Chapter 4 - Adler Flashcards
Individual psychology
Adler’s theory of personality
- focused on the uniqueness of each person and denies the universality of biological motives and goals ascribed to us by Freud
Inferiority feeling
The normal condition of the people; the source of all human striving (not a sign of weakness or abnormality)
- source of all human striving
Compensation
A motivation to overcome inferiority, to strive for higher levels of development.
- driving force of humanity
- derives from complete dependency on adults (universal experience because every child has to go through this)
Inferiority complex
A condition that develops when. Person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority
- poor self-opinion, feel helpless, and find it difficult to cope with life demands
Superiority complex
A condition that develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority feelings
- boastful, self-centred, and tend to denigrate others
Causes of inferiority complex
Organic inferiority
- inescapable physical hinderance that pushes you to compensate in other ways or leaves you with inferiority complex
Spoiling or pampering
- (only child entering school) belief that something is insufficient about them when they are no longer pampered
Neglecting
- feelings of worthlessness can lead to anger and distrust
Striving for superiority
- urge towards perfection, or completion that motivates each person (future oriented)
- we all live our lives around ideals whether imagined or real
Fictional finalism
The idea that there is an imagined or potential goal that guides our behaviour toward a complete state of being
- must also be a society with ideals
- most pervasive of these would be the concept of God and the afterlife
Style of life
A unique character structure or pattern of personal behaviours and characteristics by which each of us strives for perfection.
Basic styles of life include the dominant, getting, avoiding, and socially useful types.
- influenced by social interactions (parents responses, etc.)
Creative power of the self
The ability to create an appropriate style of life
- disturbed individual would be one would say it can only be one way
What are the four basic styles of life and what are there characteristics?
Dominant - attacking, little social awareness, ruling attitude
Avoiding - ignores problems, or avoids getting involved in what might lead to failure
Getting - dependent, expects that others will bring satisfaction to them
Social useful - cooperative, working together to a goal (including meeting their own needs within that)
Social interest
Our innate potential to cooperate with other people to achieve personal and societal goals
- mother’s relationships tends highly effect development of social interest (teaches self-confidence, companionship, and cooperation etc)
- need to belong
- need for protection and survival within community setting.
First-born children
- focus of attention from parents on them before other children come along
- secure happy existence until other children come along
- followed by dethronement and battle to regain supremacy
- result in hatred of second born child who is perceived to be the cause of all their issues
Characteristics
- intellectually mature
- organized, authoritarian, and conscientious
- insecure and hostile (towards younger siblings)
second born children
- views older sibling as pacesetter
- competition spurs language and motor development - goal to catch up or surpass the first-born
Characteristics
- optimistic, competitive, ambitious but may turn out to be an underachiever
Youngest child
- pet of the family
- develops at a fast pace to surpass others
Characteristics
- high achievers - trying to keep up with everyone else
- may become dependant and helpless, if pampered
Only child
- focus of attention
- spends more time with adults
Characteristics
- matures early
- disappointment follows, when not the centre of attention
- similar to firstborn but does not experience dethronement (experiences this to some degree when they go to school)
- will not share, will want to compete
Adler’s view of human nature
- Free will - you can choose what influences you
- primary influences is nurture
- focus is on past and present
- emphasis is placed on uniqueness
- humans use childhood experiences to create styles of life
- optimistic - striving toward perfection
Early recollections
A personality assessment technique in which our earliest memories, whether of real events or fantasies, are assumed to reveal the primary interest of our life
Adler’s dream analysis
- involves feelings regarding a current problem
- interpretation requires knowledge about the person and his/her style of life
- symbols are unique to individuals, can’t have universal experiences/symbols in dreams
Measures of Social interest
- social interest scale(SIS)
- social interest index (SII)
- Basic Adlerian scales for Interpersonal success (BASIS-A)
Neglected children tend to develop:
- share and depression
- anxiety
- symptoms of PTSD
- low social skills
Pampered children tend to:
- have low self-esteem
- lack of empathy for others - little or no social feeling
Four types of pampered children
- over-indulgence - entitled, manipulative, tyrannical
- over-permissive - disregard to social rules and rights of others
- over-dominant - exclusive parent decision making - dependance on others to make their choices, lacks self-esteem
- over-protective - generalized anxiety - tendency to avoid social situations
