Subpersonality
Overview
Transpersonal psychology
Transpersonal psychology is a form of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience....
, a personality mode that kicks in (appears on a temporary basis) to allow a person to cope with certain types of psychosocial
Psychosocial
For a concept to be psychosocial means it relates to one's psychological development in, and interaction with, a social environment. The individual needs not be fully aware of this relationship with his or her environment. It was first commonly used by psychologist Erik Erikson in his stages of...
situations. Similar to a complex
Complex (psychology)
A complex is a core pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status...
, the mode may include thoughts, feelings, actions, physiology, and other elements of human behavior to self-present
Impression management
In sociology and social psychology, impression management is a goal-directed conscious or unconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event; they do so by regulating and controlling information in social interaction...
a particular mode that works to negate particular psychosocial situations. The average person has about a dozen subpersonalities.
A subpersonality is distinguished from a Dissociative Identity disorder (formerly: Multiple personality disorder)
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
in that subpersonalities are merely personas or pieces of a whole, whereas DID is characterized by (at least) two separate and distinct personalities who have their own patterns of interacting with the environment.