Case Study #1

The Case of Grace

1. Allport suggested six criteria that demonstrate that a person is psychologically healthy.
What are these? Would you say that Grace is psychologically healthy? Cite examples from
the case study to support your answer.

Allport identified six criteria that determine whether a person is psychologically healthy and
mature or not. The criteria suggested by Allport are extension of the sense of self, warm relating
of others to others, self-acceptance, realistic perception of environment, insight and humor, and
unifying philosophy of life.

The first criterion is the extension of the sense of self, which means the social capability of
a person. This criterion means that a healthy person seeks to involve in events, problems, and
activities outside oneself, and it becomes part of one. Second, a healthy person has a warm
relationship to others, which means the ability to love others with compassion, intimacy and
respect. The third is self-acceptance or emotional security, which is accepting oneself and not
dwelling on minor problems. The fourth criterion is possessing a realistic perception of one’s
environment, which is being in touch with their world and not be self-centered. The fifth is insight
and humor, which is the same as looking at oneself objectively. A person has a nonhostile
sense of humor and does not our negativity upon others. Sixth, a healthy person has a unifying
sense of life and a clear view of the purpose of life.

In order to consider a person psychologically healthy, the person should meet all of these
six criteria. Hence, I believe that Grace is not psychologically healthy as there are criteria that
does not exude who she is. I believe that Grace does not have a warm relationship to others,
realistic perception of the environment and humor and insight.

I believe that Grace does not have a warm relationship to others especially to his son-in-
law, Nick and daughter, Hannah. She was critical to both of them in terms of their marriage as
she disapproved it and both of their attitudes. She thought of Nick as a burden and egomaniac,
and Hannah as a bad parent. These shows how she did not have respect and compassion to
her son-in-law and daughter. Her inability to have a warm relationship to others shows with her
attitude of being judgmental and unforgiving. She makes unnecessary remarks, having ill
thoughts about people and attacking verbally. Moreover, Grace does not have a realistic
perception to the world especially in her stance on pro-life versus pro-choice. She could not
understand why women would not want a child from God even though this is the world. She has
no sympathy for unmarried and pregnant women. These mean that she is out of touch with the
world as she does not know the reality of unmarried and pregnant women. Some people do not
want a child because of many factors that affect their decision of having abortion. This must be
her perception to this matter as it is the reality. She becomes self-centered in this matter as she
does not consider the perception of others in this matter. In addition, Grace does not possess
insight and humor as she does not see herself objectively. She always thought of her as kindly
even though people think that she is judgmental and unforgiving. She does not recognize her
real behavior, which is not what she thinks who she is as described by her peers. Also, she
found fault with most people; thus, so attributes her negativity with others.
 Although Grace has her attitudes that does not radiate being a psychologically healthy
person, she also met some of criteria such as extension of the sense of self, and unifying sense
of life. Grace has an extension of the sense of self as she is involved in activities outside her
with unselfish motives. She participates in church-related activities such as teaching children,
volunteering at church, working at Bingo, and organizing pro-life protests. These activities go
beyond herself as she was doing it for others, which is not selfish and self-centered. In addition,
Grace has a unifying sense of life especially with how she is involved in her church by
participating in activities. She has a purpose with her life as her mission in life is to save babies
by organizing pro-life and anti-abortion protests. Moreover, Grace has a warm relationship to his
husband and grandson especially as she remembers them in her scrapbooking and talks about
her husband’s death a lot. In turn, she also warmly related to her priest as she talks to him
about her husband’s death, and the priest asks her to organize a pro-life protest.

I believe that Grace is not a psychologically healthy person because of her unwarm
relating to others, unrealistic perception of her environment, and lack of humor and insight. She
does not have a warm relationship to her son-in-law and daughter, realistic perception on
abortion and objectivity of herself. Amidst these, she holds characteristics that can make her
healthy. But since she does not meet all of these criteria, Grace is not a psychologically healthy
person.

2. How was Grace described in the case study? Given this, what would you say are
Grace’s central traits?

In the case study, Grace was described by her priest as strong, devout, outspoken and driven.
She was also described by her son-in-law as self-righteous, stubborn, religious and zealous.
These traits of Grace can be observed in her involvement in her church by working at Bingo,
teaching children, volunteering in the church decorations, and organizing pro-life protests. She
can also be described as unforgiving, judgmental and critical due to her attitudes towards her
people. It was said that Grace held ill-harboring thoughts, attacked people verbally and judged
her son-in-law and daughter. Grace also had scrapbooking as a way to remember her
husband’s and family’s life and legacy, which means she can be described as sentimental or
reminiscent of the past.

Traits in the central disposition influences our behavior in most of the situations and people.
Each person usually has 5-10 central traits, which shape our behavior but not too
overwhelming. Basing from the descriptions of Grace, the central traits of Grace are devout,
religious, outspoken, critical, and sentimental. These traits had influenced the behavior of
Grace. Grace is devout and religious because of her commitment and loyalty to her church by
participating activities related to it. Grace is critical as she criticizes people around her and has a
hard time connecting with them. She is outspoken especially with her stance on abortion and
pro-life. She is sentimental because she has a hard time letting go of the past with scrapbooking
of her husband. These five traits generally say who Grace is because these affects how she
acts on a daily basis.

3. Find an example of propriate functional autonomy in the case.

 Propriate functional autonomy refers to self-sustaining motives related to the proprium.
Grace’s scrapbooking is an example of propriate functional autonomy. Grace originally did
scrapbooking as a way to help ease the pain of her daughter’s marriage and most especially her
husband’s death. She and women from her church got together once a week to do
scrapbooking. At first, she even hesitated to join to group as she was not interested in
scrapbooking. As time passed by, she realized that she liked scrapbooking as she tried it. She
continued this as a hobby even though the group had disbanded. This became a passion of
Grace as she believed that documenting her life and legacy is important.
The original motivation of Grace in doing scrapbook, which was helping to ease her
loneliness, was gone after some time. But she still did scrapbooking, which meant that
functional autonomy took place in this behavior. Then, scrapbooking became a hobby and
passion for her with the belief of documentation as important. With this, it reached the level of
propriate functional autonomy as scrapbooking now became her hobby. Scrapbooking in Grace
had a self-sustaining motive, which became to documentation as a motive. It is related to
proprium as it became close to her core personality due to the fact that it became her hobby.

Allport would say religious orientation is an important part of helping Grace mature. It’s relation
to adjustment is immature or mature. While his primary focus was on internal characteristics that
determine behavior, like traits, he also believed behavior was both internally and externally
motivated. We might understand Grace’s religious orientation best through this genotype and
phenotype view. Her underlyinging tendency (genotype) is expedience. She serves at the parish
and protests because this gives her an advantage - the attention and enjoyment she no longer
receives from her husband. This reflect immature adjustment. And it also unifies her two
phenotypes (the central traits) mentioned above. On the flip side, when she’s serious and
organizing herself around her faith, this could also be seen as mature adjustment. What this
implies about her adjustment is that she is still in a state of becoming. She would show more
mature adjustment by being more open to change and correction, like when she receives the
realistic feedback from the people around her about her central traits.