ADLER: INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

PSYCH 303 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

ALFRED ADLER – ADLERIAN THEORY the death of his younger brother motivated
Alfred to become a physician.
TOPIC OUTLINE  Former disciple of Freud.
1 Overview of Adlerian Theory  More emotionally attached to his mother.
2 Biography of Alfred Adler - More interest in social relationship; more
3 Introduction to Adlerian Theory comfortable in group situations.
4 Striving for Success or Superiority - Adler was more democratic than Freud, on
5 Subjective Perceptions how he dealt with colleagues.
6 Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality  Served in the army; as a physician, he
7 Social Interest specialized in psychiatry and general medicine.
8 Style of Life  Was part of Freud’s WEDNESDAY
9 Creative Power PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY until 1908.
10 Abnormal Development - Never considered Freud as a mentor and the
11 Applications of Individual two men never shared a warm personal
12 Critique of Adler relationship.
13 Concept of Humanity  Study of Organ Inferiority and its Psychical
Compensation
OVERVIEW OF ADLERIAN THEORY -Physical deficiencies formed the foundation for
human motivation.
FREUD ADLER  Drive for superiority was a more basic motive
 reduced all motivation  saw people as being than sexuality.
to sex and aggression. motivated mostly by  Formed Society for Individual Psychology
social influences and  World War I
by their striving for - Suggested that Social Interest and compassion
superiority or success. could be the cornerstones of human motivation.
 people have little or no  people are largely  Wife: Raissa Epstein
choice in shaping their responsible for who  Children: Alexandra
personality. they are. Kurt
 present behavior is  present behavior is Valentine
caused by past shaped by people’s Cornelia
experiences view of the future.  Died: May 28, 1937

 emphasis on  psychologically healthy

unconscious people are usually INTRODUCTION TO ADLERIAN THEORY
components of aware of what they are  People are born with WEAK INFERIOR bodies –
behavior doing and why they are this leads to feelings of inferiority and a
doing it. consequent dependence on other people.
 A feeling of oneness or UNITIY with other (SOCIAL
INTEREST) IS INHERENT IN PEOPLE AND THE
BIOGRAPHY OF ALFRED ADLER ULTIMATE STANDARD FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL
 Feb. 7, 1870; parents: Pauline and Leopold. HEALTH.
 As a young child, he was sickly which motivated
6 Tenets of Individual Psychology:
him to become a physician (1895).
- Several of Adler’s earliest memories were
1. Striving for success or superiority—the one
concerned with the unhappy competition
dynamic force behind people’s behaviour.
between his brother’s good health and his own
2. Subjective perceptions shape behavior and
illness
personality
 At age 5, he nearly died of pneumonia
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.
 What he heard from a doctor saying “Give
4. The value of all human activity must be seen from
yourself no more trouble. The boy is lost” and
the viewpoint of social interest.
 5. The self-consistent personality structure - Refers to a person’s ability
develops into a person’s style of life. to share their behavior
6. Style of life is molded by creative power. and CREATE THEIR OWN
PERSONALITY
Each person has the power to
create a personalized fictional
STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY goal.
 All motivation is summed up into this drive. - Coming from materials
 Everyone begins life with physical deficiencies from heredity and
that activate FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY. These environment.
feelings motivate a person to strive for  By the time children reach 4 or 5
success/superiority. years of age, their creative power
 Psychologically UNHEALTHY individuals – has developed to the point that
seek PERSONAL SUCCESS. they can set their final goal.
 Psychology HEALTHY individuals – seek  Even infants have an innate drive
SUCCESS FOR HUMANITY. toward growth, completion or
 AGGRESSION - Adler believed that this is the success
dynamic force behind all motivation.  Final goal reduces the pain of
 MUSCULINE PROTEST – will power or a inferiority feelings and points that
domination of others. person in the direction of either
- Concept was soon abandoned by Adler as a superiority or success
universal drive. o If children are NEGLECTED or
 The single dynamic force next was called striving PAMPERED, their goal remains
for superiority. largely unconscious.
 Soon, he limited striving for superiority to those - Children will compensate
people who strive for personal superiority and for feelings of interiority in
introduced the term striving for success to devious ways that have no
describe actions of people who are motivated by apparent connection to
highly developed social interest. the final goal.
 Regardless of the motivation for striving, each o If children experience LOVE
individuals is guided by a final goal. AND SECURITY they set a goal
 Dynamic force behind all motivation: that is largely conscious and
Aggression (he rejected) clearly understood.
- Strive for superiority in
Masculine Protest (he rejected) terms of success and social
interest.
Striving for Superiority (limited to personal - Although the goals never
superiority) really become conscious,
these individuals
Striving for Success (for those with high social understand and pursue it
interest) with a high level of
awareness.
 NOTE:
THE FINAL GOAL  Either PERSONAL SUPERIORITY or  In striving for their final goal,
the goal of success for ALL people create and pursue
HUMANKIND. many preliminary subgoals.
 Is fictional and has no objective - Subgoals are often
existence. CONSCIOUS but the
 Unified personality and renders all connection between them and
behavior comprehensible. the final goal remains
unknown.
o CREATIVE POWER

