Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
Chapter 3
Adler: Individual Psychology
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 3, you should be able to:
1.
Distinguish between striving for superiority and striving for
success.
2.
Describe the role of subjective perceptions in Adler's theory of
personality.
3.
Explain how seemingly contradictory behaviors may reflect a
single goal of striving for superiority.
4.
Define social interest and give examples of what it is and what it is
not.
5.
Explain organ dialect and give examples of how it is expressed in
a person's behavior.
6.
Define causality and teleology and discuss Adler's teleological
approach to personality.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
7.
Define style of life and discuss various methods of identifying a
person's style of life..
8.
List and describe three types of Adlerian safeguarding tendencies.
9.
Discuss Adler's ideas on birth order.
10. Compare and contrast Adler's view of women with that of Freud.
11. Summarize recent research on early recollections.
12. Critique Adler's ideas as a scientific theory.
Summary Outline
I.
Overview of Adler's Individual Psychology
Adler was an original member of Freud's psychoanalytic group,
but he never saw himself as a disciple or a follower of Freud. If
fact, throughout his life he carried with him the note Freud had
sent to him proposing the establishment of an organization of
physicians. Adler saw the invitation as Freud's recognition of
Adler as an equal. After Adler broke from that group, he built a
theory of personality that was nearly diametrically opposed to
that of Freud. Whereas Freud's view of humanity was
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pessimistic and rooted in biology, Adler's view was optimistic,
idealistic, and rooted in family experiences.
II.
Biography of Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler was born in 1870 in a Viennese suburb, a second
son of middle-class Jewish parents. Like Freud, Adler was a
physician, and in 1902, he became a charter member of Freud's
organization. However, personal and professional differences
between the two men led to Adler's departure from the Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society in 1911. Adler soon founded his own
group, the Society for Individual Psychology. Adler's strengths
were his energetic oral presentations and his insightful ability to
understand family dynamics. He was not a gifted writer, a
limitation that may have prevented him from attaining world
recognition equal to that of Freud.
III.
Introduction to Adlerian Theory
Although Adler's individual psychology is both complex and
comprehensive, its main tenets can be stated in simple form.
IV.
Striving for Success or Superiority
The sole dynamic force behind people's actions is the striving for
success or superiority.
A. The Final Goal
The final goal of success or superiority toward which all people
strive unifies personality and makes all behavior meaningful.
B. The Striving Force as Compensation
Because people are born with small, inferior bodies, they feel
inferior and attempt to overcome these feelings through their
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natural tendency to move toward completion. The striving force
can take one of two courses—personal gain (superiority) or
community benefit (success).
C. Striving for Personal Superiority
Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for personal
superiority with little concern for other people. Although they
may appear to be interested in other people, their basic
motivation is personal benefit.
D. Striving for Success
In contrast, psychologically healthy people strive for the success
of all humanity, but they do so without losing their personal
identity.
V.
Subjective Perceptions
People's subjective view of the world—not reality—shapes their
behavior.
A. Fictionalism
Fictions are people's expectations of the future. Adler held that
fictions guide behavior, because people act as if these fictions
are true. Adler emphasized teleology over causality, or
explanations of behavior in terms of future goals rather than past
causes.
B. Physical Inferiorities
Adler believed that all humans are "blessed" with physical
inferiorities, which stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority
and move people toward perfection or completion.
VI.
Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
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Adler believed that all behaviors are directed toward a single
purpose. When seen in the light of that sole purpose, seemingly
contradictory behaviors can be seen as operating in a selfconsistent manner.
A. Organ Dialect
People often use a physical disorder to express style of life, a
condition Adler called organ dialect, or organ jargon.
B. Conscious and Unconscious
Conscious and unconscious processes are unified and operate to
achieve a single goal. The part of our goal that is not clearly
understood is unconscious; that part of our goal we fail to fully
comprehend is conscious.
VII. Social Interest
Human behavior has value to the extent that it is motivated by
social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all of humanity.
