The basic level of personality development, according to the theory, is usually achieved during adolescence. In general, primitive and compensatory tendencies have fused in that period, after which inherent personality structure alone is no longer the primary determinant of the individual's perceptual and responsive selectivity. The basic level of adjustment, then, represents a crucial phase in personality development.
Although the primitive Externalizer or Internalizer can achieve any one of a large variety of adjustments at the basic level, the possibilities fall into two main categories in terms of direction. Each of these categories can then be broken down into two subgroups, on the basis of strength. Thus, the primitive Externalizer or Internalizer can remain uncompensated, at the basic level, to either a moderate or an extreme degree. On the other hand, compensation may have taken place, in either moderate or extreme form. The directional categories, as well as the sub-divisions within them, can be readily inferred from the theoretical postulate that adjustment at the basic level is a function of the strength and direction of the primitive tendency, and of the external pressure exerted upon it.
An uncompensated adjustment at the basic level is characteristic of primitive Externalizers or Internalizers who, as children, were able to make more or less satisfactory adaptations on the basis of their respective primitive tendencies. These children were not strongly motivated to defend themselves against their own fundamental personality structures because, having been accepted as they were, they regarded their inherent predispositions as Role Adaptive.
The compensated states, on the other hand, are typical of adolescents who, as young children, were faced with external pressures which demanded change, and which were sufficiently strong to arouse feelings of anxiety, guilt, and inferiority. These children were therefore strongly motivated to develop defensive superstructures, in order to protect themselves from severe ego threat.
Whether the compensated states serve to increase the Individual's adaptability by extending the range of his behavior, or to restrict it by Inhibition, is chiefly a question of the degree of his compensatory activities. The primitive Externalizer or Internalizer who achieves moderate compensation at the basic level can shift toward, or away from, his primitive tendency without serious disruption. Orientations of this type can therefore be said to be among the more efficient, in that they allow the individual sufficient freedom, at least theoretically, to respond appropriately in a large variety of situations.
The other possibilities are all more or less restrictive in this respect. Lack of compensation, for example, whether It be moderate or severe, represents a relative or an extreme failure to acquire additional modes of responsiveness. Compensation is similarly restrictive, since its inherently defensive nature inhibits certain types of reactivity, either partially or completely.
The descriptions which follow are limited to those variations in personality development at the basic level which are attributable to differential strengths of the adaptive tendencies. Theoretically, the primitive tendencies are capable of similar variations. The theory, then, provides for a large number of individual differences in personality development which are not considered below. It should also be noted that the quality of adjustment which the individual attains at the basic level is, to some extent, a function of the various elements within his personality structure. Considerations such as the latter are reserved for descriptions of interaction, to be taken up in later chapters.