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Harry Stack Sullivan developed an interpersonal theory of personality that emphasized how relationships shape personality development. He believed people progress through developmental stages from infancy to adolescence. Key aspects of Sullivan's theory include interpersonal tensions like needs, anxiety, and dynamisms; the development of self and other personifications; and different levels of cognition from prototaxic to syntaxic experiences. Sullivan's theory focused on how close relationships facilitate development and reduce anxiety.
Harry Stack Sullivan developed an interpersonal theory of personality that emphasized how relationships shape personality development. He believed people progress through developmental stages from infancy to adolescence. Key aspects of Sullivan's theory include interpersonal tensions like needs, anxiety, and dynamisms; the development of self and other personifications; and different levels of cognition from prototaxic to syntaxic experiences. Sullivan's theory focused on how close relationships facilitate development and reduce anxiety.
Harry Stack Sullivan developed an interpersonal theory of personality that emphasized how relationships shape personality development. He believed people progress through developmental stages from infancy to adolescence. Key aspects of Sullivan's theory include interpersonal tensions like needs, anxiety, and dynamisms; the development of self and other personifications; and different levels of cognition from prototaxic to syntaxic experiences. Sullivan's theory focused on how close relationships facilitate development and reduce anxiety.
Harry Stack Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory malevolence, defined by Sullivan as a feeling of living among
one's enemies. Those children who become malevolent have
I. Overview of Sullivan's Interpersonal Theory much difficulty giving and receiving tenderness or being Although Sullivan had a lonely and isolated childhood, he intimate with other people. evolved a theory of personality that emphasized the importance of interpersonal relations. He insisted that B. Intimacy personality is shaped almost entirely by the relationships we The conjunctive dynamism marked by a close personal have with other people. Sullivan's principal contribution to relationship between two people of equal status is called personality theory was his conception of developmental intimacy. Intimacy facilitates interpersonal development stages. while decreasing both anxiety and loneliness.
II. Biography of Harry Stack Sullivan C. Lust
Harry Stack Sullivan, the first American to develop a In contrast to both malevolence and intimacy, lust is an comprehensive personality theory, was born in a small isolating dynamism. That is, lust is a self-centered need that farming community in upstate New York in 1892. A socially can be satisfied in the absence of an intimate interpersonal immature and isolated child, Sullivan nevertheless formed relationship. In other words, although intimacy presupposes one close interpersonal relationship with a boy five years tenderness or love, lust is based solely on sexual gratification older than himself. In his interpersonal theory, Sullivan and requires no other person for its satisfaction. believed that such a relationship has the power to transform an immature preadolescent into a psychologically healthy D. Self-System individual. Six years after becoming a physician, and with no The most inclusive of all dynamisms is the self-system, or that training in psychiatry, Sullivan gained a position at St. pattern of behaviors that protects us against anxiety and Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., as a psychiatrist. maintains our interpersonal security. The self-system is a There, his ability to work with schizophrenic patients won him conjunctive dynamism, but because its primary job is to a reputation as a therapeutic wizard. However, despite protect the self from anxiety, it tends to stifle personality achieving much respect from an influential group of change. Experiences that are inconsistent with our self- associates, Sullivan had few close interpersonal relations with system threaten our security and necessitate our use of any of his peers. He died alone in Paris in 1949, at age 56. security operations, which consist of behaviors designed to reduce interpersonal tensions. One such security operation is III. Tensions dissociation, which includes all those experiences that we Sullivan conceptualized personality as an energy system, with block from awareness. Another is selective inattention, which energy existing either as tension (potentiality for action) or as involves blocking only certain experiences from awareness. energy transformations (the actions themselves). He further divided tensions into needs and anxiety. V. Personifications Sullivan believed that people acquire certain images of self A. Needs and others throughout the developmental stages, and he Needs can relate either to the general well-being of a person referred to these subjective perceptions as personifications. or to specific zones, such as the mouth or genitals. General needs can be either physiological, such as food or oxygen, or A. Bad-Mother, Good-Mother they can be interpersonal, such as tenderness and intimacy. The bad-mother personification grows out of infants' experiences with a nipple that does not satisfy their hunger B. Anxiety needs. All infants experience the bad-mother personification, Unlike needs-which are conjunctive and call for specific even though their real mothers may be loving and nurturing. actions to reduce them-anxiety is disjunctive and calls for no Later, infants acquire a good-mother personification as they consistent actions for its relief. All infants learn to be anxious become mature enough to recognize the tender and through the empathic relationship that they have with their cooperative behavior of their mothering one. Still later, these mothering one. Sullivan called anxiety the chief disruptive two personifications combine to form a complex and force in interpersonal relations. A complete absence of contrasting image of the real mother. anxiety and other tensions is called euphoria. B. Me Personifications IV. Dynamisms During infancy, children acquire three "me" personifications: Sullivan used the term dynamism to refer to a typical pattern (1) the bad-me, which grows from experiences of punishment of behavior. Dynamisms may relate either to specific zones of and disapproval, (2) the good-me, which results from the body or to tensions. experiences with reward and approval, and (3) the not-me, which allows a person to dissociate or selectively in attend A. Malevolence the experiences related to anxiety. The disjunctive dynamism of evil and hatred is called
Theories of Personality: Harry Stack Sullivan
C. Eidetic Personifications C. Juvenile Era One of Sullivan's most interesting observations was that The juvenile stage begins with the need for peers of equal people often create imaginary traits that they project onto status and continues until the child develops a need for an others. Included in these eidetic personifications are the intimate relationship with a chum. At this time, children imaginary playmates that preschool-aged children often should learn how to compete, to compromise, and to have. These imaginary friends enable children to have a safe, cooperate. These three abilities, as well as an orientation secure relationship with another person, even though that toward living, help a child develop intimacy, the chief person is imaginary. dynamism of the next developmental stage.
