Alfred W.

Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of

the school of individual psychology.

Born: February 7, 1870 in Vienna, Austria

Died: May 28, 1937
Individual Psychology

The term "individual psychology"

does not mean to focus on the
individual but the patient's whole
environment, including the
people the patient associates
with.
The term "individual" is used to
mean the patient is an indivisible
whole.
According to him a person has to
combat or confront three forces:
o Societal,
o Love-related, and
o Vocational forces.
These confrontations determine
the final nature of a personality.

Compensation, Resignation and Overcompensation:

According to Adler, an individual
derives his personality traits from these
essentially external factors. The
character of the individual is formed by
his responses to their influence in the
following ways:
Compensation
Whenever a person suffers from
any disadvantages that make him or her
inferior to others, his or her main aim
becomes to bring those disadvantages to
an end. Those who are able to do this
become successful in their lives on both
social as well as individual bases.

Resignation
There are those who give in to
their disadvantages and become
reconciled to them. Such people are in
the majority. The attitude of the world
towards them is of a cool, rather
uninterested sympathy.
Over-compensation
There are some persons who
become so infatuated with the idea of
compensating for their disadvantages
that they end up over-indulging in the
pursuit. These are the neurotics.
Summary
-

The one dynamic force behind

peoples behavior is the striving
for success or superiority

Peoples subjective perceptions

shape their behavior and
personality

Personality is unified and selfconsistent

The value of all human activity

must be seen from the viewpoint
of social interest

The self-consistent personality

structure develops into a persons
style of life

Style of life is molded by peoples

creative power

Carl Gustav Jung, often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and
psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology.
Born: July 26, 1875, Kesswil, Switzerland
Died: June 6, 1961, Ksnacht, Switzerland
Influenced by: Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche
Overview of Analytical Psychology
Jung believed that each of us is motivated not only by repressed experiences but also by certain
emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ancestors. These make up the collective
unconscious. The CU includes those elements that we have never experienced individually but
which have come down to us from our ancestors.
Differences between Jung and Freud

Along with Freud, Jung recognized the importance of early life experiences, and the
personal complexes that arise from disturbances in the persons life all of which are
found in the personal unconscious.
Jungs particular insight, however, was his recognition that individuals are also
influenced by unconscious factors that lie outside their personal experience, and which
have a more universal quality.
These factors, which he called archetypes, form the collective unconscious, and
give shape to the more universal narratives, myths and religious phenomena that shape
the larger context of human experience.

This is the process of individuation, which has the larger goal of providing the individual with
the resources to shape their life going forward.
Theory of the Libido
-

Jung (1948) disagreed with Freud regarding the role of sexuality

Libido was not just sexual energy, but instead generalized psychic energy.
The purpose of psychic energy was to motivate the individual in a number of important
ways, including spiritually, intellectually, and creatively.

Theory of the Unconscious

-

The psyche as made up of a number of separate but interacting systems:

o

the ego
Ego represents the conscious mind as it comprises the thoughts,
memories, and emotions a person is aware of. The ego is largely
responsible for feelings of identity and continuity.
the personal unconscious
Personal unconscious is essentially the same as Freuds version of the
unconscious.
Contains temporality forgotten information and well as repressed
memories.
A complex is a collection of thoughts, feelings, attitudes and memories
that focus on a single concept.
The more elements attached to the complex, the greater its influence on
the individual.
the collective unconscious
A level of unconscious shared with other members of the human species
comprising latent memories from our ancestral and evolutionary past.
The form of the world into which [a person] is born is already inborn in
him, as a virtual image (Jung, 1953, p. 188).
According to Jung the human mind has innate characteristics imprinted"
on it as a result of evolution which stem from our ancestral past.
However more important than isolated tendencies are those aspects of the
collective unconscious that have developed into separate sub-systems of
the personality called ancestral memories and images archetypes.

Archetypes
-

Archetypes (Jung, 1947) are images and thoughts which have universal meanings across
cultures which may show up in dreams, literature, art or religion.
Archetypes are products of the collective experience of men and women living together.

Persona or Mask
- The outward face we present to the world. It conceals our real self and Jung describes it
as the conformity" archetype. This is the public face or role a person presents to others
as someone different to who we really are (like an actor).
Anima/animus
- The anima/animus" is the mirror image of our biological sex, that is, the unconscious
feminine side in males and the masculine tendencies in women.
Shadow
- This is the animal side of our personality (like the id in Freud).
- Source of both our creative and destructive energies.
Self
- Provides a sense of unity in experience.
- For Jung the ultimate aim of every individual is to achieve a state of selfhood (similar to
self-actualization).

Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-British psychoanalyst who devised novel

therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and
contemporary psychoanalysis.
Born: March 30, 1882, Vienna, Austria
Died: September 22, 1960, London, United Kingdom
Spouse: Arthur Stevan Klein (m. 1903)
Children: Melitta Schmideberg, Erich Klein, Hans Klein
Siblings: Sidonie Reizes, Emilie Reizes, Emmanuel Reizes
Object Relations Theory
Difference from Freudian Theory
- Places more emphasis on interpersonal relationships,
- Stresses the infant's relationship with the mother rather than the father, and
- Suggests that people are motivated primarily for human contact rather than for
sexual pleasure.
- The term object in object relations theory refers to any person or part of a person
that infants introject, or take into their psychic structure and then later project
onto other people.
Fantasies
Klein assumed that very young infants possess an active, unconscious fantasy life. Their
most basic fantasies are images of the "good" breast and the "bad" breast.
Objects
Klein agreed with Freud that drives have an object, but she was more likely to
emphasize the child's relationship with these objects (parents' face, hands, breast, penis,
etc.), which she saw as having a life of their own within the child's fantasy world.
In their attempts to reduce the conflict produced by good and bad images, infants
organize their experience into positions, or ways of dealing with both internal and
external objects.
Paranoid-Schizoid Position
Infants adopt the paranoid-schizoid position, which is a tendency to see the world
as having both destructive and omnipotent qualities.
Depressive Position
By depressive position, Klein meant the anxiety that infants experience around 6
months of age over losing their mother and yet, at the same time, wanting to
destroy her. The depressive position is resolved when infants fantasize that they

have made up for their previous transgressions against their mother and also
realize that their mother will not abandon them.
Psychic Defense Mechanisms
According to Klein, children adopt various psychic defense mechanisms to
protect their ego against anxiety aroused by their own destructive fantasies:
Introjection
o The fantasy of taking into one's own body the images that one has of an
external object, especially the mother's breast. Infants usually introject
good objects as a protection against anxiety, but they also introject bad
objects in order to gain control of them.

