GROUP 4
ERICH ZARAGOSA
HAZEL PAYOS
JOMAIRA ABAS
FARINA
FELECIANO
ABDUL ROYDEEN
Alfred Adler
Born on February 7, 1870 At 5, Alfred almost died of pneumonia which is what led him to being a
physician. He was an average student and was also very outgoing, popular and active.He began his
career as an ophthalmologist, but soon he switched to general practice.Alfred Adler’s Individual
Psychology posits that humans are primarily motivated by social connectedness and a striving for
superiority or success. He believed that feelings of inferiority drive individuals to achieve personal
goals. Early interaction with family members, peers, and adults helps to determine the role of
inferiority and superiority in life.
Adler believed that birth order had a significant and predictable impact on a child’s personality, and
their feeling of inferiority.
All human behavior is goal-orientated and motivated by striving for superiority. Individuals differ in
their goals and how they try to achieve them.
A natural and healthy reaction to inferiority is compensation: efforts to overcome real or imagined
inferiority by developing one’s own abilities.
If people cannot compensate for normal feelings of inferiority, they develop an inferiority complex.
The overarching goal of Adlerian psychotherapy is to help the patient overcome feelings of inferiority.
What is is Adlerian Individual Psychology
Alfred Adler’s school of individual school of psychology created a chasm in the field of psychology, which
had been dominated by Freud’s psychoanalysis.
While Freud focused on only the internal processes — mainly sexual conflicts — that affect a person’s
psychology, Adler was adamant that to fully understand a person, a psychologist must also consider other
internal and external factors.
This is why he named his school of psychology individual; the word is intended to evoke a meaning of
indivisibility, derived from the Latin individuum (Mosak et al., 1999, p. 6).
Alfred Adler’s Theory of Individual Psychology posits that individuals are motivated primarily by social
interests and a striving for superiority or self-improvement.
Childhood experiences, especially feelings of inferiority, drive this striving, but in a healthy individual, it
manifests as a desire to contribute to the welfare of others.Maladaptive behaviors arise when this striving
becomes self-centered or when inferiority feelings are overwhelming. Adler emphasized the uniqueness of
the individual and the role of social connections in shaping behavior.
Compensation, Overcompensation, And Complexes
Adler thought that the basic psychological element of neurosis was a sense of inferiority and that individuals
suffering with the symptoms of this phenomenon spent their lives trying to overcome the feelings without
ever being in touch with reality (White, 1917)
Compensation for Weaknesses
According to Adler (2013b), all infants have a feeling of inferiority and inadequacy immediately as they
begin to experience the world.
These early experiences, such as the need to gain the parents’ attention, shape the child’s unconscious,
fictive goals. They give the child a need to strive towards rectifying that inferiority — a need to compensate
for weakness by developing other strengths.
There are several outcomes that can occur in a child’s quest for compensation. First, if the child receives
adequate nurturing and care, the child can accept his challenges, and learn that they can be overcome with
hard work. Thus, the child develops “normally” and develops the “courage to be imperfect” (Lazarsfeld,
1966, pp. 163-165).
Overcompensation
However, sometimes, the process of compensation goes awry. One way in which this happens is that the
feelings of inferiority become too intense, and the child begins to feel as though he has no control over his
surroundings. He will strive very strenuously for compensation, to the point that compensation is no longer
satisfactory.
This culminates in a state of overcompensation, where the child’s focus on meeting his goal is exaggerated
and becomes pathological.
Inferiority Complex
Overcompensation can lead to the development of an inferiority complex. This is a lack of self-esteem
where the person cannot rectify his feelings of inferiority.
According to Adler (2013a), the hallmark of an inferiority complex is that “persons are always striving to
find a situation in which they excel” (p. 74). This drive is due to their overwhelming feelings of inferiority.
There are two components of these feelings of inferiority: primary and secondary. Primary inferiority is the
“original and normal feeling” of inferiority an infant maintains (Stein & Edwards, 2002, p. 23). This feeling
is productive, as it motivates the child to develop.
Secondary inferiority, on the other hand, is the inferiority feeling in the adult results when the child develops
an exaggerated feeling of inferiority (p. 23). These feelings in the adult are what is harmful, and they
comprise the inferiority complex.
Superiority Complex
The superiority complex occurs when a person has the need to prove that he is more superior than he truly is.
Adler (2013a) provides an example of a child with a superiority complex, who is “impertinent, arrogant and
pugnacious” (p. 82).
