Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
Edition
III. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- May: Existential
Psychology
© The McGraw−Hill^377
Companies, 2009Chapter 12 May: Existential Psychology 371- Intentionalityis the underlying structure that gives meaning to experience
and allows people to make decisions about the future.
•Lovemeans taking delight in the presence of the other person and
affirming that person’s value as much as one’s own. - Sex, a basic form of love, is a biological function that seeks satisfaction
through the release of sexual tension. - Eros,a higher form of love, seeks an enduring union with a loved one.
- Philiais the form of love that seeks a nonsexual friendship with another
person. - Agape,the highest form of love, is altruistic and seeks nothing from the
other person. - Freedomis gained through confrontation with one’s destiny and through an
understanding that death or nonbeing is a possibility at any moment. - Existential freedomis freedom of action, freedom to move about, to pursue
tangible goals. - Essential freedomis freedom of being, freedom to think, to plan, to hope.
- Cultural mythsare belief systems, both conscious and unconscious, that
provide explanations for personal and social problems.