render
behavior fairly consistent. • In specific situations, behavior is estimated by the
basic prediction formula that suggests that the
potential for a given behavior to occur is a function of • Maladaptive behavior refers to those actions that fail
the person’s expectancy plus the value of the to move a person closer to a desired goal.
reinforcement.
• Rotter’s method of psychotherapy aims toward
The general prediction formula states that changing goals and eliminating low expectations.
need potential is a function of freedom of movement
and need value. • Mischel’s cognitive-active personality system
(CAPS) suggests that people’s behavior is largely
• Need potential is the possible occurrence of a set of shaped by an interaction of stable personality traits
functionally related behaviors directed toward the and the situation, which include a number of personal
satisfaction of a goal or a similar set of goals. variables.

• Freedom of movement is the average expectancy • Personal dispositions have some consistency over
that a set of related behaviors will be reinforced. time but little consistency from one situation to
another.
• Need value is the degree to which a person prefers
one set of reinforcements to another. • Relatively stable personality dispositions interact
with cognitive-affective units to produce behavior.
• In many situations, people develop generalized
expectancies for success because a similar set of • Cognitive-affective units include people’s encoding
experiences has been previously reinforced. strategies, or their way of construing and categorizing
information; their competencies and self regulatory
• Locus of control is a generalized expectancy that plans, or what they can do and their strategies for
refers to people’s belief that they can or cannot doing it; their expectancies and beliefs about the
control their lives. perceived consequences of their actions; their goals
and values; and their affective responses.
• Interpersonal trust is a generalized expectancy that
the word of another is reliable.
 The dog learned to salivate because of the repeated
associations of bell and meat powder. Therefore, a
behavior can also be learned by means of this process
called conditioning. As stated by Burger, we are
probably not aware of all the associations we make by
IVAN PAVLOV’S CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
pairing stimuli in our everyday environments.
Classical conditioning is a process in which an Research suggests that preferences in food, clothing,
unconditioned stimulus is repeatedly paired with a and even friends can be influenced through this
conditioned stimulus until the conditioned stimulus process.
comes to elicit a response without the presentation of
Extinction: Weakening Conditioned Responses
the unconditioned stimulus.
What happens if the CS repeatedly occurs
This theory is also illustrated by an experiment
without the US? What would happen if Pavlov exposed
conducted by Ivan Pavlov
the dog to the bell without the meat powder? The
response would gradually weaken and be eventually
eliminated, and extinction would take place.
 For example, as a young child, you might have An example of spontaneous recovery in real life
learned to fear going to the dentist’s office. You is when a child who has ceased to be afraid of the
learned this fear (CR) because you associated the dental office in the last few visits becomes afraid again
dentist’s office (CS) with pain (UR) when the dentist after a new experience.
filled your tooth (US). However, as you grew up, you
went to the dentist on a number of occasions but did Generalization and Discrimination
not experience pain. Subsequently, your childhood
Pavlov found that CRs occur not only when
fear of dental offices was extinguished (Dela Cruz &
confronted by the CS during training, but also in the
Lee-Chua, 2008).
face of similar stimuli. This phenomenon is called
Spontaneous Recovery: Recovering Conditioned stimulus generalization. In the experiment, for
Responses instance, the dog generalized his response to other
similar sounds like buzzer.
Pavlov observed that after extinction was
completed and the dog was returned to the On the other hand, if you condition a dog to
experimental chamber where the CS was presented salivate to a conditioned stimulus such as a circle, and
again, salivation, which was previously extinguished, present another stimulus such as a circle, and present
reappeared. Pavlov called this reappearance of another stimulus such as an ellipse, but never
conditioned behavior spontaneous recovery and reinforce the response in the presence of an ellipse,
treated it as evidence that the CS-US association is the dog will respond to the circle but not to the
not permanently destroyed in an extinction ellipse. This phenomenon is called stimulus
procedure. The phenomenon of spontaneous recovery discrimination, the learned tendency to respond to the
shows that the CR was not unlearned during stimulus used in training.
extinction, but was being actively inhibited by the
organism.
 QUIZ 1
Erikson's model of human development is called
- epigenetic principle.