Projection
o The fantasy that one's own feelings and impulses reside within another
person is called projection. Children project both good and bad images,
especially onto their parents.

Splitting
o Infants tolerate good and bad aspects of themselves and of external objects
by splitting, or mentally keeping apart, incompatible images. Splitting can
be beneficial to both children and adults, because it allows them to like
themselves while still recognizing some unlikable qualities.
Projective Identification
o Projective identification is the psychic defense mechanism whereby infants
split off unacceptable parts of themselves, project them onto another
object, and finally introject them in an altered form.

Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst who practiced in the United States
during her later career.

Born: September 16, 1885, Blankenese, Hamburg, Germany

Died: December 4, 1952, New York City, New York, United States
Spouse: Oscar Horney (m. 19091937)
Children: Brigitte Horney
Psychoanalytic Social Theory
Karen Horney's psychoanalytic social theory assumes that social and cultural
conditions, especially during childhood, have a powerful effect on later personality.
Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety
All children need feelings of safety and security, but these can be gained only by
love from parents. Unfortunately, parents often neglect, dominate, reject, or overindulge
their children, conditions that lead to the child's feelings of basic hostility toward
parents. If children repress feelings of basic hostility, they will develop feelings of
insecurity and a pervasive sense of apprehension called basic anxiety.
People can protect themselves from basic anxiety through a number of protective
devices, including (1) affection, (2) submissiveness, (3) power, prestige, or possession,
and (4) withdrawal. Normal people have the flexibility to use any or all of these
approaches, but neurotics are compelled to rely rigidly on only one.
Compulsive Drives
Neurotics are frequently trapped in a vicious circle in which their compulsive
need to reduce basic anxiety leads to a variety of self-defeating behaviors; these
behaviors then produce more basic anxiety, and the cycle continues.
A. Neurotic Needs
Horney identified 10 categories of neurotic needs that mark neurotics in their
attempt to reduce basic anxiety. These include needs (1) for affection and approval, (2)
for a powerful partner (3) to restrict one's life within narrow borders, (4) for power, (5)
to exploit others, (6) for social recognition or prestige, (7) for personal admiration, (8)
for ambition and personal achievement, (9) for self-sufficiency and independence, and
(10) for perfection and unassailability.
B. Neurotic Trends
Later, Horney grouped these 10 neurotic needs into three basic neurotic trends,
which apply to both normal and neurotic individuals in their attempt to solve basic
conflict. The three neurotic tends are (1) moving toward people, in which compliant
people protect themselves against feelings of helplessness by attaching themselves to
other people; (2) moving against people, in which aggressive people protect themselves
against perceived hostility of others by exploiting others; and (3) moving away from

people, in which detached people protect themselves against feelings of isolation by

appearing arrogant and aloof.
Intrapsychic Conflicts
People also experience inner tensions or intrapsychic conflicts that become part
of their belief system and take on a life of their own, separate from the interpersonal
conflicts that created them.
A. The Idealized Self-Image
People who do not receive love and affection during childhood are blocked in
their attempt to acquire a stable sense of identity. Feeling alienated from self, they
create an idealized self-image, or an extravagantly positive picture of themselves.
Horney recognized three aspects of the idealized self-image: (1) the neurotic search for
glory, or a comprehensive drive toward actualizing the ideal self;
(2) neurotic claims, or a belief that they are entitled to special privileges; and
(3) neurotic pride, or a false pride based not on reality but on a distorted and idealized
view of self.
B. Self-Hatred
Neurotics dislike themselves because reality always falls short of their idealized
view of self. Therefore, they learn self-hatred, which can be expressed as:
(1) relentless demands on the self,
(2) merciless self-accusation,
(3) self-contempt,
(4) self-frustration,
(5) self-torment or self-torture, and
(6) self-destructive actions and impulses.
Feminine Psychology
Horney believed that psychological differences between men and women are not
due to anatomy but to culture and social expectations. Her view of the Oedipus complex
differed markedly from Freud's in that she insisted that any sexual attraction or hostility
of child to parent would be the result of learning and not biology.
Psychotherapy
The goal of Horney's psychotherapy was to help patients grow toward selfrealization, give up their idealized self-image, relinquish their neurotic search for glory,
and change self-hatred to self-acceptance. Horney believed that successful therapy is
built on self-analysis

Erich Seligmann Fromm was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst,

sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with

the Frankfurt School of critical theory.
Born: March 23, 1900, Frankfurt, Germany
Died: March 18, 1980, Muralto, Switzerland
Parents: Rosa Krause Fromm, Naphtali Fromm
Education: New York University, Goethe University of Frankfurt, Heidelberg University,
Columbia University

Humanistic Psychoanalysic
-

Erich Fromm's humanistic psychoanalysis looks at people from the perspective of

psychology, history, and anthropology.
Influenced by Freud and Horney, Fromm developed a more culturally oriented
theory than Freud's and a much broader theory than Horney's.

