Chapter 5. Klein: Object Relations Theory

Question 1

The ___________ of Melanie Klein was built on careful observations of young children.

Answer 1

object relations theory

Question 2

3 difference between ORT and Freud’s instinct theory:

Answer 2

1. ORT places less emphasis on biologically based drives and more importance on consistent patterns
   of interpersonal relationships.
2. As opposed to Freud’s rather paternalistic theory that emphasizes the power and control of the father, ORT tends to be more maternal, stressing the intimacy and nurturing of the mother.
3. Object relations theorists generally see human contact and relatedness—not sexual pleasure—as the prime motive of human behavior.

Question 3

The _______ of the drive is any person, part of a person, or thing through which the aim is satisfied.

Answer 3

object

Question 4

True or False. Infants do not begin life with a blank slate but with an inherited predisposition to reduce the anxiety they experience as a result of the conflict produced by the forces of the life instinct and the power of the death instinct.

Answer 4

True

Question 5

Are psychic representations of unconscious id instincts.

Answer 5

phantasies

Question 6

Are ways of dealing with both internal and external objects.

Answer 6

positions

Question 7

Why did Klein chose the term “position” rather than “stage of development”?

Answer 7

to indicate that positions alternate back and forth

Question 8

To control the good breast and to fight off its persecutors, the infant adopts what Klein called the __________.

Answer 8

paranoid-schizoid position

Question 9

A way of organizing experiences that includes both paranoid feelings of being persecuted and a splitting of
internal and external objects into the good and the bad.

Answer 9

paranoid-schizoid position

Question 10

The feelings of anxiety over losing a loved object coupled with a sense of guilt for wanting to destroy that object constitute what Klein called the __________.

Answer 10

depressive position

Question 11

4 Psychic Defense Mechanisms

Answer 11

1. introjection
2. projection
3. splitting
4. projective identification

Question 12

Through this, infants fantasize taking into their body

those perceptions and experiences that they have had with the external object, originally the mother’s breast.

Answer 12

introjection

Question 13

It is the fantasy that one’s own feelings and impulses actually reside in another person and not within one’s body.

Answer 13

Projection

Question 14

Infants can only manage the good and bad aspects of themselves and of external objects by _______ them, that is, by keeping apart incompatible impulses.

Answer 14

splitting

Question 15

It is a psychic defense mechanism in which infants split off unacceptable parts of themselves, project them
into another object, and finally introject them back into themselves in a changed or distorted form.

Answer 15

projective identification

Question 16

Happens when the person takes in aspects of the external world and then organizes those introjections into a psychologically meaningful framework.

Answer 16

internalizations

Question 17

True or False. Unlike Freud, Klein believed that the ego, or one’s sense of self, reaches maturity at a much earlier stage.

Answer 17

True

Question 18

Klein’s picture of the superego differs from Freud’s in at least 3 important respects.

Answer 18

1. It emerges much earlier in life.
2. It is not an outgrowth of the Oedipus complex.
3. It is much more harsh and cruel.

Question 19

Klein’s analysis of young children led her to believe that the early superego produces not guilt but ______.

Answer 19

terror

Question 20

According to Mahler, the first major developmental

stage is ________.

Answer 20

normal autism

Question 21

As infants gradually realize that they cannot satisfy their own needs, they begin to recognize their primary caregiver and to seek a symbiotic relationship with
her, a condition that leads to __________.

Answer 21

normal symbiosis

Question 22

The third major developmental stage, ___________, children become psychologically separated from their mothers, achieve a sense of individuation, and begin to develop feelings of personal identity.

Answer 22

separation-individuation

Question 23

It is marked by a bodily breaking away from the mother-infant symbiotic orbit.

Answer 23

differentiation

Question 24

Children easily distinguish their body from their mother’s, establish a specific bond with their mother, and begin to develop an autonomous ego.

Answer 24

practicing

Question 25

Children experience a __________ with their mother; that is, they desire to bring their mother and themselves back together, both physically and psychologically.

Answer 25

rapprochement

Question 26

Because these attempts are never completely successful, children of this age often fight dramatically with their mother, a condition called the __________.

Answer 26

rapprochement crisis

Question 27

During this time, children must develop a constant inner representation of their mother so that they can tolerate being physically separate from her.

Answer 27

libidinal object constancy

Question 28

4 subphases of separation-individuation

Answer 28

1. differentiation
2. practicing
3. rapprochement
4. libidinal object constancy

Question 29

In caring for both physical and psychological needs, adults, or ________, treat infants as if they had a sense
of self.

Answer 29

selfobjects

Question 30

Kohut’s 2 basic narcissistic needs:

Answer 30

1. the need to exhibit the grandiose self

2. the need to acquire an idealized image of one or both parents.

Question 31

Bowlby’s 3 stages of separation anxiety:

Answer 31

1. protest stage
2. despair
3. detachment

Question 32

When their caregiver is first out of sight, infants will cry, resist soothing by other people, and search for their caregiver. This stage is the ________.

Answer 32

protest stage

Question 33

As separation continues, infants become quiet, sad, passive, listless, and apathetic. What stag is this?

Answer 33

despair

Question 34

During this stage, infants become emotionally detached from other people, including their caregiver.

Answer 34

detachment

Question 35

A technique for measuring the type of attachment style that exists between caregiver and infant.

Answer 35

Strange Situation

Question 36

In a __________, when their mother returns, infants are happy and enthusiastic and initiate contact.

Answer 36

secure attachment

Question 37

In an _______________, infants are ambivalent. When their mother leaves the room, they become unusually upset, and when their mother returns they seek contact with her but reject attempts at being soothed.

Answer 37

anxious-resistant attachment style

Question 38

With this style, infants stay calm when their mother leaves; they accept the stranger, and when their mother returns, they ignore and avoid her.

Answer 38

anxious-avoidant

Question 39

What did Klein substituted Freudian dream analysis and free association for?

Answer 39

play therapy