TOP NOTES/REVIEWER  Are people ordinarily aware of what they are doing and why they are doing

 Are people ordinarily aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it,
or do unconscious forces impinge on them and drive them to act without
PERSONALITY – is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that
awareness of these underlying forces?
give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior
5. Biological vs. Social Influences
 originated from the Latin word persona, which referred to a theatrical mask  Are people mostly creatures of biology, or are their personalities shaped
worn by Roman actors in Greek dramas to project a role or false appearance largely by their social relationships?
6. Uniqueness vs. Similarities
THEORY - a set of related assumptions that allows scientists to use logical deductive  Is the salient feature of people their individuality, or is it their common
reasoning to formulate testable hypotheses characteristics? Should the study of personality concentrate on those traits
PSYCHOLOGY OF SCIENCE - examines s both science and how scientists’ personalities, that make people alike, or should it look at those traits that make people
cognitive processes, developmental histories, and social experience affect the kind of different?
science they conduct and the theories they create

A useful theory: PERSPECTIVES IN THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

(1) generates research 1. Psychodynamic

(2) falsifiable  focused on the importance of early childhood experiences and on
(3) organizes data relationships with parents as guiding forces that shape personality
(4) guides actions development
(5) internally consistent  sees the unconscious mind and motives as much more powerful than the
(6) parsimonious conscious awareness
2. Humanistic-Existential
Dimensions for a Concept of Humanity  people strive toward meaning, growth, well-being, happiness, and
1. Determinism vs. Free Choice psychological health
 Are people’s behaviors determined by forces over which they have no control,  existential theorists assume that not only we are driven by a search for
or can people choose to be what they wish to be? meaning but also negative experiences, such as failure, awareness of death,
2. Pessimism vs. Optimism death of a loved one, and anxiety, are part of the human condition and can
 Are people doomed to live miserable, conflicted, and troubled lives, or can foster psychological growth
they change and grow into psychologically healthy, happy, fully functioning 3. Dispositional
human beings?  argue that the unique and long-term tendencies to behave in particular ways
3. Causality vs. Teleology are the essence of our personality.
 Causality holds that behavior is a function of past experiences - these unique dispositions, such as extraversion or anxiety, are called
 Teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of future goals or purposes traits
 Do people act as they do because of what has happened to them in the past, 4. Biological-Evolutionary
or do they act as they do because they have certain expectations of what will  the foundation for thought and behavior is biological and genetic forces
happen in the future? - key terms: brain structures, neurochemicals, and genes
4. Conscious vs. Unconscious Determinants of Behavior
  the body, brain, and environment coexist and coevolve, and so what we think,  a term derived from the impersonal pronoun meaning “the it,” or the not-yetowned
feel, and do is always an interaction between nature (biological) and nurture component of personality
(environment)  has no contact with reality, yet it strives constantly to reduce tension by satisfying
basic desires.
5. (Social) Learning Cognitive Theories  serves as the pleasure principle
 Only explanation for behavior is the conditions that create behavior

POST-FREUDIAN THEORY BY ERIK ERIKSON

The Ego
Levels of Mental Life
 The ego, or I, is the only region of the mind in contact with reality
1. Unconscious  The reality principle
 contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness
 explanation for the meaning behind dreams, slips of the tongue, and certain
The Superego
kinds of forgetting, called repression
- Repression: the forcing of unwanted, anxiety-ridden experiences into  represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality and is guided by the moralistic
the unconscious as a defense against the pain of that anxiety and idealistic principles
 portion of our unconscious originates from phylogenetic endowment – the  has two subsystems: the conscience and the ego-ideal
experiences of our early ancestors that have been passed on to us through
hundreds of generations of repetition
Dynamics of Personality
2. Preconscious
 contains all those elements that are not conscious but can become 1. Drives
conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty  operate as a constant motivational force
 comes from two sources:  the various drives can all be grouped under two major headings:
(1) conscious perception (1) sex or Eros (libido)
(2) unconscous (2) aggression, distraction, or Thanatos.
 every basic drive is characterized by: an impetus, a source, an aim, and an object
3. Conscious - impetus is the amount of force it exerts;
 mental elements in awareness at any given point in time - source is the region of the body in a state of excitation or tension;
 ideas can reach consciousness from two different directions: - aim is to seek pleasure by removing that excitation or reducing tension;
(1) perceptual conscious system – acts as a medium for the perception of - object is the person or thing that serves as the means through which the
external stimuli aim is satisfied
(2) from within the mental structure 2. Sex
 the aim of the sexual drive is pleasure
 can take many forms, including narcissism, love, sadism, and masochism.
Provinces of Mind: Id, Ego, Superego  primary narcissism – infants are primarily self-centered, with their libido invested
The Id almost exclusively on their own ego
 secondary narcissism – adolescents often redirect their libido back to the ego and
 during which little or no sexual growth takes place. Then at puberty, a renaissance
become preoccupied with personal appearance and other self-interests of sexual life occurs, and the genital stage is ushered in.
3. Aggression  Psychosexual development eventually culminates in maturity
 aim of the destructive drive, according to Freud, is to return the organism to
an inorganic state
Infantile period (4-5 years)
4. Anxiety
 it is a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation  The infantile stage encompasses the first 4 to 5 years of life and is divided into three
that warns the person against impending danger subphases: oral, anal, and phallic.
 only the ego can produce or feel anxiety, but the id, superego, and external
world each are involved in one of three kinds of anxiety: Three Phases
a. Neurotic – apprehension about an unknown danger 1. Oral phase
b. Moral – stems from the conflict between the ego and the superego  Infants obtain life-sustaining nourishment through the oral cavity, but
c. Realistic – is closely related to fear. It is defined as an unpleasant, beyond that, they also gain pleasure through the act of sucking.
nonspecific feeling involving a possible danger.  During oral-sadistic phase, infants respond to others through biting, cooing,
Defense Mechanisms closing their mouth, smiling, and crying
2. Anal
1. Repression – it forces threatening feelings into the unconscious  the anus emerges as a sexually pleasurable zone
2. Reaction formation – people express the opposite of their true feelings (sometimes  early anal period: children receive satisfaction by destroying or losing
to an exaggerated extent) objects
3. Displacement – redirecting unacceptable urges onto a variety of people or objects  late anal period: they sometimes take a friendly interest toward their feces,
so that the original impulse is disguised or concealed an interest that stems from the erotic pleasure of defecating.
4. Fixation – the permanent attachment of the libido onto an earlier, more primitive  anal character—people who continue to receive erotic satisfaction by
stage of development keeping and possessing objects and by arranging them in an excessively
5. Regression – causes the temporary or long-term reversion of the ego to an earlier neat and orderly fashion
stage of development (instead of handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult 3. Phallic
manner)  a time when the genital area becomes the leading erogenous zone
6. Projection – attributing the unwanted impulse to an external object, usually another  this time, boys and girls experience the Oedipus complex in which they have
person sexual feelings for one parent and hostile feelings for the other.
7. Introjection - people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own
ego
8. Sublimation – redirecting unacceptable desires through socially acceptable channels
9. Rationalization – justifying behaviors by substituting acceptable reasons for less-
acceptable real reasons

Stages of Development

 To Freud, the first 4 or 5 years of life, or the infantile stage, are the most crucial for
personality formation. This stage is followed by a 6- or 7-year period of latency
  People are motivated mostly by social influences and by striving for superiority or
success
 people are largely responsible for who they are
 present behavior is shaped by people’s view of the future
 psychologically healthy people are usually aware of what they are doing and why
they are doing it

Striving for Success

 The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success or
superiority.

