Test2 Flashcards
The Fundamental Human Motive
Search for success,
Superiority,
Freedom from helplessness,
Escape from fear,
& perfection and personal completeness!
Basic Adlerian Assumptions
All behavior has social meaning
All behavior has a purpose and is goal-directed
Behavior represents “unity” and has a pattern
Behavior is designed to overcome feelings of inferiority and move toward feelings of superiority
Behavior is the result of our subjective perceptions
Freud vs. Adler
While Freud focused on:
– Sexual and aggressive pleasure-seeking
Adler focused on:
– The striving to compensate for one’s own PERCEIVED inferiorities, for one’s enforced states of helplessness
Inferiority and Compensation
Inferiority Complex
– Overcome by a feeling of lack of worth which leads to the impossibility for self-improvement
– If repressed, this may be felt as a superiority complex
Behave arrogantly (which personality disorder?)
Exaggerate their achievements
– E.g., people who claim telepathic powers
Organ inferiority
– ALL people succumb to “disease” in the most poorly
developed organ
We may compensate for poor development (e.g., stutterer orator)
– Early states (more biological) later (subjective)
Aggressive drive
– People develop a hostile reaction to their perceived helplessness (e.g., baby’s first cry)
– Aggression may be expressed outright (e.g., fighting, cruelty) or may be transformed (e.g., competition, striving for dominance or mastery)
Superiority & Perfection Striving
– Masculine protest leads to “mask” of compensatory traits designed to spark self-improvement
– People create “fictional goals” and strive to attain them
This is more “realistic” than it may sound; NOT perfectionism
Masculine protest
– “Masculinity” implies greater competence or superiority
People strive for competence & superiority
Adler generally rejected gender roles
– Marks shift from biology to psychology
Three Tasks of life
– Societal Tasks
To be interested in others; to make friends
– Work Tasks
Interest in cooperative activity for the benefit of others; provides a sense of worth in society
– Love
Ability to take more interest in another than self
Style of Life
– Each of us sculpts our own personality
– Established by 4 or 5
Individual’s attitudes toward society, work, and love
– The individual’s choice! The creative life force tries to lead to fulfillment!
Begins as a compensatory process
– People develop consistency in personality while trying to make up for an inferiority
Law of Movement:
– Direction taken by the person that originates in his or her ability to exercise free choice
Mistaken Styles of Life
Ruling Type
– Dominate others; Confront problems in a selfish way.
– May be high achievers, but are generally vain and overly competitive
Getting Type
– Dependent; Adopt a passive attitude towards others.
– More likely to be depressed
Avoiding Type
– Tend to isolate themselves, and seem “cold” to others
– Hide a subtle, and fragile, superiority belief
Appropriate Style of Life
Socially Useful Type
– Act in a way that benefits others
Not just in an economic sense; artists and actors help others to “feel,” for example:
Research shows that our Style of Life is generally consistent from childhood to adulthood (Pulkkinnen, 1992)
Early Recollections (usu. about age 3 ½)
Commonly used by Adlerian therapists
Used to assess people’s lifestyles
– Indicates how a person views himself, his/her personal strivings, and others
Fact is not important!
– The present determines the past
– A first memory remains because it has been thought about repeatedly during life: It is subjectively important to that person . . .
Emotional content is the most important
How does one’s family impact personality development?
Mother is greatest influence
– Guides development of social interest
Father is second greatest influence
– Provides encouragement to pursue interests
Birth order
– Family size and sex of siblings cause individual differences
Adlerian Advice to Parents
Encourage the child rather than punish
Be firm, but do not dominate
Show respect to the child
Emphasize cooperation
Don’t give the child TOO much attention (pampering)
– But do not neglect the child!
Do not struggle for power with the child
Do not show excessive sympathy
Birth Order: Adler’s Hypotheses
First-Born
– Will not do well with “dethronement”
More likely to act antagonistically against others
Will “seek others”
Second-Born
– Stimulated to higher achievement via competition with older siblings
Most likely to be successful
Will likely isolate themselves in pursuit of success
Later-Born
– Tend to be pampered and spoiled
More likely to be “getting type”
Expect over-indulgence from others
Only Children
– Exaggerated sense of self-importance
Must be center of attention
Most differences are between first-born and others
– 1st born are higher in achievement motivation
– Tend to have higher levels of success
– Tend to be more self-centered (narcissistic)
– Tend to be Type A, especially if female
– Tend to be anxious, especially if male
Adlerian Therapy
Stages:
– Empathy and relationship
Establish a working relationship
– Information Gathering
Client’s history, early memories, and current functioning
– Clarification
Client’s core beliefs about self, others, and life
– Encouragement
Encourage progress towards a new Style of Life
– Interpretation and recognition
Helping client to reconsider their fictional finalism *
– Knowing
Client can monitor their behavior with less input from therapist
– Emotional Breakthrough
Old patterns are discarded via imagery and roleplay
– Doing Differently
Client behaves differently in life
– Reinforcement
Client begins to pay more attention to others’ needs rather than their own
– Social Interest
A sense of community is established
– Goal Redirection
A new goal to strive for
– Support and Launching
Client strives towards new goal in the spirit of social interest
Fictional Finalism
The Psychology of “As If”
The nature of goals
– Imagined goals
– Determining how to achieve them
As always, in the spirit of social interest!
