ADLER

• Individual psychology


  Alfred Adler's theory of personality, core concept is social interest
• Six tenets of individual psychology

  • Striving for success or superiority
  • Subjective perceptions
  • Unity and self-consistency of personality
  • Social interest
  • Style of life
  • Creative power
• Striving for success or superiority

  The one dynamic force behind people's behavior, everyone begins life with physical deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority which motivate a person to strive for either superiority or success
• The final goal


  People strive toward a final goal of either personal superiority or the goal of success for all humankind, fictional and has no objective existence, unifies personality and renders all behavior comprehensible
• Striving for personal superiority

  Striving with little or no concern for others, goals are personal ones and their strivings are motivated by exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority or the presence of an inferiority complex
• Striving for success


  Motivated by social interest and the success of all humankind, maintain a sense of self but see daily problems from the view of society's development
• Subjective perceptions


  People's subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality, striving by their subjective perceptions of reality (fiction) or expectations of the future
• Fictionalism


  The most important fiction is the goal of superiority or success, ideas that have no real existence, yet influence people as if they really existed
• Unity and self-consistency of personality

  Personality is unified and self-consistent, thoughts, feelings, and actions are all directed toward a single goal and serve a single purpose
• Organ dialect


  The whole person strives in a self-consistent fashion toward a single goal and all separate actions and functions can be understood only as part of this goal, the disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in isolation, it affects the entire person
• Conscious and unconscious


  Unconscious - part of the goal that is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by the individual, Conscious - thoughts that are understood and regarded by the individual as helpful in striving for success
• Social interest


  The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest, a feeling of oneness with all humanity, manifests itself as cooperation with others for social advancement rather than personal gain
• Origins of social interest

  Rooted as potentiality in everyone but must be developed before it can contribute to a useful style of life, originates from the mother-child relationship during the early months of infancy
• Importance of social interest


  The sole criterion of human values, the only gauge to be used in judging the worth of a person, the standard to be used in determining the usefulness of a life
• Style of life


  The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person's style of life, the flavor of a person's life, includes a person's goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world
• Creative power


  Style of life is molded by people's creative power, people's ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personality, places a person in control of their own life, responsible for the final goal, determines the method of striving for that goal, and contributes to the development of social interest
• Abnormal development


  The one factor underlying all types of maladjustments is underdeveloped social interests, besides lacking social interest, neurotics tend to set their goal
• Son


  The standard to be used in determining the usefulness of a life
• Style of life


  The flavor of a person's life, includes a person's goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world, the product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person's creative power
• Creative power


  People's ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personality, places a person in control of their own life, responsible for the final goal, determines the method of striving for that goal, and contributes to the development of social interest, makes each person a free individual
• Abnormal development


  • The one factor underlying all types of maladjustments is underdeveloped social interests, besides lacking social interest, neurotics tend to (1) set their goals too high, (2) live in their own private world, and (3) have a rigid and dogmatic style of life
• External factors in maladjustment

  • Exaggerated physical deficiencies
  • A pampered style of life
  • A neglected style of life
• Exaggerated physical deficiencies


  • Must be accompanied by accentuated feelings of inferiority to lead to maladjustment, sometimes develop exaggerated feelings of inferiority because they overcompensate for the inadequacy, tend to be overly concerned with themselves and lack consideration for others
• Pampered style of life


  • Lies at the heart of most neuroses, characterized by extreme discouragement, indecisiveness, oversensitivity, impatience, and exaggerated emotion, especially anxiety, see the world with a private vision and believe that they are entitled to be first in everything
• Neglected style of life

  • Have little confidence and tend to overestimate difficulties connected with life's major problems, distrustful of other people and are unable to cooperate for the common welfare, generally, more suspicious and more likely to be dangerous to others
• Safeguarding tendencies


  Protective devices that enable people to hide their inflated self-image and maintain their current style of life, largely conscious and shield a person's fragile self-esteem from public disgrace
• Excuses


  The most common of the safeguarding tendencies, typically expressed in the "Yes, but" or "If only" format, protect a weak sense of self-worth and deceive people into believing that they are more superior than they really are
• Aggression


  Used to safeguard exaggerated superiority complex by protecting the fragile self-esteem, may take the form of depreciation, accusation, or self-accusation
• Depreciation


  The tendency to undervalue other people's achievements and to overvalue one's own, evident in aggressive behaviors such as criticism and gossip, intention: to belittle another so that the person, by comparison, will be placed in a favorable light
• Accusation


  The tendency to blame others for one's failures and to seek revenge
• Self-accusation


  Marked by self-torture and guilt, the converse of depreciation
• Withdrawal


  The safeguarding through distance, four modes: moving backward, standing still, hesitating, constructing obstacles
• Moving backward


  The tendency to safeguard one's fictional goal of superiority by psychologically reverting to a more secure period of life, similar to Freud's concept of regression, may sometimes be conscious and is directed at maintaining an inflated goal of superiority
• Standing still


  Similar to moving backward but is not as severe, simply do not move in any direction, avoid all responsibility by ensuring themselves against any threat or failure
• Hesitating


  Closely related to standing still, hesitate or vacillate when faced with difficult problems
• Constructing obstacles


  The least severe of the withdrawal safeguarding tendencies