The Person

1. The Person Part One

2. Theoretical Approaches • Without the individual there would be no society and without society there would be no individual. • Psychosocial approach (central theme): • The interaction of the individual person with the social environment (postulated by Freud and Erikson). • It is important to make connections between developmental theories and societal provisions. • A person’s growth is in a pattern of expansion, a movement outward.

3. Freud • One form of social systems theory. • The human organism is a dynamic, complex system composed of physical energy and psychic energy. • Freud attempted to identify the structure, behavior, and evolution of the human psyche.

4. Id: source of energy for the human personality. • Ego: main function is to negotiate between the id and the external world. • Superego: composed of social values that the person internalizes (conscience).

5. Evolution of Personality • Oral (first year) • If arrested; characterized by eating, smoking, talking or alcoholism. • Anal (second year) • Characterized by negative traits (compulsivity, rigidity, desire to control, possessiveness, or passive-resistance) • Phallic (age 2-5 years) • Oedipal/Electra complex is resolved, if not, then characterized by narcissism, arrogance, flamboyance, and prejudice.

6. Evolution of Personality • Latency (ages 6-12 years) • Sexual curiosity and activity is now repressed. Energies now directed toward cognitive and social developments. • Genital (adolescence and adulthood) • Person now seeks others to love. • Adult sexuality could not be achieved without resolution of previous stages.

7. Erikson • Only theory of human development that encompasses the complete life cycle. • Congruent with a systems approach. • Based on the epigenetic principle. • Each developmental stage builds upon and in relation to, preceding stages. • Potentials for growth emerge as the human organism matures.

8. The person develops into a functioning whole. • The stages are interrelated and are synergistic. • Life cycle is the product of three processes: • Physical, constitutional, or somatic organization • Ego • Social • All three processes equal the human life.

9. Eight Stages • The unfolding of the human system is the intertwining of maturation (organism), education (ego), and socialization (society). • Maturation is the predictable course of growth for all members of a species. • Learning is the unpredictable growth, new behavior based upon the individual experience of the organism and the accumulated learning of the culture. • Growth derives from the constant interaction of maturation and learning.

10. Crisis • Refers to a time of necessary change. • Not necessarily a negative state of affairs but an unavoidable occasion the requires some type of coping. • Occurs at their scheduled time arising from the interaction of the organism’s maturation and society’s expectations.

11. The outcome is dependent upon: • Personality resources • Opportunities • Resources available from the social environment

12. Cognitive TheoryPiaget • Systems theorist • Importance to human services: • Invention, creativity, and the ability of the person to overcome past deficiencies or conflicts. • “Every time you teach a child something you keep him from reinventing it.”

13. Basic Ideas • Equilibrium: • A steady state of the cognitive processes. A dynamic balance between the person and environment. • The person’s knowledge and self-organization are adequate to understand what is experienced. • Intelligence: • A form of biological activity. • Its function is to preserve the organism • Both a means and an end

14. Schemas: • Mediating processes that form frameworks onto which information can fit. • Organized action sequences and behavior patterns that arise through association with each other. • Reality is structured by the schemas we have built up.

15. Adaptation: • Takes two forms (assimilation and accommodation). • Assimilation is when the person attempts to fit new information into old schemas. • Accommodation is modification of previous schemas to accept new information. • Assimilation and accommodation are similar to morphostasis and morphogenesis.

16. Moral Judgment Lawrence Kohlberg • Stage 1: judgments based on direct consequences. • Stage 2: desires to please its nurturers. • Stage 3: motivated to observe rules in order to maintain relationships • Stage 4: a sense of obligation to conform and to obey its laws and fulfill its obligations. Judgments are based upon the rights of society.

17. Stage 5: the person now entertains the possibility of changing unjust laws and challenging society’s practices. • Stage 6: moral reasoning is fully autonomous.

18. Theories Related to Gender and Sexual Orientation • Women’s development (feminist theory) • Addresses the invisibility of women’s experience and knowledge in domestic and public spheres. • Patriarchy systematically oppresses women. • Most women in America are in low-paid, unskilled jobs. • Welfare reform will probably make worse for women to obtain adequate health care.

19. Karen Horney • Proposed an alternative cultural view of human development. • One must account for male-created social subordination of women. • Women are devalued by the male-dominated culture; they are viewed as sexualized beings from childhood onward. • Conflicts originate in cultural devaluation and dehumanization and then are internalized.

20. Carol Gilligan • Maintained that the relationship to the mother is crucial to moral development and to the child’s later mode of relationships with others. • Male’s style of relating are presumably more compatible with bureaucratic ways of organizing their lives and activities. • Networking is more characteristic of women as a style of relationship and communication.

21. Men see connection as a threat, while women see separation as a threat. • The fundamental issue in relationships as care and responsibility, rather than rights and rules. • Women’s logic is based on equality and reciprocity rather than an abstract conception of justice.

22. Theories of Lesbian and Gay Development • Etiology is uncertain. • One study of brain structure indicated similarity between the brains of women and gay males. • No clear evidence to suggest patterns of difference between the personality development of homosexuals, heterosexuals, and bisexual persons.

23. “Coming Out” models suggests fours stages of identity development: • First awareness • Test and exploration • Identity acceptance • Identity integration • Model indicate the resistance, or fear that may justifiably accompany a person’s disclosure of gay or lesbian identity.

24. Maintaining psychological defenses and keeping the secret require massive expenditure of energy, and closing off social exchanges. • While 70% of Americans believe that same-sex behavior is “wrong”, most people would live and let live. • Homophobia runs deep in American culture, despite respect for privacy and individual rights, and permeates all systems levels.