Chapter 7: Psychosocial Theories (Part II)

Question 1

Object Relations Theory

Answer 1

• social relationships = critical to psychological development
• early social experiences influence relating to others in the world
• patterns are formed in early childhood; consistent throughout lifespan
• through introjection: we incorporate our experience of others into a mental representation or “object”
• ego forms a bond with that object
• ego-object bond helps to form personality

Question 2

Margaret Mahler

Answer 2

• symbiosis: birth to 6 months: infant is fused with mother
• separation-individuation: exploration away from mother
• internalized object relation: age 3: mother is which child symbolically all the time, child will always relate to mother based on this object

Question 3

Separation-Individuation in relation to the caregiver and Personality

Answer 3

• mothers behavior during this phase is fundamental to adult adjustment and personality
• optimal: emotional availability, encouragement to explore
• less optimal: smothering, overpresent, too much pushing towards separation
• object relation will be repeated throughout lifetime
• conflicting internal objects: maladjustment, psychopathy

Question 4

Self Psychology

Answer 4

humans are born with self-centered needs that must be satisfied by others

Question 5

Mirroring

Answer 5

• parents respond to gratify infants narcissistic
• mirror child by giving support and empathy
• during childhood in order to foster a sense of self-worth during lifetime

Question 6

Self-Psychology: Healthy Personality Development

Answer 6

• grandiosity is modifies or tempered and channeled into realistic activities
• child learns how to deal with frustration
• ambition and self-esteem

Question 7

Self-Psychology: Unhealthy Personality Development

Answer 7

• insufficient mirroring
• unmet needs: deeper narcissistic needs during adulthood
• immature way of relating to others

Question 8

John Bowlby

Answer 8

• attachment: emotional tie to a specific person that endures across time and space
• infants attachment to mother has biological basis: survival

Question 9

Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

Answer 9

• caregiver becomes secure base of emotional comfort

- early attachment experiences influence personality

Question 10

Harry Harlow’s Rhesus Monkey’s

Answer 10

• comfortable feeling that infants gain by clinging to a soft attachment figure
• contradicts psychoanalytic and behavioral emphasis on food as primary source of attachment

Question 11

Secure Base

Answer 11

• provides security and comfort to infant
• child feels safe to explore the world
• when separated: anxiety and distress

Question 12

Attachment Styles

Answer 12

• secure attachment: normal distress when mother leaves but happy when returns
• insecure attachment: ambivalent and avoidant
• ambivalent attachment: very upset when mother leaves, happy when comes back but still angry
• avoidant attachment: calm when mother leaves, indifferent when returns (expects to be abandoned)

Question 13

Parenting Style: Secure Attachment

Answer 13

responsive, synchronous

Question 14

Parenting Style: Ambivalent Attachment

Answer 14

inconsistent

Question 15

Parenting Style: Avoidant Attachment

Answer 15

emotionally unavailable, rejecting, neglectful

Question 16

Attachment and Adult Personality

Answer 16

• determine pattern of relationships in adulthood
• secure: high satisfaction, love is real
• ambivalent: emotional lability, obsessive infatuations, jealousy, quick but don’t last
• avoidant: harsh, less accepting, love is not real

Question 17

Assessment

Answer 17

• less focus on unconscious processes
• combination of projective and self-report measures, behavioral observations
• assessment of lifestyles: early memories from childhood
• assessment of ego development: sentence completion test