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