Final Goal

 people strive toward a final goal of either personal superiority or the goal of success
for all humankind
 the final goal of either success or superiority toward which all people strive unifies
personality and makes all behavior meaningful
 Creative power – people’s ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own
personality.
Latency Period (4-5 years to Puberty)
Striving Force as Compensation
 boys and girls usually, but not always, go through a period of dormant psychosexual
development  people strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of
 which the sexual instinct is partially suppressed inferiority or weakness
 people are continually pushed by the need to overcome inferiority feelings and
Genital Period (Puberty) pulled by the desire for completion
 reawakening of the sexual aim  The striving force can take one of two courses: personal gain (superiority) or
community benefit (success).
Maturity
Striving for Personal Superiority
 Freud hinted at a stage of psychological maturity in which the ego would be in
control of the id and superego and in which consciousness would play a more  strive for personal superiority with little concern for other people. although they
important role in behavior. may appear to be interested in other people, their basic motivation is personal
benefit

Striving for Success

ADLER: INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
 In contrast, psychologically healthy people strive for the success of all humanity, but
 presents an optimistic view of people while resting heavily on the notion of social they do so without losing their personal identity
interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all humankind.
Subjective Perceptions  The center of our personality which helps us adapt to the various conflicts and crises
of life and keeps us from losing our individuality to the leveling forces of society.
 People's subjective view of the world-not realityshapes their behavior.
 A person’s ability to unify experiences and actions in an adaptive manner.
Fictionalism
Three interrelated aspects of ego
 Fictions are people's expectations of the future. Adler held that fictions guide
1. The body ego
behavior, because people act as if these fictions are true.
- Refers to experiences with our body; a way of seeing our physical self as
Physical Inferiorities different from other people.
2. The ego ideal
 Adler believed that all humans are "blessed" with organ inferiorities, which - Represents the image we have of ourselves in comparison with an established
stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority and move people toward perfection or ideal; it is responsible for our being satisfied or dissatisfied not only with our
completion. physical self but also with our entire personal identity
Unity and Self Consistent of Personality - Ego identity is the image we have of ourselves in the variety of social roles we
play
 Personality is unified and self-consistent
 Adler believed that all behaviors are directed toward a single purpose. When seen in Society’s Influence
the light of that sole purpose, seemingly contradictory behaviors can be seen as  Ego exists as potential at birth, but it must emerge from within a cultural
operating in a self-consistent manner. environment.
Organ Dialect  Pseudospecies: that is, an illusion perpetrated and perpetuated by a particular
society that it is somehow chosen to be the human species.
 People often use a physical disorder to express style of life, a condition Adler called
organ dialect Epigenetic Principle

Conscious  Ego follows the path of epigenetic development, with each stage developing at its
proper time.
 Conscious and unconscious processes are unified and operate to achieve a single  One component part arises out of another and has its own time of ascendancy, but
goal. The part of our goal that we do not clearly understood is unconscious; the part it does not entirely replace earlier components.
of our goal that we fail to fully comprehend is conscious
Basic points regarding stages of psychosocial development
Social Interest
1. Growth takes place according to the epigenetic principle.
 Human behavior has value to the extent that it is motivated by social interest, that 2. In every stage of life there is an interaction of opposites—that is, a conflict between
is, a feeling of oneness with all of humanity. a syntonic (harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive) element.
 Social interest can be defined as an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general
as well as an empathy for each member of the human community. Example: trust (syntonic) vs mistrust (dystonic)
The Ego in Post-Freudian Theory 3. Conflict between the dystonic and syntonic elements produces an ego quality or ego
strength, which Erikson referred to as a basic strength.
 Ego is a positive force that creates a self-identity, a sense of “I.” 4. Too little basic strength at any one stage results in a core pathology for that stage.
 5. Although Erikson referred to his eight stages as psychosocial stages, he never lost  Young children receive pleasure not only from mastering the sphincter muscle
sight of the biological aspect of human development. but also from mastering other body functions such as urinating, walking,
6. Events in earlier stages do not cause later personality development. Ego identity is throwing, holding, and so on.
shaped by a multiplicity of conflicts and events—past, present, and anticipated.  Children develop a sense of control over their interpersonal environment, as
7. During each stage, but especially from adolescence forward, personality well as a measure of self-control.
development is characterized by an identity crisis, which Erikson (1968) called “a  Early childhood is marked by the anal-urethral-muscular psychosexual mode,
turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential” the psychosocial crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt, and the basic
strength of will.
Erikson’s Eight Psychosocial Stages of Development
Anal–Urethral–Muscular Mode – children learn to control their body, especially in relation
1. Infancy
to cleanliness and mobility
 A period encompassing approximately the first year of life and paralleling Freud’s
oral phase of development  A time of contradiction, a time of stubborn rebellion and meek compliance, a time
 A time of incorporation, with infants “taking in” not only through their mouth but of impulsive self-expression and compulsive deviance, a time of loving cooperation
through their various sense organs as well. and hateful resistance.
 Infancy is marked by the oral-sensory psychosexual mode, the psychosocial crisis
Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt
of basic trust versus basic mistrust, and the basic strength of hope.
 As children stubbornly express their anal–urethral–muscular mode, they are likely to
Oral-sensory, a phrase that includes infants’ principal psychosexual mode of adapting.
find a culture that attempts to inhibit some of their self-expression.
 The oral-sensory stage is characterized by two modes of incorporation—receiving  Autonomy grows out of basic trust; and if basic trust has been established in
and accepting what is given: infancy, then children learn to have faith in themselves, and their world remains
(1) Infants can receive even in the absence of other people. intact while they experience a mild psychosocial crisis.
(2) Infants not only must get, but also must get someone else to give.  Shame is a feeling of self-consciousness, of being looked at and exposed.
Doubt, on the other hand, is the feeling of not being certain, the feeling that
Basic Trust versus Basic Mistrust
something remains hidden and cannot be seen.
 If infants’ pattern of accepting things corresponds with culture’s way of giving Both shame and doubt are dystonic qualities, and both grow out of the basic
things, then infants learn basic trust. In contrast, they learn basic mistrust if they mistrust that was established in infancy.
find no correspondence between their oral-sensory needs and their environment
Will: The Basic Strength of Early Childhood
Hope: The Basic Strength of Infancy
 This step is the beginning of free will and willpower—but only a beginning.
 Hope emerges from the conflict between basic trust and basic mistrust.  Inadequate will is expressed as compulsion, the core pathology of early childhood.
 If infants do not develop sufficient hope during infancy, they will demonstrate the  Too little will and too much compulsivity carry forward into the play age as lack of
antithesis or the opposite of hope—withdrawal, the core pathology of infancy. purpose and into the school age as lack of confidence.

