Behavioural ramifications in rejection sensitivity: Revisiting Horney’s theory of the neurotic personality

Pages: 164-168
Brinda B. Sharma (Centre for Studies in Behavioural Science, Dibrugarh University, Assam)

Anxious expectations of rejection in high rejection sensitive individuals serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy due to their maladjusted interpersonal behaviour. Karen Horney’s theory of personality contends that the culture in which individuals are reared is primarily responsible for the development of their personality and their resultant adjustment or maladjustment. Rejection Sensitivity (RS) has been theorized to originate from early attachment and is associated with loneliness, over conformity or withdrawal and defensive anxiety etc. in adolescents and adults. Horney also stressed the importance of human relationships and believed that neurotic trends in ones personality not only reinforced each other but also created conflicts. These conflicts encompass contradictory attitudes towards the self and contradictory sets of values. The patchworks generated by inner rifts may explain the behavioural tendencies and outcomes in Rejection Sensitivity. The article explores how Horney’s theory accounts for the phenomenological experiences in Rejection Sensitivity and its linkages with empirical results are analyzed. Research on the outcomes in Rejection Sensitivity has revealed that high rejection sensitive individuals exhibit over compliance, aggression and withdrawal which can be explained in light of Horney’s basic conflict between the attitudes of “moving towards”, “moving against” and “moving away from” people. However Horney highlighted the hope for psychological salvation and thus the theory is also examined to illuminate the mechanisms of coping in Rejection Sensitivity. A further line of research was suggested involving an understanding of self to counter the negative feedback loop in Rejection Sensitivity.