Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory

Question 1

this theory emphasizes the importance of various developmental stages—infancy, childhood, the juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood (Sullivan)

Answer 1

interpersonal theory

Question 2

what did sullivan see personality as?

Answer 2

he saw it as an energy system and saw energy as tension (potentiality for action) or actions (energy themselves)

Question 3

this transforms tensions into either covert or overt behaviors and is aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety (Sullivan)

Answer 3

energy transformations

Question 4

is a potentiality for action that may or may not be experienced in awareness (Sullivan)

Answer 4

tension

Question 5

what are the two types of tensions: (Sullivan)

Answer 5

needs and anxiety

Question 6

(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

Answer 6

needs

Question 7

what is the most basic interpersonal need (Sullivan)

Answer 7

tenderness

Question 8

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)

Answer 8

anxiety

Question 9

what does sullivan call the complete lack of tension?

Answer 9

euphoria

Question 10

how does Sullivan distinguish anxiety from fear?

Answer 10

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 ”

Question 11

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)

Answer 11

energy transformations

Question 12

a term that means about the same as traits or habit patterns (Sullivan)

Answer 12

dynamisms

Question 13

what are the two major classes of dynamism (Sullivan)

Answer 13

1. zonal (those related to specific parts of the body)
2. those related to tensions

Question 14

what is the second class of dynamisms composed of? (Sullivan)

Answer 14

1. the disjunctive
2. the isolating
3. the conjunctive

Question 15

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)

Answer 15

malevolence

Question 16

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)

Answer 16

intimacy

Question 17

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)

Answer 17

lust

Question 18

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)

Answer 18

self-system

Question 19

the purpose of these is to reduce feelings of insecurity or anxiety that result from endangered self-esteem (Sullivan)

Answer 19

security operations

Question 20

what are the two important security operations? (Sullivan)

Answer 20

dissociation and selective inattention

Question 21

(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

Answer 21

dissociation

Question 22

is a refusal to see
those things that we do not wish to see (Sullivan)

Answer 22

selective inattention

Question 23

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)

Answer 23

personifications

Question 24

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)

Answer 24

bad-mother personification

Question 25

this personification is based on the tender and cooperative behaviors of the mothering one (Sullivan)

Answer 25

good-mother personification

Question 26

(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

Answer 26

eidetic personifications

Question 27

sullivan’s three levels or modes of experience

Answer 27

prototaxic
parataxic
syntaxic

Question 28

experiences on this level are impossible to communicate (Sullivan)

Answer 28

prototaxic

Question 29

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)

Answer 29

parataxic

Question 30

this level of experience is meaningful interpersonal communication. (Sullivan)

Answer 30

syntaxic

Question 31

how do prototaxic experiences take form for adults? (Sullivan)

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

what is an example of parataxic thinking (Sullivan)

Answer 32

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

Question 33

an illogical belief that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between two events in close temporal proximity (Sullivan)

Answer 33

parataxic distortion

Question 34

what is the first instance of syntaxic cognition according to sullivan?

Answer 34

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

Question 35

literally involve the transformation of potential energy into actual energy (behavior) for the purpose of satisfying needs or reducing anxiety (Sullivan)

Answer 35

energy transformations

Question 36

what was sullivan’s chief contribution to personality?

Answer 36

his concept of various developmental stages

Question 37

what happens in sullivan’s psychotherapy?

Answer 37

the therapist serves as a participant observer and attempts to improve patients’ interpersonal relations