2. Early Childhood 3. Play Age

 The second psychosocial stage is early childhood, a period paralleling Freud’s  The third stage of development, a period covering the same time as Freud’s
anal stage and encompassing approximately the 2nd and 3rd years of life. phallic phase—roughly ages 3–5.
  in addition to identifying with their parents, preschool-age children are  School age is marked by the Latency psychosexual mode, the psychosocial crisis
developing locomotion, language skills, curiosity, imagination, and the ability to of industry versus inferiority, and the basic strength of competence.
set goals.
Latency - allows children to divert their energies to learning the technology of their culture
 Play age is marked by the Genital-Locomotor psychosexual mode, the
and the strategies of their social interactions.
psychosocial crisis of initiative versus guilt, and the basic strength of purpose.
 Children begin to form a picture of themselves as competent or incompetent.
Genital-Locomotor Mode – Children have both an interest in genital activity and an
 These self-images are the origin of ego identity – that feeling of “I” or “me-ness”
increasing ability to move around.
that evolves more fully during adolescence.
Initiative versus Guilt
Industry versus Inferiority
 As children begin to move around more easily and vigorously and as their genital
 Industry, a syntonic quality, means industriousness, a willingness to remain busy
interest awakens, they adopt an intrusive head-on mode of approaching the world.
with something and to finish a job.
 Although they begin to adopt initiative in their selection and pursuit of goals, many
 But if their work is insufficient to accomplish their goals, they acquire a sense of
goals, such as marrying their mother or father or leaving home, must be either
inferiority—the dystonic quality of the school age
repressed or delayed. The consequence of these taboo and inhibited goals is guilt.
 Inferiority can serve as an impetus to do one’s best. Conversely, an oversupply of
 The ratio between these two should favor the syntonic quality—initiative. Unbridled
inferiority can block productive activity and stunt one’s feelings of competence.
initiative, however, may lead to chaos and a lack of moral principles. On the other
hand, if guilt is the dominant element, children may become compulsively Competence: The Basic Strength of the School Age
moralistic or overly inhibited.
 Play age is also the stage in which children are developing a conscience and  Competence is the confidence to use one’s physical and cognitive abilities to solve
beginning to attach labels such as right and wrong to their behavior. This youthful the problems that accompany school age.
conscience becomes the “cornerstone of morality”  Struggle between industry and inferiority favors either inferiority or overabundance
of industry, children are likely to give up and regress to an earlier stage of
Purpose: The Basic Strength of the Play Age development – children may become preoccupied with infantile genital and Oedipal
fantasies and spend most of their time in nonproductive play. This regression is
 Children set goals and pursue them with purpose.
called inertia, the antithesis of competence and the core pathology of the school
 Their genital interests have a direction, with mother or father being the object of
age.
their sexual desires.
 Inhibition, which is the antipathy of purpose, constitutes the core pathology of the
5. Adolescence
play age.
 The period from puberty to young adulthood, is one of the most crucial
developmental stages because, by the end of this period, a person must gain a
4. School Age
firm sense of ego identity.
 School age covers development from about age 6 to approximately age 12 or 13
 Erikson (1982) saw adolescence as a period of social latency, just as he saw
and matches the latency years of Freud’s theory.
school age as a time of sexual latency.
 Social world of children is expanding beyond family to include peers, teachers,
 An adaptive phase of personality development, a period of trial and error.
and other adult model.
 Three identity domains—occupational, ideological, and sexual—form the
 For school-age children, their wish to know becomes strong and is tied to their
cornerstone of identity development and exploration during adolescence.
basic striving for competence.
  Adolescence is marked by the puberty psychosexual mode, the psychosocial Defiance is the act of rebelling against authority. Defiant adolescents stubbornly
crisis of identity versus identity confusion, and the basic strength of fidelity. hold to socially unacceptable beliefs and practices simply because these beliefs and
practices are unacceptable.
Puberty – defined as genital maturation, plays a relatively minor role in Erikson’s concept of
Note: Some amount of role repudiation, is necessary, not only because it allows
adolescence.
adolescents to evolve their personal identity but also because it injects some new
 It is important psychologically because it triggers expectations of adult roles yet ideas and new vitality into the social structure.
ahead—roles that are essentially social and can be filled only through a struggle to
attain ego identity. 6. Young Adulthood
 A time from about age 19 to 30—is circumscribed not so much by time as by the
Identity versus Identity Confusion acquisition of intimacy at the beginning of the stage and the development of
 Identity emerges from two sources: generativity at the end.
(1) adolescents’ affirmation or repudiation of childhood identifications and  Young adults should develop mature genitality, experience the conflict between
(2) their historical and social contexts, which encourage conformity to certain intimacy and isolation, and acquire the basic strength of love.
standards. Genitality
 Identity confusion is a syndrome of problems that includes a divided self-image, an
inability to establish intimacy, a sense of time urgency, a lack of concentration on  True genitality can develop only during young adulthood when it is distinguished by
required tasks, and a rejection of family or community standards. mutual trust and a stable sharing of sexual satisfactions with a loved person.
 If we develop the proper ratio of identity to identity confusion, we will have:  It is the chief psychosexual accomplishment of young adulthood and exists only in
(1) faith in some sort of ideological principle an intimate relationship.
(2) the ability to freely decide how we should behave
Intimacy versus Isolation
(3) trust in our peers and adults who give us advice regarding goals and aspirations
(4) confidence in our choice of an eventual occupation  Intimacy is the ability to fuse one’s identity with that of another person without fear
of losing it.
Fidelity: The Basic Strength of Adolescence
 Mature intimacy means an ability and willingness to share a mutual trust. It involves
 The basic strength emerging from adolescent identity crises is fidelity, or faith in sacrifice, compromise, and commitment within a relationship of two equals.
one’s ideology.  Isolation, defined as “the incapacity to take chances with one’s identity by sharing
 The trust learned in infancy is basic for fidelity in adolescence. true intimacy”.
 Hope, along with will, purpose and competence are prerequisites for fidelity.  Too much togetherness can diminish a person’s sense of ego identity, which leads
 Role repudiation, the counterpart of fidelity and the core pathology of adolescence that person to a psychosocial regression and an inability to face the next
that blocks one’s ability to synthesize various self-images and values into a developmental stage.
workable identity.  Too much isolation, too little intimacy, leads to deficiency in the basic strength of
love.
Two forms:
Love: The Basic Strength of Young Adulthood
Diffidence is an extreme lack of self-trust or self-confidence and is expressed as
shyness or hesitancy to express oneself.  Erikson (1968, 1982) defined love as mature devotion that overcomes basic
differences between men and women
  Mature love means commitment, sexual passion, cooperation, competition, and  Care is not a duty or obligation but a natural desire emerging from the conflict
friendship. between generativity and stagnation or self-absorption.
 The antipathy of love is exclusivity, the core pathology of young adulthood. It  The antipathy of care is rejectivity, the core pathology of adulthood which is the
becomes pathological when it blocks one’s ability to cooperate, compete, or unwillingness to take care of certain persons or groups.
compromise—all prerequisite ingredients for intimacy and love.  Rejectivity is manifested as self-centeredness, provincialism, or pseudospeciation:
that is, the belief that other groups of people are inferior to one’s own.
7. Adulthood
 The longest stage of development, spanning the years from about age 31 to 60. 8. Old Age
 A time when people begin to take their place in society and assume  The period from about age 60 to the end of life.
responsibility for whatever society produces.  A time of joy, playfulness, and wonder; but it is also a time of senility, depression,
 Adulthood is characterized by the psychosexual mode of procreativity, the and despair.
psychosocial crisis of generativity versus stagnation, and the basic strength of  The psychosexual mode of old age is generalized sensuality; the psychosocial crisis
care. is integrity versus despair, and the basic strength is wisdom.