Guided Self-Ideal
– Subjective and personally meaningful
– Created by the individual to navigate through life’s obstacles
(Adler argued that human beings envision desirable goals for the future, and even though these goals may not be real, they serve as an incentive for individual action and help people overcome difficulties. Such goals are not just for the benefit of the individual, but for the benefit of the wider society.)
Memento Mori (What can you do before you die)
Developmental Stages
Universal – All people encounter them
But culture organizes the experience of its members
Cultures not only provide the setting in which crises are encountered but provide continuing support for the ego development that has occurred
– Especially when threatened in later life
Crisis
Rise to the surface when the environment makes demands of us: Called a crisis
– Involves a shift in perspective new strengths can develop
– Can choose adaptive or maladaptive solutions
More adaptive responses lead to “virtues”
Passage is not automatic, and environment can help or hinder our progress
– Ritualizations help resolve a conflict
E.g., social opportunities to support growth
– Ritualisms don’t: They are too rigid
E.g., elitism
Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust
Basic trust: The sense that others are dependable and will provide what is needed
– Food, milk, and sensory stimulation
Otherwise, basic mistrust is formed
– Some sense of mistrust is inevitable, as no parent can provide exactly what is needed exactly when it is needed! (Trust me)
Stage 2: Autonomy(自主移动) versus Shame/Doubt
Child becomes adequate (autonomous: able to move) in:
– Toilet training (emphasized by Freud)
– Ambulation(Able to move)
– Interpersonal relationships
Otherwise, there is shame in Self
– Some degree of Shame is necessary and good, but a high degree of autonomy should prevail
Stage 3: Initiative（自主能动性） versus Guilt
The child begins determining what type of person they are going to be, as they begin to interact more with others (“intruding others’ space”)
Child develops a conscience (Freudian)
If the child is supported and acts appropriately, they will have more initiative than guilt
Stage 4: Industry（创造） versus Inferiority（自卑）
The child “learns to win recognition by producing things.”
– If the child perseveres and creates good, quality objects, they will become industrious
– If not, this leads to a feeling of inferiority
Stage 5: Identity versus Identity Confusion（自我认知和自我困惑）
In adolescence, the task is to answer the question, “Who am I?”
– Must be agreed upon by individual and society
Identity confusion occurs when a coherent identity cannot be established
A negative identity may also be established
– Based on social norms
A moratorium may be established（某些活动的暂停）
– Adolescents are encouraged to explore possibilities (e.g., change majors, etc.)
Fidelity（忠诚）: Sustaining loyalties despite possible aversive（讨厌的） consequences
Stage 6: Intimacy （亲密） versus Isolation（孤独）
Cannot occur until identity has been established!
Intimacy is the fusion or merging of identities with a friend or lover
– One’s own identity is not threatened, however
NOT the same as sexual intimacy
RESEARCH: Intimacy increases during early adulthood (Reis et al., 1993)
Stage 7: Generativity（动力） versus Stagnation（停滞）
Generativity is the interest in guiding the next generation
– Highly involved in their work and the growth of young people
– Concerned about broad social issues
– Are able to strike a balance between self-serving and societal-serving needs
– E.g., parenting, teaching, mentoring
Alternative is stagnation
Stage 8: Integrity versus Despair
Integrity
– Being able to look back and say that one’s life was meaningful and valuable
– Not wishing that things had been different
The alternative is despair
Cross-cultural differences in psychosocial stages
– McClain (1975): South African blacks scored lower on identity development than whites
To Erikson, an indication of ritualism – namely, racism
Male and Female identities
– Differences
Women emphasize interpersonal issues
Men emphasize occupational issues
– Similarities
Men and women do not differ in their level of achieved identity
– It appears that, while the result is the same, the process is different
Erikson‘s Contributions
– Role of culture and lifelong development, as previously discussed
– Identity is dynamic!
Limitations
– Some descriptions are somewhat ambiguous
Willpower
Wisdom
Erikson: Differences from Freud
De-emphasized the importance of unconsciousness
– Focused on psychosocial stages
Decreased role of sexual stages
“Fixation” does not cause “stagnation,” generally speaking
– But identity must be established for intimacy to occur
