Module 4: Alfred

Adler’s Individual
Psychology
Group 1:
Acosta, Ma. Cathryne Ruelle L.
Batayola, John Noel R.
Buban, Corinthian R.
Cabullos, Meivin Anne F.
Reyes, Mariell Angeli A.
 Content Synopsis
• Biography
• Contributions to Psychology
- Individual Psychology
- Inferiority feelings
- The Style of Life
- The creative power of the self
- 3 Contributing Factors in Maladjustments
- Safeguarding Tendencies
- Masculine Protest
- Birth Order
- Applications of Individual Psychology
 Alfred Alder
• Physician, Psychiatrist
• Alfred Adler – February 7, 1870, Vienna, Austria
• Developed rickets, which kept him from walking
until he was four years old
• Nearly died of pneumonia at five years old
• Received a medical degree from
the University of Vienna in 1895 but switched his
interests toward the field of psychiatry

Acosta
 Alfred Alder

• He was invited to join by Freud’s group in 1907

• Co-founder of the psychoanalytic movement as a core
member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society
• Break from Freud, and he established “The Society for
Individual Psychology” in 1912.
• He became a America’s firs popular Psychologist in 1937

Acosta
 Individual Psychology

• Focused on the uniqueness of each person.

• Named to emphasize the understanding that a person is

"indivisible“

• Adler believed that we all have one basic desire and goal: to
feel belong and to feel significant.

Acosta
 Inferiority feelings
According to Adler, these are constant motivating force in all behavior.

Feeling of unfulfillment and incompleteness

❖ An inferiority complex, in the fields of psychology is a feeling that one is
inferior to others in some way.
❖ It is often unconscious, and is thought to drive afflicted individuals to
overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme
antisocial behavior.

Batayola
 3 main sources that causes inferiority
complex during childhood
❖ Organic Inferiority - the sense of being deficient or somehow less than
others as a result of negative feelings about any type of real or imagined
abnormality of organ function or structure.

❖ Spoiling - Spoiling or pampering a child can also bring about an inferiority

complex. Spoiled children are the center of attention in the home.

❖ Neglecting - It is easy to understand how neglected, unwanted, and rejected

children can develop an inferiority complex. Their infancy and childhood are
characterized by a lack of love and security because their parents are
indifferent or hostile.

Batayola
 The Superiority Complex

❖ is a behavior that suggests a person believes they're

somehow superior to others.

Batayola
 The Style of Life
People develop a unique pattern of characteristics, behaviors, and
habits.

The Creative Power of the Self

❖ “We are in control of our fate, not victims of it.”
❖ Adler believed that we create ourselves, our personality, our
character.

Cabullos
 Four Basic Styles of Life
Several Universal Problems
❖ problems involving our behavior toward others
❖ problems of occupation
❖ problems of love

Cabullos
 Four Basic Styles of Life

❖ Dominant type - displays a dominant or ruling attitude with little

social awareness

❖ Getting type – most common human type; expects to receive

satisfaction from other people and so becomes dependent on them.

❖ Avoiding type - makes no attempt to face life’s problems.

❖ Socially useful type - cooperates with others and acts in accordance

with their needs.

Cabullos
 The creative power of the self
- The ability to create an appropriate style of life.
• a dynamic concept implying movement, and this movement is the most
salient characteristic of life.
• Adler (1956) acknowledged the importance of heredity and environment in
forming personality.
• Except for identical twins, every child is born with a unique genetic makeup
and soon comes to have social experiences different from those of any
other human.
• Each person uses heredity and environment as the bricks and mortar to
build personality, but the architectural design reflects that person’s own
style.

Reyes
 3 CONTRIBUTINGFACTORS IN MALADJUSTMENTS

❖ EXAGGERATED PHYSICAL DEFICIENCIES

- Tends to be overly concerned with themselves and lack consideration for

others.
- Convinced that problems can be solved in a selfish manner

❖ PAMPERED STYLE OF LIFE

- Lies at the heart of most neuroses

- Expect others to look after them and satisfy their needs.

Reyes
 3 CONTRIBUTING FACTORS IN
MALADJUSTMENTS
❖NEGLEGTED STYLE OF LIFE
- Children who feel unloved and unwanted tend to have aneglectedstyleoflife

Reyes
 Safeguarding Tendencies
• Adler believed that people create patterns of behavior to protect their
exaggerated sense of self-esteem against public disgrace.

• Adler’s concept of safeguarding tendencies can be compared to Freud’s

concept of defense mechanisms.

• Freudian defense mechanisms operate unconsciously to protect the ego

against anxiety, whereas Adlerian safeguarding tendencies are largely
conscious and shield a person’s fragile self-esteem from public disgrace.

