Chapter 3: Alfred Adler

Question 1

Individual Psychology

Answer 1

Presents an optimistic view of people while resting on the notion of social interest

Question 2

Social Interest

Answer 2

Feeling of oneness with all humankind

Question 3

Differences between Adler & Freud

Answer 3

Freud reduced all motivation to sexuals aggression while Adler saw people as motivated by social influences and striving for superiority or success
Freud assumed people have little or no choice in shaping their personality while Adler believed that people are largely responsible for who they are
Freud’s assumption that present behavior is caused by past experiences while adler believed that present behavior is shaped by people’s view of the future
Freud placed very heavy emphasis on unconscious components of behavior while Adler believed that psychologically healthy people are usually aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it

Question 4

Main Tenets of Adlerian Theory

Answer 4

The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success or superiority
People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and personality
Personality is unified and self-consistent
The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest
The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life
Style of life in molded by people’s creative power

Question 5

Striving for Superiority

Answer 5

The drive for all motivation; everyone begins life with physical deficiencies and strong feelings of competitiveness that activate feelings of inferiority; these feelings motivate a person to strive for either superiority of success; means of compensation for feelings of inferiority or weakness

Question 6

Adler’s description of the Psychologically healthy vs psychologically unhealthy

Answer 6

Psychologically unhealthy individuals strive for personal superiority (striving for superiority)
Psychologically healthy individuals seek success for all humanity (striving for success)

Question 7

Final Goal

Answer 7

unifies personality and renders all behavior comprehensible; reduces the pain of inferiority feelings and points that person in the direction of either superiority or success

Question 8

Creative Power

Answer 8

People’s ability to freely shape their behavior and create their own personality;

Question 9

General Avenues for Striving

Answer 9

The socially nonproductive attempt to gain personal superiority
Social interest and aimed at success or perfection for everyone

Question 10

Inferiority Complex

Answer 10

Exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority

Question 11

Fictions

Answer 11

Adler’s description of expectations of the future or their subjective perceptions of reality

Question 12

Organ Dialect

Answer 12

When a deficient organ expresses the direction of an individual’s goal

Question 13

Adler’s Conscious and Unconscious

Answer 13

Conscious thoughts are those understood and regarded by the individual as helpful in striving for success; unconscious thoughts are those that are not helpful

Question 14

Determinant of living a healthy or unhealthy style of life

Answer 14

Depends on the degree of social interest that people developed during childhood years

Question 15

Social Interest

Answer 15

Social feeling or community feeling; A feeling of oneness with all humanity; implies a membership in the social community of all people

Question 16

Role of the Mother according to Adler

Answer 16

Mother’s job is to develop a bond that encourages the child’s mature social interest and fosters a sense of cooperation. She should have a genuine and deep-rooted love for her child (centered on a child’s well-being; The mother must have healthy relationships with people so she can broaden her child’s social interest; the mother cannot favor the child over the father so the child will not become pampered

Question 17

Role of the Father according to Adler

Answer 17

Father must demonstrate a caring attitude toward his wife and other people; cooperates on an equal footing with the child’s mother in caring for the child and treating the child as a human being; avoids dual errors of emotional attachment and paternal authoritarianism; Emotional detachment may influence a child to developed a warped sense of social interest, a feeling of neglect, and a parasitic attachment to the mother

Question 18

Style of life

Answer 18

The flavor of a person’s life; includes a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world; product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person’s creative power

Question 19

Creative Power

Answer 19

Places them in ocntrol of their own lives, is responsible for their final goal, determines their method of striving for that goal, and contributes to the development of social interest

Question 20

Underdeveloped Social Interest

Answer 20

The one factor underlying all types of maladjustments

Question 21

Neurotics

Answer 21

Set their goals too high
Live in their own private world
Have a rigid and dogmatic style of life

Question 22

External Factors in Maladjustment

Answer 22

Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
Pampered Style of Life
Neglected Style of Life