It means that one characteristics develops on top of

another in space and time
- Epigenesis
Erikson's model of human development is called According to Erikson, it is a complex inner state that
- epigenetic principle. includes a sense of oneself as unique and yet whole
within oneself that continues with the past and future.
Erikson believed that _ is the basic strength of infancy - Sense of identity
- Hope
Michael’s new favorite word is “No”. He is probably in
According to Erikson, failure to adapt at one the ____ stage.
developmental stage: - Industry vs Inferiority
- can be corrected successfully at a later stage.
To Erikson, the ego develops:
If refers to the image we have of ourselves in the - Most rapidly during adulthood
variety of social roles we play.
- Ego identity From Erich Fromm’s pov, this is the result of the
burden of freedom
A child who compares his performances with that of - Basic Anxiety
others is probably in ____ stage.
- Autonomy vs shame and doubt In Erikson’s psychological stages, this stage is
characterized by this kind of experience: the person
The epigenetic principle states that: reviews life’s accomplishments and failures and
- The ego develops in a sequence with each stage reflects back on what has happened in one’s life.
emerging from being built on a previous stage. - Integrity vs Despair

It refers to experiences with our body. Below is a list of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages.
- Body ego Which among the following items should be excluded
from the list?
- Hope vs Compulsion
 well as self-restraint , in spite of the unavoidable
It refers to experiences with our body; a way of seeing experience of shame and doubts.
our physical self as different from other people. - Will
- Body ego
This severe personality disorder is characterized by a
What does Erich Fromm label humans as the freaks of generalized sense that denotes any attraction to
the universe? death. It is an alternative character orientation to
- Humans lack strong animal instincts while biophilia. Individuals who have developed this disorder
possessing the ability to reason. hate humanity. They are bullies and they love
destruction, terror, and torture.
Among the basic virtues that are related to Erikson’s - Necrophilia
stages, which one has the following definitions: it is
the courage to envisage and pursue valued goals This stage involves having a sense of productivity and
uninhibited by the defeat of infantile fantasies, by guilt creativity. The syntonic part has to do with parental
and by the foiling fear of punishment. responsibility. The dystonic part refers to a condition
- Purpose in which individuals are not able to find meaning and
purpose in life and have little interest in
Among the ideas below, which one accurately self-improvement or in making contribution to the
describes Erik Erikson’s theory? society.
- Growth follows epigenetic principle and ever - Generativity vs Stagnation
stage has interaction of opposites
This term, as used in the theory of erik erikson refers
Among the basic virtues that are related to Erikson’s to the harmonious and positive element in the
stages, which one has the ff definitions: It is the interaction of conflicts in each of the eight
unbroken determination to exercise free choice as psychosocial stages
- Syntonic element
 to start another life and to try out alternative roads to
Based on erikson's theory, this term refers to a a sense of fulfillment.
relatively powerful, independent part of personality - Integrity vs despair
that works toward such goals as establishing one's
identity and satisfying a need for mastery over the This personality disorder refers to an extreme
environment dependence on the mother or mother surrogate.
- Ego extreme dependence on one's mother or mother
surrogate happens to such an extent that one's
It represents the image we have of ourselves in personality is blended with that of the host person.
comparison with established ideal; It is responsible for - Incestous Symbiosis
our being satisfied or dissatisfied not only with our
physical self but with our entire personal identity. Among the options below, which one is not identified
- Ego Ideal as one of erik erikson aspects of ego.
- Super ego
Jim is a 50 year old male, good looking, with below
average intellectual level. He has been married twice Which among the options below correctly reflects one
but both marriages have been declared null and of erich fromm’s major ideas.
void….. - Humans are ultimately alone but cannot
- Malignant Narcissism tolerate isolation

