Sullivan's Interpersonal Development Theory

Sullivan's Theory of Interpersonal Development During Adolescence

• Sullivan emphasized the social aspects of development.
• Psychological maturation is best understood through relationships.
• Individuals experience changing interpersonal needs throughout life.
• During Middle childhood there is a need for peer group acceptance.
• During Preadolescence there is a need for intimacy in same-sex friendships.
• During Early adolescence there is a need for sexual contact.
• During Late adolescence there is a Need for integration of intimacy and sexuality.
• Security gained from fulfilling interpersonal needs is essential for identity and self-esteem.
• Early interpersonal experiences affect later relationships, such as secure friendships that lead to successful romantic relationships.
• It is important to distinguish between intimacy (emotional closeness) and sexuality (physical attraction).
• Intimacy in same-sex friendships prepares individuals for later romantic relationships.
• Adolescents must integrate intimacy with emerging sexual desires without overwhelming anxiety.
• Adolescents experiment with relationships in various ways.
• Examples: dating multiple partners, having long-term relationships, or separating intimacy from sexuality.

Attachment Theory

• Attachment theory suggests that early relationships shape later interpersonal behaviors.
• Attachment theory was developed from infancy research.

Attachment Types

• Secure Attachment includes a trust-based bond, leading to psychological health and strong social skills.
• Anxious-Avoidant Attachment is shown through indifference toward caregivers.
• This potentially leads to difficulty in forming close relationships.
• Anxious-Resistant Attachment includes ambivalence toward caregivers.
• This is characterized by insecurity and dependence.
• Disorganized Attachment represents an absence of normal attachment behavior.
• This is linked to psychological issues.
• Early attachments create a mental framework for future relationships.
• Secure attachments promote confidence.
• Insecure attachments can lead to rejection sensitivity.
• Working models for relationships with parents are similar to those with friends.
• Working models for relationships with friends are similar to those with romantic partners.
• Adolescents with insecure attachments may be highly sensitive to rejection.
• This leads to social withdrawal, anxiety, or depression.
• Individuals who emerge from infancy with insecure attachments.
• Adolescents who spend time with friends in adolescence show less sensitivity to rejection.
• Secure attachment in infancy predicts social competence in childhood.
• It also predicts strong friendships in adolescence and positive romantic relationships in adulthood.
• Insecure attachment may cause struggles with peer relationships, self-esteem, and social confidence.
• Early attachment influences later relationships, but other life experiences can alter attachment security.
• Examples: parental divorce and supportive friendships.
• The importance of experiences in childhood and the adolescent's context outweigh the significance of early attachment for later relationships.
• There is an adult attachment interview that assesses adolescents' current relationships with parents and peers.
• Adolescents recount their childhood experiences, providing insights into their attachment experiences.
• The interview obtains information on how the individual recounts his childhood story Secure, dismissing, preoccupied. Adolescents in different attachment categories differ in predictable ways.
• It is observed that adolescents with secure attachment interact with their mothers with less unhealthy anger and more assertiveness.
• Adolescents with dismissing or preoccupied attachment are more likely to show emotional and behavioral problems.
• They are also more likely to recall negative aspects of their interactions.
• This can result in more unstable romantic relationships.
• Security of attachment in infancy predicts social competence in childhood and security of close friends in adolescence.
• It also predicts positive romantic relationships in adulthood.

The Development of Dating Relationships

• Adolescents transition from nonromantic to romantic relationships.
• This transition becomes an important aspect of intimacy development.
• Sullivan's theory suggests that strong same-sex friendships in early adolescence predict the quality of later romantic relationships.
• Dating may be less important for intimacy before middle or late adolescence.
• Establishing emotional and behavioral autonomy from parents can be more important.
• Furthering the development of gender identity
• Establishing and maintaining status and popularity in the peer group
• Influencing how they will be seen by others
• LGBTQ youth have difficulty developing close, nonsexual friendships with same-sex peers.
• This is due to suspicions and homophobia from others.
• Physical and hormonal changes increase interest in romantic and sexual relationships.
• Adolescents explore relationships in different styles.
• Examples: casual dating and long-term committed relationships
• Keeping intimacy and sexuality separate is also an option.
• Example: platonic relationships
• Adolescents with insecurity or low social confidence may struggle with dating.
• Family expectations, peer norms, and societal values shape dating behaviors.

