Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana

By: Katie Accampo

Princess of Wales

Introduction

Diana Frances Spencer was born into an aristocratic English family, but rocketed into worldwide fame at the age of 20, when she married a prince named Charles. Diana's personality was very much suited for the humanitarian triumphs she achieved as a royal, but she also succumbed to painful challenges as she struggled to manages the stresses that came from a life of public scrutiny. Diana made a profound impression on the world, through the personal and public legacy she left behind.

Heritability Analysis

• Diana was both agreeable and neurotic.

• Her agreeableness could be attributed to both her early secure childhood experiences as well as the steadiness of her father's disposition.

• She may have been predisposed to some psychological vulnerability in dealing with her parents' divorce as a child.

• She displayed more neurotic behaviors especially under the microscope of public life.

• Her sons may have also inherited aspects of her psychological makeup, based on the ways they have responded to tragic events in their lives.

What is heritable?

Everything

• Diana struggled with bulimia that she attributed it to her unhappy marriage.

• But through the lends of psychoanalysis, it may be more of a symptom of deeper, unhealed childhood wounds.
• Her birth order and the loss of a baby brother.
• Her parents' divorce.
• A bitter custody battle resulting in her mother abandoning her and her siblings for many years.

• She married very young, and was subjected to her husband's criticisms of her body.

• Diana engaged in talk therapy and other more constructive behaviors to help her overcome her eating disorder.

Psychoanalytic Analysis

• Through rewards and punishments, Diana learned through operant conditioning, which behaviors were acceptable and which weren't

• She often bucked the Royal system by going against the grain.

• While it was difficult to form close relationships at times within the royal family, she found favor in the public's eye.
• She made physical contact with people.
• She helped to destigmatize AIDS and mental health issues.
• She was relatable as a mother.

• Typically punishable behavior was perhaps rewarding within the royal system.

Behaviorism

Analysis

Best Approach?