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TOPIC:DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIOUR
ALFRED ADLER’S PSYCHOLOGY
October 15th , 2014
Presenters:
Dorcas Peter
Thomas Jackson
Edmund Issae
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What determines one’s behavior?
Psychodynamic approach practitioners believe
that sexual and aggressive impulses(forces) buried
deep within the unconscious mind influence the
way people think, feel or behave.
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Our behavior and feelings are powerfully affected
by unconscious motives.
Our behavior and feelings as adults (including
psychological problems) are rooted in our childhood
experiences.
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All behavior has a cause( usually
unconscious),even slips of the tongue. Therefore
all behavior is determined.
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Personality is shaped as two instinctual
drives(the sexual & life instinct and
aggressive drive & death instinct) are
modified by different conflicts at different
times in childhood(during psychosexual
development)
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Birth February 7th ,1870
Death May 28th ,1937
Best known for:
Individual psychology
The concept of inferiority complex
President of the Vienna psychoanalytic society,1910.
Adler himself was the second in a family of six
children.
Alfred Adler’s theory states that all of us
are born with a sense of inferiority as
evidenced by how weak and helpless a
newborn is. By this Adler was able to
explain that this inferiority is a crucial
part of our personality, in the sense that
it is the driving force that pushes us to
strive in order to become superior.
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Adler shifted the grounds of psychological
determinacy from sex and libido (the Freudian
standpoint) to environmental factors.
. According to him a person has to combat or
confront three forces - (a) societal, (b) loverelated, and (c) vocational forces. These
confrontations determine the final nature of a
personality.
Adler also considers birth order as a
major factor in the development of our
personality. He believed that :
The first born children may feel
inferior and may even develop
inferiority complex once the younger
siblings arrive.
Middle born children have the
greatest potential to be successful
in life. These children would cause
the first born to suffer feelings of
dethronement, no longer being the
centre of attention.
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Youngest children may also develop
personality problems of inferiority just
like the first born because they feel that
they have no say to the older .
Youngest children would tend to be
overindulged, leading to poor social
empathy.
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Adler never produced any scientific support
for his interpretations on birth order roles. Yet
the value of the hypothesis was to extend the
importance of siblings in marking the psychology of
the individual beyond Freud's more limited
emphasis on the Mother and Father.
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Adlerian’s emphasize the foundational
importance of childhood in developing
personality and any tendency towards various
forms of psychopathology.
Adler proselytized against corporal
punishment and cautioned parents to refrain
from the twin evils of pampering and neglect.
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When children do not feel equal and are
enacted upon (abused through pampering or
neglect) they are likely to develop inferiority
or superiority complexes .
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The Getting or Leaning
They are sensitive people who have developed
a shell around themselves which protects them,
but they must rely on others to carry them
through life's difficulties. They have low
energy levels and so become dependent.
When overwhelmed, they develop what we
typically think of as neurotic symptoms:
phobias, obsessions and compulsions, general
anxiety, hysteria, amnesias, and so on,
depending on individual details of their
lifestyle.
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The Avoiding types
are those that hate being defeated. They may
be successful, but have not taken any risks
getting there. They are likely to have low social
contact in fear of rejection or defeat in any way
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The Ruling or Dominant type
strive for power and are willing to manipulate
situations and people, anything to get their
way. People of this type are also prone to antisocial behavior
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The Socially Useful types
are those who are very outgoing and very
active. They have a lot of social contact and
strive to make changes for the good
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Psychology- The Science Of Mind And Behavior 6th ed
by R. Gross
The Science Of Psychology- An Appreciative View.
www.simplypsychology.com
Alfred Adler-Wikipedia
Adler, A. (1956). The Individual Psychology of Alfred
Adler. H. L. Ansbacher and R. R. Ansbacher (Eds.).
New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Bottome, Phyllis (1939). Alfred Adler - Apostle of
Freedom. London: Faber and Faber. 3rd Ed. 1957.
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Adler, A., Uber Den Nervosen Charakter: Grundzuge Einer
Vergleichenden Individual-Psychologie Und Psychotherapie,
(3rd, revised edition, J F Bergmann Verlag, Munich
1922).
Adler, A., Praxis und Theorie der Individual-Psychologie:
Vorträge zur Einführung in die Psychotherapie für Ärzte,
Psychologen und Lehrer (Bergmann, 1st edn. Wiesbaden
1919, Munich 1920, 2nd edn. 1924, 3rd 1927, 4th 1930).
Adler, A., The Practice and Theory of Individual
Psychology, translated by P. Radin (Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London 1925; revised edition 1929, & reprints).
Handlbauer, B. (1998). The Freud - Adler controversy.
Oxford, UK: Oneworld.