Human Needs
According to Fromm, our human dilemma cannot be solved by satisfying our
animal needs. It can only be addressed by fulfilling our uniquely human needs, an
accomplishment that moves us toward a reunion with the natural world.
Fromm identified five of these distinctively human or existential needs:
A. Relatedness
First is relatedness, which can take the form of (1) submission, (2) power, and (3)
love. Love, or the ability to unite with another while retaining one's own individuality
and integrity, is the only relatedness need that can solve our basic human dilemma.
B. Transcendence
Being thrown into the world without their consent, humans have to transcend
their nature by destroying or creating people or things. Humans can destroy through
malignant aggression, or killing for reasons other than survival, but they can also create
and care about their creations.
C. Rootedness
Rootedness is the need to establish roots and to feel at home again in the world.
Productively, rootedness enables us to grow beyond the security of our mother and
establish ties with the outside world. With the nonproductive strategy, we become
fixated and afraid to move beyond the security and safety of our mother or a mother
substitute.
D. Sense of Identity
The fourth human need is for a sense of identity, or an awareness of ourselves as
a separate person. The drive for a sense of identity is expressed nonproductively as
conformity to a group and productively as individuality.
E. Frame of Orientation
By frame of orientation, Fromm meant a road map or consistent philosophy by which we
find our way through the world. This need is expressed nonproductively as a striving for
irrational goals and productively as movement toward rational goals.

The Burden of Freedom

As the only animal possessing self-awareness, humans are what Fromm called
the "freaks of the universe." Historically, as people gained more political freedom, they
began to experience more isolation from others and from the world and to feel free from
the security of a permanent place in the world. As a result, freedom becomes a burden,
and people experience basic anxiety, or a feeling of being alone in the world.
A. Mechanisms of Escape
To reduce the frightening sense of isolation and aloneness, people may adopt one
of three mechanisms of escape:
(1) Authoritarianism, or the tendency to give up one's independence and to unite
with a powerful partner;
(2) Destructiveness, an escape mechanism aimed at doing away with other
people or things; and
(3) Conformity, or surrendering of one's individuality in order to meet the wishes
of others.
B. Positive Freedom
The human dilemma can only be solved through positive freedom, which
is the spontaneous activity of the whole, integrated personality, and which is
achieved when a person becomes reunited with others.
Character Orientations
People relate to the world by acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by
relating to self and others (socialization), and they can do so either nonproductively or
productively.
A. Nonproductive Orientations
Fromm identified four nonproductive strategies that fail to move people
closer to positive freedom and self-realization.
o People with a receptive orientation believe that the source of all good
lies outside themselves and that the only way they can relate to the world
is to receive things, including love, knowledge, and material objects.
o People with an exploitative orientation also believe that the source of
good lies outside themselves, but they aggressively take what they want
rather than passively receiving it.
o Hoarding characters try to save what they have already obtained,
including their opinions, feelings, and material possessions.

o People with a marketing orientation see themselves as commodities

and value themselves against the criterion of their ability to sell
themselves. They have fewer positive qualities than the other orientations
because they are essentially empty.
B. The Productive Orientation
Psychologically healthy people work toward positive freedom through
productive work, love, and reasoning. Productive love necessitates a passionate
love of all life and is called biophilia.
Personality Disorders
Unhealthy people have nonproductive ways of working, reasoning, and especially
loving. Fromm recognized three major personality disorders: (1) necrophilia, or the love
of death and the hatred of all humanity; (2) malignant narcissism, or a belief that
everything belonging to one's self is of great value and anything belonging to others is
worthless; and incestuous symbiosis, or an extreme dependence on one's mother or
mother surrogate.
Psychotherapy
The goal of Fromm's psychotherapy was to work toward satisfaction of the basic
human needs of relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame
of orientation. The therapist tries to accomplish this through shared communication in
which the therapist is simply a human being rather than a scientist.

Herbert "Harry" Stack Sullivan was an American Neo-Freudian psychiatrist

and psychoanalyst who held that the personality lives in, and has his or her being in, a
complex of interpersonal relations.
Born: February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York, United States
Died: January 14, 1949, Paris, France
Education: Cornell University
Interpersonality Theory
Although Sullivan had a lonely and isolated childhood, he evolved a theory of
personality that emphasized the importance of interpersonal relations.
He insisted that personality is shaped almost entirely by the relationships we
have with other people. Sullivan's principal contribution to personality theory was his
conception of developmental stages.
-

Knowledge of the individual can only occur within the context of interpersonal
relations.
Healthy individuals experience both intimacy (+) and lust (-) toward the same
person.
Energy Transformations - transform tension into either covert or overt behaviors
aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety. This all happens within the
context of the interpersonal relationship.

Tensions are the potential for action, including needs and anxiety.
Needs are helpful or conjunctive when satisfied, anxiety is disjunctive, interfering with
the satisfaction of needs and disrupting interpersonal relations.
Individuals also develop specific patterns of cognition including prototaxic,
parataxic, and syntaxic thought.
Sullivan also identified different personifications or images that individuals develop
which may be accurate or distorted by needs and anxiety:
-

the Bad Mother/Good Mother,

the Me Personification, and
the Eidetic Personification (including imaginary friends)

By the way, some of these tensions include:

Tenderness
Anxiety

Also, dynamisms can be:

Disjunctive (that are destructive to relations, like malevolence)

Isolating (that are unrelated to interpersonal relation, like lust)
o Lust hinders intimacy

Conjunctive (that are beneficial to relations, like intimacy)

o Intimacy require partners of equal status
o Self system is the most comprehensive dynamism that both protects
from anxiety but also blocks personal growth
Security operations defend against interpersonal tensions
Dissociation (refuse to allow impulses into awareness)
Selective inattention (refusal to see what is there)
Psychotherapy

Focuses on improving personal relations from one human being to another

It is a consensually validating relationship
It is concerned with patients understanding interpersonal problems, having
foresight to act, and the ability to actively participate in these relationships.

