PPT # 5 Adlerian

Question 1

What did Adler disagree with Freud on?

Answer 1

the notion that humans are helpless victims of their unconscious desires

Question 2

What are Adlerian Assumptions?

Answer 2

1. All behavior occurs in a social context
2. All behavior is purposeful – choice!
3. Adlerian theory is interpersonal
   
   • Value on belonging
4. Individuals are holistic beings who cannot be reduced to parts
5. Understanding individuals requires understanding their lifestyle, or cognitive organization
6. Human motivation is based on striving for significance, perfection, superiority, competence, mastery, and self-actualization
7. Humans are self-directed, creative, and able to make choices regarding their life goals
8. Life provides constant challenges and demands courage

Question 3

Describe Adler’s Phenomenological Approach

Answer 3

1. Adlerians attempt to view the world from the client’s subjective frame of reference
   
   • How life is in reality is less important than how the individual believes life to be
   • Our present interpretation of childhood experiences matters more than the actual events
2. Unconscious instincts and our past do not determine our behavior

Question 4

According to Adler, what are the 4 main domains which personality is shaped?

Answer 4

1. Family constellation
2. Psychological birth order
3. Lifestyle development
4. Inferiority feelings

Question 5

Describe family constellation

Answer 5

• Family members, age, birth order, relationship
• Emotional relationships
• Alliances
• Inferiority

Question 6

What are the 5 psychological positions in birth order?

Answer 6

1) Oldest child– receives more attention, spoiled, center of attention, perfectionism, high aspirations
2) Second of only two– behaves as if in a race, often opposite to first child
3) Middle– often feels squeezed out, peacekeepers, less belonging
4) Youngest– the baby, excitement and attention
5) Only– does not learn to share or cooperate with other children, learns to deal with adults

Question 7

Describe lifestyle development

Answer 7

1. A set of values, attitudes, aspirations, assumptions, needs that help you make sense of life
2. Lifestyle develops early as a child
   
   • Develop a sense of belonging vs. inferiority (leads to “acting out”)
   • “If only…” statements
3. Faulty interpretations or “basic mistakes” lead to problems
   
   • Adlerian therapy helps clients to effectively navigate lifestyle tasks

Question 8

Describe inferiority feelings

Answer 8

1. Upside - Are normal and are the wellspring of creativity
   
   • Biological Inferiority – Work together for survival
2. Downside - Personal Inferiority – “I’m not as good as…”
   
   • Develop when we are young–characterized by early feelings of hopelessness

Question 9

Describe superiority feelings.

Answer 9

• Upside - Promote mastery and enable us to overcome obstacles
• Downside - Trying to be better than others

Question 10

Describe complexes

Answer 10

• Behavioral patterns that manifest from inferiority/superiority
• Inferiority Complex
• Superiority Complex

Question 11

What is included as a mechanism of change?

Answer 11

1. social interest
2. Life tasks
3. courage
4. encouragement

Question 12

What is correlated with our psychological health?

Answer 12

Interest in and sense of belonging

• Social interest*

Question 13

What does low social interest lead to?

Answer 13

Personal superiority/inferiority

Question 14

Within life tasks, what are the areas of social life?

Answer 14

Communal – connect with friends, enjoy social connection

Work – contribute to community: employment, volunteering, etc.

Love – highest degree of social interest/courage, faith in self and others

Self-Acceptance – foundational to other tasks, no social interaction without it

Spirituality – develop a framework for the world, higher purpose

Parenting – pass it on!

Question 15

Describe courage.

Answer 15

• innate motivation and drive to meet our own goals

- is the activity of moving toward goals and social interest

Question 16

Describe Risk-taking

Answer 16

means acting in a way without knowing the outcome

Inferioirty can inhibit risk taking

Question 17

What can overly emphasize risk taking?

Answer 17

Superiority – “I need to risk it all to be the BEST!”

Question 18

What is the number 1 technique for Adlerian therapists?

Answer 18

Encouragement

Question 19

What does encouragement encompass?

Answer 19

• Instilling courage in our clients
  - - Foster responsibility
• Be “open to revision” – let the client correct you, but don’t stop encouraging
• Focus on strengths

Question 20

What is discouragement?

Answer 20

• the basic condition that prevents people from functioning

- Challenge the “private logic” (the way he/she sees himself)

Question 21

List the stages of Adlerian counseling.

