Chapter 5 part 1 Flashcards
Who is Alfred Adler?
Alfred Adler
*Developed the approach of individual psychology
*Contributions to understanding of personality
*Notion of striving for superiority
*Role of parental influence on personality development
*Effects of birth order
What was important about Adlers life?
Middle child (loser)
Childhood
*Marked by illness, awareness of death, and intense jealousy of his older brother
*Had feelings of inferiority
*Compensated for weaknesses through persistence
What are the differences between Adler and Freud?
Adler:
*Mind is an integrated whole
*Emphasis on conscious mind
*Future goals are an important source of motivation
*Optimistic about human existence
*Dreams important to learn about lifestyles
*Humans free to determine their own personality
*Minimized importance of sex
*Goal of therapy to encourage a lifestyle that includes social interest
Freud:
*Mind viewed as consisting of warring factions
*Emphasized the unconscious mind
*Future goals unimportant
*Biological motives primary
*Pessimistic about human experience
*Dreams analyzed to detect the contents of the unconscious mind
*Personality determined by heredity and environmental factors
*Maximized importance of sex
*Goal of therapy to discovered repressed early thoughts
What is Striving for Superiority (according to Adler)?
Single motivating force that can subsume all other motives
*Individual’s begin life with feelings of inferiority
*All individual actions aim to establish a sense of superiority over life’s obstacles
*Excessive feelings of inferiority lead to inferiority complex
*Social interest combined with superiority striving indicates mental health of a person
What is Striving for Superiority in short?
*Urge toward perfection or completion that motivates each person
*Innate goal, which is future oriented
What is Fictional finalism?
*Goals guide behavior toward a complete state of being
(Imagined of potential fictional goals)
These fictions are determinants of lifestyle:
*Mean world
*Good world
(Drive us (determinants of our goals))
“Fictions” are beliefs, goals, and ideals held by the individual that give meaning to their actions and attribute significance to their life.
_____ is the personality structure?
Lifestyle
*The psychological processes that we need to reach a goal.
*Established very young.
*Childhood experiences
*People use different means to reach the same goal.
Note: Obsessive goal: Striving for a goal to feel superiority (mistake in life goal)
What is Social interest?
*People’s innate ability to socialize.
*Crucial to adjustment
- Thinking of others around you
What is the striving process?
Striving is based on a unique feeling of inferiority that develops early on in life
What is Maladjustment?
*Feeling too inferior.
*Social interest not sufficiently developed.
*Striving for goals that will make you feel better than everyone.
*At odds with being social
What is the basic model?
Inferiority (start state)
Have a goal take you up!
All the wat to self-idea (fiction) Superiority
What do Feelings of inferiority do to us?
*Feelings of inferiority are motivational
*Drive to accomplish
*Healthy
*Need to succeed
*Overwhelmed by feelings of inferiority
*Inferiority complex
*Neurosis
Explain the Inferiority complex?
Develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feeling
Characteristics - Have poor self-opinions, feel helpless, and find it difficult to cope with life demands
Explain the Superiority complex?
Develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority feelings
Characteristics - Boastful, self-centered, and tend to denigrate others
How do parents influence Personality Development?
Parental behaviors that lead to problems in children’s life
*Pampering
*Robs the child of independence and adds to feelings of inferiority
*Neglect - Children who receive little attention from their parents:
*Grow up cold and suspicious
*Are incapable of warm personal relationship
