Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Sullivan: Interpersonal
Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^237
Companies, 2009Sullivan (1953b) believed that early adolescence is a turning point in person-
ality development. The person either emerges from this stage in command of the in-
timacy and lust dynamisms or faces serious interpersonal difficulties during future
stages. Although sexual adjustment is important to personality development, Sulli-
van felt that the real issue lies in getting along with other people.
Late Adolescence
Late adolescence begins when young people are able to feel both lust and intimacy
toward the same person, and it ends in adulthood when they establish a lasting love
relationship. Late adolescence embraces that period of self-discovery when adoles-
cents are determining their preferences in genital behavior, usually during secondary
school years, or about ages 15 to 17 or 18.
The outstanding feature of late adolescence is the fusion of intimacy and lust.
The troubled attempts at self-exploration of early adolescence evolve into a stable
pattern of sexual activity in which the loved one is also the object of lustful interest.
People of the other gender are no longer desired solely as sex objects but as people
who are capable of being loved nonselfishly. Unlike the previous stage that was ush-
ered in by biological changes, late adolescence is completely determined by inter-
personal relations.
Successful late adolescence includes a growing syntaxic mode. At college or
in the workplace, late adolescents begin exchanging ideas with others and having
their opinions and beliefs either validated or repudiated. They learn from others how
to live in the adult world, but a successful journey through the earlier stages facili-
tates this adjustment. If previous developmental epochs were unsuccessful, young
Chapter 8 Sullivan: Interpersonal Theory 231The early adolescent’s search for intimacy can increase anxiety and threaten security.