Chapter 2: Individual Psychology Flashcards
“an abnormal individual driven mad by ambition”. Said by
Freud
Overview of Individual Psychology: People as being motivated mostly by ________ and by their __________.
social influences, striving for superiority or success
Are usually aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Psychologically Healthy People
In 1911, who was then president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society,
Adler
The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior.
striving for success or superiority.
People’s _____ shape their behavior and personality.
subjective perceptions
is unified and self-consistent
Personality
The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of _____.
social interest.
Self-consistent personality structure develops into _____.
person’s style of life
Style of life is molded by
people’s creative power
Adler reduced all motivation to a single drive of striving for _____.
success or superiority
_____ activate feelings of inferiority—feelings that motivate a person to strive for either superiority or success.
Physical deficiencies
Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for
personal superiority
Psychologically healthy people seek
success for all humanity
Adler believed that was the dynamic power behind all motivation, but he soon became dissatisfied with this term.
aggression
After rejecting aggression as a single motivational force, Adler used the term which implied will to power or a
masculine protest
Regardless of the motivation for striving, each individual is guided by a strive toward either personal superiority or the goal of success for all humankind.
a final goal
However, the goal is neither genetically nor environmentally determined. Rather, it is the product of the people’s ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personalities.
creative power
It reduces the pain of inferiority feelings and points that person in the direction of either superiority or success.
Final goal
If children feel neglected or pampered, their goal remains largely ________
unconscious
Adler used the analogy of the ______ who builds the characteristics and the subplots of the play according to the final goal of the drama
playwright
The Striving Force as _____ is when people strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of inferiority or weakness.
Compensation
is an individualized concept and all people formulate their own definition of it.
Success
It is swayed by the forces of heredity and environment, it is ultimately responsible for people’s personality
creative power
It establishes the potentiality, whereas environment contributes to the development of social interest and courage.
Heredity
In his final theory, Adler identified two general avenues of striving
- socially nonproductive = personal superiority
2. social interest = success or perfection for everyone.
Some people strive for superiority with little or no concern for others. Their goals are personal ones, and their strivings are motivated largely by exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority, or the presence of an inferiority complex.
Striving for Personal Superiority
Striving for _____ is in contrast to people who strive for personal gain are those psychologically healthy people who are motivated by social interest and the success of all humankind.
Success
People strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of inferiority, but the manner in which they strive is not shaped by reality but by their subjective perceptions of reality, that is, by their fictions, or expectations of the future.
Subjective Perceptions
Our most important fiction is the goal of superiority or success, a goal we created early in life and may not clearly understand. This subjective, guides our style of life, gives unity to our personality.
Fictionalism
Adler insisted that the whole human race is “blessed” with ____________. These physical handicaps have little or no importance by themselves but become meaningful when they stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority, which serve as an impetus toward perfection or completion.
organ inferiorities
The body’s organs “speak a language which is usually more expressive and discloses the individual’s opinion more clearly than words are able to do
Organ Dialect