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Block 2 Unit 1 Psychodynamic Theory Including Horney and Sullivan

1. Discuss the salient features of Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis.

Freud's theory emphasises the unconscious, psychosexual development, and the structure of personality (id, ego, superego). It includes defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety.

2. Discuss the important features of Karen Horney’s theory of personality.

Horney’s theory focuses on the social foundations of personality, including basic anxiety and neurotic needs. She emphasized self-concept.

3. Critically evaluate Sullivan’s theory of personality.

Sullivan's theory is highly social, emphasizing interpersonal relations as the primary influence on personality. It rates high on unconscious determinants, and low on biological influences.

4. What are the main assumptions of psychodynamic theory of personality? On what account Freud’s theory can termed as the leading psychodynamic theory?

Psychodynamic theories emphasise the role of the unconscious, early childhood experiences, and internal conflicts in shaping personality. Freud's theory is considered leading due to its pioneering concepts and broad scope.

5. Discuss the main features of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.

Key features include the unconscious mind, the structure of personality (id, ego, superego), defense mechanisms, and the stages of psychosexual development.

6. Explain the structure of personality from psychoanalytic point of view.

From a psychoanalytic view, personality consists of the id (primitive instincts), ego (mediator), and superego (moral conscience).

7. Describe the stages of psychosexual development. What role they play in developing the adult personality?

The sources do not explicitly outline the stages of psychosexual development. Based on outside knowledge, these stages include oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. These stages influence personality development through fixations of libido.

8. What do you mean by defense mechanisms? How they tend to reduce anxiety? Illustrate your answer with suitable examples.

Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies used to reduce anxiety. For example, repression involves blocking out distressing thoughts, and projection involves attributing one’s own feelings to others.

9. Explain the structure of personality in the light of Freudian psychoanalytic theory.

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory proposes a structure of personality with three components: the id, ego, and superego. These interact dynamically, and their functioning shapes an individual’s personality.

Freud's Structural Model of Personality:

• Id: The id is the primitive, unconscious part of the personality, present from birth. It operates on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of basic needs, sexual desires, and aggressive impulses. The id is the source of all psychic energy.

• Ego: The ego develops in response to the id's frustrations, and operates on the reality principle. It mediates between the id’s desires and the external world, using perception, reasoning, and learning. The ego seeks to satisfy the id’s desires in realistic and socially acceptable ways, aiming to maximise pleasure and minimise pain.

• Superego: The superego develops through internalisation of parental and societal moral values. It has two aspects, the ego-ideal, which is the internalisation of parental views on ideal behaviour, and the conscience, which is the internalisation of moral values regarding right and wrong. The superego is responsible for creating feelings of guilt and punishes individuals for violating societal norms and ideals.

10. Describe importance of psychosexual development in shaping the adult personality.

Importance of Psychosexual Development:

Freud's theory posits that personality develops through a series of psychosexual stages, each associated with a particular erogenous zone. Unsuccessful completion of any stage can lead to fixation, meaning that an individual gets "stuck" in a particular stage, impacting adult personality.

• Oral Stage (birth to 18 months): Focus is on oral pleasures (sucking). Fixation can lead to overindulgence (e.g., smoking, overeating) or underindulgence (pessimism, aggression).
• Anal Stage: Focus is on bowel control. Fixation can lead to excessive orderliness or messiness.
• Phallic Stage: Focus is on the genitals, which includes the Oedipal conflict for boys and the Electra complex for girls. Fixation in this stage can result in relationship problems in adulthood.
• Latency Stage: A period of sexual dormancy before puberty.
• Genital Stage: Focus on mature sexual interests and relationships. Adult personality characteristics are determined by the success or failure of navigating each stage. Regression, in which an individual returns to an earlier stage during times of stress, is also possible.

11. What do you mean by defense mechanisms? Give appropriate examples.

Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies that the ego employs to deal with anxiety caused by unacceptable id impulses. Some examples of defense mechanisms are:

• Denial: Refusing to acknowledge reality
• Repression: Pushing disturbing thoughts and feelings out of consciousness
• Regression: Retreating to an earlier stage of development
• Reaction formation: Behaving in a way that is opposite to one's true feelings
• Projection: Attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to others
• Rationalisation: Creating seemingly logical reasons to justify unacceptable behaviour
• Intellectualisation: Dealing with emotional issues in an intellectual and detached way
• Displacement: Redirecting impulses from the original target to a less threatening one
• Sublimation: Transforming unacceptable impulses into constructive activities

12. In the light of Horney’s personality theory describe the concept of basic anxiety and what measures are taken to cope with anxiety.

