THEORIES OF PERSONALITY ALFRED-ADLER-IP.pdf

Alfred adler's Individual Psychology

1. Alfred Adler's
Individual
Psychology

2. Learning Objectives
•By the end of the lesson, students will be
able to:
•Explainthe historical background and
development of Alfred Adler’s Individual
Psychology.
•Identifyand definethe major concepts of
Individual Psychology (inferiority feelings,
compensation, striving for superiority,
social interest, lifestyle, and birth
order).
•Analyzethe role of social interest and
lifestyle in personality development and
adjustment.
•DifferentiateAdler’s perspective from
Freud’s and Jung’s theories of personality.
•ApplyIndividual Psychology principles in
real-life situations such as counseling,
education, and daily interpersonal
relationships.

3. Who is Alfred Adler?
•Bornin 1870, Vienna
•Received a medical degree in 1895
•Married in 1897
•Eventually had four children
•Only son became a psychiatrist and
continued Adler’s work
•Influence on Horney, Maslow,
Rogers

4. Who is Adler?
•Joined Freud’s discussion group in
1902
•Adler’s views were initially compatible
with Freud’s
•Adler’s views changed and he began
to criticize Freud’s theories
•In 1911, Adler and others broke
away from Freud and formed “ The
Society for Individual Psychology ”
•Involvement in WWI helped develop
the concept of social interest
•Diedin 1937

5. Individual Psychology
Basic Concepts
1.The one dynamic force behind people's
behavior is the striving for success or
superiority
2.People's subjective perceptions shape
their behavior and personality
3.Personality is unifiedand self-
consistent
4.The value of all human activity must be
seen from the viewpoint of social
interest
5.The self-consistent personality
structure develops into a person's style
of life
6.Style of life is molded by people's
creativepower

6. •Motivating force to striving for
perfection
•Asingle "drive" or motivating force
lies behind all our behavior and
experience
•Present is shaped by person’s view of
future
•Psychologically healthy people are
aware of themselves
•Critic to unconscious
•Psychologically unhealthy individuals
strive for personal superiority,
whereas psychologically healthy
1. The one dynamic force behind people's behavior is the
striving for successor superiority

7. 1. The one dynamic force behind
people's behavior is the striving
for successor superiority
•Aggressiondrive ---the reaction
we have when other drives (e.g.,
the need to eat, be sexually
satisfied, get things done, or be
loved) are frustrated
•Masculine protest
•A universal drive
•Have role in abnormal development
•will to power or a domination of
others
•Betterbecalled the assertiveness
drive
•Regardless of the motivation for
striving, everyone is guided by a
final goal

8. 1. The one dynamic force behind
people's behavior is the striving
for successor superiority
•Final goal
•Peoplestrive toward a final goal of
either personal superiorityor the goal
of success for all humankind
•fictional &no objective existence
•unifies personality and renders all
behavior comprehensible
•Each person has the power to create a
personalized fictional goal
•The product of the creative power; that
is, people's ability to freely shape
their behavior and create their own
personality
•No effect of genetics or environment
•Set by the time children reach 4 or 5
years of age

9. •Compensation
•Strivingto overcome
•We all have problems, short -comings,
inferiorities of one sort or another
•The striving force itself is innate, but its
nature and direction are due both t o feelings
of inferiority and to the goal of superiority
•Ourpersonalities could be accounted for by
the ways in which we do --or do not --
compensate or overcome those problems
•Later, however, Adler rejected compensation
as a label for the basic motive, because
compensation makes it sound as if it is
people’s problems that cause them to be what
they are
1. The one dynamic force behind people's behavior is the
striving for successor superiority

10. •Personal superiority
•Goals are personal & no interest of others
•May be in the form of social interest but
motivated by overcompensation
•Healthy individuals
•concerned with goals beyond themselves
•capable ofhelping others without demanding or
expecting a personal payoff
•able to seeothers not as opponents but as
people with whom they can cooperate for social
benefit
1. The one dynamic force behind people's behavior is the
striving for successor superiority

11. 2. People's subjective perceptions
shape their behavior and personality
•Subjective perceptions
•the manner in which they strive is not shaped
by reality but by their subjective perceptions
of reality
•by their fictions
•expectations of the future
•Fictionalism
•Not real, acting as if real
•People are motivated not by what is true but by
their subjective perceptions of what is true
•Teleologyis an explanation of behavior in
terms of its final purpose or aim
•opposed to causality
•considers behavior as springing from a specific
cause
•Physicaldeficiencies alone do not cause a
particular style of life; they simply
provide present motivation for reaching