Generalized Sensuality – it means to take pleasure in a variety of different physical

sensations—sights, sounds, tastes, odors, embraces, and perhaps genital stimulation.
Procreativity – Refers to more than genital contact with an intimate partner. It includes
assuming responsibility for the care of offspring that result from that sexual contact.  May also include a greater appreciation for the traditional lifestyle of the opposite
sex.
 Ideally, procreation should follow from the mature intimacy and love established
during the preceding stage Integrity versus Despair

Generativity versus Stagnation  At the end of life, the dystonic quality of despair may prevail, but for people with a
strong ego identity who have learned intimacy and who have taken care of both
 Generativity is defined as “the generation of new beings as well as new products
people and things, the syntonic quality of integrity will predominate.
and new ideas”
 Integrity means a feeling of wholeness and coherence, an ability to hold together
 Generativity includes the procreation of children, the production of work, and the
one’s sense of “I-ness” despite diminishing physical and intellectual powers.
creation of new things and ideas that contribute to the building of a better world.
 Despair literally means to be without hope. Despair is in the opposite corner from
 The antithesis of generativity is self-absorption and stagnation.
hope. Once hope is lost, despair follows and life ceases to have meaning.
 The generational cycle of productivity and creativity is crippled when people
become too absorbed in themselves, too self-indulgent. Wisdom: The Basic Strength of Old Age
 However, creative people must, at times, remain in a dormant stage and be
 Erikson (1982) defined wisdom as “informed and detached concern with life itself in
absorbed with themselves in order to eventually generate new growth.
the face of death itself”.
Care: The Basic Strength of Adulthood  The antithesis of wisdom and the core pathology of old age is disdain, which Erikson
(1982, p. 61) defined as “a reaction to feeling (and seeing others) in an increasing
 Erikson (1982) defined care as “a widening commitment to take care of the persons,
state of being finished, confused, helpless.” Disdain is a continuation of rejectivity,
the products, and the ideas one has learned to care for”.
the core pathology of adulthood.
 One must have hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, and love in order to take
care of that which one cares for.
Summary of Erikson’s Eight Stages of the Life Cycle 2. Motivation is usually complex. A person’s behavior may spring from several
separate motives.
3. People are continually motivated by one need or another. When one need is
satisfied, it ordinarily loses its motivational power and is then replaced by another
need.
4. All people are motivated by the same basic needs.
5. Needs can be arranged on a hierarchy.

Hierarchy of Needs

 The lowest and biggest levels

represent the basic and highest-
priority needs that are essential
for survival.
 The five needs composing this
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- hierarchy are conative needs, meaning that they have a striving or motivational
character.
HOLISTIC-DYNAMIC THEORY BY ABRAHAM MASLOW
 Lower level needs have prepotency over higher level needs; that is, they must be
Overview of Holistic-Dynamic Theory satisfied or mostly satisfied before higher level needs become activated.

 Assumes that the whole person is motivated by one need or another

 People have the potential to grow toward psychological health, that is, self- Physiological Needs
actualization.
 The most basic needs of any person.
 The theories of Maslow, Gordon Allport, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and others are
 They are the only needs that can be completely satisfied or even overly satisfied
sometimes thought of as the third force in psychology.
 Recurring nature

Safety Needs
Maslow’s View of Motivation
 Includes physical security, stability, dependency, protection, and freedom from
1. Maslow (1970) adopted a holistic approach to motivation: That is, the whole threatening forces such as war, terrorism, illness, fear, anxiety, danger, chaos, and
person, not any single part or function, is motivated. natural disasters.
  They cannot be overly satisfied  These are not universal, but at least some people in every culture seem to be
motivated by the need for beauty and aesthetically pleasing experiences (Maslow,
1967).
Love and Belongingness
Cognitive Needs
 Such as the desire for friendship; the wish for a mate and children; and the need to
 People have a desire to know, to solve mysteries, to understand, and to be curious.
belong to a family, a club, a neighborhood, or a nation. Love and belongingness also
include some aspects of sex and human contact as well as the need to both give and Neurotic Needs
receive love (Maslow, 1970).
 By definition, neurotic needs are nonproductive. They perpetuate an unhealthy style
 People who have had their love and belongingness needs adequately satisfied from
of life and have no value in the striving for self-actualization. Neurotic needs are
early years do not panic when denied love.
usually reactive; that is, they serve as compensation for unsatisfied basic needs.
 Those who have never experienced love and belongingness, and, therefore, are
 Neurotic needs lead only to stagnation and pathology
incapable of giving love.
 People who have received only a little amount of love have stronger needs for General Discussion of Needs
affection and acceptance than do people who have received either a healthy
amount of love or no love at all.  Maslow estimated that the hypothetical average person has his or her needs
satisfied to approximately these levels: physiological, 85%; safety, 70%; love and
Esteem Needs belongingness, 50%; esteem, 40%; and self-actualization, 10%.
 Includes self-respect, confidence, competence, and the knowledge that others hold Reversed Order of Needs
them in high esteem
 Two levels:  Even though needs are generally satisfied in the hierarchical order, occasionally they
a. Reputation - the perception of the prestige, recognition, or fame a person has are reversed.
achieved in the eyes of others  Reversals, however, are usually more apparent than real, and some seemingly
b. Self-esteem - is a person’s own feelings of worth and confidence obvious deviations in the order of needs are not variations at all. If we understood
the unconscious motivation underlying the behavior, we would recognize that the
Self-Actualization needs are not reversed.
 Includes self-fulfillment, growth Unmotivated Behavior
 When lower level needs are satisfied, people proceed more or less automatically to
the next level. However, once esteem needs are met, they do not always move to  Even though all behaviors have a cause, some behaviors are not motivated.
the level of self-actualization.  Some behavior are not caused by needs but by other factors such as conditioned
 Self-actualizing people maintain their feelings of self-esteem even when scorned, reflexes, maturation, or drug.
rejected, and dismissed by other people

Three Other Categories of Needs Expressive and Coping Behavior

Aesthetic Needs  Expressive Behavior (often unmotivated)

- Expressive behavior is often an end in itself and serves no other purpose than to
be
 - It is frequently unconscious and usually takes place naturally and with little 2. Self-actualizing people had progressed through the hierarchy of needs and
effort therefore lived above the subsistence level of existence and had no ever present
 Coping Behavior (always motivated) – ordinarily conscious, effortful, learned, and threat to their safety.
determined by the external environment 3. Embracing of the B-values.
4. Fulfilled their needs to grow, to develop, and to increasingly become what they
Deprivation of Needs
were capable of becoming.
 Lack of satisfaction of any of the basic needs leads to some kind of pathology.
Values of Self-Actualizers
Instinctoid Nature of Needs
 Self-actualizing people are motivated by the “eternal verities,” what he called B-
 Maslow (1970) hypothesizes that some human needs are innately determined even values.
though they can be modified by learning.  Maslow termed B-values as “metaneeds” to indicate that they are the ultimate level
 Criteria for separating instinctoid needs from noninstinctoid: of needs.
(1) Instinctoid needs produces pathology, whereas the frustration of  He distinguished between ordinary need motivation and the motives of self-
noninstinctoid needs does not. actualizing people, which he called metamotivation. Metamotivation is
(2) Instinctoid needs are persistent and their satisfaction leads to psychological characterized by expressive rather than coping behavior and is associated with the
health. Noninstinctoid needs, in contrast, are usually temporary and their B-values.
satisfaction is not a prerequisite for health.  Maslow (1964, 1970) identified 14 B-values, but the exact number is not important
(3) Instinctoid needs are species-specific. because ultimately all become one, or at least all are highly correlated.
(4) Instinctoid needs can be molded, inhibited, or altered by environmental  The values of self-actualizing people include truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness or
influences. the transcendence of dichotomies, aliveness or spontaneity, uniqueness,
perfection, completion, justice and order, simplicity, richness or totality,
effortlessness, playfulness or humor, and self-sufficiency or autonomy.
 Deprivation of any of the B-values results in metapathology, or the lack of a
meaningful philosophy of life
Comparison of Higher and Lower Needs

