Question

Sarah, a high school sophomore, lacks self-discipline, fails to plan ahead, and is excessively anxious. She is quickly frustrated by challenging tasks and frequently becomes overly critical of others.

1. Use psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theories to explain Sarah's behavior.

2. Use trait theories to explain Sarah's behavior.

3. Use social-cognitive theories to explain Sarah's behavior.

Answer 1

1) Psychoanalytic:

Eros vs. Thanatos: Sarah is influenced more by his thanatos instinct than his eros instinct. This is evident from her aggressive tendencies to be “overly critical of others” and her ability to be “quickly frustrated by challenging tasks”. Her eros is weak as she has no concern for self-preservation or preservation of her species evident through his lack of concern for others and their feelings when she is “overly critical” of them. Sarah's’s id is stronger than her ego and superego as her need for instant gratification outweighs her ability to reason what is right and what is wrong and how her actions will affect more than just how she feels in the moment.

As a child, Sarah’s parents may have been overly critical of her, and she may project her criticisms onto other people.     

2) Humanistic: Sarah may be struggling to adapt to high school and she may be falling behind in her classes because of her lack of discipline. She is probably frustrated and insecure about her bad grades so she criticizes others to draw the attention away from herself.

Sarah's self-concept is very negative, this causes her to lash out at others, have very low self-esteem, and basically not care about anything. Something in her environment may be preventing Sarah from reaching the level of “self actualization” such as a lack of unconditional positive regard from her parents or her friends. Being unable to achieve this, it will inhibit Sarah from moving up the hierarchy of needs, making her unable to reach the stage of self actualization.

3)Social-cognitive:

Sarah's reciprocal determinism is hurting her more than anything. Her bitter selfish personality shapes her negative and hurtful reactions to others who have done nothing wrong. Because she lacks self-discipline, Sarah is choosing easy environments to put herself in. After doing this for so long, Sarah becomes easily frustrated with challenging tasks. Sarah's locus of control is most likely external as her behavior shows she has no motivation to change her surroundings, her way of doing things, or how people perceive her.