VI. Levels of Cognition D. Preadolescence
Sullivan recognized three levels of cognition, or ways of Perhaps the most crucial stage is preadolescence, because perceiving things-prototaxic, parataxic, and syntaxic. mistakes made earlier can be corrected during preadolescence, but errors made during preadolescence are A. Prototaxic Level nearly impossible to overcome in later life. Preadolescence Experiences that are impossible to put into words or to spans the time from the need for a single best friend until communicate to others are called prototaxic. Newborn puberty. Children who do not learn intimacy during infants experience images mostly on a prototaxic level, but preadolescence have added difficulties relating to potential adults, too, frequently have preverbal experiences that are sexual partners during later stages. momentary and incapable of being communicated. E. Early Adolescence B. Parataxic Level With puberty comes the lust dynamism and the beginning of Experiences that are prelogical and nearly impossible to early adolescence. Development during this stage is ordinarily accurately communicate to others are called parataxic. marked by a coexistence of intimacy with a single friend of Included in these are erroneous assumptions about cause and the same gender and sexual interest in many persons of the effect, which Sullivan termed parataxic distortions. opposite gender. However, if children have no preexisting capacity for intimacy, they may confuse lust with love and C. Syntaxic Level develop sexual relationships that are devoid of true intimacy. Experiences that can be accurately communicated to others are called syntaxic. Children become capable of syntaxic F. Late Adolescence language at about 12 to 18 months of age when words begin Chronologically, late adolescence may start at any time after to have the same meaning for them that they do for others. about age 16, but psychologically, it begins when a person is able to feel both intimacy and lust toward the same person. VII. Stages of Development Late adolescence is characterized by a stable pattern of Sullivan saw interpersonal development as taking place over sexual activity and the growth of the syntaxic mode, as young seven stages, from infancy to mature adulthood. Personality people learn how to live in the adult world. changes can take place at any time but are more likely to occur during transitions between stages. G. Adulthood Late adolescence flows into adulthood, a time when a person A. Infancy establishes a stable relationship with a significant other The period from birth until the emergence of syntaxic person and develops a consistent pattern of viewing the language is called infancy, a time when the child receives world. tenderness from the mothering one while also learning anxiety through an empathic linkage with the mother. VIII. Psychological Disorders Anxiety may increase to the point of terror, but such terror is Sullivan believed that disordered behavior has an controlled by the built-in protections of apathy and interpersonal origin, and can only be understood with somnolent detachment that allow the baby to go to sleep. reference to a person's social environment. During infancy children use autistic language, which takes place on a prototaxic or parataxic level. IX. Psychotherapy Sullivan pioneered the notion of the therapist as a participant B. Childhood observer, who establishes an interpersonal relationship with The stage that lasts from the beginning of syntaxic language the patient. He was primarily concerned with understanding until the need for playmates of equal status is called patients and helping them develop foresight, improve childhood. The child's primary interpersonal relationship interpersonal relations, and restore their ability to operate continues to be with the mother, who is now differentiated mostly on a syntaxic level. from other persons who nurture the child. X. Related Research In recent years, a number of researchers have studied the
Theories of Personality: Harry Stack Sullivan
impact of two-person relationships, involving both therapy 2. The two key concepts in Sullivan's theory are and non-therapy encounters. interpersonal relations and a. Defense A. Therapist-Patient Relationships b. Aggression Hans Strupp, William Henry, and associates at Vanderbilt c. Anxiety developed the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior, an d. Conscious drives instrument for studying the dynamics between therapist and e. Integration patient. This group of researchers found that patients tended to have relatively stable behaviors that were consistent with 3. Sullivan's early life was marked by the way their therapists treated them. Later, these a. loneliness and isolation. researchers reported therapists' professional training was b. a strong ambition to become famous. less important to successful therapy than the therapists' own c. a close relationship with his three sisters. developmental history. d. childhood diseases that left him unable to walk for several years. B. Intimate Relationships with Friends Elizabeth Yaughn and Stephen Nowicki studied intimate 4. Sullivan identified two principal kinds of tensions: interpersonal relationships