CORTEZ, Samantha Rae A.

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VIII. INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY (ALFRED ADLER)

-Born: February 7, 1870 in Vienna, Austria-died May 28, 1937 (heart attack while on lecture in Scotland)  
-Alfred Adler, second of six children.
-physician, psychotherapist, and the founder of Adlerian psychology, sometimes called individual
psychology
- He suffered from rickets, a deficiency disease of childhood that affects the bones and made him
awkward.
-When he was t3, his younger brother die in the next bed and about 4 he experienced pneumonia that’s
why he’s afraid of death.

Social Interest
 Urge in human nature to adopt oneself to the conditions of the social environment.
 Subjectively-having something common with other people
 Objectively-cooperation with others toward the betterment of human society

Finalism and fictional finalism

 Purposefulness of human behaviour by recognizing that the motivational force for every human
action is the goal or future orientation of that action.
 Goal that individual pursues
 Fictional finalism- people create fictions or guiding ideas and then behave “as if” their goals
were true
Fiction, fictio means “to invent”, “fashion” or “construct”

Striving for Superiority and feelings of inferiority

 Involves the desire to be competent and effective in whatever one strives to do.
 It is innate and part of the struggle for survival human beings share with other species in the
process of evolution.
 Striving for superiority arises because we humans feel inferior. Inferiority feelings have their
origin in our encounter as infants with the environment.
 Feelings of inferiority are not deviant but are the basis for all forms of human accomplishments
and improvement in life (Adler, 1927)

Style of life and its four primary types

 Individual seeks to cope with the environment and develop superiority in a unique way.
 2 factors: (1) inner goal of the individual with its particular fictional finalisms and (2) the forces
of the environment that assists or alter the direction of the individual.
 Four Primary Types
o Ruling type – aggressive, dominating people who have little social interest
o Getting type – dependent people who take rather than give
o Avoiding type – people who try to escape life’s problems and engage in little socially
constructive activity.
o Socially useful type – people with great deal of social interest and activity.

Family Constellation
 One’s position within the family in terms of birth order among siblings and the presence or
absence of parents and other caregivers.
CORTEZ, Samantha Rae A.
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 Personalities of children (oldest – youngest) are quite dissimilar because of different experiences
the child has in the family group.

Birth Order
 Oldest – intelligent, achievement oriented, conforming and affiliative
 Second – competitive and ambitious and often surpass the firstborn in achievement and
motivation.
 Last born children – sociable and dependent, having been the “baby” of the family.
 Only children – most likely to be pampered. Adler considered pampering the “greatest curse of
childhood”
 Middle – combination of the characteristics of oldest and youngest. If children are spaced
several years, they have the characteristics of only child.

The Creative Self

 Climax of his theory
 Establishes, maintains and pursues the goals of the individual
 Individuals make their own personalities from the raw materials of their hereditary and
environment.
 Consciousness as the center of personality. He believed that we are aware of everything, we can
understand why we behaved in a certain way.

Essence of the Theory

 We all have different styles of life, even identical twins could never have the very same style of
life.
 Everyone is unique in their own ways.
 Only the individual can assume responsibility for his or her life
CORTEZ, Samantha Rae A.
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Individual
Psychology

Social Interest

Striving for Style of Life

Finalism and superiority and Family
fictiona finalism feelings of
and four
Constellation
Birth Order Creative Self
inferiority primary type

Ruling Oldest

Getting Second

Avoiding Middle

Socially useful Youngest

Only child