ADLER: INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

PSYCH 303 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

ALFRED ADLER – ADLERIAN THEORY the death of his younger brother motivated
Alfred to become a physician.
TOPIC OUTLINE  Former disciple of Freud.
1 Overview of Adlerian Theory  More emotionally attached to his mother.
2 Biography of Alfred Adler - More interest in social relationship; more
3 Introduction to Adlerian Theory comfortable in group situations.
4 Striving for Success or Superiority - Adler was more democratic than Freud, on
5 Subjective Perceptions how he dealt with colleagues.
6 Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality  Served in the army; as a physician, he
7 Social Interest specialized in psychiatry and general medicine.
8 Style of Life  Was part of Freud’s WEDNESDAY
9 Creative Power PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY until 1908.
10 Abnormal Development - Never considered Freud as a mentor and the
11 Applications of Individual two men never shared a warm personal
12 Critique of Adler relationship.
13 Concept of Humanity  Study of Organ Inferiority and its Psychical
Compensation
OVERVIEW OF ADLERIAN THEORY -Physical deficiencies formed the foundation for
human motivation.
FREUD ADLER  Drive for superiority was a more basic motive
 reduced all motivation  saw people as being than sexuality.
to sex and aggression. motivated mostly by  Formed Society for Individual Psychology
social influences and  World War I
by their striving for - Suggested that Social Interest and compassion
superiority or success. could be the cornerstones of human motivation.
 people have little or no  people are largely  Wife: Raissa Epstein
choice in shaping their responsible for who  Children: Alexandra
personality. they are. Kurt
 present behavior is  present behavior is Valentine
caused by past shaped by people’s Cornelia
experiences view of the future.  Died: May 28, 1937

 emphasis on  psychologically healthy

unconscious people are usually INTRODUCTION TO ADLERIAN THEORY
components of aware of what they are  People are born with WEAK INFERIOR bodies –
behavior doing and why they are this leads to feelings of inferiority and a
doing it. consequent dependence on other people.
 A feeling of oneness or UNITIY with other (SOCIAL
INTEREST) IS INHERENT IN PEOPLE AND THE
BIOGRAPHY OF ALFRED ADLER ULTIMATE STANDARD FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL
 Feb. 7, 1870; parents: Pauline and Leopold. HEALTH.
 As a young child, he was sickly which motivated
6 Tenets of Individual Psychology:
him to become a physician (1895).
- Several of Adler’s earliest memories were
1. Striving for success or superiority—the one
concerned with the unhappy competition
dynamic force behind people’s behaviour.
between his brother’s good health and his own
2. Subjective perceptions shape behavior and
illness
personality
 At age 5, he nearly died of pneumonia
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.
 What he heard from a doctor saying “Give
4. The value of all human activity must be seen from
yourself no more trouble. The boy is lost” and
the viewpoint of social interest.
 5. The self-consistent personality structure - Refers to a person’s ability
develops into a person’s style of life. to share their behavior
6. Style of life is molded by creative power. and CREATE THEIR OWN
PERSONALITY
Each person has the power to
create a personalized fictional
STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY goal.
 All motivation is summed up into this drive. - Coming from materials
 Everyone begins life with physical deficiencies from heredity and
that activate FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY. These environment.
feelings motivate a person to strive for  By the time children reach 4 or 5
success/superiority. years of age, their creative power
 Psychologically UNHEALTHY individuals – has developed to the point that
seek PERSONAL SUCCESS. they can set their final goal.
 Psychology HEALTHY individuals – seek  Even infants have an innate drive
SUCCESS FOR HUMANITY. toward growth, completion or
 AGGRESSION - Adler believed that this is the success
dynamic force behind all motivation.  Final goal reduces the pain of
 MUSCULINE PROTEST – will power or a inferiority feelings and points that
domination of others. person in the direction of either
- Concept was soon abandoned by Adler as a superiority or success
universal drive. o If children are NEGLECTED or
 The single dynamic force next was called striving PAMPERED, their goal remains
for superiority. largely unconscious.
 Soon, he limited striving for superiority to those - Children will compensate
people who strive for personal superiority and for feelings of interiority in
introduced the term striving for success to devious ways that have no
describe actions of people who are motivated by apparent connection to
highly developed social interest. the final goal.
 Regardless of the motivation for striving, each o If children experience LOVE
individuals is guided by a final goal. AND SECURITY they set a goal
 Dynamic force behind all motivation: that is largely conscious and
Aggression (he rejected) clearly understood.
- Strive for superiority in
Masculine Protest (he rejected) terms of success and social
interest.
Striving for Superiority (limited to personal - Although the goals never
superiority) really become conscious,
these individuals
Striving for Success (for those with high social understand and pursue it
interest) with a high level of
awareness.
 NOTE:
THE FINAL GOAL  Either PERSONAL SUPERIORITY or  In striving for their final goal,
the goal of success for ALL people create and pursue
HUMANKIND. many preliminary subgoals.
 Is fictional and has no objective - Subgoals are often
existence. CONSCIOUS but the
 Unified personality and renders all connection between them and
behavior comprehensible. the final goal remains
unknown.
o CREATIVE POWER