Similarities:
Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People
 Both are instinctoid.
1. More Efficient Perception of Reality. They can discriminate between the genuine
Differences: and the fake.
 Higher level needs are later on the phylogenetic or evolutionary scale. 2. Acceptance of Self, Others, and Nature . People can accept themselves the way they
 Higher level needs produce more happiness and more peak experiences, although are. They accept others and have no compulsive need to instruct, inform, or
satisfaction of lower-level needs may produce a degree of pleasure. convert. They accept nature, including human nature, as it is and do not expect
perfection either in themselves or in others.
Criteria for Self-Actualization 3. Spontaneity, Simplicity, and Naturalness. They are unconventional but not
compulsively so; they are highly ethical but may appear unethical or nonconforming.
1. Free from psychopathology. They were neither neurotic nor psychotic nor did they
have a tendency toward psychological disturbances.
 They ordinarily live simple lives in the sense that they have no need to erect a Maslow’s Psychology and Philosophy of Science
complex veneer designed to deceive the world
 Maslow (1966) believed that value-free science does not lead to the proper study of
4. Problem-Centering. Self-actualizing people are task-oriented and concerned with
human personality.
problems outside themselves.
 Maslow agreed with Allport (see Chapter 12) that psychological science should place
5. The Need for Privacy. Self-actualizing people have a quality of detachment that
more emphasis on the study of the individual and less on the study of large groups.
allows them to be alone without being lonely
 Maslow insisted that psychologists must themselves be healthy people, able to
6. Autonomy. Self-actualizing people are autonomous and depend on themselves for
tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty.
growth even though at some time in their past they had to have received love and
 Maslow (1966) argued for a Taoistic attitude for psychology, one that would be
security from others.
noninterfering, passive, and receptive.
7. Continued Freshness of Appreciation. Self-actualizing people have the wonderful
capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life. The Jonah Complex – another obstacle that often blocks people’s growth toward self-
8. The Peak Experience. Most people, or almost all people, have peak experiences, or actualization
ecstasies.
9. Gemeinschaftsgefühl. Self-actualizing people possess Gemeinschaftsgefühl, Adler’s  The fear of being one’s best
term for social interest, community feeling, or a sense of oneness with all humanity.  It is characterized by attempts to run away from one’s destiny
10. Profound Interpersonal Relations. Self-actualizers have a nurturant feeling toward  The Jonah complex, which is found in nearly everyone, represents a fear of success,
people in general, but their close friendships are limited to only a few. a fear of being one’s best, and a feeling of awesomeness in the presence of beauty
11. The Democratic Character Structure. Self-actualizing people can be friendly and and perfection.
considerate with other people regardless of class, color, age, or gender, and in fact, Why do people run away from greatness and self-fulfillment?
they seemed to be quite unaware of superficial differences among people
12. Discrimination Between Means and Ends. Self-actualizing people have a clear  The human body is simply not strong enough to endure the ecstasy of
sense of right and wrong conducts and have little conflict about basic values. fulfillment for any length of time, just as peak experiences and sexual orgasms
13. Philosophical Sense of Humor. Gets niyo na ine. would be overly taxing if they lasted too long. Therefore, the intense emotion
14. Creativeness. Not all self-actualizers are talented or creative in the arts, but all are that accompanies perfection and fulfillment carries with it a shattering sensation
creative in their own way. They have a keen perception of truth, beauty, and reality such as “This is too much” or “I can’t stand it anymore.”
—ingredients that form the foundation of true creativity.  Most people, he reasoned, have private ambition to be great. However, when
15. Resistance to Enculturation. Self-actualizing people have a sense of detachment they compare themselves with those who have accomplished greatness, they
from their surroundings and are able to transcend a particular culture. are appalled by their own arrogance: “Who am I to think I could do as well as
this great person?”
Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization
Psychotherapy
 Before people can become self-actualizing, they must satisfy their love and
belongingness needs.  To Maslow (1970), the aim of therapy would be for clients to embrace the Being
 Self-actualizing people are capable of B-love, that is, love for the essence or “Being” values, that is, to value truth, justice, goodness, simplicity, and so forth.
of the other.  To accomplish this aim, clients must be free from their dependency on others so
 Self-actualizing people do not love because they expect something in return. They that their natural impulse toward growth and self-actualization could become
simply love and are loved. active.
  The goals of psychology follow from the client’s position on the hierarchy of needs.  Infants begin to develop a vague concept of self when a portion of their experience
Because physiological and safety needs are prepotent, people operating on these becomes personalized and differentiated in awareness as “I” or “me” experiences.
levels will not ordinarily be motivated to seek psychotherapy. Instead, they will  Once infants establish a rudimentary self structure, their tendency to actualize the
strive to obtain nourishment and protection. self begins to evolve
 Actualization refers to the organism’s tendency to move toward fulfillment,
whereas self-actualization is the desire of the perceived self to reach fulfillment.
Positive Psychology
 When the organism and the perceived self are in harmony, the two actualization
Positive psychology is a relatively new field of psychology that combines an emphasis on tendencies are nearly identical
hope, optimism, and well-being with scientific research and assessment.  When people’s organic experiences are not in harmony with their view of self,
discrepancy exists between tendency and the self- actualization tendency.
 Maslow referred to extremely positive experiences that involve a sense of awe, wonder,
and reverence as peak experiences. Two Subsystems of Self:
 It focuses on how positive experiences affect one’s personality and one’s life.
1. The Self-Concept - includes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s experiences
------------------------------------------------------------------------- that are perceived in awareness (though not always accurate) by the individual
 This is not identical with organismic self.
PERSON-CENTERED THEORY BY CARL ROGERS  Similarly, people can disown certain aspects of their selves, such as experiences
Overview of Person-centered Theory of dishonesty, when such experiences are not consistent with their self-
concept.
 Follows an if-then framework  Experiences that are inconsistent with their self-concept usually are either
Basic Assumptions denied or accepted only in distorted form.

