CHAPTER 4ADLER'S INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGYAlfred Adler 1870-1937• Born in Vienna middle class Jewish family• Converted and became a Christian• 2ndof six children-profound influence• Felt in shadow of his older brother• Very ill as a child: rickets, pneumonia, almost run over twice• Very close to his father-no oedipal need• Compensated for physical problems with academics• Later became popular, but still felt overshadowed by brotherAdler’s Individual Psychology• Based on the unique motivations of individuals• Emphasizes individual’s conscious striving to improve their lives.• Importance of each person’s perceived niche in society• Importance of goal directedness of human natureDifferences between Adler and Freud• Adler defended Freud’s book “Interpretation of Dreams”• Joined the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society– Succeeded Freud as President in 1910– Split with Freud– Left with 9 members and started “Individual Psychology” society.Differences between Adler and Freud• Power not Sex is fundamental striving• Social Perspective not biological• Emphasis on human growth and free will• Focus on uniqueness of individual rather universal conflicts• Conscious Striving instead of unconscious motivesPersonality Development• Style of Life - individual’s distinctive personality pattern, which is basically shaped by the end of early childhood.– destructive life styles• ruling type - person who strives for personal superiority by trying to exploit and control others.• getting type - person who attains personal goals by relying indiscriminately on others for help.• avoiding type - person who lacks the confidence to confront problems and avoids or ignores them.Personality Development– constructive life styles• socially useful type - person who actively and courageously confronts and solves his or her problems in accordance with social interest.Personality Development (cont.)• Creative Birth Order - how each child is treated by parents depends to a large extent on the child’s order of birth within the family.– first borns - understand the importance of power, dominance, and intellectual achievement.• confluence model (Zajonc) - support for Adler's views of first bornsPersonality Development (birth order cont.)– second borns (and later borns) - likely to be rebellious and highly competitive.– youngest borns - family members tend to spoil them.– only borns - likely to lack social competence.• Falbo research suggests Adler was wrong about only borns.– Inadequacies of Confluence Model (Steelman and Rodgers).Complexes• Inferiority Complex: normal feelings of incompetence and exaggerates them-impossible to to achieve goals-hopeless• Superiority Complex: very high opinion of self-bragging and quick to argue personal solutions to problems are right one-convince others of being valuable to them and to selfOther Adler Concepts• Organ Inferiority: everyone is born with some physical weakness-motivate life choices• Aggression Drive: reaction to perceived helplessness or inferiority-lashing out against the inability to achieve or master• Masculine protest: Kids work to become independent from and = adults & people in powerMore Adler Concepts• Perfection striving: people who are not neurotically bound to an inferiority complex spend their lives trying to meet their fictional goals.– Elimination of their perceived flaws– “as if” philosophy– Gives motivation and focus• Social Responsibility & Understanding-social issues– Occupational tasks-career-self-worth– Societal task-creating friendships-networks– Love tasks-life partnerTherapeutic Assessment Techniques• Early Recollections - earliest memories provide insights into life style.• Dream Analysis - technique used to uncover unconscious goals in accordance • with his or her life style. • Birth Order Analysis - provides information about the unconscious lifestyle goals of the person.Evaluative Comments• Comprehensiveness - broad scope.• Precision and Testability - not very precise and very difficult to test adequately.• Parsimony - too simplistic and reductionistic.• Empirical Validity - weak support for most aspects of the theory.• Heuristic Value - major contributions to existential psychology and psychiatry and on the Humanistic psychology movement.• Applied Value - has high-applied