CHAPTER 3: Individual Psychology

• Alfred Adler

  • founded Individual Psychology
• Individual Psychology

  • presents an optimistic view of people while resting heavily on the notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all humankind. 
• The death of a younger brother motivated Adler to become a physician.
• Protestantism

  • Alfred Adler converted to this religion.
• Organ Inferiority and Its Complex Compensation

  • Publicized by Adler and it assumed that physical deficiencies—not sex—formed the foundation for human motivation.
• Tenets of Adlerian Theory: Superiority, Subjective Perceptions, Unifies and Self Consistent, Social interest, Creative Power
• Superiority

  • First tenet of Adlerian theory.
• Masculine Protest

  • implied will to power or a domination of others.
• By the time children reach 4 or 5 years of age, their creative power has developed to the point that they can set their final goal.
• Socially Non productive attempt to gain personal superiority - First general avenue of striving 
• Social interest and is aimed at success or perfection for everyone

  • Second general avenue of striving
• Subjective Perceptions

  • Second Tenet of Adlerian Theory.
• Fiction

  • A belief or expectation of the future that serves to motivate present behavior. The truthfulness of a fictional idea is immaterial, because the person acts as if the idea were true.
• Teleology

  • an explanation of behavior in terms of its final purpose or aim.
• Causality

  • considers behavior as springing from a specific cause.
• Unifies and Self Consistent

  • Third tenet of Adlerian Theory.
• Organ Dialect

  • The expression of a person’s underlying intentions or style of life through a diseased or dysfunctional bodily organ.
• Social Interest

  • Translation of the German Gemeinschaftsgefühl, meaning a community feeling or a sense of feeling at one with all human beings.
• Gemeinschaftsgefuhl

  • Derived from social interest.
• Emotional Detachment and Paternal Authoritarianism

  • Dual errors of a successful father.
• Style of life

  • A person’s individuality that expresses itself in any circumstance or environment; the “flavor” of a person’s life. 
• Three Major Problems of Life - Neighborly love, Sexual love , and occupation.
• Creative Power

  • Fifth tenet of Adlerian Theory.
• Creative Power

  • Adler’s term for what he believed to be an inner freedom that empowers each of us to create our own style of life.
• Law of the low doorway

  • If you are trying to walk through a doorway four feet high, you have two basic choices.
• Neurotic people

  • set their goals too high, live in their own private world, and have a rigid and dogmatic style of life.
• Three factors of Maladjustments -  exaggerated physical deficiencies, a pampered style of life, and a neglected style of life.
• Safeguarding Tendencies

  • Protective mechanisms such as aggression, withdrawal, and the like that maintain exaggerated feelings of superiority.
• Three common safeguarding Tendencies

  • Excuses, aggression, and withdrawal.
• Excuses

  • Adlerian safeguarding tendencies whereby the person, through the use of reasonable sounding justifications, becomes convinced of the reality of self-erected obstacles.
• Aggression

  • Safeguarding tendencies that may include depreciation or accusation of others as well as self-accusation, all designed to protect exaggerated feelings of personal superiority by striking out against other people. 
• Three forms of Aggression

  • depreciation, accusation, and self-accusation.
• Deprecation

  • Adlerian safeguarding tendency whereby another’s achievements are undervalued and one’s own are overvalued.
• Accusation

  • Adlerian safeguarding tendency whereby one protects magnified feelings of self-esteem by blaming others for one’s own failures. 
• Self-Accusation

  • Adlerian safeguarding tendency whereby a person aggresses indirectly against others through self-torture and guilt.
• Withdrawal

  • Safeguarding one’s exaggerated sense of superiority by establishing a distance between oneself and one’s problems. 
• Four modes of safeguarding through withdrawal: moving backward, standing still, hesitating, and constructing obstacles. 
• Moving Backward

  • Safeguarding inflated feelings of superiority by reverting to a more secure period of life.
• Standing Still

  • Safeguarding tendency characterized by lack of action as a means of avoiding failure.
• Hesitating

  • Safeguarding tendency characterized by vacillation or procrastination designed to provide a person with the excuse “It’s too late now.”