Psychology 3051 Psychology 305: Theories of Personality Lecture 13.

Psychology 305 1

Psychology 305: Theories of Personality

Lecture 13

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Scoring Your “RSQ”

1. Sum the following items:

Score 1: 3, 7 (reversed), 8, 10, 17 (reversed)

Score 2: 5 (reversed), 6, 11, 15

Score 3: 1, 4, 9, 14

Score 4: 2, 5, 12, 13, 16

2. For each score, compute the average. That is, divide the sums for scores 1 and 4 by 5, and the sums for scores 2 and 3 by 4.

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Questions That Will Be Answered In Today’s Lecture

Neoanalytic Perspective on Personality, continued

6. How are Erikson’s 8 stages exemplified in the film Wild Strawberries?

7. According to Horney’s theory, what are (a) the safety need, (b) basic hostility, (c) basic anxiety, and (d) neurotic needs?

8. What personality types did Horney propose?

Lecture 13

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9. According to attachment theory, what are the 4 infant attachment styles?

10. How are attachment styles assessed in adults?

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How are Erikson’s 8 stages exemplified in the film

Wild Strawberries?

Dr. Isak Borg and his housekeeper, Agda.

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Dr. Borg and his daughter in-law, Marianne.

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Dr. Borg and his young travel companions: The “modern” Sara, Anders, and Viktor.

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The “past” Sara, who Dr. Borg once loved.

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Dr. Borg and his mother.

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Dr. Borg’s wife, Karin, after an encounter with her lover.

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• Other noteworthy characters from the film:

Dr. Borg’s son: Evald.

Dr. Borg’s brother: Sigfrid.

The couple who was involved in a car accident with Dr. Borg: Mr. and Mrs. Alman.

Dr. Borg’s aunt: Aunt Olga.

• We meet Dr. Borg in the last of Erikson’s 8 stages of personality development: Old Age

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• Old Age

61 years of age – death.

Crisis: Integrity vs. despair.

Successful resolution: Occurs when older adults feel a sense of emotional integration or satisfaction with the choices they have made and the life experiences they have had.

Basic strength: Wisdom (a detached but active concern with life in the face of death).

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First year of life.

Crisis: Basic trust vs. mistrust.

Successful resolution: Occurs when infants develop confidence in their caregivers to consistently meet their basic needs.

Basic strength: Hope (the enduring belief that one’s needs, desires, and wishes will be satisfied).

• What can we conclude about Dr. Borg with respect to the 7 preceding stages of personality development?

1. Infancy

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2. Early Childhood

Second year of life.

Crisis: Autonomy vs. shame and doubt.

Successful resolution: Occurs when toddlers acquire a sense of independence stemming from their self-control.

Basic strength: Willpower (the determination to exercise free choice as well as self-restraint).

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3. Preschool

3 – 5 years of age.

Crisis: Initiative vs. guilt.

Successful resolution: Occurs when young children feel that they can take action to pursue their desires or urges.

Basic strength: Purpose (the courage to pursue valued goals without fear of punishment).

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4. School Age


Crisis: Industry vs. inferiority.

Successful resolution: Occurs when children feel that they can master tasks of the “tool world” (i.e., tasks associated with the practical work-related world,

including tasks at school).

Basic strength: Competence (the belief that one has the dexterity and intelligence required to complete meaningful tasks).

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5. Adolescence


Crisis: Identity vs. identity confusion.

Successful resolution: Occurs when adolescents develop an integrated and consistent self-view (i.e., one that is seen similarly by oneself and others).

Basic strength: Fidelity (the ability to be true to oneself and to significant others despite contradictions in value systems across roles and relationships).

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6. Young Adulthood


Crisis: Intimacy vs. isolation.

Successful resolution: Occurs when young adults feel that they can merge with another individual

without losing their personal identity.

Basic strength: Love (a mutual devotion with another individual that is greater than any antagonism between the identities of each individual in the partnership).

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7. Adulthood


Crisis: Generativity vs. stagnation.

Successful resolution: Occurs when adults feel that they are able to guide, nurture, and contribute to the development of the next generation.

Basic strength: Care (a broad concern for others that extends beyond the narrowness of self-concern).

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According to Horney’s theory, what are: (a) the safety need,

(b) basic hostility, (c) basic anxiety, and (d) neurotic needs?

• Horney’s view of personality development differs from Freud’s view in 1 broad way: In contrast to Freud who emphasized the role of unconscious conflicts in personality development, Horney emphasized the role of interpersonal conflicts in personality development.

• Horney believed that people are motivated by a desire for love and a need for security.

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• Safety Need

A need for security (or freedom from fear) that is universally experienced by children.

According to Horney, the need is satisfied among children whose parents demonstrate “genuine love.”

In contrast, the need is not satisfied among children whose parents dominate, reject, overprotect, or

overindulge their children.

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• Basic Hostility

Contempt that develops among children whose safety need is not satisfied.

The child’s contempt is directed at his or her parents but is rarely expressed as overt rage. Instead, it is typically repressed.

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• Basic Anxiety

Apprehension that develops among children who repress their basic hostility for their parents.

“An insidiously increasing, all-pervading feeling of being lonely and helpless in a hostile world.”

(Horney, 1937)

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• Neurotic Needs

Strategies that are used by individuals to minimize their basic anxiety.

Horney referred to these strategies as “needs” because individuals who experience basic anxiety compulsively use them in an effort to minimize their apprehension.

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1. The need for affection and approval.

2. The need for a dominant partner.

3. The need for power.

4. The need to exploit others.

5. The need for prestige.

Horney identified 10 neurotic needs:

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6. The need for admiration.

7. The need for achievement.

8. The need for self-sufficiency and independence.

9. The need for perfection.

10. The need to have narrow limits to life.

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What personality types did Horney propose?

