PSYCH 150

FIRST EXAM REVIEWER

Theories of Personality

INTRODUCTION
“Who am I?”

Personality
Persona, which is a mask worn during Greek theater represents the actor’s role
Pattern of relatively stable traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and
individuality to a person’s behavior

What makes me who I am?

 Traits
o Contributes to individual differences
o Makes one act consistently overtime
o Makes behavior stable across different situations
 Characteristics
o Unique qualities of an individual

Why am I me?
 Can we know for sure?
 Theories
o Set of related assumptions that allow ne to use logical deductive reasoning to
formulate testable hypotheses

Elements of Scientific Theory

 Theoretical Constructs
o Basic terms and building blocks
o Describe and explain behavior
 Relational Propositions
o Relationships of the constructs
o Relational statements

Purpose of Having Theories

 Organize and clarify observation
 Providing sense of understanding
 Guiding future research

How useful are the theories?

 Encourage future research
 Can theory be tested
 Integrate current, existing knowledge
 Guide in finding appropriate answers to existing questions
 Consistent with itself
 Is the theory simple and straightforward?

Philosophical Influences to Consider

 Freewill vs. Determinism
o can we choose who to become?
 o How free am I?
 Pessimism vs. Optimism
o Can we function optimally or will we experience conflict all our lives?
 Causality vs. Teleology
o Are we influenced more by our past or our visions of the future?
 Seen vs. Unseen
o Are there unseen forces guiding our behavior?
 Biological vs. Social Influences
o How much does it contribute?
o Does it vary from person to person?
 Uniqueness vs. Similarities
o Which do we focus on?

Issues in the study of Personality

 Theory of personality
 Approach to assessment
 Research procedures for testing personality
 Applications derived from the theory including methods of personality change (therapy)

PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES
SIGMUND FREUD: PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Id, Ego, Superego

Primacy of the Unconscious

Unconscious is the reason behind everything
Psychic Causality
No such thing as a random event in your life
Intrapsychic cause
Critical importance of early experiences

Existence of Drives
Freud used the word drive instead of instinct; not necessarily inherited, but something
already in you when you are born

Structure of Personality
I. Basic Drives
 Constant motivational force that cannot be escaped
 Present since birth
 By-product of the ways by which drives are expressed
 Dimensions of the Drives:
o Impetus – how strong is the drive? (amount of force)
o Source – what part of the body is feeling the tension? Region of the body that is tensed
o Aim – why do you need to do it? (reduce excitement and tension)
o Object – to whom or what will you do what you want to do? Means of satisfaction
 Drives:
o EROS DRIVE
 Sexuality
 Life
  Libido
 Aim: pleasure
 Mouth, genitals, anus
 All pleasurable activity is traceable to the sexual drive
 Primary narcissm – infants
 Secondary narcissm - adolescents
 Love
 Is defined as self love displaced

o THANATOS DRIVE
 Death
 Aggression
 Destruction
 Violence
 Aim: return to inorganic state
 Final aim: self destruction
 Explanation for wars, atrocities, and religious persecution
II. Topography of Mental Life
a. Unconscious
 Drives, motives, feelings that are beyond awareness
 Motivates words, feelings and actions
 There’s a “baul” inside yourself
 Reason for dreams and slips of tongue as well as repression
 “Freudian slips”
 strong sexual and aggressive Eye on Consciousness
drives
 anxiety producing memories Secondary Censor
 unacceptable impulses
 phylogenetic endownment Suppression
o early experiences of (later leads to anxiety)
ancestors that have Primary Censor
been passed onto us
b. Pre-conscious Repression
 Not immediately paid Inappropriate Content
attention to
 Can be retrieved readily
 Sources include image from
conscious to preconscious
 Unconscious images but are pushed down by censors
c. Consciousness
 Mental elements in awareness at any given point
 The only level that is directly available to us
 Includes perceptions
 Medium for sensing external stimuli
 Non-threatening ideas from pre-conscious (disguised from unconscious)
III. Structures of Personality
a. Id
 “It”
 not yet owned component of personality
 resides only in unconscious
 not in contact with reality
  not altered by time or experience
 no concept of morality nor concept of good or evil
 pleasure principle
 think of it as a baby
b. Ego
 “I”
 in contact with reality
 makes decision on precon, uncon, and con levels
 reconciles demands of the id, superego and external environment
 you must have a strong ego
 develops when a child realizes that he is not alone
 reality principle
c. Superego
 More than I
 Morality principle
 Moral and ideal aspects of personality
 Guided by moral/ ideal principles
 No contact with the outside world
 Subsystems:
o Conscience: what NOT to do
o Ego-ideal: what to do
 Think of it as a parent
 Directs ego to repress sexual and aggressive impulses
 Ego goes against conscience = GUILT
 Ego goes against superego = INFERIORITY
 Strives blindly and unrealistically to perfection
 5 or 6 years old development
IV. Anxiety
Psychodynamic
Interaction of different concepts and structures
Felt, affective, unpleasant state with physical sensation
Warns of impeding danger
We need to protect the ego
Neurotic Anxiety
Afraid of id taking control, leading to punishment

