Sullivan Interpersonal Theory: Respond Efficiently To Different Behavior
Sullivan Interpersonal Theory: Respond Efficiently To Different Behavior
Sullivan Interpersonal Theory: Respond Efficiently To Different Behavior
1892-1948
SULLIVAN INTERPERSONAL
THEORY
FREUD SULLIVAN
Personality
Purely hypothetical entity
Cannot be observed or studied apart from interpersonal
situations
Other person need not be present – can be illusory or non-
existent figure
Perceiving, remembering, thinking, imaging and all other
psychological processes are interpersonal in character.
“Psychiatry is the study of phenomena that occur in interpersonal
situations, in configurations of two or more people all but one of
whom may be more or less completely illusionary” 1964, pg 33
Unit of study is interpersonal situation and not the person
Structure of Personality
Though hypothetical, personality is at the
dynamic centre of various processes that occur
in a series of interpersonal fields
Dynamisms
Dynamism of Self / Self-system
Personifications
Cognitive processes
Dynamics of Personality - Tensions
anxiety is disjunctive and calls for no consistent actions for its relief.
Anxiety is the chief disruptive force
blocking our development of good
interpersonal relations.
Energy Transformation
provokes
NEED Creates TENSION
Energy
SATISFACTION Transforming which
dissipate Tension
DYNAMISM
- Security Operations-
The Bad Me
A cognitive approach to
understanding personality. The Good Me
The Not Me
PERSONIFICATIONS
grows from experiences of punishment and
disapproval
Represents those aspects of the self that are
considered negative and hidden from others and
possibly the self.
Persona ?
anxiety provoking experiences that invoke
security operations may become dissociated
from self to form 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.
Development of
Mental theory
Cognitive
Social
Cognitive Development
Prototaxic Mode Parataxic Mode Syntactic Mode
Infancy + Early Early Childhood Development of
childhood Language + Consensual
validation
• Disconnected • Momentary • Logical order
Momentary Experiences between
Experiences as recorded in experiences
totalities sequence • Temporal
• No temporal • Apparent sequencing
relationship connection present
• No meaning for • Symbolic / Co- • Logical connections
experiencing person incidental • External validity
connections • Internal Consistency
• Logic absent
Mystical experiences, Transference, Normal mature thinking
Schizophrenic fusions paranoid ideation
7 Developmental
Stages Each stage involves specific
interpersonal challenges or tasks, and
Infancy specific types of interpersonal
Childhood relationships
Juvenile Era
Preadolescence Personality change is most likely during
the transitions between stages
Early Adolescence
Late Adolescence
Personality continues to evolve from
Adulthood infancy through adulthood
C. Juvenile Era
Need for peers of equal status
Children learn how to compete, compromise, and
cooperate.
D. Pre-adolesence
a time for intimacy with one particular
person, usually a person with the same
gender.
boy-boy or girl-girl chumships.
E. Early Adolesence
G. Adulthood
Person establishes a stable relationship
with a significant other person.
F. Late Adolescence
Feel both intimacy and lust toward the
same person
Learn how to live in the adult world
Discovery of self
G. Adulthood
Person establishes a stable relationship
with a significant other person.
Development Age Cognitive Mode Primary Need Effects of
Era Anxiety
Adolescence
33 Puberty onwards Syntactic -do- + lust
MENTAL DISORDERS
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
Psychotherapy
Promoted Interpersonal Psychotherapy
Pioneered the notion of the therapist as
a participant observer.
Originated Group Psychotherapy
ABNORMALITY
Sullivansaw personality as being largely formed from
interpersonal relations.
Insisted that humans have no existence outside the interpersonal situation.
Theory emphasizes:
social influences over biological ones;
CONCEPT OF HUMANITY