Personality Psychology, Lecture 8Self-Esteem, Narcissism, Attachment Style, and Repression

Professor Ian McGregor

Lecture 8 Outline Erikson’s Final Stages The Learning Assumption (and video) Adult Attachment Styles and Repression Genetics and Parenting Borderline and Narcissistic Personalities Explicit and Implicit Self-Esteem

Quiz Next Week How is insecure attachment learned and how

might it relate to the developmental theories of Rogers, Maslow, Freud, Erikson, Adler, and Horney? (5 marks)

How are emotion and goal regulation related to optimal and stunted psychosocial development? (3 marks)

(total of four double spaced pages for both answers)

Erikson: Psychosocial Development

1. Basic Trust 2. Autonomy 3. Initiative 4. Industry 5. Identity 6. Intimacy 7. Generativity 8. Integrity

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion Adolescents and young adults try to figure out

“Who am I?” They establish sexual, ethnic, and career identities, or are confused about what future roles to play.

Finding self, Piaget, genital, E, O, C, N Erikson’s life Marcia’s identity statuses From success to integrity…the integrity shift Related to self-realization and self-actualization

of Horney, Rogers, and Maslow

Rogers: Client Centered Therapy Reality and congruence Responsibility: Non-directive (autonomy support). Client growth motive—people want to be good!

Organismic valuing process Actualizing tendency

Permission to explore and express feelings Unconditional, non-evaluative positive regard Compassionate perspective-taking—active listening Fully functioning person

Open to wide experience and feelings Present in the here and now (not remote or preoccupied) Organismic trusting Accepts freedom and responsibility for self-direction

Lady of Shalott (Tennyson, 1843, Waterhouse, 1888, 1894)http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/TENNLADY.HTML

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation

Young adults seek companionship and love with another person or become isolated from others.

Caring for another; relatedness; widening circle of concern, coping with the “hell is others,” altruism, N, E, A,O,C

B-love, D-love, I-Thou, perspective-taking, therapeutic climate vs. Horney’s neurotic needs and self-absorption

Relationships and the dialogical self (values and worth). Identity negotiation. Positive illusions.

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation

Middle-age adults are productive, performing meaningful work and raising a family, or become stagnant and inactive.

Caring for society and future; relatedness; still wider circle of concern, A, E, C (family…low O)

Goals beyond death, communal goals and shared reality, disidentification with personal goals (Eastern and Western wisdom traditions)

McAdams’ redemption narratives Promotes Integrity vs. Despair (final stage)

Neoanalytic theories Related to Intimacy and Generativity

Horney’s Neurotic Needs and Coping Strategies Basic anxiety and hostility Moving toward, against, and away “Splitting” and neurotic “striving for glory” Either way, self-absorbed and unable to love others or

be generative Adler’s “social interest”

Socially useful types (versus ruling, leaning, avoiding) Fromm’s “productive mode” (**not required for quiz)

Versus receptive, exploitive, hoarding, manipulating Escapes : authoritarian, destructive, conformist

8. Integrity vs. Despair Older adults try to make sense out of their lives,

either seeing life as a meaningful whole or despairing at goals never reached and questions never answered.

Maturity: self-actualization, integrated meaning Must have capacity to care about and integrate

with other people and society as well as within oneself

Consensus and shared reality

trait

attitude

relationship

culture

role

group

possible-self

goal

trait

attitude

relationshipdefining-memory

value

culture

role

grou

p

possible-self

defining-memorygoal

value

Despair

traits groups

definingmemories

values

rolesrelationships

goals

possibleselves

Integrity

Bowlby and Ainsworth: Attachment Theory

The Learning Assumption Contingencies learned in childhood

persist into adulthood

Harlow’s cloth and metalic mommies Harlow was a colleague of Maslow for a

time at Wisconsin-Madison Low exploration, clingy, socially

stunted, poor mothers

Motivation and Reward in Learning (Video by Neal Miller…search by keyword under streaming video on library search site) http://theta.library.yorku.ca/cgi-bin/video.cgi?nu

m=5498

Adult Attachment Style I want to get closer to others than they seem to want to get to

me—this sometimes seems to scare them away. I often worry about whether my partner truly cares for me. My relations are characterized by obsession, desire for union, emotional highs and lows, extreme sexual attraction, and jealousy. (Anxious)