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  When an individual’s final goal is
known, all actions make sense and
take on a new significance.
THE STRIVING  People strive for
FORCE AS superiority/success to compensate
COMPENSATION for feelings of inferiority.
 Physical deficiencies ignite feelings
of inferiority because people by
their very nature, possess and
innate tendency for completion or
wholeness.
- Is INNATE but its nature
and direction are because
of the feelings of
inferiority or the goal of
superiority.
 Although the striving is innate,
it must still be developed.
- 4/5 y.o. children start to
set a direction by
establishing a goal of
personal superiority or
success.
 The goal may take any form.
 Success is an individualized
concept and all people
formulate their own definition
 Two general avenues of striving:
1. PERSONAL SUPERIORITY –
socially non-productive
2. SUCCESS/PERFECTION FOR
EVERYONE – involves social
interest
STRIVING FOR  Usually with little or no concern
PERSONAL for others.
SUPERIORITY  Goals are PERSONAL GOALS.
 Striving are motivated by
exaggerated feelings of inferiority
“INFERIORITY COMPLEX”.
 Consciously or unconsciously hide
their self-centeredness behind a
cloak of social concern.
STRIVING FOR  Psychologically healthy people are
SUCCESS motivated of success of all
humankind.
 Concerned with goals that are
beyond themselves.
- Capable of helping others
without expecting
personal payoff.
- See others not as
opponents but as people
who they can cooperate
with for social benefit.
 Success is not gained at the
expense of others but is a natural
tendency to move toward
completion or perfection.
 They are able to maintain a sense
of self but they see problems for
the society’s point of view.
- Social progress is more
important than personal
credit.
SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTIONS
 The manner by which we strive is shaped by our
subjective perceptions of reality, that is, by their
FICTIONS, or expectations of the future.
FICTIONALISM  The goal for superiority is one of the
most important fiction that we have.
- Created early in life but is not
clearly understood.
 Examples:
1. Men are superior to women.
2. We have free will and are
responsible for our own
choices.
3. God
 Although these are fiction, our
behavior show as if it is true.
 People’s actions are oriented toward
some future goal.
- This is affected by present
perceptions of the future.
PHYSICAL  Because we are born weak, we
INFERIORITIES develop a fiction that in order to
overcome physical deficiencies, we
have to be strong, big and superior.
 The human race is blessed with
ORGAN INFERIORITIES.
- They have little significant
by themselves but they
become meaningful when
they stimulate subjective
feelings of inferiority.
o Serves as an IMPETUS
toward completion or
perfection.
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  NOTE: physical deficiencies alone do
not determine a particular style of
life.
o They only provide
MOTIVATION for reaching
future goals.
o These motivations are
unified and consistent.
UNITY OF SELF-CONSISTENCY OF PERSONALITY
ORGAN  the whole person strive in self-
DIALECT consistent fashions toward a single
goal and all separate functions can
be understood only as parts of this
goal.
 the disturbance of one part of the
body cannot be viewed in isolation;
it affects the entire person.
 a condition where the deficient
organ expresses the direction of the
individual’s goal.
 through this, the organs “speak a
language which is usually more
expressive and discloses the
individual’s opinion more clearly
than words are able to do”.
CONSCIOUS  The unified personality is
AND manifested in the harmony
UNCONSCIOUS between conscious and
unconscious actions.
 UNCONSCIOUS – the part of the
goal that is neither clearly
formulated or completely
understood by the person.
 Both cooperate within the unified
system.
 CONSCIOUS – thoughts which
are regarded by the individual
as helpful in striving for success
(unconscious, in contrast are
those which are regarded as not
helpful).
SOCIAL INTEREST
 Gemeinschaftsgefühl – social feeling or community
feeling.
- Feeling of oneness withal humanity;
membership in the social community of all
people.
- Strives not only for personal superiority but
for perfection for all people in an ideal
community.
- Attitude of relatedness with humanity in
general as well as an empathy for each
member of the human community.
- Manifests as cooperation with others for
social advancement rather than for personal
gain
 Social interest is the natural condition of the human
species and binds society together.
 It is a necessity for perpetuating the human species.
ORIGINS OF  From the mother-child
SOCIAL relationships.
INTEREST  The mother’s job is to develop a
bond that encourages the child’s
mature social interest and fosters a
sense of cooperation.
- But if she favors the child
over the father, her child
may become pampered an
spoiled.
- If she favors her husband or
society, the child will feel
neglected and unloved.
 The father’s role:
- The ideal father cooperates
on equal footing with the
child’s mother in caring for
the child and treating the
child as a human being.
- A successful father avoids
the dual errors of
emotional detachment and
parental authoritarianism.
- A father’s emotional
detachment may influence
the child to develop a
warped sense of social
interest, a feeling of
neglect, and possibly a
parasitic attachment to the
mother.
- Paternal attachment –
creates goal of personal
superiority and sees father
as tyrant.
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IMPORTANCE  Social interest was the YARDSTICK STYLE OF LIFE
OF SOCIAL by which one measures  The flavor of a person’s life.
INTEREST psychological health.  Includes a person’s goals, self-concept, feelings for
- Only gauge to judge the others, and attitude toward the world.
worth of a person. - Product of heredity, environment and
- Standard of determining creative power.
the usefulness of a life.  Well-established by 4/5 y.o
 When one has social interest, he is  All actions revolve in our style of life.
deemed psychologically mature.
- Immature people lack  Psychologically unhealthy individuals lead
GEMEINSCHAFT, self- inflexible lives.
centered, strive for  Healthy individuals are flexible with styles of life
personal power and that are complex, enriched and changing.
superiority over others. o See many ways of striving for success.
 Synonymous with CHARITY and o Continually seek to create new options
UNSELFISHNESS. for themselves.
- Acts of charity may or may o The final goal remains constant, the
not be brought about by way in which perceive it continually
Gemeinschaftsgefühl. changes.
 The worth of such acts will be o They can continually choose options.
judged according to social interest. o Express their social interest through
 SUMMARY: ACTION
- People begin life with o Three major problems – neighborly
physical deficiencies which love, sexual problems and occupation
lead to feelings of  People with a socially useful style of life
inferiority. represent the highest form of humanity in the
- 4/5 y.o FINAL GOAL is set. evolutionary process and are likely to populate
- Psychologically unhealthy the world of the future.
individuals develop
exaggerated feelings of
inferiority and attempt a
goal of personal superiority Two Basic Methods of Striving toward the Final Goal
(compensation).
- Motivated by personal gain
rather than social interest.
- Psychologically healthy
strive towards the goal of
success, defined in terms of
perfection and completion
for everyone.
 Exaggerated feelings of inferiority
lead to a neurotic style of life,
whereas normal feelings of
incompletion result in a healthy
style of life.
- The result depends on how
a person views these
inevitable feelings of
inferiority.

