Personality: Lecture 9. The existentialist/phenomenological perspective: Towards a focus on personal narrative and well-being

Transcription

1 Personality: Lecture 9 The existentialist/phenomenological perspective: Towards a focus on personal narrative and well-being

2 Overview This lecture aims to supplement the relevant text readings by: 1. Reviewing the key tenets of the existential approach to personality. 2. Reviewing the key aspects of Deci and Ryan s selfdetermination theory. 3. The relevance of the existential approach and the phenomenological approach to contemporary research and practice.

3 The existentialist approach Existentialism first began in philosophy When existentialism appeared in psychology and psychiatry, the main European representatives were Binswanger and Laing, while the main American representative was May. Umwelt The world of natural law and biological determinism.» The second mode of world is: Mitwelt The world of interrelationships with human beings.» The third mode of world is: Eigenwelt The own world, i.e., the mode of relationship to one s self.

4 Dasein Composed of sein (being) and da (there) Indicates that man is the being who is there and implies also that he has a there in the sense that he can know he is there and can take a stand with reference to that fact. Man (or Dasein) is the particular being who has to be aware of himself, be responsible for himself, if he is to become himself. (May 1958, p. 42)

5 The condition of the individual when confronted with the issue of fulfilling his potentialities is anxiety. (May 1958, p. 52) when the person denies these potentialities, fails to fulfill them, his condition is guilt If we forget being by failing to bring ourselves to our entire being, by failing to be authentic, by slipping into the conformist anonymity of das Man then we have in fact missed our being and to that extent are failures. If you lock up potentialities, you are guilty against (or indebted to, as the German word may be translated) what is given you in your origin, in your core. (May 1958, pp )

6 The phenomenological approach Deci and Ryan s self-determination theory Self-determination theory (SDT) is unabashedly a psychological approach to human behavior, which means that it typically considers people s experience to be the proximal determinant of action. In other words, the theory focuses on the way people interpret internal or external stimulus inputs (Ryan and Deci 2008, p. 655) At the same time that SDT is a theory of personal experience, it is also a theory of human nature, for it maintains that understanding subjective experience requires that one specify the nature of the self. (Ryan and Deci 2008, p. 655)

7 The nascent self Genetically inherited individual difference variables, e.g., innate abilities, preferences, and temperament. Basic (non-derived) psychological needs The need for competence (i.e., the need to feel effective) The need for self-determination (i.e., the need to experience an internal perceived locus of causality) The need for relatedness (i.e., the need to experience a satisfying and coherent involvement with others) Organismic integration process the process by which the self develops by integrating new experiences and regulatory processes with the intrinsic self. the fundamental developmental principle, and it is akin to what has been referred to variously as the actualizing tendency (Deci 1998, p. 151)

8 Socialisation and the regulation of behaviour Non-regulation Associated type of motivation: Amotivation A more classic instance of amotivation is the type of passivity or disorganized action that results from the experience of not being able to achieve a desired outcome, whether because of one s own incompetence in that domain or because of some barrier such as a rigid, arbitrary authority who dispenses outcomes in an unpredictable way. In spite of wanting an outcome, one will not act in a predictable, goal-oriented fashion because of the experienced inability to attain it. There may be action, but it is likely to be disorganized and accompanied by the feelings of frustration, fear, or depression. (Deci and Ryan 1991, p. 252) Associated personality orientation: The impersonal orientation the impersonal orientation means that the person has never learned to manage the forces of drives and emotions; he or she has not developed structures for managing these forces Often people become immobile, perhaps unintentionally appearing passiveaggressive Often, amotivated behavior will be driven by nonconscious forces, so people may engage in addictive behaviors and feel helpless with relation to them. (Deci and Ryan 1985, pp )

9 External regulation Behaviour is undertaken to obtain a reward or to avoid a punishment. Introjected regulation Behaviour is undertaken to avoid guilt and anxiety, or to appease an ego ideal. Associated type of motivation: Extrinsic motivation (controlled) Associated personality orientation: The controlled orientation The controlled orientation reflects the degree to which people look for cues and controls in the environment or in their own introjects and let those regulate and determine their behavior. Thus, this orientation concerns people s behavior being directed by demands, rewards, threats, and self-esteem contingencies. (Ryan and Deci 2008, p. 665)