1. Formative Tendency - There is a tendency for all matter, both organic and inorganic, 2. The Ideal Self - defined as one’s view of self as one wishes to be
to evolve from simpler to more complex forms.  A wide gap between the ideal self and the self-concept indicates incongruence
2. Actualizing Tendency - the tendency within all humans (and other animals and and an unhealthy personality.
plants) to move toward completion or fulfillment of potentials
- The need to become more, to develop and to achieve growth is called Awareness - Rogers (1959) defined awareness as “the symbolic representation (not
enhancement. necessarily in verbal symbols) of some portion of our experience”
- A human’s actualization tendency is realized only under certain conditions. Levels of Awareness
People must be involved in a relationship with a partner who is:
(1) congruent, or authentic, and 1. Ignored or denied
(2) who demonstrates empathy and 2. Accurately symbolized
(3) demonstrates unconditional positive regard. 3. Distorted form
- Although people share the actualizing tendency with plants and other animals,
Becoming a Person
only humans have a concept of self and thus a potential for self-actualization.
 Infancy. The person must be in contact (either positively or negatively) to
The Self and Self-Actualization
another person
  As children (or adults) become aware that another person has some measure of 3. Defensiveness
regard for them, they begin to value positive regard and devalue negative  It is the protection of the self-concept against anxiety and threat by the
regard. denial or distortion of experiences inconsistent with it (Rogers, 1959).
 That is, the person develops a need to be loved, liked, or accepted by another  Two types of defenses:
person, a need that Rogers (1959) referred to as positive regard. a. Distortion – We misinterpret an experience in order to fit it into some
 Positive regard is a prerequisite for positive self-regard, defined as the aspect of our self-concept. We perceive the experience in awareness,
experience of prizing or valuing one’s self. but we fail to understand its true meaning.
 Rogers (1959) believed that receiving positive regard from others is necessary b. Denial – We refuse to perceive an experience in awareness, or at least
for positive self-regard, but once positive self-regard is established, it becomes we keep some aspect of it from reaching symbolization.
independent of the continual need to be loved. 4. Disorganization
 Most people engage in defensive behavior, but sometimes defenses fail and
Barriers to Psychological Health
behavior becomes disorganized or psychotic.
1. Conditions of Worth  It can occur suddenly, or it can take place gradually over a long period of
 People perceive that their parents, peers, or partners love and accept them time.
only if they meet those people’s expectations and approval.
Psychotherapy
 “A condition of worth arises when the positive regard of a significant other
is conditional, when the individual feels that in some respects he [or she] is  Briefly, the client-centered approach holds that in order for vulnerable or anxious
prized and in others not”. people to grow psychologically, they must come into contact with a therapist who is
 External Evaluations - Our perceptions of other people’s view of us. These congruent and whom they perceive as providing an atmosphere of unconditional
evaluations, whether positive or negative, do not foster psychological health acceptance and accurate empathy.
but, rather, prevent us from being completely open to our own experiences.
Conditions of Therapy
2. Incongruence 1. Counselor Congruence
 Psychological disequilibrium begins when we fail to recognize our  Congruence exists when a person’s organismic experiences are matched by an
organismic experiences as self-experiences: that is, when we do not awareness of them and by an ability and willingness to openly express these feelings
accurately symbolize organismic experiences into awareness because they (Rogers, 1980).
appear to be inconsistent with our emerging self-concept.  To be congruent means to be real or genuine, to be whole or integrated, to be what
 This happens if the organism and the self are not aligned. one truly is.
 Vulnerability. Rogers (1959) believed that people are vulnerable when they
are unaware of the discrepancy between their organismic self and their 2. Unconditional Positive Regard
significant experience.  Positive regard is the need to be liked, prized, or accepted by another person. When
 Anxiety and Threat. Whereas vulnerability exists when we have no this need exists without any conditions or qualifications, unconditional positive
awareness of the incongruence within our self, anxiety and threat are regard occurs (Rogers, 1980).
experienced as we gain awareness of such an incongruence. 3. Empathic Listening
Anxiety is “a state of uneasiness or tension whose cause is unknown”  Empathy exists when therapists accurately sense the feelings of their clients and are
Threat: that is, an awareness that our self is no longer whole or congruent. able to communicate these perceptions so that clients know that another person
has entered their world of feelings without prejudice, projection, or evaluation.
Process of Therapy  When persons come to experience themselves as prized and unconditionally
accepted, they realize, perhaps for the first time, that they are lovable
Stage 1
 As clients perceive that they are empathically understood, they are freed to listen to
 This stage is characterized by an unwillingness to communicate anything about themselves more accurately, to have empathy for their own feelings.
oneself (denial of problem)  As a consequence, when these persons come to prize themselves and to accurately
understand themselves, their perceived self becomes more congruent with their
Stage 2 organismic experiences.
 Clients become slightly less rigid. They discuss external events and other people, but  They now possess the same three therapeutic characteristics as any effective helper,
they still disown or fail to recognize their own feelings. and in effect, they become their own therapist.

Stage 3 The Person of Tomorrow

 They more freely talk about self, although still as an object. “I’m doing the best I can 1. More adaptable
at work, but my boss still doesn’t like me.” 2. Open to their experiences
 Clients talk about feelings and emotions in the past or future tense and avoid 3. Trust in their organismic self
present feelings. 4. Live fully in the moment
5. Harmonious relations
Stage 4 6. More integrated
 Clients begin to talk of deep feelings but not ones presently felt. 7. Basic trust of human nature
8. Experiences greater richness in life
Stage 5
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 They have begun to undergo significant change and growth. They can express
feelings in the present, although they have not yet accurately symbolized those PSYCHOLOGICAL OF THE INDIVIDUAL BY GORDON ALLPORT
feelings. Allport’s Approach to Personality Theory
Stage 6 What is Personality?
 People at Stage 6 experience dramatic growth and an irreversible movement toward  Personality is “the dynamic organization within the individual of those
becoming fully functioning or self-actualizing. psychophysical systems “that determine his characteristic behavior and thought.”
Stage 7  Personality is not a static organization; it is constantly growing or changing. The
term psychophysical emphasizes the importance of both the psychological and the
 It can occur outside the therapeutic encounter, because growth at Stage 6 seems to physical aspects of personality.
be irreversible. Clients who reach Stage 7 become fully functioning “persons of  In summary, personality is both physical and psychological; it includes both overt
tomorrow” (a concept more fully explained in the section titled The Person of behaviors and covert thoughts; it not only is something, but it does something.
Tomorrow). Personality is both substance and change, both product and process, both structure
and growth.
Therapeutic Explanation for Therapeutic Change
What Is the Role of Conscious Motivation?
  Allport emphasized the importance of conscious motivation, and that healthy adults Levels of Personality Dispositions
are generally aware of what and why they are doing something.
1. Cardinal Dispositions. These are eminent characteristic or ruling passion so
Allport’s conception of the mature personality outstanding that it dominates their lives.
2. Central Dispositions. Include the 5–10 most outstanding characteristics around
 Psychologically mature people are characterized by proactive behavior; that is, they
which a person’s life focuses. Allport (1961) described central dispositions as those
not only react to external stimuli but they are capable of consciously acting on their
that would be listed in an accurate letter of recommendation written by someone
environment in new and innovative ways and causing their environment to react to
who knew the person quite well.
them.
3. Secondary dispositions. These are not central to the personality yet occur with
 Mature personalities are more likely than disturbed ones to be motivated by
some regularity and are responsible for much of one’s specific behaviors.
conscious processes, which allow them to be more flexible and autonomous than
unhealthy people, who remain dominated by unconscious motives that spring from Motivational and Stylistic Dispositions
childhood experiences
 All personal dispositions are dynamic in the sense that they have motivational
What Are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person? power. Nevertheless, some are much more strongly felt than others, and Allport
called these intensely experienced dispositions motivational dispositions.
1. Extension of the sense of self
 Allport (1961) referred to personal dispositions that are less intensely experienced
2. “Warm relating of self to others”
as stylistic dispositions.
3. Emotional security or self-acceptance
 Stylistic dispositions guide action, whereas motivational dispositions initiate action.
4. Realistic perception of their environment
5. Insight and Humor Propium
6. Unifying philosophy of life
 Allport used the term proprium to refer to those behaviors and characteristics that
Structure of Personality people regard as warm, central, and important in their lives.
 The proprium includes those aspects of life that a person regards as important to a
The most important structures are those that permit the description of the person in terms
sense of self-identity and self-enhancement.
of individual characteristics, and he called these individual characteristics personal
disposition. Motivation

 Peripheral motives are those that reduce a need, whereas propriate strivings seek
to maintain tension and disequilibrium.
Personal Dispositions

 Common traits are general characteristics held in common by many people.