Moral Anxiety
Ego vs. Superego, guilt or shame

Realistic Anxiety
Fear, real world events

V. Defense Mechanisms
a. Repression
b. Reaction Formation
c. Displacement
d. Fixation
e. Regression
f. Projection
g. Introjection
h. Sublimation
 VI. Psychosexual Stages
a. Oral Phase (0-2 years old)
 Erogenous zone: mouth
 Oral-receptive phase
o put it in your mouth!
 Feelings of frustration
 Oral-sadistic phase
o Development of teeth: teething
b. Anal Phase (2-3 years old)
 Anus
 Control yourself
 Destruction (early)
 Pleasure (late)
 Anal triad: orderliness, stinginess, obstinacy
 All about control
c. Phallic Phase (3-5 y/o)
 Genitals
 Suppression of masturbation
 Male and female oedipal complex
 Castration complex
 Sexual desire vs. castration
 Formation of the superego
d. Latency Period (5-13 y/o)
 Dormant sexual activity
 Energy outward: school, friends, hobbies
 Neutralized feelings of shame, anxiety (superego) when feeling the eros drive
e. Genital Period (13+)
 Reawakening of sexual aim
 Direct sexual energy towards another person (overcome secondary
narcissism)
 Vagina is sought after by men
f. Maturity
 Balance among id, ego, superego
 Minimal need to repress sexual and aggressive drives
 Blurred boundary line between ego and superego
VII. Applications
The concept of TRANSFERENCE
You become the object the unconscious connects with another unconscious
Healthy since person is enabled to act on a person’s unconscious
Couch
Talk therapy until you reach an insight
Free association
Dream analysis
How unconscious makes itself conscious by disguise
Dreams are royal roads to the unconscious