When this child is treated through Adlerian therapy, it is revealed that the child behaves impatiently because
he feels inferior.
Adler (2013a) claims that superiority complexes are born out of inferiority complexes; they are “one of the
ways which a person with an inferiority complex may use a method of escape from his difficulties” (p. 97).
Personality Typology, Or Styles Of Life
Adler did not approve of the concept of personality types; he believed this practice could lead to neglecting
each individual’s uniqueness.
However, he did recognize patterns that often formed in childhood and could be useful in treating patients
who fit into them. He called these patterns styles of life.
Adler (2013a) claimed that once a psychologist knows a person’s style of life, “it is possible to predict his
future sometimes just on the basis of talking to him and having him answer questions” (p. 100)
Adler and his followers analyze a person’s style of life by comparing it to “the socially adjusted human
being” (p. 101).
Birth Order
The term birth order refers to the order in which the children of a family were born. Adler (2013b, pp. 150155) believed that birth order had a significant and predictable impact on a child’s personality:
First-born
First-born children have inherent advantages due to their parents recognizing them as “the larger, the
stronger, the older.”
This gives first-born children the traits of “a guardian of law and order.” These children have a high amount
of personal power, and they value the concept of power with reverence.
Second-born
Second-born children are constantly in the shadow of their older siblings. They are incessantly “striving for
superiority under pressure,” driven by the existence of their older, more powerful sibling.
If the second-born is encouraged and supported, he will be able to attain power as well, and he and the firstborn will work together.
Youngest Child
Youngest children operate in a constant state of inferiority. They are constantly trying to prove themselves,
due to their perceptions of inferiority relative to the rest of their family.
According to Adler, there are two types of youngest children.
The more successful type “excels every other member of the family, and becomes the family’s most capable
member.”
Another, more unfortunate type of youngest child does not excel because he lacks the necessary selfconfidence. This child becomes evasive and avoidant towards the rest of the family.
Only Child
Only children, according to Adler, are also an unfortunate case.
Due to their being the sole object of their parent’s attention, the only child becomes “dependent to a high
degree, constantly waits for someone to show him the way, and searches for support at all times.”
They also come to see the world as a hostile place due to their parents’ constant vigilance.
Topics we are going to discuss according to our syllabus
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
Organ inferiority
Striving for Superiority
Styles of Life
Fictional Finalism
Social Interest
Striving for Superiority
a. The Striving for Perfection
b. Striving for Self-Enhancement
c. Inferiority Feeling
d. Drive Satisfaction
Organ inferiority. People are more vulnerable to disease in organs that are less developed or "inferior" to
other organs. Ex- ample: Someone born with a weak stomach or heart is more likely to have problems with
these organs.
These inferior organs develop biological deficiencies because of stress from the environment. But since the
body acts as an in- tegrated unit, a person can compensate for a weakness either by concentrating on
developing or by emphasizing other functions which make up for the weakness.
In some cases, a person may overcompensate by converting a biological weakness into a strong point. For
example, Theodore Roo- sevelt was a frail child but later became an athlete; Demonsthenes had speech
problems but later became an orator.
A. The Striving for Perfection
1. THE CEASELESSNESS OF STRIVING
All our functions follow its direction. They strive for conquest, security, increase, either in the right or in the
wrong direction
The urge from below to above never ceases
From this network, which in the last analysis is simply given with the man-cosmos relationship, no one may
hope to escape.
Even if anyone wanted to escape, even if he could escape, he would still find himself in the general system,
striving upward from below.
This not only states a fundamental category of thought, a thought construct, but, what is more, represents the
fundamental fact of our life.
The origin of humanity and the ever-repeated beginning of infant life impresses with every psychological act:
"Achieve! Arise! Conquer!"
2. THE UNIVERSALITY OF STRIVING
The striving for perfection is innate in the sense that it is a part of life, a striving. an urge, a something
without which life would be unthinkable. Therefor it is universal.
3. Striving as Ultimate adaptation
The continuous striving for security urges toward the overcoming of the present reality in favor of a better
one
No one knows which is the only correct way. Mankind has frequently made attempts to imagine this final
goal of human development.
Man as an ever striving being cannot be like God. God who is eternally complete, who directs the stars, who
is the master of fates, who elevates man from his lowliness to Himself who speaks from the cosmos to every
single human soul, is the most brilliant manifestation of the goal of perfection to date.