This psychosocial stage is referred to as the stage of Erikson's theory is based on the principle that each
facing reality. Individuals take stock of the years that strength has its own period of particular importance.
have been gone before. Some feel a sense of What principle is this?
satisfaction with their life’s accomplishments. others - Epigenetic principle
and a feeling that the time is too short or an attempt
Humans have been torn away from their prehistoric improve and learn, to increase in material things.
union torn with nature and left with no powerful This need refers to the urge to rise above a passive
instincts to adapt to a changing world. They have and accidental existence.
acquired the ability to reason, which means they can - Transcendence
think about their isolated condition. How does erich
fromm label this human experience? Among the following options, which one is a concept
- Human dilemma that is not included in the plethora of ideas that Erik
Erikson gave to the world.
Erich Fromm proposed five types of love. among these - unconscious forces are important in
five types which one would accurately meet the personality building
following description; it is the most fundamental, the
strongest, and the most underlying kind of love. It is a According to erikson, at the school age stage, what
love between equals. This love carries feelings of psychosocial crisis is faced by the individual?
humanity and compassion towards one's fellow - Industry vs Inferiority
human.
- Brotherly Love During grade school, Carley was encouraged by her
parents to join and participate in different academic
One of Fromm’s existential needs, it is defined as the clubs in the school. towards high school, she was
capacity to be aware of ourselves as a separate entity. already representing there school in different quiz
It Is the awareness of ourselves as a separate person. It bees that earned her medals both locally and
is expressed non-productively as conformity to a nationally. According to erikson's theory, this is a
group and productively as individuality. success in the ___stage.
- Sense of identity - Industry vs Inferiority

It is one of the human needs, according to Fromm. It is one of the human needs, according to fromm. It
This is the need to go above being just an animal, to states that being split-off from nature, humans need
a road map, a point of orientation, in order to make - transcendence needs
their way through the world. without such a map,
humans would be confused and unable to act This is the term that is used to describe the motivation
purposefully and consistently. of people who are self actualized and striving beyond
- Frame of Orientation the scope of their basic needs to reach their full
potential. Choose the best answer.
It refers to the image we have of ourselves in - metamotivation
comparison with an established ideal.
- ego ideal This term refers to a basic unity of person and
environment. It implies a oneness of subject and
Erikson's model of human development is called object, of person and world. It is expressed in the
- epigenetic principle. German word dasein.
- being-in-the-world
Erikson believed that _ is the basic strength of infancy
- Hope This individual observed and analyzed human behavior
and made the conclusion that apathy and
According to Erikson, failure to adapt at one emptiness-not anxiety or depression - as chief
developmental stage: existential disorders of our time. According to him,
- can be corrected successfully at a later stage. psychotherapy is a lack of connectedness and an
inability to fulfill one’s destiny.
- Rollo May

QUIZ 2 This human need is described as not being universal.

