Personality and Abnormal Psychology Flashcards
Heinz Kohut
(1913 – 1981) Austrian-born American psychologist best known for his development of self psychology, an off-shoot of object relations theory.
Object Relations Theory
Object relations theory is an offshoot of psychoanalytic theory which emphasizes interpersonal relations, primarily in the family and especially between mother and child. “Object” actually means person, and especially the significant person that is the object or target of another’s feelings or intentions. “Relations” refers to interpersonal relations and suggests the residues of past relationships that affect a person in the present. Object relations theorists are interested in inner images of the self and other and how they manifest themselves in interpersonal situations. Heinz Kuhut’s self psychology is an offshoot of object relations theory. Four important object relations theorists are Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, Margaret Mahler, and Otto Kernberg.
4 Important Object Relations Theorists
- Melanie Klein (1882 – 1960)
- Donald Winnicott (1896 – 1971)
- Margaret Mahler (1897 – 1985)
- Otto Kernberg (1928 – )
Otto Kernberg
(1928 – ) Psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry most widely known for his psychoanalytic theories on borderline personality organization and narcissistic pathology. In addition, his work has been central in integrating postwar ego psychology with Kleinian (Melanie Klein) and other object relations perspectives. His integrative writings were central to the development of modern object relations, a theory of mind that is perhaps the theory most widely accepted among modern psychoanalysts.
Margaret Mahler
(1897 – 1985) Hungarian physician, who later became interested in psychiatry. She was a central figure on the world stage of psychoanalysis. Her main interest was in normal childhood development, but she spent much of her time with psychiatric children and how they arrive at the “self.” Mahler developed the separation-individuation theory of child development. Note how Mahler’s focus places her within the fold of object relations theory.
Donald Winnicott
(1896 – 1971) Donald Winnicott was an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory and developmental psychology. Winnicott was a close associate of Marion Milner. Winnicott is best known for his ideas on the true self and false self, and the “good enough” parent, and borrowed from his second wife, Clare Winnicott, arguably his chief professional collaborator, the notion of the “transitional object.” A transitional object, comfort object, or security blanket, is an item used to provide psychological comfort, especially in unusual or unique situations, or at bedtime for children.
Marion Milner
(1900 – 1998) British author and psychoanalyst. Outside psychotherapeutic circles, she is better known by her pseudonym, Joanna Field, as a pioneer of introspective journaling. In 1926, Milner began an introspective journey that later became one of her best-known books, A Life of One’s Own (initially published under the name Joanna Field in 1934). This started as a journal in which she would note down times that she felt happy and thoughts going through her mind at those times, in an attempt to discover what happiness was; however, her introspection branched out into other areas, from an analysis of day-to-day worries to mystical experiences. Milner was a close associate of the pediatrician, psychoanalyst, and influential object relations theorist Donald Winnicott.
Melanie Klein
(1882 – 1960) Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst who is known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Klein suggested that pre-verbal existential anxiety in infancy catalyzes the formation of the unconscious, resulting in the unconscious splitting of the world into good and bad idealizations. In her theory, how the child resolves that splitting depends on the constitution of the child and the character of nurturing experiences; the quality of resolution can inform the presence, absence, and/or type of distresses a person experiences later in life.
The Basic Idea of
Psychoanalysis
This therapy, developed by Sigmund Freud, is an intensive, long-term treatment for uncovering repressed memories, motives, and conflicts stemming from problems in psychosexual development. Freud believed that by gaining insight into repressed material, the energy being utilized to deal with repressed conflict would be freed up and made available for further development.
Neo-Freudian Approaches to Psychotherapy
Classical psychoanalysis is very expensive and requires a larger commitment of time than most people can make. As a result, there have been many modifications of the treatment. The neo-Freudian approaches place much more emphasis on current interpersonal relationships and life situations than on childhood experience and psychosexual development.
Transference and Countertransference
Freudian terms. Transference occurs when the patient develops attitudes or feelings toward the therapist which the patient previously experienced in the context of other relationships. It is through transference that the analyst can help recreate the patient’s experiences so that the patient has an opportunity to uncover, acknowledge, and understand his or her relationships with others. The therapist, too, will experience a full range of emotions toward the patient at various points in the treatment. This is known as countertransference and must be understood by the therapist so that it does not impinge on the treatment in a counterproductive way. This is one of the reasons psychoanalysts-in-training undergo psychoanalysis themselves.
Freud and Hypnosis
Early in the development of psychoanalysis, Freud used hypnosis to free repressed thoughts from the patient’s unconscious––but he later dropped that method in favor of alternative methods, notably free association and dream interpretation.
Free Association
Practice in psychoanalytic therapy whereby the client says whatever comes to his or her conscious mind regardless of how personal, painful, or seemingly irrelevant it may appear to be. Through free association, the analyst and patient together reconstruct the nature of the client’s original conflict.
Dream Interpretation
Freud believed that the defenses are relaxed and the mind is freer to express forbidden wishes and desires during dream states. Therefore, understanding patients’ dreams leads to an understanding of their unconscious conflicts.