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 CREATIVE POWER
 Each person is empowered with the freedom to
create her or his own style of life.
 Places people in control of their own lives, is EXTERNAL FACTORS OF MALADJUSTMENT
responsible for their final goal, determines their  Adler recognized three contributing factors, any
method of striving for that goal and contributes one of which is sufficient to contribute to
their method of striving for the goal and abnormality.
contributes to the development of social interest. EXAGGERATED  By themselves, they are not
 Is a dynamic concept implying movement, and this PHYSICAL sufficient to lead to
movement is the most salient characteristic of life. DEFICIENCIES maladjustment.
 All psychic life involves movement toward a goal, - They must be accompanied
movement with a direction. by feelings of inferiority.
 People with exaggerate physical
 Each person is a free individual, we are deficiencies develop
responsible for who we are. exaggerated feelings of
 Each person uses heredity and environment to inferiority.
build personality but the design reflects the - Overcompensate for their
person’s style of life. inadequacy.
- Overly concerned with
 Adler’s analogy: The law of the low doorway. themselves and lack
- If you are trying to walk through a doorway considerations for others.
four feet high, you have to basic choices.
1. You can use your creative power to bend PAMPERED  Lies at the heart of most
down as you approach the doorway, STYLE OF LIFE neurosis.
thereby successfully solving the problem.  Have a weak social interest but
2. Conversely, you can bump your head and a strong desire to perpetuate
fallback, but you must still solve the the pampered, parasitic
problem correctly or continue bumping relationships they originally had
your head. with one or both of their
parents.
 Expect others to look after
ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT them, overprotect them,
 People’s creative power determines or gives them and satisfy their needs.
the freedom to be healthy/unhealthy style of life.  Characterized by extreme
 The one factor underlying all types of discouragement,
development is UNDERDEVELOPED SOCIAL indecisiveness,
INTEREST. oversensitivity, impatience,
and exaggerate emotion