Erik Homburger Erikson was a German-born American developmental

psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of

human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis.
Born: June 15, 1902, Frankfurt, Germany
Died: May 12, 1994, Harwich, Massachusetts, United States
Spouse: Joan Erikson (m. 19301994)
Education: University of Vienna
Influenced by: Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud

Post-Freudian Theory
His post-Freudian theory extended Freuds infantile development stages to adolescence,
adulthood, and old age. He suggested that at each stage a specific psychosocial struggle
or crisis occurs that contributes to the formation of personality. This was in contrast to
the struggle being initiated by psychosexual forces ala Freud. From adolescence on, that
struggle takes the form of an identity crisis, a turning point in one life, which may either
strengthen or weaken personality.
His theory emphasized the importance of the life cycle approach to personality and
placed more emphasis on social and historical influences as well.
The Ego
While Freud believed that the ego is sufficiently developed in healthy people to
rein in the id, even though its control is still tenuous and id impulses might erupt and
overwhelm the ego at any time, Erikson held that the ego is:
- A positive force that creates a self-identity of I.
- He defined the ego as a persons ability to unify experiences and actions in an
adaptive manner.
He identified three interrelated aspects of ego:
- body ego (experiences with our body, a way of seeing the physical self as different
for other people)
- ego ideal (the image we have of ourselves in comparison with an established
ideal; it is responsible for our being satisfied or not satisfied not only with our
physical self but with our entire personal identity)
- ego identity (the image we have of ourselves in the variety of social roles we play)
Society has a profound impact on the development of the child and the ego
Stages of Psychosocial Development
-

Erikson believed that the ego develops throughout the various stages (8)
according to the epigenetic principle. This principle implies a step-by-step growth

of fetal organs, one level building on another, and at a predetermined rate in a

fixed sequence.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Infancy
Early Childhood
Play Age
School Age
Adolescence
Young Adulthood
Adulthood
Old Age

In every stage of life there is an interaction of opposites

o Conflict between syntonic (harmonious) elements and dystonic
(disruptive) elements
The conflict between the dystonic and syntonic elements produces an ego quality
or ego strength called basic strength
Too little basic strength at any one stage results in a core pathology for that stage
which is usually the opposite of the basic strength
Erikson referred to his eight stages as psychosocial stages without losing sight of
their biological underpinnings
Events at earlier stages do not cause later personality development.
o Ego identity is shaped by a multiplicity of conflicts and events - past,
present, and anticipated.
During each stage, and in particular beyond adolescence, personality is
characterized by an identity crisis a turning point, a crucial period of increased
vulnerability and heightened potential.

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who was best known

for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on

fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.
Born: April 1, 1908, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Died: June 8, 1970, Menlo Park, California, United States
Influenced by: Alfred Adler, Kurt Lewin, Kurt Goldstein, Henry Murray
Influenced: Douglas McGregor, Roberto Assagioli, Colin Wilson, Abbie Hoffman, Wayne
Dyer, Elliot Aronson
Holistic Dynamic Theory
Abraham Maslow's holistic-dynamic theory holds that people are continually motivated
by one or more needs, and that, under the proper circumstances, they can reach a level
of psychological health called self-actualization.
Maslow's View of Motivation
Maslow's theory rests on five basic assumptions about motivation:
(1) The whole organism is motivated at any one time;
(2) Motivation is complex, and unconscious motives often underlie behavior;
(3) People are continually motivated by one need or another;
(4) People in different cultures are all motivated by the same basic needs; and
(5) Needs can be arranged on a hierarchy.
A. Hierarchy of Needs
(1) Physiological needs, such as oxygen, food, water, and so on;
(2) Safety needs, which include physical security, stability, dependency, protection, and
freedom from danger, and which result in basic anxiety if not satisfied;
(3) Love and belongingness needs, including the desire for friendship, the wish for a
mate and children, and the need to belong;
(4) Esteem needs, which follow from the satisfaction of love needs and which include
self-confidence and the recognition that one has a positive reputation; and
(5) Self-actualization needs, which are satisfied only by the psychologically healthiest
people.
Unlike other needs that automatically are activated when lower needs are met, selfactualization needs do not inevitably follow the satisfaction of esteem needs. Only by embracing
such B-values as truth, beauty, oneness, and justice, can people achieve self-actualization

B. Aesthetic Needs

Aesthetic needs include a desire for beauty and order, and some people have much
stronger aesthetic needs than do others. When people fail to meet their aesthetic needs,
they become sick.
C. Cognitive Needs
Cognitive needs include the desire to know, to understand, and to be curious.
Knowledge is a prerequisite for each of the five conative needs. Also, people who are
denied knowledge and kept in ignorance become sick, paranoid, and depressed.
D. Neurotic Needs
With each of the above three dimensions of needs, physical or psychological illness
results when the needs are not satisfied. Neurotic needs, however, lead to pathology
regardless of whether they are satisfied or not. Neurotic needs include such motives as a
desire to dominate, to inflict pain, or to subject oneself to the will of another person.
Neurotic needs are nonproductive and do not foster health.
IV. Self-Actualization
Maslow believed that a very small percentage of people reach an ultimate level of
psychological health called self-actualization.
A. Values of Self-Actualizers
Maslow held that self-actualizers are metamotivated by such B-values as truth,
goodness, beauty, justice, and simplicity.
B. Criteria for Self-Actualization
Four criteria must be met before a person achieves self-actualization:
(1) absence of psychopathology,
(2) satisfaction of each of the four lower level needs,
(3) acceptance of the B-values, and
(4) full realization of one's potentials for growth.

C. Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People

Maslow listed 15 qualities that characterize self-actualizing people, although not all selfactualizers possess each of the characteristics to the same extent. These characteristics
are:
Truth
Goodness
Beauty
Wholeness or the transcendence of
dichotomies
Aliveness or spontaneity
Uniqueness
Perfection

Completion
Justice and order
Simplicity
Richness or totality
Effortlessness
Playfulness or humor
Self-sufficiency or autonomy

D. Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization

Maslow compared D-love (deficiency love) to B-love (love for being or essence of
another person). Self-actualizing people are capable of B-love because they can
love without expecting something in return. B-love is mutually felt and shared
and not based on deficiencies within the lovers.
VII. The Jonah Complex
Because humans are born with a natural tendency to move toward psychological
health, any failure to reach self-actualization can technically be called abnormal
development. One such abnormal syndrome is the Jonah complex, or fear of being or
doing one's best, a condition that all of us have to some extent. Maslow believed that
many people allow false humility to stifle their creativity, which causes them to fall short
of self-actualization.

Carl Ransom Rogers was an influential American psychologist and among the
founders of the humanistic approach to psychology.

Born: January 8, 1902, Oak Park, Illinois, United States

Died: February 4, 1987, San Diego, California, United States
Influenced by: Alfred Adler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Otto Rank, Kurt Goldstein
Education: Teachers College, Columbia University

Person-Centered Theory
Person-centered theory rests on two basic assumptions:
(1) The formative tendency, which states that all matter, both organic and inorganic,
tends to evolve from simpler to more complex forms, and
(2) An actualizing tendency, which suggests that all living things, including humans,
tend to move toward completion, or fulfillment of potentials.
The Self and Self-Actualization
A sense of self or personal identity begins to emerge during infancy, and, once
established, it allows a person to strive toward self-actualization, which is a subsystem
of the actualization tendency and refers to the tendency to actualize the self as perceived
in awareness.
The self has two subsystems:
(1) The self-concept, which includes all those aspects of one's identity that are
perceived in awareness, and
(2) The ideal self, or our view of our self as we would like to be or aspire to be. Once
formed, the self-concept tends to resist change, and gaps between it and the ideal selfresult in incongruence and various levels of psychopathology.
The two basic human needs are:
- maintenance
- enhancement
The Person of Tomorrow
Seven characteristics of the person of tomorrow. The person of tomorrow:
(1) is able to adjust to change,
(2) is open to experience,
(3) is able to live fully in the moment,
(4) is able to have harmonious relations with others,
(5) is more integrated with no artificial boundaries between conscious and unconscious
processes,
(6) has a basic trust of human nature, and
(7) enjoys a greater richness in life. The factors have implications both for the individual
and for society.

Rollo Reece May was an American existential psychologist and author of the
influential book Love and Will.
Born: April 21, 1909, Ada, Ohio, United States
Died: October 22, 1994, Tiburon, California, United States
Spouse: Georgia May (m. ?1994)

Existential Psychology
Existential psychology began in Europe shortly after World War II and spread to
the United States, where Rollo May played a large part in popularizing it.
A clinical psychologist by training, May took the view that modern people
frequently run away both from making choices and from assuming
responsibility.

Anxiety
People experience anxiety when they become aware that their existence or something identified
with it might be destroyed. The acquisition of freedom inevitably leads to anxiety, which can be
either pleasurable and constructive or painful and destructive.
A. Normal Anxiety
- Growth produces normal anxiety, defined as that which is proportionate to the threat, does not
involve repression, and can be handled on a conscious level.
B. Neurotic Anxiety
- Neurotic anxiety is a reaction that is disproportionate to the threat and that leads to repression
and defensive behaviors. It is felt whenever one's values are transformed into dogma. Neurotic
anxiety blocks growth and productive action.
Guilt
Guilt arises whenever people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the needs of
others, or remain blind to their dependence on the natural world. Both anxiety and guilt are
ontological; that is, they refer to the nature of being and not to feelings arising from specific
situations.
Intentionality
The structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions about the
future is called intentionality. May believed that intentionality permits people to overcome the
dichotomy between subject and object, because it
enables them to see that their intentions are a function of both themselves and
their environment.
Care, Love, and Will
Care is an active process that suggests that things matter. Love means to care, to delight in the
presence of another person, and to affirm that person's value as much as one's own. Care is also
an important ingredient in will, defined as a conscious commitment to action.
A. Union of Love and Will
May believed that our modern society has lost sight of the true nature of love and
will, equating love with sex and will with will power. He further held that

psychologically healthy people are able to combine love and will because both
imply care, choice, action, and responsibility.
B. Forms of Love
May identified four kinds of love in Western tradition: sex, eros, philia, and
agape. May believed that Americans no longer view sex as a natural biological
function, but have become preoccupied with it to the point of trivialization. Eros
is a psychological desire that seeks an enduring union with a loved one. It may
include sex, but it is built on care and tenderness. Philia, an intimate nonsexual
friendship between two people, takes time to develop and does not depend on the
actions of the other person. Agape is an altruistic or spiritual love that carries
with it the risk of playing God. Agape is undeserved and unconditional.
Freedom and Destiny
Psychologically healthy individuals are comfortable with freedom, able to assume
responsibility for their choices, and willing to face their destiny.
A. Freedom Defined
Freedom comes from an understanding of our destiny. We are free when we
recognize that death is a possibility at any moment and when we are willing to
experience changes, even in the face of not knowing what those changes will
bring.
B. Forms of Freedom
May recognized two forms of freedom: (1) freedom of doing, or freedom of action,
which he called existential freedom, and (2) freedom of being, or an inner
freedom, which he called essential freedom.
C. Destiny Defined
May defined destiny as "the design of the universe speaking through the design of
each one of us." In other words, our destiny includes the limitations of our
environment and our personal qualities, including our mortality, gender, and
genetic predispositions. Freedom and destiny constitute a paradox, because
freedom gains vitality from destiny, and destiny gains significance from freedom.
D. Philip's Destiny
After some time in therapy, Philip was able to stop blaming his mother for not
doing what he thought she should have done. The objective facts of his childhood
had not changed, but Philip's subjective perceptions had. As he came to terms
with his destiny, Philip began to be able to express his anger, to feel less trapped
in his relationship with Nicole, and to become more aware of his possibilities. In
other words, he gained his freedom of being.
The Power of Myth
According to May, the people of contemporary Western civilization have an urgent need for
myths. Because they have lost many of their traditional myths, they turn to religious cults,
drugs, and popular culture to fill the vacuum. The Oedipus myth has had a powerful effect on
our culture because it deals with such common existential crises as birth, separation from
parents, sexual union with one parent
and hostility toward the other, independence in one's search for identity, and,
finally, death.