ADLER: INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

Social Interest
I. The Basic Tenets
1. Striving for success and superiority is the one dynamic force
 Personal superiority vs. success of human kind
 Being born weak and inferior pushes one’s development
 Push: need to overcome inferiority
 Pull: desire for completion
2. Subjective perceptions shape behavior and personality
 Fictions: ideas do not objectively exist but influence people as if they exist
 Teleology: behavior explained in terms of final purpose (future oriented)
 Private logic: you know why you’re doing stuff even if people can’t explain so
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent
 Each is unique and an individual
 Organ dialect
o Disturbance in one part of the body disturbs the whole person
 Harmony between unconscious and conscious
 Unconscious: not clearly formulated or understood
 Conscious: understood and regarded as helpful towards success
4. Value of human activity must be seen in the view point of social interest
 Consider the environment
 Feeling of oneness with human kind
 Incorporate community inside yourself
 “gemenschaftsgefuhl”: community making feeling
 Indicative of psychological health
 Develops from mother-child relationship during infancy
 Mother: develop healthy love relationship for family and others
 Father: avoid emotional detachment and authoritarianism
 Standard for evaluating how useful one’s life is
5. Self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life
 Flavor: goal, self-concepts, feelings for others, attitude to the world
 Heredity x Environment x Creative Power
 Most powerful: creative power
 Established around 4-5 y/o
 Unhealthy: rigid, inflexible in reaching to environment
 Healthy: flexible, can adapt to change, actually trying to solve 3 tasks:
o Love through cooperation
o Occupation though making a difference, and
o Sexual life through personal courage
6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power
 Freedom to create our style of life
 Make it or break it
 You’re responsible for who you are and who you become
 We are the architects of our life and we can choose to create a useful one or
not
II. Normal Development
Courage; ambition
Will power
All these lead to social adjustment
III. Abnormal Development
a. Exaggerated inferiority
 Inferiority complex
o Withdrawal, Victimization
 o Aggressive behavior
b. False feeling of superiority
 Superiority complex
o Withdrawal, pessimism
o Aggressive behavior
c. Abnormal Behavior
Underdeveloped social interest
Setting goals too high
Live in own private world
Rigid/ dogmatic style of life
Over concern about the self
Contributing factors:
 Exaggerated physical deficiencies
 Pampered style of life
 Neglect
d. Safe-Guarding Techniques
 Protect one’s anxiety
 Shield against public disgrace
 Present in neurotic individuals
 Partly conscious
 Examples
o Excuses
 Only protecting yourself
o Aggression
 Depreciation
 Accusation
 Self-accusation
o Withdrawal
 Moving Back
 Stand still
 Hesitating
 Constructing obstacles
IV. Masculine Protest: overemphasis on being manly
V. Applications
Family constellation
Early recollections
Dreams – self-deception
Psychotherapy
Bring up courage
Lower inferiority
Raise social interest!

CARL JUNG: ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Collective Unconscious

I. The Psyche
The whole of being
Seeking growth and equilibrium
II. Levels of the Psyche
a. Conscious
  Ego – center of consciousness
b. Personal Unconscious
 Repressed, forgotten, subliminally perceived experiences (your own)
 Complex – emotionally-toned collective ideas that are associated
 Similar to Freud’s unconscious
c. Collective Unconscious
 Ancestor’s experiences transmitted through generations
 Inherited response tendencies
 Same for everyone
 Contents: archetypes
o Same for everyone
o Emotionally-toned collections of associated images from collective
unconscious
o High emotional charge
o Powerful, compelling effect on individual
o Recurring across eras and cultures
o The Self
 Regulating center of the psyche; facilitates individualization
o Shadow
 Show him own light
 Qualities we don’t want to acknowledge
 Attempt to hide from others
 Knowing the shadow is the first test of courage
 We project our shadow towards other people
o Persona
 Side that you show to the world; how we present ourselves
 Different from the self
o Anima
 Feminine side of men
 Reason behind irrational moods and feelings
 Projected onto partner (for men)
o Animus
 Masculine archetype in women
 Symbolic of thinking and reasoning
 Irrational thinking and illogical opinions
o Great Mother
 Fertility and nourishment
 Power and destruction
o Wise Old Man
 There’s always a guide
 Wisdom and meaning
 Pre-existing knowledge of life’s mysteries
 Can be projected onto the elderly
o Hero
 Powerful person who fights great odds
 Frees one from impotence and misery
 Must have a vulnerability
 There’s one fatal flaw
III. Dynamics of personality
Causal (past)
 Teleological (Future)
Progression (move forward)
Regression (inwards or towards oneself)
IV. Psychological Types
Predisposition to behaving in a certain way
Extravert
Turn outward
Objective
Introvert
Turn inward
Subjective
Function
Thinking (outward)
Logical/ individual activity
Feeling (inward)
Evaluate idea/ event
Sensing (outward)
Perceive through senses
Intuiting (inward)
Perception beyond consciousness
Main function
Two secondary functions
One Inferior function
8 Basic Personality Types
 Extraverted Thinking
o Scientists, economists
o Reality, order, laws
 Introvert Thinking
o Philosophers
 Extravert Feeling
o Talk show hosts, movie stars
 Introvert Feeling
o Mysterious
o Monks, nuns, musicians
 Extravert Sensation
o Adventurers, builders, speculators
 Introvert Sensation
o Connoisseurs, athletes
o Sense impression
 Extravert Intuition
o PR people, adventurers
 Introvert Intuition
o Mystics and poets