10 Identified regulation The relevant social regulation has been fully internalized such that the person identifies with the personal importance of the behaviour. Integrated regulation Identified regulations are brought into congruence i.e., are integrated with other aspects of the self (i.e., other values, goals, and needs). Associated type of motivation: Extrinsic motivation (autonomous) Associated personality orientation: The autonomy orientation The autonomy orientation indexes the degree to which people tend to interpret the social context as autonomy supportive and informational; tend to be aware of their own inner needs, interests, and values and use them as guides for their behavior, all of which conduce toward autonomous self-regulation. (Ryan and Deci 2008, p. 665) Intrinsic regulation Behaviour is undertaken out of intrinsic interest. Associated type of motivation: Intrinsic motivation. Associated personality orientation: The autonomy orientation.

11 Autonomy supportive versus controlling Concerns the extent to which a social context provides choice, minimises pressure to perform in specified ways, and encourages initiation. Competence supporting versus incompetence promoting (or signifying) Concerns the extent to which behaviour-outcome contingencies are understandable, expectations are clear, and feedback is provided. Relationally supportive versus neglecting (or rejecting) Concerns the degree to which significant others are interested in and devote time and energy to a relationship.

12 Conclusion The personal narrative approach to personality The study of the expression, development, function, and meaning of the stories people tell about their lives. The study of stories people tell about their lives is no longer a promising new direction for the future of personality psychology. Instead, personal narratives and the life story have arrived. (McAdams 2008, p. 242)

13 The kind of cure that consists of adjustment, becoming able to fit the culture, can be obtained by technical emphases in therapy, for it is precisely the central theme of the culture that one live in a calculated, controlled, technically well-managed way. Then the patient accepts a confined world without conflict, for now his world is identical with the culture. And since anxiety comes only with freedom, the patient naturally gets over his anxiety; he is relieved from his symptoms because he surrenders the possibilities which caused his anxiety. This is the way of being "cured" by giving up being, giving up existence, by constricting, hedging in existence. In this respect, psychotherapists become the agents of the culture whose particular task it is to adjust people to it (May 1958, pp )

14 How does Deci and Ryan s account of socialisation and the regulation of behaviour compare to Freud s? External regulation and introjected regulation? The part which is later taken on by the super-ego is played to begin with by an external power, by parental authority. Parental influence governs the child by offering proofs of love and by threatening punishments which are signs to the child of loss of love and are bound to be feared on their own account It is only subsequently that the secondary situation develops where the external restraint is internalized and the super-ego takes the place of the parental agency and observes, directs, and threatens the ego in exactly the same way as earlier the parents did with the child. (Freud 1933, p. 62)

15 Identified regulation and integrated regulation? Deci and Ryan maintain that unconscious processes as well as drives and emotions originate from outside the self. In self-determination theory, the self and its innate psychological needs ultimately serve as a smokescreen for the incoherent concept of free will.

16 References Deci, E. L. (1998). The relation of interest to motivation and human needs - The selfdetermination theory viewpoint. In L. Hoffmann, A. Krapp, K. A. Renninger, and J. Baumert (Eds.) Interest and Learning: Proceedings of the Seeon Conference on Interest and Gender. (pp ). Kiel: IPN. Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum. Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1991). A motivational approach to self: Integration in personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1990: Perspectives on Motivation. (pp ). University of Nebraska Press. Diamond, S. A. (2007). Anger, madness, and the daimonic: The psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. Freud, S. (1933). New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Standard Edition, vol. XXII. London: Hogarth. May, R. (1958). Contributions of existential psychotherapy. In R. May, E. Angel, and H. F. Ellenberger (Eds.) Existence: A New Dimension in Psychiatry and Psychology. New York: Basic Books. pp McAdams, D. P. (2008). Personal narratives and the life story. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, and L. A. Pervin (Eds.) Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. pp New York: The Guilford Press. Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. (2008). Self-determination theory and the role of basic psychological needs in personality and the organization of behavior. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, and L. A. Pervin (Eds.) Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. pp New York: The Guilford Press.