I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others and find it difficult to trust others completely. Others seem to want to get closer to me than I want to get to them. (Dismissive)

I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on others and having others depend on me. I don't worry too much about others' getting too close to me. My most important love experiences have been happy, friendly, and trusting. I am able to accept and support my partner despite my partners' faults.(Secure)

Dismissive (approach-motivation); Anxious (avoidance-motivation)

Adult Attachment Style Continued Insecurity and distortion of reality after threat Normally ok (i.e., first date) but under stress:

Anxious “move toward” others (35%) Introjection, Altruistic Surrender, Turning Against the Self Oral personality—security seeking Exaggerated distress and intrusive thoughts

Dismissive “move away” from others under stress (15%) Isolation (Intellectualization), Reaction Formation, Denial in Fantasy Anal personality—control, power, superiority seeking Repression and no apparent distress, denial of past traumas

Work groups: both disliked and ineffective over time Preoccupied, lack of perspective-taking, compassion Anxious x Dismissive relationships don’t work Only one longitudinal study: r = .2. Bias? Traits?

Twin Studies on Attachment Style

Big-5 Traits Adult and 2yr old

50 0 50

2 yr old attach(Fonagy et al., 2003)

0 50 50Adult Security(Brussoni et al., 2000)

35 0 65Adult Anxiety(Brussoni et al., 2000)

35 0 65Adult Dismissive(Brussoni et al., 2000)

0 35 65

%Heredity(genetics)

%Shared Environment

(parents)

%Non- Shared Environment

(other relations)

Hope for Change, for Hope? Attachment style affected by previous partner 5 years with a secure security (choose

carefully) Practice noticing “bids” for emotional

connection Psychological therapy: insight and client

centered Notice feelings and body sensations (upside

of N?)Gut feelings vs. rational thought (Jordan’s ISE

research)

Borderline and Narcissistic Personality

Neoanalytic origins: object relations Inappropriate parental mirroring and validation Insecure or grandiose self-preoccupationCompromised ability to relate to others

Clinical Diagnosis of Borderline Personality

Unstable relationships, self-image, and mood, and five or more of:

Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Unstable, intense relationships characterized by extremes of

idealization and devaluation. Unstable self-image or sense of self Dangerous impulsivity (e.g., sex, eating, substances, driving) Suicidal behavior, gestures, threats and self-mutilation Mood reactivity and instability Chronic feelings of emptiness, worthlessness. Difficulty controlling anger Stress, paranoia, dissociative symptoms

Clinical Diagnosis of Narcissism Five or more of the following:

grandiose sense of self-importance preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success,

power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love believes that he or she is "special" and unique requires excessive admiration sense of entitlement interpersonally exploitative lacks empathy often envious of others or believes others are

envious of him or her arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Narcissism Scale Sample Items

I am going to be a great person I am an extraordinary person I know I’m good because everyone keeps telling

me that I amEverybody likes to listen to my stories I insist on getting the respect that is due meThe world would be a better place if I ruled it

Is Narcissism and addiction to self-esteem?

“SHIELDING THE SELF” WITH GRANDIOSE

IDEALS

“SHIELDING THE SELF” WITH GRANDIOSE

IDEALS

Action Identification Theory

System Concepts,

Principles

Programs

Concrete Goals,Behavioral Acts

Ideal Self-Guides

“ESCAPING THE SELF”WITH DISTRACTING CONCRETE EXPERIENCES

Your Gut Feeling: What are the Most Beautiful Letters?

http://selfesteemgames.mcgill.ca/

Implicit Self-Esteem (ISE) Name-Letter Effect Implicit Associations Test:

http://www.yorku.ca/ianmc/iat/iat.htm Maternal over-protectiveness and

unresponsivenessAdult self-reports and parental reports associated

with low implicit self-esteem Narcissism, HESE/LISE, Dissmissive

Approach-motivation—self-idealization