V. Development of Personality
a. Childhood (infancy -> puberty)
 Anarchic; you can’t understand the world; chaotic
 Monarchic
 Dualistic
o Ego divided into the objective and subjective
 b. Youth (puberty -> middle life)
 Gain psychic and physical independence from parents
 Overcome conservative principle
c. Middle Life
 What happens now?
 Surrender lifestyle of youth
 Begin to become introverted to expand consciousness
d. Old Age
 Psychological rebirth
 Self-realization
 Preparation for death
e. Individualization
Ultimate goal
Process of becoming whole
Assimilated unconsciousness into personality

KAREN HORNEY: PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIAL

Basic Anxiety and Basic Hostility

I. Introduction
Culture and childhood experiences lead in shaping personality
Modern culture is based on competition; we have to get ahead
The development of Neuroses:
1. Competition and basic hostility (as early as infants)
2. Feelings of isolation
3. Need for affection
4. Overvaluing love
5. Love and affection is the solution to all problems
6. Desperate need for love
7. Low self-esteem, high hostility, basic anxiety, high competitiveness, high need
for love and affection

II. Contribution of Culture to Personality

Kinship, humility, aggressiveness, superiority
Demand for success and achievement
Illusion of freedom through hard work vs. determinist genetics, partner’s competitiveness

III. Basic Hostility and Basic Anxiety

Basic Hostility – dissatisfaction of need for safety and security
Basic Anxiety – feeling of being isolated and alone in a potentially hostile world
Protection against basic anxiety
Affection
Submissiveness
Striving for Power, Prestige, Possession
Withdrawal

IV. Compulsive Drives

Neurotic Needs:
Need for affection and approval
Need for a powerful partner
 Need to restrict one’s life within narrow borders
Need for power
Need to exploit others
Need for social recognition or prestige
Need for personal admiration
Need for ambition and personal achievement
Need for self-sufficiency and independence
Need for perfection and unassailability

Neurotic Trends
Moving Toward Others
To satisfy first two
Moving Against Others
Satisfies third to eighth
Moving Away From Others
Satisfies last two

Normal vs. Neurotic Growth

Normal Neurotic
Conscious of needs/ strategies Unaware of behavior
Freedom to choose actions Forced to act
Mild Conflict Severe and insoluble conflict
Variety of strategies Limited to a single trend

V. Intrapsychic Conflicts
Final aim: Self-Realization
Idealized Self – extravagantly positive view of the self that exists early in belief system
Standard for self-evaluation
Aspects:
Search for Glory
Neurotic Claims (self entitlement)
Neurotic Pride
Self-Hatred
Relentless demands on self
Self-accusation
Self-contempt
Self-frustration
Self-torment
Self-destructive actions

MELANIE KLEIN: OBJECT RELATIONS

HENRY MURRAY: PERSONOLOGY
Needs Drive Personality

Personality is rooted in the brain

People act to reduce tension they feel; the mere act of reduction is satisfying
No need to live in a tension-free world
We need tension
Personality continues to develop overtime
Each person is unique but also similar to others

Id, Ego, Superego Concept

Id - innate, impulsive tendencies; empathy, love, mastery of environment
Superego – shaped not only by parent – child interaction but also by culture, literature
Ego – rational governor of personality not a slave to the id

We all have needs

Arouse a level of tension which individual tries to satisfy
Needs energize and direct behavior
Needs differ in terms of urgency
Press- situational and environmental influence or behavior

Power
Abasement (passive submission to external force)
Achievement
Deference (respect what others say/ acknowledge someone greater)
Dominance
Rejection (need to exclude other people)
Social
Affiliation
Aggression
Exhibition (need to show off)
Infravoidance (need to avoid humiliation or failure)
Nurturance (need to take care of others)
Succorance (need to be taken care of)
Dignity
Autonomy (need for independence)
Counteraction (need to make “bawi”)
Defendance (need to defend yourself from others)
Survival
Harm avoidance
Sex (need to reproduce, pleasure)
Other
Play
Order
Understanding
Sentience (sensual pleasure)
Types of Needs
Primary: for survival; arise internally
Secondary: develops from primary needs
Reactive: aroused from environmental cues only
Proactive: spontaneous and independent of environment