Karen Horney's Theory and Basic Anxiety:

Horney's theory emphasises the social and cultural influences on personality.

• Basic Anxiety: Basic anxiety arises from childhood experiences of insecurity, helplessness, and isolation in a potentially hostile world. It is a feeling of being isolated and helpless, caused by adverse factors in the environment, which Horney terms "basic evil". These factors can include parental indifference, disparagement, or erratic behaviour. Basic anxiety can lead to basic hostility, which is resentment toward parents.
• Coping Mechanisms: To cope with basic anxiety, Horney identified three broad strategies:
  • Moving-towards (compliance): Seeking affection, approval, and a partner to take over one's life, while restricting one's own life to narrow boundaries.
  • Moving-against (aggression): Reacting with anger to parental indifference or hostility.
  • Moving-away (withdrawal): Resigning from conflict.

13. "Neurotic needs are irrational solutions to the problem". Discuss it in the light of Horney’s personality theory.

Horney proposed that neurotic needs are irrational strategies to cope with basic anxiety. These needs are based on normal needs but become distorted and compulsive. They are an attempt to resolve conflicts associated with basic anxiety. They become central to a person's existence.

14. Evaluate Karen Horney’s theory of self. Explain the main features of Karen Horney’s theory of personality.

Horney proposed two views of the self: 

• Real Self: The core of one's being, representing one's true potential, with strengths and deficiencies. 
• Ideal Self: The type of person one feels they "should" be. 
• Healthy self-actualisation: Occurs when the real self is accurately conceived and one strives towards their potential. 
• Neurotic self: The neurotic individual experiences a split between the idealised self and the despised self, where the real self degenerates, and is perceived as flawed. This can lead to a hopeless "search for glory".

15. On what account does Horney’s theory of personality differ from Freud’s theory of personality? Discuss the importance of neurotic needs in the formulation of Horney’s theory of personality.

Horney reformulated Freudian thought, with a humanistic perspective that emphasised cultural and social influences, human growth, and self-actualisation. She challenged Freud's ideas on the Oedipus complex and penis envy, arguing they resulted from anxiety caused by disturbances in parent-child relationships.

16. What are the main enduring aspects of personality proposed by Sullivan? Discuss the concept of personification in detail.

Sullivan's theory focuses on interpersonal relationships as primary influences on personality. He viewed personality as a hypothetical entity that can only be understood through interpersonal interactions.

Enduring Aspects of Personality:

• Dynamisms: Patterns of behaviour equivalent to traits.
• Self-system: Behaviours that protect from anxiety and maintain interpersonal security. It can stifle personality change.
• Personifications: Mental images of oneself and others developed through interactions. These images can be inaccurate or distorted. Sullivan described three basic personifications: good-me, bad-me, and not-me.

17. What are the main developmental stages in Sullivan’s theory? How do they differ from Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual development? Distinguish between Sullivans’s Developmental epochs and Freud’s stages of psychosexual development.

Sullivan's Developmental Epochs: Sullivan's theory outlines seven stages of development called epochs. These differ from Freud’s psychosexual stages by emphasising social interactions and cognitive representations, and continuing through adolescence and into adulthood. Sullivan also believed that personality change is more likely during transitions between stages. The epochs include infancy, childhood, juvenile era, preadolescence, early adolescence, late adolescence, and adulthood.

Contrast with Freud's Stages: While Freud's stages focus on psychosexual development based on different erogenous zones, Sullivan's epochs emphasize social and interpersonal development, and the impact of relationships on the evolving self.

18. Describe the salient features of Sullivan’s personality theory.

Main Features of Sullivan’s Personality Theory:

• Sullivan's theory is an interpersonal theory of psychiatry because he believed psychiatry is the study of what goes on between people. This is in contrast to Freud’s paradigm that focuses on what goes on inside people.
• He considered relationships as primary.
• He proposed that personality is a hypothetical entity that cannot be observed or studied apart from interpersonal situations.
• Sullivan conceptualised personality as an energy system, with energy existing as either tension or as energy transformations. Tensions are divided into needs and anxiety. Anxiety is the chief disruptive force in interpersonal relations.
• Sullivan recognised three levels of cognition: prototaxic, parataxic and syntaxic. Prototaxic level contains the primitive experience of infants, parataxic experiences are prelogical, and syntaxic experiences can be accurately communicated to others.