Theories of Personality Finals PDF

KAREN HORNEY’S NEUROTIC NEEDS AND TRENDS CHILDHOOD NEED FOR SAFETY HORNEY VS FREUD Horney’s Ideas Freud’s Ideas believed that childhood social believed that childhood sexual tensio...

KAREN HORNEY’S NEUROTIC NEEDS AND TRENDS CHILDHOOD NEED FOR SAFETY HORNEY VS FREUD Horney’s Ideas Freud’s Ideas believed that childhood social believed that childhood sexual tensions are crucial for personality experiences shaped personality in formation childhood childhood anxiety is caused by a emphasized more on the unconscious dependent child’s sense of mind and desire’s influences on helplessness, which triggers one’s personality desire for love and security was biased against females; believed countered the assumption that that they suffered from “penis envy” women have weak superegos and and had weaker superegos suffer from penis envy HORNEY’S AGREEMENTS WITH FREUD’S THEORY Horney agreed with Freud, in principle, about the importance of the early years of childhood in shaping the adult personality ○ she believed that social forces in childhood, not biological forces, influence personality development NEUROSIS-PSYCHOSIS CONTINUUM FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS Neurosis Psychosis mental illnesses induced by nervous mental condition characterized by a  system problems lack of association with reality no longer recognized in the DSM-5 generally less severe greater severity of illness close to normal experience lack of insight patient is in contact with reality patient has lost contact with reality has good prognosis has bad prognosis affects behavior behavior is severely affected patient has intact judgment patient has impaired judgment gene factors are less important gene factors are more important Note: Prognosis chance of recovery from a disease NEUROTIC BEHAVIOR an automatic, unconscious effort to manage deep anxiety the state of helplessness in infancy can lead to neurotic behavior SAFETY NEED higher level need for security and freedom from fear a child’s security depends entirely on how the parents treat the child the more helpless children feel, the less they dare to oppose or rebel against the parents ○ “I have to repress my hostility because I need you” the more frightened children become, the more they will repress their hostility ○ “I must repress my hostility because I am afraid of you” BASIC ANXIETY: THE FOUNDATION OF NEUROSIS BASIC ANXIETY insidiously increasing, all-pervading feeling of being lonely and helpless in a hostile world foundation of neurosis PROTECTION AGAINST BASIC ANXIETY securing affection and love being submissive attaining power withdrawing  Securing Affection and Love Being Submissive doing different things towards or for complying with the wishes either of others to be provided the desired one particular person or of everyone affection in the social environment as a means of self-protection Attaining Power Withdrawing compensating for helplessness psychologically distancing from other through success or through a sense of people superiority a withdrawn person achieves independence with regard to internal or psychological needs by becoming aloof from others, no longer seeking them out to satisfy emotional needs NEUROTIC NEEDS AND TRENDS 10 NEUROTIC NEEDS Neurotic Need Corresponding Need for Protection affection and approval securing affection and love dominant partner being submissive to restrict one’s life into narrow borders withdrawing power and control over others attaining power to exploit others attaining power social recognition and prestige attaining power personal admiration attaining power personal achievement attaining power self-sufficiency and independence withdrawing perfection withdrawing Note: what makes them neurotic is the person’s intensive and compulsive pursuit of their satisfaction as the only way to resolve basic anxiety ○ when that happens, the neurotic need becomes increasingly severe, then tyrannical, as it overtakes and comes to dominate the personality NEUROTIC TRENDS  categories of behaviors and attitudes toward oneself and others that express a person’s needs these are Horney’s revision of the concept of neurotic needs Compliant Personality Aggressive Personality Detached Personality movement toward movement against movement away from other people other people other people Corresponding Needs: Corresponding Needs: Corresponding Needs: affection and power self-sufficiency approval exploitation perfection dominant partner prestige narrow limits to life admiration achievement Basic Conflict: Basic Conflict: Basic Conflict: feelings of feelings of feelings of isolation  helplessness self-protection CONFLICT basic incompatibility of the neurotic trends core of neurosis THE SELVES AND NEUROSIS Ideal Self Looking-Glass Self Despised Self unattainable or what others perceive hated and unrealistic about oneself contemptible most important for Horney IDEALIZED SELF-IMAGE For Normal People For Neurotics self-image is an idealized picture of self-image is based on an inflexible, oneself built on a flexible, realistic unrealistic self-appraisal driven by: assessment of one’s abilities ○ need for perfection ○ neurotic ambition ○ drive for vindictive triumph TYRANNY OF THE SHOULDS an attempt to realize an unattainable idealized self-image by denying the true self and behaving in terms of what we think we should be doing EXTERNALIZATION a way to defend against the conflict caused by the discrepancy between an idealized and a real self-image by projecting the conflict onto the outside world FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY revision of psychoanalysis to encompass the psychological conflicts inherent in the traditional ideal of womanhood and women’s roles WOMB ENVY envy a male feels toward a female because she can bear children and he cannot Horney’s response to Freud’s concept of penis envy in females  HORNEY’S CONCEPT OF THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX by removing sex from the Oedipus complex, Horney reinterpreted the situation as a conflict between dependence on one’s parents and hostility toward them FLIGHT FROM WOMANHOOD as a result of the feelings of inferiority, women may choose to deny their femininity and to wish, unconsciously, that they were men part of the sexual fear associated with this condition arises from childhood fantasies about the difference in size between the adult penis and the female child’s vagina ○ fantasies focus on vaginal injury and the pain of forcible penetration produces a conflict between the unconscious desire to have a child and the fear of intercourse ○ if the conflict is sufficiently strong, it can lead to emotional disturbances that manifest themselves in relations with men ON MOTHERHOOD OR CAREER the psychological conflicts in defining women’s roles, contrasting the traditional ideal of womanhood with a more modern view of professional roles in society ON CULTURAL INFLUENCES society was governed by the belief that the universe contained two contrasting yet interacting elements, Yin and yang Yin Yang represents the female element represents the male element contains all that is dark, weak, and contains all that is vital, positive, passive strong, and active over time, these elements came to form a hierarchy in which men were considered superior and women inferior ASSESSMENTS IN HORNEY’S THEORY FREE ASSOCIATION Horney focused on her patients’ visible emotional reactions toward her, believing that these could explain her patients’ attitudes toward other people uncovered the patient’s early experiences and emotions, similar to peeling the layers of an onion  DREAM ANALYSIS Horney did not offer a list of universal dream symbols but insisted that each dream be explained within the context of the patient’s conflict by focusing on a dream’s emotional content, Horney concluded that the “safest clue to the understanding of a dream is in the feelings of the patient as he has them in the dream” COMPLIANT, AGGRESSIVE, DETACHED (CAD) PERSONALITY TYPE INVENTORY 35-item self-report inventory devised to measure Horney’s three neurotic trends HORNEY-COOLIDGE TYPE INDICATOR (HCTI) 57-item self-report inventory used to measure Horney’s three neurotic trends RESEARCH ON HORNEY’S IDEAS people who score high in the aggressive neurotic trend ○ may not do well in school ○ may have mental health issues ○ are more likely to major in business than in the helping professions people who score high in neurotic competitiveness tend to be: ○ neurotic ○ narcissistic ○ authoritarian ○ low in self-esteem