Adlerian Psychotherapy Flashcards
Who is Adler?
- Shift from psychoanalysis to ego psychology
- “human beings live in the realm of meanings”
- Early feminist
- Wellness - unity of mind and body
- Family Constellations
- Organ inferiority and Inferiority feelings
- Was a sickly child and lived through several traumas
- Founder of Individual Psychology - studying the whole body
- Human nature: people are self-determined, forge personalities from the meaning they give to their life. People create their own lives with creative power. The individual is responsible for making ‘good’ use of their abilities. Optimistic.
- Believes in Social Cooperation - but it is a core threat to our existence.
- Fundamental nature is social
Major differences between Freud and Adler
Although both believed that individual’s personalities are formed by the age 6, they differed about the essential conflicts people face in development. Freud thought Adler gave too much credit to the conscious process.
- Alder thought Freud overemphasized sexuality
- They disagreed on the role of the unconscious
- & the importance of social issues
- & the role of drive theory
- Human behavior is learned- not instinctual.
- Freud was deterministic whereas Adler believed in the subjective experience (the interpretation of one’s life is far more important than the actual experiences)
What is social interest?
The ability to participate and the willingness to contribute to society. To function adequately, people must develop sufficient social interest, otherwise deficiency and maladjustment occur. The desire to belong is a lifelong pursuit marked by our efforts to find our “place in life”
Adlerian Human Nature
People are neither inherently good nor bad, but based on their appraisal of an immediate situation and its payoff, they may choose good or bad.
Theory of Personality
Alder stresses the effects of children’s perceptions of their family constellations and their struggles to find their own significant niches within them.
- Holism: one’s personality is a complete unity.
Personality Development:
- social interest
- masculine protest
- lifestyle
- goal-directed and purposeful behavior
- feelings of inferiority
- striving for superiority
- fictional finalist
- family constellation
- birth order
Social Interest manifested
Affective level: individual’s deep feeling of belonging to the human race / empathy
Cognitive level: person’s recognition of interdependence with others - the welfare of any one individual depends on the welfare of everyone.
Behavioral level: actions aimed at self-development as well as cooperative and helpful movements directed towards others.
Lifestyle
Behavior is lawfully organized and each person develops a generalized pattern of responses to most situations. All behavior is organized around lifestyle, which is defined as a habitual pattern of behavior unique to each person, their desired outcomes, goals, and opinions of ourselves/the world.
Children create their own lifestyle by the age 5 - after that it becomes difficult to change.
Private logic
The reasoning we invent to stimulate and justify our lifestyles.
We can make faulty interpretations of events or situations, which may lead to mistaken beliefs in our own private logic.
Adlerian therapists assist clients in refraining event that took place during childhood so that they can create a new lifestyle or a new way of organizing their lives.
Lifestyle Convictions
During the process of developing their lifestyles, children construct statements about the conditions, personal or social, that are necessary for them t feel secure.
Inferiority feelings
When there is conflict between one’s self-concept and one’s ideal self, on develops inferiority feelings.
What are the four lifestyle convictions?
4 basic lifestyles that people live by
1) the self-concept
2) the self-ideal
3) the Weltbild, or “picture of the world”
4) the ethical convictions
The self-concept
The convictions I have about who I am
- the socially useful type
- high social interests and use high activity to achieve goals
- mature, positive, well adjusted, courteous and considerate
- do not strive for superiority
The self-ideal
The convictions that pertain t what I should be or am obligated to be in order to have a place in the world.
- the ruling type
- little social interest
- active in seeking control over others
- try to prove personal superiority by ruling over others
- tends to look like con-artists, thieves, substance abusers
The Weltbild, or “picture of the world”
The convictions about the not-self (e.g., world, people, nature) and what the world demands of me.
- The getting type
- desire everything from others without any personal effort or struggle.
- low social interest and low activity levels
The ethical convictions
The individual’s development of a personal code of right and wrong
- the avoiding type
- low social interest and low activity level
- avoid failure by avoiding involvement with work, friends, or society in general.
3 factors that interfere with organ development of social interest
1) organ inferiorities
2) parental pampering (why should I love my neighbor when he has not done anything for me?)
3) neglect of a child (society owes me)
Immediate goals
Easier goals to work with. Generally observable in the day-to-day functioning of children. More amenable to change nd short-term counseling
Long range goals
indicated a child’s private interest logic and form their basic outlooks on life. More rigid and less susceptible to change.
Inferiority complex
The presentation of the person to himself and others that he is not strong enough to solve a given problem in a socially useful way.
These feeling provide the motivating force behind all growth and development. The constitute a minus state that we seek to overcome.
— inevitable, universal and normal —
Superiority complex
Inflates his own self-importance to overcome feelings of inferiority. When one has a negative impact on others - putting others down to mask negative feelings of self.
Superiority feelings
Superiority is our drive to master external obstacles, to gain power and status, and to arrive a a positive state
Striving for superiority
A positive striving for perfection. Healthy people strive for superiority without developing a superiority complex to mask true feelings of inferiority. Pushes us to contribute to society!
Fictional Finalism
1) Provides for the internal, subjective causation of a psychological event
2) Represents a creation of the person and is primarily subconscious
3) Becomes the principle of unity and self consistency of one’s personality
4) Forms the basis for a person’s orientation in the world
5) Supplies one way of compensating for feelings of inferiority
Family Constellation
The composition of a family and one’s position within that system that ultimately builds their beliefs and how they view themselves.