Gordon Willard Allport was an American psychologist. Allport was one of the

first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality, and is often referred to as one
of the founding figures of personality psychology.
Born: November 11, 1897, Montezuma, Indiana, United States
Died: October 9, 1967, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Siblings: Floyd Henry Allport
Parents: Nellie Edith Wise, John Edwards Allport
Education: Harvard University, Glenville High School

Psychology of the Individual

o Gordon Allport founded the trait theory in 1936
o Allport did not discover this theory based upon other theories. He
discovered or founded this theory by analyzing or studying every trait
within the English dictionary.
o Allport's personality Theory separates all traits into three basic subcategories.
Cardinal, secondary, and central traits.
o This trait theory suggests that individual personalities are composed broad
dispositions. It is also based mainly on difference between individuals.
o The combination and interaction of various traits forms a personality that
is unique to each individual, this theory focused on identifying and
measuring these individual personality characteristics.
o The three major traits that are divided are:
o cardinal traits- are traits that dominate an individuals entire life, often
times this individual would become known for these traits. Allport
suggested that these traits were rare and mainly developed later on in life.
o Central traits- are general characteristics that form the basic foundation
for personality. They are traits that many people would use to describe
other individuals such as "intelligent, honest, shy."
o Secondary Traits- Basic Traits related to attitudes or preferences and
often appear only in certain situations or under certain events. Some
simple examples of this trait would be getting anxious when speaking to a
group or impatient when waiting in line.
o

Strengths of Allport's Personality Theory

o Strict reliance on objective and statistical data.

o Has no bias compared to other theories.

Freud's relationship with his mother and Jun's belief in mythology

could have been possible influences of their theories.

o Describes each and every trait.

o Easy to use and have a number of assessment devices.

Provides an easy to understand continuum that gives a large

amount of information about a person's personality about the self
and the world.

o Weaknesses of Allport's personality Theory

o Poor predictor of the future.
o Does not address development of the traits.

This trait theory is stuck explaining about present events rather

than looking towards the past or future.

o Does not provide a way to change bad traits.

Measures the traits but explains no way how to change them.

o This theory seeks to explain or list what traits people have throughout the
duration of their life.

Hans Jrgen Eysenck, PhD, DSc was a psychologist born in Germany, who spent his
professional career in Great Britain. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and
personality, although he worked in a wide range of areas within psychology.
Born: March 4, 1916, Berlin, Germany
Died: September 4, 1997, London, United Kingdom
Education: University College London

Eysencks Trait Theory of Personality

British psychologist Hans Eysenck developed a model of personality based upon just three
universal trails:
1.

Introversion/Extraversion:
Introversion involves directing attention on inner experiences, while extraversion relates to
focusing attention outward on other people and the environment. So, a person high in
introversion might be quiet and reserved, while an individual high in extraversion might be
sociable and outgoing.

2.

Neuroticism/Emotional Stability:
This dimension of Eysencks trait theory is related to moodiness versus even-temperedness.
Neuroticism refers to an individuals tendency to become upset or emotional, while stability
refers to the tendency to remain emotionally constant.

3.

Psychoticism:
Later, after studying individuals suffering from mental illness, Eysenck added a personality
dimension he called psychoticism to his trait theory. Individuals who are high on this trait tend
to have difficulty dealing with reality and may be antisocial, hostile, non-empathetic and
manipulative.
The Five-Factor Theory of Personality
Both Cattells and Eysencks theory have been the subject of considerable research, which has
led some theorists to believe that Cattell focused on too many traits, while Eysenck focused on
too few. As a result, a new trait theory often referred to as the "Big Five" theory emerged.
This five-factor model of personality represents five core traits that interact to form human
personality. While researchers often disagree about the exact labels for each dimension, the
following are described most commonly:
1. Extraversion
2. Agreeableness

3. Conscientiousness
4. Neuroticism
5. Openness

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B. F. Skinner, was an

American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher.
Born: March 20, 1904, Susquehanna Depot, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: August 18, 1990, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Influenced by: Ivan Pavlov, William James, Charles Darwin, more
Education: Harvard University (1931), Hamilton College (1926)

Behavioral Analysis

Emerged from Laboratory Studies of Animals and Humans

Minimized Speculation
Focused on Observable Behavior
Avoided All Hypothetical Constructs
Behavior Is Lawfully Determined
Behavior Is Product of Environmental Stimuli

Philosophy of Science
Scientific behaviorism allows for interpretation of behavior, not an
explanation of its causes
Characteristics of Science
Cumulative
An attitude that values empirical observation
Science is a search for order and lawful relationships
Classical Conditioning
A response is drawn out of the organism by a specific, identifiable stimulus
Behavior is elicited from the organism
A neutral (conditioned) stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus
a number of times until it is capable of bringing about a previously
unconditioned response
Operant Conditioning
Shaping
Procedure in which the experimenter, or the environment, first
rewards gross approximations of the behavior, then closer
approximations, and finally the desired behavior itself
Through the reinforcement of successive approximations, the
experimenter shapes the final set of complex behaviors
Three conditions are present:

