Personality Development and Mental Health

Overview of the Topic

A. A Healthy Personality

Definitions Factors in Personality Development Ways in Improving Personality B. Conflict, Frustration, Adjustment Kinds of Conflict Consequences of Frustration Abnormal Behavior Kinds of Adjustment C. Mental Health and Psychotherapy Definition Psychotherapy and Psychotherapeutic Procedures

A Healthy Personality
The term personality is taken from the Latin term Persona meaning masks which were first used in Greek drama, and later adopted by Roman players. Most definitions are agreed that personality is the totality of ones physical or inherited attributes as well as those psychological factors that determine ones characteristic behavior. Hence personality involves characteristics like: 1. Physical 2. Mental 3. Emotional 4. Social 5. Moral

Factors in Personality Development

Inherited Predisposition 2. Abilities 3. Family and Home environment 4. Culture
1.

Ways of Improving Personality

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Self-appraisal Effective regulation of emotional life Social relations Work Love and Sex Self Philosophy of life

Frustration
Frustration results from the blocking or thwarting of goal-directed behavior resulting in an unpleasant state of tension, anxiety and heightened sympathetic activity.
Social NonSocial

Personal

Internal Conflict

Kinds of Conflict

Approach-Approach Conflict Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict Approach-Avoidance Conflict Double-Approach-Avoidance Conflict

Consequences of Frustration
A. Restlessness and Tension

B. Aggression and Destructiveness

C. Apathy D. Fantasy E. Stereotypy F. Regression

Abnormal Behavior
Viewpoints of an Abnormal Behavior: 1. Normative View 2. Statistical View 3. Social Viewpoint 4. General View An abnormal behavior is a neurosis or psychoneurosis a benign mental disorder.

Classification of Psychoneurosis
Anxiety Reaction Neurasthenia Hypochondriasis

Dissociative Reactions

Conversion Reaction

Phobias

ObsessiveCompulsive Reactions

Repression

Kinds of Adjustment
Escape Responses A. Motives for Adjustment Projection

1. His goal-directed behavior is blocked; he is frustrated. 2. There is a conflict between motives. Intellectualization 3. There is an increase in intensity ofIdentification a motive. B. Types of Adjustment Mechanisms
Substitution Reaction Formation

Rationalization

Mental Health and Psychotherapy

Mental Health is a state of good adjustment with a subjective state of well-being, zest for living and the feeling that one is exercising his talents and abilities. Characteristics of a Mentally-Healthy personality: 1. Adjusted 2. Productive 3. Zest for living 4. Sensitive

Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is the application of specialized techniques to treat mental disorders or to everyday problems of adjustment.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6.
7. 8.

Free Association Client-centered or Nondirective Therapy Psychotherapy based on the Learning theory Group therapy Psychodrama Role Playing Family Therapy Eclectic Approach