Adler - Individual Psychology Flashcards
Adler: The dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for ___ or ___.
Success or superiority
Adler: People’s ___ ___ shape their behavior and personality.
Subjective perceptions
Adler: Each person has a final goal – what are the two options?
Personal superiority, success of mankind.
Adler: People strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of ____
Inferiority
Adler: People begin life with an innate striving force and physical deficiencies, which produce ___ __ ___
Feelings of inferiority
Adler: People who feel they have more than their share of physical deficiencies, do what?
Overcompensate for their deficiencies, strive for personal gain and set unrealistically high goals.
Adler: What is the sole criterion by which human actions should be judged.
Social interest
Adler: Which three major problems of life can only be solved through social interest?
Neighborly love, work, and sexual love
Adler: Which behaviors are consistent with a person’s final goal?
All of them
Adler: Human behavior is shaped by a person’s ___ ___ of a situation.
Subjective perception
Adler: Human behavior is shaped by a person’s ___ ___ of a situation.
Subjective perception
Adler: Define creative power
An inner freedom that empowers us each to create our own style of life.
Adler: What is the building material of personality
Heredity and environment
Adler: What’s an organ dialect?
The expression of intentions or style of life through one’s bodily organs. E.g.: a limp that expresses weakness.
Adler: Define Gemeinschaftsgefühl
Oneness with all humanity
Adler: All people, especially neurotics, use ___ ___ to protect their inflated self-image and maintain their current style of life.
Safeguarding tendencies
Adler: List safeguarding tendencies
- Excuses
- Aggression
- Withdrawal
- Hesitating
- Constructing obstacles
“Everyone always wants ham & cheese”
Adler: What are two ways to apply the withdrawal safeguarding tendency?
- Moving backward – reverting to safer period of life.
2. Standing still – avoiding responsibility
Adler: Define the masculine protest
The neurotic and erroneous belief that men are better than women.
Adler: Cultural and social practices, not anatomy, influence people to overemphasize the importance of being manly. This condition is ___ ___.
Masculine protest
Adler: What’s another term for subjective perceptions of reality?
Fictions
Adler: ___ results from lack of courage, feelings of inferiority, or underdeveloped social interest.
Psychopathology
Adler: What is the family constellation?
Birth order, gender of siblings, and age spread among them.
Adler: What does Adlerian therapy use to foster courage, self-esteem and social interest?
Birth order, early recollections and dreams
Adler: How do people with normal feelings of inferiority compensate for those feelings?
By cooperating with others and developing a high level of social interests.
How does Freud’s theory differ from Adler’s?
- Sex & aggression vs. social interest
- Little choice vs. responsibility
- Past vs. future
- Unconscious v. awareness
- Motivation – Sex & aggression vs. social interest.
- Personality – Little choice vs. responsible for who you are.
- Behavior – Caused by past experiences vs. view of future.
- Awareness – Driven by unconscious vs. awareness of what one’s doing.
Many People Believe Adler
Summarize Adler’s Individual Psychology (revision 2)
- People begin life with a striving force and deficiencies – leading to feelings of inferiority.
- Ppl compensate for this by developing social interest and success.
- Neighborly love, work, & sexual love can only be solved by social interest.
- Ppl who feel they have more than normal deficiencies overcompensate and strive for personal gain and superiority.
- Everyone uses safeguarding tendencies like excuses or aggression – to protect inflated feelings of superiority
- Therapy uses birth order, early recollections and dreams to foster social interest.
What’s the difference between standing still and hesitating?
Standing still: lack of action to avoid failure.
Hesitating: procrastinating so one can say “too late now.”
Describe Adler’s concept of fictionalism.
As ppl strive for success or superiority, their journey is shaped by subjective perceptions of reality. Since they differ from reality, they’re “fictions.”
Fictions shape actions, whether conscious or not.
Compare Freud’s mechanisms with Adler’s safeguarding tendencies.
Freudian mechanisms:
- Unconsciously project the ego
- Apply to everyone
Adler’s tendencies:
- Conscious attempt to shield self esteem.
- Apply to neurotic symptoms.