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  When an individual’s final goal is - See others not as
known, all actions make sense and opponents but as people
take on a new significance. who they can cooperate
with for social benefit.
THE STRIVING  People strive for  Success is not gained at the
FORCE AS superiority/success to compensate expense of others but is a natural
COMPENSATION for feelings of inferiority. tendency to move toward
 Physical deficiencies ignite feelings completion or perfection.
of inferiority because people by  They are able to maintain a sense
their very nature, possess and of self but they see problems for
innate tendency for completion or the society’s point of view.
wholeness. - Social progress is more
- Is INNATE but its nature important than personal
and direction are because credit.
of the feelings of
inferiority or the goal of
superiority.
 Although the striving is innate, SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTIONS
it must still be developed.  The manner by which we strive is shaped by our
- 4/5 y.o. children start to subjective perceptions of reality, that is, by their
set a direction by FICTIONS, or expectations of the future.
establishing a goal of FICTIONALISM  The goal for superiority is one of the
personal superiority or most important fiction that we have.
success. - Created early in life but is not
 The goal may take any form. clearly understood.
 Success is an individualized  Examples:
concept and all people 1. Men are superior to women.
formulate their own definition 2. We have free will and are
 Two general avenues of striving: responsible for our own
1. PERSONAL SUPERIORITY – choices.
socially non-productive 3. God
2. SUCCESS/PERFECTION FOR  Although these are fiction, our
EVERYONE – involves social behavior show as if it is true.
interest  People’s actions are oriented toward
some future goal.
STRIVING FOR  Usually with little or no concern - This is affected by present
PERSONAL for others. perceptions of the future.
SUPERIORITY  Goals are PERSONAL GOALS.
 Striving are motivated by PHYSICAL  Because we are born weak, we
exaggerated feelings of inferiority INFERIORITIES develop a fiction that in order to
“INFERIORITY COMPLEX”. overcome physical deficiencies, we
 Consciously or unconsciously hide have to be strong, big and superior.
their self-centeredness behind a  The human race is blessed with
cloak of social concern. ORGAN INFERIORITIES.
- They have little significant
STRIVING FOR  Psychologically healthy people are by themselves but they
SUCCESS motivated of success of all become meaningful when
humankind. they stimulate subjective
 Concerned with goals that are feelings of inferiority.
beyond themselves. o Serves as an IMPETUS
- Capable of helping others toward completion or
without expecting perfection.
personal payoff.

