Theories of Personality

Adler: Individual
Psychology

Chapter 3
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 Outline
• Overview of Individual Psychology
• Biography of Adler
• Striving for Success or Superiority
• Subjective Perceptions
• Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
• Social Interest
• Style of Life

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 Outline
• Creative Power
• Abnormal Development
• Applications of Individual Psychology
• Related Research
• Critique of Adler
• Concept of Humanity

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Overview of Individual Psychology

• Optimistic and Emphasized Social Interest

• Differed from Freud in Four Ways
– People motivated by social influences
• Striving for superiority or success
– People responsible for who they are
– Behavior shaped by view of future
– Consciousness important

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 Biography of Adler
• Born in a Viennese suburb in 1870
• Second son of middle class Jewish parents
• Received his medical degree in 1895
• Published Study of Organ Inferiority and Its
Psychical Compensation in 1907
• Charter member of Freud’s organization
• Rivalry with Freud led to his departure from the
group
• Founded the Society for Individual Psychology
• Died in Scotland in 1937

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Introduction to Adlerian Theory
• Tenets of Individual Psychology
– Striving for success is force behind behavior
– Subjective perceptions shape behavior
– Personality is unified and self-consistent
– Value of all activity from social interest
perspective
– Personality structure becomes one’s style of life
– Style of life molded by creative power

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 Striving for Success or
Superiority
• Striving:
– The Final Goal of Behavior
– Compensation
– For Personal Superiority
– For Success

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 Subjective Perceptions
• Fictionalism
– Final goal (which is a fiction):
• Guides our style of life
• Gives unity to our personality
• Renders our behavior purposeful
– Physical Inferiorities
– All humans born physically inferior
• Need fictions of strength to overcome these
deficiencies
– Serve as an impetus towards perfection
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 Unity of Personality
• Organ Dialect
– The deficient organ expresses the
direction of the individual’s goal
• Conscious and Unconscious
– Unified personality is a function of
harmony between conscious and
unconscious processes aimed toward a
single goal

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 Social Interest
• Social Interest: A Force that Binds Society
Together
• Origins of Social Interest
– Potentiality is found in everyone
– Found in Mother-Infant relationship
– Fostered by social environment
• Importance of Social Interest
– Measure of psychological health and maturity
– “The sole criterion of human values” and the
“barometer of normality”

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 Style of Life
• “Style of life” is the term Adler used to
refer to the flavor of a person’s life
– Includes personal goal, self-concept, empathy,
and attitude toward world
– Product of heredity, environment, and creative
power
– Mostly set by 4 or 5 years of age
– Healthy individuals express this through action
and struggle to solve problems of neighborly
love, sexual love, and occupation
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 Creative Power
• Creative power is Adler’s term for an inner
freedom that empowers each person to
create his or her own style of life
– Places one in control of his or her life
– Responsible for one’s final goal
– Determines one’s method of striving
– Contributes to the development of one’s social
interest
• Importance is not endowment but how one
uses this power
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 Abnormal Development
• General Description
• External Factors in Maladjustment
– Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
– Pampered Style of Life
– Neglected Style of Life
• Safeguarding Tendencies
– Excuses
– Aggression
– Withdrawal
• Masculine Protest

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 Applications of
Individual Psychology
• Family Constellation
• Early Recollections
• Dreams
• Psychotherapy

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 Related Research
• Early Recollections and Career Choice
– Kasler & Nevo (2005)
• Early Childhood and Health-Related Issues
– Belangee (2013)
– Laird and Shelton (2013)
• Early Recollections and Counseling Outcomes
– Savill & Eckstein (1987)
– Statton & Wilborn (1991)

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 Critique of Adler
• Adler’s Theory Is
– High on Generating Research,
Organizing Known Data, and Guiding
Action
– Moderate on Parsimony
– Low on Verification, Falsification, and
Internal Consistency
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 Concept of Humanity
• Very High on Free Choice and
Optimism
• High on Social Factors and Uniqueness
• Average on Unconscious Influences
• Very Low on Causality

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