Individual Psy - Adler Flashcards
Individual psy
- alfred adler
- focuses on early socialisation, relevant to teachers & parents
- useful to family dynamics
- his theory compliments Freud’s but are more focused on social life. Whilst Freud focused on intra-psychic life, adler gave more importance to our social lives.
What is healthy?
Freud - to be able to love and work
Adler - same as Freud but also the ableness to care for others and perfect ourselves
- the need to care for others as we will end up alone ex: selfish person. Balancing an interest in ourselves and others
The unconscious
- conscious more important than unconscious - we have more power over ourselves.
The creative self
- self is active and constructive, not paralysed by conflict
- self seeks experiences to help it to grow and dev, if such experiences are not available they will be created ex: bored smart girl in school
This ability is stunted for some people due to environments and situations they grow up in
Ex: young man whose parents give him money, cars etc becomes lazy and gets in trouble with police. His parents kept him from developing a creative side and never motivated their son.
Motivation
- what motivates us is not only instincts but also the ability to overcome our insecurities and inferiorities.
Adlerian concepts
- fictional
- adler viewed freud as too fixed on the past. We look to the future, to our expectations and not our past
Social interest
- need for affection that drives us towards relationships
- if affection is denied, child may turn to narc self-love and low social interest
- social interest is caring for others
- opposite of self interest - individualism
- is slight at birth, need nurturers to help it grow - if not developed, child would be unable to live successfully in society, becoming failures or selfish and not trusted by others
- without social interest, person would be unable to cooperate, won’t trust
- discrimination, class, prejudice, exploitation are al signs of low social interest
The ideal personality - a socially useful person
- good socialisation doesn’t come from repression and the superego but through social interest. Cooperating with others gives us personal and social goals
- starting from infancy, we can be trained
- social interest gives us a positive secure outlook on life
Striving for superiority
- major motivator
- achieving superiority over own weakness and inabilities and not over others
- improving ourselves, aiming at perfection
- we experience feelings of inferiority in our lives from 3 sources - the past, criticism and challenges
Inferiority and superiority complex -
Inferiority complex - may hide feelings of superiority
Superiority complex - hides or compensates for inferiority feelings
Striving for superiority - by improving and struggling to succeed
We strive for superiority, goals and to fight inferiority - our lifestyle is how we pursue these.
Style of life -
- final goals
- env influence
- how we perceive env factors
Determining life of style - through our earliest recollections
There is a pattern in what we remember and we remember through our values
Theory of family constellation or birth order
- in which order a child is born in - determines individuality, personality, style of life
Adler identified 4 positions -
- first born
- second or middle child
- last born
- only child
In therapy, Adler almost always asked patients about their family constellation, that is, their birth order, the gender of their siblings, and the age spread between them.
The first born, according to Adler
- intensified feelings of power and superiority
- high anxiety
- overprotective
- if firstborn is 3years or more they experience dethronement, if they developed a self-centred style of life they might act hostile and resent the new baby. If younger than 3, hostility and resentment would manifest in the unconscious - which makes these attitudes more resistant in later life.
- centre of attention at first before next baby
- dethronement wounds the ego and affects self-confidence
- regression is common
- egocentric, may blame self for the addition thinking he/she was not good enough
- leaders, achievers and trendsetters, need approval and are the strongest of siblings
- responsible and nurturing
- most likely to be neurotic - insecure, anxious
Second born
- never total centre of attention
- has to live in first born’s shadow and pace they set
- competitive/cooperative or resentful
- need to establish separate individuality - stand out for something different
- tends to be better adjusted
- begin life in better situation for cooperation and social interest
- personality shaped by their perception of the older child’s attitude towards them
The last born
- pampered and doted on
- problem child, too dependent
- surrounded by peers so not too competitive
- depends age gap between them and older siblings, if they are born after many years they will have the experiences as if they were only kids.
- depends on male and female gender and how families perceive gender ex: heir
