Feist CH 5
Feist CH 5
Feist CH 5
Chapter 5
Klein: Object Relations Theory
Learning Objectives
Summary Outline
then has a relationship with the ideal breast and the persecutory
breast. To control this situation, infants adopt the paranoid-
schizoid position, which is a tendency to see the world as having
both destructive and omnipotent qualities.
B. Depressive Position
By depressive position, Klein meant the anxiety that infants
experience around 6 months of age over losing their mother and
yet, at the same time, wanting to destroy her. The depressive
position is resolved when infants fantasize that they have made
up for their previous transgressions against their mother and also
realize that their mother will not abandon them.
VI. Psychic Defense Mechanisms
According to Klein, children adopt various psychic defense
mechanisms to protect their egos against anxiety aroused by their
own destructive fantasies.
A. Introjection
Klein defined introjection as the fantasy of taking into one's own
body the images that one has of an external object, especially the
mother's breast. Infants usually introject good objects as a
protection against anxiety, but they also introject bad objects in
order to gain control of them.
B. Projection
The fantasy that one's own feelings and impulses reside within
another person is called projection. Children project both good
and bad images, especially onto their parents.
C. Splitting
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Chapter 5 Klein: Object Relations Theory
Klein believed that the Oedipus complex begins during the first
few months of life, then reaches its zenith during the genital
stage, at about 3 or 4 years of age—the same time that Freud had
suggested it began. Klein also believed that much of the Oedipus
complex is based on children's fear that their parents will seek
revenge against them for their fantasy of emptying the parent's
body. For healthy development during the Oedipal years,
children should retain positive feelings for each parent.
According to Klein, the little boy adopts a "feminine"
position very early in life and has no fear of being castrated as
punishment for his sexual feelings toward his mother. Later, he
projects his destructive drive onto his father, whom he fears will
bite or castrate him. The male Oedipus complex is resolved
when the boy establishes good relations with both parents.
The little girl also adopts a "feminine" position toward both
parents quite early in life. She has a positive feeling for both her
mother's breast and her father's penis, which she believes will
feed her with babies. Sometimes the girl develops hostility
toward her mother, whom she fears will retaliate against her and
rob her of her babies, but in most cases, the female Oedipus
complex is resolved without any jealousy toward the mother.
VIII. Later Views of Object Relations
A number of other theorists have expanded and altered Klein's
theory of object relations. Notable among them are Margaret
Mahler, Heinz Kohut, John Bowlby. and Mary Ainsworth.
A. Margaret Mahler's View
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Chapter 5 Klein: Object Relations Theory
anxiety: (1) protest, (2) apathy and despair, and (3) emotional
detachment from people, including the primary caregiver.
Children who reach the third stage of separation anxiety lack
warmth and emotion in their later relationships.
D. Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation
Mary Ainsworth was born in Ohio in 1919 and died in 1999. She
and her colleagues developed a technique called the Strange
Situation for measuring one of three the types of attachment
styles—secure attachment, anxious-resistant attachment, and
anxious-avoidant attachment.
IX. Psychotherapy
The goal of Klein's therapy was to reduce depressive anxieties
and persecutory fears and to lessen the harshness of internalized
objects. To do this, Klein encouraged patients to reexperience
early fantasies and pointed out the differences between conscious
and unconscious wishes.
X. Related Research
Research on object relations has included a variety of topics,
including eating disorders and adult relationships. One study of
both topics was conducted by Smolak and Levine (1993) who
found that bulimia was associated with detachment from parents,
whereas anorexia was associated with high levels of guilt and
conflict over separation from parents. More recently, Steven
Huprich and colleges (Huprich, Stepp, Graham, & Johnson, 2004)
found that both men and women who were insecurely attached
and self-focused (egocentric) had greater difficulty in controlling
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Chapter 5 Klein: Object Relations Theory
their compulsive eating than did those who were more securely
attached and less self-focused. Attachment theory was originally
conceptualized by John Bowlby, who emphasized the relationship
between parent and child. Since the 1980s, researchers have
begun to examine systematically the attachment relationships in
adults, especially in romantic relationships. The usefulness of
attachment theory was investigated in a classic study by Cindy
Hazan and Phil Shaver (1987). These researchers found that
people with secure early attachments experienced more trust,
closeness, and positive emotions in their adult love relationships
than did other people. Steven Rholes and colleagues found that as
they predicted, avoidant individuals do not seek out additional
information about their romantic partners’ intimate feelings and
dreams, and anxious individuals seek more information about their
partners’ intimacy-related issues and goals for the future (Rholes,
Simpson, Tran, Martin, & Friedman, 2007). Rivka Davidovitz
and others also examined attachment style in leader-follower
relationships, specifically military officers and their soldiers
(Davidovitz, Mikulincer, Shaver, Izsak, & Popper, 2007; Popper
& Mayseless, 2003). They found units with officers who had an
avoidant attachment style to be less cohesive, and their soldiers
reported lower psychological well-being than members of other
units. Anxiously attached officers’ units rated low on
instrumental functioning, but high on socioemotional functioning.
Recent research shows that attachment theory is important to
understanding a wide range of adult relationships.
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Chapter 5 Klein: Object Relations Theory
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
15. The theorist who used the Strange Situation to show the
parent/infant relationship was _________________.
True-False
_____9. During the early oedipal months, both boys and girls adopt a
"feminine" position.
____19. Ainsworth found that secure infants will initiate contact with
their mother immediately when their mother returns following
a brief period of separation.
____20. Compared with secure infants, insecure infants lack the ability
to engage in effective play.
Multiple Choice
______1. Klein suggested that the infant's first model for interpersonal
relations was
a. the mother's breast.
b. the father.
c. the self.
d. an imaginary playmate.
______8. In order to control the good breast and to fight off its
persecutors, infants use
a. their superego.
b. their id.
c. the paranoid-schizoid position.
____11. Infants use this means of controlling good and bad aspects of
themselves.
a. the paranoid-schizophrenic position
b. the depressive position
c. projection
d. sublimation
e. splitting
____14. Klein believed that a girl fantasizes that her father's penis
feeds the mother with babies during this period.
a. separation anxiety
b. preadolescent
c. introjective identification
d. oedipal
c. Heinz Kohut
d. Mary Ainsworth
a. masochistic needs.
b. sadistic needs.
c. self-esteem needs.
d. narcissistic needs.
Short Answer
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks True-False Multiple Choice
1. breast 1. F 1. a
2. Freud's 2. T 2. e
3. phantasies 3. T 3. c
4. introject 4. F 4. b
5. paranoid-schizoid 5. T 5. c
6. depressive 6. F 6. c
7. splitting 7. F 7. d
8. projective 8. T 8. c
9. ego 9. T 9. b
10. feminine 10. T 10. c
11. mother 11. T 11. e
12. birth 12. F 12. a
13. self 13. F 13. b
14. protest 14. F 14. d
15. Ainsworth 15. T 15. a
16. T 16. b
17. F 17. a
18. T 18. c
19. T 19. a
20. T 20 c
21. d
22. b