Resistance
Term coined by Freud. Resistance, or an unwillingness or inability to relate to certain thoughts, motives, or experiences, is a major part of analysis. Such things as forgetting dream material, missing a therapy session, blocking associations, and switching topics rapidly are indications of resistance and are themselves subject to analysis.
John Dollard and Neal E. Miller
Behaviorists who incorporated some psychoanalytic concepts into their theory. They focused on conflicting motives or conflicting tendencies in the development of personality. They were members of the distinguished group of young researchers at Yale University in the 1930s who, inspired initially by Clark L. Hull, sought to combine learning theory with psychoanalysis. The group’s first major publication was Frustration and Aggression, a classic that is still widely cited in introductory texts.
Neal E. Miller
(1909 – 2002) American experimental psychologist. Described as an energetic man with a variety of interests, including physics, biology and writing, Miller entered the field of psychology to pursue these. With a background in the sciences, he was inspired by professors and leading psychologists at the time to work on various areas in behavioral psychology, especially relating visceral responses to behavior. Miller was a member of the distinguished group of young researchers (among whom was John Dollard) at Yale University in the 1930s who, inspired initially by Clark L. Hull, sought to combine learning theory with psychoanalysis. The group’s first major publication was Frustration and Aggression, a classic that is still widely cited in introductory texts.
John Dollard
(1900 – 1980) American psychologist and social scientist best known for his studies on race relations in America and the frustration-aggression hypothesis he proposed with Neal E. Miller and others. Dollard was a member of the distinguished group of young researchers (among whom was Neal E. Miller) at Yale University in the 1930s who, inspired initially by Clark L. Hull, sought to combine learning theory with psychoanalysis. The group’s first major publication was Frustration and Aggression, a classic that is still widely cited in introductory texts. Neal E. Miller said of John Dollard’s contributions to the group: “If trying to bring together contributions from sociology, anthropology, psychology, and psychotherapy no longer seems so novel, it is because Dollard and other pioneers had the courage and tenacity to break through traditional barriers.”
B. F. Skinner
Behaviorist who considered “personality” to be a collection of behaviors that happen to have been sufficiently reinforced to persist.
Albert Bandura’s view of personality
Albert Bandura contends that learning principles are sufficient to account for personality development. The basis of his social learning theory is modeling observed behavior. Bandura stresses that learning occurs not only by having one’s own behavior reinforced (as Skinner believed) but also by observing other people’s behaviors being reinforced. This is called vicarious reinforcement, or more generally, vicarious learning.
Behavioral Theory of Personality
The behavioral perspective holds that personality is the result of an individual’s interactions with their environment. These interactions may include relationships, traumatic life experiences, lessons from parents and teachers, and lessons from movies, TV, and other forms of media. These influences exert their effects through classical and operant conditioning.
Martin Seligman
(1942 – ) American psychologist, educator, and author of self-help books. Seligman is a strong promoter within the scientific community of his theories of positive psychology and well-being. His theory of learned helplessness is popular among scientific and clinical psychologists.
Martin Seligman and Learned Helplessness
Martin Seligman conducted classic studies of learned helplessness in the 1960s. In these studies, he placed dogs in a cell with relatively high walls. He then administered a shock to the floor of the cell. Initially, the dogs would attempt to jump free. Over time, they stopped jumping since they were unable to escape. Later, Seligman replaced the high walls with relatively low walls. Nonetheless, when he administered a shock to the floor of the cell, the dogs did not jump, even though they could easily have escaped if they had attempted to do so. Thus, the dogs had learned to be helpless. Seligman and others extrapolated to the realms of human depression and locus of control.
Learned helplessness is a behavior pattern involving a maladaptive response characterized by avoidance of challenges, negative affect, and the collapse of problem-solving strategies when obstacles arise. Three components are necessary for learned helplessness to be present: contingency, cognition, and behavior.
Contingency is the idea that there is an identifiable relation between one’s actions and the environmental response, such as tapping a drum and the ensuing sound. In learned helplessness research, contingency is more often operationalized as its converse— uncontrollability—so that when an agent acts, there is no identifiable relation with a specific response. Cognitions are also necessary. These are thought of as the way one understands and explains contingency or lack thereof. How individuals explain environmental contingencies leads to the third component of learned helplessness—behavior. Thus, learned helplessness exists in a situation in which there is no observable contingency and in which one expects that this uncontrollability will continue and behaves accordingly, such as by quitting.
Behavior Therapy
Behaviorists view maladjustment / abnormal behavior as learned through interactions with the environment. Individuals learn faulty coping patterns that are maintained by some kind of reinforcement. While psychoanalysts consider the symptoms to be manifestations of some disorder, behaviorists consider the symptoms to be the disorder. Behavioral therapies have proven to be quite successful with certain problems, particularly phobias, impulse control, and personal care maintenance for people with intellectual disabilities and hospitalized psychotic patients.