Question 23

Safeguarding Tendencies

Answer 23

Patterns of behavior created by people to protect their exaggerated sense of self-esteem against public disgrace; largely conscious and shield a person’s fragile self-esteem from public disgrace

Question 24

Common Safeguarding Techniques

Answer 24

Excuses, Aggression, Withdrawal

Question 25

Excuses

Answer 25

Typically express in the “yes, but” or “if only” format; protect a weak - but artificially inflated - sense of self worth and deceive people into believe that they are more superior than they really are

Question 26

Aggression

Answer 26

Used to safeguard their exaggerated superiority comples to protect their fragile self esteem; takes the form of depreciation, accusation, & self-accusation

Question 27

Depreciation

Answer 27

Tendency to undervalue other people’s achievements and overvalue their own; evident in aggressive behaviors such as criticism and gossip

Question 28

Accusation

Answer 28

Tendency to blame others for one’s failures and to seek revenge, thereby safeguarding one’s own tenuous self esteem

Question 29

Self-Accusation

Answer 29

Marked by self-torture and guilt; includes self-torture, masochism, depression, and suicide to hurt people close to them; Converse of depreciation, depreciate oneself to inflict suffering on others while protecting their own magnified feeling of self-esteem

Question 30

Withdrawal

Answer 30

Running away from difficulties; Setting a distance between themselves and those problems

Question 31

Safeguarding Through Withdrawal

Answer 31

Moving Backward, Standing Still, Hesitating, and Constructing Obstacles

Question 32

Moving Backward

Answer 32

Tendency to safeguard one’s fictional goal of superiority by psychologically reverting to a more secure period of life; designed to ellicit sympathy

Question 33

Standing Still

Answer 33

Not moving in any direction, thus avoiding all responsiblity by ensureing themselves against any threat of failure

Question 34

Hesitating

Answer 34

Procrastinations which give them the excuse that “it’s too late now”

Question 35

Constructing Obstacles

Answer 35

Building a straw house to show that they can knock it down

Question 36

Masculine Protest

Answer 36

Cultural and social practices influence many men and women to overemphasize the importance of being manly

Question 37

Family Constellation

Answer 37

Birth Order, the gender of their siblings, and the age spread between them

Question 38

Firstborn Children

Answer 38

Have intensified feelings of power and superiority, high anxiety, and overprotective tendencies; dethroned from being an only child when the younger sibling is born

Question 39

Secondborn Children

Answer 39

Begin life in a better situation for developing cooperation and social interest; personalities shaped by older sibling’s attitude towards them; matures towards moderate competitiveness

Question 40

Youngest Children

Answer 40

The most pampered and run a high risk of becoming problem children; strong feelings of inferiority; lack a sense of independence

Question 41

Only Children

Answer 41

Competes with parents; develop exaggerated sense of superiority and in inflated self-concept; lack well-developed feelings of cooperation and social interest; possess a parasitic attitude; expect other people to pamper and protect them

Question 42

Early Recollections

Answer 42

Recalled memories yield clues for understanding patients’ style of life; reconstruction of eents to make them consistent with a theme or pattern that runs throughout their lives; shaped by the present style of life

Question 43

Dreams

Answer 43

Provide clues for solving future problems; most dreams are self-deceptions and not easily understood by the dreamer

Question 44

Psychopathology According to Adler

Answer 44

Results from lack of courage, exaggerated feelings of inferiority, and underdeveloped social interest

Question 45

Purpose of Adlerian Psychotherapy

Answer 45

To enhance courage, lessen feelings of inferiority, and encourage social interest

Question 46

Adler’s Concept of Humanity

Answer 46

High on Free Choide and Determinism; Low on causality; moderate on unconscious influences; high on social factors and on the Uniqueness of individuals

Question 47

Adler’s concept of individuals

Answer 47

People are self-determining social creatures, forward moving, and motivated by rpesent fictions to strive toward perfection for themselves and society