Presenters:
Jerico Acera,
Rogiely Vera P. Gondao,
Celeste Marie F. Ricarte
Adler was originaly a member of
Freud's psychoanalytic group, but he
never saw himself as a disciple or a
follower of Freud. After Adler broke
from the group, he built a theory of
personality
that
was
nearly
diametrically opposed to that of Freud.
o
o
o
o
Man is motivated
by
sex
and
aggression.
People have no
cjooice in shaping
their personality.
Present behavior is
cased by the past.
Emphasis on the
unconsious.
o
o
o
o
Man is motivated by social
influence
&striving
for
superiority and success.
People
are
largely
responsible for who they
are.
Present behavior is shaped
by the future
People are usually aware of
what they are doing and
why.
❑ Presents an optimistic view of people.
❑ Poeple are born with weak, inferior bodies that lead
to dependence on other people.
❑ Ocial interest - feeling of oneness with humanity, is
inherent in all individuals.
o FEBRARY 7, 1879 – MAY 28, 1937 (67)
o Sickly child, led to his ambition to be a
doctor
o Considered Childhood as an unhappy
experience
o Second Child among seven children and
mother's favorite
o Pursued medicine at the university of
Vienna
o Opthalmology,
Psyshiatry
General
Practice,
o Joined Freud’s discussion group in
1902
o 1911 break from Freud
o He died of a heart attack while on a
lecture tour
o 1907 - Paper on Organ Inferiority and
compensation
o Experience in WWIled to his ideas
of social interest
o 1911 - Break from Freud, established
SOCIETY FOR FREE PSYCHOANALYTIC
RESEARCH
o Lectured in various parts of the US
and abroad
o Eventually led to Individual Psychology
o Interest in Child
Guidance in Schools
Psychology
and
o He died of a heart attack while on a
lecture tour
The one dynamic force
behind people's behavior is
the striving for success or
superiority
The value of all human
activity must be seen
from the viewpoint of
People's subjective
perceptions shape
their behavior &
personality
Personality is unified
and self-consistent
Style of life is molded
by people's
The self-consistent
personality structure
develops into a
person's style of life
Single drive of motivation
Physical deficiencies activate feelings of inferiority
Striving for
success or
superiority
Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority. (superiority)
Psychologically healthy individuals seek success for all humanity. (success)
Guided by a final goal
Act of Compensation
Fictional
No objective existence
Unifies personality
The Final
Goal
Renders all behaviors comprehensible
Unconscious for neglected or pampered children
Conscious for children who experienced love and security
Innate.
Success as compensation for feeling of inferiority.
The Striving
force as
Compensation
Desire for Completion or wholeness.
Socially non productive attain to gain personal superiority.
Social interest and is aimed at success or perfection for everyone.
Goals are personal
The
Striving for
Personal
Superiority
Motivated by exaggerated feelings of self inferiority.
Actions are largelys elf serving.
Unhealthy individual strive for personal superiority with little concern for others
Basic motivation is personal benefit.
Motivated by social interest and success of all humankind.
Helping others without demanding or expecting personal payoff.
Striving for
Success
Seeing daily problems from the view of society's development.
Sense of personal worth is tied closely to the contribution to humankind.
Sense of personal worth is tied closely to the contribution to humankind.
Subjective
Perceptions
Shape behavior
and personality
Fictionalism
ideas that have
no real
existence but
influences as if
they really
existed
Adler believe
that human
race is
“blessed” with
physical
inferiority.
Physical
Inferiorities
Provide present
motivation for
reaching future
goals.
Unity and Self-Consistency of
Personality
Organ Dialect
Conscious and Unconscious
“Gemeinschaftsgefühl”
According to Adler, social interest is "the sole criterion of
human values," and the worthiness of all one's actions must
be seen by this standard. Without social interest, societies
could not exist; individuals in antiquity could not have
survived without cooperating with others to protect
themselves from danger. Even today, an infant's helplessness
predisposes it toward a nurturing person.
- It is refer to the flavor of a person’s life
- a pattern that is relatively well set by 4 or 5 years of age. However,
Adler believed that healthy individuals are marked by flexible
behavior and that they have some limited ability to change their
style of life.
3 Major Problems of Life
❑ Neighborly love
❑ Sexual love
❑ Occupation
o
o
o
o
Tend to set their goals to high
Live in their own private world
Have rigid and dogmatic style of life
Overconcerned with themselves and
care little about others
o a matter of insufficient social interest
o Ruling
o Getting
o Avoidance
o Socially Useful
From childhood on, they are
characterized to be rather
aggressive and dominant over
others.