Complexes: each stage leaves a mark on our personality

Claustral
Insupport (fear of open spaces)
Simple claustral (inside womb)
Anti-claustral/ eggression (need to be free)
Oral
 Anal rejection (dirty, unorganized, etc)
Anal retention (hoarding, over-controlling)
Urethral
Excessive ambition
Aiming too high
Genital
Fear of castration (unable to assert yourself)

ERIK ERIKSON: POST-FREUDIAN THEORY

Psychosocial Stages

I. Ego
 Synthesis of past, present and perceptions of the self
 Has ability to unify experiences and actions adaptively
 Emerges from and is largely influenced by society
 Developed by adolescence
 Ego and identity is basis of personality
 Body Ego: comparing yourself physically with others
 Ego Ideal: Ideal self that we want to achieve; source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction
 Ego identity: image of self in different social roles

II. Psychosocial Stages

 Epigenetic Principle
 Ego develops in a pre-determined role in a fixed sequence
 Stage is built upon, but does not replace earlier stage
 Dialectal
 Psychological health is founded on resolution of conflict between antithetical
stages (syntotic vs dystonic)
 Both harmonious and disruptive events are necessary for proper adaptation
 Basic strength – arises from resolution of conflict
 Core pathology – underdeveloped strength

Stage Psychosexual Psychosocial Basic Strength Core Pathology Significant
Mode Crisis Relations
Old Age Generalization Integrity vs. Wisdom Disdain All humanity
of sexual Despair
modes
Adulthood Procreativity Generosity vs. Care Rejectivity Divided labor
Stagnation and shared
household
Young Genitality Intimacy vs. Love Exclusivity Sexual
Adulthood Isolation partners,
friends
Adolescence Puberty Identity vs. Fidelity Role Peer Groups
identity Repudiation
confusion
School Age Latency Industry vs. Competence Inertia Neighborhood,
Inferiority school
Play Age Infantile Initiative vs. Purpose Inhibition Family
 genital- Guilt
locomotors
Early Anal-urethral- Autonomy vs. Will Compulsion Parents
Childhood muscular shame/ doubt
Infancy Oral- Basic trust vs. Hope Withdrawal The Mothering
respiratory: Mistrust one
sensory-
kinesthetic

III. Identity Crisis

Turning page of increased vulnerability and potential
Opportunity for adaptive or maladaptive adjustment

Crisis Experienced?
Yes No
Commitment Yes Identity Foreclosure
Made? achievement
No Moratorium Identity Confusion

ERICH FROMM: HUMANISTIC PSYCHOANALYSIS

The Human Dilemma
I. Introduction
Individual Personality can only be viewed in the light of human history
The Human Dilemma: we are isolated from the natural world and we’re aware of this
Impossible Dichotomies
Life and death
Goal of self realization but life its too short
Alone but cannot tolerate isolation
II. Human Needs
a. Relatedness – drive for reunion with others
 Productive: LOVE
o Individuality and integrity
 Unproductive: Submission
o Becoming something bigger than the self
o Power: symbiotic relationship with submissive other
b. Transcendence – passive accidental existence -> purposefulness and freedom
 Productive: Create
o Create activities and care about what’s created
 Unproductive: Destroy
o Rise above slain victims
o Malignant Aggression: killing beyond what’s necessary for survival
c. Rootedness
 Feeling at home with the world
 Productive: relating to the world to become whole
 Unproductive: Reluctance to move from mother’s security (fixation)
d. Sense of Identity
 Capacity to be aware of the self as a separate entity
 Productive: Individuality
 Unproductive: Conformity
 e. Frame of Orientation
 Make sense of events and phenomenon
 Productive: Strive towards rational goals
 Unproductive: Strive towards irrational goals
III. The Burden of Freedom
i. Reason is a curse and a blessing
ii. Reason is responsible for our feelings of isolation
iii. But through reason, we can be reunited with the world
iv. Basic anxiety
o Being alone in the world w/o mother’s security
v. Mechanisms of escape
o Authoritarianism
o Give up independence
o Masochism: powerlessness, weakness, inferiority
o Sadism: make others dependent on self
o Destructiveness
o Feelings of aloneness and isolation; rejection
o Conformity
o Give up ones individuality
vi. Positive Freedom
o Free and not alone
o Critical but not filled with doubts
o Independent but part of society
o Spontaneous and full of expression
o Components: Love and Work
IV. Character Orientations
Permanent ways of uniting with people and things
Personality is inherited and acquired, psychic qualities of an individual that makes him or
her unique
Character: patterns of relating to
Permanent
Non instinctual stirrings; not born with; man’s means of relating to the world
Nonproductive character orientations
Fails to move closer to positive freedom and self realization
1. Receptive
 source of good lies outside of self
2. Exploitative
 Aggressively taking what is desired without consideration
3. Hoarding
 Possess rather than letting it go
4. Marketing
 Seeing self as a commodity
 No sense of individuality
 I am as you desire me
Productive character orientations
Dimensions: working, loving, reasoning
Work is creative self-expression
Concerned interest in another person or object