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  NOTE: physical deficiencies alone do - Feeling of oneness withal humanity;
not determine a particular style of membership in the social community of all
life. people.
o They only provide - Strives not only for personal superiority but
MOTIVATION for reaching for perfection for all people in an ideal
future goals. community.
o These motivations are - Attitude of relatedness with humanity in
unified and consistent. general as well as an empathy for each
member of the human community.
- Manifests as cooperation with others for
social advancement rather than for personal
UNITY OF SELF-CONSISTENCY OF PERSONALITY gain
 Social interest is the natural condition of the human
ORGAN  the whole person strive in self- species and binds society together.
DIALECT consistent fashions toward a single  It is a necessity for perpetuating the human species.
goal and all separate functions can
be understood only as parts of this ORIGINS OF  From the mother-child
goal. SOCIAL relationships.
 the disturbance of one part of the INTEREST  The mother’s job is to develop a
body cannot be viewed in isolation; bond that encourages the child’s
it affects the entire person. mature social interest and fosters a
 a condition where the deficient sense of cooperation.
organ expresses the direction of the - But if she favors the child
individual’s goal. over the father, her child
 through this, the organs “speak a may become pampered an
language which is usually more spoiled.
expressive and discloses the - If she favors her husband or
individual’s opinion more clearly society, the child will feel
than words are able to do”. neglected and unloved.
 The father’s role:
CONSCIOUS  The unified personality is - The ideal father cooperates
AND manifested in the harmony on equal footing with the
UNCONSCIOUS between conscious and child’s mother in caring for
unconscious actions. the child and treating the
 UNCONSCIOUS – the part of the child as a human being.
goal that is neither clearly - A successful father avoids
formulated or completely the dual errors of
understood by the person. emotional detachment and
 Both cooperate within the unified parental authoritarianism.
system. - A father’s emotional
 CONSCIOUS – thoughts which detachment may influence
are regarded by the individual the child to develop a
as helpful in striving for success warped sense of social
(unconscious, in contrast are interest, a feeling of
those which are regarded as not neglect, and possibly a
helpful). parasitic attachment to the
mother.
- Paternal attachment –
creates goal of personal
SOCIAL INTEREST superiority and sees father
as tyrant.
 Gemeinschaftsgefühl – social feeling or community
feeling.

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IMPORTANCE  Social interest was the YARDSTICK STYLE OF LIFE
OF SOCIAL by which one measures  The flavor of a person’s life.
INTEREST psychological health.  Includes a person’s goals, self-concept, feelings for
- Only gauge to judge the others, and attitude toward the world.
worth of a person. - Product of heredity, environment and
- Standard of determining creative power.
the usefulness of a life.  Well-established by 4/5 y.o
 When one has social interest, he is  All actions revolve in our style of life.
deemed psychologically mature.
- Immature people lack  Psychologically unhealthy individuals lead
GEMEINSCHAFT, self- inflexible lives.
centered, strive for  Healthy individuals are flexible with styles of life
personal power and that are complex, enriched and changing.
superiority over others. o See many ways of striving for success.
 Synonymous with CHARITY and o Continually seek to create new options
UNSELFISHNESS. for themselves.
- Acts of charity may or may o The final goal remains constant, the
not be brought about by way in which perceive it continually
Gemeinschaftsgefühl. changes.
 The worth of such acts will be o They can continually choose options.
judged according to social interest. o Express their social interest through
 SUMMARY: ACTION
- People begin life with o Three major problems – neighborly
physical deficiencies which love, sexual problems and occupation
lead to feelings of  People with a socially useful style of life
inferiority. represent the highest form of humanity in the
- 4/5 y.o FINAL GOAL is set. evolutionary process and are likely to populate
- Psychologically unhealthy the world of the future.
individuals develop
exaggerated feelings of
inferiority and attempt a
goal of personal superiority Two Basic Methods of Striving toward the Final Goal
(compensation).
- Motivated by personal gain
rather than social interest.
- Psychologically healthy
strive towards the goal of
success, defined in terms of
perfection and completion
for everyone.
 Exaggerated feelings of inferiority
lead to a neurotic style of life,
whereas normal feelings of
incompletion result in a healthy
style of life.
- The result depends on how
a person views these
inevitable feelings of
inferiority.