This type of need refers to an individual’s desire to An individual who manifests this need desires for
help other people to achieve self-actualization and to beauty and order. When such needs is not satisfied,
go beyond the human potential. the individual may experience sickness.
 - aesthetic needs This term refers to the individual’s capacity to know
that he is the determined one. It entails being able to
This term refers to a reaction which is harbor different possibilities in one’s mind even
disproportionate to the threat. It involves repression though it is not clear at the moment which may one
and other forms of intrapsychic conflict and it is must act. It comes from an understanding of one’s
managed by various kinds of blocking-off of activity destiny.
and awareness. - freedom
- neurotic anxiety
This specific theory assumes that the whole person is
As a psychologist, whenever we hear of individuals constantly being motivated by one need or another
who have demonstrated behavior which reflects a and that people have the potential to grow toward the
reversal in the order of needs, we have to look into and psychological health. Which theory has just been
explore this experience in detail since we might see described?
that they are not genuine reversals at all. Evaluate this - Holistic-Dynamic Theory
statement.
- Yes, reversed order of needs may not be This individual is given the title “Father of
genuine reversals at all. Existentialism”. Modern existential psychology has
roots in his writings. He opposed any attempt to see
This individual earned a Master of Divinity degree, people merely as objects and he regards people as
served as a pastor for two years and eventually thinking, active, and willing beings.
decided to pursue a career in psychology. He became - Soren Kierkegaard
a psychotherapist and he also wrote a number of
books regarding the human condition. The proponent of logotherapy, he presented the idea
- Rollo May that the striving to find meaning in one’s life is the
primary motivational force of man. He further stated
that man is basically concerned with the struggle for a For existentialists, essence is ________ as
sense of significance and purpose in life. compared to existence. Which among the options
- Viktor Frankl below reflects the correct analysis of the above
statement?
When a man experiences a loss of meaning in life, he - Less important
remains in a state of experiential crisis. Among the
options below, which one would consider the This term refers to the structure that gives meaning to
statement above as a major concept? experience and allows people to make decisions about
- Man’s Search for Meaning the future. It implies action and permits people to
overcome the dichotomy between subject and object.
Compulsive behavior, addictions and blind conformity - intentionality
to society’s expectations are examples and forms of
what specific concept? What do you call this type of neurosis that can be
- nonbeing traced back to the experience of lack of meaning in
life?
Conditioned reflexes, maturation or drugs … this list - Noogenic neurosis
contains examples for what kind of behavior?
- Unmotivated behavior This set of needs are specie-specific. This term refers
to some human needs that are innately determined
The self-actualization state is a positive goal for even though they can be modified by learning.
individuals. Which among the options below is not Thwarting of this type of needs produces pathology.
used as a yardstick for determining whether an - Instinctoid nature of needs
individual is experiencing self-actualization or not?
- The individual has satisfied both aesthetic and This individual represented the idea that all people
cognitive needs. everywhere are motivated by the same basic needs. He
worked in a laboratory with Harry Harlow conducting
animal studies with monkeys. He received both a explanations for personal and social problems. What
bachelor’s degree and a PhD from the University of term has just been described?
Wisconsin - Myths
- Abraham Maslow
There are certain conditions that would have to be
This term refers conscious and unconscious belief satisfied before an individual can achieve
systems that provide explanations for personal and self-actualization. The items in the list below identify
social problems. It does not refer to falsehoods and it these conditions for one item. Which one is not
has a powerful effect on individuals and cultures. supposed to be a part of the list?
- myths i. full realization of one’s potentials for growth
ii. absence of psychopathology
Freedom of will, will to meaning, meaning of life as iii. satisfaction of the four level needs
well as attitudinal values are terms that can be iv. satisfaction of both aesthetic and cognitive needs
connected to what name among the list below? - Item iii should not be included in the list.
- Viktor Frankl