A. Origins of Social Interest
Although social interest exists as potentiality in all people, it
must be fostered in a social environment. Adler believed that the
parent-child relationship can be so strong that it negates the
effects of heredity.
B. Importance of Social Interest
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
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
today an infant's helplessness predisposes it toward a nurturing
person.
VIII. Style of Life
The manner of a person's striving is called style of 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.
IX.
Creative Power
Style of life is partially a product of heredity and environment—
the building blocks of personality—but ultimately style of life is
shaped by people's creative power, that is, by their ability to
freely choose a course of action.
X.
Abnormal Development
Creative power is not limited to healthy people; unhealthy
individuals also create their own personalities. Thus, each of us
is free to choose either a useful or a useless style of life.
A. General Description
The most important factor in abnormal development is lack of
social interest. In addition, people with a useless style of life
tend to (1) set their goals too high, (2) have a dogmatic style of
life, and (3) live in their own private world.
B. External Factors in Maladjustment
Adler listed three factors that relate to abnormal development:
(1) exaggerated physical defects, which do not by themselves
cause abnormal development, but which may contribute to it by
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
generating subjective and exaggerated feelings of inferiority; (2)
a pampered style of life, which contributes to an overriding
drive to establish a permanent parasitic relationship with the
mother or a mother substitute; and (3) a neglected style of life,
which leads to distrust of other people.
C. Safeguarding Tendencies
Both normal and neurotic people create symptoms as a means of
protecting their fragile self-esteem. These safeguarding
tendencies maintain a neurotic life style and protect a person
from public disgrace. The three principal safeguarding
tendencies are (1) excuses, which allow people to preserve their
inflated sense of personal worth; (2) aggression, which may take
the form of depreciating others' accomplishments, accusing
others of being responsible for one's own failures, or selfaccusation; and (3) withdrawal, which can be expressed by
psychologically moving backward, standing still, hesitating,
or constructing obstacles
D. Masculine Protest
Both men and women sometimes overemphasize the
desirability of being manly, a condition Adler called the
masculine protest. The frequently found inferior status of
women is not based on physiology but on historical
developments and social learning. Boys are often taught early
that being masculine means being courageous, strong, and
dominant. The ultimate accomplishment for boys is to win, to
be powerful, to be on top. In contrast, girls often learn to be
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
passive and to accept an inferior position in society. In contrast
to Adler's more democratic attitude, Freud believed that
anatomy is destiny and that women occupy the 'dark continent"
of psychology. Near the end of his life, Freud was still asking
what women wanted. According to Adler, Freud's attitudes
toward women would be evidence of a person with a strong
masculine protest. In contrast to Freud's views on women,
Adler assumed that women—because they have the same
physiological and psychological needs as men—want more or
less the same things that men want.
XI.
Applications of Individual Psychology
Adler applied the principles of individual psychology to family
constellation, early recollections, dreams, and psychotherapy.
A. Family Constellation
Adler believed that people's perception of how they fit into their
family is related to their style of life. He claimed that firstborns
are likely to have strong feelings of power and superiority, to be
overprotective, and to have more than their share of anxiety.
Secondborn children (such as Adler) are likely to have strong
social interest, provided they do not get trapped trying to
overcome their older sibling. Youngest children are likely to be
pampered and to lack independence, whereas only children have
some of the characteristics of both the oldest and the youngest
child.
B. Early Recollections
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
A more reliable method of determining style of life is to ask
people for their earliest recollections. Adler believed that early
memories are templates on which people project their current
style of life. These recollections need not be accurate accounts
of early event, but true or false, they have psychological
importance because they reflect a person's current view of the
world.
C. Dreams
Adler believed that dreams can provide clues to solving future
problems. However, dreams are disguised to deceive the
dreamer and usually must be interpreted by another person.
D. Psychotherapy
The goal of Adlerian therapy is to create a relationship between
therapist and patient that fosters social interest. To ensure that
the patient's social interest will eventually generalize to other
relationships, the therapist adopts both a maternal and a paternal
role.