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 CREATIVE POWER
 Each person is empowered with the freedom to
create her or his own style of life.
 Places people in control of their own lives, is EXTERNAL FACTORS OF MALADJUSTMENT
responsible for their final goal, determines their  Adler recognized three contributing factors, any
method of striving for that goal and contributes one of which is sufficient to contribute to
their method of striving for the goal and abnormality.
contributes to the development of social interest. EXAGGERATED  By themselves, they are not
 Is a dynamic concept implying movement, and this PHYSICAL sufficient to lead to
movement is the most salient characteristic of life. DEFICIENCIES maladjustment.
 All psychic life involves movement toward a goal, - They must be accompanied
movement with a direction. by feelings of inferiority.
 People with exaggerate physical
 Each person is a free individual, we are deficiencies develop
responsible for who we are. exaggerated feelings of
 Each person uses heredity and environment to inferiority.
build personality but the design reflects the - Overcompensate for their
person’s style of life. inadequacy.
- Overly concerned with
 Adler’s analogy: The law of the low doorway. themselves and lack
- If you are trying to walk through a doorway considerations for others.
four feet high, you have to basic choices.
1. You can use your creative power to bend PAMPERED  Lies at the heart of most
down as you approach the doorway, STYLE OF LIFE neurosis.
thereby successfully solving the problem.  Have a weak social interest but
2. Conversely, you can bump your head and a strong desire to perpetuate
fallback, but you must still solve the the pampered, parasitic
problem correctly or continue bumping relationships they originally had
your head. with one or both of their
parents.
 Expect others to look after
ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT them, overprotect them,
 People’s creative power determines or gives them and satisfy their needs.
the freedom to be healthy/unhealthy style of life.  Characterized by extreme
 The one factor underlying all types of discouragement,
development is UNDERDEVELOPED SOCIAL indecisiveness,
INTEREST. oversensitivity, impatience,
and exaggerate emotion

Neurotics tend to: especially anxiety.
1. Set their goals too high  They feel unloved
2. Live their own private world  Parents demonstrate a lack
3. Rigid and dogmatic style of life of love by doing too much
 People become failures in life because they are for them and by treating
over-concerned with themselves and care little them as if they were
about others. incapable of solving their
- Set extravagant goals as an own problems.
overcompensation for exaggerated feelings  May also feel neglected
of inferiority.  They are fearful when
 To compensate for deeply rooted feelings of separated from the parent.
inadequacy and basic insecurity, these individuals
narrow their perspective and strive compulsively NEGLECTED  Is a RELATIVE CONCEPT  no
and rigidly for unrealistic goals. STYLE OF LIFE one totally feels neglected or
completely unwanted.

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  Abused and mistreated children
develop little social interest and  Depreciation
tend to create a neglected style - Undervalue other people’s
of life. achievements and to overvalue one’s
o Have little confidence own.
in themselves. - E.g. criticism and gossip
o Overestimate - To belittle another so that the other
difficulties connected person by comparison, will be place in a
with life’s major
favorable light.
problems
 Accusation
o Distrustful
o Unable to cooperate - Tendency to blame others for one’s
for the common failures and to seek revenge.
welfare - Adler believed that there is an
o More suspicious and element of aggressive accusation in all
more likely to be unhealthy lifestyles.
dangerous to others - Unhealthy people invariably act to
cause people to suffer more than they
do
SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES  Self-Accusation
 Patterns of behaviors to protect their exaggerated - People devalue themselves in order to
sense of self-esteem against public disgrace. inflict suffering on others while
 Enable people to hide their inflated self-image protecting their magnified self-
and to maintain their current style of life. esteem.
- Formed as a protection against anxiety. - Marked by self-torture and guilt.
 Largely CONSCIOUS and shield a person’s fragile - Some people use self-torture,
self esteem from public disgrace including masochism, depression and
 These tendencies are discussed only with suicide, as means of causing suffering
reference to their construction of neurotic to people who are close to them.
symptoms.
 FORMS: 1) excuses; 2) aggression; 3) withdrawal 3. WITHDRAWAL
- When people run away from difficulties.
1. EXCUSES - Safeguarding through DISTANCE.
- most common of the safeguarding - Escaping life problems by setting up a
tendencies. distance between themselves and those
- “Yes, but” “if only” problems.
- first state what they claim they would like to
do – something that sounds good to other –  MOVING BACKWARD
then they follow with an excuse. – - Psychologically reverting to a more
- These excuses protect a weak – but artificially secured period in his life
inflated sense of self-worth and deceive - May sometimes be conscious and is
people into believing that they are more directed at maintaining an inflated
superior than they really are. good superiority.