Physiological and safety needs are both categorized What is the most obvious form of nonbeing?
under _______ needs while social, esteem and - Death
self-actualization needs are all under ________
needs. Which word pair below correctly completes the When a man experiences a loss of meaning in life, he
statement above? remains in a state of experiential crisis. What specific
- Deficiency : growth terms has just been given its description?
- Existential Vacuum
This set of ideas are not falsehoods. They are
conscious and unconscious belief systems that provide Viktor Frankl is credited with the conceptualization of
this specific theory.
 - Search for Meaning Theory (Not Sure) When an individual fails to connect with and take care
of the environment that he is in, what specific dasein
Among the list of needs below, which one fits this mode can now be considered as his source of anxiety?
description: if an individual experiences this particular - Umwelt
need, he engages in activities that will allow him to
gain the respect and recognition of others through his What is Abraham Maslow’s stand on the idea of
achievements. This stage includes the need for status reversed order of needs?
and good reputation that could lead to self-respect. - The reversal may not be real since a deeper
- Esteem Needs exploration of such phenomenon would reveal
that the order of needs are still followed.
Among the list of needs below, which one fits this
description: this specific set of needs include the need The conceptualization of this particular theory is
for growth and self-fulfillment as the person accepts credited to Rollo May. What theory is this?
his strength and limitations while also accepting other - Existential Psychology Theory
people for whom and what they are. It includes the
realization of one’s own potential. What particular Aside from conative needs, additional categories of
level would have this kind of description? needs were identified and defined. One of these
- Self-actualization Needs categories was given this description: This need is
about the desire for our beauty and pleasing
This theorist defined anxiety as the subjective state of surroundings in one’s life. Through the chaos,
the individual who is becoming aware that his or her individuals seek order and balance. People who have
existence can be destroyed, that he can become this need want to appreciate the things they find
nothing. beautiful. What specific need was just described?
- Rollo May - Aesthetic Needs
Aside from conative needs, additional categories of will be in a better position to make choices. These
needs were identified and defined. One of these choices lead to the simultaneous growth of freedom
categories was given this description: This is the need and responsibility. Who is the theorist that can be
to learn. People with this type of need have a desire to connected to the ideas mentioned above?
explore and learn new things or to understand the - Rollo May
world around them. What specific need was just
described? In logotherapy, which among the options below are
- Cognitive Needs included in the Second Triad or the Composition of
the Meaning of Life?
When an individual follows the existential ideology, he - Creative Values and Attitudinal Values
then believes and accepts which particular statement?
- Process and growth takes precedence over Among the list of needs below, which one fits this
essence description: this category includes the need to be free
from fear of losing a job or property. It also includes
The theories stated that man is basically concerned protection against any emotional harm. It includes the
with the struggle for a sense of significance and need for order, law, and limits.
purpose in life. Man is bound by certain limitations, - Security and Safety Needs
but man’s freedom consists in taking a stand against
such restrictions. Who is the theorist who presented Abraham Maslow is responsible for the
this assumption? conceptualization of what particular theory?
- Viktor Frankl - Holistic-Dynamic Theory

According to this theorist, the purpose of Among the different forms of love, which one is
psychotherapy is to set people free. He suggested that described as a psychological desire that seeks
psychotherapy should make people more human: that procreation through an enduring union with a loved
is, help them expand their consciousness so that they
one? It may include sex but it is built on care and
tenderness? i. People are continually motivated by one need or
- Eros Love another
ii. Motivation is usually complex and unconscious
The use of drugs, the process of growing into maturity motive underlie
and the demonstration of learned responses and iii. All people everywhere are motivated by the same
reactions are examples of what specific behavior? basic needs
- Unmotivated Behavior iv. Needs can be arranged on a hierarchy

This term refers to the basic unity of person and - Options i, ii, iii, and iv are all part of the list of
environment. It implies a oneness of subject and assumptions
object, of person and world. This is a
phenomenological approach that intends to ______ level needs have prepotency over ______
understand people from their own perspective. level needs; that is these needs must be satisfied
- Being-in-the-world before the other needs become motivators. Which
option below accurately completes or explains the
This theorist created this concept which assumes that above statement.
the whole person is constantly being motivated by one - Lower : higher
need or another and that people have the potential to
grow toward psychological health. Who is the theorist This theorist presented the idea that man is basically
who presented this assumption? concerned with the struggle for a sense of significance
- Abraham Maslow and purpose in life. The striving to find a meaning in
one’s life is the primary motivational force of man.
Among the ideas below, which ones are included in the Among the names listed below, which one can we
basic assumptions that provide the foundation to the accurately connect with these ideas?
theory of the hierarchy of needs? - Viktor Frankl
 - will to meaning and meaning of life
This theorist believed that even though all behaviors
have a cause, some behaviors may not come from
specific causes. Some behaviors are not caused by
needs but by other factors. Who is the theorist that we
can connect with these ideas?
- Abraham Maslow

This theorist stated that man is basically concerned

with the struggle for a sense of significance and
purpose in life. Man is bound by certain limitations,
but man's freedom consists in taking a stand against
such restrictions. Who is the theorist who presented
this assumption?
- Viktor Frankl

Among the different forms of love, which one is

described as an intimate nonsexual friendship
between two people? This type of love takes time to
develop and does not depend on the actions of the
other person. It is the love of friendship.
- philia love

In logotherapy, which among the options below are

included in the First Triad or the Composition of
Logotherapy?