Brief Lecture Notes for Unit 11 - Revised and updated
The seven major schools of thought in personality psychology are the dispositional, psychodynamic, phenomenological, behavioral, cognitive, biomedical, and the positive psychology movement (PPM). Of these, five (all except the first and the last) have an approach to therapy associated with them and will be discussed in this unit in some detail.
The major ways that the schools of thought can be compared and contrasted... or at least the three issues that I most want you to understand for our purposes... are the following.
1. Key idea underlying each school of thought
The key idea underlying the dispositional school of thought is that of personality traits, whether these are seen as innate (built in or genetic in origin) or learned/acquired through experience and/or choice.
The key idea of the psychodynamic school of thought is unconscious or intrapsychic conflict (sometimes called unconscious determinism). See the earlier version of the Unit 11 lecture notes for details about the Freudian structural model of the mind, which is important if this notion is to be properly understood.
The key idea of the phenomenological school of thought is authenticity -- related terms that are sometimes used to express this same idea are congruence and the internal frame of reference. This school views human beings as freely choosing agents, and emphasizes this capacity of choice.
The key idea of the behavioral school of thought is external contingencies (e.g., rewards and punishments, stimulus cues) that initiate and/or maintain behavior.
The key idea of the cognitive school of thought is mediated emotionality (sometimes called by the simpler term self-talk): namely, that how a person thinks about or interprets external reality is the primary determinant of her/his emotional life and behavioral responses.
The key idea of the biomedical school of thought is psychophysical parallelism: namely, that organic or physiological events or causes, many (though not all) of which are genetic in origin, cause -- or at least mirror -- psychological states. Most (not all) proponents of this view tend to some extent to be more reductionistic than those in other schools of thought for this reason.
The key idea of the positive psychology movement (PPM) is that of optimal human functioning, particularly as linked to the search for meaning; for more (particularly as related to the work of Viktor Frankl), click here.
Because the dispositional and (to a lesser extent) the PPM approaches are not largely focused on issues of mental illness particularly, they will be omitted from the following discussion.
2. The question of etiology
Etiology means (essentially) causation: what, in this case, is responsible for the existence of mental illness, for the form it takes, and for the course of the disorder. Questions of etiology can be specific to a particular diagnosis, and often are; in this unit, however, we are asking a more general etiological question, "What causes (or what is responsible for) mental illness in general or in the abstract?"
Psychodynamicists view mental illness as an indirect result of unresolved, repressed intrapsychic conflict. An issue that is repressed cannot be resolved by direct, conscious, rational means since the conscious mind no longer has access to that information. Thus, it comes out in indirect, unconscious, irrational ways -- the symptoms and clinical syndromes of mental illness. Repression is therefore the "culprit" of the drama.
Phenomenologists view mental illness as a consequence of inauthenticity, whether viewed in terms of needless conformity to external conditions of worth, failure to admit certain facts about oneself into one's self-image (incongruence), failure to come to terms with one's mortality and one's responsibility for personal choices, or in some other form.
Behaviorists are perhaps unique in suggesting that there is nothing "special" about mental illness as such. (In contrast, all other schools of thought explain mental illness using constructs that are not drawn purely from theories of "normal" personality.) As with any other behaviors, those we label as "abnormal" or as evidence of "mental illness" are caused and maintained by the same sets of situational contingencies that underlie all behavior.
Cognitivists generally blame irrational thinking for mental illness, claiming that emotional disturbances arise from faulty interpretations of life events. (Unfortunately to some extent this involves some degree of circular reasoning, since when asked to define what irrationality means, many will say that a thought is irrational if it causes emotional or behavioral pathology. If X is defined in terms of Y and Y is defined in terms of X, one has an enjoyable infinite regress.)
Biomedical theorists attribute mental illness to a host of specific organic or physiological causes, ranging from genetic abnormalities to brain lesions to imbalances in neurotransmitter processes. In general, though, they would point to abnormal neurological functioning (structural or functional deviations from the state of the normally functioning brain) as causal factors.
3. The basic approach to treatment
Understand the problem, and the solution practically writes itself: for each school of thought (and, one might say, for every known human philosophy, viewpoint, or worldview), the solution flows logically from a particular diagnosis of the problem or of the human condition.
Psychodynamicists attempt to undo repression or (to put it conversely) help clients to achieve insight into previously repressed conflicts. Once the conflict is again made conscious, the rational mind can use normal conscious processes to solve it.
Phenomenologists attempt to undo inauthenticity or (to put it conversely) foster authenticity. Once an individual again faces her/his responsibility for making personal choices and has the courage to do so, the illness subsides. This is often brought about through the application of unconditional positive regard.
Behaviorists attempt to alter the situational contingencies that maintain maladaptive behavior: change the environment by means of a targeted behavioral intervention, they believe, and behavior (including mental "behavior" -- that is, patterns of thinking and feeling) will automatically change.
Cognitivists attempt to teach people how to think more rationally: to replace maladaptive patterns of self-talk with healthier ones, to inculcate rational thinking.
Biomedical theorists apply medical treatments -- including but not limited to pharmacological or psychotropic (drug) treatments -- to restore proper brain functioning and hence eliminate the psychological symptoms.