 The antecedent
The behavior
The consequence
Reinforcement
Has two effects:
Strengthens the behavior
Rewards the person
Two Types of Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Punishment
The presentation of an aversive stimulus
Effects of punishment
Punishment and reinforcement compared
Conditioned and Generalized Reinforcers
Primary reinforcers: stimuli that are by their nature satisfying
Conditioned reinforcers: environmental stimuli that are not by
nature satisfying but become so because they are associated with
such unlearned or primary reinforcers
Generalized reinforcers: associated with more than one primary
reinforcer
Schedules of reinforcement
Fixed-ratio
Variable-ratio
Fixed-interval
Variable-interval
Extinction
Tendency of a previously acquired response to become
progressively weakened upon non-reinforcement
Operant extinction is when an experimenter systematically
withholds reinforcement
Inner States
Counteracting Strategies
Self-Awareness
Escape
Drives
Revolt
Emotions
Passive Resistance
Purpose and Intention
Inappropriate Behaviors
Complex Behavior
Excessively vigorous
Higher Mental Processes
behavior
Creativity
Excessively restrained
Unconscious Behavior
behavior
Dreams
Blocking out reality
Social Behavior
Self-deluding responses
Control of Human Behavior
Self-punishment
Social Control
Psychotherapy
Self-Control
The Unhealthy Personality

Psychotherapy viewed as one of

the major obstacles to a scientific
study of human behavior
Therapist molds desirable
behavior by reinforcing slightly
improved changes in behavior

Behavior therapists play an active

role in the treatment process,
using behavior modification
techniques and pointing out the
positive consequences of some
behaviors and the aversive effects
of others.

Albert Bandura is a psychologist who is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus
of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University.
Born: December 4, 1925 (age 90), Mundare, Canada
Spouse: Virginia Varns (m. 19522011)
Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship for Social Sciences, US & Canada, more
Education: University of Iowa (1952), University of Iowa (1951), University of British
Columbia (19461949)

Social Cognitive/Learning Theory

In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) agrees with the behaviourist learning
theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. However, he adds two
important ideas:
- Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses.
- Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational
learning.
Observational Learning
Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated
during the famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961).
Individuals that are observed are called models
These models provide examples of behavior to observe and imitate, e.g. masculine and
feminine, pro and anti-social etc.
Processes that make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behavior that its
society deems appropriate for its sex:
First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as
similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people of
the same sex.
Second, the people around the child will respond to the behavior it imitates with either
reinforcement or punishment.
Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative.
- Positive (or negative) reinforcement will have little impact if the reinforcement
offered externally does not match with an individual's needs.
Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other people when
deciding whether or not to copy someones actions. A person learns by observing the
consequences of another persons (i.e. models) behavior.
- This is known as vicarious reinforcement.
The term identification is similar to the Freudian term related to the Oedipus
complex.

Identification is different to imitation as it may involve a number of behaviors

being adopted, whereas imitation usually involves copying a single behavior.

Four mediational processes proposed by Bandura:

Attention:
The extent to which we are exposed/notice the behaviour. For a behaviour
to be imitated it has to grab our attention.
Retention:
How well the behaviour is remembered. The behaviour may be noticed,
but is it not always remembered which obviously prevents imitation
Reproduction:
This is the ability to perform the behavior that the model has just
demonstrated. This influences our decisions whether to try and imitate it
or not.
Motivation:
The will to perform the behaviour. The rewards and punishment that
follow a behaviour will be considered by the observer.

Julian B. Rotter was an American psychologist known for developing influential

theories, including social learning theory and locus of control. He was a faculty member
at The Ohio State University and then the University of Connecticut.
Born: October 22, 1916, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Died: January 6, 2014, Mansfield, Connecticut, United States
Influenced: Walter Mischel
Books: Social learning and clinical psychology, more
Education: Brooklyn College, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Iowa
Influenced by: B. F. Skinner, Alfred Adler, Kurt Lewin, Edward C. Tolman, Clark L. Hull

Walter Mischel is an American psychologist specializing in personality theory and

social psychology. He is the Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in the
Department of Psychology at Columbia University.
Born: February 22, 1930 (age 86), Vienna, Austria
Education: Stanford University, Ohio State University, New York University
Cognitive Social Learning Theory
-

Both Julian Rotter and Walter Mischel believe that cognitive factors, more than
immediate reinforcements, determine how people will react to environmental
forces.
Each suggests that our expectations of future events are major determinants of
performance.
Rotter's interactionist position holds that human behavior is based largely on the
interaction of people with their meaningful environments.
Personality can change at any time, it has a basic unity that preserves it from
changing as a result of minor experiences.

Human behavior is most accurately predicted by an understanding of four variables:

- Behavior potential
- The possibility that a particular response will occur at a given time and place in
relation to its likely reinforcement.
- Expectancy
- Expectancy in any given situation is their confidence that a particular
reinforcement will follow a specific behavior in a specific situation or situations.
Expectancies can be either general or specific
- Reinforcement value
- Persons preference for any particular reinforcement over other reinforcements
if all are equally likely to occur.
- Internal reinforcement is the individual's perception of an event.
- External reinforcement refers to society's evaluation of an event.
- The psychological situation
- Part of the external and internal world to which a person is responding.
Behavior is a function of the interaction of people with their meaningful
environment.

Basic Prediction Formula

- Behavior can be predicted by the basic prediction formula
- the potential for a behavior to occur in a particular situation in relation to a given
reinforcement is a function of people's expectancy that the behavior will be
followed by that reinforcement in that situation.
Predicting General Behaviors
The basic prediction is too specific to give clues about how a person will
generally behave.
A. Generalized Expectancies
To make more general predictions of behavior, one must know people's
generalized expectancies, or their expectations based on similar past experiences
that a given behavior will be reinforced. Generalized expectancies include
people's needs-that is, behaviors that move them toward a goal.

