Adler

• social interest - feeling of oneness with all humakind
• Freud; deterministic - Adler; free will
• Adler has a professional organization called Society for Individual Psychology
• after Adler left the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, he formed the Society for Free Psychoanalytic Study that was then changed to the Society for Individual Psychology
• the first tenet of Adlerian theory is: the one dynamic force behind people's behavior is the striving for success or superiority
• psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority
• psychologically healthy people seek success for all humanity
• masculine protest - will to power or a domination of others
• each individual is guided by a final goal\
• creative power: people's ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personality
• when an individual reaches 4 or 5 years of age, their creative power has developed to the point that they can set their final goal.
• the physical deficiencies at the individual's birth ignite feelings of inferiority.
• the striving for success exists at birth as potentiality, not actuality
• striving for personal superiority mainly focuses on the self only with little to no concern for others, while striving for success of all is focused on the collective good
• Adler's second tenet is: People's subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality
• fictions - expectations of the future
• most important fiction is the goal of superiority or success
• fictions - are ideas that have no real existence, yet they influence people as if they really existed
• teleology - explanation of behavior in terms of its final purpose or aim
• causality - behaviors as springing from a specific cause
• third tenet of Adlerian theory is: Personality is unified and self-consistent
• Organ Dialect: the deficient organ expresses the direction of the individual's goal
• unconscious - part of the goal that is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by an individual
• conscious thoughts are those that are understood and regarded by the individual as helpful in striving for success
• the fourth tenet of Adlerian theory is: The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest
• social interest - an attitude of relatedness with humanity in general as well as an empathy for each member of the human community
• social interest originates from mother-child relationship during the early months of infancy
• social interest - the sole criterion of human values
• the fifth tenet of Adlerian theory is: The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person's style of life
• style of life: the flavor of a person's life. it includes a person's goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude towards the world
• a person's style of life is fairly well established by age 4 or 5
• Alder's three major problems of life: neighborly love, sexual love, and occupation
• The final tenet of adlerian theory is: style of life is molded by people's creative power
• The final tenet of adlerian theory is: style of life is molded by people's creative power
• creative power is a dynamic concept implying movement, and this movement is the most salient characteristic of life
• the contributing factors of maladjustment: exaggerated physical deficiencies, a pampered style of life, and a neglected style of life
• exaggerated physical deficiencies - develop exaggerated feelings of inferiority because they overcompensate for their inadequacy
• Pampered style of life - their parents have demonstrated a lack of love by doing too much for them and by treating them as if they were incapable of solving their own problem
• safeguarding tendencies - people create patterns of behavior to protect their exaggerated sense of self-esteem against public disgrace
• excuses - most common safeguarding techniques, typically expressed in the "yes,but" of "If only" format