XII. Related Research
Although family constellation and birth order have been widely
researched, topics more pertinent to Adlerian theory are early
recollections and career choice. For example, research by Jon
Kasler and Ofra Nevo (2005) found that early childhood
recollections did match career types in adulthood, which is
consistent with Adler’s view.
Adler’s theory of inferiority, superiority, and social feeling can
be applied to health-related behaviors such as eating disorders
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
and binge drinking. For example, Susan Belangee (2006) found
that dieting, overeating, and bulimia are unhealthy ways of
compensating for feelings of inferiority. Moreover, eating
disorders suggest that a person’s Gemeinschaftsgefühl or social
feeling is out of whack. Recently, Teresa Laird and Andrea
Shelton (2006) examined binge drinking and birth order among
college students. They found youngest children in a family
significantly more likely to binge drink than older children. The
researchers explained this using Adlerian theory, in that
youngest children are more likely to be dependent, and
dependent people are more likely to cope with stress by heavy
drinking.
Some evidence exists that early recollections change through the
course of counseling. For example, Gary Savill and Daniel
Eckstein (1987) found significant changes in both mental status
and early recollections for a therapy group, but not for people in
a control group. Similarly, Jane Statton and Bobbie Wilborn
(1991) found that recollections of preadolescent children
changed after receiving therapy, whereas those of a control
group did not. These results tend to support Adler’s teleological
approach to personality, in that early childhood experiences are
less important than adults’ views of those experiences.
XIII. Critique of Adlerian Theory
Individual psychology rates high on it ability to generate
research, organize data, and guide the practitioner. It receives a
moderate rating on parsimony, but because it lacks operational
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
definitions, it rates low on internal consistency. It also rates low
on falsification because many of its related research findings can
be explained by other theories.
XIV. Concept of Humanity
Adler saw people as forward moving, social animals who are
motivated by goals they set (both consciously and
unconsciously) for the future. People are ultimately responsible
for their own unique style of life. Thus, Adler's theory rates high
on free-choice, social influences, and uniqueness; very high on
optimism and teleology; and average on unconscious influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1.
According to Adler, the striving for success or _____________ is
the dynamic force behind our actions.
2.
Adler believed that people are motivated more by
_______________ than by reality.
3.
Consistent with Adler's final theory, healthy people strive for the
_________________________ of all humankind.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
4.
Adler frequently stated that all people come into the world
_____________________ with physical inferiorities.
5.
Fictions are people's expectations of the ____________________.
6.
Lack of ______________________ is the essence of
maladjustment.
7.
Gemeinschaftsgefühl, or ____________________________, refers
to a positive feeling for all humanity.
8.
Unhealthy people strive for personal _____________________,
whereas psychologically healthy people strive for the success of
all people.
9.
Adler held that personality is shaped by the ________________
power, although heredity and environment contribute to its
building material.
10. Unhealthy people have an essentially useless ________________
of life whereas healthy people have a useful one.
11. The concept of organ _________________ suggests that a person
can express a diseased or inferior part of the body to gain
sympathy from other people.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
12. To Adler, personality is molded by subjective ________________
rather than by reality.
13. Maladjusted people tend to set their goals too ______________.
14. People with a ___________________ style of life try to make
permanent a parasitic relationship with their mother.
15. Safeguarding tendencies protect a person from
__________________________.
16. Adler believed that if style of life changes, then one's
____________________________ should also change.
17. Two common excuses are ___________________ and "Yes, but."
18. The masculine _________________ is a false belief that men are
superior to women.
19. Research has found that prisoners tend to have low
_________________________ .
20. Adler was a ____________________ born child, and he believed
that children who enter their family in that position are likely to
develop strong social interest.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
True-False
_____1. Adler was an original member of Freud's Wednesday
Psychological Society.
_____2. Among many differences between Freud and Adler were their
attitudes toward Americans.
_____3. Both Adler and Freud came from middle-class Jewish
backgrounds and grew up in the Vienna area.
_____4. The Wednesday Psychological Society began when Adler
asked Freud and a few other physicians to join him at his home
on Wednesday evening.