HUMANISTIC/ EXISTENTIAL THEORIES

The Third Force: Phenomenological or Humanistic Psychology

ABRAHAM MASLOW: HOLISTIC-DYNAMIC

We are Motivated by Needs
I. Nature of Needs
Holistic: The whole individual, not just parts, is motivated
Complex: multiple possible motives for a single behavior
Continuing: continually motivated
Universal: needs are universal, ways of satisfying them are many
Hierarchic: lower needs are more basic while higher ones are less basic to survival
II. Hierarchy of Needs
1) Physiological Needs
a. Recurring
b. Not satisfied: hunger, death, fatigue, sickness
2) Safety and Security
a. Cannot be over satisfied
b. Basic anxiety
c. Not satisfied: fear, paranoia, stress, suspicion, dread, helplessness
3) Love and Belongingness
a. Adequately satisfied
b. Incapable of love
c. Strongly motivated to seek more
d. Unsatisfied: loneliness, insecurity, indifference
4) Esteem Needs
a. Reputation
b. Self-esteem
c. Unsatisfied: doubts, inferiority, dependence
5) Self-Actualization
a. Unsatisfied: metapathology
i. No purpose in life, meaningless life
ii. Due to lack of opportunities for self-actualization
6) Other Needs
a. Aesthetic Needs
Non-universal
Need for beauty and aesthetically pleasing experiences
Failure: sick
b. Cognitive Needs
Desire to know, solve mysteries, be curious
Necessary to fulfill other needs
c. Neurotic Needs
Non-productive; not contributing to style of life or living way; but only for
themselves
No value for self-actualization
d. Insticntoid Needs
Innately determined
Thwarting produces pathology
Persistent
Satisfaction leads to psychological health
Species specific
 Can be molded, inhibited by the environment
III. General Discussion of Needs
Needs
Higher level needs develop higher to the evolutionary ladder
Higher level needs develop later in the lifespan
Higher level needs produce more happiness and peak experiences
A person who has reached self-actualization would have no motivation to return to
a lower stage of development

IV. Self Actualization

Free from psychopathy
Progressed through hierarchy of needs
Embraces Being values (B-values)
Full use of talents, capacities and potentialities
Characteristics of Self-Actualizers
 More efficient perception of reality
 Accepts self, others and nature
 Spontaneous, simple and natural
 Interested in problems outside themselves
 Detached but not lonely
 Autonomous
 Freshness of appreciation
 Peak experiences
 Profound interpersonal relationships
 Friendly and considerate with other people
 Willingness to learn from them
 Distinguish between means and ends
 Non hostile humor
 Creative
 Transcends cultural norms and transactions
Being values (B-values)
Indicators of Psychological Health
 Truth
 Goodness
 Beauty
 Wholeness or transcendence of dichotomies
 Aliveness and spontaneity
 Uniqueness
 Perfection
 Completion
 Justice and order
 Simplicity
 Totality
 Effortlessness
 Self-sufficiency
 Thwarting leads to existential illness

