Chapter 7: Psychosocial Theories (Part II) Flashcards
Object Relations Theory
- 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
Margaret Mahler
- 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
Separation-Individuation in relation to the caregiver and Personality
- 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
Self Psychology
humans are born with self-centered needs that must be satisfied by others
Mirroring
- 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
Self-Psychology: Healthy Personality Development
- grandiosity is modifies or tempered and channeled into realistic activities
- child learns how to deal with frustration
- ambition and self-esteem
Self-Psychology: Unhealthy Personality Development
- insufficient mirroring
- unmet needs: deeper narcissistic needs during adulthood
- immature way of relating to others
John Bowlby
- attachment: emotional tie to a specific person that endures across time and space
- infants attachment to mother has biological basis: survival
Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
- caregiver becomes secure base of emotional comfort
- early attachment experiences influence personality
Harry Harlow’s Rhesus Monkey’s
- comfortable feeling that infants gain by clinging to a soft attachment figure
- contradicts psychoanalytic and behavioral emphasis on food as primary source of attachment
Secure Base
- provides security and comfort to infant
- child feels safe to explore the world
- when separated: anxiety and distress
Attachment Styles
- 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)
Parenting Style: Secure Attachment
responsive, synchronous
Parenting Style: Ambivalent Attachment
inconsistent
Parenting Style: Avoidant Attachment
emotionally unavailable, rejecting, neglectful
Attachment and Adult Personality
- 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
Assessment
- 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