Copy of Sullivan's Theory

Harry Stack Sullivan's Interpesonal Theory

- Needs are brought on by biological imbalance between a person and the physiochemical environment.

- Needs are episodic.

- The most basic interpersonal need is TENDERNESS. Maybe a GENERAL NEED or a ZONAL NEED.

• Anxiety is disjunctive, more diffuse and vague, and calls forth no consistent actions for its relief

• Anxiety is transferred from parent to infant through the process of EMPATHY.

• Chief disruptive force clocking the development of healthy interpersonal relations

• Unwanted and Undesirable

• Same as traits or habit patterns.

Two major classes: related to specific zones of the body and those related to tensions which has three categories:

* DISJUNCTIVE: destructive patterns of behavior that are

• related to the concept of malevolence

* ISOLATING: behavior patterns that are unrelated to

interpersonal relations (lust)

* CONJUNCTIVE: beneficial behavior patterns such as intimacy

& the self-system

• Means in which people tend to defend themselves against interpersonal tensions

• Two types:

- dissociation: impulses, desires, and needs that a person

refuses to allow into awareness

- selective inattention: refusal to see things that we do

not wish to see

• Begin in infancy and continue through developmental stages
• Three basic personifications:

- The bad-mother

- The good-mother

- the me

• Eidetic Personifications

- unrealistic or imaginary friends that many children invent

to protect self-esteem

2) Parataxic- prelogical experiences result when one assumes a cause-effect relationship between 2 events that occur coincidentally

-parataxic distortion- belief that cause & effect relationship exists

between 2 events in close proximity

Lust

Needs

Malevolence

Security Operations

• Isolating tendency requiring no other person for its satisfaction
• Rejection by others increases anxiety and decreases feelings of self-worth

• Dynamism of evil and hatred
• Take the form of timidity, mischievousness, cruelty, or other kinds of antisocial behavior

Self-System

Intimacy

• Most complex and inclusive of all dynamisms
• Consistent pattern of behaviors that maintains people's interpersonal security by protecting them from anxiety

• Dynamism that tends to draw out loving reactions from the other person, decreasing anxiety and loneliness
• Most healthy people desire

4) Preadolescence (8 1/2- 13)

intimacy with one person of same gender "chum"

value peer acceptance

Psychological Disorders

Anxiety

Tensions

5) Early Adolescence (13-15)

genital interest & lust

conflict b/w lust, intimacy & security

All psychological disorders have an interpersonal origin and can be understood only with reference to the paitient's social environment

Sullivan focused the most on Schizophrenia

-Two classes of Schizophrenia

1) included all those symptoms that originate from organic causes

2) included all schizophrenic disorders grounded in situational factors

6) Late Adolescence (15-18)

lust & intimacy toward same person

exchange ideas and learn from others how to live in adult world

• Potentiality for action that may or may not be experienced in awareness.

• Probably all felt tensions are at least partial distortions of reality.

• Two types of tension: needs & anxiety

7) Adulthood (18 - )

establish love with another person

perceptive other other's needs, anxiety & security

Dynamisms

Psychotherapy

Stages of Development

Psychotic disorders come from interpersonal difficulties

Sullivan's approach to therapy was to help the patient improve their relationships with others

Sullivan conducted this therapy on a group of Schizophrenic patients at St. Elizabeth Hospital

1) Infancy (0-2 years)

-mother figure

-good nipple= satisfaction from feeding (good mother)

-bad nipple= anxiety producer, needs not met (bad mother)

-causes good/bad me

Energy Transformations

The Good-Mother

The Bad-Mother

- Tensions that are transformed into actions, either OVERT or COVERT.

- Behaviors that are aimed at satisfying needs and reducing anxiety.

2) Childhood (2-6 years)

parents are individuals

reciprocate emotions

imaginary friends to protect security

• Based on the tender and cooperative behaviors of the mothering one

• Grows out of the infant's experiences with the bad-nipple

The Me

3) Juvenile Era (5 - 8 1/2)

playmates of equal status

compete, compromise, & cooperate

real world is in focus

Chums

References

1. Bad-Me: experiences of punishment and disapproval from mothering one

2. Good-Me: experiences with reward and approval

3. Not-Me: sudden, severe anxiety

Personifications

• http://.ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/155/6/852
• http://www.encyclopedia.com
• Feist, J. & Feist, G. J. (2009). Theories of Personality. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

It's important for children to have a close friend or "chum" to share life's problems

Having a chum to talk to was important in development

Recently this theory was challenged to see if there could be negative outcomes to having chums

Studies found that having these relationships were more postive for boys, and in some ways harmful for girls

Levels of Cognition

1) Prototaxic- experiences that are impossible to verbalize

-infants experience this mainly (hunger & pain)

-adults experience it through momentary sensations

Imaginary Friends

3) Syntaxic- Consensually validated experiences that can be symbolically

communicated

-two or more people agree on the meaning

example: words, language & gestures

Sullivan recognized the importance of having imaginary friends

Recent studies have been done on children having imaginary friends and the results found support Sullivan's theory