CARL ROGERS: PERSON-CENTERED

All human beings have the innate capacity to become whole, fully functioning persons. However, there are
conditions for this:
 A. Congruence
B. Unconditional Positive Regard
C. Emphatic Positive Regard
I. Person-Centered Theory
Basic Assumptions
 Formative Tendency
o Tendency of all matter to evolve from simple to more complex forms
 Actualizing Tendency
o To move towards completion or fulfillment of potentials (humans)
 Actualization involves the whole person
o Physiological and intellectual
o Rational and emotional
o Conscious and unconscious
 Realized only under certain conditions of congruence or authentic
relationships, empathy and unconditional positive regard
The Self and Self-Actualization
Self-Subsystems
 Self Concept
o All aspects of one’s being and experiences that are perceived in
awareness
 Ideal Self
o Ones view of self as one wishes to be
Match = Harmony
Unmatched = Anxiety
Awareness
Symbolic representation of some portion of our experience (not always verbal
symbols); Also synonymous with consciousness/ symbolization
Level of Awareness
Below the threshold
o Ignored
o Denied
o Subception: perceived but not accepted into awareness
Accurately Symbolized
o Non-threatening
o Consistent with existing self-concept
Distorted Form
o Not consistent with view of self
o Reshaped to be assimilated into self
Denial of Positive Experiences
Needs
Maintenance
 Satisfaction of basic needs
 Resist change and seek status quo
Enhancement Needs
 Need to become more, develop and achieve growth
 Willingness to learn things that are not immediately rewarding
Need for Positive Regard
 Need to be loved, liked or accepted by another person
Need for Positive Self Regard
 After self has emerged
 Becoming A Person
Make contact
Need to be loved, liked, and accepted by the others through positive regard
Prizing and valuing oneself
Autonomous and self-perpetuating
Barriers to Physical Health
A. Conditions of Worth
 Love and acceptance comes only after you fulfill certain conditions
 Criterion by which people accept of reject their experiences
 External evaluation don’t foster psychological health but prevent us from
being completely open to their own experiences
B. Psychological Stagnation
 Incongruence
 Vulnerability
o Unaware of the discrepancy between organismic self and significant
experience
 Anxiety
o State of uneasiness or tension whose cause is unknown
 Threat
o Awareness that their self is no longer whole/ congruent
C. Defensiveness
 Distortion
o Misinterpret an experience in order to fit into some aspect of self-
concept
 Denial
o People refuse to perceive an experience of awareness
D. Disorganization
 Incongruence between people’s perceived self and organismic experience is
too obvious or too sudden to be denied
 Inconsistent, unpredictable behavior because of shattered self-concept

Self Actualization and Positive Unconditional Regard Self –Actualization

Regard Conditional Regard ???

II. Psychotherapy
Person Centered Therapy
 “Person Centered”
 Therapist cannot possible understand clients as well as clients understand
themselves
 Clients rather than the therapists are responsible for changing themselves
 Therapists provide the atmosphere with which clients are able to help themselves
 Conditions
1. Counselor Congruence
2. Unconditional Positive Regard
3. Emphatic Listening
 Process
o Stages of Therapeutic Change
o Theoretical Explanation
If the following conditions exist:
 Vulnerable client
Contacts counselor who possesses
Congruence in the relationship,
Unconditional positive regard, and
Emphatic understanding for the client’s internal frame of reference
Client perceives conditions 3,4,5 the 3 necessary and sufficient
conditions for therapeutic change
Then the following changes will occur and the client will
Become more congruent
Be less defensive
Become more open to experience
Have more realistic experience of the world
Develop positive self regard
Close gap between ideal self and real self
Be less vulnerable to threat
Become less anxious
Take ownership of experiences
Become more accepting of others
Become more congruent in relations with others
 STAGES
1. Unwillingness to communicate about oneself
2. Client becomes slightly less rigid
3. Client talks more freely about self although still as an object
4. Client begins to talk of deep feelings but not ones presently felt
5. Client undergoes significant change and growth
6. Client experiences dramatic growth and an irreversible movement towards
becoming fully functioning (end of therapy)
7. Outside therapeutic encounter, become fully functioning persons of tomorrow
III. The Person of Tomorrow
 More adaptable
 Open to their experiences
 Live fully in the moment
 Harmonious relationship with others
 More integrated
 Basic trust
 Greater richness in life