• Horney divided the 10 neurotic needs into 3 subsets. Each subset drives the attitudes and behaviours of a distinct “neurotic” personality type.

• The 3 neurotic personality types that Horney proposed are: the compliant personality type, the aggressive personality type, and the detached personality type.

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• Horney maintained that, in the person who is not neurotic, the tendencies to be compliant, aggressive,

and detached are expressed as circumstances warrant.

• In contrast, in the person who is neurotic, only one tendency is dominant and expressed in all circumstances.

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According to attachment theory, what are the 4

infant attachment styles?

• Research on attachment has been extremely prolific over the last 15 years.

• Contemporary research on attachment grew out of the work of John Bowlby, a psychoanalyst from England, and Mary Ainsworth, a professor at the University of Toronto.

• Ainsworth developed the “strange situation” procedure to assess infant attachment.

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• The strange situation procedure (20 minutes in duration):

The parent and child enter the lab, which is set up as a comfortable living room.

The parent sits down and the child is allowed to explore the room.

After a few minutes, an unfamiliar but friendly adult enters the room.

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The parent exits the room, leaving the child alone with the stranger.

After a few minutes, the parent returns to the room and the stranger leaves.

The parent remains in the room with the child for several more minutes, as the child’s reaction is

videotaped.

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• Using this procedure, Ainsworth and her colleagues (1972, 1979) identified 3 infant attachment styles:

1. Secure: Shows relatively little distress when the parent leaves the room and interacts quite willingly with the stranger, secure in the knowledge that the parent will return (66% of the infants).

2. Avoidant: Displays relatively little distress when the parent leaves the room and reacts with indifference when the parent returns, sometimes exhibiting

rejection behaviours (20% of the infants).

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More recent research (e.g., Main & Hesse, 1990) has provided evidence for a fourth attachment style:

4. Disorganized: Appears disoriented or confused by his or her surroundings and displays no coherent pattern of coping.

3. Ambivalent: Becomes very distressed when the parent leaves the room but reacts with ambivalence

when the parent returns, exhibiting both approach and rejection behaviours (14% of the infants).

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• Infants with a secure attachment style tend to have parents who are responsive, affectionate, and

concerned with the stimulation of their babies. In contrast, infants in the other attachment groups tend

to have parents who are unresponsive.

• In general, infants with a disorganized attachment style have been exposed to a chaotic and abusive environment.

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How are attachment styles assessed in adults?

• Bowlby theorized that infant relationships serve as prototypes, producing “internal working models” for later adult relationships.

• Bowlby described internal working models as unconscious expectations about relationships. Recent

theorists have described them as schemas or representations of the self in relation to close others.

The schemas influence expectations, emotions, defenses, and relational behaviour.

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• Consistent with Bowlby’s theory that infant relationships produce internal working models for later adult

relationships, research has found:

(a) a positive correlation between parent-infant attachment style and adult attachment style.

(b) for most people, attachment classifications in infancy correspond to attachment classifications in adulthood.

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• Several methods have been developed to assess the attachment styles of adults:

1. Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985)

A 60 – 90 minute semi-structured interview.

Assesses secure, preoccupied, dismissing, and disoriented attachment styles. These 4 adult attachment styles correspond to the secure, ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized infant attachment styles, respectively.

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Contains 20 questions. Examples:

1. “I'd like you to choose five adjectives that reflect your childhood relationship with your mother. This might take some time, and then I'm going to ask you why you chose them.” (Repeated for father)

2. “To which parent did you feel closest and why? Why isn't there this feeling with the other parent?”

3. “When you were upset as a child, what would you do?”

4. “What is the first time you remember being separated from your parents? How did you and they respond?”

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Scoring the interview involves assessing the coherence of the respondent’s narrative across the 20 questions.

Secure individuals have coherent narratives that are “both believable and true to the listener …. the events and affects intrinsic to early relationships are conveyed without distortion, contradiction or derailment of discourse. The … [respondent] collaborates with the interviewer, clarifying his or her meaning, and working to make sure he or she is understood” (Slade, 1999; 58% of non-clinical mothers).

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Dismissing individuals tend to have extremely brief narratives. Many don't recall memories of childhood. Those who have untoward experiences either deny their occurrence or rationalize their negative feelings (24% of non-clinical mothers).

Preoccupied individuals tend to engage in negative, analytic discussions and therefore tend to have excessively long narratives. They can be extremely devaluing or idealizing of attachment figures. Moreover, their narratives are often entangled and hard to follow (18% of non-clinical mothers).

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Disoriented individuals tend to have narratives marked by lapses in reasoning when discussing losses or experiences of abuse.

2. Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ; Hazan & Shaver, 1987)

Assesses secure, ambivalent, and avoidant attachment styles.

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Contains brief multi-sentence descriptions of each of the 3 attachment styles. The descriptions are

extrapolations of the three infant patterns summarized by Ainsworth et al. (1978).

Respondents are asked to think about their experiences in romantic love relationships and select

the description that best describes how they feel (a categorical response).

See questionnaire administered in class.

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Your “AAQ”

Description A: Avoidant attachment style

Description B:

Description C:

Secure attachment style

Ambivalent attachment style

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Questions That Were Answered In Today’s Lecture


6. How are Erikson’s 8 stages exemplified in the film Wild Strawberries?

7. According to Horney’s theory, what are (a) the safety need, (b) basic hostility, (c) basic anxiety, and (d) neurotic needs?

8. What personality types did Horney propose?

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9. According to attachment theory, what are the 4 infant attachment styles?

10. How are attachment styles assessed in adults?

Psychology 3051 Psychology 305: Theories of Personality Lecture 13.

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