2. AGGRESSION
- Common
- Safeguard their exaggerated superiority
complex, that is, protect their self-
esteem.

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 - Cultural and social practices – not anatomy
– influence many men and women to
overemphasize the importance of being
manly.

 STANDING STILL  Origins of the Masculine Protest

- Simply do not move in other direction. - In most societies, men and women place a
- Avoid all responsibility by ensuring lesser value on women.
themselves against any threat or failures. - Some women fight against this (feminine
- Safeguard their fictional aspirations roles)
because they never do anything to prove - MASCULINE ROLE – become aggressive,
assertive and competitive
that they cannot accomplish their goals.
- PASSIVE ROLE – exceedingly helpless and
 HESITATING
obedient. Become resigned to the belief
- Manifested through procrastination. that they are inferior beings
- Gives them the excuse “it’s too late now”  Adler, Freud, and the Masculine Protest
- Most COMPULSIVE BEHAVIORS are - Freud believed that “anatomy is destiny”
attempts to waste time. and regarded women as the “dark
- Allows neurotic individuals to pressure continent for psychology”.
their sense of self-esteem. - Adler believed that attitudes toward
women would be evidence of a person with
 CONSTRUCTING OBSTACLES
strong masculine protest. He assumed that
- By overcoming the obstacle, they protect women – because they have the same
their self-esteem and prestige. physiological needs as men – want more or
- If they fail to overcome the obstacle, they less the same things that men want.
can always offer an excuse.
- Least severe of the withdrawal APPLICATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
safeguarding tendencies. FAMILY  Birth order, gender of their
CONSTELLATION siblings, age spread between
them.
 SUMMARY:
- Safeguarding tendencies are found in nearly  FIRSTBORN CHILDREN
- Intensified feelings of
everyone but when they become overly rigid,
power and superiority,
they lead to self-defeating behaviors.
and overprotective
- Safeguarding tendencies are self-defeating tendencies.
because their build-in goals of self-interest and - Occupy a unique position.
personal superiority actually block them from - Experience being an only
securing authentic feelings of self-esteem. child and then
- People don’t realize that they can safeguard experiencing a traumatic
their self-esteem if they gave up their self- dethronement into a
interest and developed a genuine caring for previously established
other people. style of life.
- AT 3 YEARS OLD:
o Self-centered style of
life - feel hostility
and resentment
MUSCULINE PROTEST toward a new baby.
 Adler believed that the psychic life of women is o Cooperating style -
essentially the same with that of men. adopt the same style
 A male-dominated society is not natural but is an towards a new baby
artificial product of historical development.