12. 3. Personality is unifiedand self-
consistent
•The term individual psychology
•each person is unique and indivisible
•Becoming defensive against unpredictability
•Ways in which the entire person operates
withunity and self-consistency
•Organ dialect
•all separate actions and functions can be
understood only as parts of the goal
•The disturbance of one part of the body cannot
be viewed in isolation
•the deficient organ expresses the direction of
the individual's goal
•Concious & unconscious
•the harmony between conscious and unconscious
actions
•the unconscious, part of the goal that is
neither clearly formulated nor completely
understood by the individual

13. 4. The value of all human
activity must be seen from the
viewpoint of socialinterest
•Social interest
•Based on an innate disposition, but it
has to be nurtured to survive
•Babies and small children often show sympathy
for others without having been taught to do so
•Sense of caring for family, for
community, for society, for humanity, and
even for life
•a feeling of oneness with all humanity
•Amatter of being useful to others
•perfection for all people in an ideal
community
•marriage and parenthood is a task for
social interest
•Influence of environment
•Barometer for normality

15. 5. The self-consistent personality
structure develops into a person's
style of life
•Style of life
•includes a person's goal, self -concept,
feelings for others, and attitude toward the
world
•the product of the interaction of heredity,
environment, and a person's creative power
•established by age 4 or 5
•Ability to choose new ways of reacting to
their environment
•express their social interest through action
•3 major problems of life
•neighborly love
•sexual love
•occupation

16. 6. Style of life is molded by
people's creativepower
•Style of life
•Creative power
•the freedom to create her or his own style of
life.
•all people are responsible for who they are
and howthey behave
•Way to solve problems

17. Abnormal development
‘Thecreativepowerendowshumans,within
certainlimits,withthefreedomtobe
either psychologically healthy or
unhealthyandtofolloweitherausefulor
uselessstyleoflife.’
•Underdevelopedsocialinterest
•Neurotics
•tend to set their goals too high
•live in their own private world
•Have rigid and dogmatic style of life
•Overconcerned w/themselves &care little
about others

18. •Neurosis
•a matter of insufficient social interest
•3types
1.the ruling type
2.the getting type
3.the avoiding type
Abnormal development

19. •Neurosis: The Ruling Type
•From childhood on, they are characterized
by a tendency to be rather aggressive and
dominant over others.
•The strength of their striving after
personal power is so great that they tend
to push over anything or anybody who gets
in their way
•The most energetic of them are bullies
and sadists;
•Somewhat less energetic ones hurt others
by hurting themselves, and include
alcoholics, drug addicts, and suicides
Abnormal development

20. •Neurosis: The getting type
•They are relatively passive
•make little effort to solve their own
problems
•Instead, they rely on others to take care
of them
•Frequently use charm to persuade others to
help them
Abnormal development

21. •Neurosis:The avoiding type
•These have the lowest levels of energy and only
survive by essentially avoiding life --
especially other people
•When pushed to the limits, they tend to become
psychotic, retreating finally into their own
personal worlds
Abnormal development

22. •Adler, like Freud, saw personality or
lifestyle as something established quite
early in life
•Basicchildhood situations that most
contribute to a faulty lifestyle
1.Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
2.Pampered Style of Life
3.Neglected Style of Life
Abnormal development

23. Abnormal development
•Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
•must be accompanied by accentuated
feelings of inferiority
•They tend to be overly concerned with
themselves
•lack consideration for others
•feel as if they are living in enemy
country
•fear defeat more than they desire
success
•life's majorproblems can be solved
only in a selfish manner

24. Abnormal development
•Pampered Style of Life
•the heart of most neuroses
•weak social interest but a strong desire
to perpetuate the pampered
•parasitic relationship with one or both
of their parents
•expect others to look after them,
overprotect them, and satisfy their needs
•characterized by extreme discouragement,
indecisiveness, oversensitivity,
impatience, and exaggerated emotion,
especially anxiety

25. Abnormal development
•Neglected Style of Life
•Children who feel unloved and unwanted
•Abused and mistreated children
•little confidence in themselves
•tend to overestimate difficulties
connected with life's major problems
•distrustful of other people and are
unable to cooperate for the common
welfare
•feel alienated from all other people
•more suspicious

26. Normal Development
•Socially Useful Type
-High social interest, cooperative,
contributes to others.
-Faces life tasks (work, love,
social interaction) with courage.