The Impact of Dating on Adolescent Development

• Positive effects:
• Development of emotional intimacy and communication skills
• Increased social competence and self-esteem
• Learning about personal preferences in relationships
• Negative effects:
• Early intense dating is linked to emotional distress, depression, and anxiety.
• These effects are mostly present among younger adolescents.
• And less mature socially, less imaginative, less oriented toward achievement.
• Less happy with who they are and how they look.
• More depressed, more likely to engage in disordered eating.
• Less likely to do well in school.
• Early dating is especially bad for white girls as they tend to be with men who are older.
• Romantic conflicts and breakups can lead to emotional turmoil.
• This is especially true for adolescents with insecure attachment styles.
• Early or intense dating relationships may increase substance use and sexual risk-taking.
• Gender differences:
• Girls emphasize intimacy and emotional connection.
• Boys initially focus on physical attraction, but emphasize intimacy over time.
• Early experiences in dating relationships influence later romantic behaviors and expectations.
• Adolescents who do not date at all show delayed social development and feelings of insecurity.
• It is unclear whether age-appropriate dating leads to better social development or advanced adolescents dating leads to simply more likely to date.
• Negative experiences in romantic relationships increase the risk for psychological problems.
• Breakups often trigger depression, substance use, and delinquency.
• Breaking up does not have sever effects on all adolescents but they do for those with rejection sensitivity or an insecure working model.

Sexual Activity and Psychological Development

• Sexual activity during adolescence is not inherently harmful.
• Studies show that sexual activity among adolescents is generally not linked to psychological distress.
• Adolescents who engage in sex at a normative age (16+) show similar self-esteem and life satisfaction as non-sexually active peers. Early sexual activity (before age 15) is associated with higher risks.Examples: delinquency, drug/alcohol use, and lower academic achievement
• Risky sexual behaviors (e.g., unprotected sex, multiple partners) are associated with personality traits like impulsivity and sensation-seeking.
• Cultural norms matter as early sexual activity does not predict mental health issues in some cultures (e.g., Netherlands), while it is associated with depression in others (e.g., the U.S., Mexico).
• Adolescents who abstain from sex tend to have strong religious commitments.
• They also report better mental health and relationship satisfaction later in life.
• Correlation exists between early sexual activity and problem behaviors, but the relationship is complex.
• Early sexual activity is correlated with small scale deviance.
• There is no strong evidence that early sex causes delinquency.
• Instead, both behaviors may stem from common underlying factors ( impulsivity and risk-taking tendencies).
• Parental supervision and structure help delay sexual activity.
• Adolescents left unsupervised after school are more likely to engage in sexual activity.
• Parental Influence: Adolescents from authoritative households are less likely to engage in early/risky sexual activity.
• Parent-adolescent conflict is linked to earlier sexual activity, especially in physically mature adolescents.
• Parental monitoring reduces the likelihood of risky sexual behaviors with more communication delaying sexual activity. Peer Influence: Adolescents with sexually active friends are more likely to become sexually active.
• Peer norms shape attitudes toward sex and an increase the likelihood of sexual relations perceiving that 'everyone is doing it'.
• Having older romantic partners increases the likelihood of early sexual initiation.

Adolescents Reasons for Not Using Contraception

• Many sexually active adolescents do not use contraception consistently increasing the risk of STDs.
• Main reasons that contribute to no contraceptive use include a lack of planning, access, knowledge that contraceptive use is not needed, personal objections and romanticized views.
• There is a lack of planning as adolescents often do not anticipate sexual activity in advance.
• There is a lack of access as some teens do not have access to birth control or feel embarrassed to obtain it.
• Some believe myths that using protection is not need for a first time experience.
• Some face personal and partner objections with fears of being distursted or being felt upset.
• Some adolescents view pregnancy as a way to strengthen a relationship.
• The best predictor of contraceptive use is the adolescent's age.

Improving Contraceptive Behavior

• Sex education programs improve contraceptive use.
• This is achieved by giving accurate information about protection and pregnancy risks
• Increasing access to contraception through schools, clinics, and community programs leads to consistent contraceptive use.
• Developing future-oriented thinking helps adolescents with long-term consequences of unprotected sex and improves responsible sexual behavior.
• Dual protection (condoms + another contraceptive method) reduces pregnancy and STD risks.
• Teen pregnancy rates declined in the U.S., but it remains higher than in many developed countries.

