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Alfred Adler
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theories of personality - alfred adler
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1AFLRED ADLER
Life Highlights and Individual Psychology
• Sickness in childhood (rickets and pneumonia)
o Forced himself to do sports
• Parents’ favorite (mother’s), until the arrival of a new baby
• Strove to the top of his class when advised to apprentice in shoemaking
• Studied medicine – ophthalmology --> general medicine --> neurology and psychiatry
o Influenced by the death of his younger brother
• Relationship with Freud --> did not fully agree with Freud’s view of personality; to
Freud, the person is a victim of his biological side and childhood experiences and
Adler did not agree
• Popular in America
Individual Psychology
- Proposed by Adler and it “fashioned an image of human nature that did not portray
people as victims of instincts, biological forces, and childhood experiences.” (Schultz &
Schultz, 2017)
- Uniqueness of individuals is the center and Freud’s proposed universality brought
about by biological motives and goal was rejected.
- Presents a more optimistic view of people
- Emphasized people as being motivated by social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness
withall humankind.
- Influenced a lot of theories but is
unpopular
Main tenets:
1. Behavior motivation: Striking for success of superiority
2. Subjective perception shape behavior and personality
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent
4. The value of a human activity must be seen from a social interest viewpoint
5. Style of life develops from a self-consistent personality structure
6. Creative power molds people’s style of life
Striving for personality
- Single motivating force in the personality (as instinct was to Freud)
- Gives unity and coherence to personality
- Involves the desire to be competent and effective in whatever one strives to do
- Begins with feelings of inferiority
• Motivating force in all behavior
• Normal condition of all people (we all experience it)
• Source of all human striving
• Necessary to strive for success
- Compensation
• Motivation to overcome inferiority
, 2
• Satisfies the need to overcome the sense of inferiority and strive for
increasinglyhigher levels of development
Inferiority complex
- Not normal
- The belief that one is vastly inferior to everyone else
- Condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal
inferiority feelings
- Characteristics:
• Having a poor opinion of oneself
• Feeling helpless
• Being unable to cope with the demands of life
Causes of inferiority complex:
1. Organ inferiority
• Having defective parts or organs of the body
2. Spoiling
• Experience in school of not being the center of attention compared to the
individual’s home
• Can shock the child and let them believe they have some personal deficiency
3. Neglecting
• Having indifferent, neglectful, or hostile parents (in the extreme, abuse is
experienced)
• Development of feelings of worthlessness, anger, and view others with distrust
Parental influence on personality development
• The first 2 years are important in the formation of the adult personality
Problem behaviors in parenting
1. Pampering – giving too much attention to the child; robs the child of independence
2. Neglect – giving too little attention to children; results in cold and suspicious attitudes;
andas adults, they may be incapable of warm personal relationships
The more inferior we see ourselves, the stronger our striving for
superiority.
Superiority complex
- Condition that develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority feelings
- Exaggerated opinion of one’s abilities and accomplishments
Striving for superiority:
- Increases tension
- Manifested by the individual and the society interdependently
- The ultimate goal is oriented towards the future
- Initial definition: compensation for general feeling of weakness or femininity
(masculineprotest)
- Later definition: the urge towards perfection or completion that motivates people
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