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 SECONDBORN CHILDREN and social interest,
- Begin life in a better possess a parasitic
situation for developing attitude, and expect other
cooperation and social people to pamper and
interest. protect them.
- The personalities of
second born children are EARLY  To gain an understanding of
shaped by their RECOLLECTIONS patient’s personality.
perception of the older  To understand people, Adler did
child’s attitudes towards not consider events as having a
them. causal effect.
o Extreme hostility and  People reconstruct the events to
vengeance. make them consistent with a
o Highly competitive theme or pattern that runs
or easily discourage. through their lives.
- The TYPICAL SECOND - Early recollections are
CHILD does not grow in always consistent with
either direction: people’s present style of
o Motives towards life and that their
moderate subjective account of
competitiveness, these experiences yield
having a healthy close to understanding
desire to overtake both their final goal and
the older rival. their present style of life.
o If success is  Highly anxious patients will often
achieved, the child is project their current style of life
likely to develop a into their memory of their
revolutionary childhood experiences by
attitude and feel like recalling highly fearful and
authority can be anxiety producing events, such
challenged. as being in a motor vehicle crash
or losing parents.
 YOUNGEST CHILDREN  Self-confident people tend to
- More pampered; run a recall memories that include
high risk of being pleasant relations with other
PROBLEM CHIDLREN. people.
- Have strong feelings of
inferiority and to lack a DREAMS  Cannot foretell the future, but
sense of independence. they can PROVIDE CLUES for
- Highly motivated to solving future problems.
exceed older siblings. - Nevertheless, the dreamer
frequently DOES NOT
 ONLY CHILDREN want to solve problems in
- Unique position of a productive manner.
competing, not against  Dreamwork follows the golden
brother and sisters, but rule of individual psychology
against father and mother. “Everything can be different”.
- Often develop an - If one interpretation
exaggerated sense of doesn’t work, try another.
superiority and an inflated
 Most dreams are SELF-
self-concept.
DECEPTIONS and not easily
- May lack well-developed
understood by the dreamer.
feelings of cooperation

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 - DISGUISED to deceive the - Adler maintained a
dreamer, making self- friendly and permissive
interpretation difficulty. attitude toward the
- The more an individual’s patient.
dream is inconsistent with o Congenial co-
reality, the more likely worker,
that person’s dreams will refrained from
be used for self-deception. moralistic
preaching and
PSYCHOTHERAPY  Psychopathology results from placed great
lack of courage, exaggerated value on the
feelings of inferiority, and human
underdeveloped social interest. relationship.
 The chief purpose is to enhance - Once awakened, the
courage, lessen feelings of patient’s social interest
inferiority and encourage social must spread to family,
interest. friends and people
- Not easy because people outside the therapeutic
tend to hold on to their relationship.
existing, comfortable
view of themselves.
MOTTO: “Everybody can accomplish
something”.
 Humor and warmth:
- Through these they try to
increase a patient’s
courage, self-esteem and
social interest.
- A warm, nurturing
attitude by the therapist
to expand their social
interest to each of the
three problems in
life(sexual love, friendship
and occupation).
 With problem children:
- Treatment is done in
public (audience e.g.
parents and teachers).
- When children receive
therapy in public, they
readily understand that
their problems are z
community problems.
o Enhance
children’s social
interest by
allowing them to
feel that they
belong to a
community of
concerned
adults.

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 CRITIQUE OF ADLER

1. Generate research – Above Average / High

2. Falsifiability (style of life shapes early
recollection) – Difficult to verify / fasilfy
3. Organize Knowledge (what is known about
human behaviour) – High
4. Practice Guide to Action – High
5. Internally consistent – Self-consistent but lack
operational definition.
6. Parsimonious – Average

CONCEPT OF HUMANITY

o People are basically self-determined and that they

shape their personalities from the meaning they give
to their experiences.

o Building material of personality is provided by

heredity and environment, but the creative power
shapes this material and puts it to use.

o People’s interpretations of experiences are more

important than the experiences themselves.

o Neither past nor future; it’s the present perception

and expectation of them.

o People are forward moving, motivated by future

goals rather than by innate instincts or causal forces.

o People create their personalities and are capable of

altering them by learning new attitudes.

o Although our final goal is relatively fixed during early

childhood, we remain free to change our style of life
at any time.

o Adler maintained that not all our choices are

conscious and that style of life is created through
both conscious and unconscious choices.

o Creative power is capable of transforming feelings of

inadequacy into either social interest or into the self-
centered goal of personal superiority. This capacity
means that people remain free to choose between
psychological health and neuroticism.

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