ADLER'SCHAPTER INDIVIDUAL 4 Alfred Adler 1870-1937 • Born in middle class Jewish family • Converted and became a Christian • 2nd of six children-profound influence • Felt in of his older brother • Very ill as a child: rickets, pneumonia, almost run over twice • Very close to his father-no oedipal need • Compensated for physical problems with academics • Later became popular, but still felt overshadowed by brother Adler’s

• Based on the unique motivations of individuals • Emphasizes individual’s conscious striving to improve their lives. • Importance of each person’s perceived niche in society • Importance of goal directedness of human nature Differences between Adler and

• Adler defended Freud’s book “Interpretation of ” • Joined the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society – Succeeded Freud as President in 1910 – Split with Freud – Left with 9 members and started “Individual Psychology” society. Differences between Adler and Freud

• Power not Sex is fundamental striving • Social Perspective not biological • Emphasis on human growth and free will • Focus on uniqueness of individual rather universal conflicts • Conscious Striving instead of unconscious motives Development • Style of Life - individual’s distinctive personality pattern, which is basically shaped by the end of early childhood. – destructive life styles • ruling type - person who strives for personal superiority by trying to exploit and control others. • getting type - person who attains personal goals by relying indiscriminately on others for help. • avoiding type - person who lacks the to confront problems and avoids or ignores them. Personality Development

– constructive life styles • socially useful type - person who actively and courageously confronts and solves his or her problems in accordance with social interest. Personality Development (cont.)

• Creative - how each child is treated by parents depends to a large extent on the child’s order of birth within the family. – first borns - understand the importance of power, dominance, and intellectual achievement. • confluence model (Zajonc) - support for Adler's views of first borns Personality Development (birth order cont.) – second borns (and later borns) - likely to be rebellious and highly competitive. – youngest borns - family members tend to spoil them. – only borns - likely to lack social competence. • Falbo research suggests Adler was wrong about only borns. – Inadequacies of Confluence Model (Steelman and Rodgers). Complexes • : normal feelings of incompetence and exaggerates them- impossible to to achieve goals-hopeless

• : very high opinion of self-bragging and quick to argue personal solutions to problems are right one-convince others of being valuable to them and to self Other Adler Concepts

• Organ Inferiority: everyone is born with some physical weakness-motivate life choices • Drive: reaction to perceived helplessness or inferiority-lashing out against the inability to achieve or master • Masculine protest: Kids work to become independent from and = adults & people in power More Adler Concepts • Perfection striving: people who are not neurotically bound to an inferiority complex spend their lives trying to meet their fictional goals. – Elimination of their perceived flaws – “as if” philosophy – Gives motivation and focus • Social Responsibility & Understanding-social issues – Occupational tasks-career-self-worth – Societal task-creating friendships-networks – Love tasks-life partner Therapeutic Assessment Techniques • Early Recollections - earliest memories provide insights into life style. • Analysis - technique used to uncover unconscious goals in accordance • with his or her life style. • Birth Order Analysis - provides information about the unconscious goals of the person. Evaluative Comments

• Comprehensiveness - broad scope. • Precision and Testability - not very precise and very difficult to test adequately. • Parsimony - too simplistic and reductionistic. • Empirical Validity - weak support for most aspects of the theory. • Heuristic Value - major contributions to existential psychology and and on the movement. • Applied Value - has high-applied value.