 Allport (1961) defined a personal disposition as “a generalized neuropsychic A Theory of Motivation
structure (peculiar to the individual), with the capacity to render many stimuli
 Allport believed that a useful theory of personality rests on the assumption that
functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of
people not only react to their environment but also shape their environment and
adaptive and stylistic behavior” .
cause it to react to them.
 In other words, Personal dispositions are individual; common traits are shared by
several people. Functional Autonomy
  In general, the concept of functional autonomy holds that some, but not all, human  In general, a present motive is functionally autonomous to the extent that it seeks
motives are functionally independent from the original motive responsible for the new goals, meaning that the behavior will continue even as the motivation for it
behavior. changes.

Four requirements of an adequate theory of motivation

1. An adequate theory of motivation “will acknowledge the contemporaneity of Processes That Are Not Functionally Autonomous
motives.” The past per se is unimportant. The history of an individual is significant
(1) biological drives, such as eating, breathing, and sleeping;
only when it has a present effect on motivation.
2. “It will be a pluralistic theory—allowing for motives of many types. some (2) motives directly linked to the reduction of basic drives;
motivations are conscious, others unconscious; some are transient, others recurring;
some are peripheral, others propriate; and some are tension reducing, others (3) reflex actions such as an eye blink;
tension maintaining. Motives that appear to be different really are different, not (4) constitutional equipment, namely, physique, intelligence, and temperament;
only in form but also in substance.
3. It will ascribe dynamic force to cognitive processes—e.g., to planning and intention”. (5) habits in the process of being formed;
Although intention is involved in all motivation, this third requirement refers more (6) patterns of behavior that require primary reinforcement;
generally to long-range intention.
4. An adequate theory of motivation is one that “will allow for the concrete (7) sublimations that can be tied to childhood sexual desires; and
uniqueness of motives”. A concrete unique motive is different from an abstract
(8) some neurotic or pathological symptoms.
generalized one, the latter being based on a preexistent theory rather than the
actual motivation of a real person. The Study of the Individual

Perseverative Functional Autonomy Morphogenic Science

 Allport borrowed this term from the word “perseveration,” which is the tendency of  Allport distinguished between two scientific approaches: the nomothetic, which
an impression to leave an influence on subsequent experience. seeks general laws, and the idiographic, which refers to that which is peculiar to the
single case.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Propriate Functional Autonomy

TRAIT AND FACTOR THEORIES BY ROBERT MCRAE ND PAUL COSTA
 The master system of motivation that confers unity on personality is propriate
functional autonomy, which refers to those self-sustaining motives that are related  McCrae and Costa agreed with Eysenck that personality traits are bipolar and follow
to the proprium. a bell-shaped distribution.

Criterion for Functional Autonomy Core Components of Personality

 1. Basic tendencies are one of the central components of personality which refers to 2. Origin – takes a clear if somewhat controversial stance: All personality traits are the
the universal raw material of personality capacities and dispositions that are result solely of endogenous (internal) forces, such as genetics, hormones, and brain
generally inferred rather than observed. Basic tendencies may be inherited, structures.
imprinted by early experience or modified by disease or psychological intervention, 3. Development – assumes that traits develop and change through childhood, but in
but at any given period in an individual’s life, they define the individual’s potential adolescence, their development slows, and by early to mid-adulthood (roughly age
and direction. 30), change in personality nearly stops altogether.
2. Characteristic adaptations is acquired personality structures that develop as people 4. Structures – states that traits are organized hierarchically from narrow and specific
adapt to their environment and include habits, skills, and beliefs. The principal to broad and general, just as Eysenck (1990) had suggested. This postulate grows
difference between basic tendencies and characteristic adaptations is their out of McCrae and Costa’s long-held position that number of personality dimensions
flexibility. Whereas basic tendencies are quite stable, characteristic adaptations can is five and only five.
be influenced by external influences, such as acquired skills, habits, attitudes, and
Postulates for Characteristic Adaptations
relationships that result from the interaction of individuals with their environment.
3. Self-concept is actually a characteristic adaptation, but it gets its own box because it  Over time, people adapt to their environment “by acquiring patterns of thoughts,
is such an important adaptation. McCrae and Costa (1996) wrote that it “consists of feelings, and behaviors that are consistent with their personality traits and earlier
knowledge, views, and evaluations of the self, ranging from miscellaneous facts of adaptations”.
personal history to the identity that gives a sense of purpose and coherence to life”.  Maladjustment—suggests that our responses are not always consistent with
personal goals or cultural values.
Peripheral Components
 Basic traits may “change over time in response to biological maturation, changes in
The three peripheral components are: the environment, or deliberate interventions” (McCrae & Costa, 2003, p. 190). This
is McCrae and Costa’s plasticity postulate, one that recognizes that although basic
(1) Biological bases – The principal biological mechanisms that influence basic tendencies
tendencies may be rather stable over the lifetime, characteristic adaptations are
are genes, hormones, and brain structures.
not.
(2) Objective biography – defined as “everything the person does, thinks, or feels across the
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
whole lifespan” (McCrae & Costa, 2003, p. 187). Objective biography emphasizes what has
happened in people’s lives (objective) rather than their view or perceptions of their SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY BY ALBERT BANDURA
experiences (subjective
 Takes chance encounters and fortuitous events seriously, even while
(3) External influences – People constantly find themselves in a particular physical or recognizing that these meetings and events do not invariably alter one’s life
social situation that has some influence on the personality system. The question of how we path. How we react to an expected meeting or event is usually more
respond to the opportunities and demands of the context is what external influences is all powerful than the event itself
about. According to McCrae and Costa (1999, 2003), these responses are a function of two
things: (1) characteristic adaptations and (2) their interaction with external influences.