27. Safeguarding
tendencies
•Enable people to hide their in flated
self-image and to maintain their
current style of life
•Kind of defense mechanisms
•symptoms are formed as a protection
against anxiety
•Conscious &shield a person's
fragile self-esteem from public
disgrace
•Excuses, aggression, & withdrawal

28. Safeguarding tendencies
1.Excuses
•state what they claim they would like to
do
•Others then they follow with an excuse
•‘Yes, but’ & ‘If only’
2.Aggression
•To protect their fragile self -esteem,
aggression may take the form of
depreciation, accusation, or self -
accusation
•criticism and gossip
•Unhealthy people invariably act to cause
the people around them to suffer more than
they do
•Self-torture& guiltincluding masochism,
depression,and suicide as means of

29. Safeguarding tendencies
3.Withdrawal
•safeguarding through distance
1.moving backward
•Like regression
•protects people against anxiety -filled experiences
2.standing still
•Withdrawaltendency
•avoid all responsibility by ensuring themselves
against any threat of failure
•never do anything to prove that they cannot
accomplishtheir goals
3.Hesitating
•procrastinations
•excuse, "It's too late now."
•most compulsive behaviors are attempt to waste time
4.constructing obstacles
•Some people build a straw house to show that they
can knock it down

30. Family constellation
•birth order
•the gender of their siblings
•the age spread between them

31. Family constellation
•Only Child
•Family Situation
•Birth is a miracle
•Parents have no previous experience
•Retains 200% attention from both parents
•May become rival of one parent
•Can be over-protected and spoile d
•If the parents are abusive ,the only child will
have to bear that abuse alone
•Child’s Characteristics
•Likes being the center of adult attention
•Often has difficulty sharing with siblings and
peers
•Prefers adult company and uses adult language

32. Oldest Child
•Family Situation
•Dethroned by next child
•Has to learn to share
•Parent expectations are usually very high
•Often given responsibility and expected to
set an example
•Child’s Characteristics
•May become authoritarian or strict
•be relatively solitary and more conservative
than the other children in the family
•Feels power is his right
•Can become helpful if encouraged
•May turn to father after birth of next
child
•Intensified feelings of power and
superiority, high anxiety, and
overprotective tendencies

33. Second Child
•Family Situation
•Peacemaker
•There is always someone ahead
•Child’s Characteristics
•Is more competitive, wants to
overtake older child
•May become a rebel or try to outdo
everyone
•Competition can deteriorate into
rivalry

34. Middle Child
•Family Situation
•Is “sandwiched” in
•May feel squeezed out of a position
of privilege and significance
•Child’s Characteristics
•May be even-tempered, “take it or
leave it” attitude
•May have trouble finding a place or
become a fighter of injustice

35. Youngest Child
•Family Situation
•Has many mothers and fathers
•Older children try to educate him
•Never dethroned
•Child’s Characteristics
•Wants to be bigger than the others
•May have huge plans that never work
out
•Can stay the “baby”
•Frequently spoiled

36. Twin Child
•Family Situation
•One is usually stronger or more
active
•Parents may see one as the older
•Child’s Characteristics
•Can have identity problems
•Stronger one may become the leader

37. “Ghost child”
•Family Situation
•Child born after the death of the
first child may have a “ghost” in
front of him
•Mother may become over -protective
•Child’s Characteristics
•Child may exploit mother’s over -
concern for his well -being, or he
may rebel, and protest the feeling
of being compared to an idealized
memory

38. Adopted child
•Family Situation
•Parents may be so thankful to have a
child that they spoil him
•They may try to compensate for the
loss of his biological parents
•Child’s Characteristics
•Child may become very spoiled and
demanding
•He may resent or idealize the
biological parents

39. Only boy among
girls
•Family Situation
•Usually with women
all the time, if
father is away
•Child’s
Characteristics
•May try to prove
he is the man in
the family, or
become effeminate
Only girl among
boys
•Family Situation
•Older brothers may
act as her
protectors
•Child’s
Characteristics
•Can become very
feminine, or a
tomboy to outdo
the brothers
•May try to please
the father

40. Personality Assessment
•In order to help people to discover
the "fictions" their lifestyle is
based upon, Adler would look at a
great variety of things:
•birth-order position
•Early recollections
•any childhood problems you may have ha d
•dreams and daydreams
•pay attention to how people express
themselves.

41. Psychotherapy
•Enhance courage, lessen feelings of
inferiority,and encourage social interest
•‘Everybody can accomplish everything.’
•The therapeutic relationship awakens their
social interest in the same manner that
children gain social interest from their
parents
•Once awakened, the patients' social interest
must spread to family, friends, and people
outside the therapeutic relationship

42. Alfred Adler
Family
Life
Fictional
Finalisms
Creative
Self
Style of
Life
Birth Order
Family Constellation
Family Atmosphere
Healthy –Social Interest
Neurotic –Overcompensation
Inferiority/Superiority Complex
4 Major Types
Ruling
Getting
Avoiding
Socially Useful