_____5. Most people who have read Freud and Adler agree that Adler
was the better writer.
_____6. During the first few years after breaking from Freud's
organization, Adler was unable to write or to continue his
practice of psychotherapy.
_____7. According to Adler, people's present behaviors are strongly
influenced by their experiences of the past.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
_____8. Adler believed that the most important fiction is the goal of
superiority or success.
_____9. Causality is an explanation of behavior in terms of future goals
and aspirations.
____10. Style of life is usually developed between the 10th and 12th
years of life, according to Adler.
____11. Everyone has some feelings of inferiority.
____12. Even criminals possess some amount of social interest.
____13. Heredity and learning account for all personality development,
according to Adler.
____14. People with very high levels of social interest eventually
become self-centered.
____15. Social interest is synonymous with charity and unselfishness.
____16. Because all of us have survived infancy, Adler concluded that
we have at least some potential for social interest.
____17. Adler believed that people are basically what they make of
themselves.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
____18. Most pathological individuals have a neglected or pampered
life style.
____19. A pampered style of life is the result of too much mother love.
____20. Safeguarding tendencies protect the ego from the pain of
anxiety.
____21. Adler believed that the psychic life of women is essentially the
same as that of men.
____22. Adler agreed with Freud that dreams are expressions of
infantile wishes.
____23. Adler believed that dreams are forward-looking.
____24. Adler hypothesized that physical deficiencies can contribute to
either a useful or a useless style of life.
____25. Adler believed that people's interpretations of experiences are
more important than the experiences themselves.
Multiple Choice
______1. As a child, Adler had an intense rivalry with
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
a. his mother.
b. his father.
c. an older brother named Sigmund.
d. an older sister named Anna.
_____2. For more than 30 years, Adler carried an invitation from
_______ suggesting that these two men should combine with
other physicians to establish the Wednesday Psychological
Scoiety.
a. Sigmund Freud
b. Carl Jung
c. his wife
d. William James
______3. Individual Psychology can be considered to be
a. deterministic.
b. optimistic
c. pessimistic.
d. neo-Freudian.
e. none of these.
_____4. To Adler, the one dynamic force behind a person's activity is
a. the striving for success or superiority.
b. organ inferiorities.
c. organ dialect.
d. feelings of superiority.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
______5. According to Adler, a person's final goal is
a. set at about age 18.
b. a creation of the creative power.
c. death.
d. shaped by heredity and environment.
______6. Adler insisted that personality is shaped by
a. subjective perceptions.
b. birth-order.
c. early childhood experiences.
d. organ inferiorities.
______7. According to Adler, ideas that have no real existence, yet
influence individuals as if they really existed, are called
a. fictions.
b. fabrications.
c. hypotheses.
d. postulates.
______8. The doctrine that motivation should be considered according
to its final purpose or aim is called
a. fictional imperative.
b. Gemeinschaftsgefühl.
c. causation.
d. teleology.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
______9. Alder believed that organ inferiorities
a. cause superiority personalities.
b. cause inferiority personalities.
c. bestow meaning and purpose on all behavior.
d. stimulate feelings of inferiority.
____10. Gemeinschaftsgefühl is usually translated as
a. style of life.
b. fictional finalism.
c. social interest.
d. organ inferiority.
____11. According to Adler ______, the "sole criterion of human
values" would be
a. social interest.
b. productive work.
c. self-interest.
d. religion.
____12. A person's final goal is ultimately shaped by
a. heredity.
b. early childhood experiences.
c. the superego.
d. the creative power.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
______13. People strive toward superiority through one of two paths.
One is the route of social interest; the other is the road of
a. success.
b. individuation.
c. exaggerated personal gain.
d. submission.
____14. Adler held that people are continually pushed by the need to
overcome inferiority feelings and pulled by the desire for
a. love.
b. Gemeinschaftsgefühl
c. food and sex.
d. completion.
