ADLER

• He emphasized the importance of social interest, a feeling of unity with others, as the ultimate standard for psychological health
• Tenets of Individual Psychology:

  • The one dynamic force behind people's behavior is the striving for success or superiority
  • People's subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality
  • Personality is unified and self-consistent
  • The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest
  • The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person's style of life
  • Style of life is molded by their creative power
• Adler reduced all motivation to a single drive - the striving for success or superiority
• Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority, while psychologically healthy individuals seek success for all humanity
• Transformation of Drive:

  • Organ Inferiority
  • Aggressive Drive
  • Masculine Protest
  • Striving for Superiority
  • Striving for Success
• Adler believed that the striving force for success or superiority is innate but must be developed
• The stiving force can take the form of personal gain or community benefit
• Inferiority Complex:

  • Occurs when the felt-minus situation is too powerful, leading to an exaggerated sense of inferiority
  • May result from physical handicaps, family dynamics, or societal influences
• Superiority Complex:

  • Some individuals repress feelings of inferiority and believe themselves to be better than others
  • This may lead to arrogant behavior, exaggerating achievements, and a sense of superiority over others
• Subjective Perceptions:

  • People strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of inferiority
  • Their striving is shaped by their subjective perceptions of reality, known as fictions or expectations of the future
• Adler viewed individuals as causes rather than effects, arguing that personality is creative
• Fictional Finalism:

  • It is a subjective experience rather than an objective reality. It gives direction to the individuals striving
  • It is an imagined goal, the desirable future state of the individual
• Throughout life, the general direction of striving remains, but the specific understanding of the goal may change
• Unity of Personality:

  • Adler believed in the fundamental unity of personality, where thoughts, feelings, and actions are directed towards a single goal
• He emphasized the concept of organ dialect, where the disturbance of one part of the body affects the entire person
• Social Interest:

  • Social interest refers to a feeling of oneness with all humanity and membership in the social community of all people
  • It is an innate potential that must be developed, originating from the mother-child relationship in infancy
• Adler believed that social interest is the sole criterion of human values and the barometer of normality
• Three Tasks of Life:

  • Work
  • Love
  • Social interest enables individuals to value the common good above personal welfare and enhances social connections and individual development
• Labor is a means for organizing cooperation among people in providing necessities
• Adler stated that monogamy is the best solution for sexual relationships and marriage between men and women
• Equality between men and women is essential in social interaction
• Social interaction refers to the problems of communal life, including friendships
• People perform the life task of social interaction better if they are high in social interest
• Style of life includes a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world
• A person’s style of life is fairly well established by age 4 or 5
• Adler believed that individuals actively struggle to solve the three major problems of life - neighborly love, sexual love, and occupation - through cooperation, personal courage, and a willingness to contribute to the welfare of others
• Mistaken and healthy styles of life include the ruling type, getting type, avoiding type, and socially useful type
• Ruling type:

  • Seeks to dominate others and confront life’s problems in a selfish way
  • May attack others indirectly through suicide and addiction
  • May become high achievers, overly competitive, and express a depreciation complex
• Getting type:

  • Leans on others, dependent, adopts a passive attitude toward life
  • May become depressed
  • Pampered children and females are subject to environmental pressures that encourage this style
• Avoiding type:

  • Tries not to deal with problems, avoiding the possibility of defeat
  • Tends to be isolated and may come across as cold
  • Outward appearance hides an underlying, fragile superiority belief
• Socially useful type:

  • Leads an adaptive lifestyle, acting in ways beneficial to others
  • Has a well-developed sense of social interest and feels a sense of internal control
• Creative power allows each person to create their own style of life
• Creative power places individuals in control of their own lives, responsible for their final goal, method of striving for that goal, and contributes to the development of social interest
• Creative power is a dynamic concept implying movement, which is the most salient characteristic of life
• Exaggerated physical deficiencies, pampered style of life, and neglected style of life are external factors of maladjustment
• Pampered people have weak social interest and see the world with a private vision
• Abused and mistreated children develop little social interest and tend to create a neglected style of life
• Family constellation describes the dynamics within a family based on birth order
• First-born children often feel dethroned by the arrival of later children and may struggle with dethronement
• First-born children commonly turn to their father, take on a protective role, and tend to overvalue authority and conservative values