Neurotics tend to: especially anxiety.
1. Set their goals too high  They feel unloved
2. Live their own private world  Parents demonstrate a lack
3. Rigid and dogmatic style of life of love by doing too much
 People become failures in life because they are for them and by treating
over-concerned with themselves and care little them as if they were
about others. incapable of solving their
- Set extravagant goals as an own problems.
overcompensation for exaggerated feelings  May also feel neglected
of inferiority.  They are fearful when
 To compensate for deeply rooted feelings of separated from the parent.
inadequacy and basic insecurity, these individuals
narrow their perspective and strive compulsively NEGLECTED  Is a RELATIVE CONCEPT  no
and rigidly for unrealistic goals. STYLE OF LIFE one totally feels neglected or
completely unwanted.

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  Abused and mistreated children
develop little social interest and
tend to create a neglected style
of life.
o Have little confidence
in themselves.
o Overestimate
difficulties connected
with life’s major
problems
o Distrustful
o Unable to cooperate
for the common
welfare
o More suspicious and
more likely to be
dangerous to others
SAFEGUARDING TENDENCIES
 Patterns of behaviors to protect their exaggerated
sense of self-esteem against public disgrace.
 Enable people to hide their inflated self-image
and to maintain their current style of life.
- Formed as a protection against anxiety.
 Largely CONSCIOUS and shield a person’s fragile
self esteem from public disgrace
 These tendencies are discussed only with
reference to their construction of neurotic
symptoms.
 FORMS: 1) excuses; 2) aggression; 3) withdrawal
1. EXCUSES
- most common of the safeguarding
tendencies.
- “Yes, but” “if only”
- first state what they claim they would like to
do – something that sounds good to other –
then they follow with an excuse. –
- These excuses protect a weak – but artificially
inflated sense of self-worth and deceive
people into believing that they are more
superior than they really are.
 Depreciation
- Undervalue other people’s
achievements and to overvalue one’s
own.
- E.g. criticism and gossip
- To belittle another so that the other
person by comparison, will be place in a
favorable light.
 Accusation
- Tendency to blame others for one’s
failures and to seek revenge.
- Adler believed that there is an
element of aggressive accusation in all
unhealthy lifestyles.
- Unhealthy people invariably act to
cause people to suffer more than they
do
 Self-Accusation
- People devalue themselves in order to
inflict suffering on others while
protecting their magnified self-
esteem.
- Marked by self-torture and guilt.
- Some people use self-torture,
including masochism, depression and
suicide, as means of causing suffering
to people who are close to them.
3. WITHDRAWAL
- When people run away from difficulties.
- Safeguarding through DISTANCE.
- Escaping life problems by setting up a
distance between themselves and those
problems.
 MOVING BACKWARD
- Psychologically reverting to a more
secured period in his life
- May sometimes be conscious and is
directed at maintaining an inflated
good superiority.

