adler

• 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.
• Adler saw people as being motivated mostly by social influences and by their striving for superiority or success
• Adler’s notion that present behavior is shaped by people’s view of the future
• To Adler, people are born with weak, inferior bodies—a condition that leads to feelings of inferiority and a consequent dependence on other people
• a feeling of unity with others (social interest) is inherent in people and the ultimate standard for psychological health
• FINAL STATEMENT OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCH:

  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 unified and 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 creative power
• The first tenet of Adlerian theory

  the one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success or superiority
• Individual psychology holds that everyone begins life with physical deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority
• Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority, whereas psychologically healthy people seek success for all humanity
• DYNAMIC POWER BEHIND MOTIVATION:

  • aggression
  • masculine protest
  • striving for superiority or success
• Adler used the term masculine protest, which implied will to power or a domination of others
• • striving for superiority - those people who strive for personal superiority over others
  • striving for success - to describe actions of people who are motivated by highly developed social interest
• Regardless of the motivation for striving, each individual is guided by

  a final goal
• people strive toward a final goal of either personal superiority or the goal of success for all humankind
• the final goal has great significance because it unifies personality and renders all behavior comprehensible.
• creative power


  people’s ability to freely shape their behavior and

  create their own personality
• final goal reduces the pain of inferiority feelings and points that person in the direction of either superiority or success
• People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of inferiority or weakness
• two general avenues of striving

  The first is the socially non-productive attempt to gain personal superiority; the second involves social interest and is aimed at success or perfection for everyone.
• striving for personal superiority


  Their goals are personal ones, and their strivings are motivated largely by exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority, or the presence of an inferiority complex
• striving for success


  These healthy individuals are concerned with goals beyond themselves, are capable of helping others without demanding or expecting a personal payoff, and are able to see others not as opponents but as people with whom they can cooperate for social benefit
• second tenet of adler

  People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and

  personality.
• people strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of inferiority, but the manner in which they strive is not shaped by reality but by their subjective perceptions of reality, that is, by their fictions, or expectations of the future.
• Teleology is an explanation of behavior in terms of its final purpose or aim. It is opposed to causality, which considers behavior as springing from a specific cause.
• fictionalism


  Our most important fiction is the goal of superiority or success, a goal we created early in life and may not clearly understand.
• fictionalism


  This subjective, fictional final goal guides our style of life, gives unity to our personality
• third tenet


  Personality is unified and self-consistent
• In choosing the term individual psychology, Adler wished to stress his belief that each person is unique and indivisible.
• several ways in which the entire person operates with unity and self-consistency.

  organ jargon, or organ dialect
• the deficient organ expresses the direction of the individual’s goal, a condition known as organ dialect
• A second example of a unified personality is the harmony between conscious and unconscious actions.
• Adler (1956) defined the unconscious as that part of the goal that

  is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by the individual
• • Conscious thoughts - helpful in striving for success
  • unconscious thoughts - not helpful
• Whether people’s behaviors lead to a healthy or an unhealthy style of life depends on the degree of social interest that they developed during their childhood years
• fourth tenet

  The value of all human activity must be seen from the

  viewpoint of social interest
• social interest is the natural condition of the human species and the adhesive that binds society together
• the sole criterion of human values

  social interest
• fifth tenet

  The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life
• Style of life is used to refer to the flavor of a person’s life. It includes a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world.
• style of life


  It is the product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person’s creative power