They are relatively passive
The strength of their striving
after personal power is so great
that they tend to push over
anything or anybody who gets in
their way
Instead, they rely on others to
make care of them
Make little effort to solve their
own problems
Frequently use charm to
persuade others to help them
The most energetic of them are
bullies and sadists;
Somewhat less energetic ones
hurt other by hurting themselves,
and include alcoholics, drug
addicts, and suicides
Basically healthy individual
These have the lowest level of energy
and only survive by essentially avoiding
life – especially other people
When pushing to the limits, they tend to
become psychotic, retreating finally into
their own personal worlds
which do not by themselves cause abnormal
development, but which may contribute to it by
generating subjective and exaggerated feelings
of inferiority
which contributes to an overriding drive to
establish a permanent parasitic relationship
with the mother or a mother substitute
which leads to distrust of other people
❑ Aggression
➢ Depreciation
➢ Accusation
➢ Self-accusation
Assertion of masculine
qualities by males and females
because these are linked with
competence, superiority, and
control; the emphasis on
manliness was considered the
“arch evil of our culture”
FIRSTBORN CHILDREN
- occupy a unique position
- experience a traumatic dethronement when
a younger sibling is born
❑ FIRSTBORN CHILDREN
- 3yrs or older, they incorporate dethronement
into a previously established style of life
✓ self-centered style of life = hostility
and resentment toward the new baby
✓ cooperating style of life = adopt the
attitude towards the new sibling
❑ FIRSTBORN CHILDREN
- less than 3yrs old, their hostility and
resentment will be largely unconscious
❑ SECONDBORN CHILDREN
- begin life in a better situation for developing
cooperation and social interest
❑ SECONDBORN CHILDREN
- personalities are shaped by their perception of the
older child's attitude toward them
✓ extreme hostility and vengeance = highly
competitive or overly discouraged
✓ a typical second child matures toward
moderate competitiveness, having a healthy
desire to overtake the older rival
✓ if success is achieved, likely to develop a
revolutionary attitude and feel that any authority
can be challenged
❑ YOUNGEST CHILDREN
- most pampered
- run a high risk of being problem children
- strong feelings of inferiority
- lack a sense of independence
- highly motivated to exceed older siblings
❑ ONLY CHILD
- unique position of competing
- exaggerated sense of superiority
- inflated self-concept
- lack well-developed feelings of cooperation and
social interest
-possess a parasitic attitude
- expect others to pamper and protect them
➢ recalled
memories
yield
clues
understanding patient's style of life
for
➢ early recollections are a valid indicator of a
person's life
➢ recollections of early experiences are simply shaped
by present style of life
➢ Highly anxious patients project their current style of
life unto their memory of childhood experiences by
recalling fearful and anxiety producing events
➢ Self-confident people tend to recall memories that
include pleasant relations with other people
➢ provide clues for solving future problems
➢ “Everything can be different" golden rule of individual
psychology
➢ most dreams are self-deceptions and not easily understood
by the dreamer
➢ the more an individual's goal is inconsistent with reality, the
more likely that person's dreams will be used for selfdeception
➢ psychopathology results from lack of courage,
exaggerated feelings of inferiority, and
underdeveloped social interest
➢ The chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy
is to enhance courage, lessen feelings of
inferiority, and encourage social interest
➢ Kaster and Nevo found that early recollections in childhood did
match career type as an adult
➢ According to Susan Belangee, dieting, overeating, and bulimia can be
viewed as common ways of expressing inferiority feelings. Moreover,
eating disorder suggest that a person's social feelings is out of
whack. The youngest children in a family were more likely to binge
drink whereas older children demonstrated more drinking restraint
➢ Adler's most important concepts, the assumption that present
style of life determines early memories rather than vice versa
is difficult to either verify or falsify.
➢ Adlerian theory was rated high in both its ability to organize
knowledge and ability to guide actions
➢ Although Adlerian theory is a model for self-consistency, it
suffers from a lack of precise operational definitions. Terms
such as goal of superiority and creative power have no
scientific definition.
➢ Individual Psychology was rated about average on the final
criterion of a useful theory which is simplicity or parsimony
➢ Adler believed that people are basically selfdetermined and that they shaped their personalities
from the meaning they give to their experiences
➢ Adler also believed that people's interpretations of
experiences are more important than the
experiences themselves
➢ Ultimately, people are responsible for their own personalities
➢ Adler's rating based on the six dimensions of a concept of
humanity:
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
FREE CHOICE - HIGH
OPTIMISM - HIGH
CAUSALITY - VERY LOW
UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCES - MODERATE
SOCIAL FACTORS - HIGH
UNIQUENESS OF INDIVIDUAL - HIGH