in same-gender dyads and found a. needs and anxiety. that women-but not men-had complementary interpersonal b. sexual and interpersonal. styles with their close women friends. Also, women were c. tenderness and toughness. more likely than men to engage in a wide variety of activities d. prototaxic and parataxic. with their intimate friend, a finding that suggests that women develop deeper same-gender friendships than do men. 5. To Sullivan, the most basic interpersonal need is a. Love. C. Imaginary Friends b. Tenderness. Other researchers have studied Sullivan's notion of imaginary c. Self-actualization playmates and have found that children who have identifiable d. Acceptance eidetic playmates tend to be more socialized, less aggressive, more intelligent, and to have a better sense of humor than 6. Unlike anxiety, needs are children who do not report having an imaginary playmate. a. isolating dynamisms. b. integrative or productive XI. Critique of Sullivan c. disintegrative or disjunctive. Despite Sullivan's insights into the importance of d. the chief disruptive forces in interpersonal interpersonal relations, his theory of personality and his relations. approach to psychotherapy have lost popularity in recent years. In summary, his theory rates very low in falsifiability, 7. Sullivan called needs that originate from a particular low in its ability to generate research, and average in its area of the body capacity to organize knowledge and to guide action. In a. Zonal needs addition, it is only average in self-consistency and low in b. General needs parsimony. c. Body dynamisms d. Physical personifications XII. Concept of Humanity Because Sullivan saw human personality as being largely 8. According to Sullivan, a well-fed infant in deep sleep formed from interpersonal relations, his theory rates very is probably experiencing high on social influences and very low on biological ones. In a. Empathy addition, it rates high on unconscious determinants, average b. Euphoria on free choice, optimism, and causality, and low on c. Lust uniqueness. d. A dream e. Nothing Multiple Choice 9. Sullivan defined euphoria as 1. The main feature of Sullivan's personality theory is a. a disruptive force in interpersonal relations. its emphasis on b. an undifferentiated mode of cognition. a. Middle age c. an isolating dynamism. b. Sexual development d. a magical link between mother and child. c. Self fulfillment e. none of the above. d. Interpersonal relations e. A collective unconscious
Theories of Personality: Harry Stack Sullivan
10. Sullivan saw anxiety as 18. Intimacy is restricted to tender feelings one has for a. a disruptive force in interpersonal relations. a. parents or parental figures. b. an undifferentiated mode of cognition. b. authority figures outside the family. c. an isolating dynamism. c. the therapist during participant observation. d. a positive force in the mother-child relationship. d. others of similar or equal status. e. a person of the other sex. 11. Energy transformations organized into characteristic behavior patterns are 19. Which personifications take the form of imaginary a. tensions of need. traits attributed to significant others or of imaginary b. dynamisms. people invented to protect self-esteem? c. tensions of anxiety. a. Syntaxic d. zonal needs. b. Eidetic e. General needs. c. Uncanny d. Malevolent 12. In Sullivan's theory, malevolence is a. the feeling of living among friends 20. Experiences that are consensually validated and that b. the dynamism of evil and hatred. can be symbolically communicated to others are c. a conjunctive dynamism. a. Prototaxic d. all of the above b. Parataxic e. a and b only c. Syntaxic d. Disjunctive 13. Which of the following is an isolating dynamism? e. Isolating a. Anxiety b. Lust 21. Same-sex chumships and the development of c. Intimacy intimacy characterize which stage of development? d. The self-system a. Adulthood e. Tenderness b. Juvenile era c. Preadolescence 14. Sullivan's statement, "Once upon a time everything d. Early adolescence was lovely, but that was before I had to deal with e. Late adolescence people," is an expression of a. Malevolence 22. Lust marks the beginning of b. Intimacy a. the juvenile era. c. Euphoria b. preadolescence. d. Dissociation c. early adolescence. e. Selective attention d. late adolescence. e. adulthood. 15. The most complex and inclusive of all dynamisms is a. Lust 23. Sullivan's concept of humanity is best summarized in b. The self-system this statement. c. Love a. "Everyone is much more simply human than d. Tenderness unique." e. the malevolent transformation. b. "The life of humans is short, brutish, and nasty." c. "The average person lives a life of quiet 16. A pet dog could meet one's needs for desolation." a. Tenderness d. "The purpose of life is pleasure." b. Intimacy c. Malevolence d. Self-fulfillment Answer Key e. All of the above 1. D 6. B 11. B 16. A 21.C 2. C 7. A 12. B 17. B 22. C 17. The self-system 3. A 8. B 13. B 18. D 23. A a. regulates and evaluates behavior. 4. A 9. E 14. A 19. B b. is an anti-anxiety system. 5. B 10. A 15. B 20. C c. evolves from the malevolent transformation. d. develops during late adolescence. e. Both a and d are correct