Personality Theory

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Personality Theory

• Chapter 8 Ego Psychology Anna Freud, Heinz
  Hartmann, and Erik Erikson

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The Origins of Ego Psychology

• Psychoanalysis gave the ego a difficult role
• The servant of three harsh masters, all
  constantly in conflict.
• The ego psychologists disagreed with this concept
  and proposed that the ego has at least some
  independence from the id.

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Anna Freud, the First of the Ego Psychologists

• Freuds daughter
• She eventually became his favourite child,
  analysand, colleague, companion, secretary, and
  nurse
• She became a lay analyst, a specialist with
  children, and a training analyst
• Erik Erikson was her analysand

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• Contributions
• Therapeutic technique with children
• analysis of defenses
• Extended the picture of ego defenses
• The concept of developmental lines
• The course of child development from dependence
  to independence in 6 areas

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From Egocentricity to Companionship

• One example of a developmental line
• A selfish . . . outlook on the object world in
  which other children either do not figure at all
  or are perceived only in their role as disturbers
  of the mother-child relationship and rivals for
  the parents love
• other children related to as lifeless objects,
  i.e., toys which can be handled, pushed around,
  sought out, and discarded as the mood demands,
  with no positive or negative response expected
  from them

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• other children related to as helpmates in
  carrying out a desired task such as playing,
  building, destroying, causing mischief of some
  kind, etc.
• other children as partners and objects in their
  own right, whom the child can admire, fear, or
  compete with, whom he loves or hates, with whose
  feelings he identifies, whose wishes he
  acknowledges and often respects, and with whom he
  can share possessions on a basis of equality.

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Heinz Hartmann, the Father of Ego Psychology

• Hartmann accepted the basic propositions of
  psychoanalysis but also proposed a significant
  revision of the ego
• Both the id and the ego are products of
  differentiation the id does not appear first
• The primary autonomy of the ego is that of a
  conflict-free sphere

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• The ego still emerges from conflict, but it also
  has significant independence.
• Perception, thinking, language, concept
  formation, motor development, etc.
• A characterization of the ego of the normal
  person as well as the neurotic in conflict

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Erik Homburger Erikson

• An artist and teacher of art, he was trained in
  psychoanalysis by Anna Freud
• He became a highly respected (lay) psychoanalyst
  and specialist on children.
• His book Childhood and Society (1950) introduced
  striking modifications in ego development while
  remaining in the psychoanalytic fold.

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Emphases and Major Concepts in Eriksons Ego
Psychology

• The ego and ego development
• The ego is shaped by society in early life and
  throughout the lifespan
• Epigenesis A model from embryology to account
  for the sequence of growth and differentiation in
  development
• Psychosexual stages according to Erikson
• Not only erogenous zones but modes of expression

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Five Modes of Expression

• Incorporative
• Taking in both nourishment and sensation
• Incorporative
• Active oral mode
• Eliminative
• Letting go

• Retentive
• Holding in
• Intrusive
• Aggressively exploratory

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• The notion of primary and auxiliary modes
• Modalities how societies deal with zone-mode
  features of psychosexual stages

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Life Cycle Development

• Ego development and adaptation continue
  throughout life in a sequence of psychosocial
  stages.
• The special significance of adolescence and the
  adolescent crisis of identity

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Zones, Modes, and Psychosocial Crises
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• The special stage of adolescence
• The momentous transition from child to adult
• Occurs at a time of puberty
• The choices and commitments to be made
• Occupation
• Approach to intimacy with a life partner
• An ideology

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• Identity achievement is the hoped-for outcome,
  but it involves examination and struggle that
  many adolescents find difficult.
• Some just take their parents advice.
• For others, there is a period of serious anxiety,
  
• Identity Confusion that may last into young
  adulthood.
• In the middle of it? Moratorium

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Ritualization, Ritual, and Ritualism

• The rituals of the developmental stages are
  called ritualizations and characterize
  significant interactions.
• Adult life is full of rituals (e.g., weddings,
  graduations)
• Excessive and pathological ritualization is
  ritualism.

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Research on Eriksons Ego Psychology

• The clinical study of play in school age children
• Children asked to construct with doll figures
  and blocks on the table an exciting scene out of
  an imaginary moving picture.
• Girls largely built enclosures of furniture
  surrounding people.
• Boys constructed buildings, towers, and street
  scenes full of activity.

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Anthropological Studies of American Indians

• Erikson made field trips to Sioux and Yurok
  tribes to study childrearing practices, the
  influence of culture, and the effects of culture
  conflict.
• Method anthropological data and his own
  observations and psychoanalytic interpretations

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Psychohistory

• Erikson formulated rules to guide psychohistory
  and conducted major studies, notably of Martin
  Luther and Mahatma Gandhi

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The Psychological Study of Identity

• Studies by Marcia and others of adolescent
  identity
• Identity Status is a way to categorize identity
  in order to measure it
• 4 statuses, determined from interviews

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Identity Status Criteria
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Some Ego Identity Findings
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Ego Psychology in Perspective

• Ego Psychology
• brought society and culture to ego development
• argued for ego autonomy, a conflict-free sphere
  of ego functioning
• opened the possibility of ego development beyond
  the psycho-sexual stages
• stood for many of the same ideas as the
  neo-Freudians but did not reject the core of
  classical psychoanalysis

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• Erik Eriksons contributions
• the psychosocial development of the ego
• ego development throughout the life cycle
• the concept of ego identity
• which he studied in a variety of contexts

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• Is Eriksons Ego Psychology just diluted Freud?
• Was Erikson too conservative as a personality
  theorist, accepting a traditional view of the
  social world?

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Take-Home Messages

• The origins of ego psychology in the
  psychoanalytic approaches of Anna Freud and Heinz
  Hartmann
• Anna Freuds contributions to therapeutic
  technique and to ego defenses
• Heinz Hartmann, father of ego psychology
• A degree of independence of the ego from the id

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• Erik Erikson, most noted of the ego psychologists
• Extraordinary personal history
• Theoretical emphases
• Epigenesis
• A stage view of lifetime development
  psychosocial development
• Erogenous zones, modes of expression, and
  psychosocial crises
• Significance of adolescence in the achievement of
  identity
• Lifes rituals

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• Eriksons research
• Childrens play
• Psychohistory
• Influence of the concept of ego identity in
  research, personality psychology, and popular
  culture