Basic Postulates for Basic Tendencies

1. Individuality – stipulates that adults have a unique set of traits and that each person
exhibits a unique combination of trait patterns. Basic Assumptions
1. Plasticity Learning
 Humans have the flexibility to learn a variety of behaviors in diverse
 Humans are quite flexible and capable of learning a multitude of attitudes,
situations.
skills, and behaviors and that a good bit of those learnings are a result of
 People can and do learn through direct experience, but he places much
vicarious experiences. Although people can and do learn from direct
more emphasis on vicarious learning, that is, learning by observing others.
experience, much of what they learn is acquired through observing others.
2. Triadic reciprocal causation model
 People have the capacity to regulate their lives. Observational Learning
 Humans can transform transitory events into relatively consistent ways of
evaluating and regulating their social and cultural environments.  Observation allows people to learn without performing any behavior.
 Without this capacity, people would merely react to sensory experiences  Observational learning is much more efficient than learning through direct
and would lack the capacity to anticipate events, create new ideas, or use experience. By observing other people, humans are spared countless
internal standards to evaluate present experiences. responses that might be followed by punishment or by no reinforcement.
 Two environmental forces in the triadic model: chance encounters and Modeling
fortuitous events.
3. Agentic perspective  The core of observational learning
 Humans have the capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of  Learning through modeling involves adding and subtracting from the observed
their lives. People are the producers as well as the products of social behavior and generalizing from one observation to another. In other words,
systems. modeling involves cognitive processes and is not simply mimicry or imitation.
 Components: Several factors determine whether a person will learn from a model in any
Self-efficacy – the confidence that they can perform those behaviors that particular situation.
will produce desired behaviors in a particular situation.
Proxy agency – people are able to rely on others for goods and services  Characteristic of the model. People are more likely to model high-status people
Collective efficacy – refers to people’s shared beliefs that they can bring rather than those of low status, competent individuals rather than unskilled or
about change incompetent ones, and powerful people rather than impotent ones.
4. People regulate their conduct through both external and internal factors.  Characteristic of the observer affect the likelihood of modeling. People who
 External factors include people’s physical and social environments, lack status, skill, or power are most likely to model. Children model more than
whereas internal factors include self-observation, judgmental process, and older people, and novices are more likely than experts to model.
self-reaction.  Consequences of the behavior being modeled may have an effect on the
5. When people find themselves in morally ambiguous situations, they typically observer. The greater the value an observer places on a behavior, the more
attempt to regulate their behavior through moral agency, which includes redefining likely the observer will acquire that behavior. Also, learning may be facilitated
the behavior, disregarding or distorting the consequences of their behavior, when the observer views a model receiving severe punishment.
dehumanizing or blaming the victims of their behavior, and displacing or diffusing
Processes Governing Observational Learning
responsibility for their actions.
Bandura (1986) recognizes four processes that govern observational learning:

1. Attention. Before we can model another person, we must attend to that person.
 2. Representation. In order for observation to lead to new response patterns, those Human Agency
patterns must be symbolically represented in memory. Symbolic representation
 People are self-regulating, proactive, self-reflective, and self-organizing and that
need not be verbal, because some observations are retained in imagery and can be
they have the power to influence their own actions to produce desired -
summoned in the absence of the physical model.
consequences.
3. Behavioral production. After attending to a model and retaining what we have
observed, we then produce the behavior. Core Features of Human Agency
4. Motivation. Observational learning is most effective when learners are motivated to
perform the modeled behavior. Attention and representation can lead to the 1. Intentionality – refers to acts a person performs intentionally. An intention includes
acquisition of learning, but performance is facilitated by motivation to enact that planning, but it also involves actions.
particular behavior. 2. Forethought – People also possess forethought to set goals, to anticipate likely
outcomes of their actions, and to select behaviors that will produce desired
Enactive Learning – allows people to acquire new patterns of complex behavior through outcomes and avoid undesirable ones. Forethought enables people to break free
direct experience by thinking about and evaluating the consequences of their behaviors. The from the constraints of their environment.
learning process allows people to have some degree of control over the events that shape 3. Self-reactiveness – People not only make choices but they monitor their progress
the course of their lives. toward fulfilling those choices.
4. Self-reflectiveness – They are examiners of their own functioning; they can think
The consequences of a response serve at least three functions:
about and evaluate their motivations, values, and the meanings of their life goals,
(1) Response consequences inform us of the effects of our actions. We can retain this and they can think about the adequacy of their own thinking.
information and use it as a guide for future actions. People’s most crucial self-reflective mechanism is self-efficacy: that is, their beliefs
(2) The consequences of our responses motivate our anticipatory behavior; that is, we that they are capable of performing actions that will produce a desired effect.
are capable of symbolically representing future outcomes and acting accordingly.
Self-Efficacy
(3) To reinforce behavior, a function that has been firmly documented by Skinner
(Chapter 16) and other reinforcement theorists. Bandura (1986), however, contends  Refers to people’s beliefs in their capability to exercise some measure of control
that, although reinforcement may at times be unconscious and automatic, complex over their own functioning and over environmental events.
behavioral patterns are greatly facilitated by cognitive intervention.  Foundation of the human agency
 Efficacy refers to people’s confidence that they have the ability to perform
Triadic Reciprocal Causation
certain behaviors, whereas an outcome expectancy refers to one’s prediction of
 This system assumes that human action is a result of an interaction among three the likely consequences of that behavior.
variables—environment, behavior, and person.
What Contributes to Self-Efficacy?
 By “person” Bandura means largely, but not exclusively, such cognitive factors
as memory, anticipation, planning, and judging. Personal efficacy is acquired, enhanced, or decreased through any one or
combination of four sources:
Chance Encounters and Fortuitous Events
(1) mastery experiences.
 Bandura (1998a) defined a chance encounter as “an unintended meeting of
persons unfamiliar to each other” (p. 95). A fortuitous event is an (2) social modeling – A second source of efficacy is social modeling: that is, vicarious
environmental experience that is unexpected and unintended. experiences provided by other people. Our self-efficacy is raised when we observe
 the accomplishments of another person of equal competence, but is lowered when Internal Factors in Self-Regulation
we see a peer fail.
External factors interact with internal or personal factors in self-regulation. Bandura (1986,
(3) social persuasion 1996) recognizes three internal requirements in the ongoing exercise of self-influence:

(4) physical and emotional states (1) self-observation. We must be able to monitor our own performance, even though the
attention we give to it need not be complete or even accurate.
Proxy Agency
(2) judgmental processes. Helps us regulate our behavior through the process of cognitive
 Involves indirect control over those social conditions that affect everyday living.
mediation. We are capable not only of reflective self-awareness but also of judging the
 Proxy, however, has a downside. By relying too much on the competence and
worth of our actions on the basis of goals we have set for ourselves.
power of others, people may weaken their sense of personal and collective
efficacy. Depends on: personal standards, referential performances, valuation of activity, and
performance attribution.
Collective Efficacy
(3) self-reaction. People respond positively or negatively to their behaviors depending on
 Bandura (2000) defined collective efficacy as “people’s shared beliefs in their
how these behaviors measure up to their personal standards. That is, people create
collective power to produce desired results”. In other words, collective efficacy
incentives for their own actions through self-reinforcement or self-punishment
is the confidence people have that their combined efforts will bring about group
accomplishments. Self-Regulation Through Moral Agency

Self-Regulation  People also regulate their actions through moral standards of conduct. Bandura
(1999a) sees moral agency as having two aspects: (1) doing no harm to people
 When people have high levels of self-efficacy, are confident in their reliance on
and (2) proactively helping people.
proxies, and possess solid collective efficacy, they will have considerable
capacity to regulate their own behavior.
 Bandura (1994) believes that people use both reactive and proactive strategies
for self-regulation. That is, they reactively attempt to reduce the discrepancies
between their accomplishments and their goal; but after they close those
discrepancies, they proactively set newer and higher goals for themselves.

External Factors in Self-Regulation

 External factors affect self-regulation in at least two ways.

First, they provide us with a standard for evaluating our own behavior.
Standards do not stem solely from internal forces. Environmental factors,
interacting with personal influences, shape individual standards for evaluation.

Second, external factors influence self-regulation by providing the means for

reinforcement. Intrinsic rewards are not always sufficient; we also need
incentives that emanate from external factors.