____15. To Adler, the core of maladjustment is
a. innate physical deficiencies.
b. lack of social interest.
c. a pampered style of life.
d. a neglected style of life.
____16. Early recollections are
a. easily verified by talking to parents or older siblings.
b. keys to understanding one's present style of life.
c. usually unpleasant and traumatic.
d. the cause of one's style of life.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
____17. According to Adler, the creative power
a. usually leads to outstanding accomplishments.
b. shapes one's style of life.
c. is a deterministic concept.
d. is secondary to heredity and environment in shaping
personality.
____18. Adler believed that the goals of a pathological person
a. are exaggerated and unrealistic.
b. are easily reached.
c. both of these.
d. neither of these.
____19. Pampered children
a. frequently feel neglected.
b. have received too much love.
c. become productive contributions to society.
d. none of these.
____20. Adlerian safeguarding tendencies are
a. sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious.
b. completely conscious.
c. completely unconscious.
d. used only by neurotics.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
____21. Safeguarding tendencies protect exaggerated feelings of
superiority against
a. anxiety.
b. guilt.
c. public disgrace.
d. an uncontrollable id.
____22. Compared with Freud, Adler
a. had a more positive view toward women.
b. placed more emphasis on aggression.
c. relied more on dream interpretation during psychotherapy.
d. was more likely to use hypnosis to treat patients.
____23. Style of life is most reliably revealed by
a. the word association test.
b. hypnosis.
c. dream interpretation.
d. early recollections.
____24. According to Adler, dreams
a. can be interpreted only by the dreamer.
b. express childhood sexual fantasies.
c. provide information for dealing with future problems.
d. can foretell the future.
____25. According to Adler, human personality is
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
a. the result of the interaction of heredity and environment.
b. determined by people's experiences with frustration and
conflict.
c. shaped by people's interpretations of experiences.
d. motivated by a complexity and multiplicity of drives and
needs.
____26. The ultimate goal of Adlerian therapy is to
a. reduce needless anxiety.
b. increase self-confidence.
c. increase social interest.
d. decrease safeguarding tendencies.
____27. Research suggests that early recollections
a. may change during the course of psychotherapy.
b. are not consistent with scores on current personality
inventories.
c. have little or no usefulness to the clinician.
d. tend to remain unchanged while personality changes.
____28. A major weakness of Adler's theory is that it
a. is not easily falsifiable.
b. has failed to generate much research.
c. is anti-Freudian.
d. cannot explain inconsistencies in behavior.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
____29. In his concept of humanity, Adler saw people as
a. destined for a life of conflict and chaos.
b. being driven by security and safety.
c. determined mostly by environmental factors.
d. determined mostly by genetic factors.
e. none of these.
Short Answer
1. Name four differences between the theories of Adler and Freud.
2. List and briefly explain six major tenets of Adler's theory.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
3. Name three contributing factors to abnormality, according to Adler.
4. Discuss Adler's concept of family constellation.
5. Discuss Adler's use of early recollections.
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks
True-False
Multiple Choice
1.
superiority
1.
F
1.
c
2.
fictions (beliefs)
2.
T
2.
a
3.
betterment
3.
T
3.
b
4.
blessed
4.
F
4.
a
5.
future
5.
F
5.
b
6.
social interest
6.
F
6.
a
7.
social interest
7.
F
7.
a
8.
superiority, gain
8.
T
8.
d
9.
creative
9.
F
9.
d
10. style
10.
F
10.
c
11. dialect (jargon)
11.
T
11.
a
12. perceptions
12.
T
12.
d
13. high
13.
F
13.
c
14. pampered
14.
F
14.
d
15. public disgrace
15.
F
15.
b
16. early recollections
16.
T
16.
b
17. "if only"
17.
T
17.
b
18. protest
18.
T
18.
a
19. social interest
19.
F
19.
a
20. second
20.
F
20.
a
21.
T
21.
c
22.
F
22.
a
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Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology
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23.
T
23.
d
24.
T
24.
c
25.
T
25.
c
26.
c
27.
a
28.
a
29.
e
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