Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory Flashcards
this theory emphasizes the importance of various developmental stages—infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood (Sullivan)
interpersonal theory
what did sullivan see personality as?
he saw it as an energy system and saw energy as tension (potentiality for action) or actions (energy themselves)
this transforms tensions into either covert or overt behaviors and is aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety (Sullivan)
energy transformations
is a potentiality for action that may or may not be experienced in awareness (Sullivan)
tension
what are the two types of tensions: (Sullivan)
needs and anxiety
(Sullivan) are tensions brought on by biological imbalance between a person and the physiochemical environment, both inside and outside the organism.
are episodic—once they are satisfied, they temporarily lose their power, but after a time,
they are likely to recur
needs
what is the most basic interpersonal need (Sullivan)
tenderness
this tension differs from tensions of needs in that it is disjunctive, is more diffuse and vague, and calls forth no consistent actions for its relief.
If infants lack food (a need), their course of action is clear; but if they are anxious, they can do little to escape from that (Sullivan)
anxiety
what does sullivan call the complete lack of tension?
euphoria
how does Sullivan distinguish anxiety from fear?
Sullivan distinguished anxiety from fear in several important ways. First, anxiety usually stems from complex interpersonal situations and is only vaguely represented in awareness; fear is more clearly discerned and its origins more easily pinpointed. Second, anxiety has no positive value. Only when transformed into another
tension (anger or fear, for example) can it lead to profitable actions. Third, anxiety
blocks the satisfaction of needs, whereas fear sometimes helps people satisfy certain
needs. This opposition to the satisfaction of needs is expressed in words that can be
considered Sullivan’s definition of anxiety: “Anxiety is a tension in opposition to the
tensions of needs and to action appropriate to their relief ”
This somewhat awkward term simply refers to our behaviors that are aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety—the two great tensions. Not all __________ are obvious, overt actions; many take the form of emotions, thoughts, or covert behaviors that can be hidden from other people. (Sullivan)
energy transformations
a term that means about the same as traits or habit patterns (Sullivan)
dynamisms
what are the two major classes of dynamism (Sullivan)
- zonal (those related to specific parts of the body)
- those related to tensions
what is the second class of dynamisms composed of? (Sullivan)
- the disjunctive
- the isolating
- the conjunctive
is the disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred, characterized by the feeling of living among one’s enemies.
It originates around
age 2 or 3 years when children’s actions that earlier had brought about maternal tenderness are rebuffed, ignored, or met with anxiety and pain. (Sullivan)
malevolence
grows out of the earlier need for tenderness but is more specific and involves a close interpersonal relationship between two people who are more or less
of equal status.
must not be confused with sexual interest. In fact, it develops prior to puberty, ideally during preadolescence when it usually exists between
two children, each of whom sees the other as a person of equal value. (Sullivan)
intimacy
is an isolating tendency, requiring no other person for its satisfaction. It manifests itself as autoerotic behavior even when another person is the
object of one’s lust.
is an especially powerful dynamism during adolescence, at which time it often leads to a reduction of self-esteem (Sullivan)
lust
the most complex and inclusive of all the dynamisms
a consistent pattern of behaviors that maintains people’s interpersonal security by protecting
them from anxiety (Sullivan)
self-system
the purpose of these is to reduce feelings of insecurity or anxiety that result from endangered self-esteem (Sullivan)
security operations
what are the two important security operations? (Sullivan)
dissociation and selective inattention
(Sullivan) this security operation includes those impulses, desires, and needs that a person refuses to allow into awareness. Some infantile experiences become dissociated when a baby’s behavior is neither rewarded nor punished, so those experiences simply do not become part of the self-system
These experiences do not cease to exist but continue to influence personality on an unconscious level
dissociation
is a refusal to see
those things that we do not wish to see (Sullivan)
selective inattention
Beginning in infancy and continuing throughout the various developmental stages,
people acquire certain images of themselves and others
may be relatively accurate, or because they are colored by people’s needs and anxieties, they may be grossly distorted (Sullivan)
personifications
this personification grows out of the infant’s experiences with the bad-nipple: that is, the nipple that does not satisfy hunger needs
is almost completely undifferentiated, inasmuch as it includes everyone involved in the nursing situation. It is not an accurate image of the “real” mother but merely the infant’s vague representation of not being properly fed (Sullivan)
bad-mother personification
this personification is based on the tender and cooperative behaviors of the mothering one (Sullivan)
good-mother personification
(Sullivan) unrealistic traits or imaginary friends that many children invent in
order to protect their self-esteem
are not limited to children; most adults see fictitious traits in other people.
can create conflict in interpersonal relations when people project onto others imaginary traits that are remnants
from previous relationships
eidetic personifications
sullivan’s three levels or modes of experience
prototaxic
parataxic
syntaxic
experiences on this level are impossible to communicate (Sullivan)
prototaxic
this level of experiences are personal, prelogical, and communicated only in distorted
form
usually result when a person assumes a
cause-and-effect relationship between two events that occur coincidentally
meaning remains private (Sullivan)
parataxic
this level of experience is meaningful interpersonal communication. (Sullivan)
syntaxic
how do prototaxic experiences take form for adults? (Sullivan)
In adults, prototaxic experiences take the form of momentary sensations, images, feelings, moods, and impressions. These primitive images of dream and waking life are dimly perceived or completely unconscious. Although people are incapable of communicating these images to others, they can sometimes tell another person that they have just had a strange sensation, one that they cannot put into words.
what is an example of parataxic thinking (Sullivan)
An example of parataxic thinking takes place when a child is conditioned to
say “please” in order to receive candy. If “candy and “please” occur together a number of times, the child may eventually reach the illogical conclusion that her supplications caused the candy’s appearance
an illogical belief that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between two events in close temporal proximity (Sullivan)
parataxic distortion
what is the first instance of syntaxic cognition according to sullivan?
Sullivan hypothesized that the first instance of syntaxic cognition appears whenever a sound or gesture begins to have the same meaning for parents as it does
for a child. The syntaxic level of cognition becomes more prevalent as the child begins to develop formal language, but it never completely supplants prototaxic and parataxic cognition.
Adult experience takes place on all three levels
literally involve the transformation of potential energy into actual energy (behavior) for the purpose of satisfying needs or reducing anxiety (Sullivan)
energy transformations
what was sullivan’s chief contribution to personality?
his concept of various developmental stages
what happens in sullivan’s psychotherapy?
the therapist serves as a participant observer and attempts to improve patients’ interpersonal relations