Contributors to teen pregnancy

• There is a lack of inconsistent contraceptive use.
• There is limited access to sexual health education.
• Cultural/peer norms do not discourage early childbearing.
• There is a socio economic disadvantage that leads to limited career expectations.

Teen Mother Outcomes

• There is increased likelihood of dropping out.
• There is a higher risk of poverty and financial reliance
• There intervention is challenging do to limited emotional and monetary resources. Interventions can be used that reduce teen pregnancy with extensive care, reproductive health care and academic support.

Achievement Motivation

• Achievement motivation refers to an adolescent's drive to succeed in academic and work related settings.
• Motivation, self-control, and perseverance, can all have a significant impact to success.
• Grit is often more important that intelligence.
• Grit includes an ability to wait for larger reward instead of taking an immediate reward.
• Anxiety about failure can intervene with performance and undermine achievement motivation.
• Moderate anxiety can be helpful to reduce concetration which can reduce helpful abilities.
• Yerkes-Dodson Law discusses there is too little or too much can impair performance.
• Adolescents that deliberately avoid effort (procrastination) may be doing so to avoid feeling excuses for failure.
• Boys typically blame lack of effort, and girls can blame emotional stress.

Beliefs About Success and Failure

• Focus on Mastery and not Performance Orientation with learning and self-improvement to better yourself.
• Perental Influence can be shown in excessive parental control and autonomy-suportive parenting is shown.
• Stereotype Threat, there is an awareness of negative stereotypes to reduce performance.
• Some ethnic stereotypes can be positive such as the stereotype that Asians are more smart.
• Fixed Vs Groth Mindset with a belief that intelligence is static or with develop with effort to better the groth in learning.
• Self-Efficacy is very confidence to succeed in increase the motivation.
• Students with high efficacy exert more effort.

The Influence of the Home Environment

• Parental Expectations and Values are correlated with better adolescent achievement.
• Parents who put in the effort will foster their children and their high self-expectations.
• Putting an Effective Involvement includes high expectations of better school activities with or without help. The Home must also be in an authoritative parenting where thers is a structure lead with better school performance.
• Harsh or overly critical parenting is linked to lower schooling.
• The quality of the home must be present with materials of books, newspapers, and educational materials correlated with achievement and financial income to support in success.
• Friends shape academic behavior with influence in daily study habits with class participation.
• High pressure schooling is more academically enforced.

Peer academic performances occur with studenst who are going through more challenging school with worries from peers.

• Having influences with students leads to more schooling from friends with more school.
• School family's and peer influence can lead to better relationships with family.

Types of Substance Use

• Experimenters can use less marijuana but those who are doing it better than them have less than the abstainer.
• You may also be better psychologically for the age to engage the action as it is normal.
• Frquent users and hard users alike may frequent their actions.
• Prevelant levels are common to the youth.
• Risk factors with substances that may have different biological characteristics such as a distant or conflicted home.

Risk With Teens and Substance Use

• Peers can have a variety of uses and can have negative community actions.
• A psychological factors comes towards certain charaistics of anger, impulsivity.
• A person prone to those behaviors may be more at risk. Short term effects of alcohol may have high impairment.
• Risky sexual actions, dependency. Long term will have high risks with health. The brain is also correlated.
• Youths are more likely to have worse school problems.

Treatment With Drugs

• These problems can heavily influence people will low psychological action to want to continue.
  • Protective actions come form great health from close relationships.
• Approaching problems is for preventition of underage alcohol.
• Community can promote some types of prevention.
• Cognitive therapy can help those with better cognitive functions.

Antisocial Behavior

• Authority with the different traits.
• Life persistent actions begin with child aggression that leads into adulthood.
• The characteristics of the behaviors are more consistent with mental actions.
• Actions that may relate to more aggression are identified at a young age with the child.
• Treatment must come at a young age in a family setting with school influences.
• To treat youth requires teaching action must be enforced.

Causes of Depression

• Genetic causes and environmental factors can all contribute to depression.
• Cognitive thinking from stress all add to the effects.
• Geneder differences with girls are different between both genders and sensitivities. T- reatment can come from therapy that challenges the thought patterns that prevent mental actions from coming towards them.