Answer 21

1. establishment of a therapeutic relationship
2. psychological investigation
3. interpretation
4. reorientation

Question 22

Describe stage 1: therapeutic relationship

Answer 22

1. Person-to-person contact with the client precedes identification of the problem
2. Supportive, collaborative, educational, encouraging process
3. Focus on strengths
4. Improve sense of belonging
5. Egalitarian – Respect and Dignity

Question 23

Describe stage 2 - assess lifestyle (Psychological investigation)

Answer 23

1. Ask about elements of Lifestyle through
   
   • Lifestyle Inventory
   • Family constellation/birth order
   • Early Recollections – “What is your first memories?”
2. Basic Mistakes – faulty lifestyle

Question 24

Describe stage 3 interpretation

Answer 24

1. Interpret the findings of the assessment
   
   • Discuss “basic mistakes” in lifestyle

   - Hidden goals and purposes of behavior are made conscious
   - Example – Feeling of inferiority have inhibited your pursuit of romantic connection

2. Therapist offers interpretations to help clients gain insight into their private logic and lifestyle
   
   • “I wonder if…”

Question 25

Describe stage 4 reorientation

Answer 25

1. Take action – move toward goals and life tasks
   
   • emphasis is on putting insights into practice
2. Counselor helps client “reorient” toward new insight
3. Constant encouragement

Question 26

List techniques to encourage reorientation

Answer 26

1. Spitting in the soup
2. Anti-suggestions
3. Task setting
4. Push-button technique
5. The question

Question 27

Describe Spitting in the soup

Answer 27

• This requires a lot of trust
• make this behavior appear less appealing to the client, which will then, hopefully, decrease the occurrence. Bring out the true motive.

Example – “Your avoidance of romance isn’t self-protection but a self-fulfilling process that you can’t be loved.”

Question 28

Describe Anti-suggestions

Answer 28

• This is intentional; works well with children
• making a “paradoxical” suggestion, do more of what is wrong

Example - Avoid talking to any women this week

Question 29

Describe Task setting

Answer 29

– basic; therapy relates to the outside world.

• practice new behavior in-session (i.e. role playing)
• Homework – practice new behavior at home
• Example – “Let’s practice how you might ask out your co-worker”

Question 30

Describe Push-button technique

Answer 30

– feelings are part of our experience and we can create and re-create them at will.

Example – Imagine what it would feel like to be rejected, now imagine what it would fee like to hear “yes”.

Question 31

Describe The question

Answer 31

“What would be different in your life if this problem did not exist?”

Precursor to miracle question

“Fake it ‘til you make it.”

Question 32

What are the extensions of Adlerian Theory.

Answer 32

1. Client culture - The Adlerian approach stresses the effects of social class, racism, sex, and gender on the behavior of individuals.
2. Relationships – value of connection, emphasized egalitarian “face to face” therapy
3. Outcome expectations – first strengths-based approach, instill hope for change
4. Counselor expertise – counselor doesn’t “know all”, collaborative

Question 33

Adler was one of the first psychologists at the turn of the century to advocate for what?

Answer 33

equality for women

Question 34

Describe Mindfulness.

Answer 34

• The goal is to help clients learn to observe and accept the present situation and all it has to offer
• Applicable to a diverse population
• Mindfulness meditation

Question 35

Why are other mindfulness approaches?

Answer 35

mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)

Question 36

Adler can be viewed as what?

Answer 36

Original Positive psychologist

Question 37

What do Adlerian counselors focus on?

Answer 37

what is right and what is working for the client, rather than judging and diagnosing.

Question 38

Describe Adlerian counseling interviews…

Answer 38

• are solution focused and highlight the client’s resilience, happiness, strengths, and virtues.

Question 39

Adlerian counselors stress what?

Answer 39

helping others and expressing generosity as the path to mental health.

Question 40

T/F: Adlerian Therapy addresses a wide range of multicultural issues and is respectful of cultural diversity?

Answer 40

True

Question 41

What are the limitations of Adlerian Counseling?

Answer 41

1. Little empirical research
   
   • Adlerian therapy is unlikely to advance until a more extensive body of research is available supporting its efficacy
2. The emphasis on the past and the time-consuming process of lifestyle assessment
3. Self as the locus of change and responsibility; emphasis on changing the autonomous self may be problematic for many clients
   
   • Family therapy? Group Counseling?