Question

THE CASE OF SYLVIA

Whenever Amy calls her mother, Sylvia, the conversation is very similar. Sylvia always goes on about cleaning her house. Amy is very familiar with this behavior. Sylvia takes great pride in the appearance of her house and yard and loves it when someone compliments either. As a child, Amy remembers Sylvia cleaning nonstop on weekends when she wasn’t working outside her home. She would clean the entire house room by room, making beds, dusting furniture and woodwork, shaking out rugs. The entire process took days. When the family was expecting company, it was assumed that the house would be cleaned twice, once during the regular weekly cleaning and once the day the company was visiting. Once a year, spring cleaning took place. Everyone in the family, except Sylvia, dreaded this process. During this event, closets were cleaned out and scrubbed. Hardwood floors were washed and waxed. Furniture was polished. Curtains were laundered and rehung. All the dishes were taken out of the cupboards and washed, as were the cupboards themselves. Then everything was returned to its place. Everything had a place in Sylvia’s house, and she would become angry if there were too many things out of place. “Family conferences” would be called to discuss ways to keep the house clean and how hard Sylvia worked at keeping the house clean while everyone else did so little. Sylvia often portrayed herself as a martyr who did so much for others and asked so little for herself. She sees herself as continuously doing for others, when in reality she usually tells others what to do.

The yard is also very tidy. The grass is beautifully trimmed and resembles a rug. It is often mowed, even though it does not appear to need it. The garden is well tended, and it would be difficult to find a single weed in it. Once when a neighbor cut his grass without a catcher attached to the lawn mower and grass went flying into her garden, Sylvia threw a fit. After that, she did not talk to the neighbor for two years.

Q16 (6 Points): What Freudian stage of development does Sylvia seem to be stuck in? What is this stage all about? Provide as much evidence as possible for your answer

Q17 (6 Points): Which of Karen Horney’s Neurotic Personality Trends does she seem to be displaying? What is this personality trend all about? Provide as much evidence as possible to support your answer

Q18 (8 Points): Explain whether Sylvia would score high or low on each of McCrae and

Costa’s big five dimensions. Provide evidence for your answer.

Answer 1

Q16. What Freudian stage of development does Sylvia seem to be stuck in? What is this stage all about? Provide as much evidence as possible for your answer.

Sylvia is stuck in phase two, the anal stage. Her obsession with neatness and order as well as her behaviour when things are not how she would like them is evidence of that much.

What is this stage all about? Well, the anal stage lasts between the age of 18 months to 3 years of a child's early life. Toilet training is, at this point, paramount as the ego continues to manifest. A child must learn to navigate a balance between the id - with its need for instant gratification - and the ego - with its need for delayed gratification. During toilet training, the id and ego of the child are at odds, resulting in a conflict. Parenting styles have a key role at this stage too. If the parents and child give into the id, the child may grow to become a sloppy person with self-indulgent tendencies. On the other hand, if parental demands are too high, i.e parents place an excessive amount of importance on toilet training, the child may go on to exhibit a compulsive personality akin to Sylvia's whereby they might place too much importance on neatness and cleanliness to the point where it proves to be dysfunctional ( the example where she refused to speak to her neighbour after the grass incident, for example). The ideal point during the anal phase should result in a child adjusting to parental demands of cleanliness and order - leading to a self-controlled adult.