Key Concepts of Adlerian (Individual) Psychology
Adlerians perceive individuals as social beings with natural inclinations towards other people and the social context. Conceptualizing an individual from an Adlerian perspective can be represented as Socio-Teleo-Analytic.
Socio represents being part of the larger social whole, belongingness. It includes the concepts of 1) social interest- serving a greater goal, 2) lifestyle- basic notions that guide us through life, and 3) that individuals can best be understood in their context.
Teleo is the idea that individuals are goal striving, anticipation of potential future outcomes, events, or consequences that influence the present, and that behavior is purposive.
Analytic, that the majority of behavior stems from the unconscious or nonunderstood (Sweeney, 1998).
Five major life tasks are
outlined by Adlerian Psychology. Adler first conceptualized the tasks
of
Work
Friendship
Love
Mosak and Dreikers (1967)
expanded this list to include
Spirituality
Self direction
The concepts of Encouragement and Discouragement represent how successful or unsuccessful one is in achieving these five major life tasks. Encouragement is defined by Sweeney (1998) as “The process by which one develops the faith and self-confidence needed to cope successfully with any predicament, defeat, or task. Whatever the circumstance, encouraged individuals know they have a place, belong, and will survive. Discouraged individuals have difficulty setting goals and having faith in themselves to do what the situation requires for them to be successful.”
One of the basic assumptions of Encouragement is focusing on the how (how one accomplishes a task, not what is accomplished), the present, and intrinsic motivation. The essential meaning of Encouragement is “helping individuals establish goals, attitudes, and competencies they need to cope with life as they experience it” (Sweeney, 1998). A high social interest person tends to feel less discouraged.
Basis Assumptions of Adlerian Psychology and Psychotherapy
1. All behavior is in a social
context. “We refuse to recognize and examine an isolated human being”
(Adler, 1926).
2. The focus is on the Individual
(hence, Individual Psychology) and how that individual interacts with the
larger social milieu.
3. The emphasis is on the
holism of a person rather than a reductionistic approach.
4. The Conscious and Unconscious
are both accessible by the individual to further personal goals.
Both are not seen as discrete entities, but rather part of an integrated
relational system.
5. To understand an individual,
you must understand their Lifestyle, their cognitive organization (how
people view themselves in relationship to the way they perceive life).
The Lifestyle forms a self-consistent organization that is goal-focused.
6. People have the capacity
to change behavior across the lifespan in response to change in immediate
short-term demands and long-range goals based in an evolving Lifestyle.
7. Individuals make choices
based on values and meaning.
8. A central force behind
all human activity is to move from a feeling of inferiority to a feeling
of superiority or mastery (such as when Adler overcame a childhood illness
by becoming a doctor, and in doing so achieved a sense of mastery through
contributing to the larger social context).
9. Individuals achieve this
striving to move from inferiority to superiority by moving towards self-directed
goals, by responding to one’s heredity and environment, rather than driven
against their own volition (deterministic). Individuals have free
will.
10. People optimally strive
towards goals that are productive to the individual and the larger social
context.
11. Goals are largely unknown
to the individual, thus representing the Unconscious from an Adlerian perspective.
12. All important life problems
are social problems, and all values are social values.
13. The development of the
individual is done through increasing their own sense of social interest,
not through repression of the individual.
14. Maladjustment occurs
through a sense of discouragement, an excessive emphasis on personal superiority,
and a stifled sense of social interest.
Adopted from Mosak (1989) and Ansbacher & Ansbacher (1956).
Contrasts between Freud’s Psychoanalysis and Adler’s Individual Psychology
Whereas Freud saw the role
of the psychologist as objective, Adler clearly believed that the psychologist’s
role was subjective and indivisible from the social context.
| Freud | Adler |
| We are biological beings
· Motivated by instincts and drives, particularly the sex drive · Personality divided into polar forces of id, superego, and ego · Objective · Reductionistic · People are intrinsically “bad,” and civilization domesticates them at a heavy psychic toll · People are victims of instinct and civilization · Women are inferior because they envy male penises · Neurosis has a sexual foundation · Neurosis is a natural consequence of civilization · Nomothetic Laws (looking for general laws) · Molecular units of analysis · Learning by association and conditioning · Behaviorism · Stimulus-Response |
We are social beings
· Motivated to find a place to belong and to complete self · Indivisible, total personality (holism) · Subjective · Holistic · People are creative individuals who can choose to be “good” or “bad.” · People are choosers, can shape internal and external world · Women feel inferior due to a cultural context that undervalues women · Neurosis is a result of failed learning and distorted perceptions · Neurosis is a natural consequence of a lack of civilization. · Idiographic Laws (laws applying to individual cases) · Molar units of analysis · Learning by reorganization and insight · Gestalt · Intervening variables between Stimulus and Response |
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