B. Needs
Needs refer to functionally related categories of behaviors. Rotter listed six broad
categories of needs, with each need being related to behaviors that lead to the
same or similar reinforcements: (1) recognition-status refers to the need to excel,
to achieve, and to have others recognize one's worth; (2) dominance is the need to
control the behavior of others, to be in charge, or to gain power over others;
(3) independence is the need to be free from the domination of others;
(4) protection-dependency is the need to have others take care of us and to
protect us from harm; (5) love and affection are needs to be warmly accepted by
others and to be held in friendly regard; and (6) physical comfort includes those
behaviors aimed at securing food, good health, and physical security. Three need
components are: (1) need potential, or the possible occurrences of a set of
functionally related behaviors directed toward the satisfaction of similar goals;
(2) freedom of movement, or a person's overall expectation of being reinforced
for performing those behaviors that are directed toward satisfying some general
need; and (3) need value, or the extent to which people prefer one set of
reinforcements to another. Need components are analogous to the more specific
concepts of behavior potential, expectancy, and reinforcement value.
Maladaptive Behavior
Rotter defined maladaptive behavior as any persistent behavior that fails to move a
person closer to a desired goal. It is usually the result of unrealistically high goals in
combination with low ability to achieve them.

Introduction to Mischel's Cognitive-Affective Personality System

Like Bandura and Rotter, Mischel believes that cognitive factors, such as
expectancies, subjective perceptions, values, goals, and personal standards, are
important in shaping personality. In his early theory, Mischel seriously questioned the
consistency of personality, but more recently, he and Yuichi Shoda have advanced the
notion that behavior is also a function of relatively stable personal dispositions and
cognitive-affective processes interacting with a particular situation.
IX. Biography of Walter Mischel
Walter Mischel was born in 1930, in Vienna, the second son of upper-middle-class
parents. When the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938, his family moved to the United States
and eventually settled in Brooklyn. Mischel received an M.A. from City College of New
York and a Ph.D. from Ohio State, where he was influenced by Julian Rotter. He is
currently a professor at Columbia University.
X. Background of the Cognitive-Affective Personality System
Mischel originally believed that human behavior was mostly a function of the situation,
but presently he has recognized the importance of relatively permanent cognitiveaffective units. Nevertheless, Mischel's theory continues to recognize the apparent
inconsistency of some behaviors.
A. Consistency Paradox
The consistency paradox refers to the observation that, although both lay-people
and professionals tend to believe that behavior is quite consistent, research
suggests that it is not. Mischel recognizes that, indeed, some traits are consistent
over time, but he contends that there is little evidence to suggest that they are
consistent from one situation to another.
B. Person-Situation Interaction
Mischel believes that behavior is best predicted from an understanding of the
person, the situation, and the interaction between person and situation. Thus,
behavior is not the result of some global personality trait, but by people's
perceptions of themselves in a particular situation.
Cognitive-Affective Personality System
However, Mischel does not believe that inconsistencies in behavior are due solely to the
situation; he recognizes that inconsistent behaviors reflect stable patterns of variation
within a person. He and Shoda see these stable variations in behavior in the following

framework: If A, then X; but if B, then Y. People's pattern of variability is their

behavioral signature of personality, or their unique and stable pattern of behaving
differently in different situations.

A. Behavior Prediction
Mischel's basic theoretical position for predicting and explaining behavior is as
follows: If personality is a stable system that processes information about the
situation, then individuals encountering different situations should behave
differently as situations vary. Therefore, Mischel believes that, even though
people's behavior may reflect some stability over time, it tends to vary as
situations vary.
B. Situation Variables
Situation variables include all those stimuli that people attend to in a
given situation.

C. Cognitive-Affective Units
Cognitive-affective units include all those 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. First are encoding
strategies, or people's individualized manner of categorizing information they
receive from external stimuli. Second are competencies and self-regulatory
strategies. One of the most important of these competencies is intelligence, which
Mischel argues is responsible for the apparent consistency of other traits. In
addition, people use self-regulatory strategies to control their own behavior
through self-formulated goals and self-produced consequences. The third
cognitive-affective units are expectancies and beliefs, or people's guesses about
the consequences of each of the different behavioral possibilities. The fourth
cognitive-affective unit includes people's goals and values, which tend to render
behavior fairly consistent. Mischel's fifth cognitive-affective unit includes
affective responses, including emotions, feelings, and the affects that accompany
physiological reactions.

George Kelly was an American psychologist, therapist, educator and personality

theorist. He is considered the father of cognitive clinical psychology and best known for
his theory of personality, Personal Construct Psychology.
Born: April 28, 1905, Kansas, United States
Died: March 6, 1967, Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
Education: University of Iowa, Park University, University of Kansas, Friends
University, University of Edinburgh

Psychology of Personal Constructs

Constructive alternativism = we can change or replace the way that we interpret
events
Behavior is rarely predetermined
We make our own decisions
We dont just react we act
Mental representations used to interpret events
Constructs are
1. Bipolar have opposing characteristics
emergent pole applies to the event being construed
Implicit pole end of the construct not being actively applied
Qualities of Constructs
1. Role of recurrences
2. Range of convenience set of
events for which a construct is
useful
3. Permeability degree to which a
constructs range of convenience
can be altered
4. Focus of convenience set of
events for which construct is
most predictive
5. Elaboration and change
Organization of constructs
Heirarchical
Superordinate levels
Subordinate levels
Not permanently fixed
Growth & Development

Revolves around attempt to

maximize understanding and
prediction of the world
Tendency is innate
Actively process events
Role Construct Repertory Test Rep
Test
Grid
Columns across top significant
people in life
Rows down side sets of
construals to be made
Consider groups of triads
Normal functioning: successfully
interpreting and predicting events
Psychological distress
Anxiety
Fear
threat

Theories
of
Personality

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