2. AGGRESSION
- Common
- Safeguard their exaggerated superiority
complex, that is, protect their self-
esteem.

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 - Cultural and social practices – not anatomy
– influence many men and women to
overemphasize the importance of being
manly.

 STANDING STILL  Origins of the Masculine Protest

- Simply do not move in other direction.
- Avoid all responsibility by ensuring
themselves against any threat or failures.
- Safeguard their fictional aspirations
because they never do anything to prove
that they cannot accomplish their goals.
 HESITATING
- Manifested through procrastination.
- Gives them the excuse “it’s too late now”
- Most COMPULSIVE BEHAVIORS are
attempts to waste time.
- Allows neurotic individuals to pressure
their sense of self-esteem.
 CONSTRUCTING OBSTACLES
- By overcoming the obstacle, they protect
their self-esteem and prestige.
- If they fail to overcome the obstacle, they
can always offer an excuse.
- Least severe of the withdrawal
safeguarding tendencies.
 SUMMARY:
- Safeguarding tendencies are found in nearly
everyone but when they become overly rigid,
they lead to self-defeating behaviors.
- Safeguarding tendencies are self-defeating
because their build-in goals of self-interest and
personal superiority actually block them from
securing authentic feelings of self-esteem.
- People don’t realize that they can safeguard
their self-esteem if they gave up their self-
interest and developed a genuine caring for
other people.
MUSCULINE PROTEST
 Adler believed that the psychic life of women is
essentially the same with that of men.
 A male-dominated society is not natural but is an
artificial product of historical development.
- In most societies, men and women place a
lesser value on women.
- Some women fight against this (feminine
roles)
- MASCULINE ROLE – become aggressive,
assertive and competitive
- PASSIVE ROLE – exceedingly helpless and
obedient. Become resigned to the belief
that they are inferior beings
 Adler, Freud, and the Masculine Protest
- Freud believed that “anatomy is destiny”
and regarded women as the “dark
continent for psychology”.
- Adler believed that attitudes toward
women would be evidence of a person with
strong masculine protest. He assumed that
women – because they have the same
physiological needs as men – want more or
less the same things that men want.
APPLICATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
FAMILY  Birth order, gender of their
CONSTELLATION siblings, age spread between
them.
 FIRSTBORN CHILDREN
- Intensified feelings of
power and superiority,
and overprotective
tendencies.
- Occupy a unique position.
- Experience being an only
child and then
experiencing a traumatic
dethronement into a
previously established
style of life.
- AT 3 YEARS OLD:
o Self-centered style of
life - feel hostility
and resentment
toward a new baby.
o Cooperating style -
adopt the same style
towards a new baby

