SULLIVAN INTERPERSONAL

THEORYRespond Efficiently to Different Behavior

Harry Stack Sullivan

1892-1948

Sullivan’s CORE IDEAS First American to construct a Comprehensive

Personality Theory

Emphasizes childhood friendships in the

formation of personality

- Chumship, intimacy, & Security Personality is shaped from our relationships with

others Personality can never be isolated from the complex of

interpersonal relations in which the person lives

- i.e., Personality cannot be separated from our social worlds

Sullivan’s Background Sullivan was born in 1892 in Norwich,

New York the son of a poor working man and farmer He grew up isolated, and was a loner Obtained his MD at 25 from a small Chicago medical school, then was a psychiatrist at a mental hospital in Maryland

Viewed as a ―clinical wizard‖ in the treatment of schizophrenia

Never Married He moved from obscurity to fame in

8 years

Tensions

potentially for action or actions themselves (i.e., energy transformations) that may not be experienced in awareness.

Needs

Tensions brought on by a biological imbalance between the person and the physiochemical environment, both inside and outside the organism.

Can be physiological or interpersonal The most basic interpersonal need is that of

tenderness.

Anxiety

Anxiety is the chief disruptive force blocking our development of good interpersonal relations.

anxiety is disjunctive and calls for no consistent actions for its relief.

Energy Transformation

Tensions that are transformed into actions, either overt or covert. Needs to represent an imbalance between biology and the

environment that signal the individual to engage in action.

Anxiety & Energy Transformations

3 Major Dynamisms

3 Self Personifications

7 Developmental Stages

Abnormality

Concept of Humanity

DYNAMISM Typical behavior

patterns that characterize a person throughout a lifetime.

DYNAMISMSDisjunctive/

malevolent – negative interpersonal behaviorConjunctive/ intimacy – positive interpersonal behaviorIsolating/ Lust – unrelated to interpersonal

The ways in which an individual typically meets his or her needs or deals with anxiety

wishing evil to others.

Malevolence

Disjunctive destructive patterns of behavior related to malevolence. Feeling of living among one‘s

enemies Arises around age 2 or 3

Caused by parental neglect or rejection

Conjunctive beneficial patterns of behavior such as intimacy and the self- system.

Intimacy Dynamism

Grows out of early needs for tenderness

Emerges in the “chumship”

Prepubescent best friend relationship with a peer of equal status Decreases anxiety and

loneliness

Isolating patterns of behavior that are unrelated to interpersonal behavior (e.g., lust).

Isolating Dynamism

Self-centered needs

Based largely on sexual gratification

PERSONIFICATIONS

Representations of self and other

Mental images that we acquire during development to help us understand ourselves and the world

A cognitive approach to understanding personality.

Personifications help maintain emotional equilibrium and reduce anxiety Separation of the good vs.

badSelf Personifications

The Bad Me

The Good Me

The Not Me

grows from experiences of punishment and disapproval

THE BAD ME

Recalling an embarrassing moment

Represents those aspects of the self that are considered negative and hidden from others and possibly the self.

Anxiety results from recognition of the bad me

Guilt about a past action

results from experiences with reward and approval

THE GOOD ME

Experiences associated with tenderness and intimacy

Everything we like about ourselves

The part of us we share with others and prefer to focus on because it produces no anxiety

Persona ?

anxiety provoking experiences that invoke security operations may become dissociated from self to form the not-me.

THE NOT ME

Security operations = Sullivan‘s concept of defense mechanisms

Experiences that are denied

Experiences that are kept out of awareness and repressed Acknowledging not-me experiences

creates high anxiety/ negative emotion.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Personality continues to evolve from infancy through adulthood

Each stage involves specific interpersonal challenges or tasks, and specific types of interpersonal relationships

Personality change is most likely during the transitions between stages

7 Developmental

StagesInfancy

Childhood

Juvenile Era

Preadolescence

Early Adolescence

Late Adolescence

Adulthood

A. Infancy

Stages of DevelopmentTenderness from mothering oneLearns anxiety from the mother through empathyB. ChildhoodImaginary playmate (i.e., eidetic personification) Practice social relations/ rehearsal

Safe, secure relationships to practice with no threat of negative consequences

C. Juvenile EraNeed for peers of equal status

Children learn how to compete, compromise, and cooperate.

F. Late Adolescence

Stages of Development III

Feel both intimacy and lust toward the same person

G. Adulthood

Person establishes a stable relationship with a significant other person.

Learn how to live in the adult world Discovery of self

ABNORMALITY

MENTAL DISORDERS

Psychotherapy

All mental disorders have an interpersonal origin and can be understood only with reference to the person‘s social environment.

Interpersonal theories emerge in 1980‘s and 1990‘s

Promoted Interpersonal Psychotherapy Pioneered the notion of the therapist as a participant observer. Originated Group Psychotherapy

CONCEPT OF HUMANITY

Sullivan saw personality as being largely formed from interpersonal relations.

Theory emphasizes:

Insisted that humans have no existence outside the interpersonal situation.

social influences over biological ones;

Rates high on unconscious determinants,

average on free choice, optimism, and causality,

and low on uniqueness