The human soul, as a part of the movement of life, is endowed with the ability to participate the uplift,
elevation, perfection, and completion.
4. Perfection in the Abnormal
domineer over others to violate reality, and to protect himself fearfully against the truth and those who stand
up to it. How to be a Powerful and dominate others GET OTHERS TO DO THE WORK FOR YOU
B. Striving for Self-Enhancement
1. Enhancement of the Self-esteem
All neurotic phenomena originate from these preparatory means which strive toward the final purpose of
superiority. They are psychological readinesses for initiating the struggle for self-esteem
2. Safeguarding the Self-esteem
The safeguarding tendency which originates in the feeling of insecurity forces us all, especially the child and
the neurotic, to leave the more obvious ways of induction and deduction and to use such devices as the
schematic fiction.
C.Inferiority Feeling
1. the normal inferiority feeling
Inferiority feelings are not in themselves abnormal. They are the cause of all improvements in the position of
mankind. Science itself, for example the abnormal inferiority feeling
It is such children who become the criminals, problem children, neurotics, and suicides. They are lacking in
social interest and therefore in courage and self- confidence. burden and pessimistic view originates also
when the environment is unfavorable.
Example: The World's Youngest Serial Killer Was Arrested At Age 8.
d. Drive Satisfaction
1. subordination of drives
From where drive gets direction? nature, like the character, thinking feeling, volition, doubt, emotion, or
action, is a part of the self-consistent personality, and as such depends on the law of movement of the
individual
Children already possesses readinesses, psychological gestures, and attitudes
2. subordination of pleasure and self-preservation
all volition is dominated by feelings of pleasure and displeasure. For self preservation.
As long as a person is in a favorable situation, we cannot see his style of life clearly in ne situations,
however, where he is confronted with difficulties, the style of life appears clearl distinctly
b. Unity and Sovereignty of the Self
1. Unity and Sovereignty
Conditioned reflexes or with innate abilities of child in new problems. Unity in Self-consistency of
individual is called the style of life of the individual
2. creativity
We concede that every child is born with potentialities different from those of any other child purposeful
movements require of him the continuous adherence to a self-consistent goal.
3. The forgotten child
Who moves the mental life? and in which direction does he move it? The mover is always the self. This
provocation and the child's opinion of life and opinion of himself are creations of the mostly forgotten child.
C. Uniqueness and Subjectivity
1. The individual as the Variant
The task of Individual Psychology is to comprehend the individual variant.It attempts to gain, from the
separate life manifestations and forms of expression the picture of the self-consistent personality as a variant,
by presupposing the unity and self- consistency of the individuality. The separate traits are then compared
with one another, are reduced to their common denominator, and are combined in an individualizing manner
into a total portrait
2. Uniqueness of the goal
The dynamic value of mental, emotional, and attitudinal movements consists of their direction toward, or
determination by, a goal which has for the individual the meaning of securing for him what he regards as his
position in life.
The goal of superiority with each individual is personal and unique. It depends upon the meaning he gives to
life
3. The schema of Apperception
a. Opinion of Oneself and the World.
The first four to five years are enough for the child to complete his specific and arbitrary training in the face
of impressions from his body and the environment.
b. The Complex as Attitudinal Position
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, MUCH GREAT APPRECIATED JOB,Thank you, Well Done
The attitudinal position of a person includes the development of psychological complexes for reasons of
psychological economy.
d. Development of the Style of Life
1. Origin (child gets movement in life striving for perfection, completion, superiority, or evolution)
2. Self-consistency (Once the goal of superiornity has been made concrete, the habit and symptoms towards
goal lis concrete)
3. Constancy (Wher the prototype that early personality which embodies the goal is formed, the line of
direction is established and the individual becomes oriented)
4. Factors making for constancy and change (The child builds up his whole life, which we have called
concretely style of life, at a time when he has neither adequate language nor adequate concepts.)
Fictional Finalism
A. Fictionalism
forms of perception and thought, and certain concepts and other logical constructs.Constructing, forming,
giving shape, elaborating, presenting. artistically fashioning, conceiving, thinking, imagining, assuming
planning, devising, inventing. The statement "All men are created equal would be an example of a fiction
2. Types of Fictions
1. Abstractive (Neglective).
Symbolic (Analogical)
2. Heuristic (serving and facilitating discovery)
3. Practical (Ethical)
4. Aesthetic. (concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty)