INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOLOGYY
Alfred Adler
INDIVIDUAL
PSYCHOLOGY
• Founded by adler in 1912
• Focuses in uniqueness of each person
• Denies universal biological drives and
goals
• We should see person as a whole rather
than a part
CONCEPT AND
PRINCIPLES
Struggles for perfection:
Teleological position: belief that goals determine behavior; behavior
is directed and shaped by a designing force
Fictional finalism: imagined goal that guide a person’s behavior
Superiority: striving to attain perfection
- Striving for success to attain completion leads to psychological
health
- Striving for personal superiority leads to neurosis
Social interest: innate tendency in human beings to help and
cooperate with one another as a means of establishing a harmonious
and productive society
Feelings Of Inferiority And The Striving For
Superiority
It is not the defect itself that produces the striving, but the person’s attitude
towards it.
Attitude: learned tendency to respond to an object in a consistently
favorable or unfavorable way
Organ inferiority: biologically based defect that gives rise to feelings of
inadequacy
Masculine protest: psychic life of a women is essentially that same with men
and that patriarchal society is not natural rather than an artificial product of
historical development
Overcompensation: exaggerated attempts by individuals to overcome their
feelings of inferiority by acting as though they are personally superior to
others
STORY OF LIFE AND THE
CREATIVE SELF
• STYLE OF LIFE: individual’s
distinctive personality pattern,
which is basically shaped by
the end of early childhood
• CREATIVE STYLE: people have
the ability to create actively
their own destinies and
personalities
Personality Development
Three Development problems of life:
Society or communal life: we must learn to affirm our fundamental
connections to others
Work: people need to learn how to do things, to take responsibility
for their actions, and to contribute to society through work
Love: people must treat their loved ones with respect and dignity
Parental Influence In Early
Childhood
• Mother
Loves her children: teaches them the skills necessary to
secure their welfare
Dissatisfied with her role: preoccupied with trying to prove
her own personal superiority by showing off children
• Father
Must prove that he is a worthwhile human being by
contributing to the welfare of his wife, his children, and his
society
Birth Order
Each child is treated uniquely by its parent, and
this special treatment is typically, but not
inevitably, related to the child’s order of birth
within the family
First-borns -understand the important of
power, dominance, and intellectual
achievement
Second-borns – likely to be rebellious and
highly competitive
Youngest borns – family members tend to
spoil them
Only borns – likely to lack social competence
ADLER’S FOUR MAJOR
LIFESTYLE TYPES
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
Society type: person who actively and courageously confronts and
solves his or her problems in accordance with social interest
• Alfred Adler was born February 7, 1870. He died May
28, 1937.
• an Austrian physician and psychiatrist who is best-
known for forming the school of thought known as
individual psychology. He is also remembered for his
concepts of the inferiority feeling and inferiority
complex, which he believed played a major part in
the formation of personality.
• was initially a colleague of Sigmund Freud, helped
establish psychoanalysis, and was a founding member
of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.
• Adler eventually split from Freud's psychoanalytic
ALFRED circle, but he went on to have a tremendous impact
on the development of psychotherapy.
ADLER
Best Known For Early Life
• Individual psychology • Alfred Adler was born in Vienna,
• The concept of the inferiority Austria. He suffered rickets as a young
child, which prevented him from
complex
walking until after the age of 2, and he
• President of the Vienna got pneumonia at the age of four.
Psychoanalytic Society, 1910 • Due to his health problems as a child,
Adler decided he would become a
physician. After graduating from the
University of Vienna in 1895 with a
medical degree, began his career as
an ophthalmologist and later switched
to general practice.
Contributions to Psychology
• Alfred Adler's theories have played an essential role in a number of areas
including therapy and child development. Alder's ideas also influenced
other important psychologists and psychoanalysts including:
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Karen Horney
Rollo May
Erich Fromm
Albert Ellis