Batayola
 Safeguarding Tendencies
• Excuses
- The most common of the safeguarding tendencies are excuses, which are typically
expressed in the “Yes, but” or “If only” format.

- 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

Batayola
 Safeguarding Tendencies
• Aggression
- some people use aggression to safeguard their exaggerated
superiority complex, that is, to protect their fragile self-
esteem.
- through aggression may take the form of depreciation,
accusation, or self-accusation.
3 Types of Aggression
- Depreciation
- Accusation
- Self Accusation
Acosta
 Safeguarding Tendencies
3 Types of Aggression

• Depreciation
- tendency to undervalue other people’s
achievements and to overvalue one’s own.
- evident in such aggressive behaviors as
criticism and gossip.

Acosta
 Safeguarding Tendencies
3 Types of Aggression

• Accusation
- the second form of an aggressive safeguarding
device.
- safeguarding one’s own tenuous self-esteem.

Acosta
 Safeguarding Tendencies
3 Types of Aggression

• Self-Accusation
- the converse of depreciation
- marked by self torture and guilt.
- Some people use self-torture, including masochism, depression,
and suicide, as means of hurting people who are close t
- people devalue themselves in order to inflict suffering on others
while protecting their own magnified feelings of self-esteem (Adler,
1956) them.

Cabullos
 Safeguarding Tendencies
• Withdrawal
- Personality development can be halted when people run away
from difficulties.
- Some people unconsciously escape life’s problems by setting
up a distance between themselves and those problems.
four modes of safeguarding through withdrawal:
(1) moving backward,
(2) standing still,
(3) hesitating, and
(4) constructing obstacles.

Cabullos
 Safeguarding Tendencies
( four modes of safeguarding through withdrawal: )
• Moving backward
- the tendency to safeguard one’s fictional goal of superiority
by psychologically reverting to a more secure period of life.

- similar to Freud’s concept of regression in that both involve

attempts to return to earlier, more comfortable phases of life.

- designed to elicit sympathy, the deleterious attitude offered

so generously to pampered children.

Cabullos
 Safeguarding Tendencies
( four modes of safeguarding through
withdrawal: )
• Standing Still
- similar to moving backward ; thus, they avoid all
responsibility by ensuring themselves against any
threat of failure.

- they never do anything to prove that they cannot

accomplish their goals.

Cabullos
 Safeguarding Tendencies
( four modes of safeguarding through
withdrawal: )
• Hesitating
- related to standing still;

- people hesitate or vacillate when faced with difficult

problems.

- Adler believed that most compulsive behaviors are

attempts to waste time.
Buban
 Safeguarding Tendencies
( four modes of safeguarding through
withdrawal: )
• Constructing Obstacles
- The least severe of the withdrawal safeguarding
tendencies.

safeguarding tendencies are found in nearly everyone, but when they become
overly rigid, they lead to self-defeating behaviors.

Buban
 Masculine Protest
• the psychic life of women is essentially the same as that
of men

• a male-dominated society is not natural but rather an

artificial product of historical development.

• cultural and social practices—not anatomy—influence

many men and women to overemphasize the importance
of being manly
Buban
 Applications of Individual Psychology
• Family Constellation
- Often asked by Adler in Therapy
- Birth order, gender of their siblings, age
between them.

Buban
 Birth Order
• Oldest Child
Positive
- Protective of others
- Good organizers

Negative
- Highly anxious
- - exaggerated feelings of power
- Must always be right
- – fights for acceptance

Buban
 Birth Order
• Middle Child
Positive
- Highly Motivated and moderately competitive
- Cooperative
Negative
- Highly Competitive
- Easily discouraged
Buban
 Birth Order
• Youngest Child
Positive
- Realistically ambitious
Negative
- Pampered style of life
- Dependent
- Wants to excel in everything
- Unrealistic ambitious
Buban
 Birth Order
• Only Child
Positive
- Socially Mature
Negative
- Exaggerated superiority
- Low cooperation
- Inflated sense of self
- Pampered style of life
Buban
 Applications of Individual Psychology
• Early Recollections
- To gain understandings of patients’
personality.
- Anxious people = fearful and anxiety-
producing memories
- Self – Confidence = pleasant memories
- Does not determine the style of life
Buban
 Applications of Individual Psychology
• Dreams
- provide clues for solving future problems.
- Applied the golden rule of individual
Psychology.

Buban
 Applications of Individual Psychology
• Psychotherapy
- the chief purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy is
to enhance courage, lessen feelings of
inferiority, and encourage social interest.

Buban
Thank You!