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 SECONDBORN CHILDREN
- Begin life in a better
situation for developing
cooperation and social
interest.
- The personalities of
second born children are
shaped by their
perception of the older
child’s attitudes towards
them.
o Extreme hostility and
vengeance.
o Highly competitive
or easily discourage.
- The TYPICAL SECOND
CHILD does not grow in
either direction:
o Motives towards
moderate
competitiveness,
having a healthy
desire to overtake
the older rival.
o If success is
achieved, the child is
likely to develop a
revolutionary
attitude and feel like
authority can be
challenged.
 YOUNGEST CHILDREN
- More pampered; run a
high risk of being
PROBLEM CHIDLREN.
- Have strong feelings of
inferiority and to lack a
sense of independence.
- Highly motivated to
exceed older siblings.
 ONLY CHILDREN
- Unique position of
competing, not against
brother and sisters, but
against father and mother.
- Often develop an
exaggerated sense of
superiority and an inflated
self-concept.
- May lack well-developed
feelings of cooperation
and social interest,
possess a parasitic
attitude, and expect other
people to pamper and
protect them.
EARLY  To gain an understanding of
RECOLLECTIONS patient’s personality.
 To understand people, Adler did
not consider events as having a
causal effect.
 People reconstruct the events to
make them consistent with a
theme or pattern that runs
through their lives.
- Early recollections are
always consistent with
people’s present style of
life and that their
subjective account of
these experiences yield
close to understanding
both their final goal and
their present style of life.
 Highly anxious patients will often
project their current style of life
into their memory of their
childhood experiences by
recalling highly fearful and
anxiety producing events, such
as being in a motor vehicle crash
or losing parents.
 Self-confident people tend to
recall memories that include
pleasant relations with other
people.
DREAMS  Cannot foretell the future, but
they can PROVIDE CLUES for
solving future problems.
- Nevertheless, the dreamer
frequently DOES NOT
want to solve problems in
a productive manner.
 Dreamwork follows the golden
rule of individual psychology
“Everything can be different”.
- If one interpretation
doesn’t work, try another.
 Most dreams are SELF-
DECEPTIONS and not easily
understood by the dreamer.
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 - DISGUISED to deceive the - Adler maintained a
dreamer, making self- friendly and permissive
interpretation difficulty. attitude toward the
- The more an individual’s patient.
dream is inconsistent with o Congenial co-
reality, the more likely worker,
that person’s dreams will refrained from
be used for self-deception. moralistic
preaching and
PSYCHOTHERAPY  Psychopathology results from placed great
lack of courage, exaggerated value on the
feelings of inferiority, and human
underdeveloped social interest. relationship.
 The chief purpose is to enhance - Once awakened, the
courage, lessen feelings of patient’s social interest
inferiority and encourage social must spread to family,
interest. friends and people
- Not easy because people outside the therapeutic
tend to hold on to their relationship.
existing, comfortable
view of themselves.
MOTTO: “Everybody can accomplish
something”.
 Humor and warmth:
- Through these they try to
increase a patient’s
courage, self-esteem and
social interest.
- A warm, nurturing
attitude by the therapist
to expand their social
interest to each of the
three problems in
life(sexual love, friendship
and occupation).
 With problem children:
- Treatment is done in
public (audience e.g.
parents and teachers).
- When children receive
therapy in public, they
readily understand that
their problems are z
community problems.
o Enhance
children’s social
interest by
allowing them to
feel that they
belong to a
community of
concerned
adults.

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 CRITIQUE OF ADLER

1. Generate research – Above Average / High

2. Falsifiability (style of life shapes early
recollection) – Difficult to verify / fasilfy
3. Organize Knowledge (what is known about
human behaviour) – High
4. Practice Guide to Action – High
5. Internally consistent – Self-consistent but lack
operational definition.
6. Parsimonious – Average

CONCEPT OF HUMANITY

o People are basically self-determined and that they

shape their personalities from the meaning they give
to their experiences.

o Building material of personality is provided by

heredity and environment, but the creative power
shapes this material and puts it to use.

o People’s interpretations of experiences are more

important than the experiences themselves.

o Neither past nor future; it’s the present perception

and expectation of them.

o People are forward moving, motivated by future

goals rather than by innate instincts or causal forces.

o People create their personalities and are capable of

altering them by learning new attitudes.

o Although our final goal is relatively fixed during early

childhood, we remain free to change our style of life
at any time.

o Adler maintained that not all our choices are

conscious and that style of life is created through
both conscious and unconscious choices.

o Creative power is capable of transforming feelings of

inadequacy into either social interest or into the self-
centered goal of personal superiority. This capacity
means that people remain free to choose between
psychological health and neuroticism.

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