Midterm 2 Psychosocial Flashcards
Psychosocial perspective
Theories derived from psychoanalytic theory
•ex: early childhood events impacting personality, unconscious functioning
Difference: these theories don’t emphasize sexuality but social factors
1. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development
2. Attachment style
3. Bowlby’s attachment style
Erkison’s theory of psychosocial development
Erikson: described himself as an orthodox Freudian with significant revision
•focuses on ego/conscious (not ID)
•ego identity: the consciously experienced sense of self, changing constantly in response to the social world
•argued personality development is lifelong
•problems arise from real social factors rather than unconscious sexual factors
•social stage more important than age
•both negative and positive are important
•competence: if stage is managed well
*desire for competence is the drive behind many peoples actions
•inadequacy: if stage isn’t managed well
Epigenetic principle: metaphor used by erikson that theres a readiness for each crisis at birth
CHART
Attachment theory
Shaver and Mikulincer: attachment theory is a resurrection of psychoanalytic theory with significant revision (looks at unconscious)
•develops among infants in response to their caretakers
Ainsworth: developed the stage situation to assess attachment styles
*stage situation: when stranger enters room, when parent leaves the room, and when parent comes back
- Secure attachment: normal distress when parent leaves, joy when parents return (soothed by parents) 66%
•tend to have responsive/affectionate parents - Avoidant attachment: little distress when parent leaves, indifference when parents return 20%
•tend to have unresponsive/unaffectionate parents - Ambivalent attachment: extreme distress when parent leaves, ambivalent when parent returns (approach and rejection behaviours/inconsistency) 14%
•tend to have unresponsive/unaffectionate parents
More research suggests 4th style
- Disorganized: disoriented or confused by surroundings, displaying no coherent coping patterns
•tend to have feared/abusive parents
Attachment styles in adults (unconscious)
Bowlby: theorized that infant relationships produce internal working models for adult relationships
*internal working models: unconscious expectations about relationships (schemas, representations of the self in relation to close others)
Research
•a positive correlation between parent infant attachment style and adult attachment style
•most people’s classifications in infancy correspond to classifications in adulthood
Methods to assess adult’s attachment
1. Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ)
Hazan and Shaver
•ask about attachment style in relationships
•secure: 56% avoidant 25% ambivalent: 19%
- Relationship questionnaire (RQ)
Bartholomew
•assess secure, dismissing, fearful (previously considered avoidant), and preoccupied attachment (MODEL and EX)
Can attachment change
Yes
•ex: if you have an abusive parent, your infancy attachment can be insecure, but if you have a loving relationship in adulthood, you can develop a more secure attachment
Major correlates of attachment style
Insecure attachments: avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized, dismissing, fearful, preoccupied
People with secure attachment:
1. more satisfied in their relationships (commitment, trust, interdependence)
•insecure: decreased trust after 4 months
2. are more likely to support partners
• insecure ex: study at airport ambivalent showed distress and reject, avoidant didn’t show distress
3. are more likely to use compromise
•avoidant: ten to appease partner quickly
4. are less likely to infer hostile/rejecting intentions in behaviours from partner
•ex: studying intentions (at a party)
•secure: positive (he’s having fun/safe haven)
•ambivalent: negative (partner doesn’t wanna be seen with me)
5. have high self-esteem
•secure: positive internalized view of self (from parents) carried across life
•insecure: may have high self esteem but from other achievements/more vulnerable
6. less likely to experience depression
•avoidant: highest risk
7. less likely to experience anxiety disorder
•insecure: scared of being left
8. less likely to use ineffective coping strategies (alcohol, distancing, self criticism)
9. less likely to perpetuate spousal abuse
•highest among preoccupied and fearful
10. more likely to enjoy parenting
11. experience greater work satisfaction
12. relatively low in neuroticism, high in agreeableness, high in extroversion
•preoccupied: highest in neuroticism
•avoidant: low levels of agreeableness and extraversion
Object relations
Object (persons) relations to others
•person relation patterns are developed in childhood (attachments) and they reoccur throughout life
Symbiosis: period when infant is fused with mother
•separation individuation: at 6 months, child becomes aware they’re separate through gradual exploration away from mother
•mother should help childs conflict (independence vs care) by being emotionally available while nudging for independence
•too much - separation anxiety
3 years: object relation to mother is internalized (always there symbolically)
Self psychology: people have narcissism that must be satisfied by others through self object - someone who helps satisfy your needs
mirroring: giving child support and responding in an empathetic and accepting way
•gratifies the childs narcissistic needs (centre of attention)
•later undergoes transference from parents to other self objects
Box
Ego psychology:
White: two motivational concepts to discuss in the ego
1. Effectance motivation: motive to have an effect on your surroundings (major outlet for ego energy in childhood)
2. Evolves into competence motivation: the motive to be competent in dealing with the environments (underlies adaptive ego functioning)
Alder: whenever someone has feelings of inferiority (inadequacy), a compensatory process is activated to strive for superiority (constant cycle)
•great upward drive: people keep working to get better (important part of ego functioning)
White and alder: primary goal of ego is to adapt to the word through
- learning to restrain impulses
- knowing when to restrain and when to act more freely (ego control vs ego resiliency)
Three defining features of attachment
- Proximity maintenance: staying nearby
- Safe haven: turning to mom for comfort/reassurance
- Secure base: having a base from which to explore outward
Attachment and FFM
Extraverts: secure
•introverts: avoidant
Neurotics: ambivalent
Assessment of the psychosocial perspective
Object relations measures has for scales
- Alienation scale: measures lack of basic trust and inability to be close (avoidant)
- Insecure attachment: sensitivity to rejection/what others think (ambivalent)
- Egocentricity: assesses narcissism
- Social incompetence: shyness, uncertainty of how to engage with others
Children: play in assessment
•allows them to express feelings that they can’t in words
•uses specific set of toys as a movie studio, and asks them to explain what they set
•permits children to chose characters that relate to their own concerns
•projects story onto ambiguous stimuli
